Nikolai Ivanovich Smirnov (Russian Никола́й Ива́нович Смирно́в) (22 September 1917 – 8 July 1992) was a Soviet Navy Admiral and a Hero of the Soviet Union (1984). Smirnov was born in a peasant family and graduated from an agricultural institute. He joined the Navy in 1937 and completed the M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School in Leningrad in 1939. He joined the Pacific fleet and qualified as a navigator on submarines. In 1943–44 he commanded a Pacific Fleet submarine. In June 1944 he was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet where he commanded a submarine.