Vasiliy Kubarev was born on 30 January 1918 in the Kalinin village of Nenayedovo.

He entered the army in 1938, attending the Odessa Military Air College, where he remained as an instructor after graduating.

He later served at the Konotopsk and Armavir Military Air Colleges until 20 November 1941, when he was posted as deputy commander of an eskadrilia in the 653 IAP.

On 15 January 1942, Leitenant Kubarev claimed his first victory when he claimed a Bf 109 over the village of Vladislavovka, while flying a Polikarpov I-15bis. This claim was made by the use of RS-82 rockets and was also 653 IAPs first claim.
For this feat he was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner on 19 April 1942.

He received a second Order of the Red Banner on 6 February 1943.

On 18 March 1943, the 653 IAP became the 65 GIAP.

In 1943, Major Kubarev took part in the fighting over Kursk in July and CO of an eskadrilia in the 65 GIAP.

He claimed an FW 190 on 11 June.

On 12 July, he claimed two enemy aircraft in the Kursk area.

On one occasion, he was leading six Yaks to patrol the air space over the Oka River where they had a tussle with two gaggles consisting of four Ju 88s and eight FW 190s respectively 27 Ju 88s and 20 FW 190s.
In all, they destroyed four of the bombers and two escorts for no losses.

On 28 September 1943, he awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (# 1120) and the Order of Lenin.
In the citation of this award it is mentioned that he by August 1943 flown 114 sorties, been engaged in 53 combats and claimed 10 victories.

He received his third Order of the Red Banner on 14 October 1944.

Kubarev ended the war with 1 biplane victory and a total of 15.
These had been vlaimed in around 700 combat missions and more than 70 air combats.
During the war, he was additionally decorated with the Order of Alexandr Nevskiy (1 August 1944 and a second on an unknown date), the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class (21 July 1943 and 11 March 1985) and the Order of the Red Star (17 October 1942 and a second on an unknown date).

He continued to serve in the Air Force after the war, graduating from the Air Academy in 1951 and the General Staff Academy nine years later in 1960.

He retired in 1981, as a General Polkovnik.
During his post-war career, he had been decorated with the Order of Lenin a second time, the Order of the Red Banner (three more times for a total of six times) and the Order of the October Revolution.

After retirement, he wrote about his experiences in his book ”Atakuyut Gvardeitsy” (Guards in Attack).

Kubarev died on 17 November 2006.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1942
1	15/01/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	I-15bis		Crimea area	653 IAP
	1943
2	08/06/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		W Orel-Grazhdansky airfield	65 GIAP
3	11/06/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1			65 GIAP
4	12/07/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		Maloarchangelsk district	65 GIAP
5	12/07/43		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Yak-1		Maloarchangelsk district	65 GIAP
6	14/07/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		Maloarchangelsk district	65 GIAP
7	17/07/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		Maloarchangelsk district	65 GIAP
8	17/07/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		Maloarchangelsk district	65 GIAP
9	01/08/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1			65 GIAP
10	06/08/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		Klemenovo	65 GIAP
11	24/08/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		SW Uleml	65 GIAP
12	28/08/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-1		Bobrik	65 GIAP
	1944
13	15/08/44		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-9		W Virbalis	65 GIAP
14	15/08/44		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-9		W Virbalis	65 GIAP
15	15/09/44		1	FW 190	Destroyed	Yak-9		Dimzas	65 GIAP

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed.
TOTAL: 15 destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936–1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Russian Fighter Aces of 1914-1953 years
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Stalin's Eagles - Hans D. Seidl, 1998 Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 0-7643-0476-3
Stalin's Falcons - Tomas Polak and Christopher Shores, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-01-2
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.