Vasily Filippovich Margelov was a Red Army General who was the commander of the Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV) from 1954 to 1959 and from 1961 to 1979. Margelov modernized the VDV and was a Hero of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Airborne Forces or VDV was a separate troops branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. First formed before the Second World War, the force undertook two significant airborne operations and a number of smaller jumps during the war and for many years after 1945 was the largest airborne force in the world. The force was split after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with the core becoming the Russian Airborne Forces, losing divisions to Belarus and Ukraine.