The VVS commander who rebuilt a shattered force into the air armada that swept the Luftwaffe from the sky
Ahead of the Stalingrad counter-offensive, Novikov argued for a delay, insisting the air force was not ready. Zhukov and Stalin, in an unusual concession, accepted his judgment. The resulting aerial blockade destroyed over 1,200 enemy aircraft and sealed the pocket.
A village teacher's son who joined the Red Army in 1919, he transferred from infantry to aviation in 1933 and distinguished himself in the Winter War and the defence of Leningrad. Appointed C-in-C of the VVS in April 1942, he reorganized front air forces into air armies and created homogeneous aviation corps and divisions, a structural revolution that enabled massed, flexible air power. As Stavka representative he coordinated aviation at Stalingrad, Kursk, Königsberg, and Berlin, becoming the first person to hold the ranks of Marshal of Aviation (1943) and Chief Marshal of Aviation (1944). Arrested in the 1946 'aviators' affair, he was tortured into implicating Marshal Zhukov and imprisoned until Stalin's death; rehabilitated in 1953, he commanded Long Range Aviation and then headed the Higher Civil Aviation School in Leningrad for a decade.
Career Timeline
- 1919–30Red Army infantry; graduated Frunze Military Academy
- 1933–38Transferred to VVS; light bomber squadron CO; COS VVS Leningrad MD
- 1939–41Winter War; CO VVS Leningrad MD; defence of Leningrad
- 1942–46C-in-C VVS & Dep. People's Commissar of Defence for Aviation; reorganization
- 1943–44First Marshal of Aviation (1943); first Chief Marshal of Aviation (1944)
- 1945Air ops at Königsberg, Berlin, Manchuria; twice Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1946–53Arrested in aviators' affair; imprisoned; released 1952, civil aviation work
- 1953–55Rehabilitated; CO Long Range Aviation & Deputy C-in-C VVS
- 1956–66Head of Higher Civil Aviation School, Leningrad; professor
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionRed Army infantry
- 1939.11–1940.03The Winter WarCommander, Leningrad Military District Air Force
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarVVS Commander-in-Chief & Stavka representativeAppointed VVS C-in-C in April 1942, he reorganized front air forces into air armies and created homogeneous aviation corps. As Stavka representative he coordinated air power at Stalingrad, Kursk, Königsberg, Berlin, and in Manchuria. He became the first Marshal of Aviation (1943) and first Chief Marshal of Aviation (1944).