Nikolay Kuznetsov

Nikolai Fyodorovich Kuznetsov (; 26 December 1916 – 5 March 2000) was a Soviet fighter pilot, flying ace, military commander and writer. A major general of aviation, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1943 for his service during the Eastern Front of the Second World War. After the war he commanded fighter and aviation training units, took part in the Korean War, and from 1963 to 1972 headed the Cosmonaut Training Center.

Early life and military service Kuznetsov was born on 26 December 1916, 13 December Old Style, in Petrograd, into a working-class family. After completing seven years of school and a factory training school, he worked as a metal turner at the M. I. Kalinin factory in Leningrad.

During the final phase of the war he served as deputy commander and inspector pilot for aerial gunnery and piloting technique in the 67th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. By May 1945 he had flown 252 combat sorties and taken part in 99 air battles.

After leaving the training center, Kuznetsov became an adviser to the chief designer of NPO Energia on military space programmes. He defended a candidate dissertation in 1963 and a doctoral dissertation in military sciences in 1974. He retired from active military service in June 1978.

Kuznetsov lived in Star City, Moscow Oblast. He died there on 5 March 2000 and was buried at Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Awards and honours Kuznetsov's decorations and honours included:

Hero of the Soviet Union – 1 May 1943 Order of Lenin – twice, 29 October 1941 and 1 May 1943 Order of the Red Banner – four times, 10 February 1942, 6 August 1944, 16 June 1945 and 30 December 1956 Order of Alexander Nevsky – 29 March 1945 Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class – 11 March 1985 Order of the Red Star – three times, 7 April 1940, 3 December 1941 and 17 May 1951 Medal "For Battle Merit" – 6 November 1945 Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad" Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" Merited Military Pilot of the USSR – 8 July 1967

In 2015 a memorial plaque honouring three pilots and Second World War veterans, Georgy Beregovoy, Nikolai Kuznetsov and Pavel Belyayev, was unveiled on a building in Star City.

Works Kuznetsov wrote several books on the Second World War and the Soviet space programme, including: