Many streets, educational institutions and other organizations are named after Chkalov. Who was this person? How did he deserve such a memory of himself?
For people who are at least a little familiar with the history of their country, Valery Chkalov is, first of all, the crew commander who managed to make the first flight over the North Pole without landing. The event happened back in 1937. The course was laid from Moscow (USSR) to Vancouver (USA).
Childhood
Valery Chkalov was born on February 2 (January 20, old style) 1904 in one of the villages of the Nizhny Novgorod province. Today the village where the pilot was born is the city of Chkalovsky. His father worked as a boilermaker in government workshops. Very little is known about the mother, she died when the boy was six years old.
At the age of seven, Valery began to study at elementary school, after graduation he moved to a technical school, which now bears his name. His father sent him to study in 1916. After two years of study, he had to return home because the school was closed.
From that time on, Valery became his father's assistant. He worked as a hammerer in a forge, and later as a stoker on a dredge. At the same time, navigation is actively developing,who attracted the young man with her abilities.
Start service
Valery Chkalov made the decision to change jobs after he saw an airplane for the first time in 1919. And he went to serve in the Red Army as an aircraft fitter. Its aviation fleet was located in Nizhny Novgorod.
The young man wanted to develop further, so in 1921 he got a referral and entered the military-theoretical school of the Air Force (Egorovskaya). After graduation, in 1922 he went to the military pilot school (Borisoglebskaya). He also completed an internship at an aerobatics school in Moscow, a shooting and air combat school in Serpukhov.
In 1924, pilot Valery Chkalov was sent to the 1st separate fighter squadron in Leningrad. He was so fond of flying that he very often showed excessive audacity and courage. He was frequently banned from flying for taking excessive risks.
Besides this, the young man had problems with discipline and on the ground. In 1925, he was imprisoned for one year by a military tribunal for entering service in a drunken state and discrediting the authority of a Red Army soldier commander. Subsequently, the period was reduced to six months. Unfortunately, this experience did not give positive results, and three years later, in 1928, the military tribunal again condemned the pilot. This time, for air recklessness and repeated violations of discipline, he was sentenced to one year in prison. He was also fired from the Red Army.
Thanks to his talent, Alksnis and Voroshilov immediately began to intercede for him,who managed to replace the real punishment with a suspended one a month later. The pilot became an instructor and head of a glider school.
Test Pilot
By November 1930, Valery Chkalov was reinstated in rank, he was sent to the National Research Institute of the Air Force in Moscow. After working for two years, he managed to make more than eight hundred test flights, master the technique of piloting thirty types of aircraft.
Since 1933, Valery Chkalov's life has changed again - he was transferred to test pilots at an aircraft factory in Moscow. Here he tested various fighters and bombers. He did not leave aerial recklessness, having mastered the figure of an upward corkscrew, as well as a slow roll.
In 1935, he was awarded the Order of Lenin, along with designer Nikolai Polikarpov, for creating the best fighters. It was the highest government award.
Flight from Moscow to the Far East
The flight was supposed to show the possibilities of developing aviation. Chkalov Valery Pavlovich at the head of his crew started on 1936-20-07. The flight lasted fifty-six hours without landing until it ended up on the island of Udd (Sea of Okhotsk). During this time, more than nine thousand kilometers were overcome. In the same place, on the island, the inscription "Stalin's route" was put on board the plane. It will last until the next flight, which Chkalov's crew dreamed of most of all, namely from the USSR to the USA via the North Pole.
For a successful flight, the crew was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin. Chkalov Valery Pavlovich received a personal plane as a gift,which has survived to this day and is stored in the Chkalovsk Museum.
The importance of this flight was emphasized by the fact that Stalin personally met the crew at the Shchelkovsky airfield in August 1936. After that, Valery Pavlovich received nationwide fame throughout the Union.
Flight from the USSR to the USA
The crew initially wanted to fly from the USSR to the USA via the North Pole, but it was not immediately possible to obtain permission for this. Stalin did not want a repeat of the failure that befell Levanevsky in the summer of 1935. But after a successful flight to the Far East, permission was obtained.
The plane started on 1937-18-06 and two days later landed in Vancouver (USA). The conditions for the flight turned out to be much more difficult than expected. This was due to poor visibility, or rather, its absence, and icing. The crew covered eight and a half thousand kilometers and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Valery Chkalov, whose photo is presented in the article, was able to fulfill his plans. Despite the fact that he was elected a deputy, and Stalin offered him the post of People's Commissar of the NKVD, he did not stop doing flight tests, considering this his main job.
Death
In the winter of 1938, Valery Chkalov, whose biography is discussed in the review, was urgently recalled from vacation in connection with the testing of a new fighter. Two weeks later, the pilot died (1938-15-12) during the first flight.
According to existing information, the flight was prepared in a hurry, because they wanted to have time to do everything beforethe end of the year. Almost two hundred defects were found in the assembled aircraft. Polikarpov was against unnecessary haste. For this, he was suspended from work. The tests were first carried out on the ground, after without retracting the chassis. As a result, the go-ahead was given to fly, but only up to a height of seven thousand meters with the landing gear retracted. After that, the test machine had to go to another pilot.
On the day of the test, the air temperature was minus twenty-five degrees Celsius, but Chkalov decided to take off. The engine stopped while landing. The pilot tried to land, but the plane caught on wires on a pole. The cause of death was trauma due to hitting his head on metal fittings. After that, the pilot lived no more than two hours. He died on the way to the hospital. At this time, his wife carried their third child under her heart. She was only informed of the incident late in the evening.
Chkalov was buried in Moscow, the urn with the ashes was placed in the Kremlin wall. Some plant managers who were involved in the hasty test were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Family and children
Valery Chkalov, whose biography is the subject of our review, met his wife in his youth. They married in 1927 and soon had their first child. Olga Erazmovna was nee Orekhova, worked as a teacher.
Valery Chkalov's wife survived him by fifty-nine years. She wrote a number of works and memoirs about her husband. Olga Erazmovna lived for ninety-six years, never married again.
They had three in marriagechildren:
- Igor (1928-2006).
- Valeriya (1935-2013).
- Olga (1939).
A pilot's son
Igor Valeryevich did not become a tester, like his father. But his life was connected with aircraft - he was an Air Force engineer. He also replenished the fund of the museum dedicated to his father in Chkalovsk. Many in the interview were interested in how Valery Chkalov died. To this, the son replied that his father was eliminated due to the fact that he had a significant influence on Stalin. The son of a famous pilot was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Daughters about the death of their father
Valery Pavlovich's son was almost ten years old when the tragedy happened. He remembered his father from personal memories, even flew with him on an airplane. The daughters had no such memories. Valeria was only three years old, and Olga was born only after the death of her father.
At the same time, all the children of Valery Chkalov kept the memory of him. Regarding the death of her father, in their interviews, daughter Olga adhered to the version that everything happened due to the rush and the launch of a “raw” plane. Valeria, on the other hand, adhered to the version that her father was removed, deliberately arranging tests of a defective aircraft.
In 1938 there was a peak of repression, including in aviation, so the sisters do not see anything surprising in the fact that their father could be pushed into a deliberately dangerous flight.
Memory of a hero
Valery Chkalov (years of life - 1904-1938) was one of the most famous people of the Soviet Union. Metro stations, pioneer organizations, military squadrons were named in his honor. One of the islands in the Sea of Okhotsk was named after him.the crew landed during the flight from Moscow to the Far East, as well as the celestial body of our system (number 2692).
The city in which he was born is named after him. At that time it was the village of Vasilevo. Many settlements in Russia, Ukraine, and Tajikistan bear his name. In different cities there are busts and memorial plaques, as well as neighborhoods, avenues, streets, educational institutions that bear his name. At one time, stamps and coins dedicated to Chkalov were issued.
Biographical films about the life of a pilot were released in different years. The most modern are the series "Chkalov" (2012) and "People who made the Earth round" (2014).
Valery Pavlovich lived only thirty-four years. During this time, he graduated from several flying schools, made two most difficult flights over the North Pole, was sentenced to imprisonment twice, was expelled from the Red Army several times with subsequent restoration. He and his wife had three children who retained the memory of their father. The wife, who lived as a widow for over fifty years, never remarried, keeping the memory of her husband.
For many, he was and remains the hero of his time. This speaks of the originality of a person, of all his talents and unwillingness to live in peace, like everyone else. His life was short but eventful, and his death was tragic.
