Aleksandra Akimova (1922-2012) was a military pilot-navigator of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Hero of the Russian Federation.
She was born on May 5, 1922, in the village of Petrushino of the Ryazan Province.
In 1940, she entered the History Department of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. In March of 1942, she graduated from navigator courses at the Engels Military Aviation School for Pilots and was enrolled as an aviation ordnance master in the 588th Women's Light Bomber Aviation Regiment. In May of 1942, she arrived with the Regiment to join the active army on the Southern, North Caucasian and Transcaucasian fronts; she participated in the Donbass defensive operation and in the battle for the Caucasus. When at the front, Aleksandra Akimova became an aircraft armament operator and in February of 1943 she was appointed a bombardier-gunner of a U-2 aircraft crew. A little later, right in the course of the operational activity, she underwent retraining in the Regiment and became a pilot-navigator of an air flight, and in October of 1943, a pilot-navigator of an aircraft squadron. In this capacity, she was in action in the composition of the Regiment on the North Caucasian Front, in the Separate Primorskaya Army and on the 2nd Belorussian Front. She participated in the Krasnodar and Novorossiysk-Taman offensive operations, and in the Kerch-Eltigen airborne operation.
During her flight activities, from April 1943 to May 1945, Lieutenant Akimova performed 680 (or 715, according to other sources) operational sorties. She initiated over 120 seats of heavy fires, destroyed 2 crossings, eliminated with direct hits 2 ammunition warehouses, 3 anti-aircraft searchlights, 7 vehicles with fuel and neutralized 3 artillery batteries.
After the War, Akimova graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, and from 1952, she lectured at the Moscow Aviation Institute.
The Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 31, 1994, awarded senior lieutenant retired Aleksandra Akimova the title of Hero of the Russian Federation "for the courage and heroism manifested in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945".
The envelope with a commemorative stamp provides an image of the logotype of the celebration of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945; the main image features pilot-navigator Aleksandra Akimova against a U-2 aircraft.
In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced special cancels for Moscow and Ryazan.
Design Artists: A. Moskovets, R. Komsa.
Quantity: 500 thousand envelopes.
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