Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin was a Soviet fighter pilot in World War II, and later a marshal of aviation. He was one of the highest-scoring Soviet aces, and the highest-scoring pilot ever to fly an American aircraft, having achieved the great majority of his kills in the Lend-Lease Bell P-39 Airacobra. During the war Pokryshkin earned the title Hero of the Soviet Union three times: 24 May 1943, 24 August 1943, and 19 August 1944. After the war, he served in the Soviet Air Defense Forces, reaching the rank of Marshal of Aviation; he retired in 1981.

Marshal of the branch was from 1943 to 1974 the designation to a separate rank class in the general officer's rank group of the former Soviet Union's armed forces.