Marina Chechneva
Marina Pavlovna Chechneva | |
---|---|
46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment | |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union |
Other work | Author |
Marina Pavlovna Chechneva (Russian: Марина Павловна Чечнева; 15 August 1922 – 12 January 1984) was a Soviet Polikarpov Po-2 pilot and squadron commander in the 46th Guards Night Bomber Regiment (called the "Night Witches" by the Germans) in World War II. She received the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union on 15 August 1946, after having completed 810 sorties during the war.[1] Chechneva authored five books about her experiences during the war.[2]
Civilian life
Chechneva was born to a working family on 15 August 1922 in the village of Protasovo in the Maloarkhangelsk District of the Orel Region and spent her first five years in that area of northern Russia. In 1934 her family moved to Moscow. At the age of sixteen, Chechneva enrolled in an Osoaviakhim flying club, where she learned sport flying. She aspired to become a professional pilot, which was encouraged by her father, forbidden by her mother, and supported by Valeria Khomyakova, one of the club's flight instructor pilots who later became a famous fighter pilot. She became an instructor pilot at the Central Flying Club in Moscow between 1939 and 1941. She joined the Communist Party in 1942.[3]
World War II career
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the club evacuated to
Later life
After the war, in November 1945 Chechneva married fellow pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Konstantin Davydov. The family moved back to the Soviet Union in 1948, two years after she gave birth to their daughter Valentina in 1946. In 1949 her husband, who worked for the DOSAAF, was killed in a plane crash while ferrying a plane from Leningrad to Kalinin and was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.
That same year Chechneva set a speed record on the Yak-18 and was awarded the title Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. Later she became a certified pilot on Yak-3, Yak-9, Yak-11, and Yak-18T aircraft, and led a female air sports team that flew at parades. She had to stop flying in 1956 for health reasons.
In 1963 she graduated from the CPSU Central Committee Higher Party School. Later she was a member of several committees, including the Presidium of the Central Committee of the DOSAAF, Presidium of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans, and the Committee of Soviet Women, and served as the deputy chairman of the Central Board of the Soviet-Bulgarian Friendship Society. She later wrote several books and memoirs about her experiences in the Second World War.
She died in Moscow on 21 January 1984 and was buried in the Kuntsevo Cemetery. Her obituary was published in the Soviet military newspaper Red Star. There are streets bearing her name in Orel and Kacha.[5][6][7]
Books
- The Aircraft Take Off into the Night (1962)
- Fighting Friends of Mine (1975)
- The Sky Remains Ours (1976)
- The Story of Zhenya Rudneva (1978)
- Swallows Over the Front (1984)
Awards
- Hero of the Soviet Union (15 May 1946)
- Order of Lenin (15 May 1946)
- Two Order of the Red Banner (9 September 1942 and 7 March 1945)
- Two Order of the Patriotic War (1st class - 30 October 1943; 2nd class - 30 June 1944)
- Three Order of the Red Star (19 April 1943, 1 September 1953, and 22 February 1968)
- Order of the Badge of Honor(25 July 1949)
- Medal "For Battle Merit" (13 June 1952)
- Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1951)
- campaign and jubilee medals
See also
References
- ISBN 1-84176-598-8.
- ^ Frank Biess, Robert G. Moeller: Histories of the Aftermath: The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe
- ISBN 0313327076.
- ^ Simonov & Chudinova 2017, p. 266-268.
- ^ "Чечнева Марина Павловна". airaces.narod.ru. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
- ^ Некролог в газете «Красная звезда», transl. Obituary in the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" 15.01.1984.
- ^ "Чечнева Марина Павловна (1922-1984)". letunij.narod.ru. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
- ^ a b Simonov & Chudinova 2017, p. 269.
Bibliography
- OCLC 1019634607.