Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sudets

Born Oct. 10 (23), 1904, in the settlement of Nizhnedneprovsk, now part of the city of Dnepropetrovsk. Soviet military commander; marshal of aviation (1955). Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 30, 1945), National Hero of Yugoslavia (1964), and Hero of the Mongolian People’s Republic (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1924.

The son of a worker, Sudets joined the Soviet Army in 1925. He graduated from the Military Technical School of the Air Force in 1927 and a school for pilots in 1929. He completed his two-year study at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1939 and graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1950.

Sudets served as a pilot, instructor, and commander of an aviation group. He fought in the Soviet-Finnish War (1939–40), as deputy commander and commander of an aviation brigade. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) he served in several posts. From June to August 1941 he was commander of the IV Long-range Bombing Aviation Corps. He was commander of the air force of the Fifty-first Army in the Crimea from August to October 1941 and in the Volga Region military district from October 1941 to June 1942. From September 1942 to March 1943 Sudets commanded the I Bombing Aviation Corps, and from March 1943 until the end of the war he commanded the 17th Air Army. He fought in battles on the Southern, Northwestern, Briansk, Voronezh, Western, Volkhov, Leningrad, Kalinin, Southwestern, and Third Ukrainian fronts.

From 1946 to 1949, Sudets served as chief of the Main Staff and deputy commander in chief of the Air Force. He later held various command positions in the Air Force. From 1955 to 1962 he was commander of Long-range Aviation, simultaneously serving as deputy commander in chief of the Air Force from 1955 to 1958. From 1962 to 1966 he served as commander in chief of the Soviet air defense forces and as deputy minister of defense of the USSR. In July 1966 he became military inspector-adviser of the Group of Inspectors General.

Sudets was a deputy to the sixth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1961 to 1966. He has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov First and Second Class, the Order of Kutuzov First and Second Class, the Order of the Red Star, and various medals. He has also been awarded orders and medals from foreign countries.