Frolov, Valerian

Born May 26 (June 7), 1895, in St. Petersburg; died Jan. 6, 1961, in Leningrad. Soviet military leader. Colonel general (1943). Member of the CPSU from 1919.

Frolov, the son of a shop assistant, was a worker. He was drafted into the army in 1915 and fought in World War I as a senior noncommissioned officer. In April 1918 he volunteered for the Red Army and served in the Civil War (1918–20). He fought in battles near Pskov, Petrograd, and Grodno as a platoon, company, and battalion commander. He completed courses at the Higher Tactical Infantry School in 1924 and graduated from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1932 and the Advanced Academic Courses at the K. E. Voroshilov Higher Military Academy in 1949.

During the Soviet-Finnish War (1939–40), Frolov commanded the Fourteenth Army above the arctic circle. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) he commanded the Fourteenth Army from June to August 1941 and the troops of the Karelian Front from September 1941 to February 1944; from February to November 1944 he was deputy commander of the front. From 1944 to 1956 he was commander in chief of the troops of the White Sea Military District (from 1949 to 1951, the Arkhangel’sk Military District). In 1956 he went into the reserves.

Frolov was a deputy to the second and fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.