Photo by Senior Air Force Lieutenant N.F. Starostin, Hero of the Soviet Union

The original photograph of the TASS photojournalist is in excellent condition. The size is 82*112 mm. There are traces of pasting into the album on the back. Guarantee of authenticity.

Nikolai Fedorovich Starostin (September 13, 1920, Konstantinovsky, Yaroslavl province — May 7, 1945, Pirits district, province of Pomerania) was a navigator squadron of the 128th Kalinin Bomber Aviation Regiment, senior lieutenant. Hero of the Soviet Union (1944) He was born on September 13, 1920 in the village of the Konstantinovsky factory (now the village of Konstantinovsky in the Tutaevsky district of the Yaroslavl region). In 1935, he moved with his parents to the city of Rybinsk. He graduated from high school and the aero club here. He worked at a machine-building plant. In 1939, he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to an aviation school. In 1940, he graduated from the Krasnodar Military Aviation College, and served in a bomber regiment near the western borders of the country.

He participated in the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. The first combat mission to bomb the enemy's railway stations took place on June 22. He fought on the Kalinin, Bryansk, Central, and 1st Belorussian fronts. During the offensive near Moscow, he flew up to 5-6 sorties per day. He became a real master of bombing. In 1942, he joined the CPSU(b). He flew behind enemy lines more than 50 times and always obtained valuable data on the movement of enemy troops, on the accumulation of tanks, artillery, enemy manpower, and on his airfields. Under his leadership, aerial photography of the Rzhev bridgehead of the Germans, with its system of complex fortifications and strong points, was carried out. The intelligence data and photographs obtained by Starostin were widely used by the command in preparation for the assault on the German defense of Rzhev. By October 1943, the squadron's navigator, Senior Lieutenant Starostin, had flown 236 sorties to bombard concentrations of troops and other enemy targets. I shot down an enemy plane in an air battle.

By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On awarding the title Hero of the Soviet Union to officers of the Red Army Air Force" dated February 4, 1944, Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Fedorovich Starostin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin for "exemplary execution of command orders at the front of the struggle against the German invaders and his bravery and heroism." and Gold Star medals.

As part of his regiment, he participated in the battles for the liberation of Belarus, Poland, and stormed Berlin. By the end of the war, he had flown about 500 combat missions. He had 20 damaged tanks, an armored train, several railway trains, dozens of vehicles, artillery batteries, bunkers, and machine-gun emplacements.

He died after the end of hostilities. On May 7, 1945, while hunting in the forest (7 km from Neugrappe], now in the Pyrzyce municipality of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland) was blown up by a mine. He was buried in the city of Piritz, and later reburied at the cemetery of Soviet and Polish soldiers and prisoners of war (grave 82) on Reymont St. in Stargard.