Marshal of Aviation who commanded the 16th Air Army from Stalingrad to Berlin
Berlin, night of 2 May 1945. His adjutant woke him: 'Look out the window — what an illumination! The war must be over.' Outside, guns, anti-aircraft cannon, and rifles were firing into the sky — a spontaneous victory salute blazing over the defeated capital of the Reich.
A shoemaker's son who volunteered for the Red Army in 1923 and trained as a fighter pilot, Rudenko rose to become one of the great Soviet air commanders of the Second World War. From October 1942 to victory he commanded the 16th Air Army, directing air operations at Stalingrad, Kursk, Bagration, the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and the Battle of Berlin. He was made a Hero of the Soviet Union in August 1944 and Marshal of Aviation in 1955. In the postwar years he held a succession of top institutional commands (Airborne Forces, Chief of the Air Staff, Long-Range Aviation, and First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force) before serving as commandant of the Gagarin Air Force Academy, where he also held a professorship. In his final years he served in the Ministry of Defence inspectorate and published his war memoirs, Wings of Victory.
Career Timeline
- 1923Volunteered for Red Army, cadet at Kiev Aviation School
- 1927Fighter pilot, flight and squadron commander
- 1932–1941Brigade and division commander; graduated Zhukovsky Air Force Academy
- 1942Commander, 16th Air Army (Stalingrad, Kursk, Berlin)
- 1948–1949Commander, Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV)
- 1950–1953Commander, Long-Range Aviation, Deputy C-in-C Air Force
- 1953–1968Chief of the Air Staff and First Deputy C-in-C Air Force
- 1968–1973Commandant, Gagarin Air Force Academy; professor