10 Facts About Aleksandr Klubov

Aleksandr Klubov's father, who died when Aleksandr was a young child, had served on the Aurora.

Aleksandr Klubov's oldest brother Aleksey was a farmhand, but bore much of the responsibility of raising Aleksandr and his sister.

The family left Okishevo in 1931 where Aleksandr Klubov completed his first four years of school; he live in Yarunovo until 1934, after which he moved to Leningrad where he completed his schooling and began working at a steel mill.

Aleksandr Klubov went on to graduate from the Chuguev Military Aviation School in October 1940, after which he was assigned to the 84th Fighter Aviation Regiment based in Armenia; the unit used the I-153 fighter.

Aleksandr Klubov soon increased his tally of victories, but after engaging in one dogfight that resulted in gaining two shared kills of Bf 109s he was shot down.

On 4 September 1943 Aleksandr Klubov was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union for having completed 310 sorties, engaged in 84 dogfights, and personally shot down 14 enemy planes.

Aleksandr Klubov was one shootdown away from becoming an "ace-in-a-day" on 30 May 1944, since he shot down two Ju 87 and two Fw 190.

Aleksandr Klubov was detained and sent to be tried by a military tribunal, which likely would have resulted in him being sent to an infantry penal battalion with a high mortality rate, but Aleksandr Pokryshkin intervened and requested a more lenient sentence, insisting that losing a flying ace to a penal battalion would be result in many additional losses of Soviet aircraft.

Aleksandr Klubov died on 1 November 1944 after experiencing loss of control on a training flight of the new La-7 fighter.

Aleksandr Klubov was buried in the Hillov Glory in Lviv until his was reburied in the Vvedensky cemetery of Vologda in 2001.