Armenak Khanperiants – Marshal of Aviation of the USSR – Repressed and Shot

Armenak Khanperiants (Khudyakov Sergey Alexandrovich) was born on December 26, 1901, in the village of Metz Tegher, Hadrut District, Artsakh. In 1922, he graduated from the training courses for cavalry qualifications for Tbilisi commanders. In 1931-1936, he graduated from the N. Zhukovsky Air Force Academy.

From December 1917, he served as a volunteer in the Red Guard. In 1918, he took part in the defense of Baku where he would adopt the first and last name of his perished commander Sergey Khudyakov.

In the years of his service, Khanperiants has been the commander of numerous military units. In addition, he for several years served in the Air Force of Belarus as a commander of a front and a chief of staff of the Air Force headquarters in the Belorussian Military District.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Khanperiants served as the chief of staff of the Western Front of the Air Force and the chief of staff of the Soviet Air Force.

Under the command of Khamperiants, aviation associations participated in numerous battles on the Western Front. In 1943, he coordinated the actions of the air forces of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts in the battles of Kursk and Dnieper.

In 1945, as a member of the Soviet delegation, Khamperiants participated in the Yalta (Crimea) conference. As the commander of the 12th Air Force army, he contributed to the smashing of the Japanese troops in the East.

Khamperiants was a Marshal of Aviation of the Soviet Union (1944). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Lenin, and the Order of the Red Star.

In spite of his feats, Khamperiants would become a victim of the Soviet regime. He was unreasonably arrested in 1945 and accused to have been recruited as a spy by the British. After a four-year investigation, he was sentenced to execution and shot in Moscow on April 18, 1950. He would be posthumously acquitted.

References: Encyclopedia “Who is who. Armenians”, vol. I, Yerevan, 2005