Pyotr Petrovich
Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt was born in 1867 in Odessa, Russian Empire, now Ukraine, to the family of rear admiral and the head of Berdyansk port, (1828-1888). His father Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt Sr participated in the defense of Sebastopol during the Siege of Sevastopol (1854). His mother Yekaterina Yakovlevna Schmidt (born von Wagner) was of German descent. Schmidt spent his youth in Berdyansk, where his father was city governor (gradonachalnik) and city port head. In 1883 Schmidt Jr entered the Naval Officers' Corps in Saint Petersburg and after graduation enrolled in the Imperial Russian Navy. He resigned in 1888 and married Dominika Gavrilovna Pavlova. After the birth of his son Yevgeniy in 1889, the family moved to Taganrog, where Alexander Nentzel, manager of the Azov-Don Commercial Bank offered him a bookkeeper position. In 1893, Schmidt left Taganrog and enrolled again in the Imperial Russian Navy.