The only female pilot who was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union star twice. Colonel of aviation, commander of a male regiment during the war of 1941-1945, aviation sports record holder. What memories remain of this great woman, Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova? How her life turned out, personal memories, memories of the war - later in the article.
Childhood
Valentina Stepanovna was born into the family of an engineer in 1909 (according to other sources in 1910). She spent her childhood in Kharkov, at her father's place of work. He loved to study technology, was the head of a power plant, and later worked in a car repair shop. He had a special craving and interest in aviation technology. Stepan Grizodubov's passion for aviation was passed on to his wife, who contributed to the Soviet aviation industry. Valentina imbibed this passionate love for airplanes with her mother's milk. Stepan was an active man,talent and skillful hands received good money, for which he built his own hangar, where he designed the aircraft. The device, according to contemporaries, he managed to build, but the plane could take off only three or four meters.
Valentina, growing up in an aviation atmosphere, was infected with a passion for flying. For the first time, she sat in the cockpit behind her father. Stepan Grizodubov eventually became interested in gliders. He managed to become one of the leaders of gliding. He took Valentina with him.
Mom believed that the girl needed a female education, she planned to send her to a music school. In her youth, Valentina Stepanovna played the piano. After studying for a short time as a musician, Grizodubova left the school and, at the behest of her heart, entered the Institute of Technology, in which the aviation circle was very useful. In the circle, they could not teach her anything new, because all her childhood she learned to fly with her father. In the head of Valentina, even then, the desire to become a pilot arose. Following her dream, she went to Penza, where there was a pilot school.
Youth
After moving, Valentina Stepanovna worked as an instructor for pilots in flight schools for several years. Later she got into the propaganda squadron. Gorky. The purpose of the squadron was to fly throughout the Soviet Union with agitation in favor of the Communist Party. The pilots of this squadron were also involved in the transfer of popular people across the territory of the Union to speak at rallies. So Valentina Stepanovna managed to visit all the major cities of the USSR and find useful contacts.
Competitions
During the period of 1920-30s. around the world there was a leap in the development of aviation. World records were set. In 1928, the American C. Lindbergh flew over the Atlantic for the first time. Five years later, female pilot Amelia Earhart tries to repeat the record. The Soviet Union considered it necessary to respond with its own achievements. In 1937, SSR pilots ventured on a USSR-USA flight for the first time. The team, consisting of pilots V. Chkalov, A. Baidukov and A. Belyakov, was accepted with equal joy both in the SSR and in the United States.
In 1938, it was planned to carry out two flights over record distances. The path ran to the Far East, landing was prohibited during the flight. Two crews were prepared for this mission: male and female. The men's room included V. Kokkinaki and A. Bryandinsky. The team was supposed to fly in the summer, and the women's group went in the fall. The difference of the second route was only that it ended earlier - in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The men's team must fly to Spassk-Dalny.
Crew
The selection for the squad that will take part in the legendary flight was strict. As a result, three were chosen: Valentina Grizodubova, Marina Raskova and Polina Osipenko. All the girls were athletes, multiple winners of competitions among women at the world level. Valentina Stepanovna was appointed commander. P. Osipenko - co-pilot, M. Raskov - navigator. For the flight, they chose the ANT-37, converted from a bomber. It was Grizodubova who initiated the most dangerousEvents. Behind her shoulders at that time there were several world records for distance and speed of flights. The aircraft itself, on which it was planned to set a record, led Grizodubova into admiration. The first aircraft in the Soviet Socialist Republic, whose landing gear was raised with the launch of one button.
M. Raskova's memories have been preserved that the majestic plane was much larger than those they had previously flown, and its wheels were the size of a human being. The hull resembled a heavy ship, and the management of this ship was entrusted to a girl - Valentina Grizodubova. The name of the car was given to match - "Motherland".
Flight
24 September 1938 the crew started from Moscow. After the capital, the plane was supposed to land in the Far East in a day. But at the reporting time, the car did not appear at the airport. After waiting for a certain set time, during which the crew did not show any signs of life, an emergency expedition was urgently assembled to search for the missing.
Later it turned out that during the flight a world record was set for the distance distance - 6450 km. Even before the start of the record flight, meteorologists warned that the weather beyond the Urals was bad, they suggested postponing the event for several weeks. But Stalin ordered to fly. Due to bad weather conditions, the plane had to be lowered in order to see the ground from under the clouds. At night, in order to navigate by the stars, the navigator had to open a frozen window and study their position in an oxygen mask. There was a temperature drop inside the aircraft, and communication withthe mission control center was interrupted. As a result, the plane ran out of fuel before the scheduled landing time.
Grizodubova had to urgently land the car right in the thicket. Due to the danger of sharp tops and tree branches damaging the front of the aircraft, where the crew navigator was, she was ordered to eject. Marina Raskova jumped out of the plane several tens of kilometers from the place where Grizodubova and Osipenko landed the car. Thanks to the skill of the crew, the plane landed on a soft swampy clearing, and there was almost no damage. Later it continued to be used.
Salvation
Nine days the girls were looking for in the deep forest. The rescue operation was carried out frantically and ineptly. As a result of the illiterate actions of the organizers, two search aircraft crashed in flight in front of Osipenko and Grizodubova. One of the dead was the winner of the men's flight distance competition, test pilot Alexander Bryandinsky. Grizodubova and Osipenko were found earlier, and the navigator had to wander around the taiga for more than a week. The girl had only a box of matches, a chocolate bar and a weapon with her. During the day, she searched for a landed plane, and at night she listened to the footsteps of bears and the barking of lynxes. Marina was lucky and found safe and sound.
On November 17, the Far East flight of the female crew of the Soviet Union led by Valentina Stepanovna was recognized as a new world record for the distance of a flight without a direct landing. For the courage shown, Grizodubova (and her entire command staff) was awarded the order and the honor of becomingthe first woman Hero of the Soviet Union.
1941-1945
As a professional and a patriot to the core, Valentina did not stand aside and defended her homeland from the Nazi invaders. She was assigned to command the 101st Aviation Regiment. It is noteworthy that Marina Raskova was given command of the women's department, and Grizodubova was given men as subordinates. This clearly demonstrates the attitude of the authorities towards this heroic woman and illustrates her strong-willed and decisive character. Raskova later fell heroically in battle.
Valentina carried out more than two hundred combat flights. A large reward was placed on the head of Colonel Grizodubova. Valentina herself recalled that throughout the war she had to repeatedly prove her worth as a pilot and as a commander. Women in the army, and even more so in the command, were treated with disdain. The subordinates loved and respected the strict but fair colonel. During the fighting, her regiment bombed the rear of the enemy, from the zones that came under fire, she managed to take out more than 4,000 children.
Intercessor
After the conclusion of peace between Germany and the USSR, Grizodubova was appointed deputy. Head of NII-17 (Instrument Engineering Institute). The first woman, Hero of the Soviet Union, personified a real communist, a standard that those in power wanted to see. She was set as an example, the relationship between Valentina Stepanovna and Stalin was very favorable. In addition to research and management activities, she was engaged in assistance. differentsensitivity, in her name, bundles of letters came to the Kremlin. On the envelopes it was written “Moscow. Kremlin. Valentina Grizodubova. The heroic woman helped to find the repressed relatives, taking into account good relations with the top authorities, she could assist in the release of prisoners.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova had a special burgundy folder. In it, she kept a list of those who managed to save. In the period from 1948 to 1951, daddy was replenished with 4767 names of those people who managed to be pulled out of the dungeons of the Gulag and returned to their relatives. One of these rescued was the famous designer - Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, whose history is widely known to the public. The first female Hero of the Soviet Union was never arrogant about her results. She only lamented that getting a person out of prison is much easier than returning him to society (finding a job and a home).
After Stalin's death
Later, since 1972, Grizodubova was appointed deputy. Head of the Moscow Research Institute of Instrument Engineering. Having worked for the good of the Motherland for many years, in 1986 she was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Thus, Valentina Stepanovna became the only woman twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately or fortunately, Valentina Stepanovna found the collapse of the USSR, she was having a hard time in recent years. She hated that the name of the leader of the peoples, Joseph Stalin, was covered in mud. Grizodubova was against the policies of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. The monument to this amazing first female Hero of the Soviet Union is installed onKutuzovsky prospect in Moscow. And the name and merits will forever remain in the history of the SSR.
Women are war heroes
The list of female Heroes of the Soviet Union, which began with a trinity of female pilots, was replenished with new names during the period of hostilities. The terrible time forced not only the stronger sex, but also many millions of women to stand up for the Motherland. During the war and a few years later, they were reluctant to talk about the heroism shown by yesterday's girls. Those who had already died for the Motherland were more often remembered. One of these Heroes of the SSR posthumously became Lyubov Grigoryevna Shevtsova. This is the name of a girl, an activist of the underground society "Young Guard". In wartime, information transmitted from behind enemy lines was an invaluable contribution to the victory on behalf of Lyubov Grigoryevna. Shevtsova was brutally tortured in captivity, she was tortured for more than a month.
A similar fate befell the famous Red Army girl to this day. Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya ended her days in captivity, at the whim of German soldiers. She became the first girl Hero to be awarded this title during the Second World War. Awarded after death.
Having given her life, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union Natalya Venediktovna Kovshova, a female sniper. On her account more than two hundred fascist soldiers. Fell in battle, along with her friend Maria Polivanova.
Those who survived preferred not to remember this harsh time. The female view of the Second World War is clearly described in the book “War does not have a female face” by Svetlana Aleksievich. The work won the Nobel Prize in 2015.
After the war
Many women who fought for their land on an equal footing with men returned to peaceful professions after the war. The fate of Baida Maria Karpovna is interesting. During the war, she served as a nurse, later as a medical instructor. In one of the battles for Sevastopol, she single-handedly de alt with fifteen enemies, freed eight soldiers and one officer. For this feat assigned to the star of the Hero. At the end of hostilities, this unique woman became the head of the registry office of the city of Sevastopol, which she so desperately defended during the war.
Elena Grigoryevna Mazanik worked as a deputy head of the library in the Byelorussian SSR. She received the title of Hero for the operation to destroy the General Commissioner of Belarus V. Cuba. He was blown up by a mine in his own bed. The device was placed there by Elena Mazanik, who worked in the house as a cleaner.
In closing
A whole list of female Heroes of the Soviet Union can be found on the Internet. And only God knows what they had to endure during the war years. The female soul is not intended for bloody times, and therefore they do not want to remember these years. Unlike men who remember unit numbers, names of generals and other paraphernalia, women remember colors, smells, words, people. An interesting fact: after the war, women front-line soldiers hated the color red.
Later, with the exploration of outer space, the first female cosmonauts were also awarded the Hero of the SSR. Savitskaya Svetlana Evgenievna became the first woman to go into outer space. She was awarded the title after Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to conquer space.
Over the past 26 years, 17 female Heroes have received the award. Their exploits in most cases are associated with past wars, both the Second World War and the Chechen ones. Their names will forever remain immortal. And one of them is Valentina Grizodubova - Hero of the Soviet Union, the first woman.
