Sokolov, Ivan Mikhailovich

Born June 5 (18), 1900, in the village of Petrokovo, now in Rzhev Raion, Kalinin Oblast. Soviet military commander; colonel general in the air force (1944). Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1925.

Sokolov joined the Red Army in 1918 and served in the Civil War of 1918–20 as deputy commander and commander of a separate cavalry troop. In 1930 he graduated from a military school for pilots and air observers, in 1936 from courses in command-personnel training at the N. E. Zhukovskii Air Force Academy, and in 1949 from the K. E. Voroshilov Higher Military Academy. During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–40 he was chief of staff of an air-force wing.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Sokolov was chief of staff of an air division, chief of staff and, later, commander of the air force of the Karelian Front (1941–42), commander of the Seventh Air Army on the Karelian Front (November 1942-June 1945), and commander of the Ninth Air Army on the First Far Eastern Front (1945). After the war, Sokolov held teaching and staff positions at the Main Headquarters of the Air Force. Since 1959 he has been in the reserves.

Sokolov has been awarded the Order of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of the Red Star, various medals, and several foreign orders and medals.