Ivan Kashirkin was born in 1915.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, serzhant Kashirkin served in 253 IAP flying Polikarpov I-153s. This unit initially served on the South-Western Front.

On 4 July, the I-153s from 253 IAP intercepted many German aircraft in the Kiev region and during the day, they made claims for three shared He 111s and three shared Bf 109s destroyed. These claims were shared among nine pilots including kapitan Vasiliy Mal’tsev, starshiy leitenant Boris Grebenkov, starshiy leitenant Semen Makeyev, leitenant Nikolay Abramchuk, leitenant Aleksandr Surkov and serzhant Kashirkin.

Kashirkin was posted away from 253 IAP to 263 IAP in October 1942.

In January 1943, he was posted to 522 IAP.

He made his last claim on 9 February 1943 when he shot down a Bf 109 during ”Operation Iskra” (12-30 January 1943).
522 IAP had been temporarily moved from the Kalinin Front to the Volkhov Front to take part in breaking the blockade of Leningrad.

He was posted from 522 IAP on 28 October 1943, when he was posted away for further officer training.

Leitenant Kashirkin was killed in a plane crash on 22 June 1944.

At the time of his death, Kashirkin was credited with 6 shared biplane victories and a total of 3.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
	04/07/41		1/9	He 111	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kiev region	253 IAP
	04/07/41		1/9	He 111	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kiev region	253 IAP
	04/07/41		1/9	He 111	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kiev region	253 IAP
	04/07/41		1/9	He Bf 109	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kiev region	253 IAP
	04/07/41		1/9	He Bf 109	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kiev region	253 IAP
	04/07/41		1/9	He Bf 109	Shared destroyed	I-153		Kiev region	253 IAP
	1942
1	05/04/42		1	He 111	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Bologoevsky air defence district	253 IAP
2	05/04/42		1	”He 113”	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Bologoevsky air defence district	253 IAP
	24/06/42		1/2	Ju 88	Shared destroyed	LaGG-3		Bologoevsky air defence district	253 IAP
	1943
	15/01/43		1/2	Bf 109	Shared destroyed	La-5		Volkhov Front - Operation Iskra	522 IAP
3	09/02/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	La-5		Volkhov Front - Operation Iskra	522 IAP

Biplane victories: 6 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 3 and 8 shared destroyed.

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