Vitaly Fokin

A worker's son, Vitaliy Alekseyevich Fokin joined the Soviet Navy when he was 16 in 1922. He served as a deck officer aboard the cruiser from 1927 and commanded the destroyer Uritskiy from 1941 to 1944. Admiral Fokin was a moderniser and was instrumental to the development of the Soviet submarine launched ballistic missile deterrent. In the run up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, he said to his submarine commanders, "If they slap you on the left cheek, do not let them slap you on the right one." ==Ranks==

• Rear Admiral (25 September 1944) • Vice-Admiral (11 May 1949) • Admiral (3 August 1953) ==Political career==

Admiral Fokin was made a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961 and a deputy in the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1962. ==Honours, awards and decorations==

• Order of Lenin (1948) • Order of the Red Banner (four times 1942, 1943, 1944, 1952) • Order of Nakhimov First degree (1945) • Order of Ushakov Second degree (1944) • Order of the Red Star (1935) ==See also==