Rank: Captain, 1st Rank Branch of Service: Navy and Naval forces of NKVD Border Guard Alexander Balkashin was born on July 30, 1918 in Peterhof, Leningrad Region, graduated in 1941 from the Higher Naval Engineering School named after F. Dzerzhinsky. After graduation with a rank of Lieutenant, he was sent to serve in the Ladoga Military Flotilla, which was formed by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy on June 25, 1941 as part of the Baltic Fleet for the defense of the coast of Lake Ladoga. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Ladoga Military Flotilla with fire of its artillery supported the actions of the 2nd Shock, 4th, 7th, 8th, 23rd, 54th and 67th Armies, and conducted the operational and five tactical landings of troops on the flank and rear of the enemy. It had carried out transportation of troops, cargo, evacuated civilians and equipment of the industrial enterprises of Leningrad, defended lake communications, and supported the actions of the army in the Sinyavino operations of 1941 and 1942. The Flotilla protected the "Road of life", participated in breaking the siege of Leningrad in 1943, and in June-August 1944 - in the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation, conducted the Tuloksin landing operation, during which a bridgehead 35 km behind the front line was captured, and the railway and highway were cut. The Flotilla repulsed an enemy attempt to land troops on Sukho Island on October 22, 1942. During the battle, the enemy lost 19 of its 23 ships and 12 aircraft. It prevented the German attempt to cut off communications with besieged. In the navigations of 1941 and 1942 (before the break of the Leningrad blockade), the Flotilla together with the river fleet transported moved over 1,414 thousand tons of cargo and about 1,483 thousand people. The Flotilla was disbanded after breaking the siege of Leningrad on November 4, 1944. The ships and boats of the flotilla became a part of the Baltic Fleet., with the rank of Captain of the 1st Rank A. Balkashin after the end of the war was transferred to serve in Pilau. It was renamed Baltiysk after the liberation of Konigsberg and the creation of the Kaliningrad Region. He served there as a divisional mechanic. For further service he was transferred to the Main Headquarters of the Navy in Moscow in 1949, where he served until the age limit and retired. He died in Moscow on September 17, 2005 at the age of 89.