Pavlov, Ivan Fomich

Born June 25, 1922, in the village of Boris-Romanovka, Borovskoi Raion, Kustanai Oblast; died Oct. 10, 1950. Soviet pilot, major (1948). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Feb. 4, 1944, and Feb. 23, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Pavlov entered the Soviet Army in 1940. He graduated from the Chkalov Military Aviation School for Pilots in 1942 and from the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1949. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), he served from December 1942 in the army in the field as pilot, senior pilot, flight commander, deputy commander and commander of an aviation squadron, and navigator of the Sixth Guards Attack Aviation Regiment on the Kalinin, Central, and First Baltic fronts. Pavlov made more than 200 combat flights. He personally shot down three aircraft. He commanded an aviation regiment after the war. He died in the line of duty. Pavlov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, and various medals. A bust of Pavlov has been erected in the city of Kustanai.