Filipp Aleksandrovich Agaltsov

Born Jan. 8 (20), 1900. Became marshal of aviation in 1962. Member of the CPSU since 1919.

Agal’tsov was born into an impoverished peasant family in the village of Soldatskoe, Tula Oblast. He worked in the Obukhov plant from 1915 to 1919, when he joined the Soviet Army to participate in the Civil War. He graduated from the Military Political School in 1925, from the Lenin Military Political Academy in 1932, and from a pilot-training course in 1934. He fought as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War in 1937–38.

First active in party political work, Agal’tsov moved to military leadership in 1940. At the start of the Great Patriotic War he commanded a bomber regiment; from 1941 to 1943 he directed a military aviation school for pilots, and from 1943 to 1945 he commanded an air attack division and the First Polish Mixed Air Corps. Agal’tsov was first deputy commander of the air force from 1949 to 1956 and for the next two years was air force inspector-general for the Chief Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defense. He was a deputy commander of the air force from 1958 to 1962, at which time he took command of long-range aviation. He 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, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of the Red Star, two Polish orders, and various medals.