The heroic death of Vice Admiral V. A. Kornilov, who led the defense of Sevastopol in September 1854, which contemporaries called "Russian Troy," and Kornilov himself "a hero worthy of Ancient Greece," made a strong impression on the participants in the defense, and on Emperor Nicholas I, and on the entire Russian society, and even on the then Europe. But many of the most important events of the vice admiral's biography before the dramatic events of the Crimean War (1853-1855), his activities as an outstanding military organizer, theorist, strategist, innovator of military art at sea, who was preparing a new glorious field for the Russian fleet, remained in the shadow of serious interest (with the exception of rare specialists in military history). The real book successfully fills this gap. This is the first in our historiography a detailed study of the life and activities of an outstanding naval commander and a person, a patriot of Russia.