Kasatonov, Vladimir Afanasevich

Born July 8 (21), 1910, in Peterhof, now Petrodvorets, Leningrad Oblast. Soviet military commander, admiral of the fleet (1965), Hero of the Soviet Union (Nov. 25, 1966). Member of the CPSU since 1939.

The son of a worker, Kasatonov joined the navy in 1927. Hegraduated from the M. V. Frunze Naval School in 1931, from the course preparing commanders at the S. M. Kirov Submarine Training Center in 1932, and from the Naval Academy in 1941.After serving as deputy commander and commander of a submarine from 1933 to 1938 and as commander of a submarine division of the Pacific Fleet from 1938 to 1940, Kasatonov workedon the Chief Naval Staff from 1941 to 1945 and held staff positions in the Baltic Fleet and on the General Staff from 1945 to 1949. He has held the posts of first deputy commander and chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet (from 1949), commander of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (from 1954), commander of the Black Sea Fleet (from 1955), commander of the Northern Fleet (from 1962), and first deputy commander in chief of the Navy (from June 1964). He was elected a deputy of the fifth through eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of Nakhimov Second Class, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, two Orders of the Red Star, and medals.