Photo of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain of the Air Force V.M. Chistyakov

The original wartime photograph is in very good collector's condition. The size is 50*75 mm. There are traces of pasting into the album on the back. Guarantee of authenticity.

Vasily Mikhailovich Chistyakov (1908-1984) was a Soviet pilot and navigator of long—range bomber aviation. Participant of the Great Patriotic War. Hero of the Soviet Union (1942). The colonel of the Guards. Born on February 10, 1908 in the village of Balakhtimerovo, Ustyuzhensky district, Novgorod Province of the Russian Empire (now Ustyuzhensky district, Vologda region of the Russian Federation) in a large peasant family.
In 1930, he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the maintenance squadron of the VTSIK School of Red Commanders in the Kremlin. A few months later, he was enrolled as a cadet. In 1934, after three years of study at the Tambov United Cavalry School, he was transferred from the Yeisk Military Aviation School of Naval Pilots to the navigator department. In 1935, he graduated from college and was assigned to the city of Rostov-on-Don, to a bomber regiment. He flew as a navigator in the crew of a TB-3 heavy bomber.
He met the Great Patriotic War in Smolensk, as a navigator of the 1st Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment, based near Smolensk. Participated in combat operations since June 1941. In the autumn of 1941, the regiment's pilots defended Moscow. As part of the regiment, he participated in bombing attacks on German troops in the western direction.
After the defeat of the Nazi armies near Moscow, the regiment where Chistyakov served fought at Stalingrad, on the Southern and other fronts. By January 7, 1942, Captain V.M. Chistyakov had made 150 combat sorties, 88 of them at night, bombing targets behind enemy lines, airfields and river crossings, enemy manpower and equipment, and launching landings into enemy lines.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 20, 1942, Captain Vasily Mikhailovich Chistyakov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal for exemplary performance of combat missions of the command at the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and his courage and heroism.
On New Year's Eve, 1943, intelligence reported that many German officers were gathering in one of the front-line cities to celebrate the holiday, and Chistyakov's crew received orders to bomb the enemy, which was successfully carried out. When it became known in the Hero's homeland, in the Ustyuzhensky district of the Vologda region, that their countryman had been awarded the highest state award, residents collected 139,900 rubles for a new bomber aircraft for Chistyakov in a few months, and on August 15, 1943, at the front airfield of the 194th Aviation Regiment, a new, twin-engined Li-2 aircraft with with the inscription "Ustyuzhanin" on board, it was handed over to the crew in which V.M. Chistyakov was flying.