Anatoli Kacharava

Anatoli Kacharava (August 15, 1910, Sukhumi – May 8, 1982, Batumi) was a deep-sea mariner. In 1927, he began working as a navigator in the Black Sea Shipping Company. He graduated from the Kherson (1930) and subsequently the Vladivostok (1933) maritime schools, and in 1960 graduated from the Leningrad Maritime Institute, specializing as a navigation engineer. In 1940–41, he served as the captain of the icebreakers Sadko, Polyarnaya Zvezda, and Vasily Molokov, and as the chief harbor master of the port of Dickson Island. From 1941 to 1942, he was the captain of the icebreaker Aleksandr Sibiryakov.

On August 8, 1942, the lightly armed icebreaker Aleksandr Sibiryakov, which was transporting fuel supplies, cargo, and several crew members to a polar station in the Kara Sea, was attacked by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer. Kacharava did not comply with the enemy's demands, and by his order, the crew scuttled the icebreaker. The severely wounded captain was taken prisoner by the Germans along with others (out of more than 100 crew members and civilians, only 19 survived). Kacharava was liberated from a concentration camp in March 1945.

From 1945, Kacharava returned to his maritime career, serving as captain of the icebreakers Ilya Muromets and Levanevsky in Leningrad and Murmansk, and as a captain-instructor of the transport fleet in Murmansk. From 1960, he worked in Batumi. Through his efforts, the administrative management of the Georgian Maritime Shipping Company was established in 1967, which he headed until the end of his life. He also engaged in pedagogical activities and served as a captain-instructor for the Batumi Shipping Line.

He received numerous government awards, including the Order of Lenin (1971). In 1984 a tanker was named in honor of Kacharava.

Literature: Белов М. И., Оборона порта Диксон в августе 1942 года, «Проблемы Арктики и Антарктики», 1963, вып. 13.

T. Arsenadze