Hero of The Russian Federation - Recipients

Recipients

The majority of the early recipients of the title fell into two categories: participants in the Chechnya conflicts or cosmonauts. On some occasions, the person who was awarded the title was killed while in the course of duty, such as Major Denis Vetchinov, who was killed early in the 2008 South Ossetia War. This includes those killed in battle as well as assassinated government officials. An example of such a recipient was Akhmad Kadyrov, the former governor of Chechnya. The pro-Moscow leader was killed in a bomb attack during the 2004 Victory Day parade in the Chechen capital of Grozny. Several days after Akhmad was killed, President Vladimir Putin awarded him the title. Some time after the incident, Putin awarded Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, the same title for his work in Chechnya.

All Russian cosmonauts are awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation following their voyage into space; some may already have earned it, for example for long service as a test pilot. Cosmonauts are also awarded the title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the Russian Federation. Some recipients of the title, such as Sergey Krikalev, had also received the Soviet hero title, along with the Order of Lenin. Most of the cosmonaut double heroes were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Russia titles "for successful realization of flight and the courage and heroism shown."

Outside of those two groups, athletes and other civilian and military officials have also received the title. Notable examples include:

• Submarine captain Gennady Lyachin, of the Kursk, which sank after an explosion in 2000. Due to his heroism during the explosion and his attempts at preserving the lives of the crew, Lyachin was posthumously awarded the title, and the members of his crew were awarded with the Order of Courage.
• Athlete Larisa Lazutina was presented with the title for various medals won at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
• Athlete Alexander Karelin, was honored with the title for his Olympic success in wrestling.
• Arktika 2007 expedition members Anatoly Sagalevich, Yevgeny Chernyaev and Artur Chilingarov, who, on January 10, 2008, performed the first ever descent to the ocean bottom at the North Pole. Awarded the title "for courage and heroism showed in extremal conditions and successful completion of High-Latitude Arctic Deep-Water Expedition."
• Weapons designer Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, designer of the AK-47 assault rifle and PK machine gun. He received the honor on his 90th birthday, November 10, 2009.
• Sniper Dmitri Zaitsev, showed courage in combat, rescued 5 servicemen under heavy sniper, machine-gun and mortar fire during the Second Chechen War. Received on 3 August 2012.

The medal has been awarded posthumously approximately 340 times, primarily to people involved in the first and second wars in Chechnya. One of the more recent posthumous awards was made by President Dmitry Medvedev to Evgeny Chernyshov, the chief of the Moscow fire department on March 24, 2010. Chernyshov died March 20, 2010 saving others' lives.