The Air Force, or VVS as it was then called, suffered particularly badly in the Purge, and Zhigarev's three predecessors (Aleksandr Loktionov, Yakov Smushkevich, and Pavel Rychagov) were all executed in 1941 by the NKVD for perceived military failures.
Yakov Smirnoff | Yakov Smushkevich | Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich | Yakov Yakovlevich Etinger | Yakov Vilner | Yakov Peters | Yakov M. Rabkin | Yakov Malkiel | Yakov Frenkel | 3925 Tret'yakov |