Riazanov, Vasilii

Born Jan. 12 (25), 1901, in the settlement of Bol’shoe Kozino, now subordinate to the Balakhna city soviet, Gorky Oblast; died July 8, 1951, in Kislovodsk. Lieutenant general of aviation (1943). Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Feb. 22, 1944, and June 2, 1945). Member of the CPSU from 1920.

Riazanov joined the Red Army in 1920 and graduated from the Military Pilots’ School in 1926 and from the N. E. Zhukovskii Air Force Academy in 1935. He fought in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–40. He served in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 as deputy commander of the air forces of the Fifth Army in 1941, commander of the 76th Aviation Division in 1941–42, and commander of the maneuver group of the air forces of the Southwestern Front and commander of the Second Fighter Aviation Army in 1942. From September 1942 until the end of the war, he was commander of the I Guards Attack Aviation Corps on the Southwestern, Southern, Kalinin, Northwestern, Voronezh, Steppe, and Second and First Ukrainian fronts. He held responsible army posts after the war.

Riazanov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals and foreign orders.