After his father's death, he left for Kuybyshev in August 1924 and started working in the Union of Rural Cooperatives as a watchman and porter and from April 1927 as an unqualified worker in a sausage factory.

[3] After returning to the USSR, he graduated from advanced training courses for commanding personnel at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy in 1935.

From November 1937 to April 1938, he commanded a bomber group equipped with Tupolev SB at Hankou, with 150 combat personnel, including 31 pilots and 31 navigators.

Polynin particularly distinguished himself on a mission on 23 February 1938, when he led a bombing raid of 28 bombers from his group against a Japanese airfield in Formosa.

Following his return to USSR, he was appointed senior inspector for piloting techniques of the Red Army Air Force Directorate.

[6] Following the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Polynin served as commander of the 13th Bomber Aviation Division on the Western Front.

In the most difficult conditions of the first months of the war, without proper air cover, his unit actively fought the advancing German forces in the Battles of Białystok–Minsk and Smolensk, while suffering significant losses.

From August 1941, he was appointed as the commander of the Air Force units at the Bryansk Front, during which he participated in the Roslavl–Novozybkov offensive and in the Battle of Moscow.

In February 1944, the unit was assigned to the 2nd Belorussian Front and took part in the battles of Demyansk, Starorusskaya, Nevel, Polesskaya, and Operation Bagration.

[7] In September 1944, he was transferred to the Lotnictwo Wojska Polskiego (Air Force of the Polish Army) and was appointed the commander, as one of the many Soviet officers who were to ensure that this allied formation remained loyal to communist ideals.

[8] During the war, Polynin was mentioned six times in the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin, for the successfully carrying out military operations.