Sergei Prokofevich Denisov

Born Dec. 12 (25), 1909, in Rossosh’, present-day Voronezh Oblast; died June 6, 1971, in Moscow. Twice named Hero of the Soviet Union (July 4, 1937, and Mar. 21, 1940). Lieutenant general of aviation (1940). Member of the CPSU from 1930. Born into the family of a worker.

Denisov joined the Soviet Army in 1929. He graduated from military pilots school in 1931 and advanced training for command personnel in 1939. In 1936-37 he took part as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. He participated in the military operations on the Khalkin-Gol River in 1939 and in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40, during which he was commander of Seventh Army aviation. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 he was commander of the Kachin Military Aviation Pilots School and from February 1943 to February 1944 he commanded a fighter air division at the front. In February 1944 he became attached to Air Force Headquarters. He retired in 1947 because of illness. Denisov was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the first convocation. He received the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Aleksander Nevsky, the Mongolian Order of the Red Banner, and various medals.