Summary/Abstract: After the victory of the Bolshevik forces in the Russian civil war, a significant number of Russian exiles found refuge in the newly formed Yugoslav Kingdom. Vladimir Smirnov, a young civil engineering student, was among them. In the interwar period, he completed his studies in Belgrade (which he started in St. Petersburg) and worked as a respected civil engineer specialist for railway construction. Smirnov actively joined the partisan movement in 1941. During the war, he was the chief of the technical unit at the Supreme Headquarters. His name is linked to a series of war feats, especially during the Battle of the Neretva. After the war, he was the head of the Construction Directorate of the Yugoslav Army and its chief engineer. In this position, he dealt specifically with the construction of military facilities, including those for housing, and a number of military facilities for special purposes, as well as with the system of permanent fortifications of border regions. Smirnov was a prominent military writer and translator and was awarded a number of prestigious Yugoslav military decorations.
