Onega Military Flotilla

formed in July 1918 for service on Lakes Onega and Ladoga during the Civil War of 1918–20. It consisted originally of nine cutters. Later, it was augmented by vessels mobilized from civilian agencies. The best-known combat actions of the Onega Military Flotilla are the Vidlitsa operation of 1919 and the capture of Bol’shoi Klimetskii and Mega islands (September-October 1919). The flotilla was inactivated after the Civil War.

In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) the Onega Military Flotilla was formed on Aug. 7, 1941, and was active until November 1941; it was subsequently re-created in December 1942. It was composed at first of several minesweepers and five gunboats refitted from lake tugboats and armed with guns. Later, it was augmented by cutters with rocket launchers. The Onega Military Flotilla (commanded by Captain First Rank A. P. D’iakonov and from July 1943 by Rear Admiral P. S. Aban’kin) supported the actions of the lake flanks of the Seventh and Thirty-second Armies of the Karelian Front in 1941. It also participated in the Svir’-Petrozavodsk operation of 1944 by ferrying troops across the Svir’ River, providing fire support, and disembarking landing parties (in late July 1944 in Lakhta Bay and Petrozavodsk). It was deactivated in July 1944.