[1] During the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Sivkov was a pilot at an aviation training center on the Southern Front.

He fought on the Southern, North Caucasian, Transcaucasian and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts as well as in the battles for Donbass, Crimea, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Budapest, and Vienna.

He went on to return to the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy where after defending his thesis he headed a laboratory, became a teacher, and was a senior researcher.

In December 1972 he became the head of the flight safety department, and in 1984 he became a General-Major of Aviation shortly before retiring in 1986.

[2] In 1945 he married Yekaterina Ryabova, a Hero of the Soviet Union from the women's 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment who he had met at the warfront.