Kucherov, Stepan

Born Aug. 13 (26), 1902, in Ol’shanka, now in Arkadak Raion, Saratov Oblast; died Mar. 30, 1973, in Moscow. Soviet military commander; admiral (1945). Member of the CPSU from 1925.

Kucherov entered the navy in 1922 and graduated from a naval school in 1926, from the Naval Academy in 1939, and from the K. E. Voroshilov Higher Military Academy in 1950. He was appointed chief of staff of the Northern Fleet in August 1940. Kucherov became commander of the White Sea Naval Flotilla in February 1943. He was chief of a directorate and then head of the Chief Naval Staff in 1944–45. He became commander of the Caspian Flotilla in 1946. Kucherov became chief of a department of the Military Academy in 1950, chief of the Directorate of Naval Educational Institutions in 1953, and professor and consultant for the academic council of the Naval Academy in 1963; he went into the reserves in 1967. Kucherov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, the Order of Nakhimov, the Order of Ushakov First Class, and various medals.