Nikolai Sergeevich Fomin

Born July 7 (19), 1895, in the city of Iur’ev-Pol’skii, in what is now Vladimir Oblast. Colonel general of artillery. Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 28, 1945). Professor (1963). Member of the CPSU since 1937.

The son of an office worker, Fomin was drafted into the army in 1916, while still a student at Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. In 1917 he graduated from an artillery school as an ensign and in January 1918 volunteered for the Red Army. During the Civil War of 1918–20, Fomin commanded an artillery battalion on the Southern Front against the generals Denikin and Wrangel and the bands of Makhno. He graduated from advanced courses for command personnel in 1926 and the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1941. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, he was an artillery officer in the Twenty-first Army from July to December 1941 and in the Forty-third Army from December 1941 to April 1943. He served as artillery commander on the Steppe Front beginning in July 1943, on the Second Ukrainian Front beginning in October 1943, and on the Transbaikal Front beginning in August 1945.

After the war Fomin headed the directorate of combat training for ground troops artillery; in March 1949 he became chief of staff and deputy commander of artillery of the Soviet Army. In July 1956 he began teaching at the Military Academy of the General Staff. He retired in 1969.

Fomin has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First Class, two Orders of Kutuzov First Class, various medals, and foreign orders and medals.