Aleksandr Silantyev was born on 23 August 1918 in Jekaterinburg.

He entered the army 1938 and graduated from the Stalingrad Military Air College in 1940.

From June 1940, Leitenant Silantyev served in 153 IAP, flying Polikarpov I-153s.

In August 1941, he was posted to the 160 IAP in Leningrad to fly LaGG-3s.

He was promoted to Starshii Leitenant in October.

In November, he was given command over an eskadrilia.

On 17 December 1941, he was decorated with the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin. Around this time, he had flown 203 sorties, participated in 23 engagements and claimed 6 and 1 shared victories.

During the spring of 1942, he flew on the Volkhov Front, where he in April was shot down for the third time.

He was posted away from 160 IAP in September 1942.
From January 1943, he served in various staff positions and didn’t fly anymore combat missions. Initially he served in the Office of Fighter Aviation of the General Directorate of Combat Training of the Air Force Air Force.

Silantyev ended the war with 6 victories.
These were claimed on 218 sorties and 48 engagements.
He was also decorated with a second Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner (29 June 1942 and a second at an unknown time), the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class (25 March 1944 and 11 March 1985), the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class (2 June 1945) and the Order of the Red Star (three times).

He continued to serve after the war and graduated from the Air Academy in 1950 and in 1957 from the General Staff Academy.

From 1969 to 1978, he was a Chief of Staff, Headquarters and First Deputy Commander of the Air Force.

He was promoted to Marshal Aviatsii in 1976.

He retired in 1992.

Silantyev died on 10 March 1996.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	12/09/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Voljärvi	160 IAP
2	23/09/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	LaGG-3		W Mga	160 IAP
	30/09/41		1/4	Do 215	Shared destroyed	LaGG-3		W Mga	160 IAP
3	28/10/41		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Krapivion-Sitomlja	160 IAP
4	29/10/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Sitomlja area	160 IAP
	06/11/41		1	Balloon	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Podboryrovye	160 IAP
5	13/11/41		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Lipnaya Gorka-Shibenets	160 IAP
6	05/12/41		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	LaGG-3		Tikhvin	160 IAP
	1942
	15/03/42		1/2	Bf 109	Shared destroyed	LaGG-3		Luban	160 IAP

TOTAL: 6 and 2 shared destroyed, 1 balloon destroyed, 16 destroyed on the ground.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936–1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July-December 1941 – Christer Bergström, 2007, Chevron Publishing Limited, ISBN 978-1-85780-270-2
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
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.