Nikolai Naumenko

Born Oct. 4 (17), 1901, in Terskaia stanitsa (large cossack village), now Mozdok Raion, Severnaia Osetiia ASSR; died July 7, 1967, in Moscow. Soviet military figure; colonel general of aviation (1944). Member of the CPSU from 1922.

Naumenko entered the Red Army in 1918 and served in the Civil War of 1918–20. He graduated from a school for pilots and air observers in 1928 and from advanced training courses for the command staff of the air force of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in 1934. He was a commander of an aviation brigade in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–40. He was appointed commander of an aviation division in July 1940 and commander of the air forces of the Orel Military District in May 1941. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Naumenko served as deputy commander and commander of the air forces of the Western Front (1941–42), deputy commander and commander of the Fourth Air Army of the Northern Caucasian Front (1942–43), and commander of the Fifteenth Air Army (1943–45). He held responsible positions in the air force after the war. He retired in January 1953. Naumenko was awarded the Order of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First Class, two Orders of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.