Ivan Belikov was born in 1916.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, mladshiy leitenant Belikov served in 12 IAP, flying Polikarpov I-153s with this unit.
12 IAP initially belonged to 64 SmAD on the South-Western Front and was equipped with both Polikarpov I-153s and I-16s.

On 9 October, the unit was pulled back to the rear due to understaffing and the need for retraining. From 2 November, they were based at Rostov-on-Don (the Transcaucasian Military District) and retrained on LaGG-3s.

12 IAP was transferred from 64 SmAD to 72 IAD on the Crimean Front on 5 December 1941.

On 26 December 1941, 12 IAP was renamed into 486 IAP and on 15 January 1942, they went back to the front as part of the 72 IAD on the Crimean Front and fully equipped with LaGG-3s.

Between 28 May and 22 August 1942, the unit was away from the front due to understaffing and was based at Morshansk (Tambov Region) as part of the Volga Military District.

486 IAP trained on LaGG-3-37 fighters at Noginsk airfield (Moscow Region) between 22 August and 5 October 1942.
On 5 October the moved to Migalov airfield, still understaffed.

Between 7 October 1942 and 17 January 1943, 486 IAP flew combat missions as part of the 106 IAD-PVO of the Bologoevsky ai defence district (from 15 November on the North-Western Front).

The regiment retrained on La-5s between January and March 1943.
In March, they became part of 279 IAD.

On 8 May 1943, they started flying combat missions on the Central Front with La-5s as part of 279 IAD.

The Central Front was renamed the Belorussian Front on 20 October 1943.

On 5 December 1943, 486 IAP left the front for additional staffing at Orel and between 12 December 1943 and 14 May 1944 they were reorganised.

As part of 279 IAD, 486 IAP was part of the Belorussian Front between 15 May and 12 August but didn’t take part in combat and in fact remained in Orel to 5 August.

On 12 August, 486 IAP started flying combat missions on the 2nd Ukrainian Front as part of 279 IAD.

In January 1945, he was posted from 486 IAP to 192 IAP where he remained until the end of the war.

Belikov ended the war with 1 biplane victory and a total of 4.
These had been claimed during 301 combat missions (as of 28 October 1944).

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	??/06/41		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	I-153		South-Western Front	12 IAP
	1942
2	09/05/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Crimean Front	486 IAP
3	12/10/42		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Bologoevsky air defense district	486 IAP
	1944
4	21/08/44		1	FW 190	Destroyed	La-5		2nd Ukrainian Front	486 IAP

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed.
TOTAL: 4 destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov