Chief Marshal of Aviation AA. Novikov (His 100th Birthday).

The man who was destined to head the Soviet Air Force during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the most dramatic but at the same time grand period of its existence, was born in the village of Kryukovo of the Nerekhta district of the Kostroma province--Russia's heartland--November 19, 1900. He was twice Hero of the Soviet Union and Chief Marshal of Aviation Aleksandr Novikov. He went down in history as a gifted air force commander, prominent military figure, founder of new forms and methods of employment of aviation and new methods of command and control of air forces. Practically all major offensive operations of the Red Army between 1942 and 1945 bear the stamp of his talent as military commander.

Aleksandr Novikov entered military service as an ordinary Red Army man in 1919. Finishing an infantry command personnel-training curriculum he was appointed platoon commander of a replacement reserve regiment. He had his first combat experience in the Caucasus in 1922 that later helped him in his formation as a military commander.

In the early 1930s Novikov threw his lot with the air force. By that time he had graduated from the M.V. Frunze Military Academy and served as chief of the operations sections of a rifle corps. He mastered flying and flight operations in a comparatively short span of time and in 1935 he was appointed commander of a light bomber squadron.

He continued military service in Leningrad as chief of the air force staff of the Leningrad Military District and took part in the 1939-1940 Soviet-Finnish War. His able command and control of forces assigned to him and personal courage as aviation chief of staff of the district did not go unnoticed. He was promoted Major General and awarded the country's top award--the Order of Lenin.

Novikov was air force commander of the Leningrad Military District when the Great Patriotic War broke out.

The position of the Red Army's Air Force that was sustaining huge losses was made even worse by the loss of command and control of many of its elements. However, commanders who took charge and did not await instructions from their superiors and acted in accordance with the situation soon managed to prove to the adversary that the time of its easy victories was over. As early as in the first days of the war the air force of the Northern Front (Leningrad Front, as of August 1941) led by Novikov delivered a number of devastating strikes at the enemy airfields. He was directly involved in the planning and execution of what was the first in the history of the Great Patriotic War air operation (June 25-30, 1941) to weaken the opposing enemy air combat force with the participation of the air forces of the Northern Front, the Baltic, and Northern Fleets. Thirty-nine airfields on the territory of Finland and northern Norway came under intensive bombardment and cost the German Command 130 combat aircraft and it was fo rced to move its aviation back to airfields far in the interior.

Aleksandr Novikov more than once showed his ability to make correct decisions under critical situations. Preparing and holding air operations he displayed a novel approach to forms and methods of command and control. He was among the first to use radio communications to control aircrews.

In July 1941, he successfully commanded the air force of the Northwestern sector combining the efforts of the aviation of the Northern Front and the Northwestern Front, the Baltic Fleet and part of the forces of the Seventh Fighter Plane Corps of Leningrad's air defense system. During 22 days of fighting on the far approaches to the city, the combined aviation forces carried out 16,567 sorties resulting in considerable enemy casualties and losses. Combining aviation forces under a senior aviation commander in a strategic sector marked the beginning of a new form of air force command and control.

In February 1942, Novikov was appointed First Deputy to the Air Force Commander; on April 11, Commander of the Red Army Air Force--Deputy to the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR for Aviation.

Novikov's activities in this elevated position centered on a radical restructuring of the Soviet Air Force. It involved reorganization of the central Air Force administrative staff; formation of air armies that ended the dispersion of the aviation of the fronts and groups of forces; creation of aviation corps and separate divisions of the High Command Reserve. He was the first to bring in such a form of operational employment of aviation as air operation, to create a ramified system of air control centers attached to combined-arms headquarters and move them closer to the frontline. Novikov made a significant contribution to upgrading the theory and practice of combat employment of air force elements.

His wide-ranging knowledge of operational and strategic matters and his able handling of situations at the fronts earned him the lasting reputation of expert in organizing and implementing maneuvers of air forces inside the fronts and between them. His well-earned prestige positively influenced the solution of difficult problems related to the employment of air force at the fronts and he defended his points of view firmly and gave convincing arguments before the country's military and political leadership. The situation before the counteroffensive at Stalingrad is a good example. Novikov was a plenipotentiary representative of the Supreme High Command Headquarters for aviation and, as he was appraising the forces of aviation to be employed in the planned operation, he concluded that they were not equal to the mission assigned them. He communicated his findings immediately to G.K. Zhukov who was near Stalingrad. The latter communicated them to the Supreme Commander. Familiarizing himself with the Air Force Co mmander's arguments, Stalin agreed that the aviation forces were not ready for counteroffensive yet.

Novikov's further calculations enabled the Soviet aviation not only to achieve air superiority at Stalingrad but also to impose, with close cooperation with the air defense forces, an air blockade on the encircled forces of Field Marshal Paulus. Almost 1,200 enemy planes were destroyed on the ground and in the air. With regard to the amount of forces involved and content of actions of our aviation and their results, this was a veritable strategic air operation of the Soviet Air Force. Its result was exceptionally high.

The success in the battle for strategic air superiority in the battle for Stalingrad was exploited in air battles over the Kuban region. There they successfully used the experience gained in Leningrad in particular in command and control of air forces using radio communications. Thanks to skilful operation of the Air Force commander and his close aides, the courage and heroism of Soviet air crews in the skies over the Kuban region it became possible to gain operational air superiority, which later made it possible to hold a successful offensive air support operation. It was the biggest such operation of the war in the number of air battles and planes taking part in them and concentrated in the narrow area of the front. The enemy lost 1,100 planes including more than 800 that were shot down.

The Air Force commander used more innovations in further operations based on his own experience and initiative of his subordinates. The ability to correctly and promptly appraise situations, use positive experience, make imaginative decisions and take reasonable chances enabled Aleksandr Novikov to steadily upgrade the forms of operational employment of the Air Force. For example, in the course of the Korsun-Shevchenko Operation, ground-attack planes with shaped-charge bombs and light night bombers were employed against enemy tank columns. Its success exceeded all expectations. Nazi tanks went up in flames struck from the air. The Air Force commander used in the operation the experience of the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk--ground-attack planes striking at tanks and complete air blockade of the encircled enemy force. The Korsun-Shevchenko Operation went down in the history of the Great Patriotic War as a model of encircling and destroying a big enemy group of forces.

Marshal of Aviation Novikov could by right regard as one of his most brilliant operations the taking of K nigsberg. The Supreme High Command Headquarters made a decision to employ in storming the city aviation and artillery, which were to support the storming troops with a powerful preliminary bombardment and fully demoralize the defending enemy. This was the first time during the course of the Great Patriotic War that the Air Force made available to a single front three air armies of about 2,500 combat aircraft. In order to fully suppress enemy weapon assets Novikov suggested the use of heavy night bombers flying at low altitudes for strikes at the fortified positions in daylight. This was a very daring decision unprecedented anywhere else in the world, and the Air Force commander realized the tremendous responsibility he was taking on but he had no doubts of success. Back in 1944 at the time of the powerful breakthrough at the Karelian Isthmus, he used for these purposes night bombers, but only one divisio n was active at that time. Now the mission could be accomplished using the entire 18th Air Army. April 7, 1945 saw 514 heavy bombers taking off simultaneously to be later joined by tactical bombers and ground-attach aircraft. In four days, Soviet planes flew more than 14 sorties releasing at the enemy 4,440 tons of bombs making further resistance of the defending German group of forces senseless.

Aleksandr Novikov was made Hero of the Soviet Union for this operation becoming the only commander of a separate military service awarded this title in the Great Patriotic War. He also was the first in this country to be made Chief Marshal of Aviation. The United States awarded him the Medal for Merit June 24, 1944.

His military leader talent was once again in clear evidence during the course of the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation to rout Japan's Kwantung army on the territory of China, Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. It became possible with his participation to form standardized aviation divisions (bomber, ground-attack, and fighter aircraft), air armies and aviation corps. The strategic operation was brilliantly planned and executed. The air forces taking part in it scored the highest marks. Personal contribution of Chief Marshal of Aviation Novikov to the routing of militarist Japan won him a second Hero of the Soviet Union star.

As the last battles of the war were still rumbling, the Air Force commander started work on further progress of the country's military aviation. A program for the development and strengthening combat might of the Air Force was submitted to Stalin on January 16, 1946. It practically laid the foundation for further development of the Soviet Air Force and the country's aviation industry during the period of emerging East-West confrontation. It proved impossible, however, to start on the program. Postwar repressions, unfortunately, did not pass the famous military commander by. In a trumped-up case in April 1946, he was removed from his position, stripped of his rank, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. All his other decorations were taken away from him and he was finally arrested. He had to complete the "full course of Stalin's academy"--his later bitter reference to the six years of strict isolation in prison.

After Stalin's death and full rehabilitation on June 29, 1953, Novikov had his Chief Marshal of Aviation rank restored to him and he was put in charge of the long-range aviation. He also made attempts, after the long interruption, to implement his ideas on restructuring the Air Force, plans for which he formulated during the first postwar months. His concept for the development of the long-range aviation based on new jet aircraft and nuclear weapons was not given the seal of approval by the country's top military and political leadership led by Nikita Khrushchev who preferred ballistic missiles. This notwithstanding, Novikov succeeded to preserve the long-range aviation and re-equip it with strategic turboprop and jet bombers of the day. Further development of the Air Force bore out the correctness of the views of the famous military commander who thought that missiles and aircraft should supplement each other rather than cancel each other out. Today, they constitute the decisive factor of the Russian Air Fo rce's fighting strength.

The war, the years of imprisonment and subsequent strenuous work told on Novikov's health. He handed in a request to resign in 1956 but as a genuine aviator he could not do without aviation. Offered to become head of the Higher Civil Aviation School in Leningrad he accepted the offer without a moment's hesitation. Novikov devoted more than ten years of his life to training skilled managers, pilot-engineers, and air transport operation engineers drawing on his knowledge and experience in training professional personnel for civil aviation. He was made Professor for his fruitful research and teaching activities, and in 1961 he was awarded the Order of Red Banner of Labor.

Always an active man, Aleksandr Novikov died at his desk writing a book on aviation in the war, about his friends and associates.

Today, the name of Chief Marshal of Aviation A.A. Novikov takes by right a place of honor among the names of famous military leaders of the Great Patriotic War. His writings help in training new generations of Russia's aviators and top-echelon commanders of Russia's Air Forces.