Yevsei Rudinsky
Yevsei Rudinsky was born in 1922 in the city of Konotop in Chernigov Province (present-day Sumy Oblast, Ukraine). Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the Crimea.
In 1933, Yevsei began to attend school in Alupka, but the family quickly moved again, this time to the Moscow Oblast. They settled in a labor commune, where Yevsei's parents worked as maintenance staff. This commune gave shelter to neglected children and adolescents who had found themselves in the streets.
The commune authorities emphasized sports as one of the tools for the children's social rehabilitation. For this reason, Rudinsky practiced artistic gymnastics.
In the summer of 1940, immediately after finishing high school, Yevsei Rudinsky began to attend a flight school. His studies there were cut short by the outbreak of the Soviet-German War one year later. After hurriedly passing his first-year exams, Rudinsky was sent to the Arkhangelsk District of the Soviet Air Force. For the next two years, Rudinsky underwent navigational training in the 222nd Communications Squadron, flying all over northern European Russia.
In 1943, having completed his training, Yevsei Rudinsky was sent to the front as a navigator. He flew a total of some forty combat missions, while serving in the 128th Bomber Regiment.
In the summer of 1944, Rudinsky took part in Operation Bagration in Belorussia. In the spring of 1945, he fought in the Battle of Berlin, making two sorties over the city. During his flights, Yevsei sometimes had to make emergency landings, after his aircraft had been hit and caught fire.
In the course of the war, Yevsei Rudinsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Military Valor; the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class, and some medals.
After the end of the war, he served in the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany, and later returned to Moscow. In 1954, he began to work as a technician at an all-union state research and development institute, which specialized in the mica industry. In 1982, Rudinsky retired and fully devoted himself to the Union of Veterans of the 16th Air Army. He has been active in it for the past forty years.
In the summer of 2022, Yevsei Rudinsky celebrated his 100th birthday.
