T-34-85 on the streets of Berlin, 1945

German forces near Moscow in December,1941 

Artyom Spiridonovich Pasechnik (31 December 1913 - 11 March 1940)

On March 11, 1940, 5 planes of the 44th Aviation Fighter Regiment were returning from their mission. The plane piloted by the squadron commander Priemov was hit by fire from the ground and the commander was gravely wounded. However, Priemov managed to land the damaged plane onto the ice of a small lake. He could still be seen alive.

The group was commandeered by Seniour Political Instructor Pasechnik. He bore personal responsibility for each pilot and especially for the commander who substituted one of the pilots for this mission.

Sublieutenant M.P. Turin signalled to Pasechnik asking to recover the commander from the ground and then went for a landing.

According to the late Maria Kuzminichna Pasechnik, widow of the Seniour Political Instructor Pasechnik, Mikhail Turin was not only a reliable comrade-in-arms but also a close friend of her husband. Their families were friends and they were frequent guests in each other’s houses.

While Turin was landing, the 3 remaining fighter planes formed a circle and opened machine gun fire, preventing the Finns from attacking the landing site. Turin managed to place gravely wounded Priemov onto a ski but during takeoff his plane was hit by enemy fire and nosedived.

Thus so it happened that both the commander, for whom ArtyomPasechnik was responsible in front of his army superiors, and his best friend, for whom and whose family he felt responsible personally, found themselves on the ice of that ill-fated lake at the same time. On seeing this, Seniour Political Instructor Pasechnik ordered his comrades to keep firing at the enemy and then landed in order to recover Priemov and Turin.

However, his heavily loaded plane was hit and did not manage to take off. The remaining 2 planes circled around the lake until running low on fuel and then had to leave.

The Soviet pilots fought to the last bullet. During the fight Priemov died from loss of blood. Sublieutenant Turin shot himself in order not to be captured alive. Seniour Political Instructor Pasechnik was gravely wounded and then caught unconscious by the enemy.

Yet the war was just about over. While at this nameless lake an uneven battle proceeded, the Finnish peace delegation was already in Moscow. The following day armistice was signed. For now though, this last day of war had not yet arrived.

The sight of red commissar’s stars on the sleeves of the captured pilot enraged the Finns. He was brought to and severely tortured. Across his whole body and face they carved stars. Then they tied him to his pilot’s seat and drowned him in an ice-hole. Into the same hole they threw the bodies of the hero’s two deceased comrades.

The torturers did not go unpunished for long. Seniour Political Instructor Pasechnik was loved and respected by his colleagues. An order was given to find and save the courageous pilots. In spite of the armistice, the lake around which the tragedy took place was recaptured, and the executioners were caught. They admitted to their crimes and were duly punished.

The bodies of Seniour Political Instructor Pasechnik, commander Priemov and sublieutenant Turin were recovered from the lake, brought to the military unit at the aerodrome close to Gorelovo station in the Leningrad Region, and buried with full military honours.

The hero’s widow Maria Kuzminichna Pasechnik remembered how, at the funeral, her little son said: “Papa seems alive but full of stars”.

On 7th April 1940 Seniour Political Instructor Artyom Spiridonovich Pasechnik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. A street and a secondary school in Gorelovo were named in his honour.
