Stepan Borozenets

Stepan Nikolayevich Borozenets (20 August 1922–26 August 2016) was a Soviet Air Force colonel and a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Borozovets served as an Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack aircraft pilot during World War II, and was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for flying 94 sorties and destroying German equipment. Postwar, he went on to command a bomber aviation regiment before retiring in 1978. In 1995, he went to Chicago for medical treatment and remained in America until his death in 2016.

Early life
Borozenets was born on 20 August 1922 in Aktobe in what is now Ulan District, Kazakhstan, to a Russian peasant family. He graduated from high school and the Semipalatinsk flying club.

Postwar
As a result of landing his plane without landing gear on a railway track during World War II, Borozenets seriously injured his spine. He went to Chicago in 1995 for surgery to remove several intervertebral disc s. However, he was unable to return to Russia because his health prevented him from flying, and Borozenets' wife and son also moved to Chicago. Retaining his Russian citizenship, he applied for the 36,410 ruble cash payment Heroes of the Soviet Union were entitled to in 2006, but his application was denied because he did not live in Russia. Borozenets appealed to the Constitutional Court of Russia, but the court ruled that veterans living outside of Russia were not eligible for the payment, although it allowed for a personal exemption.