Why Valery Chkalov was credited with a deadly trick

In October 1940, Leningrad newspapers enthusiastically wrote about the skill of the pilot Yevgeny Borisenko, who, on the set of the film "Valery Chkalov", performed the most difficult aerobatic stunt - he flew on an amphibious plane under the Kirov (now Troitsky) bridge, and several times. By the way, in the modern serial "remake" of the film (filmed in 2012), this episode was imitated using computer technology. With his trick, Borisenko surpassed Chkalov himself, who had never flown under the Trinity Bridge.

Incident on set

By the time of the filming of Chkalov, Yevgeny Borisenko was only 27. A pupil of an orphanage, in 1931 he entered the Batai School of the Civil Air Fleet (GVF) on a Komsomol ticket and two years later began flying in the Northern Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet. In the autumn of 1940, Borisenko was seconded to Leningrad to shoot Valery Chkalov, which was started by director Mikhail Kalatozov.

For the flight under the bridge, Borisenko chose the Sh-2 amphibious aircraft. On the first day of filming the episode, October 22, Eugene did a couple of successful takes in a row. However, the director and cameraman, being reinsured, the next day asked the pilot to "repeat" - and he again successfully completed the task. But in the end, it still could not have done without an emergency - Nikolai Bogdanov, a friend of the pilot Borisenko, later wrote about this.

It turns out that at the end of the filming day, the cameraman asked the pilot Borisenko to deliver and drop him “closer to Lenfilm”. Borisenko fulfilled the request: he delivered and splashed down normally. However, on the way of the plane, a sunken log was encountered, in a collision with which the car received a hole: the fuselage filled with water in a matter of seconds, and Sh-2 almost completely sank.

The pilot who emerged from the water first rescued the cameraman who had gone to the bottom, and then, wet and chilled, for several hours led the rescue and towing of the seaplane. What subsequently organizational conclusions regarding the pilot were made by his command, one can only guess. It seems that, despite the movie heroism, he got it to the fullest. This unfortunate incident did not get into the Leningrad newspapers ...

The all-Union premiere of "Valery Chkalov" took place on March 12, 1941. The name of one of the true heroes of the film - Yevgeny Borisenko - did not appear in the credits. And soon the war broke out, and from a movie hero he had to reincarnate into a real hero. In total, Yevgeny Ivanovich made 173 successful sorties, 152 of them at night. He was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but for some reason the official presentation was "wrapped up".

Was there any silliness?

After the release of a film about him, Valery Chkalov became a cult national hero of the USSR for many decades, and Soviet youth rushed en masse to enroll in flight schools. The film itself became one of the leaders in the box office, and the episode with the "fly under the bridge" became one of the most shocking and recognizable scenes of Russian cinema. True, flight professionals considered it not convincing enough, but Evgeny Borisenko is not to blame for this: in the final version, a combined mix of several takes was included in the film.

Meanwhile, modern researchers are skeptical about the very fact of the existence of an example of such "recklessness" in Chkalov's biography. Yes, in some Soviet period publications dedicated to the pilot, a similar episode is mentioned. But! Under less romantic circumstances.

Namely: an emergency landing in the winter of 1930 under a railway bridge near Vyalka station (Novgorod region), as a result of which the Sh-1 aircraft being ferried to Leningrad fell to pieces, and the crew (pilot Chkalov and mechanic Ivanov) miraculously survived. But there is no reliable documentary evidence of Valery Pavlovich's flight over the Neva and under the bridge, and even in honor of his beloved woman. This story began to be attributed to Chkalov only after the release of a film about him.

The former director of the Leningrad State Aviation Museum Alexander Solovyov, in one of his essays, which can now be easily found on the Web, quotes the story of one of the members of the film crew: “... Our director Kalatozov did not like the original script of the film. Once in a smoking room, during a break in filming, the pilots who advised the film told that back in tsarist times, some pilot flew under the Trinity Bridge. Kalatozov sat with us and listened attentively to this story. The very next day, at his request, the script was redone. Now Chkalov was being expelled from the Air Force for a hooligan flight under a bridge, committed to win the heart of his beloved.

Aces of Tsarist Russia

Foreign experts believe that the first pilot to fly under the bridge is the English pilot Frank K. McClean. On August 10, 1912, on a short S33 float biplane, he flew between the upper and lower spans of the Tower Bridge, and then under all the bridges on the Thames to Westminster, where he safely landed on the water.

However, for reasons of patriotism, in this matter we give the palm to our aviator - a native of the Chernigov province Khariton Slavorossov, whose name is now thoroughly forgotten. Since 1910, Khariton worked as a mechanic at the aviation school of the Warsaw Aviata Society, where he passed the pilot test and a year later received a diploma from the All-Russian Aero Club. After the liquidation of Aviata, he bought his airplane and began to take part in various international aviation competitions.

In that same 1912, in the town of Mokotovo, near Warsaw, Slavorossov, flying a small airplane "Bleriot", in front of the public, suddenly flew under a bridge over the Vistula River. “The first trick of its kind in the world,” the aviator later recalled, admitting that he had paid a decent fine for his Russian prowess. By the way, during the First World War, Slavorossov fought as a volunteer in the ranks of the French army, in the 1st Aviation Regiment. When in October 1914, in one of the sorties, the French pilot Reimon was wounded and, along with his plane, ended up in the neutral zone, Khariton Slavorossov landed next to him, transferred his comrade to his device and took off under enemy fire.

As for the flight directly under the Troitsky Bridge, it was first made by naval test pilot Georgy Friede on his M-5 flying boat in 1916. In the same year, Fride's friend and colleague, Lieutenant Alexei Gruzinov, repeated this aerobatic element. Moreover, it significantly complicated the task by flying under all the bridges on the Neva in a row. Gruzinov was generally an ace of the highest level. There are references to such an air stunt of his: with the engine turned off on the M-9 plane, Gruzinov made a circle, almost tightly flying around the dome-drum of St. Isaac's Cathedral and landed on the water across the Neva.

Finally, one cannot fail to recall the legendary pilot Alexander Prokofiev-Seversky, a kind of forerunner of Maresyev. A graduate of the Sevastopol Aviation School, in early July 1915 he received the title of naval pilot and was sent to the front. Soon, during a sortie, Alexander was blown up by his own bomb and was seriously injured - his right leg was amputated. Nevertheless, the young officer decided to return to duty and began to learn to walk hard - first on crutches, and then with a prosthesis.

At the beginning of 1916, Prokofiev-Seversky began to serve at the St. Petersburg Aeronautical Plant: first as an observer for the construction and testing of seaplanes, and then retrained as an aircraft designer. However, Seversky was convinced that he could and should fly. According to one version, in order to make himself known, Prokofiev-Seversky flew without permission in an M-9 flying boat and flew under the middle of the Nikolaevsky Bridge in broad daylight. At the same time, he also managed to happily miss an oncoming river tram.

For such hooliganism, the pilot was threatened with serious disciplinary punishment. However, Rear Admiral Nepenin decided not to ruin the pilot's career and sent a report to the Highest Name, in which he especially emphasized the courage and fortitude of the officer. And he asked in the final: is it possible to give this midshipman permission for combat flights? The report allegedly returned with the emperor's resolution: “I read. Admired. Let it fly. NICHOLAS"...

As a result, by the turning point in October 1917, Lieutenant Prokofiev-Seversky became one of the most famous Russian aces pilots.

MK help

Who else flew under the bridges

The French pilot Maicon in 1919, on a two-seat training biplane "Codron G.3", successfully slipped under a bridge over the Var River in Nice.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet pilot Rozhnov was able to break away from the "Messer", who sat on his tail, only thanks to the passage under the bridge.

In 1959, US Air Force Captain John Lappo flew an RB-47 under the Mackinac Suspension Bridge on Lake Michigan. And although the trick was performed successfully, the pilot went to the tribunal, and only former military merits in Korea saved him from prison.

In 1965, in response to Khrushchev's thoughtless demobilization of military aces, Privalov, a pilot of the Kansk aviation detachment, flew under the arch of the Novosibirsk bridge across the Ob in a MiG-17 jet.

In 1999, Lithuanian pilot Jurgis Kairis in a sports plane flew under ten bridges in a row on the Neris River. With the title of world champion in aerobatics, Kairis received permission from the city of Vilnius, and also insured himself and the bridges for $ 2.5 million.

In 2012, Siberian pilot Yevgeny Ivasishin, trying to make an emergency landing of a sports plane, was forced to fly between the 18-meter supports of the Yugorsky railway bridge.

"Once upon a time Valery Chkalov was loved by the people even more than later Yuri Gagarin. Maybe that's what killed him," he says. Lidia Popova, Deputy Director for Scientific and Excursion Work of the Valery Chkalov Museum.

ringleader-stoker

But Chkalov got into aviation by chance. His parents predicted a completely different fate for him.

Dad and mom Valery Chkalov had nothing to do with aviation, says Lidia Popova. - My father was a master boilermaker, he made steamboat boilers, he was famous for his skill throughout the Volga. And my mother raised the children. The Chkalovs had a large family - five children.

Valera, from an early age, stood out among his peers ... with hooliganism and disobedience. He was the main ringleader among the local kids. The Chkalovs' house stands right on the bank of the river, so the children frolicked near the water: in the summer, Valera, showing his prowess, dived under the steamers, in the spring he rode on ice floes, in the winter he went down the hills on skis and sleds to argue - who will overcome the steepest hill.

His father instructed him all the time - he really wanted his son to grow up as a man, become a “Volgar”, that is, he worked on the Volga, was engaged in ship repair. Therefore, he sent him to study at the Cherepovets Technical School. But the study did not work out - the Civil War began, and the school was closed due to a lack of teachers.

Chkalov returned home. His father then told him: “There is nothing to sit at home, go to work!” At first, Valera went to him as an assistant, and with the beginning of navigation he got a job as a stoker.

So Valery Chkalov would have been a stoker, if one day he had not gone on deck to get some fresh air. He went out and froze: a big bird was hovering over the Volga - an airplane. It was then that he realized that he was not doing his job, that his place was in the sky.

At the age of 15, he volunteered for the Red Army and ended up in the aircraft fleet as a mechanic, - continues Lidia Popova. - The boy had to be on the front line, dismantle downed planes and assemble whole cars from these parts, because then there was no mass production of aircraft in our country yet. The authorities of the fleet, seeing his efforts, gave him a order for admission to the Yegorievsk aviation school.

Valery Chkalov studied with enthusiasm. And he flew too - famously, with risk. For which he received from his superiors. More than once he sat in a guardhouse, but later, during the Great Patriotic War, all his "hooliganism" was put into practice: flying at low altitudes, and flying between trees, and even flying under a bridge. Although then the authorities did not appreciate this span under the Trinity Bridge in Leningrad. And for flying under the telegraph line, the pilot was completely imprisoned. He then worked in Bryansk. On departure, he led a group of aircraft. I decided to train my pilots at low altitudes and ordered to fly under the telegraph line, not noticing that the wires sagged there. His colleagues flew over, but Chkalov got hooked and fell. He was not injured, but the plane crashed. For which he was arrested.

Infographics: AiF

The hero was killed?

Chkalov was pulled out of prison by his commanders. They appreciated him for his professionalism in business and simplicity in life. At first, Chkalov liked this simplicity and Joseph Stalin.

Valery met Stalin in May 1935 at an air parade, says Lidia Popova. - Chkalov then showed the leader and all the people the famous I-16 fighter. Then the pilot was introduced to Stalin. Later, after the famous non-stop flights to the island of Udd and to the USA, the acquaintance became closer, they met quite often, even had to drink for brotherhood.

Although Chkalov was not the only candidate for a flight to the USA. In 1935, a pilot made a proposal to fly to America through the North Pole Levanevsky. He chose as co-pilot Sergei Baidukov. The two of them were sent to class enemies as heroes, but they were met in a quiet way - the flight from Levanevsky and Baidukov did not work out. The car leaked oil and they had to turn back. Levanevsky was then so upset that he refused both the plane and the crew. And the idea sunk into Baidukov's soul. He was well acquainted with Chkalov, knew his flying abilities, so he came to him with the words: “Valera, let's go to the Central Committee to ask them to let us go to America. You will be our leader!"
It is impossible to say that this flight was easier for Chkalov than for Levanevsky. All 63 hours were an emergency situation. These are cyclones, and blind flight in fog, and night flight, and terrible icing of the aircraft, and the temperature in the cockpit is -20°C. In order not to freeze, Chkalov and Baidukov changed at the helm every two hours. But in Vancouver, Washington, they were greeted as heroes. There, at a meeting with American tycoons, a funny incident occurred. We have a penny of 1937 in our museum. Chkalov groped for it in his flight jacket. An American businessman wanted to buy this penny as a souvenir, to which Valery Pavlovich jokingly replied: “Our penny was able to fly over the North Pole to you, and not yours to us. So I won't give it up." Brought back a penny.

The ANT-25 aircraft, on which the crew of Valery Chkalov made a non-stop flight over the North Pole Moscow - Vancouver (USA). Photo: RIA Novosti / Ivan Shagin

After that flight, Chkalov's popularity among the people was greater than that of Gagarin. But he remained just as easy to communicate with. He came to rest in his native Vasilevo, met with friends, went hunting, fished on the Volga. In general, Valery Chkalov did not go on vacation to Sochi or the Crimea together with his superiors - he came to Vasilevo whenever possible. The parental home became for Chkalov that island where he could hide from the hectic Moscow life. And for the fatal test of the I-180 aircraft, he was also called from his home.

In 1938, Valery Chkalov was elected a deputy. He did not know that this would be the last year of his life. He painted it for many months ahead. After the accident, in the pocket of his flight suit, they found notes, hand-drawn plans, to whom, how and with what he was going to help ...

He really tried to help everyone, - says Lidia Popova. - Especially to their fellow countrymen who fell under the wheel of repression. By hook or by crook he pulled them out of the dungeons. Perhaps this was his undoing. The pilot's daughters expressed the opinion that Chkalov was killed. It is possible that this is so. Although documents confirming this version have not yet been found. The reason for the murder, probably, could be designated as the excessive love of people for Valery Chkalov. And the official version sounds like this: “Killed while testing the I-180 aircraft. Aircraft engine failure in the air.

The plane was new, Chkalov did not know him. If they gave him a couple of taxiings to do on the ground, he would quickly find flaws. But they didn’t give it ... They said: “No time.” And he could not refuse, he could only take it under the visor and answer: “Yes!” Alas, the Earth does not protect its Icarus.

June 4, 1965, the city of Novosibirsk. On this day, the weather was hot in the city, by noon on the city beach on the banks of the Ob it was crowded.

Suddenly, the peaceful rest of the townspeople, exhausted by the heat, was interrupted by the roar of an approaching aircraft. The combat jet fighter MiG-17, which appeared as if from nowhere, sharply lowered its altitude. Having leveled off literally above the very surface of the water, he went straight to the Communal Bridge. The people on the bridge and on the embankment were numb, waiting for the denouement.

The fighter dived into the target of the central arch of the bridge, emerged from the other side, abruptly went up, dodging the railway bridge trusses, and disappeared from sight as quickly as it appeared.

Someone breathed a sigh of relief, someone applauded, and the soldiers resting on the beach began to hurriedly gather, hurrying to report on the incident.

This case is not in the Guinness Book of Records, it has never been recorded as an official record. However, the incident has no analogues in the history of world aviation - no one else managed to fly under the bridge in a combat jet fighter!

Sick of the sky

He was born in the village of Pyatnitsa on the banks of the Istra reservoir, 60 km from Moscow. When the war began, the boy was six years old. Once Valya saw two Soviet I-16 fighters flying over his house literally over the roofs. As he said later, until that moment he had not seen not only aircraft, but even a locomotive nearby.

That day turned Vali's life upside down - he decided to become a pilot. The path to the dream began in the 10th grade, when Valentin began to study at the flying club.

In 1953 he was sent to Ukraine, to the city of Sumy. Flight personnel were trained there. After graduating, Valentin entered the Armavir School. At the age of 20, Privalov was already a lieutenant in naval aviation in the Baltic. When the so-called “Khrushchev reduction” began in the army, the young officer was left in aviation, but was sent to serve first in Semipalatinsk, and then in the city of Kansk in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Valentin switched from naval aviation to land aviation, but did not lose his passion for flying. Privalov belonged to that category of enthusiastic pilots who "are sick of the sky" all their lives. That was Pyotr Nesterov, the founder of aerobatics, so was Valery Chkalov.

Pilots of such a warehouse are always trying to find something new, to do something that no one has done before them.

Surpass Chkalov

The legend of Chkalov is inconceivable without his famous flight under the bridge, which is often referred to as "hooliganism". Of course, there was an element of hooliganism in this. However, virtuoso maneuvers at low altitudes, nicknamed "Chkalovsky", saved the lives of thousands of Soviet pilots, who during the war years baffled the Nazis with precisely such non-trivial piloting techniques.

The pilot of the 712th Guards Aviation Regiment, Valentin Privalov, believed that it was quite possible to fly jet fighters the way Chkalov flew. The main thing is to master your technique perfectly.

The pilots of the 712th Guards Aviation Regiment served the exercises of anti-aircraft missile forces, simulating the actions of a "probable enemy." To do this, they flew from Kansk to the Novosibirsk airfield Tolmachevo, from which they carried out sorties for exercises. In between flights, the pilots rested on the banks of the Ob, between the bridges - Communal and Zheleznodorozhny.

It was then that Privalov had the idea to fly under the Communal Bridge, proving that jet technology in good hands would not be inferior in maneuverability to its "predecessors".

It is clear that the command would never and under no circumstances give Privalov the "go-ahead" for the "experiment", so he decided to act at his own peril and risk.

View of the Communal Bridge over the Ob River in Novosibirsk. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexander Kryazhev

Flight of a lifetime

Four pilots of the 712th flew at 30-40 minute intervals. The route of the MiG pilot Privalov was as follows: Tolmachevo - Barnaul - Kamen-on-Obi - Tolmachevo.

On June 4, 1965, Valentin Privalov, having completed the task in the flight zone, returned to the airfield in cloudy conditions. Having received a command to descend, the pilot emerged from the clouds and saw the Communal Bridge in front of him. And then he decided that it was fate, and sent a fighter in his direction.

In fact, the task that Valentin Privalov set for himself was daunting. The speed of the fighter on the approach to the bridge was 700 km per hour, and it was necessary to hit the target of the arch of the bridge 30 meters high and 120 meters wide. One wrong movement of the steering wheel - and the mistake will be fatal. And people walk on the bridge, trucks, buses drive, the embankment is full of people.

Moreover, from the Communal Bridge to Zheleznodorozhny is only 950 meters, or 5 seconds of flight. To avoid a collision with him, you need to "candle" go up, withstanding the heaviest overload.

An additional complication was the fact that the flight took place over the water surface, but it was precisely this circumstance that Privalov worried about the least. After all, he started in naval aviation and knew the intricacies of flying over the water surface to perfection.

Valentin Privalov himself said that he was absolutely confident in himself, in his training and in his combat vehicle. He noticed only an unexpected effect - according to all the laws of physics, the “window” of the bridge through which the pilot had to fly should increase when approaching the target, but on the contrary, it visually decreased.

Nevertheless, the MiG-17 confidently swept under the bridge, immediately rushed up, after which it again headed for the airfield.

State of emergency of the allied scale

Valentin Privalov recalled that everything went so quickly, easily and smoothly that he even believed that no one noticed his maneuver.

The next day, the pilots arrived at the division headquarters, where, at first glance, everything was quiet and calm. Actually, Privalov's three colleagues did not know that there was cause for concern. In fact, an unprecedented scandal was raging in the military authorities. The military, who witnessed Privalov's flight, reported to the command, which immediately assembled a special commission to investigate the emergency. Incredible rumors circulated in Novosibirsk about what had happened - they said that the pilot flew under the bridge on a dare, others claimed that he thus decided to win the heart of his beloved, who was standing on the bridge.

The emergency was reported to the very top, personally Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal Rodion Malinovsky.

All four pilots were arrested just in case, and Privalov was preparing to be expelled from the party and handed over to the tribunal.

Meanwhile, there were also those who stood up for Privalov, supported the pilot First Secretary of the Novosibirsk Regional Party Committee Goryachev. The fact is that an aircraft factory worked in Novosibirsk, where Su planes were built, and the head of the regional committee, for which aircraft production was one of the most important things, appreciated cool pilots, desperate daredevils.

Rating for "Chkalovshchina" at the Chkalov factory

Privalov was taken "on the carpet" to the one who was in Novosibirsk Air Marshal Yevgeny Savitsky, outstanding ace, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Savitsky, father cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, piloted the most modern military aircraft until his 70th birthday and also appreciated the cool pilots. But as a boss, he could not condone aviation hooliganism, so he gave Privalov a noble scolding for "Chkalovshchina" using all the wealth of the great and mighty Russian language.

A piquant moment - the separation took place at the Novosibirsk aircraft plant, which bore the name ... Valery Chkalov.

When Savitsky finished, the officers accompanying the marshal whispered to Privalov: there would be no reprisal, he would be left in aviation.

After that, Privalov was ordered, leaving the plane and taking a parachute with him, to depart by train from Novosibirsk to a permanent duty station in Kansk.

Minister's "Sentence"

A week after returning to Kansk, a telegram arrived from Moscow containing a “sentence” issued by Minister of Defense Rodion Malinovsky: “Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit the activities that were carried out with him. If he was not on vacation - send him on vacation, if he was - give 10 days of rest with the unit.

As a result, Valentin Privalov suffered the most serious punishment along the party line - a severe reprimand with entry into the registration card. And in the service they punished the regiment commander and the head of the political department, who were reprimanded.

Pilot Valentin Privalov continued his service in aviation, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and the position of deputy regiment commander. Maybe he would have risen to the rank of general, but at the age of 42 his health failed - due to a cardiovascular disease, he was suspended from flying. It was possible to remain in the army in a position not related to flights, but the born pilot chose to retire.

For another quarter of a century, Valentin Privalov worked in the civil aviation dispatch service, where he was awarded the honorary badge "Excellent Air Transport Worker".

In 1965, there were no mobile phones or video cameras, so no one captured the incredible flight of Valentin Privalov. It exists on the Internet only in the form of photo collages.

Over the past half century, no one in the world has been able to repeat what the Soviet pilot did. Maybe it's for the best. To do what Valentin Privalov did, it is not enough to be a good pilot, you need to be born to fly.

A beautiful legend about a flight under the Leningrad bridge of Equality is associated with the name of Valery Chkalov. There is no documentary evidence that the flight actually took place. Meanwhile, a woman lives in St. Petersburg who claims that this is not just an urban legend.

She personally knew the one for whom Chkalov decided on an extravagant act.

“He didn’t fly with me ...”

Opponents of the romantic legend about Valery Chkalov's flight under the Equality Bridge (later - Kirovsky, now - Trinity Bridge) literally decomposed the life of a pilot in the 20s into days and came to the conclusion: if he really flew under the bridge, then this could only happen before 1925 of the year. But in Chkalov's personal file, not a single reprimand on this episode was recorded. In addition, there was not a single witness to the flight, although it took place in broad daylight. There is a version that the flight under the bridge was invented in a smoking room during the filming of the film "Valery Chkalov", when they puzzled over a love line. Director Mikhail Kalatozov allegedly liked the story and wrote it into the script. Even the widow of Chkalova Olga Erazmovna invariably answered the questions of the curious: “He didn’t fly with me ...”

She didn't really fly with her. But before meeting his future wife, there was another girl in Chkalov's life - also Olga. She was born into a large family - she had three more sisters and four brothers. Mom Tatyana Iosifovna was a housewife, father Ivan Alexandrovich worked in a bank as a small employee.

The Alexandrovs lived in poverty.

“My husband Georgy, who was Olga’s brother, told me how he walked along the porch and asked the neighbors for money for food,” recalls Nadezhda Nikolaevna, Olga Alexandrova’s daughter-in-law. - So that the children could feed themselves in the future, my future father-in-law instilled in them a love for manual labor: the girls sewed, and the guys repaired shoes.

In the home archive of Nadezhda Nikolaevna, there is only one photograph in which her husband's family is almost completely assembled: smiling brothers, pretty sisters. It is not surprising that the girls had no end to the suitors.

“The girls liked to walk together along Nevsky Prospekt,” says Nadezhda Alexandrova. - Young people often approached them, they wanted to get to know each other. One day, at the Tuchkov Bridge, Olga met Chkalov. Then he was still an ordinary pilot.

"You are not a hero!"

Valery Chkalov became a frequent visitor to the Alexandrovs' apartment. If the family sat down at the table, Valery was certainly invited to dinner. Olya's mother stood at the stove for hours to feed such a crowd - Nadezhda Nikolaevna still has baking sheets on which her future mother-in-law baked pies with cabbage and cheesecakes. Valery became very attached to Tatyana Iosifovna.

“The stove was heated with firewood,” says Nadezhda Aleksandrova. “They were kept in the basement. And Valery, when he came to visit, immediately took up the household - chopped and carried firewood. Mother liked him. She called him "my assistant".

Everything went to the fact that Valery was about to make an offer to the girl. But Olga rushed between him and another boyfriend who served in the NKVD. And as a result, she made a choice not in favor of the pilot.

“It seems to me that Olga was guided solely by mercenary considerations,” suggests Nadezhda Nikolaevna. - The family lived from hand to mouth, she just realized that she was choosing between Chkalov with his unstable character and a man with a stable job and a good salary. And pragmatically chose the second for the sake of the future of her children.

Of course, Chkalov did not like the decision of his beloved girl. Their explanatory conversation took place in raised tones. It was then that Olga in her hearts threw the fatal phrase: “You are not a hero!” After these words, Valery Chkalov asked the girl to come to the drawbridge of Equality, which in those years was considered the longest in the city. And Olga came, thinking that their parting would take place there. But what happened next, she could not dream even in nightmares.

“Olya was waiting for Chkalov in the middle of the bridge,” says Nadezhda Nikolaevna. “But he didn’t and didn’t exist. And suddenly she saw a plane flying right at her. Olya was terribly frightened - she decided that Chkalov wanted to commit suicide, and at the same time kill her. She later said that she clutched the railing so frightfully that she could not even scream, she was only trembling. When the plane (according to one version, it was a Fokker D.XI single-seat fighter - Ed.) approached, she closed her eyes, thinking that this was the end. And Chkalov dived under the bridge and flew on. Olga's hands were simply glued to the railing - a man came up to her to help, and even he could not immediately tear them off. He walked her home. Olya was shaking. And when they later met with Chkalov, he said to her: “Did you want a feat? I made it." They did not part very well, with mutual accusations: Olga accused Chkalov of being able to kill her, and he said that because of her he was suspended from flying.

Stalin's favorite

The fates of Valery Chkalov and Olga Alexandrova developed differently. Chkalov became a folk hero after he made two non-stop flights from Moscow to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and from Moscow to Vancouver. Stalin personally met the returning planes and greatly favored the impudent pilot. In a marriage with Olga Erazmovna, Chkalov had three children. And Olga Alexandrova, according to the stories of Nadezhda Nikolaevna, never found her happiness in marriage. Her husband died early - he fell down the stairs and broke his head. She never remarried.

All her life she worked as a dressmaker in a garment factory. When Nadezhda Nikolaevna entered their family, Olga Ivanovna was already retired. She lived separately, but often visited her brother George. Chkalova rarely remembered and only once told her daughter-in-law about his flight under the bridge. Perhaps she regretted the wrong choice for the rest of her life. Once she dropped a bitter phrase: “If you run after money, you won’t get anything.” Olga Alexandrova died in 1990 at the age of 84 from a heart attack in her apartment - just a 15-minute walk from the very bridge that separated her forever from Valery Chkalov.

Dossier

Valery Chkalov was born on February 2, 1904. For a drunken fight and violation of discipline, he was sentenced several times by a military tribunal to imprisonment. But each time he was restored in the ranks of the Red Army. His first non-stop flight from Moscow to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which started on July 20, 1936, lasted 56 hours. The second flight, from Moscow to Vancouver, took place a year later and lasted 63 hours. Chkalov died on December 15, 1938 during tests. The reason is a faulty aircraft. But, according to relatives, it was a deliberate murder. The urn with the ashes of Valery Chkalov is buried near the Kremlin wall.

Those who reject the idea of ​​Chkalov's flight under the bridge refer to the fact that at that time it was technically impossible to do so. But it's not.

“Military pilots Georgy Friede and Alexei Gruzinov flew seaplanes under all the bridges of the Neva,” says aviation historian Vladimir Ivanov from St. Petersburg. And that was at the beginning of the 20th century. And in 1940, pilot Yevgeny Borisenko flew under the Kirov Bridge several times for the impressive shots of the film "Valery Chkalov". But Chkalov himself, in my opinion, could not do this. I read his medical record: the visual acuity of his right eye was 0.7, the left - 0.8. With such vision, it is difficult to fit into the span of the bridge. Chkalov had 7 accidents in the last five years of his life. And everything is close to the ground. The reason is in poor eyesight.