He had commanded a torpedo boat on the Baltic Sea in 1917. Was one of the sailors who stormed the Czar's Winter Palace in October Revolution. Fought Germans. Ended in Gulag in 1936 (IIRC) as enemy of the state. His friend could not take the tortures in the prison before the trial, confessed to being an enemy of the state and a Western spy. He was shot on the spot, no trial. Grandpa did not confess to anything under tortures, got 5 years of hard labor, escaped, was caught, got another 5 years tacked on.
I am Russian equivalent of Son of America Revolution. My late wife is a descendant of Benjamin Rush, Signer of Declaration of Independence, and one of the Philadelphia's founding families. Funny how life works sometime.