Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Mavrikiy Trofimovich Slepnyov (December 27 (O.S. December 15), 1896 — December 19, 1965) was a Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 polar aviator, Hero of the Soviet Union

Hero of the Soviet Union

The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...

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Mavrikiy Slepnyov graduated from the Warrant Officer

Warrant Officer

A warrant officer is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.The rank was first...

s' School (1915), Gatchina Flying School (1917), First Higher School of Military Pilots (1923), and Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy (1936). Slepnyov took part in the First World War as a staff captain. He then participated in the Russian Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

 as a military engineer for the 25th Chapayev Rifle Division

25th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)

The 25th Rifle Division 'Chapayevskaya was a Russian, and later Soviet, Red Army formation formed during the Russian Civil War. It was named after its civil war commander, Vasily Chapayev...

. In 1925, Mavrikiy Slepnyov became a pilot of the Civil Air Fleet and took part in the exploration of the airways of Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

, Russian Far East

Russian Far East

Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...

, and the Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

. Slepnyov was awarded the title of the Fifth Hero of the Soviet Union on April 20, 1934 for the rescue of SS Chelyuskin

Chelyuskin steamship

SS Chelyuskin was a Soviet steamship reinforced to navigate through polar ice that became ice-bound in Arctic waters during navigation along the Northern Maritime Route from Murmansk to Vladivostok...

 crew from an improvised airfield on the frozen surface of the Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...

 near Kolyuchin Island

Kolyuchin Island

Kolyuchin Island or Koliuchin Island is a small island in the Chukchi Sea. It is not far from the coast, being only from the northern shore of the Chukotka Peninsula. Its latitude is 67° 28' N and its longitude 174° 37' E....

. In 1937, he was appointed Chief Inspection Head at the Civil Air Fleet and dirigible squadron commander, at the same time. In 1939, Mavrikiy Slepnyov became head of the Civil Air Fleet Academy. During the German-Soviet War, Slepnyov was a deputy commander of the Soviet Air Force

Soviet Air Force

The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily and often abbreviated VVS was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces...

 Black Sea Fleet

Black Sea Fleet

The Black Sea Fleet is a large operational-strategic sub-unit of the Russian Navy, operating in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea since the late 18th century. It is based in various harbors of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov....

 air crew (1941–1942) and then was employed by the Soviet Naval Aviation

Soviet Naval Aviation

Soviet Naval Aviation was a part of the Soviet Navy.- Origins :...

 and General Headquarters of the Soviet Navy

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

. Mavrikiy Slepnyov retired in 1946.

Mavrikiy Slepnyov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner

Order of the Red Banner

The Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...

, Order of the Red Half Moon of the Tajik SSR and numerous medals. Il-76 TD of Russian Emergency Ministry was named in his honour as well as the street in Moscow and Gatchina

Gatchina

Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov...

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