Goriunov, Sergei

Goriunov, Sergei Kondrat’evich 

Born Sept. 25 (Oct. 7), 1899, in the village of Ushakovka, in present-day Atiashevo Raion, Mordovian ASSR; died Oct. 2, 1967, in Kiev. Soviet military leader, colonel general of aviation (1944), Hero of the Soviet Union (Apr. 28, 1945). Became a member of the CPSU in 1920. Son of a peasant.

In May 1918, Goriunov joined the Red Army and participated in the Civil War of 1918–20 on the Eastern Front. He completed a school for military fliers in 1924 and graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1932 and from the higher academic courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1951. From 1938 to 1941 he was commander of the air force of the Kalinin and Kharkov military districts. During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939–40 he commanded the air army. During the Great Patriotic War, he became commander in June 1941 of the air force of the Eighteenth Army and beginning in November 1941 assumed command of the air force of the Northern Caucasus Military Okrug; from May 1942 until the end of the war he commanded the Fifth Air Army on the Transcaucasian, Northern Caucasus, Steppe, and Second Ukrainian fronts. He retired in 1956. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, five Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov First and Second Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, foreign orders, and medals.