A beautiful legend about a flight under the Leningrad bridge of Equality is associated with the name of Valery Chkalov. There is no documentary evidence that the flight actually took place. Meanwhile, a woman lives in St. Petersburg who claims that this is not just an urban legend.
She personally knew the one for whom Chkalov decided on an extravagant act.
“He didn’t fly with me ...”
Opponents of the romantic legend about Valery Chkalov's flight under the Equality Bridge (later - Kirovsky, now - Trinity Bridge) literally decomposed the life of a pilot in the 20s into days and came to the conclusion: if he really flew under the bridge, then this could only happen before 1925 of the year. But in Chkalov's personal file, not a single reprimand on this episode was recorded. In addition, there was not a single witness to the flight, although it took place in broad daylight. There is a version that the flight under the bridge was invented in a smoking room during the filming of the film "Valery Chkalov", when they puzzled over a love line. Director Mikhail Kalatozov allegedly liked the story and wrote it into the script. Even the widow of Chkalova Olga Erazmovna invariably answered the questions of the curious: “He didn’t fly with me ...”
She didn't really fly with her. But before meeting his future wife, there was another girl in Chkalov's life - also Olga. She was born into a large family - she had three more sisters and four brothers. Mom Tatyana Iosifovna was a housewife, father Ivan Alexandrovich worked in a bank as a small employee.
The Alexandrovs lived in poverty.
“My husband Georgy, who was Olga’s brother, told me how he walked along the porch and asked the neighbors for money for food,” recalls Nadezhda Nikolaevna, Olga Alexandrova’s daughter-in-law. - So that the children could feed themselves in the future, my future father-in-law instilled in them a love for manual labor: the girls sewed, and the guys repaired shoes.
In the home archive of Nadezhda Nikolaevna, there is only one photograph in which her husband's family is almost completely assembled: smiling brothers, pretty sisters. It is not surprising that the girls had no end to the suitors.
“The girls liked to walk together along Nevsky Prospekt,” says Nadezhda Alexandrova. - Young people often approached them, they wanted to get to know each other. One day, at the Tuchkov Bridge, Olga met Chkalov. Then he was still an ordinary pilot.
"You are not a hero!"
Valery Chkalov became a frequent visitor to the Alexandrovs' apartment. If the family sat down at the table, Valery was certainly invited to dinner. Olya's mother stood at the stove for hours to feed such a crowd - Nadezhda Nikolaevna still has baking sheets on which her future mother-in-law baked pies with cabbage and cheesecakes. Valery became very attached to Tatyana Iosifovna.
“The stove was heated with firewood,” says Nadezhda Aleksandrova. “They were kept in the basement. And Valery, when he came to visit, immediately took up the household - chopped and carried firewood. Mother liked him. She called him "my assistant".
Everything went to the fact that Valery was about to make an offer to the girl. But Olga rushed between him and another boyfriend who served in the NKVD. And as a result, she made a choice not in favor of the pilot.
“It seems to me that Olga was guided solely by mercenary considerations,” suggests Nadezhda Nikolaevna. - The family lived from hand to mouth, she just realized that she was choosing between Chkalov with his unstable character and a man with stable work and a good salary. And pragmatically chose the second for the sake of the future of her children.
Of course, Chkalov did not like the decision of his beloved girl. Their explanatory conversation took place in raised tones. It was then that Olga in her hearts threw the fatal phrase: “You are not a hero!” After these words, Valery Chkalov asked the girl to come to the drawbridge of Equality, which in those years was considered the longest in the city. And Olga came, thinking that their parting would take place there. But what happened next, she could not dream even in nightmares.
“Olya was waiting for Chkalov in the middle of the bridge,” says Nadezhda Nikolaevna. “But he didn’t and didn’t exist. And suddenly she saw a plane flying right at her. Olya was terribly frightened - she decided that Chkalov wanted to commit suicide, and at the same time kill her. She later said that she clutched the railing so frightfully that she could not even scream, she was only trembling. When the plane (according to one version, it was a Fokker D.XI single-seat fighter - Ed.) approached, she closed her eyes, thinking that this was the end. And Chkalov dived under the bridge and flew on. Olga's hands were simply glued to the railing - a man came up to her to help, and even he could not immediately tear them off. He walked her home. Olya was shaking. And when they later met with Chkalov, he said to her: “Did you want a feat? I made it." They parted not very well, with mutual accusations: Olga accused Chkalov of being able to kill her, and he said that because of her he was suspended from flying.
Stalin's favorite
The fates of Valery Chkalov and Olga Alexandrova developed differently. Chkalov became a folk hero after he made two non-stop flights from Moscow to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and from Moscow to Vancouver. Stalin personally met the returning planes and greatly favored the impudent pilot. In a marriage with Olga Erazmovna, Chkalov had three children. And Olga Alexandrova, according to the stories of Nadezhda Nikolaevna, never found her happiness in marriage. Her husband died early - he fell down the stairs and broke his head. She never remarried.
All her life she worked as a dressmaker in a garment factory. When Nadezhda Nikolaevna entered their family, Olga Ivanovna was already retired. She lived separately, but often visited her brother George. Chkalova rarely remembered and only once told her daughter-in-law about his flight under the bridge. Perhaps she regretted the wrong choice for the rest of her life. Once she dropped a bitter phrase: “If you run after money, you won’t get anything.” Olga Alexandrova died in 1990 at the age of 84 from a heart attack in her apartment - just a 15-minute walk from the very bridge that separated her forever from Valery Chkalov.
Dossier
Valery Chkalov was born on February 2, 1904. For a drunken fight and violation of discipline, he was sentenced several times by a military tribunal to imprisonment. But each time he was restored in the ranks of the Red Army. His first non-stop flight from Moscow to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which started on July 20, 1936, lasted 56 hours. The second flight, from Moscow to Vancouver, took place a year later and lasted 63 hours. Chkalov died on December 15, 1938 during tests. The reason is a faulty aircraft. But, according to relatives, it was a deliberate murder. The urn with the ashes of Valery Chkalov is buried near the Kremlin wall.
Those who reject the idea of Chkalov's flight under the bridge refer to the fact that at that time it was technically impossible to do so. But it's not.
“Military pilots Georgy Friede and Alexei Gruzinov flew seaplanes under all the bridges of the Neva,” says aviation historian Vladimir Ivanov from St. Petersburg. And that was at the beginning of the 20th century. And in 1940, pilot Yevgeny Borisenko flew under the Kirov Bridge several times for the impressive shots of the film "Valery Chkalov". But Chkalov himself, in my opinion, could not do this. I read his medical record: the visual acuity of his right eye was 0.7, the left - 0.8. With such vision, it is difficult to fit into the span of the bridge. Chkalov had 7 accidents in the last five years of his life. And everything is close to the ground. The reason is in poor eyesight.
The bridge under which Valery Chkalov flew Who in our country does not know that Chkalov flew under the Trinity Bridge over the Neva? If not from books, then from the famous film by Mikhail Konstantinovich Kalatozov. But few people know that in Chkalovsky times, the Trinity Bridge in Leningrad was the Equality Bridge. And Valery Pavlovich Chkalov never flew under this very bridge of Equality. It is not at all difficult to be convinced of this. It is enough to carefully and impartially look at the biography of V.P. Chkalov and the history of domestic aviation. Based on documents, of course, and not on falsified materials from Soviet publications. Let's take the initial data: it is claimed that Chkalov flew under the bridge in 1928, and in a number of sources that in 1927. All of them say that Chkalov did this on a Fokker D.XI fighter, in front of his future wife, Olga Erazmovna. For "recklessness" he was seriously punished by the regiment commander I. Antoshin - he was put in a guardhouse! About the date of the flight In Podolsk, in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO), the personal file of the famous pilot V.P. Chkalov No. 268818. It has long been declassified and is now available for comprehensive study. In a personal matter, as expected, there is achievement list pilot. From it and many other documents it follows that in 1928 the red military pilot V.P. Chkalov served in the "15th Air Squadron" of the Bryansk Air Brigade and never flew to Leningrad. Unofficially, he could not make such a flight either. It was IMPOSSIBLE to fly to Leningrad without landing and refueling on any of the fighters that were in service with the brigade and to return back. 1928 is categorically eliminated! On January 19, 1929, the doors of the prison cell kindly opened for Chkalov for the second time. His prison diary is still kept in the memorial museum of the legendary pilot in Chkalovsk Nizhny Novgorod region where it can be easily found. Chkalov was demobilized from the army. He could not fly under the bridge in 1929. Consider other dates. Not a single source says that Chkalov flew under the bridge in 1924. Everyone understands that only a pilot who came to the combat unit was not able to pull off such a trick. 1925... In St. Petersburg, where I live, there are three unique libraries: the Russian National Library, the Library of the Academy of Sciences and the Central Naval Library. Together, these three huge book depositories have in their funds everything that has ever been published about Valery Pavlovich in our country. Anyone can look into them and see for themselves: in all her numerous interviews and books, when and how her husband flew under the bridge in Leningrad, Chkalov's second wife, Olga Erazmovna. for which, according to the film, Valery Pavlovich flew under the bridge of Equality, she always answered: “He didn’t fly with me ...”. By the way. Valery Pavlovich and Olga Erazmovna met on the last day of 1924! In her last book, “The Life of Valery Chkalov” iM 1979), Olga Erazmovna wrote: “... it happened in 1925,” which contradicts her own words, all official statements and the personal file of V.P. Chkalov. “In 1925, he was demobilized by court ”- from personal file No. 268818. Here is another extract from this document: “SENTENCE IN THE NAME OF THE RSFSR .. Exit session on November 16 (1925) ... having considered in an open meeting at the location of the 1st squadron ... case No. 150 on charges of citizen Chkalov Valery Pavlovich ... recognized as proved: on September 7, 1925 in Leningrad, Count Chkalov, being in the position of a military pilot of the 1st squadron ... and being obliged to report to the airfield for a training group flight by 3 o'clock in the afternoon, arrived at the indicated time at completely drunk, as a result of which he not only could not fly, but generally behaved unacceptably, shouted, made noise, etc., which attracted the attention of those present at the airfield. and Blagin and Bogdanov home, Chkalov was very dissatisfied on the way that he was sent from the airfield and not allowed to fly on the apparatus, loudly expressed his displeasure with shouts and gestures ... By these actions, Chkalov discredited the authority and rank of commander-fighter of the Red Army, i.e. . committed a crime, and therefore the visiting commission of the VT LVO SENTENCED c. Chkalov Valery Pavlovich to imprisonment with strict isolation for ONE year, without affecting his rights. Taking into account Chkalov's first conviction, voluntary service in the Red Army, youth and proletarian origin, remove strict isolation and reduce Chkalov's prison term to SIX months. Chkalov appealed against the verdict, but the response "Determination" read: "The verdict is upheld." Drunkenness is common in our country. And in the aviation of the RKKAF of those years, in general, general and ubiquitous - a legacy civil war when, for lack of gasoline, it was necessary to fill the engines of worn-out coffin airplanes with a mixture of alcohol and ether. In the 1st Red Banner Squadron, the young military pilot Valery Chkalov was quickly turned into a drunkard. How this happened is described in sufficient detail in the book of his daughter V. V. Chkalova “Valery Chkalov. Aviation Legend "(M 2005). For drunken debauchery they were put in a guardhouse or given fifteen days. And then 6 months in prison! .. One can only guess how outstanding Chkalov's drinking bouts were. Boiled, you see, at the command ... 1926 ... In 1926, V.P. Chkalov practically did not serve. At first he sat in the "Ispravdom", as the prison was then called, and then knocked on the thresholds of the offices of military leaders and military registration and enlistment offices, trying to recover in military service. Persistence paid off. As follows from his personal file: “... in 1926 he was accepted back to Kr. Ar. in the 1st squadron ... ". After the restoration, Chkalov behaved "quieter than water and lower than grass", during this period he had only positive characteristics. In that year, Chkalov had no time for hooligan flights under bridges. Yes, and when he again began to fly, the Neva was already ice-bound A. As stated, Chkalov flew over the water. 1926 disappears. 1927… From January to spring there is ice on the Neva. The first quarter is gone. On March 24, Chkalov, during a training battle, got into an accident on a Fokker D-XI fighter: "A collision in the air, after which he planned it." An official hearing follows. Chkalov, of course, is temporarily suspended from flying. In May, another service characteristic was requested for him, and already in June the pilot was sent for training in Lipetsk. From where, of course, he could not fly to the Leningrad bridge of Equality in any way. To all of the above, it is worth adding that in 1927 Chkalov was already married to O.E. Chkalova, and she, as noted above, always claimed that her husband under the bridge over the Neva "did not fly with her." It turns out that V.P. Chkalov could fly under the bridge of Equality only in 1925. On a serious punishment The famous "dad" - I.P. Antoshin, the commander of the 1st Red Banner Squadron, did NOT PUNISH for any flight under the Chkalov Bridge! In his memoirs (see: I. Antoshin "First Flights in the Squadron", M. 1969), he does not mention a single word about Chkalov's flight under the bridge over the Neva. Moreover, he claimed all his life that he had heard about this flight only from third parties. After Chkalov's arrest in November 1925, Antoshin was sent for further service in Turkestan. So, under Antoshin, Chkalov did not fly under the Equality Bridge. Especially in 1928. It is erroneously stated that V.P. Chkalov flew under the bridge in a Fokker fighter
V.P. Chkalov (second from left) among colleagues. First left - mechanic Ivanov
In the personal file of V.P. Chkalov, NO punishments for flying under the bridge were recorded. Many punishments appear there: - “Penalties by court and disciplinary, announced in the order in part and above: 2 times tried by the court by the Military Tribunal. He was repeatedly subjected to disciplinary sanctions… – As a member of the RKSM, he was “expelled for 6 months for indiscipline”. There is no data on the reinstatement in the RKSM in the personal file ... There are many punishments ... But punishment for an unauthorized flight over Leningrad and a flight under the bridge are not among them. Generally! Not in any year of his service! In the personal file of V.P. Chkalov, NO punishments for flying under the bridge were recorded. Many punishments appear there: - “Penalties by court and disciplinary, announced in the order in part and above: 2 times tried by the court by the Military Tribunal. He was repeatedly subjected to disciplinary sanctions… – As a member of the RKSM, he was “expelled for 6 months for indiscipline”. There is no data on the reinstatement in the RKSM in the personal file ... There are many punishments ... But punishment for an unauthorized flight over Leningrad and a flight under the bridge are not among them. Generally! Not in any year of his service! About the Witnesses of the Fly Under the bridge you can fly only during the day. In broad daylight near the Summer Garden, Petropavlovka, the embankments are always full of people. There must have been many eyewitnesses. But they are not. No one! It is officially registered that there were 106 people dragging with V.I. Lenin had a log on a subbotnik. There, the date was known, when Lenin was dragging a log, it was easy for false assistants to lie. But there were no witnesses of Chkalov's flight under the bridge! No real eyewitnesses, no “sons of Lieutenant Schmidt. For the exact date of passage under the bridge DOES NOT EXIST None! The flight of an airplane under the bridge what then what now is a stunning phenomenon, a sensation! All newspapers should have written about such an event. Here, the Petrograd newspapers in 1916 excitedly reported on the passage of a naval pilot, Lt. G.A. Fride under the Trinity Bridge on the M-5 plane. And in the autumn of 1916, they enthusiastically described the flight of the naval pilot, Lt. A.E. Georgians under all bridges at once!!! In 1940, the Leningrad newspapers wrote with the same admiration about the flights under the Kirov Bridge by the pilot of the Northern Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet Yevgeny Borisenko during the filming of the film "Valery Chkalov". Borisenko flew under the Kirov Bridge on an LU-2 plane four times. Two on the first day of shooting, two on the second. But about the flight under the Chkalov Bridge NEVER wrote ANY Leningrad newspaper, not a single city magazine. About the descriptions of the span All the descriptions of Chkalov's span under the bridge over the Neva (and there are only 3-4 of them) that exist in the literature are dated much later than 1940. That is, they are given by the authors who saw the film "Valery Chkalov". And all these descriptions retell frames from the film… None of the authors witnessed that flight. About the vigilant OGPU and the command of the Air Force of the LenVO To fly under the bridge of Equality, Chkalov had to build an approach from the side of Smolny. It is alleged that he tried on the bridge span several times. That is, he circled over Smolny, over Liteiny, where the leadership of the OGPU was located, over Shpalernaya, where the prison was the OGPU, and the house of the Politkatorzhan, in which the entire top of the Bolshevik authorities of the city lived. Such a flight should have been followed by a trial in the OGPU, at least. But wasn't the morally unstable pilot Chkalov, expelled from the RKSM, the son of a steamship owner - a socially alien element, planning to bomb Smolny? Shoot at party members-Leninists? Didn't you want to take revenge for your arrest, to vent your anger? Nothing of the sort happened. There was no such trial. Following the Trinity is the Palace Bridge. After flying under the bridge of Equality, Chkalov immediately had to transfer the car to a climb. Just opposite the Palace Square, where the headquarters of the LenVO Air Force has been located since the first years of Soviet power. Respectively. Chkalov had to do this during test runs as well. Is it possible that no one from the command of the LenVO Air Force took an interest. what kind of fighter is roaring under their windows, grossly violating the ban on military aircraft flying over Leningrad? But there is no information about Chkalov's punishment for this flight in his personal file. I have not seen anything like this in the reporting documentation of the LenVO Air Force. On the magical power of art A thorough and comprehensive study library collections today allows us to state with absolute accuracy that before 1939 there were NO publications about the flight of V.P. Chkalov did not exist under any bridge. The first story about the flight of V.P. Chkalov under, mind you, the "Troitsky" bridge appears ... in "Roman-Gazeta" No. 13/1939. The magazine published a story by the beginning writer G. Baidukov called "About Chkalov", which was a literary version of the screenplay "Valery Chkalov". In this description, Chkalov is flying under the bridge out of high flying motives. A colorful, detailed description of the flight ends with a phrase that a tired, but pleased with himself, pilot returns home to his loving wife. How can one not recall again the statement of O.E. Chkalova that under her Chkalov did not fly under the bridge. From Roman-Gazeta, the description of the flight migrated to all other books, including the one published by O.E. Chkalova on behalf of V.P. Chkalov book “High above the ground. Pilot's Tales (1939) But let's get back to the script. The director was not happy with the original script. There was no main thing without which a good movie cannot exist - a love line. The reasons for Chkalov's expulsion from the Air Force were also indistinct. The script for the propaganda film was revised several times, but Mikhail Kalatozov (real name Kalatozishvili) did not like it. How did the flight scene acquire a knightly-heroic appearance in the film - for the sake of the heart of the beloved woman! - installed from the source. An outstanding historian, Navy Air Force fighter pilot, WWII participant Nikolai Andreevich Goncharenko managed to find the members of that film crew at one time. And they told him who was the author of this plot twist: Once in a smoking room, during a break in filming, the pilots who advised the film told details about how pilots flew under the Trinity Bridge back in tsarist times. There were legends about this among aviators. Kalatozov sat with us and listened attentively to this story. The very next day, according to his vision, the script was redone once again. Now Chkalov was being expelled from the Air Force for a hooligan flight under a bridge, committed to win the heart of his beloved. Since then, this invention of the director went "to the people." Like how footage of the “storming of the Winter Palace” from Eisenstein’s film “October” began to pass off as a documentary chronicle. The famous pilot and friend of Chkalov, Georgy Baidukov, the main author of the film script, in fact, the creator of the myth about the “flying under the bridge,” later admitted: “Chkalov himself told me about this! ..”. Which is not surprising, since Mr. Baidukov did not serve in Leningrad and could not see it himself ... V, P flew under such a bridge across the Vyalka River. Chkalov February 26, 1930
About the truth of life In 1939, after the death of V.P. Chkalov, in the publishing house "Children's Literature" the Central Committee of the Komsomol issued a very interesting book: Valery Chkalov, Hero Soviet Union"High above the ground. Pilot's stories. Foreword by Olga Erazmovna Chkalova. In it, Olga Erazmovna, with her own hand, described how, when and under what circumstances V.P. Chkalov flew under the bridge. And under what bridge: “One morning - it was several years ago in Leningrad - Valery Pavlovich returned after a flight. He greeted me and my son and looked around the room with some strange alien look. This is how a person looks who has just experienced a great danger and still does not believe that he is again in his native, familiar environment - Has anything happened to you? He quickly passed his hand over his forehead and smiled: - Nothing, nothing. Go to work, you'll be late, I'll tell you in the evening. In fact, these "trifles" looked like this. The plane was in imminent danger of death. Winter fog pressed him to the ground, his wings were iced over, there was a forest all around. Not far away is the railway bridge, on which the train was going, blocking the path to the only and pathetic likeness of the landing site. And Valery Chkalov landed the plane on this small saving island, flying ... under the arch of the railway bridge. In her latest book, Olga Erazmovna was more frank: “Somehow he and a mechanic were assigned to overtake a plane from Novgorod. And suddenly another accident! He returned home bruised. “I can’t believe I’m at home, alive,” he told me when I came home from school. For the first time I saw that Chkalov lost his nerve, as they say. Having taken off from Novgorod, he got into difficult weather conditions. The plane was icy, and it was impossible to gain the desired height. I had to fly low, just above the forest. A railroad track stretched under the wing. The moment came when Valery realized that he needed to make an emergency landing. And there is nowhere to sit. You can try to sit on the tops of trees - there is a chance to save your own life, but Valery rejected this option right away. Even then, he developed a principle for himself - to fight for the life of the machine, as for his own, to the last. While Valery was thinking, a train appeared in the distance. Suddenly, a bridge flashed ahead. It was already within reach of him. There is only one way out - to dive under the bridge and sit down. Chkalov dived, but a semaphore prevented him from landing behind the bridge. In a moment, he and the mechanic were lying on the ground among the aircraft debris. A special commission found that if the pilot had tried to choose a different option for an emergency landing, the car would have crashed into a railway platform and the death of the crew would have been inevitable ”(O.E. Chkalova“ The Life of Valery Chkalov ”, M. 1979). This bridge stands near the Vyalka station, which was located on the 225-km track of the Oktyabrskaya Leningrad-Moscow railway. In the documents, this event does not look as beautiful as in the stories of Olga Erazmovna. In 1929 V.L. Korvin (by mother, first surname, by father - Kerber) designed and built an amphibious aircraft in his own apartment. During the Civil War, from 1919, he was in the ranks of the White Donskoy hydroaviation division, worked at the Taganrogr aircraft factory, where the planes of the Dobroarmiya were repaired. After the war, Korvin ended up in Leningrad, where he proposed his seaplane project, but he was not accepted - the Soviet authorities did not have confidence in the designer. And then he started building a car in his apartment. He was assisted by a graduate of the Institute of Communications V.B. Shavrov. When the work came to an end, Korvin had fears that he, a former White Guard officer, would be credited by the authorities for the construction aircraft as an attempt to prepare a terrorist attack against the leaders of the city and the country. Then the creator of the plane suggested to his assistant Shavrov that the plane be his own, and then apply to Osoaviakhim Northwest area with a petition for financing of final works. Shavrov agreed with pleasure. The amphibian received the Sh-1 index (photo on the splash screen) and the 85 hp Walter engine, bought with the money of Osoaviakhim. The plane turned out to be successful. Shavrov instantly became a famous aircraft designer, however, until the end of his life he was not able to create any of his serial aircraft. Corwin did not see all this. He was arrested. State tests were carried out in Moscow. The plane was piloted by test pilot B.V. Glagolev. In February 1930, he flew the plane home to Leningrad, but got stuck in Borovichi due to bad weather. A few days later, Glagolev was recalled to Moscow, and Osoaviakhima Severo- Western region they offered to pick up their car themselves. The Leningrad Aeroclub-Museum of Osoaviakhim of the North-Western Region, whose employee Chkalov was then, sent him to fetch the plane along with the mechanic Ivanov. Ivanov, like Valery Pavlovich, was a big drinker (in a few years he would be fired from Osoaviakhim for regular drinking). Either they had it with them, or they had a good time in the dining car, but when the train reached Borovichi, the sea was already knee-deep. Despite the snowfall, the almost complete lack of visibility and very low cloud cover, they boarded the plane and, contrary to the advice not to fly, took off. At first everything went well, but the further they flew away from Borovichi, the worse the weather became. Chkalov did not even try to rise above the clouds - he did not master the art of instrument flight. He could only navigate on the ground. And so he had to press the car lower and lower to the ground, so as not to lose sight of the railroad track. In addition, icing has begun. After a while they were already flying at low level. Valery Chkalov later liked to tell his listeners about this “And once on a misty day I was forced to rear up an icy amphibian dozens of steps in front of a rushing steam locomotive, jumped over it and, without touching the snow-covered roofs of the cars with skis, disappeared behind the tail of the train into frosty mist." The locomotive rushed forward, illuminating the space with a powerful headlight. We managed to notice its light in time. But, having jumped the train, the crew of Sh-1 finally realized that every minute they were catching up with the train going ahead of them to Leningrad. And they will not be able to notice the dim light of the red lights of his last car in time. With all your will! I had to sit down. They started looking for a place to land. At the next railway bridge, a suitable bank flashed by. The clearing allowed landing, but it was necessary to enter it from the side of the railway bridge. Having made a turn, Chkalov led the amphibian to land, trying to fly over the canvas as low as possible in order to have more space for a run. The engine had already been turned off when another train suddenly jumped out of the forest onto the bridge. The collision could have been avoided only by diving under the bridge. There was no other way out. We successfully fit into the span. But it was no longer possible to sit on the bank of the frozen river. It was necessary to go on a re-entry. Turning on the engine, Chkalov put the car into a turn, at the same time trying to gain altitude. But the icy plane stubbornly did not go up. Ahead on the course was a railway platform and a semaphore sticking out. Chkalov chose a semaphore. (Later, the commission investigating the causes of the disaster would establish that a blow to the platform would have been fatal for the crew). The impact of the wing on the semaphore broke the car into pieces. The crew was thrown into the snow. They miraculously survived. Having recovered from what they had suffered, Ivanov and Chkalov bandaged each other and set off on foot to the Vyalka station. A criminal case was opened on the fact of the plane crash. During the investigation, the crew was acquitted. In the flight book of V.P. Chkalov No. 279, issued by the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (GUGVF) on July 10, 1933, this disaster was recorded with the wording: "Weather conditions are to blame." Not a single pilot will talk about his failures, but, apparently, he really wanted to tell about the flight under the bridge. Most likely, Chkalov spoke about his flight with a fair amount of fantasy, replacing the true scene of action with a fictional, more spectacular one. What is called, "poisoned airfield stories." It was not difficult to change the bridge across Vyalka to Troitsky. Every aviator in those years knew about the phenomenal flights under the Neva bridges by naval aviation pilots Frida and Gruzinov.
In Leningrad, writes A. Solovyov, Valery Pavlovich Chkalov first came in 1924, after graduating from the Serpukhov aviation school. For further service, he was sent to the 1st Red Banner Fighter Squadron. In the squadron, a young guy was quickly made a drunkard. How this happened is described in sufficient detail in the book of Chkalov's daughter “Valery Chkalov. Aviation legend.
There are "Soviet legends" that are still used to be taken for granted. Like, for example, that "Chkalov flew under the bridge in Leningrad." The older generation remembers this episode from the film "Valery Chkalov". The correspondent of our newspaper, Yuri Malekin, recently mentioned this in an article about the famous St. Petersburg pilot Vladimir God. In response, we received a letter from Alexander Solovyov, who from 1991 to 1996 worked as the director of the Leningrad state museum aviation. According to Solovyov, folk hero I have never flown under the bridge on the Neva. Moreover, relying on archival documents, he cites sensational facts that portray the pilot in a not too, to put it mildly, favorable light ...
The period before the Red Army service of Chkalov and his autobiography are absent in the military personal file. But there are many documents about drunkenness, disciplinary sanctions, court verdicts of the Military Tribunal. Here is just one excerpt from his personal file: “An inert attitude to work, he does not enjoy public authority ... He has no particularly valuable military-technical qualities. Practical experience and seniority - small. He has no revolutionary merits and exploits, is poorly developed politically, in public life and does not show activity in cultural and educational work ... terribly rude, does not like and does not recognize any superiors, is late for service, gets drunk, as a result of which he loses the authority of the red commander ... November 1, 1925. Detachment commander n / neg. warlet King "...
How the "hero" served in Leningrad
Drunkenness is common in our country. For drunken debauchery they were put in a guardhouse or given fifteen days. And Chkalov got six months in prison! One can only guess how outstanding Chkalov's drinking bouts were. Boiled, you see, at the command ...
Outstanding drinkers
On January 3, 1929, Chkalov was arrested and, by the verdict of a “trial in closed session,” was sentenced to one year in prison. From the Red Army, Chkalov was finally and irrevocably demobilized. Who needs a blind pilot?
The second coming of the heavy-drinking aviator to Leningrad, more precisely, to Trotsk (as Gatchina was then called), took place in 1926. Prison. Early release. Several months of unemployment. Upholstering the thresholds of the offices of Air Force commanders ... Finally, Chkalov was reinstated in the Red Army Air Force. And here is a characterization dated May 26, 1927: “... Little sustained in relationships with others ... was on vacation due to neurasthenia, drinks alcohol immoderately ... There is a slight schizoid status, expressed in insufficient restraint.” From the immeasurable use of all sorts of rubbish, the pilot's eyesight is weakening.
The guy is 25 years old, he can't do anything except fly and drink vodka. And in the arms of a young wife (already the second) with a baby. Either someone thought it up, or he guessed it himself, or people came to him from the organs - it is not known. But the fact remains - Chkalov after his release becomes ... an employee of the OGPU.
OGPU officer?
In Leningrad, the Chekists arrange for Chkalov as an instructor pilot at the Aeroclub-AEROMUSEA. I don’t know whether Chkalov was good at identifying “enemies of the people” in Leningrad or not, but the blind-sighted pilot decommissioned by the medical board is being reinstated in the Red Army and transferred to flight test work at the Air Force Research Institute. There, too, "enemies of the people" should have been identified!
Chkalov is sent to the Leningrad OSOAVIAKHIM to identify "enemies of the people." This was the third period of Chkalov's life in our city.
Personal file in the NKVD is closed to historians
But already in 1933, it was written in his description: “The discipline of the Red Army does not digest, an internally loose and decomposed commander. According to all data, it is subject to withdrawal from the Red Army Air Force. In the same year, Chkalov was transferred to the reserve and again demobilized from the army.
And in 1938, Chkalov was already a brigade commander! But how could you get so high rank a person who does not serve in the Red Army? Yes, even "alien, internally loose and decomposed"? Why does he continue to wear military uniform? The answer to this question is quickly found when it turns out how Chkalov's title sounded in full: "commander of the NKVD troops."
All subsequent life and activities of Chkalov, with the exception of his participation in the famous flight through North Pole and testing of fighter aircraft designed by N. N. Polikarpov, is not known for certain. His personal file of an NKVD officer, according to our legislation, is available only to his relatives. Researchers and historians are not allowed to see it.
About "flying under the bridge"
This rank corresponded to the combined arms rank of "colonel general". What was the reason for such a high career a heavily drinking employee of the OGPU-NKVD, one can only guess ...
Nevertheless, a number of sources state that Chkalov nevertheless flew under the bridge in 1928, and in a number of sources that in 1927. On a Fokker D-XI fighter plane. In front of his future wife Olga Erazmovna.
From the story of members of the film crew of the film "Valery Chkalov": "Our director Kalatozov did not like the original script of the film. Once in a smoking room, during a break in filming, the pilots who advised the film told that back in tsarist times, some pilot flew under the Trinity Bridge. Kalatozov sat with us and listened attentively to this story. The very next day, at his request, the script was redone. Now Chkalov was being expelled from the Air Force for a hooligan flight under a bridge, perfect to win the heart of his beloved. It was a brilliant find directed by Kalatozov ... "
You can fly under the bridge only during the day. In broad daylight, the embankments are always full of people. There must have been many eyewitnesses. But they are not. No one!
However, Chkalov's second wife, in all her interviews, always answered all questions that "I did not fly with her." As follows from Chkalov's military personal file, in 1928 he served in the Bryansk aviation brigade and never flew to Leningrad. He could not fly under the bridge in 1928. He could not do this in 1927 - he was trained in Lipetsk. In 1926, Chkalov did not fly at all - he was serving a criminal sentence.
from the editors
Not a single Leningrad newspaper of the period 1924-1928 wrote about such a span. In 1940, newspapers enthusiastically wrote about Yevgeny Borisenko flying under the Kirov Bridge during the filming of the film Valery Chkalov. But the real Chkalov himself never flew under any bridge in Leningrad!
Of course, this article may have opponents. Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Many heroes have already fallen in our eyes and we would not like to multiply their number. However…
On June 3 (according to some sources - June 4), 1965, the whole of Novosibirsk was agitated by an extraordinary incident. The townspeople shared the news with each other: the trick that Valery Chkalov did 30 years ago (either in 1927, or in 1928) in Leningrad was repeated in the city, namely: flying under one of the city's bridges!
Whether such a thing (a flight in a fighter plane under the Trinity Bridge) was actually carried out by Chkalov or not - history, frankly, is silent. We know about this only from the film "Valery Chkalov", but in Novosibirsk it was a real action. And this was done on the wrong antediluvian fighter I-5(1) , on which Chkalov flew in his years, and on a fairly modern car for that time, especially a jet one: on the MiG-17 fighter. And military pilot Valentin Privalov did it.
On that day, many saw how a red-star silver combat aircraft at great speed descended to the water surface of the Ob so low that waves dispersed behind it like a boat, and in this position flew exactly into the alignment of the central arch (30 by 120 meters) of the Communal Bridge. There were only a few seconds left before the next bridge, along which a freight train was going, but the fighter managed to soar up with a “candle” and disappeared into the clouds without a trace. The deaf and dumb witnesses of the fantastic spectacle on both sides of the Ob applauded in unison...
MiG-17 fighters; Valentin Privalov flew on an airplane of this type in 1965:
Communal bridge of Novosibirsk
As it turned out later, it was the MiG of the captain of the Air Force, sniper pilot Valentin Privalov, sent to Novosibirsk. Then he was 30 years old, and he had a reputation as a recognized ace, although his colleagues ironically called him Jack among themselves.
Valentin was born in the Moscow region, his childhood fell on wartime. While still at school, he was involved in the flying club. After college, he served in naval aviation, in Kaliningrad and the Arctic, was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Later he was transferred to Kansk Krasnoyarsk Territory. In June 1965, as part of a flight of 4 MiGs, Privalov was seconded to the exercises taking place in the Siberian Military District - anti-aircraft divisions conducted training firing at the training ground near Yurga. Returning from a mission in Tolmachevo, Valentine flew under the Communal Bridge. (For reference: the size of the arch is approximately 30 by 120 meters, the wingspan of the MiG-17 is 9.6 meters).
MiG-17 flying under the Communal Bridge, according to one version, the picture was taken by a foreign photojournalist who happened to be in the right place at the right time ...
Recalls Anatoly Maksimovich Rybyakov, retired Air Force Major:
“From the third turn, he descended and passed under the bridge. Speed - somewhere around 400 km / h. It was a clear, sunny day. People on the beach were swimming, sunbathing, and suddenly - a roar, and the plane soared up like a candle, avoiding a collision with the railway bridge. It was clear that this could not be hidden. Air Marshal Savitsky flew in and set up an investigation. They asked Privalov what his motives were. He replied that he wrote two reports about being sent to Vietnam, but they remained unanswered. That's why I decided to fly under the bridge to draw attention. This act was evaluated in different ways. Young pilots are like heroism, the older generation is like aerial hooliganism.
Privalov could be severely punished, up to the tribunal, but still pardoned. It is known that the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal Malinovsky, personally participated in his fate, and sent a telegram with approximately the following content:
“Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to the activities that were carried out with him. If you haven't been on vacation, go on vacation. If there was, give ten days of rest at the unit.
Approximately, because popular rumor stubbornly adds one more line to the telegram:
"The regimental commander to announce a reprimand."
And there were also rumors that a call to Moscow by the first secretary of the Novosibirsk Regional Committee of the CPSU Goryachev, who was on good terms with L.I., saved the pilot from punishment. Brezhnev.
And although Privalov was never sent to Vietnam, his further career was generally successful. He was transferred to the Gorky region (some sources claim that Privalov served further in Kubinka), rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, was both a squadron commander and deputy regiment commander, but in 1977, due to heart disease, he was forced to leave for "citizen".
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In June 1965, a pilot from the air defense regiment, Valentin Privalov, flew a MiG-17 plane under the Communal Bridge across the Ob River in Novosibirsk ...
Before that, he himself swam examined the distance between the bridge supports. Moreover, Chkalov made a similar flight on a propeller-driven aircraft, and not a jet ...
He was arrested for air hooliganism, but Malinovsky, the then Minister of Defense, ordered the pilot to be allowed to fly.
I heard about this case in childhood, but I never saw a photo, so I found it on Facebook, searched for it, found more:
The arrest followed immediately - the very next day. The debriefing and, to put it mildly, the separation were not long in coming. However, no one wanted to take the final decision on the fate of the pilot. The then Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal R. Malinovsky, put an end to this matter. A telegram came from him to the unit: “Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to the activities that were carried out with him. If you haven't been on vacation, go on vacation. If there was, give ten days of rest at the unit " "Captain Valentin Privalov, nicknamed" Jack ".
Valentin was born in the Moscow region, his childhood fell on wartime. While still at school, he was involved in the flying club. After college, he served in naval aviation, in Kaliningrad and the Arctic, was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Later he was transferred to the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
In June 1965, as part of a flight of 4 MiGs, Privalov was seconded to the exercises taking place in the Siberian Military District - anti-aircraft divisions conducted training firing at the training ground near Yurga. Returning from a mission in Tolmachevo, Valentine flew under the Communal Bridge. (For reference: the size of the arch is approximately 30 by 120 meters, the wingspan of the MiG-17 is 9.6 meters).
Recalls Anatoly Maksimovich Rybyakov, a retired aviation major:
“From the third turn, he descended and passed under the bridge. Speed - somewhere around 400 km / h. It was a clear, sunny day. People on the beach were swimming, sunbathing, and suddenly - a roar, and the plane soared up like a candle, avoiding a collision with a railway bridge. It was clear that this could not be hidden. Air Marshal Savitsky flew in and set up an investigation. They asked Privalov what his motives were. He replied that he wrote two reports about being sent to Vietnam, but they remained unanswered. That's why I decided to fly under the bridge to draw attention. This act was evaluated in different ways. Young pilots - like heroism, the older generation - like air hooliganism.
Meanwhile, there is a history of flights under the bridges: “According to a widely circulated legend, Chkalov flew under the Trinity Bridge in Leningrad. For the film “Valery Chkalov”, pilot Yevgeny Borisenko repeated this flight!
Rumors of a flight under the bridge quickly spread throughout the country, and following Valery Pavlovich during the armed conflict in the Sino-Eastern railway(CER) in 1929, pilot E. Lukht, three times awarded the Order of the Red Banner, personal combat weapons, gold watches and other insignia of those years, flew under the bridge over the Amur in Khabarovsk, followed by this seemingly useless and most dangerous trick, repeated the pilot of the same squadron A. Svyatogorov, as well as I.P. Mazuruk and M.V. Vodopyanov.
During the war, a similar trick was performed by the pilot Rozhnov. Avoiding pursuit in the sky, he flew under the railway bridge, saving the lives of himself and the crew.