Vsevolod Rudnev Vsevolod Fyodorovich Rudnev ( August 31 , 1855 - July 20 , 1913 ) was a career naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy , noted for his heroic role in the Battle of Chemulpo Bay during the Russo - Japanese War of 1904 - 1905 . Biography . Rudnev was born outside of what is now Riga , Governorate of Livonia in the Russian Empire ( now part of Latvia ) , where his father was a naval officer and a hero of the Russo - Turkish War ( 1828 - 1829 ) . His ancestors were local nobility from Tula , Russia , one of whom was also a naval officer who had been decorated by Tsar Peter the Great for valor at the Battle of Azov . After the death of his father , the family relocated to Lyuban , near St Petersburg . Rudnev entered the Sea Cadets on September 15 , 1872 on a government scholarship granted in recognition of his father ’ s heroism . He entered active duty as a midshipman on May 1 , 1873 , and participated in training voyages on the Baltic Sea in 1875 . After graduating with honors in 1876 , he was appointed to a training frigate " Petropavlovsk " , reaching the rank of warrant officer . Assigned to the cruiser " Afrika " on April 16 , 1880 , he circumnavigated the globe , returning to Russia in 1883 . One of his shipmates on this voyage was future admiral Vasili Fersen . Rudnev was assigned to patrol vessels on the Baltic from 1885 – 1887 , and was assigned to sail Russia ' s first steam military transport , " Peter the Great " , from its shipyards in France to Kronstadt in 1888 . He also married the same year to Maria Nikolaevna Schwan , whose father , a naval captain was a hero of the Crimean War . In August 1889 , Rudnev was assigned to the cruiser , participated in the maneuvers of the Russian Pacific Fleet . He returned to Krondstat in December 1890 and was given command of a destroyer . He was subsequently made executive officer of the battleship " Gangut " . In 1893 , Rudnev was promoted to junior captain and became executive officer on the battleship , the flagship of Admiral Stepan Makarov ' s Mediterranean Squadron . He again circumnavigated the globe in 1895 , this time on the " Imperator Nikolai I " . On his return to Kronstadt , Rudnev became commander of the coast defense ship " Admiral Greig " , and then was appointed commander of the destroyer " Vyborg " . In December 1897 , Rudnev became commander of the gunboat " Gremyaschi " , on which he made his first independent voyage round the world , departing March 1 , 1898 and returning safely to Russia on May 15 , 1899 . A circumnavigation of the globe in such a small vessel was unusual for the time . In 1900 , Rudnev became a senior assistant to the commander of the port in Port Arthur , the main base of the Russian Pacific Fleet . During this time , he oversaw extensive upgrade works to dredge the inner roads , rebuild and extend the dry - dock , electrification and strengthen coastal defense . In December 1901 , he was promoted to captain of the first rank . In December 1902 , Rudnev was appointed commander of the . On the eve of the Russo - Japanese War , he was ordered to the neutral Korean port of Chemulpo ( modern Inchon ) to protect Russian interests . On the morning of February 9 , 1904 , he received an ultimatum from Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Uryū Sotokichi demanding that he leave the protection of the port by noon , or be attacked ( which would have been a violation of Korean neutrality and international law ) . Rudnev decided to break out of the port , knowing that he was very much outnumbered and outgunned by the Japanese fleet was waiting offshore for the opportunity to attack . The Japanese fleet blocked the path to the open sea , and a brisk gun battle ensured , with Varyag damaging the Japanese cruisers , and , but taking severe damage in return . Rudnev was injured by a shrapnel wound to the head , and " Varyag " was on fire with half her guns out of commission . Rather than surrender to the Japanese , Rudnev scuttled the cruiser and escaped with his surviving crew to the protection of neutral ships in the harbor , from which they were eventually repatriated to Russia via neutral ports . Although the Battle of Chemulpo Bay was a decisive defeat for Russia , Rudnev was ordered the Order of St . George ( 4th class ) for heroism and promoted to adjutant . He was also assigned command of a new battleship , then under construction . After the Russian Revolution of 1905 , Rudnev refused to take disciplinary measures against the revolutionary - minded men of his crew . As a consequence he went into forced retirement with the rank of rear admiral in November 1905 . After the end of the war , in 1907 , Japanese Emperor Meiji awarded Rudnev the Order of the Rising Sun , ( 2nd class ) , the first Russian to be so honored , and an unprecedented recognition of an enemy commander . Rudnev accepted the order , but never wore it in public . Rudnev retired to his family ' s ancestral estate in near Novomoskovsk , Tula Oblast , where he died in 1913 . During the Russian Civil War , his wife and three sons relocated to Sevastopol , and eventually fled to exile in Yugoslavia , and later to France . In philately . Rudnev was a noted philatelist , starting as a youth , and using every opportunity on his numerous circumnavigations of the globe to add to his collection . He assembled a large collection , containing many rarities , including famed " Blue Mauritius " . The eventual fate of his collection is not known . In the Soviet Union and in post - Soviet Russia a number of commemorative postage stamp s were issued honoring Rudnev and / or the crew of the " Varyag " , including :