Photo of Red Army Air Force Captain V.I. Borodachev, Hero of the Soviet Union

The original photo is in good collector's condition. The size is 93*138mm. Guarantee of authenticity. It's rare.

Viktor Ivanovich Borodachev (1918-1968) — ace pilot, participant of the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars, commander of the aviation squadron of the 40th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (8th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 5th Fighter Aviation Corps, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front), Guards Captain, Hero of the Soviet Union (1944).

Viktor Borodachev was born on August 23, 1918, in the village of Shirokiy (now Zhirnovsky district of the Volgograd region) in a peasant family. In 1936 he graduated from the Moscow Pedagogical College. On August 5, 1936, he was drafted into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. In 1938, Borodachev graduated from the military aviation school of pilots in Orenburg. He took part in the Soviet-Finnish war. Since February 1942, he served on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. He participated in battles on the Crimean, Transcaucasian, North Caucasian, Voronezh and 1st Ukrainian fronts. In 1942, he joined the CPSU (b). He was wounded twice in aerial battles. He took part in the defense of the Kerch Peninsula, the Battle for the Caucasus, the Krasnodar operation, the Battle of Kursk, the liberation of Ukraine and the Battle for the Dnieper, the Zhytomyr-Berdichev, Proskurov-Chernivtsi, Lviv-Sandomierz operations, the capture of the Sandomierz bridgehead.

By February 1944, Guards Captain Viktor Borodachev commanded a squadron of the 40th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 8th Guards Fighter Aviation Division of the 5th Fighter Aviation Corps of the 2nd Air Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. By February 1944, Borodachev had flown 364 sorties, participated in 91 aerial battles, shot down 19 enemy aircraft personally and 5 in a group.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 1, 1944, Captain Viktor Borodachev was awarded the high title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal number 2339 for "exemplary performance of combat missions of the command at the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time."

Later he participated in the Sandomierz-Silesian, Lower Silesian, Berlin and Prague operations. During the war, he flew 552 combat missions, took part in 116 air battles, in which he personally shot down 26 aircraft and 5 in a group.

After the end of the war, he continued to serve in the Air Force, was the commander of the 192nd Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Lviv Military District in the city of Stryi. In 1950, Guard Lieutenant Colonel Borodachev graduated from the Air Force Academy, after which he served as a senior inspector-pilot of the 2nd Department of the Air Force Fighter Aviation Combat Training Directorate in Moscow. In 1960, Borodachev graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff, and was awarded the rank of Major General of Aviation. He served at the Military-Political Academy, defended the degree of Candidate of Military Sciences. Tragically died in an accident on July 11, 1968. He was buried at the Vostryakovsky cemetery in Moscow.