Chistyakov, Vasily Mikhailovich (pilot)

Vasily Mikhailovich Chistyakov was born on February 10, 1908 in the village of Balakhtimerevo of the Ustyuzhensky district of the Novgorod province of the Russian Empire (now the Ustyuzhensky district of the Vologda region of the Russian Federation) into a large peasant family. Russian. He graduated from grade 4 of elementary school.

He began his career early. From childhood, grazing cattle, at age 16 went to the latrine industry. He worked in logging near Leningrad, then in the Urals. He went from village to village, from town to town with his partner, sawing sleepers for the construction of railways, and harvesting wood. He worked in the Nizhne-Turinsky timber industry of the Sverdlovsk region. In Perm, he graduated from a forestry school and received the certificate "master of the forest." Member of the CPSU (b) since 1929. In 1930, he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the squadron to ensure the educational process of the 1st Soviet United Military School of the Red Army named after the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Kremlin.

In 1931 he entered the Tambov United Cavalry School. After three years of training, he was transferred to the navigational department of the Yeisk Aviation School of Marine Pilots. In 1935, after graduating from an aviation school, Lieutenant V. M. Chistyakov was distributed to the city of Rostov-on-Don in an aviation regiment for the position of navigator of the crew of the heavy bomber TB-3 .

He met the Great Patriotic War in Smolensk , in the position of navigator of the 1st Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 23rd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division . Member of the fighting since June 1941. In the fall of 1941, the pilots of the regiment defended Moscow. As part of the regiment, he participated in bombing attacks on German troops in a western direction.

After the defeat of the Nazi armies near Moscow, the regiment, where Chistyakov served, fought near Stalingrad, on the Southern and other fronts. By January 7, 1942, Captain V. M. Chistyakov made 150 sorties, of which 88 - at night, to bombard targets behind enemy lines, airfields and river crossings, manpower and enemy equipment, and threw assault forces into the enemy rear.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 20, 1942 for exemplary performance of command missions on the front of the struggle against Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown to this, Captain Chistyakov Vasily Mikhailovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Golden Star medal .

Under the new year, 1943, intelligence reported that many German officers were gathering in one of the front-line cities to celebrate the holiday, and Chistyakov’s crew received orders to bomb the enemy, which was successfully carried out.

When in the Hero’s homeland, in the Ustyuzhensky district of the Vologda region, it became known that their fellow countryman was awarded the highest state award, the inhabitants collected 139,900 rubles for a new bomber for Chistyakov in a few months, and on August 15, 1943 at the front-line airfield of the 194th aviation the regiment, the new twin-engine aircraft Li-2 with the inscription "Ustyuzhanin" on board, was handed over to the crew in which V. M. Chistyakov flew

Vasily Mikhailovich made his first flight on it near Kharkov , where he bombed a cluster of enemy troops retreating to the west. Since then, Ustyuzhanin made combat sorties almost daily and, by the end of October, had been behind enemy lines more than thirty times. In one of the battles to eliminate the siege of Leningrad in 1944, the plane was damaged and could not be restored. In the future, he was transferred as a visual aid to one of the country's military military schools.

In December 1944, the regiment in which Chistyakov V.M. fought was renamed the 1st Guards.

Lieutenant Colonel Chistyakov V.M. met the Victory Day in Poland. For the entire time of the war, he made 221 successful sorties.

After the war, the pilot continued to serve in the USSR Air Force. Since 1958, Colonel Chistyakov in stock.

He lived and worked in the city of Voronezh , and died there on November 29, 1984. He was buried in the 8th quarter of the South-West cemetery of the city of Voronezh.

• The Gold Star Medal (No. 595) (06/20/1942);
• Order of Lenin (06/20/1942);
• The order of Lenin;
• Order of the Red Banner (09/09/1941);
• Order of the Red Banner;
• Order of Alexander Nevsky (07.25.1945);
• Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (04.06.1943);
• Order of the Red Star (12/05/1941);
• Order of the Red Star.

The name of the Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Mikhailovich Chistyakov is immortalized at the memorial in the city of Nizhnyaya Tura, Sverdlovsk Region.

• Chistyakov Vasily Mikhailovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".
• Ustyuzhane - Heroes of the Soviet Union .
• Chistyakov Vasily Mikhailovich . Site "Vologda Regional Scientific Library named after I.V. Babushkina . "