Nikolai Lavitskiy was born on 7 December 1919 in the village of Sloboda in the Smolensk region.
He learned to fly in the Smolensk aeroclub and joined the army in December 1939.
He graduated from the Borisoglebsk Military Air College before the end of the same year.

Mladshiy leitenant Lavitskiy was posted to 270 IAP in December 1941. At this time this unit was flying Polikarpov I-153s and entered combat against the German invaders on 9 December 1942. They were part of the Transcaucasian Front.

On 20 December 1941, he claimed a Bf 109 while flying an I-153 over Feodosiya.

In January 1942, 270 IAP was transferred to the Crimean Front.

Promoted to leitenant, he was posted to 45 IAP in June 1942, flying Yak-1s, operating over the Caucasus.

He claimed a Bf 109 over Balaklava on 11 June 1942.

In October, the 45 IAP was withdrawn to re-equip with P-40 Kittyhawks and P-39 Airacobras at Ordzhonikidze, returning to action in February 1943. At this stage the regiment was transferred to the North Caucasus Front, Lavitskiy now being promoted to starshiy leitenant and given the lead of a zveno.

On 28 February 1943, a pair Ju 88s from 4./KG 51 flew a rail hunting mission on the Kuban Front from only one returned. The crew, under Oberleutnant Wilhelm Häbich, reported how they had seen Oberfeldwebel Willi Püst’s aircraft got shot down by Soviet fighters near Stavropol.
Two Kittyhawks from 45 IAP flown by starshiy leitenant Lavitskiy and starshiy serzhant Veniamin Bezbabnov claimed that they had shot down one Ju 88 each in the area. Lavitskiy reported his claim at Uspenskoye.

On 9 March, 45 IAP landed on Krasnodar airfield with seventeen Airacobras and two Kittyhawks.

Further re-equipment, this time with P-39 Airacobras, took place and the unit then flew on the South Front over Donbass.

On 18 June, 45 IAP became a guard’s unit and renamed to 100 GIAP.

On 24 August 1943, he was decorated with the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin after 185 combat missions and 66 aerial engagements.

He was appointed to CO of an eskadrilya on 1 September 1943.

In January 1944, was posted to the headquarter of 9 GIAD.

In early March 1944 a group of pilots (36 men – 3 squadrons) from the 9 GIAD was dispatched to the Caucasus to pick up and ferry back P-39s, which was arriving by Lend-Lease through Iran. Major Pavel Kryukov of the 104 GIAP was placed in command of the group.
The aircraft was to be flown from the point of issue to their airfield in Chernigov (approximately 60 miles north-east of Kiev) and Kryukov planned and maintained a route with the fewest possible landings.

On 10 March, the pilots flew in squadron-size sub-elements with Kryukov leading the first, kapitan Lavitskiy leading the second and Anatoliy Komosa leading the third. The planned flight altitude was 6560 to 9845 feet, depending on ceiling and visibility in any overcast they might encounter. A speed was selected that favoured fuel economy and radio listening silence was to be maintained.
When they approached Gudermes station, Lavitskiy suddenly called Kryukov that his engine was smoking and Kryukov ordered him to land. A few moments later Lavitskiy radioed that his engine now was on fire and his aircraft was seen burning by his squadron comrades. Kryukov again ordered him to land immediately. Lavitskiy wasn’t however able to find any suitable spot to make an emergency landing on and soon his cockpit was full of smoke which made him unable to see the ground. Kryukov now ordered him to bail out but Lavitskiy refused since now he was over the Gudermes station, which was full of men and equipment.
Lavitskiy was able to stretch the glide of his burning aircraft over the station but then began to lose altitude rapidly, went over its left wing and hit the ground at full speed. Lavitskiy was killed instantly.

At the time of his death Lavitskiy was credited with 2 biplane victories and a total of 20. These were claimed in around 250 sorties and more than 100 encounters.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	30/12/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	I-153		Fedosiya	270 IAP
	1942
2	28/03/42		1	Hs 126	Destroyed	I-153		Dzhantora	270 IAP
3	11/06/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Yak-1		Balaklava	45 IAP
4	13/06/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Yak-1		Makenziyevy Gory	45 IAP
5	16/06/42		1	Bf 110	Destroyed	Yak-1		Baydary	45 IAP
6	29/06/42		1	Ju 87	Destroyed	Yak-1		Chornaya River	45 IAP
7	29/06/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Yak-1		Zibar-Yurt	45 IAP
	1943
8	28/02/43		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		Uspenskoye	45 IAP
	19/03/43		1/2	FW 189	Shared destroyed	Kittyhawk		NW Anastasiyevskaya	45 IAP
9	22/03/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		Anastasiyevskaya - Slavyanskaya	45 IAP
10	22/03/43		1	FW 189	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		NW Anastasiyevskaya	45 IAP
11	27/03/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		S Prorva	45 IAP
12	10/04/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		Crimean	45 IAP
13	15/04/43		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		W Crimean	45 IAP
14	16/04/43		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		Crimean	45 IAP
15	26/05/43		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		SW Kiev	45 IAP
16	26/05/43		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Kittyhawk		Adagum	45 IAP
17	04/08/43		1	FW 189	Destroyed	Airacobra		S Chistyakovo	100 GIAP
	13/08/43		1/2	FW 189	Shared destroyed	Airacobra		NW Shtergres	100 GIAP
18	17/08/43		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Airacobra		Sukhaya Kamenka	100 GIAP
19	17/08/43		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Airacobra		W Krasnyy Liman	100 GIAP
20	30/09/43		1	Ju 87	Destroyed	Airacobra		Prishib	100 GIAP

Biplane victories: 2 destroyed.
TOTAL: 20 and 2 shared destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Attack of the Airacobras - Dmitriy Loza, 2002 University Press of Kansas, ISBN 0-7006-1140-1
Black Cross/Red Star Volume II - Christer Bergström and Andrey Mikhailov, 2001 Pacifica Military History, ISBN 0-935553-51-7
Black Cross/Red Star Volume 4 Stalingrad to Kuban - Christer Bergström, 2019 Vaktel Förlag, Eskistuna, ISBN 978-91-88441-21-8
Deutsche Luftwaffe Losses & Claims -series - Michael Balss
P-39 Airacobra Aces of the World War 2 - George Mellinger and John Stanaway, 2001 Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ISBN 1-84176-204-0
Sovetskiye asy - Nikolay Bodrikhin, 1998, kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Stalin's Eagles - Hans D. Seidl, 1998 Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 0-7643-0476-3
Stalin's Falcons - Tomas Polak and Christhoper Shores, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-01-2
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.