[3][5] Gerasymov was the oldest sitting member of the Verkhovna Rada at the time of his death on June 4, 2008, at the age of 86.

After the war, he attended the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces in Moscow.

From 1964–1966 he attended the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

He was made from 1984 to 1990 the Commander in chief of the troops of the South-Western Direction,[6] and in 1986 arrived at the site of the Chernobyl disaster to head Soviet Ministry of Defence efforts there, in succession to General Vladimir Pikalov.

[7] On 27 October, he inspected the military parade on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Ukraine along with Oleksandr Kuzmuk.