Jafrem Sakałow

Yefrem Yevseyevich Sokolov (, ; 25 April 1926 – 5 April 2022) was a Belarusian politician, who served as a first secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussian SSR from February 1987 to November 1990. Sokolov was a member of the 28th Politburo, elected on 14 July 1990 by the 1st Plenary Session of the 28th Central Committee.

Biography He was born into a Belarusian peasant family. From 1944 to the end of the decade he served in the Soviet Army, then worked as a driver on a farm of the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy, where he graduated from in 1956. It was here where he joined the CPSU and in 1961, he graduated from the Higher Party School in Moscow. In 1969, he became part of the apparatus of the Central Committee and was in 1977 appointed party chief for Brest. From 6 February 1987 to 30 November 1990, he was First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, being the last one to serve as the de facto head of the Byelorussian SSR.

From 1989–1991, he was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Since 1990, he had been a pensioner and continued political activities such as heading the Council of the Communist Party of Belarus. Sokolov's death was announced on 5 April 2022, at the age of 95.