Soviet pilots Nikolai Gerasimov and Ivan Popov next to the I-16 fighter of the Red Army Air Force.
Right – Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Semenovich Gerasimov (1911-1960). Gold Star number 114 from 23.02.1939. During the Great Patriotic War he commanded an air regiment and an air division.
In the center there is a pilot, Major Ivan Ivanovich Popov (1909-1941). In 1941 he was the commander of the 271th Fighter Aviation Regiment. He died October 14, 1941 in an aerial battle over Rostov-on-Don, was buried in a cemetery near the graves of those killed in the Finnish war.
The Nikolai Gerasimov and Ivan Popov photo was taken in the second half of 1940 or in 1941 before the war.