Vladimir Karpovich Pikalov (Russian: Владимир Карпович Пикалов; 15 September 1924 – 29 March 2003) was a Soviet general.

He took part in the Second World War, seeing combat with the Western, Don, Stalingrad, the Steppe and the 2nd Belorussian fronts, participating in the liberation of Kursk, Minsk, Poznań, and as well as the storming of Berlin.

Pikalov arrived at the disaster site at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant a few hours after the April 1986 explosion as head of the Ministry of Defense task force, personally made a circuit around the nuclear power plant with radiation instruments (receiving an exposure of 137 rems), and organized the arrival in the accident zone of the troops necessary for the most urgent work.

He headed the Ministry of Defense relief work at the Chernobyl site until Army General Ivan Gerasymov, Commander-in-Chief of the Troops of the Southwestern Direction, relieved him.

In December 1986, he was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union, for his role in the containment of the fallout from the Chernobyl catastrophe.