Vasily Sergeyevich Molokov
Vasily Sergejewitsch Molokow ( Russian Василий Сергеевич Молоков ; * February 1 July / February 13, 1895 greg. In Irininskoje , today in Moscow Oblast ; † December 29, 1982 in Moscow ) was a Soviet pilot .
He was one of the seven pilots who evacuated the shipwrecked crew of the steamer Cheljuskin, which sank in the Arctic Ocean in February 1934, from an ice floe. As a result of this achievement, the Hero of the Soviet Union award was donated and the aviators were the first to be given in the history of the USSR .
Life
Vasily Molokov joined the Red Army in 1918 . In 1921 he learned to fly at a gliding school and in 1929 took advanced training courses at the Zhukovsky Military Academy .
In 1934 he switched to civil aviation. In the same year he participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskin occupation. Molokow carried out a total of nine flights on April 7, 10 and 11, in some cases under the most adverse weather conditions, and flew a total of 39 people. His Polikarpow R-5 aircraft, which was actually only designed for two people, carried up to six people, some of which could be accommodated in containers under the wings. On April 26, 1934, Molokov was named "Heroes of the Soviet Union" along with Sigismund Lewanewski , Nikolai Kamanin , Anatoli Lyapidewski , Mawriki Slepnjow , Michael Wodopjanow and Ivan Doronin .
In 1935 he completed two long-haul flights in stages: In February / March he flew a total of 13,000 kilometers from Moscow to Dickson Island and back. In the summer there was a 20,000 km flight from Krasnoyarsk to Igarka with a return to the starting point. In 1936 Molokov was the first to fly the Soviet part of the Northern Sea Route from the Bering Strait to Arkhangelsk in a whale flying boat (registration number: SSSR N-2 ) , covering a distance of 26,300 km.
In May 1937 he was one of the pilots who set off Iwan Papanin's North Pole 1 polar expedition on a drifting ice floe with four-engine ANT-6 aircraft . Molokov was in command of the N-171 on this flight. In 1938 he was appointed head of the civil aviation headquarters. During the Second World War he was in command of a long-range bomber division. He resigned from the army as major general after the war and again worked in several management positions in civil aviation.
Vasily Molokov was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet , three times the Order of Lenin and twice the Order of the Red Banner . The village of Irininskoye, from which he came, was renamed Molokowo in his honor.
literature
- Ulrich Unger: The rescue of the “Tscheljuskin” crew . In: Aviation calendar of the GDR . 1984.
- Umschau International: People . In: Fliegerrevue . No. 4/1983 (commentary on the death of W. S. Molokow).
- Wassili Molokow: In the stormy sky . From the memoirs of Major General W. S. Molokow. In: Wolfgang Sellenthin (Ed.): Fliegerkalender der DDR 1981 . Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1980, p. 58-64 .
Web links
- Article Wassili Sergejewitsch Molokow in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Iwan Timofejewitsch Spirin: The conquest of the North Pole. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1955, pp. 61/62
- ↑ Alexander Polyakov: On the airways of the Arctic. In: Heinz A. F. Schmidt (Ed.) Flieger-Jahrbuch 1965. , Transpress, Berlin 1964, p. 79
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Molokow, Wassili Sergejewitsch |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Молоков, Василий Сергеевич (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | soviet pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 13, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Irininskoye |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 29, 1982 |
| Place of death | Moscow |