The painting on display at the museum depicts the Soviet naval commander, Admiral and commander of the Northern Fleet Arseny Grigoryevich Golovko. Golovko was born in 1906 in the Cossack village of Prokhladny. He came from a Cossack family from the Terek Cossack Host. He attended a parish school, but later he became one of the first residents of his village to join the Komsomol. Golovko studied at the Frunze Naval College. In addition, he completed Special Courses for Command Staff and graduated from the Voroshilov Naval Academy. During his studies, Golovko volunteered to participate in the Spanish Civil War, where he served as an adviser to the commander of the naval base in the port of Cartagena.

At the age of 31, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Northern Fleet and soon assumed the position of Commander. On June 17, 1941, Golovko, on his own responsibility, decided to put the fleet on combat readiness level 2 due to increased German reconnaissance flights over fleet bases. Under his leadership, the fleet took part in the defense of Murmansk and the Arctic, as well as in ensuring the protection of allied and domestic convoys during the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive. According to contemporaneous accounts, Arseny Golovko was an energetic, proactive, and strong-willed leader.

In the post-war period, Golovko made a significant contribution to the construction of the Navy Fleet. From 1947, he served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Naval Forces of the USSR. In November 1956, Golovko was appointed First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. He was also elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Some assume that, as a result of nuclear weapons tests on Novaya Zemlya, Golovko developed acute radiation syndrome.

At the end of his life, Arseny Grigoryevich Golovko wrote two memoirs “The First Days” and “Together with the Fleet”. Golovko was awarded four Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner, two Orders of Ushakov 1st class, two Orders of the Red Star, medals and foreign orders.