Soviet air ace, Captain Alexander Gergievich Pronin, commander of the 2nd Squadron, 124th Fighter Aviation Regiment, in the cockpit of his MiG-3 fighter aircraft at Levashovo airfield, near Leningrad. Spring 1942.

(April 23, 1917 - July 27, 1992) 

Soviet air ace Captain Pronin

Semyon Nomokonov (1900–1973) was a Soviet sniper during World War II, credited with 367 kills. An ethnic Evenk, Nomokonov was among the indigenous peoples of Russia who fought in the war. He received the nickname Taiga Shaman from the enemies. 
Nomokonov was born in a poor family of hunters and from childhood lived in taiga. Nomokonov took the rifle for the first time at the age of seven. He hunted sable, Manchurian wapiti and elk, and was nicknamed Eye of the Kite. 
Nomokonov started his military service in August 1941, initially in a subsistence farm of a regiment. Nomokonov became a sniper by chance. In the fall of 1941 he was evacuating one of the wounded, when he noticed a German, aiming at him. Nomokonov killed him with his own rifle. After that Nomokonov was transferred to a sniper platoon. He started to shoot from a Mosin–Nagant rifle without a telescopic sight. Nomokonov fought at the Valdai Heights, Karelian Isthmus, Ukraine, Lithuania, East Prussia and then in Manchuria. He initially marked the number of kills on his smoking pipe. Nomokonov was wounded eight times and suffered a blast injury twice.
As a sniper instructor, Nomokonov trained over 150 soldiers.
Nomokonov was awarded two Orders of the Red Star, Order of the Red Banner, Order of Lenin and medals.
He left nine children and 49 grandchildren.

Soviet sniper Semen Nomokonov, 1942

Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak (Лидия Владимировна Литвяк, (August 18, 1921 in Moscow – August 1, 1943 in Krasnyi Luch), also known as Lydia Litviak or Lilya Litviak, was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. With at least 12 solo victories and at least four shared kills over a total of 66 combat missions, over about two years of missions, she was the first female fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy plane, the first female fighter pilot to earn the title fighter ace, and the holder of the record for the greatest number of kills by a female fighter pilot. She was shot down near Orel during the Battle of Kursk as she attacked a formation of German planes.

She was called the "White Lily of Stalingrad" in Soviet press releases; the white lily flower may be translated from Russian as Madonna lily. She has also been called the "White Rose of Stalingrad" in Europe and North America since reports of her exploits were first published in English.