An exhibition was opened in Kirov in honor of a relative of the Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation.

      In Kirov, the exhibition "The Last Battle of Captain Mashkovtsev" has opened. Its inauguration took place on Russia's State Flag Day, and the main heroes of the celebration are not official figures, but artifacts that have lain at the crash site of the attack aircraft for decades.

      The items belong to Alexander Ivanovich Mashkovtsev — a native of Kirov Oblast, a captain, and navigator of an air regiment who died weeks before Victory Day. They were handed over to the exhibition by the pilot's relatives. Among the exhibits are parts of the aircraft's instrument panel and control yoke, fragments of flight gear: epaulettes, uniform buttons, a pilot's cap, and remnants of a belt with an officer's buckle. Personal items include a comb and a smoking mouthpiece. Combat weapons are displayed separately — a TT pistol in a holster with a spare magazine and cartridges — along with a parachute.

      All these items are not museum duplicates but originals found by the search team "Conscience" in the area of the village of Listopadovka in the Kaliningrad region. Fragments of the Soviet IL-2 attack aircraft were also discovered there. Thanks to the work of the searchers, the officer's ashes were returned to his homeland and buried at the Novo-Makaryevsky cemetery in Kirov — next to the graves of his mother, brother, and sister.

      Mashkovtsev's last flight is dated April 13, 1945. 24 kilometers from Königsberg, the attack aircraft came under fire from enemy anti-aircraft artillery. The captain was steering the damaged aircraft towards the location of the Soviet troops, trying to save both the plane and the crew, but control was lost. The aircraft fell almost vertically, corkscrewing into the ground.

      The opening was attended by Oleg Mashkovtsev, the deputy representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District, who is a relative of the pilot. He thanked the museum staff for preserving the memory of the heroically fallen ancestor and noted that the exhibition allows anyone interested to feel the circumstances of that battle. Representatives of search teams and veterans of combat operations were also present at the event.

      Earlier, we reported on the return of the hero's remains to his homeland.