Dmitrii Borisovich Glinka

Born Nov. 27 (Dec. 10), 1917, in the village of Aleksandrov Dar, in present-day Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 21 and Aug. 24, 1943); a colonel; member of the CPSU since 1942.

Glinka comes from a miner’s family. He joined the Soviet Army in 1937 and graduated from military aviation school in 1939. Beginning in April 1942, he fought in the Great Patriotic War, in the Crimea, in the Kuban’, near Kharkov, at the Sandomierz bridgehead, near Iasi, and in Germany. He held the posts of flight commander, squadron aide-de-camp, and chief of the aerial gunners service of the 45th and 100th guards fighter aviation groups. He made approximately 300 battle flights and personally shot down 29 enemy planes. After the war he held command posts; he graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1951. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet at its second convocation. He entered the reserves in 1960. Glinka has been awarded the Order of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, two Orders of the Red Star, and medals.