PASSINGS : Valery A. Belikov; Soviet Army General

Gen. Valery Alexandrovich Belikov, 62, commander in chief of the estimated 400,000 Soviet forces in East Germany. The official East German news agency ADN said Belikov, who had been in command of the largest contingent of Soviet troops outside the Soviet Union, had been named forces commander in August, 1986. He was a member of the Supreme Soviet and a non-voting member of the Communist Party Central Committee. Belikov joined the Soviet army in 1942 and studied in the military academy for armored units and in the academy of the Soviet general staff. He was made a member of the Communist Party in 1949 and commanded the Carpathian military district in the Soviet Union from 1979 until moving to East Germany. He was the 15th commander of Soviet troops in East Germany since 1945, according to Western sources. Thursday in Wuensdorf, East Germany, of a heart attack.