Evgenii Nikolaevich Preobrazhenskii

Born June 9 (22), 1909, in the village of Blagoveshchen’e, now in Kirillov Raion, Vologda Oblast; died Oct. 29, 1963, in Moscow. Soviet military commander, colonel general of aviation (1951). Hero of the Soviet Union (Aug. 13, 1941). Member of the CPSU from 1940. Son of a village teacher.

Preobrazhenskii joined the Soviet Army in 1927. He graduated from the Naval Aviation School in 1930 and from advanced training courses for the command staff at the Air Force Engineering Academy in 1933. In the Great Patriotic War (1941–4–5), Preobrazhenskii was commander of an air regiment and a brigade in the Baltic Fleet from 1941 to 1943. In August 1941 he participated in the first bombing attacks on military facilities in Berlin from Saaremaa Island (Estonian SSR) and then fought in the defense of Leningrad. He was chief of staff of the air force of the Northern Fleet from April 1943 to September 1944 and commander of the fleet’s air force from September 1944 to April 1945.

Preobrazhenskii was deputy commander of the air force of the Pacific Ocean Fleet in 1945–46, commander of the fleet’s air force from February 1946, and commander of the aviation of the Soviet Navy from February 1950. He became a military consultant to the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR in 1962.

Preobrazhenskii was awarded three Orders of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, various medals, and an order of the Korean People’s Democratic Republic.