Viktor Samsonov

General of the Army Viktor Nikolaevich Samsonov (Виктор Николаевич Самсонов) was the acting Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 1996. He was replaced by Anatoly Kvashnin. Previously in 1993 he was Chief of Staff at the Military Cooperation Headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Born in 1941, an ethnic Russian. In the Armed Forces since 1960. After graduating from college he was sent to a Naval Infantry unit, and commanded a platoon and company. He graduated from the Far Eastern Higher Command School in 1964. Graduated from the Frunze Military Academy in 1972 (as a class-mate of future Afghan war commander Boris Gromov). Since 1972 he was a Chief of Staff of a motor rifle regiment and the Chief of Staff of a tank division in the Transbaikal Military District. Then a few years he was chief of staff of a Combined Arms Army.

After graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1981 he was appointed an army commander. In 1987 - 1990s - Chief of Staff of the Transcaucasus Military District, and at the same time in 1988 – 1990 years - the military commander in Yerevan. Participated in the localization efforts of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. In 1990 appointed commander of the Leningrad Military District.

A member of the Communist Party from 1960 until the termination of its operations in August 1991.

During the "August coup", 19–21 August 1991, he was appointed military commander of the Leningrad State Emergency Committee, said of the subordination of the orders of the State Emergency Committee and ordered a state of emergency in Leningrad and the surrounding areas.