(left to right) Lydia 'Lilya' Vladimirovna Litvyak, Yekaterina Budanova and Maria Kuznetsova. 1942. Soviet military fighter pilot Lilya Litvyak, hero of the Great USSR. Lydia Litvyak, Soviet fighter pilot of the 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment during World War II. Soviet military fighter pilot Lilya Litvyak, hero of the Great Patriotic War. Litvyak was the first female fighter pilot to receive the title of fighter ace and was known as the 'White Rose of Stalingrad'. She died on August 1, 1943 at the age of 22 in the Mius-Front of the Second World War and was posthumously awarded a Hero of the Soviet Union. She was often called ¨the White Rose of Stalingrad〃, or 'White Lily'.