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Yakov Ivanovich Alksnis

Yakov Ivanovich Alksnis (Astrov) [14(26).01.1897 - 07.29.1938] was Commander of the 2nd rank (1935). A Latvian, he was a Member of the CPSU (b) since September 1916. Born in January 1897 in the farm of Pakuli, Valmiera district, Livonia province, in the family of a farmer-laborer. After graduating from the village school, in 1913 he entered Valmiera Teacher's Seminary. In March 1917 he was called up for military service and soon sent to the Odessa school of ensigns, after which he served as a junior officer in the 15th Siberian reserve regiment. Participated in the creation of soldiers' committees. Soon he was sent to the Western Front, in the 7th Turkestan Division. The lowest rank in the old army was ensign.

After demobilization from the old army in January-February 1918, he worked on the executive committee of the Valmiera Soviet. From March 1918 to May 1919, he worked on the executive committee of the Bryansk Council as head of the financial department, chairman of Plenbezh, and headed the workers 'and peasants' inspection.

From May 1919 in the Red Army he was military commissar of the Oryol province, a member of the Military Council of the Oryol fortified area. From September 1919 - Commissar of the 55th Infantry Division. Participant of battles against Denikinians in the area of Zmievo, Zolotarevo, Kamenka. From January 1920 - Military Commissar of the Don Region, from March of the same year - Assistant Commander of the Oryol Military District in the operational unit. From April 1921 - in the inspection of the Red Army. From August 1921 - a student of the Red Army Military Academy. Even before graduating from the Academy, he was appointed (in April 1924) Assistant Chief of the Organizational Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters.

In August 1924 he graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army. From November 1924 - Assistant Chief of the Organizational-Mobilization Directorate of the Staff of the Red Army, from December of the same year - Chief and Commissioner of the Division of Troops of the Staff of the Red Army Since March 1925 - Head of the device unit of the Red Army. From August 1926 - Deputy Head of the Air Force of the Red Army. In 1929 he completed a course in an aviation school and received the title of a military pilot.

In July 1929, together with the pilot V. Pisarenko, made a record flight on the route Moscow-Sevastopol. Despite his high post as deputy chief of the Red Army Air Force, Alksnis managed to master the specialty of a pilot. On July 21, 1929, together with the pilot Pisarenko, he made a non-stop flight from Moscow to Sevastopol on an R-5 plane, showing an average speed of 233 km / h and overcoming 1,300 kilometers. The next day, they flew back along the same route and again without a hitch. Interestingly, at the time of the flight Alksnis still did not have the official title of a military pilot. It was given to him only in November 1929 after training in the Kachin military school of pilots. Later Alksnis repeatedly flew with checks to military units, piloting the plane independently.

In the highest echelons of the aviation authorities in 1931, there was a rearrangement of leading personnel. All aircraft factories were taken over by Ordzhonikidze. He began by persuading Voroshilov first, and then Stalin to release Baranov from the command of the Red Army Air Force, put him at the head of the First Main Directorate of the Supreme Economic Council, who was in charge of the aviation industry, and at the same time appoint the first deputy Commissar of Heavy Industry. In June 1931, instead of Baranov, his deputy Alksnis was appointed head of the Air Force.

Soviet military commanders had a high opinion of Alksnis. Leading the Air Force since 1931, he, according to Bolkhovitinov , showed a rare perseverance in complex tasks of building an air fleet, not limited to the sphere of purely military command. Alksnis paid great attention to the development of proposals for the development of aviation technology, control of its testing, the organization of long-distance flights, the introduction of military specialists in the industry. He considered it necessary to personally head the mockup commissions. This allowed him to establish direct contacts with leading specialists of aviation design bureaus. In November 1932 he made a proposal to establish the Day of Aviation with the “purpose of popularizing civil and military aviation among the masses”. SNK USSR decided to hold the celebration - August 18, annually.

Alksnis was the first, five years before the attack of fascist Germany, prophetically pointed out the danger of an aggressor’s sudden attack on airfields from the very beginning of hostilities, in order to gain undivided air superiority. In 1936, Alksnis wrote to the People's Commissar Voroshilov : "The airfields of the Air Force from the very first hours of the war are the main target of an enemy aircraft attack." The Germans confirmed the rightness of Alksnis, destroying Soviet planes on Soviet airfields in the very first hours of the war. The Germans struck the first crushing blow to Soviet aviation, finding it immobile on the airfields. Several thousand (there are no exact figures so far) of the aircraft were disabled during the first days of the war, while the losses of the Germans were insignificant. Following this, the cities, strategic centers, and ground forces were left defenseless against German aviation, which, without a fight, gained absolute air supremacy.

He did a great job of improving the organizational structure of the Air Force, equipping them with new combat equipment. One of the initiators of the deployment of OSOAVIAHIM and the training of pilots and parachutists. From January 1937 he was Deputy Commissar of Defense of the USSR for aviation. Pisarenko made a record flight on the route Moscow - Sevastopol. Many measures to improve the organizational structure of the Air Force, their technical equipment, and the organization of ultra-long flights are associated with the name of Ya.I.Alksnis. As a member of a special government commission created in 1936, Ya.I.Alksnis took an active part in organizing flights to the Arctic, the North Pole, as well as transoceanic hops V.P.Chkalov, M.M.Gromov, and others.

Member of the Military Council of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin (1933), the Red Banner (1928), the Red Star (1936), the Order of the Mongolian People's Republic (1935).

At the end of 1937, the investigating authorities of the NKVD of the USSR announced the exposure of a major conspiracy in the Red Army Air Force and the aircraft industry. The key persons in the conspiracy were the Red Army commander Viktor Alksnis, Moisei Lvovich Rukhimovich, chief of the First Main Directorate (aircraft), People's Commissariat of Defense Industry [who was arrested 15 October 1937 and shot a year later] and lead designer Andrei Tupolev, who was arrested a week later but not shot.

Alksnis was arrested on November 23, 1937 by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and charged with participation in a military conspiracy. He was arrested on charges of creating a "Latvian fascist organization" in the Red Army. During the investigation, Alksnis was beaten and tortured. Pleaded guilty, July 28, 1938 sentenced to death. Shot on July 29, 1938 at the Kommunar training ground by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court. By decision of the Military Collegium on February 1, 1956 he was rehabilitated (posthumously).