Starostin, Nikolai Fedorovich

Born on September 13, 1920 in the village of the Konstantinovsky plant (now the village of Konstantinovsky Tutaevsky district of the Yaroslavl region ). In 1935 he moved with his parents to the city of Rybinsk. Here he graduated from high school and flying club. He worked at an engineering plant.

In 1939 he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the aviation school. In 1940 he graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation School, served in a bomber regiment near the western borders of the country.

Member of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. The first combat flight to bombard enemy railway stations on June 22. He fought on the Kalinin, Bryansk, Central, 1st Belorussian fronts. During the offensive near Moscow, he flew up to 5-6 sorties a day. He became a real master of bombing. In 1942 he joined the CPSU (b).

More than 50 times flew behind enemy lines and always obtained valuable data on the movement of enemy troops, on the accumulation of tanks, artillery, enemy manpower, and its airfields. Under his leadership, aerial photography of the Rzhevsky bridgehead of the Germans was carried out, with its system of complex fortifications and strong points. The intelligence and photographs obtained by Starostin were widely used by the command in preparing the assault on the Rzhev defense of the Germans.

By October 1943, the navigator of the squadron, Senior Lieutenant Starostin, made 236 sorties to bombard clusters of troops and other enemy targets. In an air battle shot down an enemy aircraft.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 4, 1944 for exemplary execution of command orders at the front of the fight against the German invaders and the valor, courage and heroism shown to this, Lieutenant Starostin Nikolai Fedorovich was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Golden Star medal .

As part of his regiment, he participated in the battles for the liberation of Belarus, Poland , stormed Berlin. By the end of the war, he made about 500 sorties. On his account there were 20 wrecked tanks, an armored train, several railway trains, dozens of vehicles, artillery batteries, bunkers, machine gun firing points.

Captain Starostin died after the end of hostilities. On May 7, 1945, during a hunt in the forest, a mine was blown up. He was buried in the city of Pyrzyce .

He was awarded two orders of Lenin , orders of the Red Banner , World War 1 degree, Red Star .

At home, in the village of Konstantinovsky, the name of the Hero is named street and school number 3. In Rybinsk, a memorial plaque was installed on the school building. His name is immortalized on the Alley of Heroes in the city of Tutaev.

• Heroes of the fiery years. Yaroslavl: Upper Volga Prince ed., 1985.
• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1988. - T. 2 / Love - Yashchuk /. - 863 s. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-00536-2 .

Nikolai Fedorovich Starostin (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ". Date of treatment July 4, 2014.