Liapidevskii, Anatolii Vasilevich

Born Mar. 10 (23), 1908, in the stanitsa (large cossack village) of Beloglinskaia, now the village of Belaia Glina, Krasnodar Krai. Soviet pilot; Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 20, 1934); major general of aviation (1946). Member of the CPSU since 1934.

Liapidevskii entered the Red Army in 1926, graduated from the Sevastopol’ Naval Pilot School in 1928, and served as a pilot and pilot instructor. In 1933 he was discharged into the reserve and began working as a pilot for the Far Eastern Administration of the Civil Air Fleet. After the wreck of the icebreaker Cheliuskin on Feb. 13, 1934, Liapidevskii took part in searching for and rescuing persons from the ship. Operating under exceptionally difficult conditions, he carried them out to Uelen. In 1935 he was again drafted into the army. He graduated from the N. E. Zhukovskii Air Force Academy in 1939. In 1939-42 he served as deputy chief of the Main Inspectorate and as director of an aviation plant. In 1942-43 he was deputy commander of the air forces of the Nineteenth Army and chief of field repair for the Seventh Air Army. In September 1943 he became director of a plant. After the Great Patriotic War he worked as chief controller for the Commission of State Control of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, deputy minister of the aviation industry, and plant director. In 1961 he reentered the reserve.

During 1935-37, Liapidevskii was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR at the seventh convocation and a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the first convocation. He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War First and Second Class, two orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and various medals.