Nelson Stepanyan

2025-05-18T05:53:48Z

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{{Short description|Soviet pilot and air force lieutenant colonel (1913–1944)}}
{{Infobox military person
|name = Nelson Stepanyan
|native_name = {{langx|hy|Նելսոն Գեւորգի Ստեփանյան}}<br>{{langx|ru|Нельсон Георгиевич Степанян}}
|native_name_lang =
|image = Нельсон Георгиевич Степанян.jpg
|image_size =
|alt =
|birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|28 March|1913|15 March}}
|birth_place = [[Shushi]], [[Elisabethpol Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1944|12|14|1913|3|28}}
|death_place = [[Liepāja]], [[Latvian SSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
|placeofburial =
|placeofburial_label =
|placeofburial_coordinates = 
|nickname = "[[Storm Petrel]] of the Baltic Sea"
|birth_name =
|allegiance = {{Flag|Soviet Union}}
|branch = [[Soviet Air Force]]
|serviceyears = 1930–1944
|rank = [[Lieutenant-Colonel]]
|servicenumber = 
|unit =
|commands = 47th Guards "[[Feodosiya|Theodosia]]" Assault Aviation Regiment
|battles =
{{tree list}}
* [[World War II]]
** [[Siege of Leningrad]]
** [[Baltic Offensive]]{{KIA}}
{{tree list/end}}
|battles_label =
|awards = [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] (twice)<ref>Stepanyan was conferred with his second Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously, on March 6, 1945.</ref>
|spouse = 
|relations =
|signature =
}}

'''Nelson Georgievich Stepanyan''' ({{langx|hy|Նելսոն Գևորգի Ստեփանյան}}, {{langx|ru|Нельсон Георгиевич Степанян}}; {{OldStyleDate|28 March|1913|15 March}} – 14 December 1944) was an [[Armenia|Armenian]] [[Ilyushin Il-2|Il-2]] pilot and regimental commander in the Soviet Air Force who was twice awarded with the title of the [[Hero of the Soviet Union]].

== Early life ==
Stepanyan was born on {{OldStyleDate|28 March|1913|15 March}} in [[Shushi]], [[Elisabethpol Governorate]] to an [[Armenians|Armenian]] family. Nelson's father Gevorg Stepanyan was originally from Yerevan, and lived in a house on what is now Yekmalyan street in Yerevan. Nelson's mother originally was from Shushi. In 1911, Gevorg temporarily moved to Shushi, then the center of Artsakh, where he ran the Shushi office of the [[Singer Corporation|Singer sewing company]]. Soon after Nelson was born, the Stepanyan family moved back to Yerevan. There Nelson attended the Transcaucasian Preparatory Military School, graduating from in 1930. He continued his studies at the [[Bataysk]] Military Aviation School, where he graduated in 1935 and became a flight instructor at the school from then until 1938.<ref name="SAE">{{in lang|hy}} s.v. Stepanyan, Nelson Gevorgi. [[Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia]]. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1985, vol. 11, p. 130.</ref>

== World War II ==
Stepanyan was teaching at another military flight academy when [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. He volunteered for combat and participated in a number of battles as a pilot of an [[Ilyushin Il-2]] [[fighter bomber]]. Stepanyan took part in defensive battles at [[Poltava]], [[Zaporozhye]], [[Odessa]], [[Kakhovka]], and [[Mykolaiv]]. During his 20th departure Stepanyan was wounded by shrapnel flak. He defended the skies over [[Leningrad]] while he as a pilot in the 2nd Aviation Squadron, part of the 57th Regiment in the [[Baltic Fleet]]'s 8th Aviation Brigade.<ref name="SAE"/> As of November 1942, Stepanyan was reported to have destroyed 78 German trucks, 67 tanks, 63 anti-aircraft guns, nineteen mortars, 36 railroad cars, twenty merchantmen and warships (including a destroyer), thirteen fuel tankers, twelve armored cars, seven long-range guns, five ammunition dumps, and five bridges.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20091101125922/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,932850,00.html What Can One Man Do?]" ''[[Time Magazine|Time]]''. November 16, 1942. Retrieved 23 May 2006.</ref> On 23 October 1942, the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]] conferred upon Stepanyan the title of [[Hero of the Soviet Union]].

After Stepanyan's promotion to the rank of major in 1943, he became the commander of the 47th Assault Aviation Regiment. With his unit, he took part in the Soviet offensives around [[Sevastopol]], [[Feodosiya|Theodosia]], and Sudak (in the [[Crimea]]); for its efforts, the 47th Regiment was given the honorific title of Theodosia.<ref>{{in lang|hy}} Khaleian, Yervand M. "Sovetakan Hayastane Hayrenakan Mets Paterazmi haghtakan avarti shrjanum" [Soviet Armenia in the Final Victorious Stage of the Great Patriotic War] in ''Hay Zhoghovrdi Patmut'yun'' [History of the Armenian People]. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1970, vol. 8, p. 126.</ref> Stepanyan was also shot down over enemy lines, although friendly partisans aided him to reach back Soviet lines. Stepanyan was called "[[Storm Petrel]] of the Baltic Sea."<ref name="SAE"/>

The 47th Regiment was sent to assist in the [[Crimean Offensive]] in April 1944. Under his command, the regiment participated in battles over Sevastopol, Feodosia, and Sudak. Stepanyan had personally sunk three landing barges in one of his first combat missions. His plane was severely damaged on 22 May. Prior to the offensive, the 47th Regiment had destroyed 8 transports, 12 barges, 9 patrol boats, and more than 3,000 soldiers and officers. In May 1944, after the liberation of Crimea, the 47th Regiment returned to the [[Baltic Sea]], where they were involved in the battles of the [[Gulf of Finland]]. On 22 July, he was awarded the [[Order of the Red Banner]].

[[File:Nelson Stepanyan bust, Stepanakert.jpg|thumbnail|Nelson Stepanyan's bust in Stepanakert]]

On his final sortie against [[Liepāja]] in western Latvia on 14 December 1944, his squadron was attacked by German fighters. His plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and though wounded, he dove his plane into a fleet of German ships.<ref name="SAE"/><ref>[German records show four transport [https://uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,95601,95601#msg-95601 SS ''Mina Cords''; SS ''Otterberg''; SS ''Clara L. M. Russ''; SS ''Erika Schunemann''] and one tanker [SS ''Inka''] vessels lost in two raids on [[Liepāja]]; [https://uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,95601,95603#msg-95603 however they do not confirm any plane hitting a ship].</ref> He died along with navigator of the 47th Regiment, Captain Aleksandr Rumiantsev. Stepanyan's loss devastated the rest of the men in the squadron. His fellow pilots sent the following letter to his parents after his death:

{{quotation|[Stepanyan was a] simple and modest man, close and beloved by all; he was a father and teacher to all of us, a friend and a commander....We all wept when Nelson Gevorgovich failed to return on that fateful day. They say that tears bring comfort. But the few tears of a soldier, like the red-hot drops of metal, burn the heart and call for vengeance.<ref>The pilots who wrote this letter were, among others, airmen Fokin, Lazarev, Klimov, Skayev, Popov, Udaltsov: Khaleian. "Sovetakan Hayastane," p. 130.</ref>}}

He was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title a second time posthumously for his sacrifice.

Soviet sources assert that Stepanyan undertook no less than 239 combat sorties, sunk 53 ships thirteen of which he did alone, destroyed 80 tanks, 600 armored vehicles, and 27 aircraft.<ref name="SAE"/>

==Memory==
[[File:Nelson Stepanyan 2013 stamp of Artsakh.jpg|thumb|Stepanyan on a 2013 stamp of [[Nagorno-Karabakh]]]]
In the [[Soviet Union]], four statues were dedicated to him: one in [[Yerevan]], the second in Liepāja, the third in [[Stepanakert]] and the last in his hometown of Shushi. The statue in [[Liepāja]] was going to be destroyed by the order of the new independent Latvian authorities, but was rescued by the Russian Navy. Located in Liepāja until the mid-1990s, it was transported to [[Kaliningrad]] and is now placed near the Baltic Fleet Naval Aviation headquarters in Kaliningrad, Russia. During the Soviet era, a large fishing trawler and [[Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union|Pioneer]] detachments were named after him.<ref name="SAE"/> Both the Soviet Union and [[Armenia]] issued postage envelopes and stamps with his image on them. On 8 May 2011, the eve of the 66th anniversary of the victory in the [[Great Patriotic War]], Stepanyan was included on a monument in [[Ulyanovsk]] dedicated to pilots who were Heroes of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite web|script-title=ru:Губернатор Ульяновской области Сергей Морозов принял участие в открытии памятника Героям Советского Союза в Ульяновском высшем авиационном училище гражданской авиации|url=http://www.aviaport.ru/digest/2011/05/10/215297.html|date=10 May 2011|publisher=Aviaport.ru|access-date=8 November 2013|language=Russian}}</ref> He also has streets named after him in [[Sevastopol]] and [[Feodosiya]] and schools named after him in [[Yerevan]] and [[Kirovabad]]. The statue in Shushi has been destroyed by the Azerbaijani government following the [[2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war]].

==Awards==
* Twice [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] (23 October 1942 and 6 March 1945)
* Two [[Order of Lenin]] (9 June 1942 and 23 October 1942)
* Three [[Order of the Red Banner]] (24 November 1941, 21 October 1942, and 26 June 1944)
* Medal "For 300,000" kilometers in the air" of the GVF (6 December 1940)
* [[Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"]]
* [[Medal "For the Defence of Odessa"]]
{{sfn|Simonov|Bodrikhin|2017|p=342}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}
===Bibliography===
* {{Cite book|title=Боевые лётчики — дважды и трижды Герои Советского Союза|last1=Simonov|first1=Andrey|authorlink=Andrey Simonov|last2=Bodrikhin|first2=Nikolai|publisher=Russian Knights Foundation and Vadim Zadorozhny Museum of Technology|year=2017|isbn=9785990960510|location=Moscow|oclc=1005741956|trans-title=Combat pilots - Twice and thrice Heroes of the Soviet Union}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Nelson Stepanyan}}
*[http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=263 biography on warheroes.ru]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020422110039/http://aces.boom.ru/all7/stepn_ng.htm Red Falcons Biography]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stepanyan, Nelson}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Shusha]]
[[Category:Soviet World War II pilots]]
[[Category:Aviators killed by being shot down]]
[[Category:Armenian people of World War II]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel killed in World War II]]
[[Category:Armenian people from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Soviet Armenians]]
[[Category:Heroes of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner]]
[[Category:Armenian aviators]]

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Nelson Stepanyan