Nikolai Skomorokhov

Born May 19, 1920, in the village of Lapot’, the present-day settlement of Belogorskoe, Krasnoarmeisk Raion, Saratov Oblast. Colonel general of aviation (1972). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Feb. 23 and Aug. 18, 1945). Honored Military Pilot of the USSR (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1943.

Skomorokhov graduated from the Bataisk Aviation School for Pilots in 1942, from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1949, and from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1958. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, he served as a pilot, senior pilot, flight commander, and deputy squadron commander from November 1942 to May 1944 and as squadron commander in the 164th and 31 st fighter aviation regiments at the Transcaucasian, Northern Caucasian, Southwestern, and Third Ukrainian fronts from May 1944 until the end of the war. Skomorokhov completed 605 combat missions, engaged in 143 air battles, and shot down 46 planes individually and eight planes in group combat. After the war, he held command positions in the air force. In August 1973 he became head of the Iu. A. Gagarin Air Force Academy.

Skomorokhov was a deputy to the seventh and eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He has been awarded the Order of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of Alexander Nevskii, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals.