Yakov Stepanovich Fokanov (Russian: Яков Степанович Фоканов; 7 December 1899 – 9 November 1985) was a Soviet Army lieutenant general.

Drafted into the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, he had become a junior officer by its end and would be steadily promoted during the interwar period.

[1] During the Russian Civil War, he was drafted into the Red Army on 15 March 1919 by the Ustyuzhinsky Uyezd military commissariat and sent to the ski detachment of the Petrograd garrison.

After the latter was disbanded, Fokanov served in the same position with the 10th Reserve Rifle Regiment before being sent to study at the 7th Petrograd Red Commanders' Courses in January 1921.

[2][3] From April 1921, after completing the courses, Fokanov served as a junior commander in the 10th Reserve Rifle Regiment, now part of the Petrograd Military District.

After graduating from the latter in August 1925, Fokanov was placed at the disposal of the 135th Territorial Rifle Regiment and appointed an acting assistant platoon commander in its 9th Company.

[2][3] Fokanov held the rank of kombrig when Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began in June 1941.

During the Battle of Smolensk, the corps temporarily repulsed German attacks and recaptured Rogachev and Zhlobin in a counterattack on 13 July.

[4] He then led the division with the 3rd Army of the Central Front in defensive battles on the east bank of the Dnieper, preventing a German crossing near Loyev.

From January 1953 he served as assistant commander and head of the combat training directorate of the 39th Army of the Primorsky Military District in Port Arthur.