Aleksandr Pomazunov

Aleksandr Ivanovich Pomazunov (; – 12 May 1991) was a Soviet military aviation navigator. He participated in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, and the Second World War. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1945, and had the rank of Guard Major.

Biography Aleksandr Ivanovich Pomazunov was born on in the village of , in what was then Volchansky Uyezd, Kharkov Governorate, in the Russian Empire. He was born into a poor peasant family, the son of Ivan Maksimovich and Aksenya Savelyevna Pomazunovs. He was of Ukrainian nationality. In 1916, the Pomazunov family moved to the Donbass, to the city of Brianka, where Aleksandr Pomazunov's parents got a job at the Krasnopolye mine. In 1919, the red partisan Ivan Maksimovich Pomazunov died in battle with the White Guard near the city of Luhansk. In 1920, the mother took the young Sasha to the village of , Vovchansk Raion. There she remarried, leaving her son to be raised by her brother Taras Savelyevich Perepelitsa. In 1931, Pomazunov graduated from seven classes of an incomplete secondary school in the village of Rubizhne and left for Bryanka, where he entered the mining and industrial school. But he did not like the profession of a miner. After graduating from a technical school in 1934, he entered the Kharkov State Pedagogical Institute. After three years of study, Pomazunov returned to the village Verkhniy Saltov in May 1936 and worked as a physical education instructor at the local district council of physical education before being drafted into military service.

Pomazunov was drafted into the Red Army on special recruitment in October 1936 and sent to the . Thanks to the work of Pomazunov, the navigators of the division demonstrated high combat skills, most of the navigators became snipers for bombing strikes. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, for the exemplary performance of command assignments on the front of the struggle against the German invaders and the valor and courage shown at the same time, Major Aleksandr Ivanovich Pomazunov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 27 June 1945 with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 7978).

After the war After the end of World War II, Pomazunov continued to serve in the Soviet Air Forces until 1946. After being transferred to the reserve, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Then Pomazunov worked at the M. V. Frunze Central Aerodrome as a flight controller and air traffic controller. After his retirement he moved to Kyiv. Pomazunov died on 12 May 1991. He was buried in Kyiv at the .

Awards Hero of the Soviet Union (27.06.1945) Order of Lenin (27.06.1945) Two Orders of the Red Banner (01.12.1939; 12.05.1945) Two Orders of the Patriotic War, 1st class (17.08.1944; 1985) Order of the Red Banner of Labour Order of the Red Star (04.12.1941) Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad" (December 1942)