page_title: Sergey Sokolov (marshal)
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Sergey Sokolov (marshal) / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Герой Советского Союза, Маршал Советского Союза Соколов Сергей Леонидович
context_page_description: Sergey Leonidovich Sokolov was a Soviet military commander, Hero of the Soviet Union, and served as Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union from 22 December 1984 until 30 May 1987.
context_section_description: The son of a Russian tsarist army officer, Sokolov served in the Battle of Lake Khasan during the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and also fought against Nazi Germany during World War II.
  He was Commander of the Leningrad Military District from 1965 to 1967 and  First Deputy Defense Minister from 1967 to 1984.
  Sokolov was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1978. He was in charge of Soviet ground forces during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He personally led the main Soviet incursion of ground forces on December 27, 1979. His actions and command strategies during the war made him one of the Soviet Union's most respected Marshals. On April 28, 1980 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
  Sokolov was appointed Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union in 1984 and held this post until 1987, when  he was dismissed by Mikhail Gorbachev as a result of the Mathias Rust affair. He was also a candidate (non-voting) member of the Politburo from 1985 to 1987.
  From 1992, Sokolov was an advisor to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. In July 2001, he became an honorary citizen of Crimea, Ukraine.
  On turning 100 he stated, "Military service prestige will regain the importance it once had."
  Sokolov died of undisclosed causes on 31 August 2012, at the age of 101. He was buried on 3 September with full military honors at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, next to his wife of 70 years, Maria Samojlovna Sokolova (19 December 1920 – 28 August 2012) who had predeceased him three days prior.
  He was survived by two sons, Colonel-General (Retd.) Valery Sergeyevich (born September 30, 1940), now a lecturer at the Faculty of Command and General Staff Military Academy, and Colonel-General (Retd.) Vladimir Sergeyevich (born January 21, 1947), who had retired during the war in Afghanistan and was chief of staff of the 40th Army.
caption: Sokolov in 1984
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2345", "Image ImageLength": "3230", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SX20 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2016:03:20 22:01:26", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "332", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1186", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4181", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/10", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:02:10 20:32:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:02:10 20:32:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "53/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "2969/125", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "390", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1000000/61", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1000000/61", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}