Zolin, Petr Petrovich

Petr Zolin was born on May 23, 1922 in the village of Novaya Sloboda (now the Bolsheboldinsky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Region ). In 1940, he graduated from a ten- year school in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), then in September of the same year he was called up to the Red Army. In May 1943, he graduated from a military aviation school in Engels . In the summer of the same year, he retrained on Pe-2 bombers in the reserve regiment in Kazan . Since September 1943 - on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. During the war years he was promoted to deputy commander of the aviation squadron of the 34th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment . He fought on the Leningrad and 3rd Byelorussian fronts . During the war years, Zolin made more than a hundred sorties on a Pe-2 bomber. For the courage and heroism shown during the performance of combat missions, Captain Petr Petrovich Zolin, guards, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 29, 1945, was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal No. 7472. July 13, 1945 the award was solemnly presented to him in the Kremlin ^[1] .

After the end of the war he became a squadron commander, continued service in his regiment in the Leningrad Military District . Soon he committed the murder of a pioneer leader, for which, on August 16, 1945, the Military Tribunal of the 13th Air Army sentenced him to 8 years in prison and deprivation of military rank. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 25, 1948, Zolin was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all state awards (orders of Lenin (06/29/1945), the Red Banner (11/29/1944), Alexander Nevsky (04/19/1945), World War 1- nd degree (06/21/1944), the Red Star (3/14/1944) and several medals. After liberation, he lived in the city of Kolpino (now the eponymous district of St. Petersburg ). He died on August 18, 1984 ^[1] .