How Nikita Khrushchev's son fought in World War II
The Soviet leader’s son didn’t sit on the home front and often found himself in the thick of the fighting.
Leonid Khrushchev tied his life with aviation back in 1933 and he was already an experienced pilot by the time the Wehrmacht invaded the USSR. During the Soviet-Finnish War, he completed more than 30 combat missions in an Ar-2 dive bomber.
In the Summer of 1941, Lieutenant Khrushchev served as a crew commander of an SB bomber in the 134th High-Speed Bomber Aviation Regiment. At that difficult time, he had to make 3-4 combat sorties a day, often without fighter cover.
On July 27, 1941, Khrushchev's plane was returning from a mission in the Pskov region, when it was attacked by a group of Luftwaffe fighters. Leonid reached his own troops and landed the riddled bomber, but badly injured his leg in the process.
“The airplane crashed, that is, it flipped over. The radio operator climbed out through his blister, navigator Blinov was killed while still in the air and Leonid hung upside down in the compressed cockpit for about an hour. With the help of mechanics, he was barely pulled out of the cabin and sent to the hospital with a severe leg fracture...” Victor Fomin, his fellow serviceman, recalled this episode.
In the Winter of 1942, Khrushchev returned to service and was awarded the ‘Order of the Red Banner’ for the courage and bravery shown in battle. However, he did not want to stay in bomber aviation and, having retrained, joined the fighter one.
Tragically, Guard Senior Lieutenant Leonid Khrushchev went missing in action on March 11, 1943, after an air battle in the Kaluga region.
