Vasily Molokov

Vasily Sergeyevich Molokov (Russian: Васи́лий Серге́евич Мо́локов) (O.S. February 1 (N.S. February 13), 1895, settlement of Irininskoye, Moscow Governorate – 1982, Moscow) was a Soviet aircraft pilot, major general of aviation (1940), and a Hero of the Soviet Union (April 20, 1934).

Vasily Molokov enlisted in the Imperial Russian Army in 1915. He then joined the Red Army in January 1918 and took part in the Russian Civil War. In 1921, he graduated from the Naval Aviation School and then took training extension courses at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy (1929). In 1931, Vasily Molokov joined the civil aviation. In April 1934 he took part in the successful Arctic aerial rescue operation saving people from the sunken steamship Cheliuskin from an improvised airfield on the ice of the Chukchi Sea. He was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union for this deed. In 1936, Vasily Molokov performed a flight along the Soviet Arctic coast. In 1937, he participated in a North Pole expedition. In 1938, Molokov was appointed head of the Air Fleet Chief Directorate. During the German-Soviet War, he commanded an aviation division on the Western and 3rd Belorussian Fronts. In 1947, he was withdrawn to reserve.