Local historian, historian, employee of the Museum of the city of Novosibirsk Konstantin Golodyaev spoke specifically for the site about the anniversary of the event in Novosibirsk, which became a "supermeme" on social networks many years later.

Friday, June 4, 1965 was cloudy but very warm. Some of the idle townspeople were sitting on the banks of the Ob, opening the beach season, some were driving along the Communal Bridge, and some were walking along it. And around noon, they all heard a terrible roar, and saw how waves grew from under this bridge (and, some argued, from under the water), a large silvery “something” emerged and swiftly rushed into the distance. A tsunami hit the coast.

By evening, almost the entire city was quietly discussing what had happened. No one doubted that the swift "something" was the plane. True, the stories diverged from the passenger Tu-104 that lost control (notorious for its accident rate) to the testing of the latest aviation weapons. Not without a favorite rumor "Cherchez la femme". The radio network remained silent, the newspapers the next day did not clarify anything either. But the owners of VHF receivers, through the crackle of jammers, managed to hear Western reflections on the future of strafing flights and hysterical Maoist cries about the development of new tactics by the Russians to destroy Chinese bridges and crossings. Only years later did the city learn that its Communal (officially Oktyabrsky) bridge is now neither more nor less, but a world landmark.

And it remains so to this day, because no one in the world has yet repeated the flight under the bridge on a JET.

Yes, the truth was that this “underwater” silver fireball turned out to be a MIG-17 jet fighter, on which, out of “boredom and hopelessness”, thirty-year-old captain of the Soviet Air Force Valentin Vasilyevich Privalov flew into the arch of the bridge. His superiors did not notice, did not assign the next rank, the report on sending him on a business trip to help fraternal Vietnam was rejected twice. And he is a good pilot and his character is groovy - he is boiling, it is not for nothing that his colleagues called him "Jack". Here it is.

A pilot was assigned in Kansk, and here four Krasnoyarsk fighters were located at the location of the 712th Guards Aviation Regiment in Tolmachevo. They arrived at the exercises of the district. And so, returning from the Yurga training ground, from working out the "conditional target" for anti-aircraft gunners, Privalov saw our handsome bridge in front of him. And it must be said that chance has nothing to do with it: the pilot was already eyeing him, having recently been with the guys on the beach.

Standing in the river bed, Privalov extinguished the speed to 700 kilometers per hour, descended to the water, then slowed down again and sent the car into the central arch of the bridge.

The width of the arch is 120 meters, the wingspan is less than 10. Twelve-fold margin. But taking into account the height of the bridge at 30 meters, and most importantly, the speed of the aircraft at the time of passage, estimated by experts at 400 km / h, and the time for the subsequent maneuver, the flight was sniper. Immediately after the passage, from which, according to eyewitnesses who were on the bridge, the bottom of the river was exposed, the car began to sharply gain height. Between the Communal and railway bridges 950 meters. And the second one is higher. 400 km/h. 111 m/s Given the acceleration in stock less than 8-9 seconds. They say that the plane passed almost tightly over the trusses of the second bridge.

By and large, and by and large, Privalov's trick was criminal. It would be nice if he risked only his own life, which was already in his biography. It would be nice if he destroyed one of the bridges, stopped the Trans-Siberian. But there were people, cars, public transport on the Communal Bridge.

The incident was immediately reported to Moscow. The entire Kansk group of pilots was arrested.

Privalov is urgently expelled from the ranks of the CPSU. Sitting in the guardhouse, he is waiting for parting not only with the sky, but also with freedom. On the third day something "clicked". The pilot was released, handed over the documents for the train and ordered to immediately depart for Kansk, to the location of the unit. No convoy. A telegram from the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal Malinovsky, is already arriving there: do not punish the pilot, give him a rest. Privalov is reinstated in the party, but still they put in a stricter with an entry.

And after a while he was transferred to the Gorky region, to the training unit, then they were assigned a major, then a lieutenant colonel, appointed squadron commander, deputy regiment commander. Valentin Vasilyevich himself was never imbued with the dubious value of his act. He said: "The bridge is just an accident. If it weren't for the bridge, it would be something else of the same kind."

The French opened the topic of flying under bridges. Even at the beginning of the last century.

Next we have Slavorossov, Fride, Gruzinov, Chkalov, Borisenko. The pilot Rozhnov went under the bridge from the persecution of the Nazis. Already in our time, we have repeatedly flown under bridges on a sports plane and a motor Yak. In Vilnius, even upside down. There is enough madness in the world, but no other pilot on the planet is in a hurry to repeat such a trick on a jet plane.

Naturally, there is no photograph of the incident. Yes, it couldn't be.

Nobody even had time to pick up a camera. But there is a widely disseminated collage, which a few years ago was made by an employee of the museum of our city, Yevgeny Sotsikhovsky. In my opinion, very skillfully, although mathematically incorrect.

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Who in our country does not know that Chkalov flew under Troitsky

bridge over the Neva? If not from books, then from the famous movie by Mikhail Konstantinovich Kalatozov. But few people know that in the Chkalovsky times, the Trinity Bridge in Leningrad was the Equality Bridge. And Valery Pavlovich Chkalov never flew under this very bridge of Equality. It is not at all difficult to be convinced of this. It is enough to carefully and impartially look at the biography of V.P. Chkalov and the history of domestic aviation. Based on documents, of course, and not on falsified materials from Soviet publications.

Let's take the initial data: it is claimed that Chkalov flew under the bridge in 1928, and in a number of sources that in 1927. All of them say that Chkalov did this on a Fokker D.XI fighter, in front of his future wife, Olga Erazmovna. For "recklessness" he was seriously punished by the regiment commander I. Antoshin - he was put in a guardhouse!

About the flight date

In Podolsk, the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) stores the personal file of the famous pilot V.P. Chkalov No. 268818. It has long been declassified and is now available for comprehensive study. In a personal file, as expected, there is a track record of a pilot. From it and many other documents it follows that in 1928 the red military pilot V.P. Chkalov served in the "15th Air Squadron" of the Bryansk Air Brigade and never flew to Leningrad. Unofficially, he could not make such a flight either. It was IMPOSSIBLE to fly to Leningrad without landing and refueling on any of the fighter jets that were in service with the brigade and to return back. 1928 is categorically eliminated!

On January 19, 1929, the doors of the prison cell kindly opened for Chkalov for the second time. To this day, his prison diary is kept in the memorial museum of the legendary pilot in the city of Chkalovsk, Nizhny Novgorod Region, where it can be easily found. Chkalov was demobilized from the army. He could not fly under the bridge in 1929.

Consider other dates.

Not a single source says that Chkalov flew under the bridge in 1924. Everyone understands that only a pilot who came to the combat unit was not able to pull off such a trick.

1925... In St. Petersburg, where I live, there are three unique libraries: the Russian National Library, the Library of the Academy of Sciences and the Central Naval Library. Together, these three huge book depositories have in their funds everything that has ever been published about Valery Pavlovich in our country. Anyone can look into them and see for themselves: in all her numerous interviews and books, when and how her husband flew under the bridge in Leningrad, Chkalov's second wife, Olga Erazmovna. for which, according to the film, Valery Pavlovich flew under the bridge of Equality, she always answered: “He didn’t fly with me ...”.

By the way. Valery Pavlovich and Olga Erazmovna met on the last day of 1924! In her last book, "The Life of Valery Chkalov" iM 1979), Olga Erazmovna wrote: "... it happened in 1925," which contradicts her own words, all official statements and the personal file of V.P. Chkalov.

“In 1925 he was demobilized by court” - from personal file No. 268818. Here is another extract from this document: “SENTENCE IN THE NAME OF THE RSFSR .. Exit session on November 16 (1925) ... having considered in an open meeting at the location of the 1st squadron ... case No. 150 on the charge of citizen Chkalov Valery Pavlovich ... recognized as proven: on September 7, 1925 in Leningrad, gr. Chkalov, being in the position of a military pilot of the 1st squadron ... and being obliged to report to the airfield for a training group flight by 3 o'clock in the afternoon. appeared at the indicated time in a completely drunk state, as a result of which he not only could not fly, but generally behaved unacceptably, shouted, made noise, etc., which attracted the attention of those present at the airfield.

Being arrested and then sent home by car with the pilots Blagin and Bogdanov, Chkalov was very dissatisfied on the way that he was sent from the airfield and not allowed to fly on the apparatus, loudly expressed his displeasure with shouts and gestures ...

By these actions, Chkalov discredited the authority and title of the commander-fighter of the Red Army, i.e. committed a crime, and therefore the visiting commission of the VT LVO SENTENCED c. Chkalov Valery Pavlovich to imprisonment with strict isolation for ONE year, without affecting his rights.

Taking into account Chkalov's first conviction, voluntary service in the Red Army, youth and proletarian origin, remove strict isolation and reduce Chkalov's term of imprisonment to SIX months. Chkalov appealed against the verdict, but the response "Determination" read: "The verdict is upheld."

Drunkenness is common in our country. And in the aviation of the RKKAF of those years, it was generally endemic and ubiquitous - a legacy of the civil war, when, for lack of gasoline, it was necessary to fill the engines of battered coffin airplanes with a mixture of alcohol and ether. In the 1st Red Banner Squadron, the young military pilot Valery Chkalov was quickly turned into a drunkard. How this happened is described in sufficient detail in the book of his daughter V. V. Chkalova “Valery Chkalov. Aviation Legend "(M 2005).

For drunken debauchery they were put in a guardhouse or given fifteen days. And then 6 months in prison! .. One can only guess how outstanding Chkalov's drinking bouts were. Boiled, you see, at the command ...

1926th ... In 1926, V.P. Chkalov practically did not serve. At first he sat in the "corrective house", as the prison was then called, and then knocked on the thresholds of the offices of military leaders and military registration and enlistment offices, trying to recover in military service. Persistence paid off. As follows from his personal file: “... in 1926 he was accepted back to Kr. Ar. in the 1st squadron ... ". After the restoration, Chkalov behaved "quieter than water and lower than grass", during this period he had only positive characteristics. In that year, Chkalov had no time for hooligan flights under bridges. Yes, and when he again began to fly, the Neva was already ice-bound A. As stated, Chkalov flew over the water. 1926 disappears.

1927… From January to spring there is ice on the Neva. The first quarter is gone. On March 24, Chkalov, during a training battle, got into an accident on a Fokker D-XI fighter: "A collision in the air, after which he planned it." An official hearing follows. Chkalov, of course, is temporarily suspended from flying. In May, another service characteristic was requested for him, and already in June the pilot was sent for training in Lipetsk. From where, of course, he could not fly to the Leningrad bridge of Equality in any way. To all of the above, it is worth adding that in 1927 Chkalov was already married to O.E. Chkalova, and she, as noted above, always claimed that her husband under the bridge over the Neva "did not fly with her."

It turns out that V.P. Chkalov could fly under the Equality Bridge only in 1925.

About serious punishment

The famous "dad" - I.P. Antoshin, the commander of the 1st Red Banner Squadron, did NOT PUNISH for any flight under the Chkalov bridge! In his memoirs (see: I. Antoshin "First Flights in the Squadron", M. 1969), he does not mention a single word about Chkalov's flight under the bridge over the Neva. Moreover, he claimed all his life that he had heard about this flight only from third parties. After Chkalov's arrest in November 1925, Antoshin was sent for further service in Turkestan. So, under Antoshin, Chkalov did not fly under the Equality Bridge. Especially in 1928.

It is erroneously stated that V.P. Chkalov flew under the bridge on a Fokker D.XI fighter

V.P. Chkalov (second from left) among colleagues. First left - mechanic Ivanov

In the personal file of V.P. Chkalov, NO punishments for flying under the bridge were recorded. There are many punishments:

- “Penalties in court and disciplinary, announced in the order in part and above: 2 times tried by the court of the Military Tribunal. He was repeatedly subjected to disciplinary sanctions "...

- As a member of the RKSM, he was "expelled for 6 months for indiscipline." There is no data on the restoration in the RKSM in the personal file ...

There are many punishments... But punishment for unauthorized flight over Leningrad and flying under the bridge is not among them. Generally! Not in any year of his service!

About the witnesses of the flight

You can fly under the bridge only during the day. In broad daylight near the Summer Garden, Petropavlovka, the embankments are always full of people. There must have been many eyewitnesses. But they are not. No one! It is officially registered that there were 106 people dragging with V.I. Lenin had a log on a subbotnik. There, the date was known, when Lenin was dragging a log, it was easy for false assistants to lie. But there were no witnesses of Chkalov's flight under the bridge! No real eyewitnesses, no “sons of Lieutenant Schmidt. For the exact date of passage under the bridge DOES NOT EXIST None!

The flight of an airplane under the bridge what then what now is a stunning phenomenon, a sensation! All newspapers should have written about such an event. Here, the Petrograd newspapers in 1916 excitedly reported on the passage of a naval pilot, Lt. G.A. Fride under the Trinity Bridge on the M-5 plane. And in the autumn of 1916, they enthusiastically described the flight of the naval pilot, Lt. A.E. Georgians under all bridges at once!!! In 1940, the Leningrad newspapers wrote with the same admiration about the flights under the Kirov Bridge by the pilot of the Northern Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet Yevgeny Borisenko during the filming of the film "Valery Chkalov". Borisenko flew under the Kirov Bridge on an LU-2 plane four times. Two on the first day of shooting, two on the second. But about the flight under the Chkalov Bridge NEVER wrote ANY Leningrad newspaper, not a single city magazine.

About span descriptions

All the descriptions of Chkalov's flight under the bridge over the Neva (and there are only 3-4 of them) that exist in the literature are dated much later than 1940. That is, they are given by the authors who saw the film "Valery Chkalov". And all these descriptions retell frames from the film… None of the authors witnessed that flight.

About the vigilant OGPU and the command of the LenVO Air Force

To fly under the Equality Bridge, Chkalov had to build an approach from the side of Smolny. It is alleged that he tried on the bridge span several times. That is, he circled over Smolny, over Liteiny, where the leadership of the OGPU was located, over Shpalernaya, where the prison was the OGPU, and the house of the Politkatorzhan, in which the entire top of the Bolshevik authorities of the city lived. Such a flight should have been followed by a trial in the OGPU, at least. But wasn't the morally unstable pilot Chkalov, expelled from the RKSM, the son of a steamship owner - a socially alien element, planning to bomb Smolny? Shoot at party members-Leninists? Didn't you want to take revenge for your arrest, to vent your anger? Nothing of the sort happened. There was no such trial.

Following the Trinity is the Palace Bridge. After flying under the bridge of Equality, Chkalov immediately had to transfer the car to a climb. Just opposite the Palace Square, where the headquarters of the LenVO Air Force has been located since the first years of Soviet power. Respectively. Chkalov had to do this during test runs as well. Is it possible that no one from the command of the LenVO Air Force took an interest. what kind of fighter is roaring under their windows, grossly violating the ban on military aircraft flying over Leningrad? But there is no information about Chkalov's punishment for this flight in his personal file. I have not seen anything like this in the reporting documentation of the LenVO Air Force.

On the magical power of art

A thorough and comprehensive study of library collections today allows us to state with absolute accuracy that before 1939 there were NO publications about the flight of V.P. Chkalov did not exist under any bridge.

The first story about the flight of V.P. Chkalov under, mind you, the "Troitsky" bridge appears ... in "Roman-Gazeta" No. 13/1939. The magazine published a story by the beginning writer G. Baidukov called "About Chkalov", which was a literary version of the screenplay "Valery Chkalov".

In this description, Chkalov is flying under the bridge out of high flying motives. A colorful, detailed description of the flight ends with a phrase that a tired, but pleased with himself, pilot returns home to his loving wife. How can one not recall again the statement of O.E. Chkalova that under her Chkalov did not fly under the bridge.

From Roman-Gazeta, the description of the flight migrated to all other books, including the one published by O.E. Chkalova on behalf of V.P. Chkalov book “High above the ground. Pilot's stories "(1939)

But back to the script. The director was not happy with the original script. There was no main thing without which a good movie cannot exist - a love line. The reasons for Chkalov's expulsion from the Air Force were also indistinct. The script for the propaganda film was revised several times, but Mikhail Kalatozov (real name Kalatozishvili) did not like it.

How did the flight scene acquire a knightly-heroic appearance in the film - for the sake of the heart of the beloved woman! - installed from the source. An outstanding historian, Navy Air Force fighter pilot, WWII participant Nikolai Andreevich Goncharenko managed to find the members of that film crew at one time. And they told him who was the author of this plot twist: Once in a smoking room, during a break in filming, the pilots who advised the film told details about how pilots flew under the Trinity Bridge back in tsarist times. There were legends about this among aviators.

Kalatozov sat with us and listened attentively to this story. The very next day, according to his vision, the script was redone once again. Now Chkalov was being expelled from the Air Force for a hooligan flight under a bridge, committed to win the heart of his beloved.

Since then, this invention of the director went "to the people." Like how footage of the “storming of the Winter Palace” from Eisenstein’s film “October” began to pass off as a documentary chronicle.

The famous pilot and friend of Chkalov, Georgy Baidukov, the main author of the film script, in fact, the creator of the myth about the “flying under the bridge,” later admitted: “Chkalov himself told me about this! ..”. Which is not surprising, because G. Baidukov did not serve in Leningrad and could not see this himself ...

About the truth of life

In 1939, after the death of V.P. Chkalov, in the publishing house "Children's Literature" of the Central Committee of the Komsomol published a very interesting book: Valery Chkalov, Hero of the Soviet Union "High above the ground. Pilot's stories. Foreword by Olga Erazmovna Chkalova. In it, Olga Erazmovna, with her own hand, described how, when and under what circumstances V.P. Chkalov flew under the bridge. And under what bridge:

“One morning - it was several years ago in Leningrad - Valery Pavlovich returned after a flight. He greeted me and my son and looked around the room with some strange alien look. This is how a person looks who has just experienced a great danger and still does not believe that he is again in his native, familiar environment.

- Has something happened to you?

He quickly passed his hand over his forehead and smiled.

- Nothing, nothing. Go to work, you'll be late, I'll tell you in the evening.

In fact, these "trifles" looked like this.

The plane was in imminent danger of death. Winter fog pressed him to the ground, his wings were iced over, there was a forest all around. Not far away is the railway bridge, on which the train was going, blocking the path to the only and pathetic likeness of the landing site. And Valery Chkalov landed the plane on this small saving island, flying ... under the arch of the railway bridge.

In her latest book, Olga Erazmovna was more frank: “Somehow he and a mechanic were assigned to overtake a plane from Novgorod. And suddenly another accident! He returned home bruised.

“I can’t believe I’m at home, alive,” he told me when I came home from school.

For the first time I saw that Chkalov lost his nerve, as they say.

Having taken off from Novgorod, he got into difficult meteorological conditions. The plane was icy, and it was impossible to gain the desired height. I had to fly low, just above the forest. A railroad track stretched under the wing. The moment came when Valery realized that he needed to make an emergency landing. And there is nowhere to sit. You can try to sit on the tops of trees - there is a chance to save your own life, but Valery rejected this option right away. Even then, he developed a principle for himself - to fight for the life of the machine, as for his own, to the last.

While Valery was thinking, a train appeared in the distance. Suddenly, a bridge flashed ahead. It was already within reach of him. There is only one way out - to dive under the bridge and sit down. Chkalov dived, but a semaphore prevented him from landing behind the bridge. In a moment, he and the mechanic were lying on the ground among the aircraft debris.

A special commission found that if the pilot had tried to choose a different option for an emergency landing, the car would have crashed into a railway platform and the death of the crew would have been inevitable ”(O.E. Chkalova“ The Life of Valery Chkalov ”, M. 1979).

This bridge stands near the Vyalka station, which was located on the 225-km track of the Oktyabrskaya Leningrad-Moscow railway. In the documents, this event does not look as beautiful as in the stories of Olga Erazmovna.

In 1929 V.L. Korvin (by mother, first surname, by father - Kerber) designed and built an amphibious aircraft in his own apartment. During the Civil War, from 1919, he was in the ranks of the White Donskoy hydroaviation division, worked at the Taganrogr aircraft factory, where the planes of the Dobroarmiya were repaired. After the war, Korvin ended up in Leningrad, where he proposed his seaplane project, but he was not accepted - the Soviet authorities did not have confidence in the designer. And then he started building a car in his apartment. He was assisted by a graduate of the Institute of Communications V.B. Shavrov. When the work came to an end, Korvin had fears that he, a former White Guard officer, would be considered by the authorities as an attempt to prepare a terrorist attack against the leaders of the city and country. Then the creator of the aircraft suggested to his assistant Shavrov that the aircraft be passed off as his own, and then apply to the Osoaviakhim of the North-Western Region with a request for financing the final work. Shavrov agreed with pleasure. The amphibian received the Sh-1 index (photo on the splash screen) and the 85 hp Walter engine, bought with the money of Osoaviakhim. The plane turned out to be successful. Shavrov instantly became a famous aircraft designer, however, until the end of his life he was not able to create any of his serial aircraft. Corwin did not see all this. He was arrested.

State tests were carried out in Moscow. The plane was piloted by test pilot B.V. Glagolev. In February 1930, he flew the plane home to Leningrad, but got stuck in Borovichi due to bad weather. A few days later, Glagolev was recalled to Moscow, and Osoaviakhim of the North-Western Region was offered to pick up his car himself.

Ivanov, like Valery Pavlovich, was a big drinker (in a few years he would be fired from Osoaviakhim for regular drinking). Either they had it with them, or they had a good time in the dining car, but when the train reached Borovichi, the sea was already knee-deep. Despite the snowfall, the almost complete lack of visibility and very low cloud cover, they boarded the plane and, contrary to the advice not to fly, took off.

At first everything went well, but the further they flew away from Borovichi, the worse the weather became. Chkalov did not even try to rise above the clouds - he did not master the art of instrument flight. He could only navigate on the ground. And so he had to press the car lower and lower to the ground, so as not to lose sight of the railroad track. In addition, icing has begun. After a while they were already flying at low level. Valery Chkalov later liked to tell his listeners about this “And once on a misty day I was forced to rear up an icy amphibian dozens of steps in front of a speeding steam locomotive, jumped over it and, without touching the snow-covered roofs of the cars with skis, disappeared behind the tail of the train into frosty mist."

The locomotive rushed forward, illuminating the space with a powerful headlight. We managed to notice its light in time. But, having jumped the train, the Sh-1 crew finally realized that every minute they were catching up with the train going ahead of them to Leningrad. And they will not be able to notice the dim light of the red lights of his last car in time. With all your will! I had to sit down. They started looking for a place to land. At the next railway bridge, a suitable bank flashed by. The clearing allowed landing, but it was necessary to enter it from the side of the railway bridge. Having made a turn, Chkalov led the amphibian to land, trying to fly over the canvas as low as possible in order to have more space for a run. The engine had already been turned off when another train suddenly jumped out of the forest onto the bridge. The collision could have been avoided only by diving under the bridge. There was no other way out. We successfully fit into the span. But it was no longer possible to sit on the bank of the frozen river. It was necessary to go on a re-entry. Turning on the engine, Chkalov put the car into a turn, at the same time trying to gain altitude. But the icy plane stubbornly did not go up. Ahead on the course was a railway platform and a semaphore sticking out. Chkalov chose a semaphore. (Later, the commission investigating the causes of the disaster would establish that a blow to the platform would have been fatal for the crew). The impact of the wing on the semaphore broke the car into pieces. The crew was thrown into the snow. They miraculously survived. Coming to their senses from what they had endured, Ivanov and Chkalov bandaged each other and went on foot to the Vyalka station ..

A criminal case was opened on the fact of the plane crash. During the investigation, the crew was acquitted. In the flight book of V.P. Chkalov No. 279, issued by the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (GUGVF) on July 10, 1933, this disaster was recorded with the wording: "Weather conditions are to blame."

Not a single pilot will talk about his failures, but, apparently, he really wanted to tell about the flight under the bridge. Most likely, Chkalov spoke about his flight with a fair amount of fantasy, replacing the true scene of action with a fictional, more spectacular one. What is called, "poisoned airfield stories." It was not difficult to change the bridge across Vyalka to Troitsky. Every aviator in those years knew about the phenomenal flights under the Neva bridges by naval aviation pilots Frida and Gruzinov.

Anatoly Ivanin/

farm Krasnochervonny, Stavropol Territory

The next day, June 5, 1965, all four pilots seconded from Kansk were in for a "surprise". According to a number of orders and instructions, the emergency was reported vertically, and soon everyone who was supposed to be in office learned about an incident unseen since the time of Valery Chkalov. They also reported to the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky.

Anticipating numerous thunders and lightnings from the General Staff Olympus and the near prospect of giving Privalov to the tribunal, the communists of the regiment hastily expelled the desperate pilot from the ranks of the CPSU. And in those years, this meant the end of aviation biography, even in the most favorable scenario.,

Privalov, without an airplane, but with a parachute (as it was supposed to be in form), went back to Kansk by train. He was threatened, if not by a tribunal, then by the end of his flying career. However, when the ace arrived in his native part, a telegram arrived there: “Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to the events that were carried out with him (meaning an educational conversation with the marshal. - Approx. ed.). If you haven't been on vacation, go on vacation. If there was, give ten days of rest at the unit. Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal R. Malinovsky.

Apparently, the suicidal courage of the air hooligan subdued the marshal, who was familiar with both Chkalov and Pokryshkin. Which, by the way, were also not against demonstrating their aerial skills. And rightly so. Well, hide it, or what?

Now it is difficult to say why the Minister of Defense made an unexpected decision regarding Privalov. Maybe, the marshal realized that such pilots in the event of war would be very useful to native aviation, or maybe something else happened, but Captain Privalov was ordered not to punish, but to send him on vacation, and if he already had, then provide a ten-day rest with parts! After that, the ex-communist was quickly returned to the ranks of the Leninist party, and the caliber of the stars on the shoulder straps of the desperate pilot soon changed. He became a squadron commander and even a deputy regiment commander, but not immediately.

They did not forget about the Chkalovsky follower in the capital either - in the early 70s, Major, and then Lieutenant Colonel Privalov, continued to serve in a training aviation regiment in the village of Savasleyka, Gorky Region. Soon, the training regiment became the 148th center for combat use and retraining of air defense aviation flight personnel. Only in 1977, a cardiovascular disease forced Valentin Vasilievich to leave the flight service. He could not and did not want to remain in the ranks of the army without his favorite job - he had to retire, although there was an option to serve for some time in a rear position. In the late 80s, he underwent surgery to implant an electrical pacemaker to the heart muscle. Currently, Valentin Vasilyevich Privalov lives in Moscow.

P Chkalov's stumble haunts our pilots.
On June 4, 1965, ace military pilot Valentin Privalov, who served in the Kansk garrison, flew under the bridge in a MiG-17 jet plane, just a couple of meters from the water surface.

In early June 1965, the anti-aircraft artillery of two motorized rifle divisions of the Siberian Military District began to pass a kind of combat exam at a training ground near the city of Yurga. In order for everything to be natural, as in a real battle, a flight of four MiG-17s was sent from the 712th Guards Aviation Regiment to Tolmachevo. Among the pilots was Captain Privalov.

72-year-old Valentin Privalov today.

Ground anti-aircraft gunners from 57-mm guns fired at the mirror image of MiG-17 fighters, and the authorities with large stars on shoulder straps drew conclusions about the degree of preparedness of each of the divisions. After such an imitation of the defeat of an air enemy, Privalov, following to the airfield in Tolmachevo, saw under him the Communal Bridge across the Ob River in Novosibirsk, connecting the Leninsky and Oktyabrsky districts of the city.

Built in 1952-55, the bridge consisted of seven 128-meter spans.

Pilot Privalov noticed the communal bridge a long time ago. The ace, who came from Kansk to Novosibirsk for flight training, immediately thought to himself: “I will definitely fly under this bridge!”. And so such a case presented itself.

The pilot approached the target in the direction of the Ob River, at a speed of about 700 kilometers per hour.

In Novosibirsk, that day, June 4, 1965, turned out to be hot. On a lazy Friday afternoon, it was crowded on the embankment, and on the city beach - in general, there was nowhere for an apple to fall. Young Novosibirsk students and schoolchildren have just started their holidays. The city was preparing to fall into an afternoon slumber, when suddenly… a roar came from the sky. The sound grew and quickly turned into a menacing one. And suddenly a silvery lightning appeared over Otdykha Island (the Ob island closest to the Communal Bridge). And ... began to fall into the Ob, but not vertically, like a stone, but in a smooth downward direction. When the water was a few meters away, the silver car leveled off and went straight.

Novosibirsk was anxiously silent: if an unknown hooligan at the helm of a fighter makes a mistake even by a millimeter, a tragedy will occur. On the bridge - hundreds of people in cars, trolleybuses and buses hurry about their business. God forbid, the ace will crash into the support of the Communal ...

The plane dived right under the central arch of the bridge and immediately exited on the other side. From the shore, it seemed like an unprecedented trick. Someone breathed a sigh of relief. But then the jet engine roared, and there, beyond the bridge, silvery lightning darted skyward, bringing water and hot air down on the bridge.

It was lucky that there were no boats or repairs under the bridge and next to it.

People on the other side of the embankment, where the Gorodskoye Nachalo park is located today, were dumbfounded: now the plane that emerged from under the Communal Bridge was flying straight at the railway bridge.

The MIG missed the railway bridge by only ten meters. The plane went into the sky, and the entire embankment, without saying a word, crossed themselves and applauded the diapers.

The next day, June 5, 1965, all four pilots seconded from Kansk were arrested. The emergency was reported vertically, and soon everyone who was supposed to be in position learned about an incident that had not been seen since the time of Valery Chkalov.

They also reported to the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky. Anticipating numerous thunders and lightnings from the General Staff Olympus and the near prospect of giving Privalov to the tribunal, the communists of the regiment hastily expelled the desperate pilot from the ranks of the CPSU. And in those years, this meant the end of aviation biography, even in the most favorable scenario.

During interrogation by the then Marshal of Defense of the USSR Rodion Malinovsky, Privalov said that he simply wanted to become a "real pilot." Privalov, without an airplane, but with a parachute (as it was supposed to be in form), went back to Kansk by train. He was threatened, if not by a tribunal, then by the end of his flying career.

However, when the ace arrived in his native part, a telegram arrived there:

“Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to the activities that were carried out with him. If you haven't been on vacation, go on vacation. If there was, give ten days of rest at the unit. Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky.

Here is a photo and a story that has been circulating on the Internet for more than a year. Have you ever wondered if she is real? Could it be that much of what is written on the Internet is a fake? Let's try to figure it out...

In the Guinness Book of Records, we will not find any mention of the Novosibirsk Communal Bridge, nor the name of Privalov - this is not surprising, because the Soviet press did not write about the incident that occurred on June 3 (according to some sources - June 4), 1965. Rumors spread throughout the country and even leaked abroad, already acquiring some completely ridiculous details, but since there was no official message, there was no official recognition. Moreover, the only flight of a jet fighter under the bridge in world history was not recorded by the on-board equipment, you will not be able to detect film and photographic documents either.

Let's see how they describe it artistically:

As eyewitnesses recall, the day of June 4, 1965 turned out to be hot. On a lazy Friday afternoon, the embankment was crowded, and on the city beach there was nowhere for an apple to fall. Young Novosibirsk students and schoolchildren have just started their holidays. Silence, calmness and goodness - summer in the Soviet Novosibirsk.

The city was preparing to fall into an afternoon slumber, when suddenly… a roar came from the sky. The sound grew and quickly turned into a menacing one. On the embankment, they began to look around anxiously: what is making noise?

And suddenly a silvery lightning appeared over Otdykha Island (the Ob island closest to the Communal Bridge). And ... began to fall into the Ob, but not vertically, like a stone, but in a smooth downward direction. When the water was a few meters away, the silver car leveled off and went straight.

Yes, it's an airplane! A real combat fighter! someone on the embankment exclaimed.

The crowd fell silent in horror: the fighter flew low over the waves straight to the Communal Bridge. The water under the plane boiled with white breakers - either from the incredible speed of the machine, or from the blows of a jet stream from a nozzle. It seemed that a silver boat was flying over the water, and a white trail stretched behind it (it is called a wake).

Novosibirsk was anxiously silent: if an unknown hooligan at the helm of a fighter makes a mistake even by a millimeter, a tragedy will happen. On the bridge - hundreds of people in cars, trolleybuses and buses hurry about their business. God forbid, the ace will crash into the support of the Communal ...

The plane dived right under the central arch of the bridge and immediately exited on the other side. From the shore, it seemed like an unprecedented trick. Someone breathed a sigh of relief. But then the jet engine howled like a fool, and there, behind the bridge, silvery lightning darted upwards.

People on the other side of the embankment, where the Gorodskoe Nachalo park is located today, were dumbfounded: a silver plane that emerged from under the Communal Bridge was flying straight at the railway bridge. The city history began with it, the fate of the country depends on it, and just now a freight train with a forest is going along it!

Silvery lightning missed the railway bridge by only a dozen meters. The plane went into the sky, and the whole embankment, without saying a word, applauded.

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So, on June 4, 1965, in the company of friends, I was heading to the city beach. Then the tram route 6 ran from the left bank to the right bank. This is how we got to the resting place. The trams did not run very often and therefore were packed full of passengers. June 4 was no exception, and not everyone managed to get off at the Beach stop. Thus, I moved to the right bank and from there, without waiting for the return tram, I was forced to cross the bridge to the left bank of the Ob. A few other people were walking in the same direction besides me. A man of athletic build walked first, I followed him, and behind me was a corporal of internal troops in dress uniform. Unbuttoning his tunic and pushing his cap back on the back of his head, the servant moved with measured steps towards the sandy shore.

And so, when we were somewhere in the middle of the bridge, something happened that could not be imagined in the most terrible dream. Suddenly, a silvery silhouette of an airplane flashed from under the bridge and immediately soared into the sky at a large angle to the horizon, exposing the bottom of the river for a second! A wave went to the beach, washing the clothes and shoes of careless bathers into the water. The man walking in front of me and I stopped and, as if spellbound, looked at the amazing action, and the corporal with both hands firmly pressed his cap to his head, fearing the loss of government property. A little later we smelled kerosene.

By evening, almost all of the Left Bank knew about what had happened, although there was a "damaged telephone effect." Instead of the MiG-17 fighter, the passenger Tu-104 has already appeared. They said that under the bridge a plane flew from the plant. Chkalov, who allegedly lost control during the tests. But there were obvious inconsistencies, since in those years the plant was already producing the Su-15, and the tests of new aircraft were carried out far outside the city. The local media did not report anything about the incident, and in 2-3 days curious citizens learned some details from the transatlantic enemy radio broadcasts. But the Maoist mouthpiece from Beijing, the passage under the Communal Bridge announced the beginning of the development of new tactics for the destruction of bridges and crossings by Soviet pilots. Not somewhere on the training ground, but in the center of a large city!

Of course, the main event was the flight, but the MiG-17 is not a rocket, which means there was a pilot. There were a lot of rumors about him then. Popular rumor reported that the desperate flight under the bridge was the result of a dispute. It was also said that the pilot took the extra risk because of the inaccessible beauty.

Captain Privalov's argument

Rumors were rumors, but it was not at all like that. On June 4, 1965, thirty-year-old captain Valentin Vasilyevich Privalov made his flight under the bridge not on a dare and not because of a woman. The reason was different. He wanted to show that there are still pilots with a capital letter in the Armed Forces, that the ill-conceived dashing "cutting" of the native army during the Khrushchev thaw did not eradicate Chkalovsky traditions and pilot dashing. In addition, it was also a kind of protest against the kholuy suppression of innovation, initiative and the “rubbing out” of combat pilots.

Valentin Vasilyevich experienced the peak of “cutting” and reduction while serving in naval aviation, in the 691st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet in the city of Mamonovo, Kaliningrad Region. The very west of the USSR, flights over the sea, a black naval uniform, and suddenly - a transfer to the depths of Siberia, a change from a naval uniform to an all-army one ... Service in the Chernigov Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory was much more prosaic and, moreover, Siberia is not the Baltic .

In early June 1965, anti-aircraft artillery of two motorized rifle divisions of the Siberian Military District began to pass a kind of combat exam at a training ground near the city of Yurga. In order for everything to be natural, as in a real battle, a flight of four MiG-17s was sent from the 712th Guards Aviation Regiment to Tolmachevo. Among the pilots was Captain Privalov.

Ground anti-aircraft gunners from 57-millimeter guns fired at the mirror reflection of fighters, and the authorities with large stars on shoulder straps drew conclusions about the degree of preparedness of each of the divisions. After such an imitation of the defeat of the air enemy, Privalov, following to the airfield in Tolmachevo, “subdued” the Communal Bridge.

As Alexander Kamanov (a Novosibirsk resident who met and talked with Valentin Privalov) tells in his memoirs, the pilot noticed the Communal Bridge a long time ago. The ace, who came from Kansk to Novosibirsk for flight training, immediately thought to himself: “I will definitely fly under this bridge!”.

After one of the training sessions, Privalov was going to return to the airfield. But, flying over the Ob, he decided to fulfill his promise to himself.

The target was approached in the direction of the Ob, at a speed of about 700 kilometers per hour. It was terrifying - until darkening in the eyes. Still - at such a speed to get into the narrow "window" of the bridge arch (30 meters high and 120 wide) seemed simply impossible. Even a slight touch on the control stick changed the height of the car by whole meters.

But the worst was yet to come. Immediately after the Communal Bridge - just 950 meters away - there is already a railway bridge, the most important transport artery of Russia. Privalov had exactly five seconds before the collision. And during this time, he managed to drastically change course and, experiencing wild overload, screw into the sky.

The next day, June 5, 1965, all four pilots seconded from Kansk were in for a "surprise". According to a number of orders and instructions, the emergency was reported vertically, and soon everyone who was supposed to be in office learned about an incident unseen since the time of Valery Chkalov. They also reported to the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky.

Anticipating numerous thunders and lightnings from the General Staff Olympus and the near prospect of giving Privalov to the tribunal, the communists of the regiment hastily expelled the desperate pilot from the ranks of the CPSU. And in those years, this meant the end of aviation biography, even in the most favorable scenario.,

Privalov, without an airplane, but with a parachute (as it was supposed to be in form), went back to Kansk by train. He was threatened, if not by a tribunal, then by the end of his flying career. However, when the ace arrived in his native part, a telegram arrived there: “Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to the events that were carried out with him (meaning an educational conversation with the marshal. - Approx. ed.). If you haven't been on vacation, go on vacation. If there was, give ten days of rest at the unit. Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal R. Malinovsky.

Apparently, the suicidal courage of the air hooligan subdued the marshal, who was familiar with both Chkalov and Pokryshkin. Which, by the way, were also not against demonstrating their aerial skills. And rightly so. Well, hide it, or what?

Now it is difficult to say why the Minister of Defense made an unexpected decision regarding Privalov. Maybe, the marshal realized that such pilots in the event of war would be very useful to native aviation, or maybe something else happened, but Captain Privalov was ordered not to punish, but to send him on vacation, and if he already had, then provide ten-day rest with parts! After that, the ex-communist was quickly returned to the ranks of the Leninist party, and the caliber of the stars on the shoulder straps of the desperate pilot soon changed. He became a squadron commander and even a deputy regiment commander, but not immediately.

They did not forget about the Chkalovsky follower in the capital either - in the early 70s, Major, and then Lieutenant Colonel Privalov, continued to serve in a training aviation regiment in the village of Savasleyka, Gorky Region. Soon, the training regiment became the 148th center for combat use and retraining of air defense aviation flight personnel. Only in 1977, a cardiovascular disease forced Valentin Vasilievich to leave the flight service. He could not and did not want to remain in the ranks of the army without his favorite job - he had to retire, although there was an option to serve for some time in a rear position. In the late 80s, he underwent surgery to implant an electrical pacemaker to the heart muscle. Currently, Valentin Vasilievich Privalov lives in Moscow ve.

Not everyone is given

It would be wrong to say that no one else tried to fly the Chkalovsky route under the bridge. Despite the bans, such attempts in Soviet aviation took place. You can already talk about one of them. In the late 80s, Senior Lieutenant K. was transferred from the west to the bomber regiment stationed near the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Quite a decent pilot with a decent biography for those times. Even then, flights became a holiday for aviators - either there was no kerosene, or something else. In general, the pilots yearned for the sky.

In the spring of 1988, the aforementioned senior lieutenant went on vacation from Khabarovsk to Dnepropetrovsk. The intermediate landing in Tolmachevo dragged on for several hours. It is simply unacceptable for a non-resident to sit at the airport and not see the capital of Siberia, so the Far Eastern pilot made an excursion by taxi. When driving along the Communal Bridge, the taxi driver said that when he was still a kid, a MiG flying under the trusses of the bridge washed away his trousers in the Ob. Prior to this, the pilot heard all sorts of stories, but then the “victim” told. Immediately there was a desire to repeat Chkalovsky's trick, but not in Novosibirsk, but in the Far East.

The target was a railway bridge near the village of Pivan, Khabarovsk Territory. The means is the native Su-24. The starley also persuaded his friend, Captain R., to perform the trick, because the crew of the aircraft was supposed to consist of two people. For more than a month, friends drew diagrams, calculated parameters, angles of approach, and so on. We were not too lazy to go to the Pivan bridge, but the sailors from the internal troops unit, who were guarding an important object, prevented us from looking around.

They decided to combine the conquest of the bridge with a flight to the training ground in the Khabarovsk region. A day before the proposed flight, “kind” people were found, they reported where necessary and even attached copies of the diagrams and calculations during the span of the bridge, as many as four options, depending on wind speed and other factors. As a result, instead of the airfield, the pilots ended up in a special department of the air division, where, after a series of preventive measures, they abandoned the risky event. In the early 90s, starley, without receiving another star, joined the military aviation of independent Ukraine and even rose to the rank of colonel, and the captain, having retired to the reserve, organized a private company.

Years passed, no one else conquered the Communal Bridge. A commemorative plaque telling about the events of June 1965 did not appear either.

Victor MININ, especially for "G-S"

Yes, by the way, is the photo real?

Of course not, here it says that this is a collage (see the lower right corner of the central photo).