Sergei Khudyakov Sergei Alexandrovich Khudyakov ( ; – 18 April 1950 ) , born Armenak Artem Khanferiants ( ) , was a Soviet Armenian Marshal of Aviation . Russian Revolution . Armenak Khanferiants was born in 1902 in Mets Takhlar village of Hadrut , Nagorno - Karabakh . His father died in 1908 , leaving a widow with three sons . Khanferiants travelled to Baku to study and started working at oilfields owned by Armenian tycoon and philanthropist Alexander Mantashev . In 1918 , he was involved in the production of the newspaper " Iskra " . Whilst in Baku , he joined the Bolsheviks and organized the Red Guard s of Baku in April 1918 . While he was in Astrakhan during the Russian Civil War , he was saved from drowning in a steamer sunk by a British gunboat by his friend , Sergei Khudyakov , who was later be killed fighting the Whites . Khanferiants adopted Sergei ' s name as his own as memorial to the man who saved his life . He continued to serve as a cavalry officer until 1920 . In 1929 , Khudyakov was admitted to the Tiflis Cavalry School , and in 1931 went to Moscow to attend the Zhukovskii Military Air Academy . He graduated with honors in 1936 . Khudyakov became head of the Operations Branch of the Air Staff in 1937 and Chief of Logistics Management Air Force in 1938 . World War II . The war greatly accelerated his career , and he jumped four ranks in just three years . During the Great Patriotic War ( 1941 – 1945 ) , he was chief of staff of the Air Force and commander of the Air Force of the Western Front , chief of staff of the Red Army ' s Air Force , commander of the 1st Air Army , chief of staff and deputy commander of the Red Army ' s Air Force . Aviation units under his command took part in the offensive of the Western Front forces in the Rzhev - Sychevka direction and supported the ground troops in the Rzhev - Vyazma operation . In 1943 Marshal Khudyakov coordinated combat operations of the Air Force of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts in the Battle of Kursk and the Battle for the Dnieper . During the Battle of Kursk , his 14 - year - old Victor was killed in an enemy air raid . Victor ' s body was taken to Moscow and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery . He was tasked with organizing his air flight of the Soviet delegation to the Tehran Conference in 1943 . He fulfilled his assignment of the Supreme Command . Khudyakov became chief of staff and deputy commander of the Red Army Air Force in August 1944 and coordinated air operations to complete victory in the Battle of the Dnieper . He then took part in the Iasi - Kishinev Front . In August 1944 , by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Sergei Alexandrovich , Khudyakov was given the title of Marshal . In February 1945 , he took part in the Yalta conference of The Big Three as a military adviser . Later in 1945 , he helped direct the defeat of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Far East being commander of the 12th Air Army . Arrest . On 14 December 1946 , he was arrested in Chita and taken to Moscow , where he was accused of having been recruited as a spy by the British . An investigation of the case lasted for more than four years and ended in 1949 . He was sentenced to capital punishment , execution , on 18 April 1950 and was shot on the same day at the Don Cemetery . His wife and younger son were also arrested on 13 January 1951 as members of a family traitor to the motherland , and sent to Krasnoyarsk Krai in the Taseyevsky District . In accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on 27 March 1953 , amnesty was granted to his family and they were allowed to return to Moscow from exile . Rehabilitation . After Stalin ' s death , the Supreme Soviet began a process of rehabilitation for victims of political repression . In August 1954 , in the Main Military Prosecutor ' s Office began a supervisory review of archival materials - investigation case number # 100384 of Sergei Khudyakov . The military prosecutor had concluded that the introduction of archival evidence of the case for reconsideration of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court with a proposal to revoke the sentence because of newly discovered evidence . This service document had for the first time called him by his real first and last name - Armenak Khanferiants . The retrial of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court found that the prosecution of Khudyakov - Khanferiants contained objective data . By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet , Khudyakov was rehabilitated by the court on 6 July 1965 and was posthumously restored to the military rank of Air Marshal and rights for his awards . Memory . Many books and monographs have been written about Khudyakov and many streets and avenues in the former Soviet Union are named after him . A museum of Khudyakov is located in his home village of Mets Takhlar in the Nagorno - Karabakh Republic . On 1 April 2005 , a institute of the Armenian Air Force was named after him . An envelope of the Soviet Union and a postage stamp of Armenia are both dedicated to Khudyakov .