Vershinin, Konstantin Andreyevich (June 3, 1900, the village of Borkino, Yaransk Uyezd, Vyatka Governorate — December 30, 1973) was a Soviet military commander, Chief Marshal of Aviation, Hero of the Soviet Union (1944), and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Forces of the USSR. He was a native of the territory that formed part of Vyatka Governorate (now Sanchursky District of Kirov Region).[1][2]

Early Years and the Start of Service

He was born into a peasant family. In 1911 he finished three grades of village school and from the age of eleven worked as a carpenter, a lumberjack, and a laborer at the shipyard of the Rus steamship company in the Zvenigovo backwater Volga.[2] In February 1919 he joined the RCP(b), and in June of the same year he was drafted into the Red Army.[1] In July 1920 he graduated from the Simbirsk Infantry Command Courses and was appointed a company commander.[2]

He took part in the Civil War: he commanded a company and a battalion of the 49th Rifle Regiment of the 6th Rifle Division on the Western Front, and fought against the forces of Bulak-Balakhovich in Belarus and in suppressing the Antonov rebellion in Tambov Governorate.[1][2] In 1923 he completed the Vystrel courses, after which he served in the Volga Military District as a company and battalion commander.[2]

Transition to Aviation

In 1930 he completed the first year of the M. V. Frunze Military Academy by correspondence, then was transferred to the N. E. Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, from which he graduated in July 1932.[2] He served on the staff of the 20th Aviation Brigade in Kharkiv, at the Air Force Scientific Test Institute, and commanded a squadron of the Lipetsk Higher Flight-Tactical School. In 1935 he graduated as an external student from the Kacha Military Aviation School for Pilots and received the qualification of military pilot.[1][2] In 1940, after the crash of several aircraft in difficult weather conditions, he was removed from his post and brought before a military tribunal; in September of the same year he was fully acquitted and reinstated.[2]

Great Patriotic War

From September 1941 he commanded the Air Forces of the Southern Front. In May 1942 he took charge of the 4th Air Army, with which he fought on the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian Fronts, in the Separate Coastal Army, and on the 4th Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian Fronts.[2] By decree of August 19, 1944, the commander of the 4th Air Army, Colonel General of Aviation Vershinin, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (medal No. 3869, Order of Lenin No. 19445).[2]

Postwar Career and Commemoration

After the war, Vershinin served as Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Air Force and Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and later as Inspector General of the group of inspectors general of the USSR Ministry of Defense.[1] He was awarded the rank of Chief Marshal of Aviation. He died on December 30, 1973.[2] In his memory, a tombstone monument and memorial plaques have been installed in Moscow, a bust in Kirov, a bust in the village of Bolshaya Shishovka in Sanchursky District, and a bust in a museum.[2]

The Nizhny Novgorod Connection

The village of Borkino, where Vershinin was born, was part of Yaransky Uyezd of Vyatka Governorate — a territory administratively adjacent to Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. Part of the future marshal's early working years was spent on the Volga: he worked as a carpenter at a shipbuilding yard in the Zvenigovo backwater and on timber rafting along the Bolshaya Kokshaga and Volga rivers within the Volga Region.[2]

References

  • Wikidata (Q321167 — entry in the free knowledge base)
  • VIAF (70478789 — Virtual International Authority File)
  • ISNI (0000000116675625)
  • GND (133194167 — Integrated Authority File of the German National Library)

Sources

  1. sm.evg-rumjantsev.ru — Space Memorial — K. A. Vershinin
  2. warheroes.ru — Hero of the Soviet Union Konstantin Andreyevich Vershinin — Heroes of the Country