Vasiliy Fedorov was born in 1921.

He graduated from Yeyskoye VMAU flight school in 1941.

In February 1942, serzhant Fedorov was posted to 71 IAP-KBF of the Baltic Sea Fleet. This regiment was still equipped with Polikarpov I-153s.

On 27 March, Finnish forces invaded Gogland. This resulted in some heavy air combats over the island. On 28 March, 2/LLv 30 flew a cap mission to Gogland at dawn with kapteeni Veikko Karu’s seven Fokkers engaging a formation of about twenty fighters flying in two groups. During a ten-minute turning fight the Finns sent down two aircraft, when the enemy planes split and began to break off. The Fokkers entered a fruitless chase. Luutnantti Veikko Sauru claimed one and one shared fighters:

“At 05:45-06:10, altitude 1,500-100m. When I observed the enemy formation I attacked directly towards those flying at the lowest height. During the approach I reached the same altitude of a formation consisting of six I-153s. I got a chance to turn into one I-153 and shooting I saw smoke puff out of the aircraft. After this vänrikk Helle stayed to follow this plane. Soon after this I shot from opposite directions at one I-153. I avoided colliding by pulling over the Chaika in the last moment. Vänrikki Mattila and kersantti Krohn, who were following this encounter saw the I-153 go in a spin and hit the deck. I fired at a few other I-153s and one I-16.
My plane FR-124.”

“At 07:00 (Moscow time) nine I-153s of 71 IAP-KBF’s commander podpolkovnik Aleksey Koronets engaged on a ground attack mission 8 km north of Gogland nine Fokkers and two Curtiss and the escort detachment made a frontal attack. In this attack Koronets was killed. The I-153s of the strike detachment joined the combat after dropping their bombs on the ice. The combat lasted for ten minutes as individual clashes, were Grigoriy Shakbaz, shot down one Fokker, but he himself did not return from the mission.”

At 07:45-08:15, altitude 2,000-10m. I flew in the top patrol with kersantti Huotari. Over the Suurkylä shore at Gogland I observed beneath me enemy fighters and we went to attack. During the combat I followed one I-153 shooting at it several time from 50m, until it suddenly flipped from 200 metres altitude to the ice. Then I chased with kersantti Huotari two I-153s to Lavansaari, Where I shot the aircraft burning on the west shore. The Russians were shooting rocket projectiles, which when exploding created a black cloud reminding an explosion of heavy flak, though a bit bigger. They exploded 100-200m ahead of my plane. I-153s had four of them under both wings.
My plane BW-364.”

“At 09:05 kapitan Solov’yev’s ten I-153 fighters of 71 IAP had just commenced the second pass of strafing the enemy troops, when four Curtiss and eight Fokkers attacked from above. The enemy was flying staggered in three altitudes: two Finnish I-153s were at 500m, the Fokkers were at 1,000m and the Curtiss were at 2,000m. The Soviet aircraft were in two groups, five planes in both the strike and escort groups. The aerial battle was fought in two altitudes, 100 and 1,000m. Two I-153s were shot down piloted by starshiy leitenant Mazurenko and serzhant Aleksander Pavlov. In addition, starshiy leitenant Vladimir Abramov made a forced landing near Seiskari with his damaged I-153 fighter.”

“When I was leading a flight of six Curtiss in protection of Gogland, I received a message 4/1 west from Seivasto. I took my flight west of Lavansaari. Then the radio informed that west of Gogland first 8, then 11 and then 10 unknown aircraft at 3,000 metres. I climbed to 3,000 m above the clouds and then saw the streaks of the aircraft at about 2,000 m and right after the 8 aircraft themselves, part I-153s and part I-16s. I carried out an attack, when I got to shoot at one I-16 three good bursts from a close range at the side and behind. The aircraft shed fragments and went down out of control. After this I fired at three I-153s from behind and aside. The I- 153, which I shot from the side and behind descended smoking, but I had to pull up again due to other I-153s. The Russians had no will for fighting and rather wanted to head to St. Petersburg and Harjavalta. I did not observe the Russian firing their m-gs, instead they shot their rocket projectiles.
I-16 is an inferior op-ponent compared with 1-153. The Chaikas did not use a turn to opposite direction for dodging, but a climbing turn to port or starboard and then straight towards St. Petersburg direction (obviously extremely low on fuel).
My plane CU-571.”

“At 18:40 twelve 71 IAP’s 1-153 fighters of kapitan Petr Biskup and six 11 IAP’s I-16 fighters had just completed the strafing of the enemy troops on the ground, when 15 Messerschmitts and 8 Fokkers attacked at 1,000 metres altitude. Serzhant Vasiliy Fedorov, who fought alone with eight Fokkers, had to make a forced landing near Lavansaari after running out of fuel. The aircraft flipped on its back without injuring the pilot. Observation points at Seiskari and Lavansaari reported three Fokkers and one PZL-24 down.”

In combat over Kronstadt on 24 April, 71 IAP-KBF claimed two Ju 88s shared among seven pilots; four of these being starshiy leitenant Vladimir Abramov, starshiy leytenant Aleksandr Baturin, Fedorov and Ivan Minayev. A third Ju 88 was claimed by leitenant Abram Ashkinazi.
Fedorov also claimed a Bf 109 shared with another pilot while Minayev claimed a Ju 87 with another pilot.
Leitenant Ashkinazi was seriously wounded in air combat.
The claims for Ju 88s can’t be verified with Luftwaffe records.

In the evening on 31 August, kapteeni Eino Luukkanen led five Brewsters of 1/LeLv 24 to a search in the Seiskari-Lavansaari area. In a clash with eight Chaikas, half of them were claimed shot down into the sea over Lavansaari. The claimants were vääpeli Eero Kinnunen (BW-382) (18:50-20:00), ylikersantti Reino Malin (BW-373) (19:50-20:00) and kapteeni Luukkanen (BW-393) (19:50-20:05). The fourth was claimed between 19:50-20:05 as a shared between luutnantti Kai Metsola (BW-375) and ylikersantti M Pellinen (BW-376).
The Soviets reported that kapitan Petr Biskup’s four I-153s from 71 IAP-KBF were patrolling over Lavanssari, when they were attacked by 12 Capronis and Fiats. RS-82 rockets were launched in the first head-on firing which split the enemy formation. The attacked then continued in pairs and also from head on. After one such enemy turn, Biskup and starshiy leitenant Aleksandr Gruzdev scored hit on one Caproni, which went into the sea. After 20 minutes of fighting 12 additional Capronis appeared on the scene and also four I-153s from 71 IAP-KBF. In repeated attacks two more Capronis were damaged with rockets and machinegun fire, and they then broke off to Someri direction. One of them could not make it and fell into the sea.
It seems that this last was claimed as a shared among at least six pilots including Biskup, Vladimir Abramov, Fedorov, Gruzdev and Ivan Minayev.

On 9 February 1943, leitenant Fedorov was killed in a flying accident.

At the time of his death, Fedorov was credited with 1 biplane victory.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1942
	28/03/42		1/?	Fokker D.XXI (a)	Shared destroyed	I-153		Gogland area	71 IAP-KBF
1	28/03/42		1	Fokker D.XXI (a)	Destroyed	I-153		Gogland area	71 IAP-KBF
	24/04/42		1/7	Ju 88 (b)	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kronstadt	71 IAP-KBF
	24/04/42		1/7	Ju 88 (b)	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kronstadt	71 IAP-KBF
	24/04/42		1/2	Bf 109	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kronstadt	71 IAP-KBF
	31/08/42	19:50-20:05	1/6	Caproni (c)	Shared destroyed	I-153		Lavensaari	71 IAP-KBF

Biplane victories: 1 and 5 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 1 and 5 shared destroyed.
(a) Claimed in combat with LLv24, LLv 30 and LLv 32, which claimed 25 fighters destroyed, 2 probables and 3 damaged during the day without losses. 71 IAP-KBF claimed 1 Brewster and 4 Fokker D.XXIs destroyed while losing (together with 11 IAP-KBF) 6 fighters.
(b) Not verified with Luftwaffe records.
(c) Claimed in combat with Brewster Buffaloes from 1/LeLv 24, which claimed 4 I-153s without losses. 71 IAP-KBF claimed 2 and 1 damaged Buffaloes without known losses.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Suomen Ilmavoimat part IV – 1942 – Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2007, ISBN 978-952-99743-2-0