Background
He was born into a Russian peasant family in the village of Boris-Romanovna in what is now Kostanay District in Kazakhstan.
He was born into a Russian peasant family in the village of Boris-Romanovna in what is now Kostanay District in Kazakhstan.
He completed a basic education and in 1940 finished 3 years of training in the Magnitogorsk Industrial Technical Academy and Magnitogorsk Aeroclub. He joined the Red Army in December 1940 and in 1942 graduated from the Chkalov Military Pilots" School in Orenburg.
He commanded both a zveno in the 6th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment, 3rd Air Army, Kalinin Front, and a squadron of the same regiment as part of the 1st Baltic Front, rising to the rank of Major. In 1931-1932 he lived in Terensai Stantsii, now in the Adamovskii District of Orenburg Oblast", moving in 1932 to the city of Magnitogorsk in Chelyabinsk Oblast". He took part in the Great Patriotic War as a pilot, flight and squadron commander on the Kalinin and Baltic Fronts.
When the news of the award reached his home area a collection was organised and funds were raised for the completion of four shturmovik aircraft, one of which was presented to Pavlov himself.
Altogether during the war he completed 237 sorties in the Ilyushin Il-2, in the course of which his crew downed one Maine-109. He suffered a concussion during these operations.
In 1949 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy and took command of the 947-th Air Assault Regiment in the Prikarpatskii Military District. He was killed in an air crash on the 12th of October 1950.
He was buried in Kostanay where a bronze bust was erected in his memory, and a street in the town was also named in his honour.
His name is eternally included in the active service list (an honour often extended to former Heroes of the Soviet Union who died whilst on active duty) and is thus inscribed in gold in the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow. Two educational institutions in Moscow and a school in his home village of Boris-Romanovna are also named after Pavlov and host exhibitions devoted to his memory.