Mikhail Beregovoy

Mikhail Timofeyevich Beregovoy (Russian: Михаил Тимофеевич Береговой; 13 January 1918 – 30 May 2021) was a Soviet military officer who held a number of posts in the Soviet Air Defence Forces, reaching the rank of lieutenant general.

Born in the upheaval of the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, Beregovoy became interested in technical innovations. His brothers became pilots, his younger brother Georgy winning fame in the Second World War, and later as a pioneering cosmonaut, and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Mikhail instead attended the Leningrad Artillery-Technical School and served as an officer with the Soviet Air Defence Forces. Following the war Beregovoy furthered his specialization with studies at the Artillery Radio Engineering Academy, and then joined the Soviet Radio-Technical Forces, in time becoming head of the radio engineering troops of the Moscow Air Defence District, with responsibility for monitoring and providing data for the flights of the early Soviet space program. In 1969 he became head of the Soviet Radio-Technical Forces, a post he held until his retirement in 1983.

Beregovoy reached the age of 100 in 2018, an event marked with congratulatory telegrams, including one from Vladimir Putin. Over his career he had received numerous awards and honours, including two Orders of the Red Banner. He died in 2021 at the age of 103.