Artem Pasechnik Fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Soviet-Finnish war Date of Birth: 31.12.1913 Country: Ukraine

Biography of Artem Pasechnik

Artem Spirydonovich Pasechnik was a Soviet fighter pilot and a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also honored as one of the Heroes of the Soviet-Finnish War. He was born into a peasant family in Ukraine and completed seven years of school education. After working as an accountant in a village council, Pasechnik served in the Red Army from 1931 to 1933. He was then called back to serve again in 1934.

Pasechnik graduated from the 7th Military Flying School in Stalingrad in 1937. He became a member of the Communist Party in 1938. During the Soviet-Finnish War, he served as the political commissar of the 44th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 54th Fighter Aviation Brigade of the Leningrad Military District. He flew the I-153 aircraft.

In recognition of his bravery and excellent work, Pasechnik was awarded the Order of Lenin and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on April 7, 1940. The citation for his Hero of the Soviet Union award described him as one of the best commissars of the unit, combining his flying duties with his responsibilities as a commissar. He was praised for his bravery, initiative, and exemplary service. Pasechnik flew a total of 75 combat hours and was credited with destroying 13 enemy locomotives, 10 trains, 15 vehicles, a cavalry squadron, and two anti-aircraft guns.

On March 11, 1940, while carrying out a combat mission to attack railway trains, Pasechnik's aircraft was shot down and crash-landed behind enemy lines. He organized a rescue mission to evacuate the injured pilot, but his own aircraft was also shot down and crashed. Pasechnik died heroically while trying to save his commander and subordinate.

Pasechnik's bravery, endurance, resourcefulness, and exceptional service in his squadron earned him the highest honor of being named a Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the full details of his heroic act were not initially disclosed.

The Winter War was an exceptionally brutal conflict, with the Finnish army fiercely resisting the advancing Soviet forces. The Finnish soldiers showed great cruelty, particularly towards captured foreign "volunteers" from Sweden, Denmark, and the Baltic states. The participants in the war witnessed these atrocities, but this information was not widely publicized due to political or other considerations.

Pasechnik's tragic fate occurred on the shores of a small lake during the final days of the war. While a Finnish peace delegation had already arrived in Moscow and a ceasefire was imminent, a desperate battle was taking place by the unknown lake. Pasechnik, responsible both for his own life and the life of his close friend, found himself in a situation where both of them were stranded on the ice. Seeing this, Pasechnik ordered his comrades to continue suppressing the enemy while he attempted to rescue his injured comrades.

Although the war was almost over, Pasechnik's aircraft was shot down and he was captured by the enemy. The Finnish captors, enraged by the sight of the red commissar stars on his uniform, subjected him to brutal torture. They mutilated his body, cut out the stars, tied him to his pilot's seat, and drowned him in a hole in the ice. The bodies of two other fallen heroes were also thrown into the same hole.

However, justice eventually caught up with the torturers. The Soviet authorities, recognizing Pasechnik's deserved respect and admiration from his comrades, ordered a search and rescue operation. Despite the ceasefire, they recaptured the lake area and apprehended the perpetrators, who were brought to justice for their heinous acts.

The bodies of Senior Political Officer Pasechnik, Pilot Prieomov, and Junior Lieutenant Tyurin were recovered from the lake. They were transported to the airfield near Gorlovka Station in the Leningrad Region and given a military burial with full honors.

Pasechnik's widow, Maria Kuzminichna Pasechnik, recalled how their young son said at the funeral, "Daddy looks alive but covered in stars."

On April 7, 1940, Senior Political Officer Artem Spirydonovich Pasechnik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.