Where Chelyuskin sank. "Chelyuskin": polar pilots - the first Heroes of the Soviet Union. Preparing for your trip

April 13, 2014 marked 80 years since the successful completion of an unprecedented scale Arctic expedition to rescue 104 people from the crew and scientific expedition of the Chelyuskin steamship crushed by ice in Chukotka.

This humanitarian mission had a powerful political resonance throughout the world. It is no coincidence that three days after its successful completion, on April 16, 1934, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the USSR, by its decree, established the highest degree of distinction - the title of Hero Soviet Union. The first Heroes were seven pilots who took the winterers off the ice:

• Lyapidevsky Anatoly Vasilievich (Hero Star No. 1)
• Kamanin Nikolai Petrovich (Hero Star No. 2)
• Molokov Vasily Sergeevich (Hero Star No. 3)
• Levanevsky Sigismund Alexandrovich (Hero Star No. 4)
• Vodopyanov Mikhail Vasilievich (Hero Star No. 6)
• Slepnev Mavriky Trofimovich (Hero Star No. 5)
• Doronin Ivan Vasilievich (Hero Star No. 7)

The remaining aviators - pilots and flight mechanics - were awarded orders. Subsequently, more than 12 thousand people in the USSR received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for courage and heroism. IN new Russia this highest distinction was transformed into the title of Hero of Russia.

Meanwhile, flights to the ice floe and the evacuation of people from the ice camp are the heroic, but only the “above-water” part of the “iceberg” of the work done, while its “underwater” or “working” part has remained practically forgotten.

A fairly complete and “uninvented” picture of the collective feat was preserved only by the collection of memoirs “How we saved the Chelyuskinites.” On the eve of the celebration of November 7, 1933, the head of the scientific expedition on the ship “Chelyuskin” O.Yu. Schmidt radioed to Moscow that they were in the Bering Strait near Diomede Island, only two miles from clear water.

The steamship "Chelyuskin" under the Danish flag is heading to Leningrad, 1938.

The development of the vast expanses of the North and Chukotka at that time was one of the most important national economic tasks. In 1928, to solve it, under the leadership of the former commander-in-chief of the Red Army Armed Forces S.S. Kamenev created the Arctic Government Commission. Built in 1933 in Denmark by order of the USSR, Chelyuskin was intended for commercial voyages in the Arctic, although it was not an icebreaker.

Shipping in the area of ​​the Chukotka coast became more and more active from year to year. If in the 1920s American schooners and steamships “Stavropol” and “Kolyma” from Vladivostok only occasionally visited Chukotka, then in 1931 6 steamships arrived in Chukotka, in 1932 - 12, and in 1933 - at least 20. That year there was a particularly difficult ice situation there. Three ships, including the Chelyuskin, were unable to escape from the ice captivity and wintered. Residents of the village of Wellen saw how the Chelyuskin, frozen in the ice, drifted into the Bering Strait. After Schmidt’s “work report,” several days of intense anticipation passed, but hopes were not destined to be justified. As the storm began, the ice was carried in the opposite direction.

The Chukchi again saw the Chelyuskin in the area of ​​Cape Serdtse-Kamen, 10-15 miles from the coast. He was helpless; the ice was dragging the ship east. The hunters then said that if the steamer could break through the edge and approach the shore, then a clear path would be guaranteed. The Litke ice cutter came out from Providence Bay to help the wintered steamships, but it was unable to get through to the Chelyuskin.

To remove people from wintered ships, a small air group began to be transferred to Chukotka in October. On the recommendation of the pilot Kukanov, who subsequently carried some of the people from the Sever ship on a U-2, A.V. got into it. Lyapidevsky. In response to his letter, he received a radiogram from the head of the flight sector of the Northern Sea Route, M.I. Sheveleva: “I petition Unshlikht, I give my consent.” In October 1933, Lyapidevsky received another radiogram from Shevelev: “Unshlikht issued an order to go to Vladivostok at the disposal of the special representative in the Far East, Pozhidaev, to carry out a government task.” It was about removing people from three ships who had spent the winter in the ice.

On October 21, the steamship Sergei Kirov left Vladivostok, carrying two dismantled ANT-4s. The commissioner of the Northern Sea Route appointed pilot-observer Petrov as the head of the expedition. Lyapidevsky became the commander of one of the aircraft, pilot Konkin became the flight commander and political leader. In Petropavlovsk, the planes were loaded onto the hospital ship Smolensk. It was supposed to deliver coal to Provideniya Bay for the Litke, Lieutenant Schmidt and Sverdlovsk steamships stationed there and then serve as a base for transferring patients from wintering ships.

By the end of November, the planes were unloaded onto the ice, assembled and flown. On the 29th, Lyapidevsky tested the first plane in the air and landed on the ice near the ship. Some defects were discovered and mechanics began to fix them. Lyapidevsky was the most experienced pilot, in 1932 he trained on the ANT-4 at the Air Force Research Institute. Konkin did not fly the ANT-4, learning on the fly while testing the second aircraft. A total of seven landings were made.

Upon arrival, G.D. was appointed head of the expedition. Krasinsky, an experienced polar explorer who knew the ice conditions very well. In 1927-1929 he took part in three long-distance flights across Eastern Siberia and Chukotka. Lyapidevsky recalled that it was Krasinsky who first told him “that Chelyuskin probably won’t get out of the ice - it will sink” and suggested removing people from Chelyuskin first.

Pilot of the Sh-2 amphibious aircraft on board the Chelyuskin - M.S. Babushkin

The complexity of the situation was aggravated by the polar night. It took about seven flight hours to get to the ship one way, and there were days when the sun did not rise at all. Having received permission from Schmidt, they tried to fly to Chelyuskin, despite the fact that there was an area of ​​only 600 by 50 m, and the ANT-4 required at least three times wider. The intermediate base was to be the village of Uellen on Cape Dezhnev. They were able to fly there only on December 20, although they flew out several times, but returned due to unreliable operation of the engines. Several times the polar day was not enough to have time to start and warm up both engines.

Upon arrival in Wellen at the end of December, Lyapidevsky made two attempts to fly to Chelyuskin, but due to engine failure he returned both times. On takeoff, he caught something with his right ski, but there were no incidents. On the second flight in frosty temperatures of 34°, Lyapidevsky suffered severe frostbite, and it was necessary to return to Providence Bay for the second plane, since the supply of compressed air to start the engines had run out. The journey on dogs to Providence Bay lasted for a whole week, from January 11 to 18. Due to a blizzard, it was possible to fly to Uellen on the second ANT-4, loaded with ten compressed air cylinders, with a water and oil heater attached to the fuselage, only on February 6, but due to deteriorating weather, Lyapidevsky landed in the Gulf of Lawrence.

On February 13, Chukotka was the first to learn about the death of Chelyuskin. While the steamer, crushed by ice, was slowly sinking, they managed to remove everything necessary from it onto the ice floe, including the Sh-2 M.S. amphibious aircraft. Babushkina. During the evacuation, only the boatswain Mogilevich died, on whom a log fell.

The message that more than 100 people were on the ice spread around in a matter of hours and shocked the world. The next day in Moscow, immediately after receiving Schmidt’s radiogram, on behalf of the deputy. Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V.V. Kuibyshev held a meeting with S.S. Kamenev, where the first steps were outlined to organize the rescue of the Chelyuskinites. The meeting had not yet ended, the draft resolution on the planned events was still being edited, as it became known that, on the initiative of I.V. Stalin created a government commission to provide assistance to the Chelyuskinites. A few hours later she got to work.

The main difficulty was the enormous distances separating Schmidt’s camp not only from Moscow, but also from the industrial regions of our country in general. In those years, about 15,000 Chukchi and Eskimos lived on the vast territory of Chukotka. A chain of camps and villages, at least 50, stretched along the entire coast. Two-thirds of the total population lived by the sea, which fed, clothed and warmed the aborigines. They were mainly engaged in hunting sea animals, which provided skins, meat, and fat. In the depths of Chukotka, in the tundra, there are nomads. Their wealth is deer and fur-bearing animals. In the summer the means of communication was waterway, in winter - dogs.

The life and customs of the Chukchi living in yarangas was figuratively described by Lyapidevsky: “A yaranga is a round tent. The inner surface of the yaranga is divided into two halves: the first is the vestibule. Dogs are usually kept here, a pantry is located, and fresh prey is located. The second half is residential. It is separated from the first by a special canopy. To get into the second half, you need to crawl under the canopy. It’s very hot in the residential half, the Chukchi walk around naked here. The housing is heated with seal or walrus fat. There is something like a cauldron: a trough with two partitions is hewn out, fat is poured into the trough, and moss is placed around the edges, which is soaked in fat. And now this cauldron shines and warms...

When you enter behind the curtain, the woman undresses you. To refuse is to offend. The owner will not budge, they fuss, only women work. The man says: “I have to think where the beast went.” They are treated to tea and copalgin, this is walrus meat from spring and autumn slaughter. The walrus is killed, cut into pieces and thrown into pits. The meat begins to decompose, but does not have time to decompose completely - it freezes. It is eaten in this frozen form. Behind the curtain, men and women walk almost naked. Two women were dressed in European dresses, but this did not change the situation, because they do not take off the dress until it falls apart: there is nowhere and nothing to wash it with. Tea boils on the fire day and night. The women wipe the tea mug with a dirty hem and pour tea into the mug for the guest. After everyone has drunk, the rest is poured back into the kettle until next time.”

It is not surprising that when S. Levanevsky flew to Anadyr to pick up the American pilot Mattern, who had crashed in Chukotka during a round-the-world flight, the local population complained “that Mattern does not eat anything, as if he were not dead. They ask us if we brought any food - he only eats chocolate...” Levanevsky gave him his emergency ration - 10-15 bars and flew with Mattern to Nome. When he put the American ashore, “Mattern fell to the ground and began to slam his hands on the ground, exclaiming: “America! America!" So Levanevsky became Mattern’s “savior” in America and almost a folk hero.

At the very first meeting, the government commission proposed that the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route establish uninterrupted radio communications with the Schmidt camp and the Chukotka Peninsula. Moscow decided to mobilize and use local funds from Chukotka to help Schmidt. The commission immediately appointed an emergency troika in Chukotka, chaired by the head of the station at Cape Northern, Red Banner Petrov. This troika was tasked with mobilizing dog and deer transport, as well as immediately bringing the planes located in Chukotka to flight readiness.

Such an aircraft was the U-2 (“N-4”) piloted by Kukanov at Cape Severny. In the fall of 1933, he did a great job transporting passengers from the People's Commissariat of Water supply ships that wintered near Cape Shelagsky. On one of the last flights, the plane damaged its landing gear. At the Wellen polar station there was another U-2 with an unreliable engine, initially assigned to the pilot Konkin, who flew as Lyapidevsky’s co-pilot (one crew for two ANT-4s). The second ANT-4 was initially assigned to Chernyavsky; no information has been preserved about his participation in the expedition. There was also a completely worn-out YUG-1 (three-engine Junkers G.23), they didn’t even try to use it. The condition of the equipment, including Lyapidevsky’s planes, aroused fear in everyone.

While a government commission was quickly created in Moscow and an action plan was discussed, in Chukotka local authorities tried to save the Chelyuskinites on their own. The very next day after the death of “Chelyuskin”, an emergency troika was created in the area, which included the chairman of the RIK Trudolyubov, the meteorologist of the Uellensky station Khvorostansky and the head of the border checkpoint in Dezhnev Pogorelov. The troika decided to mobilize 60 sledges and send them to Cape Onman, and from there straight across the ice to Schmidt’s camp. The path on the ice was 140-150 km, and 500 km from Cape Onman from Wellen. In a straight line from Wellen to the Schmidt camp - 265 km, from Cape Northern - 287 km. The plane had to indicate the direction to the sledges. Along the way they were going to drop food for dogs and food for people and convey all orders from it. Such an expedition, under the command of Khvorostansky, set out on February 14, taking 21 sledges from Uellen and planning to collect the rest along the way.

On February 18, the Wellen troika received a telegram signed by the chairman of the government commission, Kuibyshev, that Petrov had been appointed their chairman. From Wellen to Northern Cape - 750-800 km. The next day, by order of Kuibyshev, the head of the Chukotka checkpoint, A. Nebolsin, was added to the emergency troika. He arrived in Uellen on February 18 and did not approve of the expedition idea: “Gathering 60 sledges meant exposing the entire area. In addition, the expedition was supposed to take two months, its success is doubtful, and at this time, here on the spot without dogs, no other measures of assistance would be possible. We also had to remember the needs of the population. To mobilize all the dogs for two months would mean leaving the Chukchi without hunting, i.e. doom them to hunger." Soon Petrov ordered the detention of Khvorostansky’s expedition. Four days later, Nebolsin caught up with him halfway and ordered him to go to Cape Onman, choosing landing sites along the way and preparing food.

On February 28, they arrived at Onman, where the village of Ilkhetan and seven farms (yarang) were located. There was no connection here with other areas. Nebolsin prevented another attempt at an expedition to Schmidt's camp. The Northern Sea Route worker Yegoshin also wanted to immediately move to the ice camp, but the Chukchi refused to go with him. The idea of ​​creating a base on Cape Onman was rejected, limiting it to the installation of signal masts with flags on Onman and Kolyuchin Island. 35 km from Onmana there was the village of Vankarem, where there was a trading post, a school, and 12 farms. As a result, the commission decided to create a base in Vankarem. There was no landing site there yet. The emergency troika in Chukotka was tasked with using mobilized dog and deer transport to transport fuel to Vankarem. Fuel bases were located in Providence Bay, Wellen and Cape North. On the coast, the Chukchi did not use reindeer as transport; everything had to be carried by dogs; 15 dog sleds were allocated for this purpose. The normal load of one team is 150 kg, and in total they transported more than 6 tons of gasoline and 1.5 tons of oil. Only by March 9, the radio station and maintenance personnel were delivered to Vankarem on three sledges.

Along the coast we collected more than 100 sledges (about 1200 poods) of the main fuel - driftwood. 12 sleds were sent to the tundra for venison, but with the preparation of food for the Chelyuskinites arose special problem. The fact is that the Chukchi did not sell live reindeer; meat was welcome, but it still had to be transported. This was due to a local belief that arose due to the fact that at the beginning of the century, when the Chukchi sold live reindeer to Alaska, they experienced an epidemic and death of reindeer. With the help of local Komsomol members, they carried out explanatory work and concluded special agreements for the supply of meat by the Chukchi themselves in exchange for scarce goods.

From Petrov’s first reports, the commission came to the conclusion that local funds were not enough to save the Chelyuskinites, so they immediately outlined a number of measures. On the night of February 16, a decree was issued on the departure of pilots S.A. across Europe, the Atlantic Ocean and America to Alaska. Levanevsky and M.T. Slepneva, headed by the commissioner of the government commission G.A. Ushakov. Their task was to purchase two American 9-seater Consolidated Flitster passenger aircraft and fly from Alaska to Chukotka to rescue the Chelyuskinites. Both pilots had previously visited Alaska. Levanevsky, as already mentioned, took Mattern there, and Slepnev with flight mechanic F.B. In 1929, Farihom discovered the crash site of an American plane in Chukotka and transported the bodies of pilot Ben Eielson and flight mechanic Borland to Alaska. Already on the evening of the 17th, this group arrived in Berlin, from where a flight to London followed, then a transatlantic flight by ship to New York, a trans-American express to the Pacific coast, a ship to the north, a train to Canada, and finally a flight to Fairbanks, where they were already Two brand new Flitsters were waiting. Such a trip around the world was considered faster and more reliable than traveling around one’s home country.

The most numerous second group consisted of military pilots led by N.P. Kamanin, “reinforced” by experienced civilian pilots who had experience in the North. Originally it was B.C. Molokov, F.B. Farikh, V. Galyshev and Lipp. Kamanin took his colleagues Demirov and Bastanzhiev with him, and a little later they were joined by military pilots Gorelov and B. Pivenshtein with two P-5s. Initially, three P-5 groups of Kamanin were loaded onto the Smolensk steamer; on February 22, Kuibyshev received an order to load three more. But in the end, “Smolensk” left Vladivostok on March 2, having on board five R-5s and two U-2 pilots Pindyukov and Tishkov. Apparently, the “sharing” of the planes began even before departure, since Lipp and Galyshev remained on the shore.

“Flitster” by pilot M.A. Slepneva at the airfield in Vankarem

The latter a little later ended up in the third group formed from civilian pilots. Besides him and I.V. Doronin on two PS-4, M.V. entered it. Vodopyanov on R-5. Initially, this group was also going to be sent by steamship from Vladivostok, but they did not have time to board the “Sovet”, which went to Chukotka with two airships, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. Because of this, three planes “under their own power” reached Chukotka, starting an almost 6,000-km flight in Khabarovsk. This entire armada of ships and aircraft off the coast of Chukotka was supposed to be supported in the ice off the coast of Chukotka by the leader of the Soviet icebreakers "Krasin". By decision of the commission, he was sent on a circumnavigation of the world through two oceans and the Panama Canal. But while numerous “rescue forces” were urgently transferred to Chukotka, A.V. was closest to Schmidt’s camp. Lyapidevsky. The blizzard, which began on February 6, subsided only by the morning of the 18th. The thermometer shows -19°, not a cloud in the sky, no wind. In 40 minutes, the pilot flew to Wellen, where he boarded the first ANT-4 and flew. After takeoff, it was discovered that “the instruments were not working again. The saf, oil pressure gauge, and water thermometer do not work. In addition, the left engine was interrupted...” I had to return. The next attempt took place only on February 21 due to weather. Lyapidevsky, according to his calculations, flew to the camp, but did not find the ice floe with the Chelyuskinites: “This flight will be remembered for the rest of my life.” Having depleted the mixture to the limit, so that “shooting” began in the carburetors and having used up all the gasoline, the pilot, with the last drops, in sharply deteriorating weather at an altitude of 100-150 m, reached Wellen, landed on the move, breaking the landing gear in the process. Repairs required welding work, and there was no welder in Chukotka.

Using the second car, he made a number of more attempts to get to the camp, making a total of 36 flights during the expedition. These included one flight from Providence Bay to Lawrence Bay and only one flight to the camp. The remaining flights, as Lyapidevsky himself wrote, “were all unsuccessful, either the weather or something else.” He wrote that “on March 5 I became completely furious.” At a temperature of -36°, we heated water and oil in the evening and flew to camp at dawn. The crew, along with Lyapidevsky, included co-pilot Konkin, flight engineer Petrov and flight mechanic Rukovsky. The car was loaded with batteries, since Schmidt was running out of power for the radio station. The route was changed taking into account the experience of unsuccessful searches; Cape Serdtse-Kamen was used as a “lighthouse”, from there heading 56°. Petrov was the first to notice Schmidt’s camp and Babushkin’s plane on the ice floe. The site was 450 by 150 m, “all approaches to it were lined with high ropacas two or three meters long.” Having made two circles, Lyapidevsky managed to land successfully: “If I had missed a little, I would have climbed onto the ropaki.”

Having unloaded the batteries, deer carcasses, picks, crowbars, shovels, and loaded the discharged batteries, the pilots began to board the people. All women and children were taken on that flight - 12 people: “Boarding the women was more like loading. They were taken by the legs and arms and put on the plane... On the plane, the women sat cramped, but they still sat.” Due to a slight overload, the plane was moved by hand to the very edge of the cleared clearing. During the general enthusiasm, the captain of “Chelyuskin” was almost crippled: “Everyone got down to business so zealously that Voronin was hit on the hat with a propeller.”

The flight to the camp took 2 hours 15 minutes, we stayed in the camp for 1 hour 50 minutes, the return flight to Wellen took 2 hours 20 minutes. The successful flight gave everyone hope for a speedy rescue, but at the same time showed the need to move the main base to Vankarem as soon as possible. At best, it was possible to make one flight from Wellen per day, and from Vankarem, in good weather and proper organization of work, three. We constantly had to catch the weather. The next day it snowed again and a blizzard began. From March 10 to 13, in “variable” weather, Lyapidevsky “flew out every day, but returned due to the weather and due to engine malfunction.” On March 14, having replaced the carburetor of the left engine, he flew to Vankarem, taking on board 2200 kg of gasoline. The crew also included flight mechanic Kurov and mechanic Geraskin. After unloading, we planned to immediately fly to the camp, but did not even reach Vankarem. In the cold of -39° above the throat of Kolyuchinskaya Bay, the crankshaft of the left engine burst: “Suddenly, some extraneous sound struck my ears. A second - and the front part of the radiator began to move, the engine began to rattle, and the car fell heavily.” Having turned off the second engine, Lyapidevsky went to the forced ice. On the giant sastrugi, the plane traced its right wing across the ice. It turned out that the right vertical chassis truss had broken, the ears of the components were bent, and one eye of the axle shaft had come off. When examining the engine, we saw that the sub-engine frame was torn off, the ends of the radiator mounts had burst, and the front engine bolts and the radiator were actually held on by the hose connection. So Lyapidevsky turned from “savior No. 1” into a “victim”; he himself needed help. The Chukchi discovered them almost immediately and the next day they took them to Vankarem: “We came across endless lines of sledges that were returning from Vankarem after transporting gasoline.” During a snowstorm, the mast of the radio station there broke and the antenna was torn off. Therefore, until the 18th, the Lyapidevsky crew was considered dead throughout the world. Subsequently, Slepnev showed American newspapers with reports of their deaths.

On March 16, the emergency troika decided to first repair the Wellen ANT-4 No. 2, but in fact they began repairing the first machine on the ice of Kolyuchinskaya Bay. In Vankarem, after a conversation with Lyapidevsky, the head of the troika, Petrov, gave the order to deliver a disassembled spare M-17 engine by dogs from Cape Severny to Kolyuchin. It weighed about half a ton, and it was the heaviest load ever carried by dog ​​sleds. Kukanov on the U-2 took Lyapidevsky to Uellen for the sub-engine frame, but only on April 7 Slepnev delivered it to Vankarem on his Flitster, then on sledges to Kolyuchin.

While Lyapidevsky “worked as a supplier” and obtained spare parts, the rest of the crew began repairs. The entire “repair kit” consisted of one jack, a hand chisel, a blowtorch, two barrels and two two-meter logs. The Chukchi were brought in to help, there were nine people in total. To disassemble and remove the engine and repair the chassis, a large snow mountain was built. The engine was removed for five days. The vertical chassis truss, folded “into a ram’s horn,” had to be unbent and cooked, but instead, a “cold forge” was opened on a huge stone. In one of the yarangs they found a steel pipe with a diameter of about 60 mm, it seemed like a miracle. By the time Lyapidevsky arrived with the motor mount, the chassis had been repaired and they began installing the motor. There were not enough workers, but then sled parties of rescued Chelyuskinites began to move along the coast, three of them - V. Agapitov, G. Durasov and S. Leskov - remained with the plane and turned into repairmen. With the next batch, a message came about rewarding all participants in the epic and awarding Lyapidevsky the title of Hero. Finally, on April 23, the new motor was installed and tested. It took two more days to dig up the plane and prepare the runway. 42 days after the accident we flew to Wellen.

Lyapidevsky's accident disrupted all rescue plans. Ushakov's group sailed to America on February 28 and stayed in New York for 10 days. Negotiations on the purchase of aircraft dragged on, but Amtorg finally agreed with Pan American Company on the sale of two Flitsters. The pilots reached Fairbanks only on the 20th of March. During acceptance, the cars were repainted red, the American inscriptions were painted over, and “U.S.S.R.” was written in black on the wings. and, for Mauritius Slepnev - “M.S.”, and for Sigismund Levanevsky - “S.L”. The Americans were hired as flight mechanics: Clyde Armstedt to Levanevsky and Bill Lavery to Slepnev.

Due to the weather, Levanevsky and Ushakov managed to fly out of Fairbanks only on March 26, but only reached Nome on the 28th. Here Ushakov was already waiting for a telegram from a government commission concerned about the state of affairs: to immediately fly with Levanevsky to Vankarem, and wait for Slepnev in Nome until the situation clears up.

Having departed from Nome on March 29, Levanevsky, Ushakov and Armstidt never reached Vankarem. This flight and the accident that occurred were subsequently widely discussed, considering that Levanevsky had violated the order to land in Wellen. and flew to Vankarem without permission. Neither Ushakov nor Levanevsky confirms this “ticklish” point. Both write that, according to the report received in Nome, it was cloudless to Wellen, and in Vankarem the height of the lower edge was 500 m. According to Ushakov, “not noticing any warning signs over the Wellen airfield, the pilot directed the car further west to Vankarem.” Levanevsky himself wrote that he dropped to 150 m, but “no signals were posted at the airfield.” Having stumbled upon a large cloud wall over Kolyuchinskaya Bay, the pilot was unable to climb above it and switched to low level flight when the plane began to ice up. Having twice happily avoided a collision with the rocks, the pilot nevertheless knocked his right ski off a hummock, after which he made an emergency landing on the fuselage at Cape Onman. During landing, Levanevsky broke his head and lost consciousness, the rest were not injured. The plane was beyond repair, but there is information that later, after changing the engine, it was restored.

Having reached Vankarem on dogs, Ushakov took charge of the rescue efforts, and Levanevsky, having recovered a little, sent to the address “Moscow. Kremlin. Stalin" radiogram: "I feel efficient and ready to work again." It was later claimed that she expressed in pompous terms her readiness to further carry out government assignments. But he didn’t have a plane, so the pilot was taken by dogs to Wellen, he never got onto the ice floe and didn’t take anyone out of Schmidt’s camp. In the end, Levanevsky made two more flights in Chukotka. In one, he took a U-2 with an unreliable engine to Laurentia Bay to visit a patient with a doctor, and in another, at Petrov’s request, he drove “a heavy machine that he had never flown or seen closely” to Providence Bay to the steamer. She was sent because “the mechanic didn’t want to stay with her.” It is unclear whether it was a YUG-1 or a refurbished second ANT-4.

The second accident heated the situation in Chukotka to the limit. People were on the ice for a month and a half, and again the question of a rescue party with dogs arose. Such an expedition was prepared; it could set out within 2-3 days, but many weak and elderly people remained on the ice floe. It was necessary to transport at least 30-40 people on planes.

On March 31, Slepnev tried to make his way from Alaska to Chukotka, but due to bad weather he returned; he reached Wellen only on April 5. By this time, the population of the ice camp had decreased by two people: on April 2, pilot Babushkin and mechanic Valavin flew off the ice floe in their Sh-2. Those watching them experienced several unpleasant moments: “While still looking through binoculars, we saw that one of the plane’s skis was hanging. The entire population of Vankarem, watching the car as it landed, froze in anticipation of a disaster. It seemed that the hanging ski would inevitably fall into the snow and the plane would crash. However, at the very last moment, when the car lost speed, the ski straightened, and the plane easily slid onto the Vankarem airfield.”

As Ushakov writes, “a few minutes later the car was surrounded by spectators. The appearance... of her was so unusual that many, busy inspecting her, forgot to say hello to the arrivals... Babushkin’s plane, which traveled aboard the “Chelyuskin” from Murmansk, unloaded several times among the ice and was again loaded aboard the ship, was often damaged. He received no less damage in the ice camp. The plane was repaired either on board the Chelyuskin, or in even more difficult conditions of the ice camp. The nose was all broken and reconstructed from plywood and sealed with adhesive tape. The posts supporting the planes were broken and held together with thin twine. The chassis was also tied with twine, although of a larger diameter. The general appearance of the plane was more reminiscent of Trishkin’s famous caftan than a modern car.”

The Arctic “air wolf” Babushkin, who flew the most over polar ice in the harsh and capricious conditions of the polar night, I was eager to immediately return to camp. But given the condition of his car and the low carrying capacity, even in that situation they did not risk it. Ushakov appointed Babushkin as the head of the Vankarem airfield, and his plane was left in case of local flights and a possible dog trip, in order to show the party the direction and keep in touch with it.

The large-scale evacuation of people from the ice floe began only on April 7, when Slepnev, Kamanin and Molokov flew to Vankarem. Only two planes of Kamanin’s group managed to reach the ice camp; along the way they had many “adventures” and unpleasant “showdowns”. They started at Smolensk. The hope that the ship would take them to Providence Bay did not materialize due to heavy ice conditions. The steamship Stalingrad with two Sh-2s on board, which returned due to a lack of coal, was also stuck in Olyutorka. A “production meeting” of sailors and pilots from both ships was held in the Smolensk wardroom. There were many opinions: the sailors wanted to unload the planes, the pilots insisted on continuing the voyage. Molokov suggested that both captains try again. The chief mate of "Stalingrad" suggested going around the ice on the American coast, and Farikh was going to sail to America and fly from the American coast. The pilots from the shavrushki intervened in the dispute, wanting to fly on their own. As B. Pivenshtein wrote, “it was both funny and annoying. Everyone wanted to be their own boss.”

While the disputes were going on, the planes were unloaded ashore. The nervous situation led to a conflict between Kamanin and Farikh. He did not agree with the proposed route. According to Pivenshtein, the following dialogue took place in Kamanin’s cabin:

“Kamanin. ...So, Comrade Farikh. Do you refuse to march in formation and do not want to fly through the Gulf of Anadyr?
Farikh. Yes, I think there is no point in going in formation. In my opinion, it’s better to go around the Gulf of Anadyr. In general, why make the route mandatory for everyone?
Kamanin. Not having confidence in you, I am removing you from the flight.
Farikh (biting his lip). Okay, just tell the government first.
Kamanin. Let me know if you need it. I am responsible for my actions as a commander."

Farikh and Molokov were the most experienced in this “team”, but Kamanin’s army unity of command won. Although in the end Farikh turned out to be right, the Gulf of Anadyr had to be skirted along the coast, Kamanin, by removing him, risked little. He returned the plane to the pilot from his squadron, Bastanzhiev, and there was another “horseless” Gorelov, who flew as a flight mechanic. Judging by the memoirs of Molokov, who received a shabby “blue deuce”, “very old, and, they say, the engine has already 108 hours of flight time,” he was always afraid that the car would be taken away from him. Following the example of the commander, Pivenstein removed his navigator Ulyanov, who doubted the success, from participating in the expedition. He could not even imagine that the same fate would soon await him.

Five of Kamanin’s planes, loaded to the limit (each carried a navigator and a flight mechanic), began their flight from the harbor of the fish canning plant on March 21. We flew along the coast of Kamchatka and Chukotka along the route Maina Pylgin - Anadyr - Kainergin - Natapelmen - Valkalten - Providence Bay - Uellen - Vankarem with a length of more than 2500 km. Most of all, in those days they resembled musketeers, despite all the obstacles and losses of their comrades hurrying to England for diamond pendants. After the first flight, we lost Bastanzhiev’s plane, which failed to start due to dirty local gasoline. Molokov’s propeller spinner collapsed in flight and flew off; fortunately, the propeller survived. During the next flight, Demirov’s plane was lost in the clouds, which then landed on the Opukha River and waited out the snowstorm for several days. He returned to Maina Pylgin, from where he and Bastanzhiev tried to fly to Vankarem five times, but returned due to the weather. On April 1, they again flew to Anadyr, but in the fog they crashed into hills, one 15 km from the city, the second 50 km. Demirov's plane burned down, and upon impact Bastanzhiev was thrown about 30 meters with the gas sector in his hand. Luckily, no one was hurt. We reached the city safely in three days, only technician Romanovsky’s two frostbitten toes were amputated.

The remaining Kamanin trio took off from Anadyr on March 28 and tried to directly make their way to Vankarem through the mountain range, so the path was shortened by more than 1000 km, but due to the weather they did not take risks, and landed in the village of Kainergin in the Gulf of Anadyr. A second attempt to break through was made on April 1, but when about 60 km remained to Van-karem, at an altitude of 2800 m they were unable to overcome the cloud wall and returned. The gas supply was running out, so we took a detour along the coast. When Pivenstein’s plane had about 15 minutes of fuel left in its tanks, Kamanin went to land on the ice of the river near the village of Valkalten. Either due to the rough landing or the winding run on his plane, the shock-absorbing connecting rod of the landing gear burst. The remaining fuel was divided into two cars; Kamanin left the mechanic Anisimov and the pilot Pivenshtein assigned to him at his faulty plane, and then the two of them flew on. Subsequently, this “moral and ethical” situation was widely discussed. Pivenstein later wrote that he himself understood: “As a flight commander, Kamanin cannot do otherwise.” Molokov’s comments are interesting: “And again my mood is spoiled: I’m afraid that they might take my car away... That’s a thing of the past, but if they decided to take my car away, I wouldn’t give it back. The conditions of the North dictate their own laws...” There is a legend that Molokov had to defend his right to the car by “baring the trunk”...

While Pivenstein went for gasoline, Anisimov adapted a “connecting rod” carved from wood to the chassis. His main “merit” was the search for a piece of wood among the Chukchi yarangs. On a “wooden leg” they flew to Providence Bay, where by April 13 the landing gear was repaired. On this day, a snowstorm began that lasted a week. An attempt on April 21 to fly further due to bad weather ended in an emergency landing and a broken center section tape. While traveling with dogs for repairs, we learned that the rescue work had been completed. However, Pivenstein still made it to Wellen, where he learned that he had been awarded the Order of the Red Star. To rejoice among those “resting on their laurels,” he “with his old car” flew six times from Wellen to Providence Bay and twice from Providence Bay to Lawrence Bay, transferring 22 people in total.

Kamanin and Molokov flew to Wellen, where they could announce their arrival via radio station, on April 5. On the 7th, together with Slepnev, they flew to Vankarem and immediately flew to the camp. Slepnev’s “Flitster” was faster, its maximum speed was 265 km/h, cruising speed was 200-210 km/h. Therefore, two P-5s took off first, and 15 minutes later Ushakov took off with Slepnev, loading a team of dogs onto the plane. It was believed that the dogs would transport cargo from the camp to the airfield and would be able to get to the place of emergency landing, but, apparently, they were preparing for a sleigh expedition. Soon they caught up with both R-5s, but then the engine on Kamanin’s car malfunctioned. Ushakov noted that “a dark tail of smoke was writhing behind the car.” Navigator M. Shelyganov wrote that the gasoline supply was disrupted. The plane almost landed on the hummocks, but about 20 meters from the ice the engine started working normally, and they returned safely to Vankarem. Molokov accompanied them on the second R-5.

Thus, Slepnev’s “Flitster” became the second aircraft, after Lyapidevsky’s ANT-4, to fly to the camp. Let me remind you that more than a month has passed since that moment. However, an accident occurred during landing. Having made several circles in a crosswind, Slepnev, as Ushakov wrote, “flighted the plane, cutting off the line of wind direction. The car quickly passed the cleared area, flew into the ropaki and, already losing speed, began to make jumps. Thanks to the braking devices on the skis, the pilot was sometimes able to avoid oncoming ropes. Finally, the car made a big leap upward and stood motionless near a large ropak, like a wounded bird, raising its right wing high and placing its left wing on the ice.”

First of all, the dogs were thrown out of the plane so as not to interfere with the inspection of the damage. This shocked the Chelyuskinites, who watched the landing through binoculars from the signal tower: “They saw the car jumping over the ropes and finally stopped in a clearly emergency position. Not knowing about our fate, they tried to use binoculars to see the appearance of living beings from the plane, but when these living beings appeared, the Chelyuskinites involuntarily began to wipe the glasses of the binoculars: living beings that got out of the plane ran away from it on all fours...” Having blinded this landing in no way commented, writing only that “... the ties on my plane broke. It needed to be repaired."

Half an hour later, when the Chelyuskin men were dragging his car to level ground like barge haulers, Molokov and Kamanin arrived. Kamanin sat down normally, and Molokov turned around in front of the ropaks and started the car at a spin. The landing gear and skis were saved, but the center section shackle was torn off. He tied her with a rope. That day, two planes took five people off the ice floe. Ushakov and Slepnev’s plane remained in the camp. The next day, in the fog, Molokov did not make it into the camp, and at night the ice began to compress and hummocking. The ice wall almost collapsed on the camp, dying down just fifteen meters from the tents. The airfield was completely destroyed. On April 9, while the Chelyuskinites were repairing the plane, a new site was cleared a kilometer away, but while they were getting ready to move the car, a crack of several meters appeared. Within an hour, an ice bridge was “built” across it. While forty Chelyuskinites were dragging the car to the bridge, a new compression began, and an ice shaft several meters high formed at the crossing site. Having cut a hole, the plane was dragged to a new airfield, and there the end of the runway was torn off.

At this time, Ushakov and everyone were very worried about O.Yu.’s sharply deteriorating health. Schmidt. He was delirious, his temperature rose above 39°, but he did not want to fly away. The question of waiting until he lost consciousness and evacuating him like that was seriously discussed. But they didn’t go for it. On April 10, as soon as the weather cleared and the “air bridge” started working again, Ushakov returned to Vankarem and gave a telegram to Kuibyshev. The next day, after a categorical order from above, Molokov took Schmidt and the doctor out on the fourth “unscheduled” flight. Spare parts were brought to Slepnev and he flew off the ice floe, putting five people in the 9-seater Flitster. They didn’t want to take any more risks with “imported equipment purchased for foreign currency,” and on April 12, Slepnev and Ushakov took the sick Schmidt to Nome, Alaska, for treatment.

April 10 and 11 turned out to be decisive days. Kamanin and Molokov, as if competing, flew continuously and took out more than 50 people; only 28 people remained on the ice floe. In those days, pilots significantly increased the “passenger capacity” of their two-seat P-5s. Quickly calculating that 3 people per flight would be a lot to fly, they began putting passengers into underwing parachute boxes. If on April 7 no one wanted to fly in them, then on the 10th a lean sailor was the first to sit in the box: “They put him in there head first, folded the man’s arms and, like a Whitehead mine, pushed him into a narrow box... It wasn’t particularly spacious for him to lie, but, perhaps it’s better than four people sitting in one cabin.” Molokov even tried to place one on his lap and pedals, but this idea had to be abandoned. In one flight, 4-5, and even 6 people were taken out, and they sat in the parachute boxes more willingly than in the cockpit.

On April 12, Vankarem’s “aircraft fleet” was replenished with aircraft from Doronin and Vodopyanov. Their entire unprecedented flight from Khabarovsk took place under the motto “At least they had time to get one out.” At the beginning of 1934, Vodopyanov flew in a special detachment to deliver matrixes of the Pravda newspaper from Moscow. After his accident last year in the area of ​​Lake Baikal, he gradually prepared for new long-distance flights. Under the guise of an “experimental flight”, with the help of Komsomol members of aircraft factory No. 89, he equipped his P-5 for long-distance flights: he installed an additional gas tank, heated drainage pipes, etc. In mid-February, during the XVII Party Congress, Vodopyanov flew four times with matrices from Moscow to Leningrad. He was denied an attempt to fly to the aid of the Chelyuskinites, and a flight to the Caspian Sea was scheduled for February 26 to rescue fishermen from the ice floe. Only a written appeal “to the editors of Pravda” to Comrade Mehlis helped. From Pravda drummer pilot Vodopyanov.” On the eve of the flight, he was picked up in the middle of the night and sent by train to Khabarovsk, where his plane was also delivered. Here Vodopyanov met with Doronin and Galyshev.

I. Doronin with flight mechanics Y. Savin and V. Fedotov and two cars were sent on March 1 from Irkutsk to Vladivostok, where V. Galyshev had previously flown. When they got there, it turned out that Smolensk had already left, but Galyshev remained. In the confusion, the planes were sent at “low speed,” so they soon decided to delay the planes in Khabarovsk and fly from there.

The aircraft were assembled by the best technical team of the Far Eastern Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the leadership of engineer Petrov. The chief engineer of the department, Filippovich, and the head of the department, Polyakov, took the most direct part. The brigade included engineer Linderman, aircraft technician Tyutin, senior technician Samofalov, technicians Bezymyansky, Domkin, Nygarden, mechanics Chernenko, Shishkin, Zuev, Konoplev, Zhuravlev, Schastlivtsev, tankers Sokolov, Kazakov, Varlamov, political department workers Monichev and Kuznetsov. For six days they worked 16 hours, some even 27-33 hours. By March 16, additional gas and oil tanks were installed on all vehicles and tested in the air. Galyshev was appointed flight commander, Doronin was appointed deputy.

The group started on March 17, and before Nikolaevsk they were led by the pilot of the local airline Khabarovsk - Sakhalin Ivanov. Flight mechanics Alexandrov and Ratushkin flew with Vodopyanov. The R-5, faster than the Junkers, created additional problems. From the very first section, Vodopyanov returned to Khabarovsk, afraid of colliding in the fog. All this was perceived as a good sign and the “maturation” of Vodopyanov himself, known for his daring. Sometimes lagging behind the Junkers, sometimes overtaking them, and sometimes flying together in some areas, the pilots reached Anadyr by April 4. Their flight, 5850 km long, followed the route Khabarovsk - N.-Tambovsk - Nikolaevsk - Shantar Islands - Ayan - Okhotsk - Nogaevo - Gizhiga - Kamenskoye - Anadyr. There were almost no “adventures” along the way, but there was one breakdown in Gizhiga.

Giving instructions on the preparation of airfields, they suggested lining their boundaries with pine needles and branches. Here they overdid it and covered it with thick logs, and the panels of the landing “T” across the runway, so as not to be blown away by the wind, were also covered with logs. Vodopyanov, who arrived first, noticed suspicious spots from the air and ceded the “right of the first night” (landing) to Doronin, who, after several jumps, broke the landing gear and sat on his stomach. The rest sat down normally.

There were spare parts, there were enough mechanics, the car was repaired in one day, but there was a blizzard for four days. On April 11, in Anadyr they learned that Molokov and Kamanin were taking people off the ice. We urgently decided to fly directly to Vankarem, but it turned out that the gas pump on Galyshev’s plane did not hold pressure. It took at least a day to remove it (it was necessary to raise the engine). Vodopyanov took off first, Doronin waited for about an hour, maybe he would need some spare parts, but Galyshev himself suggested that he fly: “Fly away, you are needed there. We can handle this ourselves.” Three planes carried a welding machine for Lyapidevsky, its parts were transferred from Galyshev to Doronin. On the same day, he flew to Vankarem, and Vodopyanov “missed” while flying over the ridge and ended up on Cape Severny. This made everyone very happy, since the fuel supply in Vankarem was coming to an end, and in Severny there was a fuel base. The next day Vodopyanov and Pronin flew to the camp. The landing was normal, but on takeoff, Doronin’s plane with four Chelyuskinites jumped and lay on its side. It turned out that the stand had broken, broken in Gizhiga or somewhere along the route. In addition, the ball head of the landing gear burst in the neck, and the crutch broke. The Chelyuskinites had a lot of experience in repairing Babushkin’s plane, and work soon began to boil. They “ordered” a ball joint and tools for Kamanin, borrowed a crowbar from the Chelyuskinites, and with great difficulty sawed it into three pieces. Two hours later, Kamanin returned “with the order”; flight mechanic Ya. Savin inserted the pieces of scrap into the crutch and stand and assembled everything. Out of caution, only two were taken on board. They took off normally, but after takeoff Doronin did not find the skis in place. It turned out that at the end of the run, pieces of scrap flew out and the ski hung on the shock absorber. During landing, the plane, having lost speed, plowed its left wing through the snow, but everything turned out okay. In addition to Doronin, that day Kamanin and Vodopyanov took out 20 people, leaving only six on the ice floe. Molokov did not fly on April 12 while repairing a radiator.

By morning the landing gear was properly repaired, but there was no need to fly onto the ice floe - everyone was taken out. Then the passenger PS-4 was used to transport the sick and weak from Vankarem to Providence Bay. On the second flight with three patients, the fuel pump, clogged with snow, failed, as before with Galyshev. Having landed on the forced one, cleared it and, together with a healthy passenger, trampled the runway in the snow, we took off successfully. From Wellen, Doronin flew five times and transported about 20 people.

On the night of April 13, in Vankarem they were very worried about the remaining six - radio operators Krenkel and Ivanov, captain Voronin, boatswain Zagorsky, Schmidt’s deputy Bobrov and “chief of the airfield” Pogosov remained on the ice floe. Many, especially the local population, were very concerned about the fate of the dogs on the ice floe; they were one of the best in the area. In the end, they even sent lightning about the dogs to the camp. In the morning, Vodopyanov was the first to go to the camp, but did not find the camp and returned. Many began to get nervous, and the chairman of the troika, Petrov, even shouted at the mechanics: “Why are you digging around, why aren’t you flying?” Kamanin tried to calm him down, but everyone breathed a sigh of relief only when three planes of Kamanin, Molokov and Vodopyanov reached the camp in the fog. All the people and dogs were taken out, and Vodopyanov was not even too lazy to pick up and bring back a “souvenir” - pieces of scrap that flew out of the landing gear of Doronin’s plane.

Thus ended the “heroic epic”, the “working” part remained - to evacuate everyone from Vankarem. Despite the fact that they even organized a “socialist competition” for the cleanliness of the yarangas - they were swept, the walrus skins were cleaned, washed, aired, and the Chelyuskinites themselves later said that Vankarem was the cleanest village, no one wanted to stay there. Healthy people were collected in batches of 10-12 people, given 3-4 sledges, a guide, and sent to Uellen and the Laurentian Bay. On April 10-13, the parties of Stakhanov (5 people), Rytsk (15), Filippov (12), Shirshov (8) and Buyko (13) set out on the road. They walked from 9 to 16 days. By this time, “Smolensk” had made its way into Providence Bay with the help of “Krasin”; on the way to it from “Sovet” they overloaded all the “aeronautical-airplane-all-terrain” transport, but it was not needed. In the general bustle, the flight of the pilot Svetogorov from Fr. went completely unnoticed. Matvey in the Bering Sea to Wellen on the “shavrushka” - this is about 350 km above the slush ice in the ocean. Vankarem was “closed” by border guard Nebolsin on April 26. He rode through the camps and yarangas on dogs, paying the Chukchi for the work done. He paid about 50,000 rubles in money. In addition, for personal bonuses, they allocated wood and iron necessary for the construction of yarangs, guns, binoculars, which, like a hard drive, are the most valuable thing for the Chukchi, with which he tracks down the beast. As Nebolsin wrote, “I must say, the Chukchi fully deserved all this, they worked truly selflessly, sparing neither themselves nor the dogs. But for the Chukchi, dogs are the most precious thing he has. ...It seems to me that many people still underestimate the major role that dogs played in saving the Chelyuskin residents. After all, it was the dogs that made it possible for aviation to engage only in its immediate business - removing the Chelyuskinites from the camp. Having reached Vankarem, the planes no longer needed to be diverted for any other flights other than flights to the camp. All the auxiliary work - the delivery of fuel, oil, the transfer of the first batches of people to Uellen - was done by dogs. But in our conditions, every extra plane flight, especially over long distances, meant an extra possibility of an accident, an extra risk of losing the plane. About 1,000 dogs were involved in the rescue operations of the Chelyuskinites. Among them were not only Chukchi dogs, but also border guard dogs. It’s hard to even take into account the enormous amount of work the dogs have done.” Some of the dog sleds have run up to 13,000 km. Nebolsin himself traveled at least 3,000 km on dogs. Fatigue of the dogs led to the cancellation of the sled dog races that were regularly held on May 1st. Nebolsin's team, which claimed championship, had previously usually covered the Uellen-Lavrentiy route in ten hours, but in May dragged along empty for exactly 24 hours.

On May 1, we limited ourselves to a demonstration in Uellen; there were a lot of people, and the “tribune” was the wing of Lyapidevsky’s plane. The political resonance from the rescue operation throughout the world was enormous, but the most curious thing was the strong impression the planes made on the Chukchi, who had never seen them in such numbers. As Nebolsin wrote, “The Chukchi know most about America. Many of them sailed on American schooners, most of them came into contact with the Americans who traded in Chukotka and bought furs until 1930. They saw American planes in 1929, when with their help the Americans exported furs to Alaska. There was talk among them that our Russian planes would not be able to do anything. Maybe it's the American ones!.. Outwardly, our planes really looked quite rough next to the American ones. But when the opportunity arose to compare them in work, the results turned out completely different. Here Levanevsky arrives in a plane as beautiful as a picture and is almost smashed to pieces. And then Lyapidevsky boards a Russian plane and repairs the damage without much difficulty.

Slepnev, Kamanin and Molokov arrive. Their cars differ from each other like heaven from earth. Slepnev’s American plane flew in from Alaska, where there is an airfield and hangars. He was all shiny. And right there next to them stood the cars of Molokov and Kamanin, who spent two months in the open air. The planes were dirty, covered in oil, peeling, with paint cracked from 50-degree frosts. When landing, the cars demonstrated their qualities. Slepnev's plane zoomed in with enormous mileage. He climbed straight onto the hummock and was unable to turn, as the car was difficult to turn while taxiing. The people who ran up had to help turn the car around. At the same time, Kamanin came down and sat down safely. Molokov spun around and sat down as if he had lived on this site all his life. I stopped as if I had arrived on the dogs, exactly where I needed it. The Chukchi saw how Slepnev flew to the camp and did not return for three days. And Molokov and Kamanin carry everything and carry it.

Faith in the impeccable properties of all things coming from America was greatly shaken. But with great attention the Chukchi began to listen to stories about the achievements of Soviet industry.”

Dispassionate statistics confirm this conclusion. Most of all - 9 flights each on the ice floe were made by "Old Man" and "Young Man" (as the Chukchi christened Molokov and Kamanin; they were not interested in the names of the pilots). The first took out 39 people on the R-5, the second - 34. Vodopyanov took out 10 people on the R-5 in three flights, the rest: Lyapidevsky (ANT-4) - 1 flight (12 people), Slepnev (Flitster) - 1 flight (5), Doronin (PS-4) - 1 flight (2), Babushkin (Sh-2) - 1 one-way flight (2 people). Only the simple and reliable R-5s flew off without major damage, although the tension bands in the center section were constantly breaking. Without them, neither ANT-4, nor the “Americans”, nor the “Germans” would have done anything. The Chelyuskinites lived on the ice floe for exactly two months, waiting for the weather and planes. All the pilots who flew to the camp received the title of Hero, plus Levanevsky “for diplomatic reasons,” minus Babushkin “who saved himself” (he later received this title for participating in the expedition to the North Pole). The rest received orders. The experience of using aircraft acquired in such difficult conditions was very important. Lyapidevsky later wrote about the operation of engines in the North: “There are no air bases in Chukotka, flight mechanics had to heat water for the engine by cutting out the bottom of a gasoline barrel. This barrel was inserted into another barrel with a door cut out at the bottom. They heated it with driftwood and poured oil on it. And when there was no driftwood, water had to be poured into cans and heated with blowtorches. The engines had to be heated with felt and asbestos, and we lined the oil tanks with sheepskin and reindeer fur. At low temperatures, the specific gravity of gasoline changes especially sharply. But we eliminated this by appropriate selection of jets.” After he delivered a water-oil heater from Wellen to Vankarem “with transfers”, from the beginning of April it worked around the clock, this significantly simplified the launch and increased the number of flights.

“What kind of motor is needed for the North? - wrote Lyapidevsky. - Here I express only my point of view. In my opinion, the North needs an air-cooled motor of the Wright-Cyclone type with self-starting Eclipse. With such a motor, there will be no need for hot water, which is very difficult to obtain during forced landings.

What kind of aircraft do you need to operate in winter conditions? In my opinion, it is light, single-engine, and does not require a large crew. The aircraft must have a powerful engine and a large payload ratio. Of course, it is mandatory to have a radio installation on the plane. Flight uniforms are best made from fawn (young deer). The fawn is very soft and warm. The aircraft cabin must be closed and insulated. This is not only important for the crew, but also for the accurate operation of the instruments.” Unlike other pilots, who sparingly mentioned their breakdowns, Lyapidevsky wrote a lot about them. Perhaps because of this, right during the ceremonial meeting in Moscow, at the Mausoleum, he had an unpleasant conversation with the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze. He asked: “Why are you unhappy with the engines?” Lyapidevsky replied: “I am satisfied with the engines, but the engine that I had in Chukotka cut without a knife, sucked out all the blood, one might say, drove me into gray hair!”

The ceremonial meeting of the Chelyuskinites all the way from Vladivostok, where they were taken on the steamer "Stalingrad", to Moscow was grandiose. The pilots even complained that there were many Chelyuskinites, and there were few of them, so they had to be “on duty” often - they had to go out at each station around the clock and accept congratulations and gifts.

Happyend The Chelyuskin epic, which literally the whole world watched with bated breath, showed everyone “the high professionalism, courage, bravery and fortitude of all the people who took part in it - both Chelyuskin residents and rescuers. The Chelyuskin epic remains in our memory as an example of nobility, courage and courage. The unparalleled skill of Soviet pilots and the technical perfection of Soviet aircraft evoked enthusiastic responses all over the world.”

It is no coincidence that the Chief Political Commissar of the Red Army, Lev Mehlis, wrote in the preface to the collection “How We Saved the Chelyuskinites,” published “hot on the heels” after the return of the participants in the heroic epic to Moscow, the following: “Literally tens of millions of people warily followed the heroic struggle of the fearless detachment of the Chelyuskinites, led by Bolshevik-scientific comrade Schmidt. New person, raised by the great Country of the Soviets, took an exam in front of the whole world for stamina, endurance, and the ability for collective action in the conditions of the greatest tragedy - the death of “Chelyuskin”. Will the expedition members withstand such a long ice captivity? Will they lose self-control, and will they not suffer the fate of many, many expeditions, when everyone saved themselves personally, and the majority died?

The news of the death of the steamship Chelyuskin and the people on the ice floe literally spread like lightning Earth and shocked the whole world. As L. Mekhlis argued, “even bourgeois figures who were sympathetic to the Chelyuskinites were pessimistic about the situation. Many recalled the tragic death of Amundsen, who flew out on a seaplane to save Nobile’s northern expedition. They considered the death of all or most of the participants in Schmidt's expedition inevitable. “Rapid rescue by aircraft,” wrote the Prager Press, “is impossible, not only because in such remote places there are never sufficient numbers of the necessary aircraft, but also because the time of year discourages flight: fog, snowstorms, strong winds.” . The Danish newspaper Politiken hastened to print an obituary dedicated to the glorious leader of the Chelyuskinites, Otto Yulievich Schmidt. “On the ice floe,” she wrote, “Otto Schmidt met an enemy whom no one could defeat before. He died as a hero, a man whose name will live among the conquerors of the Arctic Ocean."

Mehlis did not forget how “the fascist press laughed at the Bolshevik rescue plan. “Velkischer Beobachter,” a nasty National Socialist officialdom, wrote that “the measures taken so far to save the Chelyuskinites are being carried out too hastily and without a plan.” But no matter what measures you take, nothing will work for the Bolsheviks. The planes are sent to certain death, they are faced with icing, “every landing is a risk and depends on a lucky chance.” We need to leave people to their own devices. Do not maintain radio contact with the Schmidt camp, the Völkischer Beobachter insists, because “from a psychological point of view, a radio installation is harmful because it arouses false hopes in the castaways, which will not be realized later.” Go on foot, the enemy urged, maybe then something will succeed. The expedition members showed an unrivaled example of perseverance and discipline. They have passed the global exam.”

“We will not sacrifice a single person to the Arctic” - this was Stalin’s password. And the Bolshevik organization launched an offensive against the ice, the storm, the harsh winter of Chukotka, and the Anadyr ridge.”

The political significance of Chelyuskin’s epic was most accurately reflected by G.A. Ushakov, together with the recovered O.Yu. Schmidt returned to Moscow “along the western” route: “...And let our enemies remember: if Soviet pilots in Soviet aircraft managed to fly to Schmidt’s camp, then they will be able to fly to the capitalist camp... Let them remember that our homeland, if necessary, with the same ease, instead of seven, it can give millions of heroes”...

The fates of the pilots - the first Heroes and the “main losers” - turned out differently. At first, upon arrival in Moscow, they were not even particularly distinguished. As Mekhlis wrote, “...the best people rose to the call of the government - Lyapidevsky, Levanevsky, Molokov, Kamanin, Slepnev, Vodopyanov, Doronin, Galyshev, Pivenshtein...”

Praised by Mehlis as “an exemplary student of the glorious Red Army” N.P. Kamanin “distinguished himself” twice - first, strengthening unity of command, he removed the most experienced polar pilot F.B. from flying. Fariha, then, having “unfolded” his plane at the landing, took the car away from B.A. Pivenshtein.

Farikh Fabio Brunovich (1896-1985) volunteered to join the Red Army in 1918, took part in the Civil War and after demobilization in 1923-1928. worked as a mechanic on the Central Asian Air Lines of the Civil Air Fleet. In 1928, Farikh graduated from the Moscow school of flight mechanics and began flying in the crew of the experienced polar pilot M.T. Slepnev, mastering the air line Irkutsk - Yakutsk.

In 1930, the crew of Slepnev-Farikh found the wreckage of the plane and the bodies of the missing American pilots Eielson and Borland in the Chukotka region. At the request of the Americans, our pilots delivered the remains of the dead to Alaska. In the same year, Farikh graduated from the Moscow Aviation School of the Civil Air Fleet and received the right to fly independently.

In the 1930s in the Arctic, as a ship commander, Farikh made several difficult flights, including the first long-distance flight on the newly opened Krasnoyarsk-Dudinka route (1931) and the first flight on the newly opened Moscow-Arkhangelsk-Ust-Kut route on airplane K-5 (1932). The flights took place in difficult weather conditions, without maps or navigation support.

In 1932, Farikh received the task of flying to Vaygach Island and bringing the head of the OGPU expedition, F. Eichsmann, to Moscow. Due to poor weather conditions, which led to forced landings and failure of equipment, the mission took several months. For carrying out this work in difficult conditions, by Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in August 1934, Farikh was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

In 1934, after failure to save the Chelyuskinites, F.B. Farikh made a flight from Cape Schmidt to Wrangel Island in winter conditions. In 1935-1936 he served in the propaganda squadron named after. Maxim Gorky.

In 1937, from February 9 to June 14, the G-1 "N-120" aircraft with the crew of F.B. Farikh and three passengers flew along the route Moscow - Kazan - Sverdlovsk - Omsk - Novosibirsk - Krasnoyarsk - Irkutsk - Verkholensk - Yakutsk - Anadyr - coast of the Arctic Ocean - Amderma - Arkhangelsk - Yaroslavl - Moscow, covering 23,000 km, making 47 landings. This was the first flight on a Soviet-designed aircraft across all of Siberia and along the entire Northern Sea Route. The crew members were awarded orders, Farikh received “his” Order of Lenin. That same year, the pilot took part in the search for Levanevsky’s plane, but without success.

In November 1939, Major F.B. Farikh was drafted into the ranks of the Air Force, he took part in, trained young pilots, and flew combat missions in the rear of the Finnish army. During the Great Patriotic War Lieutenant Colonel Farikh made eighteen combat missions deep behind enemy lines and was testing new types of aircraft. In 1944 there was awarded the order Patriotic War 2nd degree.

In the post-war years, Farikh worked on the Arctic air routes - transporting mail, cargo, and passengers. On July 1, 1948, he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in forced labor camps as an “enemy of the people.” Only on July 26, 1956, Farikh was released, completely rehabilitated and restored to his rights. In 1957, due to health reasons, he left the air fleet. From 1962 to 1975, the former outstanding polar pilot F.B. Farikh worked as a standard setter and then as a watchman at the Krasny Metalist plant.

Fabio Brunovich Farikh died in Moscow on June 2, 1985 at the age of 89, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

No less interesting and tragic is the fate of another Kamanin “godson” - Boris Abramovich Pivenshtein, born in 1909 in Odessa. In 1937, Pivenstein also participated in the search for Levanevsky’s missing plane, in November on the island. Rudolph was replaced by Vodopyanov's detachment as a pilot and secretary of the party committee of the ANT-6 squadron.

Before the war, Pivenstein lived in the infamous house on the Embankment. There is a museum in it where he is listed as killed at the front.

Since the beginning of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Pivenstein was at the front, commanding the 503rd assault air regiment(shap). And here he was unlucky: after an accidental strike on one of the air groups, the leader was court-martialed, and the regiment commander was demoted and appointed commander of the 504th squadron. It was formed in Voronezh at the beginning of September 1941 on the basis of the 103rd short-range bomber regiment. In 1941-1942. The regiment successfully fought on the Volkhov and Bryansk fronts; on March 18, 1943, it received the honorary title of Guards and was reorganized into the 74th Guards Regiment.

Commander Pivenstein also fought bravely, in particular during the most difficult period Battle of Stalingrad during two weeks of fighting, he flew about one and a half dozen combat missions.

And again misfortune. Soon after receiving the Guards banner, in April 1943, the Nazis shot down an attack aircraft of the Guard Lieutenant Colonel Pivenshtein and the Guard Sergeant Major A.M. in the sky of Donbass. Kruglova. The crew was captured. At the time of capture, the wounded Pivenstein tried to shoot himself. Kruglov died while trying to escape from the camp.

By the way, Pivenstein’s “godson”, General N.P. Kamanin, at that time, commanded the assault air corps and, naturally, did not personally fly on combat missions.

However, there is also evidence that Pivenstein voluntarily flew over to the Nazi side, and he is even named among the active employees of Lieutenant Colonel G. Holters, the head of one of the intelligence units at the Luftwaffe headquarters.

Historian V. Zvyagintsev managed to discover in the archives materials from the court proceedings in the case of B.A. Pivenshtein, from which it follows that until 1950 he was actually listed as missing, and his family, who lived in Moscow, received a pension from the state. But soon the state security authorities established that Pivenstein, “until June 1951, living in the territory of the American zone of occupation of Germany in the mountains. Wiesbaden, being a member of the NTS, served as secretary of the Wiesbaden emigrant committee and was the head of the temple, and in June 1951 he left for America ... ".

On April 4, 1952, the Military Collegium convicted B.A. in absentia. Pivenshtein under Art. 58-1 paragraph “b” and 58-6 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and sentenced to death with confiscation of property and deprivation of military rank. The verdict stated: “Pivenstein in 1932-1933, while on military service in the Far East, had a criminal connection with the resident of German intelligence Waldman. In 1943, being the commander of an air squadron, he flew out on a combat mission to the rear of the Germans, from where he did not return to his unit...

While in the pilot prisoner-of-war camp in Moritzfeld, Pivenstein worked in the Vostok counterintelligence department, where he interviewed Soviet pilots captured by the Germans, treated them in an anti-Soviet spirit and persuaded them to betray the Motherland.

In January 1944, Pivenstein was sent by the German command to the counterintelligence department stationed in Koenigsberg...”

The verdict further noted that Pivenstein’s guilt in treason and collaboration with German counterintelligence was proven by the testimony of arrested traitors to the Motherland B.C. Moskalets, M.V. Tarnovsky, I.I. Tenskova-Dorofeev and the documents available in the Case. This whole “Case” is clearly fabricated, but nevertheless...

The further fate of B.A. Pivenshtein after his departure to America is unknown.

Based on materials: Anatoly Demin. Glory to the heroic pilots or... Ode to sled dogs and extraordinary troikas (forgotten pages of Chelyuskin’s epic) // Legends and myths of domestic aviation. Digest of articles. Editor-compiler A.A. Demin. Issue 4. - M., 2012.

How are the fates of the Soviet pilots who were the first to receive the highest honorary title of the USSR similar and different?

The first Heroes of the Soviet Union - seven people - were, naturally, pilots. In the young Soviet Russia, striving with all its might to become one of the leaders of the industrial world, had a special attitude towards aviation. It became for the pre-war USSR what cosmonautics was for the post-war USSR: a romantic dream of conquering a new living space. After all, the country itself was in many ways an attempt to make the dream of a new, previously unknown life come true. So where else to rave about the sky if not in such a world?!

The same romantic dream, only slightly inferior to the dream of heaven, was the idea of ​​​​the development of sea spaces, and the culmination, the simultaneous embodiment of both of these ideas was the work on the development of the Russian North. And there is absolutely nothing strange in the fact that the first Heroes of the Soviet Union were polar aviation pilots who saved participants in the most daring polar expedition of the first half of the 1930s. On the contrary, it would be surprising if it turned out differently, if the first were not the pilots who took out Mainland crew and passengers of the sunken steamship "Chelyuskin".

Seven heroes of Chelyuskin's epic

The greatest heroism, for the sake of which the highest award of the USSR was established, would not have happened without the greatest catastrophe. It was the first and last voyage of the Chelyuskin steamship. On March 11, 1933, it was launched under the name “Lena”, on June 19 it was renamed “Chelyuskin” in honor of the legendary Russian explorer of the North Semyon Chelyuskin, and on July 16 it set off on a voyage along the Northern Sea Route.

“Chelyuskin” had to go from Murmansk to Vladivostok - the future home port - in one navigation and thereby prove that such trips are possible. Maybe not alone, but with the support of icebreakers, but possible. This was important for a country that was gaining industrial momentum: the Northern Sea Route saved significant effort and money on delivering goods to the Far East. Alas, the expedition actually proved the opposite: without serious icebreaker support and without ships specially built for the Arctic, it is impossible to count on success during one navigation.

The steamship "Chelyuskin" during its voyage in 1933 from the White Sea to Pacific Ocean was caught among drifting ice and sank in the Chukchi Sea

On September 23, 1933, after two months of sailing, the Chelyuskin was completely covered in ice, and on February 13, 1934, the ice crushed the ship, and it sank within two hours. But only one person became the victim of the disaster. The expedition's caretaker, Boris Mogilevich, who was among the last to leave the ship (together with captain Vladimir Voronin and the head of the expedition, Otto Schmidt), was crushed by a deck cargo that had fallen from its fastenings. Another 104 people managed to safely land on the ice with all the equipment necessary for wintering and began to wait for help from the mainland.

It was absolutely clear that the only way to quickly evacuate the Chelyuskinites was to remove them by plane. It was pointless to send another ship to help: it would take a long time and there was no guarantee that it would arrive before the ice began to break under the winterers. To ensure the success of the rescue operation, seven of the most experienced pilots of the newly emerging polar aviation were involved in the flights: Mikhail Vodopyanov, Ivan Doronin, Nikolai Kamanin, Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Sigismund Levanevsky, Vasily Molokov and Mauritius Slepnev - the future first Heroes of the Soviet Union.

The first 12 people were evacuated on March 5 by Anatoly Lyapidevsky on an ANT-4 plane. It was possible to reach the Chelyuskinites for the second time only on April 7, and within six days, on 24 flights, all the winterers were taken to the mainland, to the Chukotka village of Vankarem. The evacuation ended on April 13. Three days later the Supreme Council established a new highest award USSR - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and four days later, on April 20, it was awarded to seven polar explorer pilots. Each of them deserves a short, but separate story - in the order in which all seven were awarded a certificate of conferment of the highest degree of distinction.

The very first: Anatoly Lyapidevsky (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 1)

Anatoly Lyapidevsky, who received the highest honor - to be the first among the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, was one of the youngest (younger than him, and only by a year, only Kamanin) members of the legendary seven. He came to aviation in 1927, graduating from the Leningrad Air Force Military Theoretical School, and then the Sevastopol Military School of Naval Pilots.

Anatoly Lyapidevsky

In April 1933, Lyapidevsky, who was transferred to the reserve, went to work in civil aviation. At first he flew as a scheduled pilot in the Far East, and then asked to be transferred to the newly organized Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route - polar aviation. Less than a year later, after 29 unsuccessful flights in a blizzard and blizzard, on March 5, 1934, Anatoly Lyapidevsky became the first of the rescue squad pilots who was lucky enough to find the Chelyuskinites and land on a tiny area of ​​flat ice cleared by winterers: only 150 by 450 meters!

The pilot had no idea that this first flight, during which he evacuated all ten women and two children from the ice - all, so to speak, “weak” winterers - would be his last in the epic. In preparation for the second flight to the Chelyuskinites, Lyapidevsky’s plane, during the flight from Uelen to Vankarem, where the headquarters of the rescue operation was located, made an emergency landing in the ice, breaking the landing gear. The Chukchi crew was saved by seeing the plane landing. It was only possible to repair it and take it into the sky on April 25. So Lyapidevsky learned that he had become the first Hero of the Soviet Union in history five days late: after the emergency landing, the radio did not work.

The youngest: Nikolai Kamanin (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 2)

The second Hero of the Soviet Union was the youngest of the “magnificent seven.” In order to become a cadet at the Leningrad Air Force Military Theoretical School in 1927, Kamanin had to cheat and add an extra year to himself. They believed him, and the Vladimir boy’s dream of heaven began to come true.

A year later, Kamanin graduated from school in Leningrad and entered the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation Pilot School, and in 1929 he began serving in light bomber aviation in the Far East. And in five years he earned himself such an excellent reputation that when the order came from Moscow to send Far East a detachment of military pilots to participate in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites; there were no other candidates except Kamanin.

Nikolay Kamanin

A detachment of pilots, which included Vasily Molokov, took R-5 light bombers to reach Vankarem for a month and a half! Everything resisted: the weather, and the equipment not prepared for use in polar conditions... Only the people did not let us down. As a result, having lost two planes, Kamanin’s detachment flew to Vankarem and on April 7 began evacuating the Chelyuskinites.

On the first day, Kamanin and Molokov took six people from the camp to the mainland, putting three passengers in a cabin, where in normal times there would be one observer pilot. In total, the youngest of the hero pilots managed to evacuate 34 people to Vankarem - this is the second most effective figure among all seven pilots.

Most productive: Vasily Molokov (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 3)

Vasily Molokov began his military service in the Russian Imperial Navy in 1915 in the Baltic, and after the revolution he managed to combine conscription service with vocational service, becoming a mechanic in naval aviation. In 1921, Molokov graduated from the Samara naval pilot school and returned to where he began his service - to the Baltic.

Vasily Molokov

After 10 years, he retired to the reserve, worked as a pilot on passenger lines in Siberia, and in 1932 became one of the first polar pilots. In 1933, Molokov already commanded an air detachment as part of the Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route, and in March 1934, when Chelyuskin died, he received an order to join Nikolai Kamanin’s detachment.

Molokov’s participation, as Kamanin himself recalled, seriously helped the detachment: Molokov knew well the treacherous nature of the North and knew how to fly in Arctic conditions. It is no coincidence that he became the most successful pilot of the “magnificent seven”: in total, Molokov evacuated 39 Chelyuskinites on his P-5! For example, on April 11, Molokov took out 20 people on four flights - five at a time. To do this, he had to put people not only in the pilot-observer cabin, but also in underwing parachute boxes - one and a half meter plywood “cigars”, where you could only lie down with your knees bent.

Most romantic: Sigismund Levanevsky (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 4)

The biography of Sigismund Levanevsky is romantic even for such a romantic time as the first years of Soviet Russia. A native of St. Petersburg, Polish by blood, he became a Red Guard in October 1917 and took an active part in revolutionary events. Then there was Civil War, fighting bandits in Dagestan and working as a supply manager in an aeronautical detachment in Petrograd. From there, in 1923, Levanevsky was sent to study at the Sevastopol Military School of Naval Pilots, to which he... was late!

He had to work for almost a year in his usual position as a caretaker at the same school in order to still enroll the next year. However, the school did not regret this: Levanevsky quickly became one of the best cadets, and then, after serving in the linear units, he returned there as an instructor pilot.

Sigismund Levanevsky

Qualification helped Levanevsky be among the first to become a pilot in the Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route: he worked there since the spring of 1933. And it is completely logical that, as an experienced pilot, he was involved in rescuing the Chelyuskinites. But even here Levanevsky’s romantic biography made itself felt. He became the only one of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union who, during the rescue operation... did not evacuate a single person!

In February 1934, he, together with pilot Mavrikiy Slepnev and government commission commissioner Georgy Ushakov, was sent to the United States to purchase the missing Consolidated Fleetster multi-seat aircraft. On March 29, 1934, at the height of the rescue operation, Slepnev on one plane and Levanevsky and Ushakov on the other flew from American Nome to Vankarem. But only Slepnev flew there. Levanevsky made an emergency landing due to heavy icing, crashing the plane. But he still delivered the head of the operation to his destination, albeit on foot.

Of all the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union, it was Levanevsky who did not even live to see the start of the Great Patriotic War. However, the ending of his biography was more than romantic. On August 12, 1937, on a DB-A plane with a crew of five people, he set off on a trans-Arctic flight from Moscow to Fairbanks. The next day, the plane with tail number N-209 disappeared, and the mystery of its disappearance has not been solved to this day...

Most professional: Mauritius Slepnev (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 5)

Mauritius Slepnev began to master the profession of a military pilot earlier than all other members of the “Magnificent Seven” - during the First World War. He was called up for service back in 1914, a year later he graduated from the ensign school, and in 1917 he graduated from Gatchina flight school and served as commander of an air squadron with the rank of staff captain. However, Slepnev accepted the revolution immediately and unconditionally, participating in it as the commander of the Red Guard of the Luga district of Petrograd.

Mauritius Slepnev

Then there were command positions in the just nascent Red Air Force, and from 1925 - work in the civilian fleet with a stay in the military reserve (while regularly performing purely military tasks). Since 1931, Slepnev began flying in the Arctic: he became a pilot of the Air Service Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route at the same time as Levanevsky. Together they were sent to the USA for nine-seater Consolidated Fleetster aircraft.

Having safely flown from Nome to Vankarem (having fallen into a snowstorm, due to which the plane began to ice up, Slepnev, unlike Levanevsky, did not break through further, but returned and flew out the next day), he took him out of the camp on the first flight on April 3 five Chelyuskinites.

And on April 12, it was Slepnev who was entrusted with another difficult task: to deliver the seriously ill Otto Schmidt from Vankarem to Alaskan Nome and at the same time return home aircraft mechanics Clyde Armstedt and William Lavery (the first was a mechanic on Levanevsky’s plane, the second was Slepnev’s, but both flew on Slepnev’s car, since the head of the operation, Ushakov, was flying in Levanevsky’s car).

The most persistent: Mikhail Vodopyanov (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 6)

Mikhail Vodopyanov came to aviation later than all the others from the “magnificent seven”. However, this is how you calculate it. Formally, he only graduated from the flight school of Dobrolet (which later became Aeroflot) in 1928. But back in 1918, Vodopyanov, who volunteered for the Red Army, served as a fuel carrier in the Ilya Muromets airship division in Lipetsk! And it took ten years to return after demobilization to the planes that so amazed the nineteen-year-old boy from Lipetsk.

Mikhail Vodopyanov

After this, Vodopyanov’s flying career confidently went uphill. First, a Dobrolet pilot who participated in the fight against locusts in Central Asia, then a pioneer of the passenger route to Sakhalin. Since 1931, he was a pilot of the Pravda flight squad, which delivered the matrix of the main newspaper of the USSR to the largest cities, primarily beyond the Urals. And then there was a test flight Moscow - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, an accident on Lake Baikal and severe injuries, after which the pilot only had 36 (!) stitches on his head. With such injuries, let alone as rescuers, Chelyuskinites might not have been accepted into civil aviation!

But Mikhail Vodopyanov achieved his goal: he was included in the rescue operation and was assigned to participate in the ferrying of three aircraft - two PS-3 and one R-5 - from Khabarovsk to Vankarem. Flying with Vodopyanov were pilots Ivan Doronin and Viktor Galyshev, who commanded the flight. Having covered 6,000 kilometers, the trio of pilots reached Anadyr, where the engine of Galyshev’s plane failed. Only Vodopyanov flew to Vankarem, followed by Doronin.

During three flights to the Chelyuskinites, Vodopyanov took out 10 people, proving that it was not in vain that he insisted on being included in the rescue squad. By the way, he was also a participant in the last flight to the ice floe on April 13 - together with Nikolai Kamanin and Vasily Molokov.

The most experienced: Ivan Doronin (certificate and medal “Gold Star” No. 7)

As Doronin himself admitted to his comrades in the Chelyuskin epic, until the age of 16, he, a native of the Saratov province, “did not travel by train or ship.” But after his sixteenth birthday he gained more than his due. On a Komsomol ticket, Ivan went to restore the navy and ended up in Leningrad - first at a course for naval technicians, and then at a naval school. But he soon exchanged one ocean for another: in 1924, Doronin managed to be seconded to the Yegoryevsk Aviation Technical School, from which he was transferred to the Sevastopol Military School of Naval Pilots.

Ivan Doronin

Five years later, Ivan Doronin left the army and began working as a civilian pilot, mastering the Siberian and Far Eastern routes. Or rather, not so much by mastering it as by laying it out. By 1934, his track record included the first flight along the Irkutsk - Ust-Srednekan route, as well as participation in a polar expedition in the Kara Sea. And in the flight book it was written that during nine years of work, Doronin flew 300,000 kilometers without a single accident!

It was all the more offensive for him, an experienced pilot who, together with Mikhail Vodopyanov, broke through to Vankarem from Khabarovsk 6,000 kilometers away, to suffer an accident on his first flight to the Chelyuskinites! And not through his own fault: during landing, the ski of the PS-3 plane on which Doronin was flying came across an ice sastrugi that had frozen overnight, swerved to the side, hit another sastrugi and broke. The plane froze powerlessly right on the icy airfield...

The car was quickly put in order, but during the Chelyuskin epic, Doronin managed to make only one flight and take out two people. This, however, did not in any way influence the decision to award him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - among the other seven heroes.

Five years waiting for the “Golden Star”

The decree introducing the title of Hero of the Soviet Union did not provide for any additional insignia, except for the certificate of the USSR Central Executive Committee on conferring the title. True, the first Heroes, along with a certificate, were awarded the highest award at that time - the Order of Lenin. Two years later, this practice was approved by a decree of the newly elected Supreme Council of the USSR, and three years later, in 1939, its own insignia for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union appeared - the Gold Star medal.

Since by that time 122 people had already received the highest distinction, medals were awarded, so to speak, retroactively, but strictly adhering to the order in which titles were awarded. Accordingly, the Gold Star medal No. 1 was awarded to the holder of diploma No. 1 - Anatoly Lyapidevsky, and further down the list. Of the members of the “magnificent seven,” only Sigismund Levanevsky was personally unable to receive the award: by that time, he had already been listed as missing for two years.

70 years ago, on July 14, 1933, a brand new, large, handsome cargo ship, the legendary Chelyuskin, set sail from the Leningrad port, shining in the sun. It was just built at the Danish shipyard of the Burmeister and Wein shipyard on a special order for our northern latitudes and was initially called “Lena”. In preparation for her maiden voyage, "Lena" became "Chelyuskin".

The polar expedition on the Chelyuskin was supposed to repeat the voyage of the icebreaking steamship Sibiryakov that took place in 1932, which for the first time in history passed along the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk to the Bering Strait in one navigation. Choosing a vessel for a polar expedition is far from simple. The icebreakers “Krasin”, “Ermak”, “Lenin”, which were first-class for that time in our country, were not intended for long-distance navigation.

They could only take a limited amount of fuel on board, not to mention additional cargo. And the new expedition was faced with the task of delivering a large cargo of food and equipment for the winterers of Wrangel Island. In addition, it was necessary to have enough fuel on board to not only go the entire way without reloading coal, but also to supply it to the rescue icebreaker if its help was needed. "Chelyuskin", which received the highest class from the British Lloyd's, seemed to satisfy these requirements. Sending it on its way, the Soviet government set as its goal to find that type of polar cargo ship, after which it would be possible to build the entire transport flotilla of the North, delivering supplies and transporting cargo along the entire Arctic coast of the country.

The expedition was led by Otto Yulievich Schmidt, professor of mathematics, editor of the Bolshoi Soviet encyclopedia; Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin became the captain of “Chelyuskin”. Both were experienced polar explorers. 112 people went with them on the next polar expedition. In addition to the ship's crew, there were experienced hydrographers, hydrobiologists, hydrochemists, physicists, personnel who went to Wrangel Island for the winter, and builders to erect houses on this island.

In addition to specialists, there were also writers, film workers, and an artist on “Chelyuskin”. Some Wrangel soldiers went on such a long business trip with their wives, and the head of the polar station, Pyotr Buiko, even risked taking his one-year-old daughter with him.

The Chelyuskin encountered the first ice in the Kara Sea. The ice strip turned out to have melted, and the steamer could cope with it without difficulty. But already on August 14, the Chelyuskinites found themselves in heavy six-point ice. This is where the real test of the ship began. “Chelyuskin” flew onto the ice from a running start, moving only five to ten meters per hour. Here he received the first damage: a seam split on the starboard side, and a stringer burst on the left side. Obviously, the ship's fastenings turned out to be calculated inaccurately. For three days, the crew dragged cargo from bow to stern and pumped out water. Under the leadership of engineer Remov, additional wooden fastenings were supplied, which turned out to be very reliable. In order to get rid of the excess cargo, the icebreaker Krasin was urgently called and part of the coal was loaded onto it. Soon "Chelyuskin" was able to continue sailing independently.

Having covered most of the route, Chelyuskin made its way to Cape Billings. To the north lay Wrangel Island - the first goal of the expedition. Before reaching the island, the ship stopped. Aerial reconnaissance from an airplane showed that it was impossible to approach Wrangel Island - the path to it was blocked by a continuous heavy ice. We decided to go to the Bering Strait and then try again from the eastern side.

The ice of the Chukchi Sea turned out to be much heavier than the Kara Sea. Masses of multi-year ice of the most bizarre shape surrounded small specks of clean water. "Chelyuskin" walked, with difficulty moving apart 20 - 50-ton blocks of ice. The bow and sides of the ship received many dents. It was necessary to further strengthen the existing fastenings with huge logs. The tree springs back, and the impact of the blows becomes less sharp.

The Chelyuskin, squeezed by ice, was carried by the current towards Kolyuchin Island. The ice stood up, and the ship stopped with it. He was immobilized. For three days the crew tried to break through the road by blasting the ice with ammonal, but the attempts remained unsuccessful. Only after 14 days did the ice finally release the ship from captivity, allowing it to continue its journey east - to the Bering Strait. And so, when there were only 5-6 kilometers left to free water in the Bering Strait, the Chelyuskin, along with the ice, was carried north by a strong current.

The treacherous Arctic began to circle the ship in a drift, forcing it to describe the most intricate zigzags. They walked at the very borders of the current, which could carry it so far to the north that a two-year winter would have been provided for the expedition. The Litke ice cutter, which was located in Providence Bay, was called by radio to help, but only managed to approach the border of the ice field that had pinned down the Chelyuskin. He failed to cross the remaining 60 kilometers of solid ice before he himself.

On November 26, Chelyuskin experienced the first compression by ice, which made people think about a possible disaster. After this, the entire expedition was divided into emergency teams, in which each person knew what he needed to do in case of trouble. The compressions followed one after another. We had to either unload the necessary cargo onto the ice floe, then load it back onto the ship. A bulky wooden ladder descended from the side onto the ice. People walked along it to replenish their water supply (again from ice), and sometimes to hunt. In the resulting mynas, seals appeared, from which good roasts were made. Arctic foxes came running across the ice, and once, right next to the ship, ice captives shot a polar bear.

Telegram after telegram flew ashore to the pilots working in Chukotka. But the engines of low-power aircraft did not always start in cold weather, and blizzards and fog “cancelled” flights. Nevertheless, the Chelyuskinites went every day to clear the airfield equipped on the ice floe.

On the fateful day for Chelyuskin, the wind jumped from 5 to 7 in the morning. A huge ice shaft was approaching the ship like a living monster. At 12 o'clock the first blow struck, so strong that the ship shuddered and creaked. A machine gun crack was heard from the left side - the ice had broken through the plating and was creeping into the cabins through gaping holes. People quickly divided into groups and began unloading everything they needed onto the ice. The work was clearly organized, there was no panic. Thanks to the fact that the ice that compressed the Chelyuskin remained in place for two hours, a lot was unloaded. As soon as the ice parted a little, the ship sank, taking with it into the abyss the ship's caretaker, Mogilevich, who had hesitated. Everyone else managed to escape, including infant Karina and one-year-old Alla Buiko.

The hard, dangerous life of the Chelyuskinites on the ice floe began. In the black hole of ice the morning after the ship sank, logs, boards, and boxes floated up. They were cut out of ice and a barracks were built, followed by a galley and an observation tower. After the completion of these construction works, people could sleep and eat hot food in a warm room. Stoves, boilers, and dishes were made from metal barrels. Scientists did not stop their scientific work for a single day, using instruments to determine the location of the ice floe, studying weather conditions and the behavior of ice.

Women sewed mittens for work from tarpaulin; under the current conditions, fur mittens immediately became wet and became useless. On a board nailed to two poles stuck in the snow, the wall newspaper “We will not surrender!” appeared. Drifting on an ice floe at the will of the wind, it never even occurred to people that they could be left to the mercy of fate in icy silence; they firmly believed that they would be saved, that their Motherland would not leave them in trouble.

Meanwhile, the ice under the Chelyuskin camp lived its own life. Sometimes it suddenly cracked under food tents, sometimes it pulled apart and tore a living hut in half, sometimes it rose up like hummocks on an airfield that had been cleared with such difficulty. We had to move the property to another location and start construction again.

Finally, on March 5, pilot Lyapidevsky made his way to the camp in his ANT-4 and removed 10 women and two children from the ice floe. What a holiday it was! People started dancing on the ice. Lyapidevsky was not destined to make a second flight - the engine failed in the air. But by this time, the Smolensk with 7 aircraft on board had already left Vladivostok to save the Chelyuskinites, the icebreaker Krasin was preparing for the trip, tractors, sleighs and even airships were being transported.

Only on April 7 did they wait for the next planes on the ice floe. Within a week, pilots Levanevsky, Molokov, Kamanin, Slepnev, Vodopyanov, Doronin, showing miracles of heroism, took the rest of the Chelyuskinites to the mainland. On April 13, 1933, the Schmidt camp ceased to exist.

"Chelyuskin" was crushed by ice before reaching the Pacific Ocean. But he still reached the Bering Strait, proving that the Northern Sea Route can be mastered. The scientific work carried out by a team of scientists provided the most valuable material: observations on the study of the currents of the northern seas, measuring ice fluctuations, ice chemistry, hydrobiology, meteorology and other useful information. The Chelyuskin expedition showed how to properly place icebreaker fleet, in order to ensure the passage of ships along the Northern Sea Route, gave a number of valuable recommendations on the design of steamships for the Arctic.

70 years ago, the Chelyuskinites, risking their lives, set out on an unknown path with the sole goal of increasing the power and wealth of their country, realizing that its future depended on proper use natural resources.

And it is wonderful that the Russian Government is again turning its face to the problems of the North, that the words “Northern Sea Route” are again flashing on the pages of newspapers and magazines, the polar station “North Pole-32” is in operation, a project for an underwater Arctic transport system is being created, and ice-class tankers are being built. Rising above the Arctic again Russian flag, which means that the work of the Chelyuskinites was not in vain.

Olga Timofeeva.

IN That day the steamship Chelyuskin sank in the ice.
It seemed that his crew and passengers could no longer be saved. And everything started well. On August 10, 1933, the icebreaking steamer, accompanied by a crowd of thousands, departed from the Murmansk embankment. “Chelyuskin” was supposed to repeat the feat of “Sibiryakov,” which for the first time in the history of navigation passed from the Barents Sea to the Pacific Ocean in one summer navigation. It was supposed to be a test of the passability of the Northern Sea Route not only by icebreakers, but also by transport ships.

The ship was built in 1933 in Denmark at the shipyards of Burmeister and Wain, B&W, Copenhagen, commissioned by Soviet foreign trade organizations. Its first name was “Lena” (in honor of the mistress of the director of the river plant). At that time the ship was reliable.

The expedition was led by the famous polar explorer Otto Yulievich Schmidt. In some places the ship followed icebreakers. On September 1, Cape Chelyuskin was reached. In the Chukchi Sea, the ship again encountered solid ice and on September 23 was completely blocked. Despite the fact that the ship was built in accordance with Lloyd's special requirements - "reinforced for navigation in ice", it was unable to break through and, having received damage, froze into a large ice floe. Subsequently, “Chelyuskin” drifted with the crew for almost five months.

On November 4, 1933, thanks to a successful drift along with the ice, the Chelyuskin entered the Bering Strait.

It seemed that the ship managed to get out on its own. Together with the ice, he entered the Bering Strait and even managed to send a welcoming radiogram to Moscow by November 7. But in the strait the ice began to move in the opposite direction, and “Chelyuskin” again found itself in the Chukchi Sea... and yet there were only a few miles left to clear water.

On February 13, 1934, strong compression of the ice began, and Chelyuskin sank. 104 people landed on the drifting ice - among them 10 women and two small children. One person died during the landing. I understand everything, I just don’t understand what the pregnant “sailors” did there... as a result, they also saved children.

A radiogram went on air: “On February 13 at 15:30, 155 miles from Cape Severny and 144 miles from Cape Uelen, the Chelyuskin sank, crushed by compression of the ice...”.

The next day, Moscow created a government rescue commission. At first they decided to make their way to the ice floe by dog ​​sled, but this was unsuccessful. There was still hope for aviation. The world did not believe in the salvation of the Chelyuskinites.
Western newspapers wrote that people on the ice were doomed, and raising hopes of salvation in them was inhumane, it would only worsen their suffering. The Danish Politiken mourned Schmidt in absentia: “On the ice floe, Otto Schmidt met an enemy whom no one had yet been able to defeat. He died as a hero, a man whose name will live among the conquerors of the Arctic Ocean."

But the Soviet pilots accomplished the impossible: they reached the station in light aircraft.

It was clear, but cold - below 40 degrees. People waited for planes near a tent that was dubbed the air terminal. The pilots made more than a dozen flights and evacuated those in trouble.

The last to fly off the ice were Otto Schmidt and the captain of the icebreaker, Vladimir Voronin. Rescued Chelyuskinites on Red Square. Moscow.

On the podium are the leader of the expedition, the head of the Main Northern Sea Route Otto Schmidt and the pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kamanin. Moscow, September 1, 1934.

Regarding the prisoners and the ship "Pizhma". This fake first appeared in Novosibirsk in the weekly magazine "New Siberia", No. 10 (391) dated March 9, 2000. An essay by E.I. was published in it. Belimov (now in Israel) “The Mystery of the Chelyuskin Expedition,” which introduced into circulation the myth about the existence of the ship Pizhma, built according to the same design and sailing as part of the Chelyuskin expedition with 2000 prisoners to work in the tin mines. This “Flying Dutchman” managed not to appear in any documents of that time, not to be photographed and not to remain in the memory of the participants of that drift. Only the son of one escaped prisoner remembered him, and he told all this. Yeah. After the death of "Chelyuchkin", the ship with the ship was, of course, immediately scuttled. For what? Apparently, simply out of the bloodthirstiness of the Gebni. And the pregnant women on the Chelyuskin are probably explained by the presence of prisoners who, in order to “meet” them, swam from ship to ship at night, risking being late for dinner.
This whole gloomy horror story was in the spirit of the liberalism of that time and naturally spread quickly on the Internet. I don’t want to seriously discuss this in the comments.

Info and photos (C) various places on the internet

February 13, 2012 will mark 78 years since the news of the terrible shipwreck of the steamship spread throughout the world. Chelyuskin", which would later be called Soviet. The story of the courageous hero ship will be told in schools, and children will come up with a game " Chelyuskinets" It would seem that the details of the epic have long been known to everyone, but the history of our country is rewritten depending on the political situation and we no longer believe that this or that event did not have a double bottom. This is what happened with the ship." Chelyuskin».

Over the past decades, the disaster in the Chukchi Sea has been shrouded in legends. The most daring of which is that the steamer " Chelyuskin“He went to the Arctic not alone, but accompanied by a double ship. According to legend, the icebreaker " Chelyuskin» covered big ship, on which there were several thousand prisoners who were taken to the mines for deadly hard labor. The myth about is gaining new details and details. What exactly is the Chelyuskin epic - a carefully hidden secret of the Gulag or a political action, which was based on the great desire of the authorities to save the citizens of the country who remained hostage.

"Chelyuskin" beginning

The Arctic was a tasty morsel for many countries, but in 1923 the Soviet government announced that all lands located in the Soviet sector of the Arctic belonged to the USSR. Despite this, Norway has long laid claim to the land of Franz Joseph. The Northern Sea Route was the shortest route between the Eastern and Western borders of the USSR. According to the leader’s plan, caravans were to move along the Northern Sea Route to the Far East, but this route had to be cut through the ice and equipped with weather and radio stations, ports and populated areas.

In 1933, for the first time in one navigation along the Northern Sea Route, “ Sibiryakov“, but the USSR had few such ships, and even those were foreign - bought for foreign currency. In addition, the ice cutters could carry very little cargo on board. Enthusiastic polar explorers tried to prove to the whole world that simple ships could pass through the ice, which, by the way, were also built abroad and bought for a lot of money, and this at a time when the country was starving.

In the People's Commissariat of Water Resources' plan for 1933, the expedition from Leningrad to Vladivostok was not included. Professor Otto Schmidt tried to prove the need for a through passage along the Northern Sea Route. Two months later the ship was ready, it was called " Lena" and then renamed to " Chelyuskin" was built by order of the Soviet government in Denmark. It was for river and sea transport. Moreover, the ship did not make a single test voyage.

The captain of the ship Chelyuskin“Vladimir Voronin, a sea captain with extensive experience, was appointed. Arriving at the home port on July 11, 1933, Voronin inspected the ship. What the captain saw greatly upset him: “ ...The hull set is weak. The width of the icebreaker "Chelyuskin" is large. The cheekbone will be heavily impacted, which will affect the strength of the hull. "Chelyuskin" is an unsuitable ship for this voyage..." He was not the first person to be alarmed by the steamer. It turns out that the ship was not accepted by the People's Commissariat of Water Transport. Later they preferred to forget about one more fact. When the Chelyuskin was being built in Denmark, the whole process was observed by Peter Visais, who went on this ship as captain, and Vladimir Voronin agreed to go to the Arctic only as a passenger.

In the Leningrad port the ship was clearly overloaded. Part of the expedition consisted of surveyors who were going to Wrangel Island for the winter and most of the cargo, including logs for building houses. Chelyuskin"carried for them. It was assumed that the ship would be accompanied by an icebreaker " Krasin", and the ice cutter " Fedor Lipke" will meet " Chelyuskin"in the Chukchi Sea and will lead further. For them, Chelyuskin also carried 3,000 tons of coal. In addition, 500 tons were loaded onto the ship fresh water, cows and pigs, as a result the ship sank 80 cm below the waterline. Otto Schmidt knew about this, but the development of the Arctic was of great importance.

On July 16, 1933, a large meeting took place on the Lieutenant Schmidt embankment. Leningraders saw off the miracle of Danish shipbuilding. Contingent on " Chelyuskin"The selection was international and diverse. The backbone was a close-knit team of Siberian residents - cameramen, journalists, artists, carpenters. Also on " Chelyuskine“There were also several women. The members of the expedition knew that they were going to a non-tourist destination. As soon as they left the port, the ship immediately discovered a problem - the bearings overheated. Four days later the ship arrived in Copenhagen, where it was repaired on site.

At this time, Captain Visais, for unknown reasons, left the port and did not return to his duties, and Vladimir Voronin, without waiting for a replacement, was forced to lead the voyage. Across the Barents Sea " Chelyuskin"went to the Kara Sea, where the most difficult thing was - ice. During the voyage, the weak steamer did not obey the rudder. The team frequently inspected the hull from the inside, and damaged areas were reinforced with wooden wedges.

On August 14, 1933, off Cape Severny, a leak formed in the hold of the Chelyuskin. Walking ahead and making way " Krasin"turned around and came to the rescue. The leak was eliminated. On the same day, Otto Schmidt received a government telegram, and, without reading it, put it in his pocket, and told radio operator Krenkel that we would not respond for now. Would he have acted as it was written in the telegram? further fate the steamship Chelyuskin would have looked different. He will reveal his cards, but it will be too late to retreat.

"Chelyuskin" authentic photos of the ship

On September 1, 1933, Otto Schmidt gathered everyone in the wardroom. The team became silent. The head of the expedition spoke about the telegram he received, which said that part of the ship’s crew and the expedition should transfer to the icebreaker “ Krasin", and the steamer " Chelyuskin"was ordered to return to Murmansk for repairs. Schmidt asked the team about their readiness to move on, to which they agreed.

« Chelyuskin“Safely completed ¾ of the journey in four months, crossing the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea. During this time, the team had to unload onto the ice more than once. The steamer was on the verge of collapse, but the danger receded and " Chelyuskin" walked on. When the Bering Strait was two miles away, the icebreaker " Krasin"left with broken propellers for repairs. This was the same His Majesty case, but “ Chelyuskin" bad luck. The steamer was unexpectedly frozen and carried north along the Chukchi Sea. In the cabins they talked about wintering, and the captain knew that the ship would not survive. There was an ice cutter nearby" Fedor Lipke“, but Otto Schmidt refused his help, thereby missing a second chance to get closer to the ship. The ship's hull Chelyuskin"was firmly embedded in a multi-meter thick layer of ice, and for another four months it drifted across the expanses of the Chukchi Sea, until February 13, 1934 arrived.

death of "Chelyuskin"

Steamboat « Chelyuskin» drifted calmly in the Chukchi Sea. The team did not sleep, as the ice broke during the night and the hull creaked from compression, which subsequently formed a crack. By morning, it had assumed monstrous proportions, even ice began to penetrate inside. Suddenly the captain was called from the navigation bridge, and he saw a huge high ice shaft. The hummocks were moving straight towards the ship. For " Chelyuskina“The critical moment came, and the captain gave the order for evacuation. There was no room for panic. Each was responsible for their own area of ​​work. The steamer went under the water in jerks, as if writhing in death throes. Boxes of canned food, cutlery, coal briquettes, sheets of plywood, bales of fur clothing, tents, sacks of flour and sugar fell into the snow. Soon the ship went under the ice. It was getting dark quickly, the crew Chelyuskina“I urgently set up tents for women and children, carpenters built a barracks, cooks sorted out provisions and set up a galley. Ernest Krenkel fussed with the radio station by the light of a flashlight. Finally he heard the familiar call signs, and the first radiogram about the death of the ship immediately flew to Moscow. Chelyuskin».

Chelyuskin epic

On February 14, 1934, the XVII Congress of the All-Russian Communist Party of Belarus ended its work in Moscow, at which many voted against Stalin. It will be called a congress of the executed, because most of those who challenged the leader will end their lives in the basements of the Lubyanka. But then Stalin needed support. 103 people on the ice floe came in handy more than ever. The great schemer came up with a brilliant move. Everyone instantly forgot about the true causes and prerequisites of the tragedy, and one issue remained on the agenda - salvation Chelyuskinites. A government commission headed by Kuibyshev was immediately created. The whole world should have known that the USSR spared neither effort nor money to care for its citizens.

Press coverage of the life of the Schmidt camp can easily be called the forerunner of modern reality shows. The whole world watched how 103 people survived in the Far North. And in reality, none of the Chelyuskinites felt doomed. People rallied into one continuous family that helped each other physically and mentally. Schmidt lectured in a tent.

In Moscow they realized that aviation would be the only salvation for people, but an airfield was needed. A suitable ice floe was found several kilometers from the camp. Every day the Chelyuskinites came to clear the ice. This work was extremely difficult. People worked in three shifts. In addition, the Chelyuskinites had to find new ice floes with an area of ​​40,000 square meters 13 times. m., since the wind often broke the ice floes.

the long-awaited salvation of the Chelyuskinites

After three weeks of drifting, Lebedevsky’s plane landed on the ice floe and found the Chelyuskinites’ shelter only after 28 attempts. It is difficult to describe the joy they experienced. Women and children were taken out first. A few days later, seven pilots, in difficult conditions, along an unexplored air route, made flight after flight, because only 2-3 people could take on board. While they were sending one after another Chelyuskinets, Otto Yulievich Schmidt caught a serious cold and fell ill with tuberculosis. Pneumonia could lead to the death of the great scientist, so Kuibyshev ordered him to immediately arrive in Moscow, and Bobrov was appointed head of the expedition.

The rescued Chelyuskinites traveled several thousand kilometers from the Far East to Moscow. At every station people came running to greet national heroes. On June 19, 1934, they were met by Moscow on Red Square. A rally and festive demonstration took place in their honor. For the first time, seven pilots were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and all Chelyuskinites received the Order of the Red Star.

The risky voyage on a steamship unsuitable for Arctic ice did a lot in the development of the Northern Sea Route. Following the ship " Chelyuskin“Dozens of ships passed through, and the coastline was soon overgrown with ports and scientific stations. In addition, the Chelyuskinites became the last citizens of a huge country whose lives were so taken care of by the Soviet government. After the murder of Kirov, repressions began that killed hundreds of thousands of “political” people, millions were carried away by the war, and human life will no longer be above the interests of the state, although “ Chelyuskin"brought considerable political dividends to the Soviet government.