Yevgenia Mikhailovna Shachowskaya

Yevgenia Schachowskaja with Vsevolod Abramowitsch in Johannisthal in 1912

Yevgenia Mikhailovna Shakhovskaia even Eugénie Schakowskoy or Eugenie Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya , ( Russian Евгения Михайловна Шаховская ; born September 5 ^{. Jul} / 17 September 1889 ^greg. To St. Petersburg , † 1920 in Kiev ) was a Russian aviation pioneer and first Militärfliegerin history.

Origin and education

The Russian princess Yevgenia Schachowskaja (née Andrejewa) was a distant cousin of Tsar Nicholas II. She attended the Smolny Institute , a school for noble daughters in Saint Petersburg . Even when she was still at school she was noticed because she liked to sing and to be on stage. She was an excellent athlete who sought challenges in horse riding, shooting, and car racing. She probably acquired the princely title due to a marriage; the associated administrative area Schachowskaja lies in the west of the Moscow Oblast .

Schachowskaja gave up family and children in order to join the circle around Rasputin for four years after 1907 : "The princess, who had abandoned her husband and children to follow Rasputin continually for four years, was a woman of striking beauty and dark eyes." (Eng. = "The princess, who had left her husband and children to follow Rasputin continuously for four years, was a remarkably beautiful woman with dark eyes." ) At meetings she sometimes wore the costume of a nurse, since she was in the hospital from Tsarskoye Selo was temporarily on duty.

In January 1910, the French aviator Raymonde de Laroche gave a flight demonstration in Saint Petersburg, which also gave Yevgenia Shachowskaya an interest in aviation. She learned to fly from Evdokija Vasiljewna Anatra , who was the second woman to have obtained a flight license in Russia and who ran a flight school in Gatchina . She also flew with the Russian aviation pioneer Vladimir Lebedev .

Air crash in Berlin

Finally, Shachowskaya followed the pilot Vsevolod Abramovich , with whom she had a love affair and was the chief pilot of the Wright plants, to Berlin . On August 16, 1912, she acquired the German pilot's certificate No. 274 on a Wright biplane at Johannisthal Airport.

Schachowskaja made flight demonstrations for the German Wright factory and gained a reputation as a fearless pilot: During one of her flights, the gasoline tank of her machine exploded and the engine failed, but she managed to slide the machine to the ground. She offered her services to the Italian military in the Italo-Turkish War , which was refused.

During a joint flight with Abramowitsch in April 1913 at the Johannisthal airfield , the aircraft was hit by a gust generated by another aircraft and crashed:

“On […] April 24, 1913 - tragically coincidence - the two Russian pilots Abramowitsch and Dunetz, who have been flying in Germany for a long time, are killed. The Johannisthal of those days could not be imagined without you, these two Russians, the bold, pale, melancholy, silent Abramovich and the daring, cheerful, popular Elia Dunetz. Vsevolod Abramowitsch […] climbed up at 6:43 am with Princess Schakowskoy, who is in charge of the wheel and to whom a deep inclination ties him. In the dangerous corner near the aviation research institute, the two-decker gets caught in the vortex of a pigeon that is flying overhead . The apparatus begins to sway a lot in the longitudinal direction, and the princess is no longer able to bring the double-decker, which has only one rudder, back into balance. So Abramowitsch has to watch idly as the apparatus tilts more and more and falls to the earth "

- Peter Supf : The book of German flight history. Volume 2: Pre-War, War, Post-War. Klemm, Berlin 1935, p. 197 f.

Abramovich died of his serious injuries in hospital that same day. Yevgenia Shakhovskaia even came up with minor injuries, but tried suicide to commit when she learned of the death of Abramovich. Afterwards she is said to have vowed never to fly again, but her resolution did not last.

Military pilot

Shachowskaya in uniform

There are conflicting news and versions about their future fate. It is certain that Yevgenia Shachowskaya participated in the First World War on the Russian side as the first female military aviator in history, but most likely only for reconnaissance purposes and not as a fighter pilot . She had personally volunteered by letter to her cousin Nikolaus, the Tsar, for service with the air force . She was stationed in the fortress of Kaunas in Lithuania , near the border with Germany.

Rumors soon spread in St. Petersburg that Yevgenia Shachowskaya was promiscuous , that she had numerous sexual relationships with officers and common soldiers, and that she was squandering all of her fortune on "pleasures". The American journalist Pamela Robson describes on the one hand Shachowskaya as a "fascinating combination of beautiful princess and insatiable nymphomaniac" and one of the wildest women of the 20th century, on the other hand she points out that Shachowskaya as the only woman among men could be deliberately discredited by them be. After just four weeks of service, she was charged with treason and attempting to cross the lines to the enemy. Possibly her friendship with some of the pre-war Germans aroused suspicion. She was sentenced to death by shooting. But since she was pregnant, she was personally pardoned by the tsar and sentenced to life in a monastery.

Tragic end to the Russian civil war

Yevgenia Shachowskaya was liberated from this monastery by red troops during the February Revolution in 1917 . Shachowskaya then joined the Bolsheviks . She is said to have personally executed executions of captured officers with a Mauser pistol in Kiev on behalf of the Cheka . She also took revenge on men who had previously brought her charges. At the end of her life she is said to have been addicted to morphine . During one of these executions, she killed one of her helpers while intoxicated and was shot herself.

Peter Supf, on the other hand, wrote in his book on German aviation history that Yevgenia Schachowskaya married a German officer in 1918, left him again and died in a poor house in France in 1933.

Web links

Commons : Eugenie Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b} Flugtechnische Rundschau, Inland . In: Oskar Ursinus (Hrsg.): Aviation: Illustrated technical magazine and indicator for the entire "aviation" . No. 19 , 1912, OCLC 183323980 , ZDB -ID 212889-5 , p. 728 ("The date of birth was incorrectly converted from a Julian to a Gregorian date using the 1912 difference of 13 days."): "Pilot certificates received: No. 274. Schakowskoy, Princess Eugenie, Serene Highness, St. Petersburg, born . on September 5/18, 1889 in St. Petersburg, for two-deckers (Wright), JohannisthaI airfield, on August 16, 1912. ... "
2. ↑ ^{a b} F. Rasch (ed.): Yearbook of the German Aviation Association 1913 . Berlin 1913, DNB  012953865 , 8th guide list, c) flight guide, p. 126 ("The date of birth was incorrectly converted from a Julian to a Gregorian date using the 1912 difference of 13 days."): "* 255. Schakowskoy, Princess Eugenie, Serene Highness, St. Petersburg, born on 5. / September 18, 1889 in St. Petersburg, for two-deckers (Wright), Johannisthal Airfield, No. 274, issued on August 16, 1912. "
3. ^ Edward Razinsky: The Rasputin File . Anchor Books New York, n.p.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Pamela Robson: Wild Women. History's female rebels, radicals and revolutionaries . Murdoch Books Australia 2011 o. P.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Supf : The book of German flight history. Volume 2: Pre-War, War, Post-War. Klemm, Berlin 1935, p. 197f.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Eilen F. Lebow: Before Amelia. Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation . Potomac Books 2002, no p.
7. ↑ Edgar Meos: Amazon Pilots and Lady-warbirds. In: Cross and cockade. Volume 16, 1975, No. 4, OCLC 712710097 , pp. 375-379, cited by Robson
8. ↑ Женщина-пилот - это звучит гордо! Часть 1. На заре авиации on senturia.ru ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Красны девицы, белы девицы on telegrafua.com
10. ↑ C. Макеев: Красные девицы, белые девицы . In: Совершенно секретно . tape 224 , no. 1 , 2008, p. 34–36 (Russian, online ( memento of March 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; accessed on May 13, 2013]).
11. ↑ Peter Supf: The book of German flight history . Volume 1, Stuttgart 1956, p. 491.