Lev Mikhailovich Galler (November 17(29), 1883 - July 12, 1950) was a Soviet military leader and admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

.

Galler was born into a family of a military engineer and joined the Baltic Fleet on completing the Naval school in 1905. During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 he was squadron gunnery officer of the Battleship Division, executive officer of the Russian battleship Slava

Russian battleship Slava

Slava was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, the last of the five s. Commissioned too late to participate in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, she survived while all of her sister ships were either sunk during the battle or surrendered to the Imperial...

 and commanded the destroyer Turkmenets Stavropolski. After the October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

 he joined the Bolsheviks and participated in the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet

Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet

Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet was an operation which transferred the ships of the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy from their bases at Tallinn and Helsinki to Kronstadt in 1918, caused by the possible threat to those bases from the final German offensives against Russia during World War...

. Subsequently he commanded the destroyer Mecheslav, the battleship Andrei Pervozvanny

Andrei Pervozvanny class battleship

The Andrey Pervozvanny class were a pair of predreadnought battleships built in the mid-1900s for the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy. They were conceived by the Naval Technical Committee in 1903 as an incremental development of the Borodino class battleships with increased displacement...

 and was subsequently chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet during the British Campaign in the Baltic 1918–1919

After the Civil War, Galler was commander of the Baltic Fleet's battleship division and commanded the Baltic Fleet from 1932 to 1937. In 1938 he became chief of naval staff and in 1940 he became Deputy Commisar for the Navy responsible for naval construction. In 1947 he was head of the Naval Academy.

Galler was arrested in 1948 and imprisoned. He died in custody in 1950 and was rehabilitated

Rehabilitation (Soviet)

Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...

 in 1953.

Honours and awards

Soviet Union

• Three Orders of Lenin
• Orders of the Red Banner, four times
• Order of Ushakov
  Order of Ushakov
  The Order of Ushakov was one of the highest naval awards of the Soviet Union among the Order of Nakhimov and it active is up to this day. Its name commemorates the Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, who never lost a battle and was proclaimed patron saint of the Russian Navy.The order was instituted during...
  
  , 1st class, twice
• Order of the Red Star
  Order of the Red Star
  Established on 6 April 1930, the Order of the Red Star was an order of the Soviet Union, given to Red Army and Soviet Navy personnel for "exceptional service in the cause of the defense of the Soviet Union in both war and peace". It was established by Resolution of the Presidium of the CEC of the...
  
  
• Medal For the Victory Over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945
• Medal "20 years, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"

Russian Empire

• Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class with Swords (1916) and 3rd class (1909)
• Order of St. Anna
  Order of St. Anna
  The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
  
  , 3rd class (1913)

Foreign award

• Cross of Grunwald
  Cross of Grunwald
  Order Krzyża Grunwaldu 1943-1960, Krzyż Grunwaldu 1960-1992 was a military decoration created in November 1943 by the High Command of Gwardia Ludowa, a World War II Polish resistance movement in Poland organised by the Polish Workers Party...
  
  , 1st class (Poland)