# Stepan Mikoyan

Stepan Anastasi Mikoyan (Armenian: Ստեփան Անաստասի Միկոյան; Russian: Степан Анаста́сович Микоян; July 12, 1922, Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, TSFSR – March 24, 2017, Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet test pilot. Hero of the Soviet Union (1975). Lieutenant General of Aviation (May 7, 1980). Honored Test Pilot of the USSR (December 10, 1963). Candidate of Technical Sciences (1978). The eldest son of party and government figure Anastas Mikoyan.

## Biography

Stepan Mikoyan was born on July 12, 1922, in Tbilisi into the family of Soviet state figure, member of Politburo and future Socialist Labor Hero and Soviet Trade Minister Anastas Mikoyan. Stepan's father was a brother of renowned Soviet aircraft designer Artyom Mikoyan. Stepan had four brothers, of whom 2 including him became pilots. He grew up in the Kremlin compound,playing with Stalin's own children, and went to flying school with Stalin's son Vasily.
From August 1940 in the Red Army, together with his friend Timur Frunze entered the Kacha Military Aviation School of Pilots named after A. F. Myasnikov in Crimea in August 1940. From August 1940, he served in the combat units of the Red Army Air Forces.He graduated on September 3, 1941, in the city of Krasny Kut in the Saratov region, where the school was evacuated after the start of the Great Patriotic War. From December 1941, he fought as a fighter pilot on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, in the 8th Reserve Aviation Regiment, he retrained on the Yak-1 fighter (the regiment was stationed at the Bagai-Baranovka airfield. In 1941–1942, he served in the 11th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Moscow Air Defense. On January 16, 1942, Stepan Mikoyan's plane was mistakenly shot down by another Soviet fighter near the city of Istra in the Moscow Region. The pilot was wounded when the plane crashed. He managed to land the burning plane, after which he was taken to a medical battalion with third-degree burns to his hands, face, left leg, and right knee joint. He was treated in a hospital in Moscow. Upon returning from the hospital, he fought in the 32nd Guards Aviation Regiment near Stalingrad and on the Northwestern Front, and then in the 12th Guards Aviation Regiment of the Moscow Air Defense. In November 1942, Mikoyan was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for 14 combat sorties in December 1941, January and September 1942, Mikoyan shot down 3 air battles and 6 enemy aircraft. During the war, he mastered the Yak-1, Yak-7 and Yak-9 fighters; Stepan Mikoyan has six group victories to his credit.
From 1945 to 1951, he was a student at the engineering faculty of the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. After graduation, he worked at the 929th State Flight Test Centre named for V. P. Chkalov: test pilot, lead engineer, from 1957 - deputy head of the 1st department for flight operations, from 1958 - assistant to the head of the institute for interception systems, from 1959 head of the 1st directorate, from December 1964 - deputy head of the Air Force State Research Institute.He mastered 102 different types and modifications of aircraft, including MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-27, Su-15, Su-24, Mi-8, etc. He had a total flight time of about 3.5 thousand hours.
Stepan Mikoyan died in Moscow, 2017, at the age of 94. Mikoyan was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.

## Family

* Spouse; Mikoyan (Lozovskaya) Eleonora Petrovna (1922–2009), journalist, philologist, daughter of test pilot Pyotr Lozovsky.
* Son; Vladimir Stepanovich Mikoyan (born 1946), biophysicist.
* Daughter; Ashkhen Stepanovna Mikoyan (born 1949), philologist, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the Department of English Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov .
* Son; Alexander Stepanovich Mikoyan(born 1952), musician, race car driver.

## Filmography

* 1985 - Battle for Moscow - A. I. Mikoyan
* 1987 - The Meaning of Life
* 1989 - Stalingrad - A. I. Mikoyan
* 2007 - The Old Man and the Sky

## Published works

* Микоян С. А., Корбут А. Г. "Заход на посадку по приборам". Archived from the original on 2013-01-06. М.: Воениздат, 1979.
* Воспоминания лётчика-испытателя. - M. (in Russian). Издат. Дом "Техника-Молодежи". 2002. ISBN 5-93848-006-X.
* Степан Микоян (2006). Мы - дети войны. Воспоминания военного летчика-испытателя. Яуза. ISBN 5-699-18874-6.

## Awards

Medal of Zhukov Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War" Order of the Red Banner (23 November 1942)
Order of Lenin (3 April 1975) Four Order of the Red Star (22 August 1944, 30 December 1956, 29 April 1957, 24 November 1966) Hero of the Soviet Union, (3 April 1975) Order of the Patriotic War 1st class Medal "For Battle Merit" Medal "For the Defence of Moscow" Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad" Medal "For the Development of Virgin Lands" Medal "Veteran of Labour" Jubilee Medal "60 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR" Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow" Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR" Jubilee Medal "65 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" Merited Test Pilot of the USSR (10 December 1963) Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" Jubilee Medal "70 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"