Principal architect of the Soviet Air Force and aviation industry
On 2 August 1930 at Voronezh airfield, Baranov ordered the first combat drop of armed paratroopers — "demonstrate the drop of a group of armed parachutists for sabotage actions on 'enemy' territory" — the day considered the birth of the Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV).
One of the main creators of the Soviet Air Force, Baranov commanded the VVS from 1924 to 1931, building its organizational and industrial foundations. From 1932, as Deputy People's Commissar for Heavy Industry and head of the aviation industry under Ordzhonikidze, he drove the expansion of aircraft and engine production that would sustain Soviet air power through World War II. On 2 August 1930 he initiated the first combat paratrooper drop near Voronezh, the founding event of the Soviet Airborne Forces (VDV). He also signed the agreement establishing the secret Lipetsk German aviation school and backed early rocket research through GIRD as well as stratospheric balloon flights. He and his wife died in a plane crash in 1933; his ashes are interred in the Kremlin Wall.
Activities and affiliations
- 1917–1918 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1912Joined RSDLP(b); arrested and exiled from St. Petersburg 1913
- 1915–1917Mobilized into Imperial Army; arrested for revolutionary agitation, sentenced to 8 years hard labor; freed by February Revolution
- 1917–1918Chairman, front-line Soviet department, Romanian Front; commander, 4th Donetsk Army
- 1919–1921Member of RVS, 8th Army / Southern Group Eastern Front / Turkestan Front / 1st & 14th Armies; Kronstadt suppression (Order of the Red Banner)
- 1921–1922Member of RVS, Turkestan Front; led operations against the Basmachi (Khorezm Military Order)
- 1923–1924Chief & Commissar, Red Army Armored Forces; deputy chief then acting chief of Air Force
- 1924–1931Commander, Red Army Air Force (VVS); member of Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR from 1925
- 1932–1933Deputy People's Commissar for Heavy Industry; Head, Main Directorate of Aviation Industry
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarImperial Army conscriptHe was mobilized into the Imperial Army in 1915.
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionFront RVS member & army commanderHe commanded the 4th Donetsk Army and served as RVS member for the 8th Army, Southern Group of the Eastern Front, Turkestan Front, and the 1st and 14th Armies across the entire civil war; he participated in the suppression of Kronstadt in 1921, earning the Order of the Red Banner.
- 1921.03The Kronstadt RebellionParticipant in the suppressionHe took part in suppressing the Kronstadt Rebellion.
From Air Force Command to Aviation Industry
Baranov became deputy chief of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Air Force in August 1923 and served as its chief from December 1924 to June 1931. During this period he took an active part in reorganizing the air force and, from 1925 to 1931, also served on the USSR Revolutionary Military Council. In June 1931 he became a member of the presidium of the Supreme Council of the National Economy and head of the All-Union Aviation Association; in January 1932 he was appointed Deputy People's Commissar for Heavy Industry and head of the Main Directorate of the Aviation Industry. His responsibilities thus shifted from command of a military organization to administration of aircraft production.
As an aviation-industry administrator, Baranov was also involved in organizing secondary technical and higher education in aviation. One biographical account credits him with initiating the establishment of aviation institutes in Moscow, Kharkov, and Kazan, and records his support for stratospheric balloon development and research into rocket propulsion. He died in an aircraft accident on 5 September 1933.