4 February ] 1917 in the village of Khokhly, Chelyabinsky Uyezd, Orenburg Governorate, in what is now the Shumikhinsky District of Kurgan Oblast, in Russia's trans-Urals.

While in Moscow, he and fellow sergeant Ivan Kozhedub came to the attention of I. S. Soldatenko, the commander of the 240th Fighter Aviation Regiment.

After barely managing to parachute out of his burning plane he had to be taken to a field hospital due to the extent of wounds in both his feet.

There he had to repeatedly dissuade surgeons from amputating his left foot, but ended up escaping after nine days and traveling 35 km to the nearest airfield on crutches.

Between March and November 1943, he completed 144 combat sorties, gaining 23 solo and three shared victories, for which he was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

[2] He flew in a variety of major battles including the ones for a Kursk, Kharkov, Belgorod, the Dnieper, Dresden, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, and Prague.