Viktor Nikolayevich Leonov (Russian: Виктор Николаевич Леонов) (21 November o.s., 1916 in Zaraysk – October 7, 2003 in Moscow) was a Soviet sailor, two-time Hero of the Soviet Union.[1]
Leonov was born in Zaraysk about 135 kilometers southeast of Moscow. His father was a gardener and member of the Communist Party. In 1931, encouraged by his father, he traveled to Moscow and became an apprentice at a factory that specialized in metal fabrication. He went on to be an outstanding worker, a team leader, and a part of the Young Communist League.
Leonov joined the Red Navy in 1937. He was assigned to a submarine training detachment and then transferred to a repair station in the Northern Fleet at Polyarnyy. He was working there when the war began in 1941.[2] Leonov had trained as a scuba diver.[3] At the beginning of the war he volunteered for the 4th Special Volunteer Sailor detachment.[4] There he proved to be daring and skillful and he rose to be a effective commander.[5] The 4th Special Volunteer Detachment was a unit of 70 veterans.[6] Initially they were confined to performing small scale reconnaissance missions, platoon sized insertions by sea and on occasion on land into Finland and later Norway.[7] Later they were renamed the 181st Special Reconnaissance Detachment.[8] They began conducting sabotage missions and raids to snatch prisoners for interrogation.[9] They would destroy German ammunitionand supply depots, communication centers, and harass enemy troop concentrations along the Finnish and Russian coasts.[10]
In October 1944 Leonov led an operation to neutralize a heavily defended German coastal artillery emplacement at Cape Krestovy.[11] Whose 15cm guns defended the entrance to strategically vital Petsamo Bay on the Kola Peninsula.[12] Leonov led a company in a secret landing further along the coast before undertaking a two day cross country march to Cape Krestovy.[13] There they captured a battery of 8.8cm dual purpose guns andused them both to repel a counterattack and to shell the main gun position.[14] This forced the Germans into destroying the coastal guns for the fear of them falling into Soviet hands.[15] Leonov was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union after this raid.[16]
His World War II experiences as a Soviet Naval Scout were recounted in his popular memoir "Blood on the Shores".[17] The Soviet Naval Scouts have been compared to the U.S. Navy SEALs and were a forerunner to the Soviet Special Ops forces "Spetsnaz".
A Vishnya-class intelligence ship, the Viktor Leonov SSV-175, was named in his honor in 1988. The Viktor Leonov made international news in February 2014 when it was spotted in Havana Harbor, highlighting a renewed Russian presence in Cuba and the Western Hemisphere.[18][19]