Boris Tarasov

Boris Vasilyevich Tarasov (; 28 February 1932 – 16 June 2021) was an officer of the Soviet military who held a number of posts, rising to deputy chief of the Communication Troops for military-political work, reaching the rank of lieutenant general. He was also a People's Deputy and member of the Supreme Soviet of Russia between 1990 and 1993.

Over his military career, Tarasov served in the Far Eastern, Transbaikal, North Caucasian, Volga-Ural, and Leningrad Military Districts, in the Central Group of Forces, as well as in Mongolia and Afghanistan. Specialising in political work, he ended his military career as a deputy chief, and on his retirement in 1992, concentrated on his political interests. Though he failed to be elected to the State Duma, he remained active in veterans' interests, and wrote his memoirs. He died in 2021 at the age of 89, having received numerous honours and awards.

Military career The Siege of Leningrad. Tarasov survived in the besieged city between 1941 and 1942. Tarasov was born on 28 February 1932 in Serpukhov, Moscow Oblast, in what was then the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic, in the Soviet Union. He began his career as a factory worker at the age of 14, while also studying at an evening school. After five years, he received the qualification of a metal worker, and completed ten years of secondary school.

He graduated from the Alma-Ata Airborne School in 1954 and began a long series of postings that took him all across the Soviet Union, starting as a platoon commander. In 1969 he graduated from the Lenin Military-Political Academy. He was buried in the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery on 19 June. He was married, with a daughter. Over his career he had received numerous awards and honours, including Two Orders of the Red Star, the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" Second and Third Classes, and the Mongolian Order of the Red Banner. He had received the Certificate of Honour of the Moscow City Duma "For Services to the City Community" and the Badge of Honour "For Services to the Moscow Region", as well as the Order "For Services to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation".