Sergei Issayevich Utochkin

Sergei Utochkin between 1900 and 1910

Utochkin as a racing cyclist, held by Woody Headspeth (1908)

Monument in honor of Utochkin in Odessa

Sergei Isayevich Utotschkin ( Russian Сергей Исаевич Уточкин * June 18 ^{. Jul} / thirtieth June  1876 ^greg. In Odessa , † December 31, 1915 ^jul. / 13. January  1916 ^greg. In Petrograd ) was a Russian cyclist and aviation pioneer .

Cycling career

Sergei Utotschkin, who came from a wealthy family, was one of the first Russian racing cyclists at the beginning of the 20th century to compete as professionals on cycle tracks in Western Europe. At first he had worked as a jockey in horse races. In 1894 he started to ride a sprint bike race and became a Russian amateur champion in his first year and a professional the following year .

In 1905 Utotschkin, who also ran the cycling track in his hometown, won against the Germans Willy Arend and Willy Bader at the "Odessa Grand Prix". He then planned to travel to Paris to train and race there. But in the course of the Russian Revolution of 1905 , the bicycle shop that he had opened in the meantime was attacked and he himself was wounded by a knife. After a long recovery period, he nevertheless traveled to Paris, but was unsuccessful because of the consequences of the injury. In total, he was active as a cyclist for 17 years and won numerous races, most of them on his home track.

Success as a pilot and accident

In 1908, Sergei Utochkin, who had fiery red hair and was a celebrity in his hometown, opened a car dealership in Odessa. He shone in many areas: he was the second Russian to fly an airplane, drove car and motorcycle races, skated, played football for the Odessa British Athletic Club , sailed, could fencing and headed the first aero club in Odessa . In 1909 he made his first free balloon ride over the pyramids of Giza . In Tartu he made the first flight in an airplane in Estonia , of which the Estonian filmmaker Johannes Pääsuke made a film that premiered in April 1912, as well as the first flight in Azerbaijan , on an air show in Baku . Utochkin suffered serious injuries in a plane crash in the Saint Petersburg - Moscow distance competition in 1911, and the doctors treated the pain with morphine and cocaine . He became addicted, impoverished, and his wife left him. He himself moved to Saint Petersburg.

Sickness and death

In August 1913, the German cycling newspaper Rad-Welt reported that Utotschkin, who was already considered “eccentric”, had appeared one Sunday at one of the gates of the St. Petersburg Winter Palace and asked to be reported to the Tsar. When he was rejected, he started to rage and was arrested. Doctors found he was "insane" and he was taken to an asylum. There he went on a hunger strike to protest his detention, was force-fed, and later released. Malnourished and dressed too thinly, he contracted pneumonia and died in the same hospital where he was staying when he was mentally ill.

memory

In order to support Sergei Utochkin financially, his brothers opened the "Utochkino" film theater in Odessa, which still exists today. In 2001 a monument in his honor was unveiled next to the entrance to the cinema.

References and comments

1. ↑ Biplanes and Seaplanes - Beginnings of Aviation in Azerbaijan on azer.com (English) The date for the first flight in Estonia is given in the sources as 1912, but since U. is said to have had his serious accident as early as 1911, this date seems unlikely. On the other hand, Pääsuuke is said not to have filmed until 1912.

literature

• Sport-Album der Rad-Welt , 7th year, 1909 and other editions
• Rad-Welt , August 14, 1913

Web links

• Sergei Utotschkin on cycling4fans.de
• Utochkin Monument in Odessa on ua-traveling.com
• Biography on funeral-spb.narod.ru (Russian)
• Biography on persona.rin.ru (English)