Savitskii, Evgenii

Born Dec. 11 (24), 1910, in Novorossiisk. Soviet military commander; marshal of aviation (1961). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (May 11, 1944, and June 2, 1945). Honored Military Pilot of the USSR (1965). Member of the CPSU since 1931.

In the Soviet Army since 1929, Savitskii graduated from the Military Pilots’ School in 1932 and the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1955. In the Great Patriotic War he was with the army in the field from January 1942, serving as commander of the air forces of the Twenty-fifth Army (March-April 1942), commander of the 205th Fighter Aviation Division (May-November 1942), and commander of an aviation group of the Seventeenth Air Army (November-December 1942). From December 1942 until the end of the war, Savitskii commanded the III Fighter Aviation Corps on the Western, Voronezh, Southwestern, Stalingrad, Northern Caucasus, Southern, Fourth Ukrainian, and First and Third Byelorussian fronts. He made 216 combat flights and shot down 22 enemy aircraft personally and two in group fighting.

After the war, Savitskii held responsible positions in the air force and commanded the aviation of the National Air Defense Forces (1948). He has been deputy commander in chief of the National Air Defense Forces since 1966. He was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1961 to 1966 and a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the sixth convocation.

Savitskii has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of Kutuzov Second Class, two Orders of the Red Star, and various medals, as well as several foreign orders and medals.