Mikhail Karpeyev

Mikhail Polikarpovich Karpeyev (; 21 November 1922 – 7 June 2021) was an officer of the Soviet military who held a number of posts in the Soviet Air Forces, reaching the rank of colonel, and being awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Born into a peasant family in 1922, Karpeyev graduated from school shortly before the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. He had attended the local aeroclub in his youth and was in the Red Army, enrolled in the Sverdlovsk Military Aviation School for Pilots, on the outbreak of war. Quickly transferred to the frontlines as a pilot, he went on to serve in many of the most active theatres of the war for the Soviets. He was seriously injured during the siege of Leningrad, spending six months in hospital, before returning to active service. Flying the Polikarpov Po-2, and later the Ilyushin Il-2, Karpeyev rose to the rank of guards lieutenant while engaging in numerous dangerous sorties. He carried out bombing runs, attacks on military targets, aerial reconnaissance missions, and supply runs to partisans behind enemy lines. By the end of the war Karpeyev had made 310 combat sorties, destroying large quantities of enemy equipment and infrastructure. In recognition of his courage and achievements, in June 1945 he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Karpeyev remained in the Soviet military after the war, carrying out further training, and graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1952. He then worked to train future pilots at the Kachinsk Military Aviation School, and then the Kharkov Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. Retiring from the military with the rank of colonel in 1978, he settled in Kharkiv and worked as a senior engineer at the Kharkiv Tractor Plant until 1993, and continued to be active in patriotic activities, and with schools and universities. In 2005, he was appointed an honorary major general of aviation by the President of Ukraine. Karpeyev died in Kharkiv in 2021 at the age of 98. He had received numerous honours and awards over his career, and at the time of his death he was the last Hero of the Soviet Union living in Kharkiv Oblast.

Early life and career A Polikarpov Po-2. Karpeyev saw action flying these aircraft during the early part of the war. Karpeyev was born on 21 November 1922, to a Russian peasant family in the village of Yakimovo (now part of the city of Cheboksary), in Cheboksarsky Uyezd, Chuvash Autonomous Oblast, in the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. He studied at school number 4 in Cheboksary, and also attended the city's aeroclub, graduating in 1940. In October 1940, he joined the Red Army and enrolled in the Sverdlovsk Military Aviation School for Pilots, graduating in August 1941 with the rank of sergeant.

Wartime service Karpeyev first began flying sorties around Leningrad and during the siege of the city. In February 1942, he was seriously wounded during a combat mission, spending six months in hospital.

Postwar service With the end of the war, Karpeyev remained in the armed forces, travelling to Grozny in 1946 to take the advanced qualification courses for squadron commanders, and in 1952 graduated from the Air Force Academy. He had received numerous awards and honours over his long career. In addition to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and the Order of Lenin, he had received two Orders of the Red Banner, on 14 July 1944 and 19 April 1945, the Order of Alexander Nevsky on 29 April 1945, two Orders of the Patriotic War First Class, on 7 February 1945 and 11 March 1985, the Order of the Red Star, the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" Third Class, 29 medals, and the title of . His name is recorded in Kaliningrad on the memorial Heroes of the Storming of Königsberg. At the time of his death he was the last Hero of the Soviet Union living in Kharkiv Oblast.