Stepan Krasovskiy Air Force Commander, Hero of the Soviet Union Date of Birth: 20.08.1897 Country: Belarus

Biography of Stepan Krasovsky

Stepan Akimovich Krasovsky was born on August 20, 1897, in the village of Glukhi, which is now part of the Bykhov district of the Mogilev region in Belarus. He was of Russian nationality and joined the army in 1916. During the First World War, he served as a non-commissioned officer and was the chief of a radio station.

Krasovsky participated in the Russian Civil War and held various positions, including aviator mechanic, chief of communication for an aviation unit on the Eastern Front, observer pilot, and commissar of an aviation unit on the Caucasus Front. He completed courses to improve his skills in the Soviet Air Force and graduated from the N.E. Zhukovsky Military Air Engineering Academy in 1936.

During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, Krasovsky served as the commander of the Air Force of the 13th Army and the commander of the Murmansk Aviation Brigade. In 1940, he became the head of the Krasnodar Military Aviation School and, in 1941, he served as an assistant to the commander of the Air Force of the North Caucasus Military District for military educational institutions. In June 1941, he became the commander of the Air Force of the North Caucasus Military District.

Krasovsky played a crucial role in the Great Patriotic War (World War II). From October 1941, he served as the commander of the Air Force of the 56th Army, and from January 1942, he commanded the Air Force of the Bryansk Front. In May-October 1942, he was the commander of the 2nd Air Army, and in November 1942, he took command of the 17th Air Army. In March 1943, he once again commanded the 2nd Air Army.

Under Krasovsky's leadership, the Air Force units fought on the Southern, Bryansk, Southwest, Voronezh, and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. They participated in battles for Rostov and Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, the Dnieper river crossing, the liberation of Kiev, the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Lvov-Sandomierz, Lower Silesian, and Berlin operations. On May 29, 1945, Krasovsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal for his skillful leadership of military units and his personal courage and heroism.

After the war, Krasovsky held various high-ranking positions, including the commander of the Air Force of the Far Eastern Military District from 1947 to 1950, deputy chief and chief military advisor in China from 1950 to 1952, commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District from 1952 to 1953, and commander of the Air Force of the North Caucasus Military District from 1953.

From 1956 to 1968, Krasovsky served as the head of the Military Air Academy (now named after Yuri Gagarin). From 1968 to 1970, he was part of the General Inspectors Group of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. He also served as a member of the Central Revision Commission of the CPSU from 1961 to 1966.

Stepan Krasovsky passed away on April 21, 1983, and was buried in the town of Monino in the Moscow region. He held the rank of Marshal of Aviation since 1959 and received numerous awards, including six Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, four Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov (1st and 2nd class), Order of Kutuzov (1st class), Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1st class), Order of the Red Star, and the "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" (3rd class) medal. In his honor, a street in Voronezh was named after him.