Sokolov, Sergei Leonidovich

Sokolov, Sergei Leonidovich 

Born June 18 (July 1), 1911, in Evpatoriia, now in Crimean Oblast. Soviet military commander; Marshal of the Soviet Union (1978). Member of the CPSU since 1937.

Sokolov graduated from the Gorky Armored Forces School in 1934, from the Military Academy for Armored and Mechanized Forces in 1947, and from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1951. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, he was chief of a tank regiment on the Western Front (June-September 1941), deputy chief and chief of a section of the Directorate of Motor Transport and Armored Troops, chief of staff of the directorate of the commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Karelian Front (1941–44), and commander of the armored and mechanized forces of the Thirty-second Army of the Karelian Front (March-September 1944). He took part in the defense and liberation of the Soviet arctic.

After the war, Sokolov held various command positions. From January 1960 he was chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Moscow Military District, from July 1964 first deputy commander of the Leningrad Military District, and from October 1965 commander of the Leningrad Military District. Since April 1967, he has been first deputy minister of defense of the USSR.

Sokolov was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1966 and has been a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU since 1968. He was a deputy to the seventh, eighth, and ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Sokolov has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, the Order for Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces Third Class, various medals, and several foreign orders and medals.