Nikolai Vladimirovich Skritsky, known for his works about Russian naval commanders, presents to the attention of readers a collection of biographical essays about Soviet commanders of fleets and flotillas during the Great Patriotic War. To make it easier to understand the course of the war, the author began the book with the biography of the People's Commissar of the Navy N.G. Kuznetsov, associated with all major military events. When creating the book, extensive literature on naval history and materials provided by archives were used to recreate the biographies of both famous people and those whose lives are almost not covered in the literature.