Aleksandr Sergeyevich Senatorov

Aleksandr Sergeyevich Senatorov (8 October 1912 – 24 January 1993) was a commander in the Soviet armed forces.

He was born in the village of Vyshelej in Penza Oblast into a working-class family. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1938 onwards.

Senatorov trained at the Penza Aviation School of the Civil Air Fleet. He entered the Soviet Army in 1930 and graduated from the Odessa Military Aviation School in 1932. He participated in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, assisting the Republican government. As the commander of a detachment of a fast bomber squadron he bombed military targets deep in the rear of enemy lines. He personally led a group of bombers to the northern front, which landed without incident at a destroyed airfield. He completed 100 combat sorties. He was elevated to the status of a Hero of the Soviet Union on 14 Mar 1938. He graduated from the General Staff Academy’s advanced course for command personnel in 1939.

During World War II he was a Major-General of Aviation and commanded the air force of an army and then was the deputy commander of the air forces of a front. He graduated from the General Staff Academy in 1948 and retired in 1963 as a Lieutenant-General and lived in Moscow until his death. The decorations he was awarded included two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskij, 1st Class, the Order of Suvorov, 2nd Class, the Order of the Great Patriotic War, 1st Class, two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of Merit, and other medals.