Valentin Repin

Valentin Alekseyevich Repin was born on 4 March 1934 in the village of Letny Navolok in the Primorsky district of Arkhangelsk region, in northern Russia, into a peasant family. After the deaths of his mother and then his father he was placed, at the age of eight, in a children's home in the village of Nyonoksa. Some years later his elder sister took him into her own family. He completed seven year school in the settlement of Pertominsk and in 1949 entered vocational school No. 1 in Molotovsk, the shipbuilding town later renamed Severodvinsk.

Repin qualified in 1951 and began work as a ship fitter at Plant 402, today the Sevmash shipyard of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, in slipway shop No. 49. In September 1953 he was called up for military service and served with the ground forces in Vologda until October 1956.

Returning to the yard, he worked as a fitter of ship power plants and took part in building the Project 611 diesel electric submarines. He later became leader of a brigade of fitters that carried out the most responsible and technically complex installation work, and he took part in the sea trials of submarines, including nuclear powered missile carriers.

On 31 July 1985, by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR that was not published at the time, he was made a Hero of Socialist Labour for outstanding services in the creation, testing and serial production of special equipment. Sevmash later revealed that the award recognised his work on the Project 949 Granit nuclear powered cruise missile submarines. He retired in 1991.

Repin joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1973 and was a member of the Severodvinsk city party committee. On 13 December 1989 the executive committee of the Severodvinsk city council made him an honorary citizen of Severodvinsk. In retirement he remained in the city, where Sevmash marked his milestone birthdays as one of its most decorated veterans.

Valentin Repin died in Severodvinsk on 5 November 2026, in his 93rd year. His death was announced the same day and reported by the Severodvinsk broadcaster Belomorkanal, which described him as an honoured veteran of Sevmash. The cause of death was not made public. A farewell ceremony was arranged for 11 a.m. on 9 November 2026 at the House of Technology on Lenin Avenue in Severodvinsk.

Repin belonged to the generation of skilled workers who built the Soviet submarine fleet at Severodvinsk, from the first post war diesel boats to the large Project 949 nuclear submarines. As a Hero of Socialist Labour, twice holder of the Order of Lenin and an honorary citizen of Severodvinsk, he was one of the most decorated shipbuilders in the history of the Sevmash yard.