Ivan Chernikov was born in 1915.

In August 1942, leitenant Chernikov served in 926 IAP-PVO. This unit was equipped with Polikarpov I-153s.

On 23 August, I-153s from 926 IAP-PVO intercepted Ju 87s north-west of Gumrak Station. One was claimed shot down by leitenant Chernikov and a second by Petr Kopeykin. Five more were claimed as shot down as shared among seven pilots – four of these pilots were leytenant Chernikov, mladshiy leitenant Petr Ovsyannikov, mladshiy leitenant Aleksandr Shatskiy and Kopeykin.

On 30 August 1942 he claimed a Bf 109 in the Stalingrad area while using RS-82 rockets from his I-153.
His victim was a Bf 109F-4 (WNr. 13314) flown by 35-victory-ace Leutnant Heinrich Graf von Einsiedel from III/JG 3, who was shot down and taken PoW.
Von Einsiedel returned to Germany in 1950.

Chernikov was posted away from 926 IAP-PVO in September 1942 and later during the year, he was posted to 234 IAP. With this unit he flew LaGG-3s and Yak-1s.

On 30 July 1943, he didn’t return from a combat mission and was posted as missing.

At the time of his death, Chernikov was credited with 3 biplane victories and a total of 7.
During his career, he was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner (twice) and the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1942
1	23/08/42		1	Ju 87	Destroyed	I-153		NW Gumrak Station	926 IAP-PVO
	23/08/42		1/7	Ju 87	Shared destroyed	I-153		NW Gumrak Station	926 IAP-PVO
	23/08/42		1/7	Ju 87	Shared destroyed	I-153		NW Gumrak Station	926 IAP-PVO
	23/08/42		1/7	Ju 87	Shared destroyed	I-153		NW Gumrak Station	926 IAP-PVO
	23/08/42		1/7	Ju 87	Shared destroyed	I-153		NW Gumrak Station	926 IAP-PVO
	23/08/42		1/7	Ju 87	Shared destroyed	I-153		NW Gumrak Station	926 IAP-PVO
2	30/08/42		1	Ju 87	Destroyed	I-153		Bol'shaya Rossoshka	926 IAP-PVO
3	30/08/42		1	Bf 109 (a)	Destroyed	I-153		Beketovka aerodrome	926 IAP-PVO
	1942
4	25/03/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed			Krasnyy Partizan farm	234 IAP
5	24/05/43		1	Ju 87	Destroyed			Azov	234 IAP
	30/05/43		1/2	Bf 110	Shared destroyed				234 IAP
6	26/07/43		1	Ju 87	Destroyed			SW Marinovka	234 IAP
	27/07/43		1	Bf 109	Unconfirmed destroyed			Marinovka	234 IAP
7	30/07/43		1	Ju 87	Destroyed			Stepanovka	234 IAP

Biplane victories: 3 and 5 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 7 and 6 shared destroyed, 1 unconfirmed destroyed.
(a) Heinrich Graf von Einsiedel from III/JG 3shot down and PoW.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936–1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Black Cross/Red Star: Air War Over the Eastern Front by Christer Bergström
Germanskiye asy na vostochnom fronte 1 (1941-43) – Dmirtiy Khazanov kindly provided by Ondrej Repka
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.