Vitalii Alekseevich Fokin

Born Mar. 4 (17), 1906, in the village of Vysokaia, in what is now Pyshchug Raion, Kostroma Oblast; died Jan. 23, 1964, in Moscow. Soviet military commander and admiral (1953). Member of the CPSU from 1927.

Fokin joined the navy in 1922. In 1927 he graduated from the M. V. Frunze Naval School and in 1930 completed special courses for command personnel. He then served in the Baltic Fleet. In 1933 he was transferred to the Northern Fleet. He began service during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 as commander of a destroyer division. In 1942 he was appointed chief of staff of the Caspian Naval Flotilla and in 1944 assumed command of a squadron in the Northern Fleet. In 1947 and 1948 he was chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet. In 1948, Fokin was appointed deputy chief of the general staff of the navy, becoming its chief in 1953. From 1958 to 1962 he commanded the Pacific Fleet, and in 1962 he became first deputy commander in chief of the navy.

Fokin was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1961 to 1964 and a deputy to the sixth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Fokin was awarded the Order of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Nakhimov First Class, the Order of Ushakov Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals and foreign orders.