Valery Chkalov Pics

Valery

Chkalov

02 February 1904

Athletic

Grey

Brown - Light

Vasilevo, Volga region, Russia

Aquarius

15 December 1938

White

Atheist

first pilot who flew from Moscow to the USA over the North Pole

Male

Pavlovich

Russian

Born in the Volga town of Vasilevo (now Chkalovsk), Valery Pavlovich Chkalov went on to become the USSR`s most famous aviator of the 1930s. Hailed as the "Greatest Pilot of Our Times" and named a Hero of the Soviet Union, Chkalov, often referred to as the "Russian Lindbergh," remains one of the Stalinist era`s greatest and best-loved celebrities. A teenaged Chkalov became an aviation mechanic during the Russian Civil War. He qualified as a pilot by the age of seventeen and joined the air force, where he gained a reputation as a skilled but overly daring flier. Chkalov`s rashness caught up with him in 1929, when he caused an accident that killed another pilot. He was reprimanded and briefly discharged. Chkalov returned to the air force in 1930 but resigned in 1933 to work as a test pilot for designer Nikolai Polikarpov. During the mid-1930s, Chkalov turned to long-distance flying and polar aviation, where he achieved his greatest renown. With Georgy Baidukov as copilot and Alexander Belyakov as navigator, Chkalov set an unofficial world record for distance flying in July 1936, by flying from Moscow to Udd Island, off the coast of Kamchatka. On June 18, 1937, the same team gained international fame by flying from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington, crossing over the North Pole along the way. This was an official world record, and even though it was broken the following month by Mikhail Gromov (who also flew to America over the North Pole), Chkalov`s bluff, hearty charm made him the most admired of "Stalin`s falcons," the hero-pilots featured so prominently in the propaganda of the 1930s. Chkalov died on December 15, 1938, testing a prototype of the Polikarpov I-180. He was given a hero`s funeral and buried in the Kremlin Wall. Rumors have persisted since Chkalov`s death that he was somehow killed on Stalin`s orders. Chkalov`s family and several prominent journalists have come out in support of this theory, but no concrete proof has emerged to link Stalin with Chkalov`s death. Actually, the tragedy infuriated Stalin. Several officials, who urged the flight, were immediately arrested. With Chkalov`s death Polikarpov`s reputation with Stalin suffered a blow from which he would never recover. But the conspiracy could take place. Chkalov, elected deputy of the Supreme Council, considered his nominal responsibilities of "servant of the Nation" too seriously. Honest man, devoted to communist ideals, Chkalov stood in the way of secret police (NKVD) trying to protect innocent people from groundless and illegal repressions in 1937-1938s. Valeri`s fame was to loud to arrest him (he had an outstanding, unique influence on Stalin), so the tragic but quite admissible death of a test pilot could be a good way out for Soviet grey eminences.

www.chkalov.org

Valeri Pavlovich Chkalov

Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (Russian: , IPA: ) (February 2, 1904 – December 15, 1938) was a Russian aircraft test pilot and a Hero of the Soviet Union (1936).

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