On the anniversary of the rescue of the Chelyuskin expedition, I am posting my article published in our magazine "Picturesque Russia"

Once upon a time, every Soviet schoolboy knew about the expedition of the Chelyuskin steamer. 80 years separate us from the Chelyuskin epic. Few remember this story. And the majority, living in another country already, know little about this dramatic and heroic event. Although once films were made about the heroes of the Chelyuskinites, they composed songs that were sung by the whole country. This is an amazing epic of courage and selflessness.

Since the 30s. of the last century, in the Soviet Union, large-scale work was launched to develop the Northern sea ​​route as a highway. The Soviet government carried out the traditional Russian idea of ​​developing the eastern and northern regions of the country. It started in the 16th century. Ermak Timofeevich. It was scientifically formulated by Mikhail Lomonosov. But only in Soviet time this idea came true. In 1928, the Arctic Government Commission was established by a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars. It was headed by the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the country S.S. Kamenev. The commission included scientists and pilots. The Commission supervised the creation of sea and air bases, meteorological stations on the coast of the Arctic Ocean and regulated the navigation of ships. The first practical result of the work of the commission was the rescue of the Nobile expedition, which had an accident on the airship "Italy". It was her efforts that saved the Soviet steamship Stavropol and the American schooner Nanuk that had wintered in the ocean ice.

Expedition on the ship "Chelyuskin"

The Soviet government set the task of ensuring reliable navigation of merchant ships from Leningrad and Murmansk to Vladivostok by the northern sea route in one navigation, during the summer-autumn period.

In 1932, the Sibiryakov icebreaker was able to complete this task. The head of the expedition was Professor Otto Yulievich Schmidt, and the captain of the icebreaker was Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin. Immediately after the end of the expedition, the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (Glavsevmorput) was created, which was instructed to master this route, provide it with technical equipment, build settlements and much more. O.Yu. was appointed head of the Glavsevmorput. Schmidt.

On the slipway in Copenhagen

In 1933, the Chelyuskin transport ship was sent along the Northern Sea Route. "Chelyuskin" was supposed to pass in one navigation from Leningrad to the home port of Vladivostok. It was assumed that the ship would be accompanied by icebreakers. But that did not happen.

The expedition on the Chelyuskin was headed by O.Yu. Schmidt, and V.I. was appointed captain. Voronin. There were 111 people on board - the ship's crew, scientists, journalists, a shift of winterers and builders for Wrangel Island. On February 13, 1934, crushed by ice in the Chukchi Sea, the ship sank. One person died, and 104 crew members landed on the ice of the ocean. Part of the cargo and food was removed from the ship. The rescue of the Chelyuskin crew became one of the most exciting and heroic pages of the Soviet era.

The Chelyuskin expedition was supposed to prove the suitability of the Northern Sea Route for supplying Siberia and the Far East with everything necessary. "Chelyuskin" was named after Semyon Ivanovich Chelyuskin (1700-1764), a member of the Great Northern Expedition, who discovered the northernmost point of continental Eurasia (now Cape Chelyuskin). The ship was built at the shipyards of the Burmeister and Wine company (B&W, Copenhagen) in Denmark by order Soviet Union. The ship was designed to sail between the mouth of the Lena (hence the original name of the ship "Lena") and Vladivostok. In accordance with the technical data, the ship was the most modern cargo-passenger ship for that time. In accordance with Lloyd's classifications, she was classified as an icebreaking steamship. The ship had a displacement of 7500 tons.

Route map of Schmidt's expeditions

July 16, 1933 "Chelyuskin" sailed from Leningrad to Murmansk, on the way going to the docks in Copenhagen to eliminate the identified defects during the first voyage.

In Murmansk, the team was understaffed - those who showed themselves not with better side. They loaded on board additional cargo, which they did not have time to take in Leningrad. Preparation of a polar expedition is a separate issue. Here is what Ivan Kopusov, the deputy head of the expedition, who was responsible for the supply, wrote: “It's no joke: the amplitude from a primus needle to a theodolite! All this went for Chelyuskin from all over our great country. We received cargo from Siberia, Ukraine, Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Omsk, Moscow. We sent representatives to all parts of the Union in order to expedite the fulfillment of orders and their progress along railways. All the people's commissariats participated in the preparation of the expedition.

The expedition also took nutrition seriously. To supply the crew with fresh meat, they took with them 26 live cows and 4 small piglets, which then turned into healthy hogs and helped to diversify the ship's menu. On August 2, 1933, Chelyuskin left the port of Murmansk for Vladivostok, while working out a scheme for delivering goods along the Northern Sea Route in one summer navigation.

The passage in the open sea showed the shortcomings of the special form of the Chelyuskin - it rocked, like a real icebreaker, strongly and rapidly. At the very first encounters with ice in the Kara Sea, the ship was damaged in the bow. The fact is that it was overloaded (it was carrying coal for the Krasin icebreaker), and the fortified ice belt turned out to be below the waterline, so that the steamer met ice floes with a less protected upper part of the hull. To install additional wooden fasteners, it was necessary to unload the bow hold from coal.

How this was done, the head of the expedition, Otto Schmidt, told: “This operation had to be done quickly, and here for the first time in this voyage we used the same method of general emergency work, which already on the Sibiryakov and on previous expeditions turned out to be not only necessary for a quick end work, but also a great means of team building. All members of the expedition, both scientists and builders, sailors and business executives, carried coal, breaking into teams, between which the competition was bright and with great enthusiasm.

The voyage proceeded successfully up to Novaya Zemlya. Then the "Chelyuskin" entered the Kara Sea, which was not slow to show both its "bad" character and the defenselessness of the "Chelyuskin" in front of real polar ice. A serious deformation of the hull and a leak appeared on August 13, 1933. The question arose of returning back, but it was decided to continue the journey.

in the Kara Sea significant event- Dorothea Ivanovna (maiden name Dorfman) and surveyor Vasily Gavrilovich Vasiliev, who were heading for the winter on Wrangel Island, had a daughter. The birth record was made by V.I. Voronin in the ship's magazine "Chelyuskin". It read: “August 31st. 5 o'clock 30 pm the Vasilyevs had a child, a girl. Calculated latitude 75 ° 46’51 "N, longitude 91 ° 06' E, sea depth 52 meters. "The girl was named Karina.

“The fate of this girl, who was born beyond 75 ° latitude and in the first year of her life suffered a shipwreck, life on ice, a flight to Uelen and a solemn return to Moscow, where Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and Maxim Gorky caressed her, was curious,” Otto Schmidt wrote later. .

The fate of Karina Vasilyevna Vasilyeva is really interesting. She now lives in St. Petersburg and her passport really has the birthplace of the Kara Sea. “My birth happened before Chelyuskin was captured by ice,” recalls Karina Vasilievna. But I was born on board a ship. Then there was a heavy ice situation. When a strong compression happened, the side was torn apart, and the expedition landed on the ice. Through a huge hole it was possible to go out onto the ice. The first 3 days were very harsh, as everyone lived in rag tents at temperatures below 30 degrees below zero. Then the barrack was ready. It was covered with snow and ice. They made a stove out of a barrel. Mom and I were placed near the stove. Water was heated from ice. I was bathed in it. We lived on the ice floe for 21 days.”

The Laptev Sea and the East Siberian "Chelyuskin" passed relatively freely. But the Chukchi Sea was occupied by ice. Pyotr Buyko, who was to become the head of the polar station on Wrangel Island, recalls: “The ship fought, it fought, moving east. Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin sat longer and longer in a barrel on Mars, nicknamed the "crow's nest", from the height of the foremast, looking with binoculars for the blue strings of lanes along which the Chelyuskin made its way. More and more often the road was blocked by weighty bullish ice of a different, stronger breed than was in the seas traversed. But Vladimir Ivanovich did not give up, and the Chelyuskin pushed the sludge jelly with its cheekbones and, like a wedge, crashed into the ice fields with its stem. Schmidt does not leave the bridge, his hands are in the pockets of his fur coat, his eyes are vigilantly searching the horizon from under his cap. He is outwardly calm. But he is also worried about the pace of progress.”
Heavy ice began to appear in the East Siberian Sea. On September 9 and 10, the Chelyuskin received dents on the starboard and port sides, one of the frames burst and the ship leak increased. The experience of the Far Eastern captains who sailed the northern seas said that September 15-20 is the latest time to enter the Bering Strait. Swimming in the autumn in the Arctic is difficult. Winter is impossible. The ship was frozen in the ice and began to drift.

Last photo- the death of "Chelyuskin"

On November 4, 1934, thanks to a successful drift, the Chelyuskin entered the Bering Strait. Before pure water only a few miles left. But no efforts of the team could save the situation. Movement to the south became impossible. In the strait, ice began to move in the opposite direction, and the Chelyuskin again ended up in the Chukchi Sea. The fate of the ship depended entirely on the ice situation. Otto Schmidt recalled: “At noon, the ice shaft on the left in front of the steamer moved and rolled down on us. The ice rolled over each other like the crests of sea waves. The height of the shaft reached eight meters above the sea. Clamped by ice, the steamer could not move independently. Fate was not kind.

All this preceded the famous radiogram from O.Yu. Schmidt: “Polar Sea, February 14. On February 13, at 15:30, 155 miles from Cape Severny and 144 miles from Cape Wells, the Chelyuskin sank, crushed by ice compression. Already the last night was alarming due to frequent compression and strong hummocking of the ice. On February 13, at 13:30, a sudden strong pressure tore the port side over a long distance from the bow hold to the engine room. At the same time, the pipes of the steam pipeline burst, which made it impossible to start up drainage means, which were useless, however, due to the magnitude of the leak. It was all over in two hours. During these two hours, in an organized manner, without a single sign of panic, long-prepared emergency food supplies, tents, sleeping bags, an airplane and a radio were unloaded onto the ice. Unloading continued until the moment when the bow of the ship was already submerged under water. The leaders of the crew and the expedition were the last to leave the ship, a few seconds before the full immersion. The caretaker Mogilevich died while trying to get off the ship. He was pinned down by a log and carried into the water. Expedition leader Schmidt.

Boris Mogilevich became the only one who died during the entire Chelyuskin expedition.

Rescue of the Chelyuskinites

104 people, led by O.Yu., were captured by ice. Schmidt. Among the captives of the ice were two very young children - Alla Buiko, born in 1932, and the previously mentioned Karina Vasilyeva. To save people, a government commission was created under the leadership of Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.V. Kuibyshev. On her instructions, an emergency “troika” headed by the head of the station at Cape Severny (now Cape Schmidt) G.G. dealt with rescue issues on the Chukotka Peninsula. Petrov. They were instructed to mobilize dog and reindeer sleds and to alert the planes that were at that moment in Chukotka. Animals were required for the transfer of fuel from the bases at Cape Severny and the Uelen polar station to the Vankarem point closest to the Schmidt camp. Aircraft were intended to save people.

In the photo, Otto Schmidt on an ice floe in the camp

The rescue of the Chelyuskinites is a truly glorious page in the history of polar aviation. Her actions were constantly reported in the press. Many experts did not believe in the possibility of salvation. Some Western newspapers wrote that people on the ice are doomed, and it is inhumane to arouse hopes of salvation in them, this will only aggravate their torment. Icebreakers that could sail in the winter conditions of the Arctic Ocean did not yet exist. There was only hope for aviation. The government commission sent three groups of aircraft to rescue. In addition to two "Fleisters" and one "Junkers", the rest of the aircraft were domestic.

The first landing in the expedition camp on March 5, 1934 was made by the crew of Anatoly Lyapidevsky on an ANT-4 aircraft. Prior to that, he made 28 sorties, but only the 29th was successful. It was not easy to find a drifting ice floe with people in the fog. Lyapidevsky managed to land in a 40-degree frost on a site measuring 150 by 400 meters. It was a real feat.

Pilots M.V. Vodopyanov, I.V. Doronin, N.P. Kamanin, S.A. Levanevsky, A.V. Lyapidevsky, V.S. Molokov and M.T. Slepnev, who took part in this operation, rightfully became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union. Their names in those years, and even at a later time, the whole country knew. However, not everyone, especially now, knows that the pilots seconded to carry out the extremely dangerous mission of evacuating the camp O.Yu. Schmidt, there were significantly more than seven. Only a third of them were awarded the titles of Heroes.
However, there were few available means of air evacuation: at Cape Severny there was a damaged H-4 aircraft with pilot Kukanov, and on Uelen there were two ANT-4 aircraft with pilots Lyapidevsky and Chernyavsky and one U-2 with pilot Konkin. The technical condition of the last three cars also caused concern. By the proposal government commission additional air transport was allocated for the operation. Part of it was decided to be transferred as far north as possible by water, so that the planes would go to the area of ​​rescue operations "under their own power."

In accordance with this plan, two light aircraft "Sh-2" on the steamer "Stalingrad" were supposed to start sailing from Petropavlovsk; five R-5 aircraft and two U-2 vehicles, which were to be controlled by a group of pilots of the reconnaissance regiment of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army (OKDVA), headed by Kamanin, intended to transport the Smolensk steamer from Vladivostok; from there, but by the steamship "Council", it was supposed to relocate the planes of pilots Bolotov and Svyatogorov. From the very beginning, the rest of the aircraft had to face the most difficult flights: three aircraft (two PS-3s and one R-5), at the controls of which the pilots Galyshev, Doronin and Vodopyanov were supposed to be, had to cover a distance of almost 6000 km over unexplored mountain ranges and tundra, flying out of Khabarovsk. Finally, the reserve group of pilots (Levanevsky and Slepnev) were required to break into the rescue area from the territory of the United States, namely from Alaska. As a result, for the evacuation of the Chelyuskinites, in addition to the four aircraft in the disaster zone, sixteen more aircraft were involved.

Lyapidevsky took out 10 women and two children, and for the second time his engine failed and he joined the Chelyuskinites. The mass evacuation began 13 days later and lasted two weeks. Pilots in the hardest weather conditions made 24 flights. All of them then became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union - Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Mauritius Slepnev, Vasily Molokov, Nikolai Kamanin, Mikhail Vodopyanov and Ivan Doronin (the Gold Star medal appeared later), they were then awarded the Orders of Lenin. The rest were presented for orders and medals.

Upon returning home, all participants in the ice epic bathed in glory. Streets were named after them geographic features. They say that in the list of Soviet names, among Dzdravperma and Vladilen, a new one appeared - "Otyushminald" - "Otto Yulievich Schmidt on an ice floe."

Political information in the Chelyuskin camp, drawing by P. Reshetnikov

All participants of the ice drift, as well as G.A. Ushakov and G.G. Petrov, were awarded the Order of the Red Star and a six-month salary. The same orders, but without conferring the titles of Heroes, were also awarded to members of their crews, including American mechanics. Then L.V. became holders of the highest award of the country. Petrov, M.A. Rukovsky, W. Lavery, P.A. Pelyutov, I.G. Devyatnikov, M.P. Shelyganov, G.V. Gribakin, K. Armstedt, V.A. Aleksandrov, M.L. Ratushkin, A.K. Razin and Ya.G. Savin. In addition, all of the named aviators, unlike the Chelyuskinites, received bonuses in the amount of an annual salary. Other pilots who participated in the rescue operation and also risked their lives, the authorities noted more modestly.

By the same decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, in accordance with which G.A. Ushakov and G.G. Petrov, the Order of the Red Star and a six-month salary were awarded to V.L. Galyshev, B.A. Pivenshtein, B.V. Bastanzhiev and I.M. Demirov. These pilots, for various reasons, stopped literally a step away from the ice camp, did no less than, for example, Levanevsky, who also did not break through to the Chelyuskinites and did not take out a single person from the ice floe, but, nevertheless, became a Hero (according to official version it is believed that Sigismund Aleksandrovich received a high rank for transferring Ushakov to Vankarem, according to unofficial information, for giving I.V. Stalin, where he expressed his readiness to carry out further tasks of the government). The rest of the pilots who were involved in the rescue operation, but who, against their will, failed to take an effective part in it, were much less fortunate. They just forgot...

80 years have passed since the names of the Chelyuskin heroes became a legend and a symbol of human achievement and selflessness. And this is one of the few cases when the state and the entire Russian, then Soviet, people empathized with the drama of the pioneers of the North. This is the rare case when everyone felt that they were not an expendable material of history, which, sadly, is very specific to Russian history, but a part of one state and people that they think about and for the sake of which they strain all their strength. Perhaps this is the most important lesson of the feat of the Chelyuskinites and the rescue expedition.

The article was written specifically for the magazine "Picturesque Russia"

Photo from the archive of the Schmidt family

Once upon a time, the history of the first and only voyage of the Chelyuskin steamer, as well as the rescue of the Chelyuskinites after the death of the ship, was known to the whole world. But decades have passed, and today the names say nothing to most Otto Schmidt, Ernst Krenkel and captain Vladimir Voronin…

Meanwhile, the events of 80 years ago have much in common with today. Then, as now, the question was about the development of the North and about proving the rights of our country to vast territories in the Arctic Ocean.

The country needs the north

The Soviet Union began to defend domestic priority in the Arctic at the dawn of its existence: in 1923, the Soviet government announced that all lands located in the Soviet sector of the Arctic belong to the USSR. Not all neighbors agreed with this, and other countries, such as Norway, also had their own claims.

It is not enough to declare a priority - one must also convincingly prove that the state is able to solve the problem of developing the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

To do this, it was necessary to establish navigation along the so-called Northern Sea Route - the shortest route from Europe to the Far East, which runs through the seas of the Arctic Ocean.

The main difficulty was the perennial Arctic ice, which hindered navigation. Nevertheless, the Northern Sea Route was partially functioning by the beginning of the 1930s. In the section from the Yenisei to the White Sea, as well as from the Kolyma to Vladivostok, industrial transportation was carried out. The next stage was to be the passage of the entire Northern Sea Route in one navigation.

One of the main enthusiasts involved in the study of the North during this period was Otto Yulievich Schmidt, a world-famous scientist.

In 1932, the expedition of Otto Schmidt on the icebreaking steamer "Alexander Sibiryakov" under the command of Captain Vladimir Voronin managed to pass from the White to the Barents Sea in one navigation, thereby for the first time carrying out through navigation along the Northern Sea Route. True, during the voyage, due to a meeting with heavy ice, the steamer lost its propeller, having passed the last part of the journey under sail and in tow, but the significance of the achievement did not decrease from this.

The success inspired the Soviet leaders, who, following the results of the voyage, decided to create the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. The task of management included the final preparation and arrangement of the Northern Sea Route for its industrial operation. Otto Schmidt became the head of the Glavsevmorput.

The head of the expedition on the Chelyuskin steamer, one of the organizers of the development of the Northern Sea Route, Otto Yulievich Schmidt (1891-1956). Photo: RIA Novosti

big gamble

The 1930s were a time of enthusiasts and adventurers, and Otto Yulievich Schmidt certainly belonged to this cohort. In an effort to achieve a result as soon as possible, he did not take into account the difficulties and dangers. Sometimes the risk he took became excessive.

In 1933, Schmidt decided to prove that not only icebreaking and specially trained ships, but also ordinary heavy dry cargo ships could pass along the Northern Sea Route. It was supposed to work out the interaction of a cargo ship and icebreakers in practical conditions.

As a vessel for the expedition, the transport steamship Lena, which had just been built in Denmark by order of the USSR, was chosen, which was renamed Chelyuskin, in honor of the famous Russian explorer of the Arctic.

Captain Vladimir Voronin, having studied the new vessel, drew attention to a number of significant design flaws, as well as to the fact that the Chelyuskin was not adapted to sailing among the ice.

But Voronin's cautious remarks could not compete with Schmidt's enthusiasm. The success of the upcoming expedition was not so doubted that the surveyor Vasiliev, for example, went sailing with his pregnant wife. As part of the expedition, according to historians, in general there were a lot of “extra” people, without whom such a serious voyage could well have done.

Fatal mistake

The ship left Leningrad for Murmansk on July 16, 1933, and on the way was forced to call at Copenhagen for minor repairs. The ship left Murmansk for Vladivostok on August 2. It was heavily overloaded, as there were cargoes for winterers, prefabricated houses for the village on Wrangel Island, as well as a seaplane for aerial reconnaissance.

The steamer "Chelyuskin" departs from the port of Arkhangelsk, 1933. Photo: RIA Novosti

Already on August 15, at the first serious encounter with heavy ice, the ship was damaged. However, the icebreaker "Krasin" called for help broke through the "Chelyuskin" road. At the same time, the ship was still under serious load, since the channel pierced by the Krasin was narrow for a heavy cargo ship.

However, the expedition continued, and without incident, the Chelyuskin reached the Chukchi Sea, where it was squeezed by perennial ice. In view of this, Chelyuskin could not approach Wrangel Island, as planned. From mid-October to early November, the ship drifted towards the Bering Strait and reached it on November 4. In fact, the Northern Sea Route was completed. The ice became noticeably thinner, and Chelyuskin was only a few kilometers away from clear water. Nearby was the icebreaker "Litke", which offered to make a passage for the "Chelyuskin" to clean water.

And here Otto Schmidt made a fatal mistake. Believing, apparently, that "Chelyuskin" would be free on his own within a few hours, he rejected the help of "Litka". The icebreaker set off to carry out its tasks, and on the evening of November 4, Chelyuskin began to be demolished from clear water into the depths of the ice fields.

The captain of the steamer "Chelyuskin" Vladimir Voronin on the bridge. Photo: RIA Novosti

The situation began to deteriorate rapidly, but Schmidt turned to Litka for help only ten days later. Time was lost - there were now fields between the ships perennial ice which even an icebreaker could not overcome. It became clear that the crew of the Chelyuskin was waiting for wintering in the ice.

The death of "Chelyuskin"

Even worse was the fact that there were serious concerns for the safety of the ship. The ice pressed harder and harder, and the expedition management decided to place all the important cargo on the deck in case of an emergency evacuation.

The ordeals of Chelyuskin continued until February 13, 1934, when the denouement came. A powerful pressure of ice broke through a crack a meter wide and 30 meters long in the left side. It became clear that Chelyuskin would soon sink to the bottom.

The evacuation was hasty, but not panicky. Everything needed to create a camp was transferred to the ice. Tragedy, however, could not be avoided. One of the members of the expedition was late with the evacuation, was crushed by a shifting cargo and died.

Around 4 pm on February 13, the Chelyuskin sank. On the arctic ice 104 people remained, including two children, one of whom was the newborn daughter of the surveyor Vasiliev Karina. The message about the catastrophe was transmitted to the mainland by the radio operator of the expedition Ernst Krenkel.

A government commission was set up in Moscow to save the Schmidt expedition under the leadership of Valeriana Kuibysheva. Under the circumstances, it was possible to save people only with the help of aviation. On an emergency basis, planes and the most experienced pilots were transferred to Chukotka.

As such, there was no Arctic aviation in the country, and indeed in the world, by that time, and pilots had to learn a new profession by trial and error.

Air bridge

One of the first to search for the Chelyuskin camp was the pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky, who made 28 unsuccessful attempts to find him. Only on March 5, Lyapidevsky's crew noticed the expedition's seaplane and people next to it on the ice.

The area cleared for the airfield was extremely small, nevertheless Lyapidevsky managed to land his ANT-4. Having taken all the women and children (12 people), Lyapidevsky safely delivered them to the mainland.

It seemed that the salvation of all Chelyuskinites was a matter of several days, but the engine of Lyapidevsky's plane failed. The rescue operation was resumed only a month later, on April 7. Pilots participated in the evacuation of the Chelyuskinites Nikolai Kamanin(future head of the first detachment of astronauts), Mikhail Vodopyanov(it was he who would soon land on the ice the winterers of the first drifting station " North Pole-one"), Vasily Molokov, Mauritius Slepnev and Ivan Doronin. Another pilot Sigismund Levanevsky, will have an accident on the way to the place of the rescue expedition and become the object of rescue itself. Despite this, he will be among the pilots awarded as a result of the operation.

The pilots who took part in the rescue of the expedition from the Chelyuskin steamer. Left: Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kamanin. Photo: RIA Novosti

People were taken to the Vankarem Chukchi camp, which became the center of the rescue operation, and from there they were sent further inland.

The seaplane pilots made their way out of the camp on their own, flying to Vankarem on April 2. Most of the Chelyuskinites were rescued between April 7 and 13, under increasingly deteriorating conditions. The ice field on which the camp was located was destroyed, on April 9 the runway was seriously damaged. Despite this, the pilots continued to fly.

The last to leave the camp on April 13 was the captain of the Chelyuskin, Vladimir Voronin. The pilots made it on time - a day later, a powerful storm completely destroyed the Chelyuskin camp.

Honoring the Saviors and the Saved

The story of Chelyuskin and the rescue of its crew shocked the whole world. The very rescue in polar conditions of such a large number of people had no analogues in history. The success of the pilots was duly noted - all the pilots who saved people, as well as Levanevsky, became the first to be awarded the newly established title of "Hero of the Soviet Union". A little-known fact, but, in addition to the pilots, two American flight mechanics who served American aircraft purchased for the rescue operation were also awarded. Clyde Armstead and William Levery were awarded the Order of Lenin. All wintering participants, except children, were awarded the Order of the Red Star.

The country honored the Chelyuskins and their saviors as heroes. The general enthusiasm was even reflected in the appearance of original names for newborns, such as Oyushminald(Otto Yulievich Schmidt on an ice floe).

The jubilant crowds of Muscovites meet the participants of the Chelyuskin ice epic. Photo: RIA Novosti

At the official level, it was stated that the voyage of the Chelyuskin proved the reality of the complete development of the Northern Sea Route. Foreign experts, however, were not so optimistic, believing that the Chelyuskin disaster just proved the complexity of this task.

However, even in the USSR, without saying too much about it aloud, the appropriate conclusions were drawn. From that moment on, ships prepared much better than the Chelyuskin were sent to the Northern Sea Route, the icebreaking fleet began to grow, and escort of cargo ships by icebreakers in heavy ice was worked out. The development of the Northern Sea Route continued.

famous British playwright Bernard Show, speaking about the epic of the Chelyuskinites, he remarked: "The USSR is an amazing country: you turned even a tragedy into a triumph."

On July 16, 1933, the icebreaker Chelyuskin left the northern capital of the USSR along the route: Leningrad - Murmansk - Vladivostok, and was supposed to pass it along the Northern Sea Route in one summer navigation. The ship had 112 people on board.

A surveyor was sent to spend the winter on Wrangel Island, Researcher All-Union Arctic Institute Vasily Gavrilovich Vasiliev with his wife Dorothea Ivanovna, modeler by profession, members of the Chukotka-Anadyr expedition of 1931-1932. On a campaign on the Chelyuskin, on August 31, 1933, a girl was born to them, who was named after the place where she appeared - the Kara Sea - Karina. Karina Vasilievna Vasilyeva (married, Mikeladze) is still alive! She is 84 years old. We found her!

She is a participant in the heroic Chelyuskin epic, because the passengers and crew of the Chelyuskin steamer had to be rescued, the Chelyuskin never completely passed along the Northern Sea Route. February 13, 1934 in the Chukchi Sea, as a result of strong compression, "Chelyuskin" was crushed by ice and sank. The Schmitt camp (named after the expedition leader Otto Yulievich Schmidt) remained to live on the ice.

The Chelyuskinites were evacuated by air. On March 5, 1934, pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky on the ANT-4 plane was the first to make his way to the Schmidt camp and took him out of the ice floe to the village. Uelen immediately 10 women and two children. Among them was Karina Vasilyeva (the second girl, Alla Buiko, was a little older than Karina, she was born in August 1932 in Leningrad and went with her parents on the Chelyuskin to Wrangel Island; she began to walk on the ship and began to talk!).

On the red day of the calendar, November 7, 2017, we talked with Karina Vasilyevna about the Chelyuskinites and their fate. Karina Vasilyeva lives in St. Petersburg - the cradle of the revolution, a geologist by profession, followed in her father's footsteps, but worked not in the north, but in the south. And in life she never took advantage of the status of "participant in the Chelyuskin epic."

Anatoly Lyapidevsky took us out of the ice floe on March 5, 1934 on a plane, Ivan Doronin drove us further, we also rode dogs, but I didn’t know that border guard pilot Alexander Svetogorov delivered us to Providence Bay, says Karina Vasilievna, which we told about the forgotten participant in the rescue operation Alexander Svetogorov, and that he was bypassed with an award, and that he crashed in 1935 in the taiga of the Khabarovsk Territory and was not buried for eighty years, and only in 2016 the last Chelyuskinite found peace on a churchyard in Khabarovsk.

The fact that Alexander Svetogorov “delivered Chelyuskinites, among whom was a woman with a girl Karina, to Providence Bay on the first flight,” we ourselves only recently learned from the historical form for 1934 of the Second (now Fifth) United Aviation Detachment of the FSB of Russia in the city of Yelizovo Kamchatsky the edges. It was the border guard pilots of Kamchatka who were sent to rescue the Chelyuskinites. We read a fragment of the form to Karina Vasilyeva.

You see, I can’t remember any details, - says Karina Vasilievna. - Of course, I am a participant, but not an eyewitness. I was there, I attended. Such a historical fact, nothing more. After all, I was so small - a baby, I don’t remember anything, I don’t know anything. Later, my mother told me how it all happened, and recently I re-read her notes.

When my mother, Dorothea Ivanovna, was still alive (died in 1994), they were interested in the fate of the Chelyuskinites, kept in touch with some, it was interesting for them to communicate, she continues. - I knew Alla Buiko - the same little girl who also rode on the Chelyuskin steamer. But she has been dead for a few years now. In general, I remained one of the Chelyuskinites, one might say, the last of the Mohicans.

Karina Vasilievna says that at one time she maintained relations with the Chelyuskinites: the pilot and the first Hero of the Soviet Union just for saving the Chelyuskinites Anatoly Lyapidevsky, the artist Fyodor Reshetnikov, who became an academician and vice-president of the USSR Academy of Arts, the author of the famous painting “Again the deuce”, Viktor Gurevich - minder from "Chelyuskin", mechanic Alexander Pogosov - commandant of the runway in the Schmidt camp, he received and sent aircraft, led the actions construction teams and the last to fly out of the ice camp, with the pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Molokov.

I saw Karin and Academician Otto Yulievich Schmidt himself - the head of the expedition of the Chelyuskin steamer, of course, not when she was born and he could even nurse her, but already in adulthood.

According to Karina Vasilievna, "it was in 1952, when Schmidt came to Leningrad, to the university, and gave mathematical lectures" on the creation of the world "(laughs)". And from the memoirs: “He asked the audience to come up to him after the lecture, because he knew my parents and that I was studying here, but after the lecture he was surrounded by people, and I was shy, and could not come up ...”.

But they all died a long time ago .., - Karina Vasilievna is sad. - I haven't been to Moscow for a long time. Age, excuse me!.. Here, every year, on February 13, on the day when the Chelyuskin steamer sank, the Chelyuskinites gathered in the Prague restaurant on the Arbat. We celebrated our second birthday. Now this watch was picked up by relatives of the Chelyuskinites. But I don't know them anymore, I have nothing to do with them...

Karina Vasilievna recalls how, in her adult life, she visited Chukotka, where the Chelyuskin steamer was in distress. It was in 1984 - on the fiftieth anniversary of the Chelyuskin epic.

The propaganda flight to Chukotka was organized by the Moscow Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, - says Karina Vasilievna. - Several Chelyuskins were with us (mother, me): ichthyologist Anna Sushkina, mechanic Alexander Pogosov, German Gribakin - flight mechanic on the R-5 aircraft in the detachment of the pilot of the Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kamanin (in the link of Boris Pivenshtein), later, design engineer in KB A.N. Tupolev, correspondents. We were in Anadyr, in Vankarem, in Uelen, at Cape Schmidt, in a word, at those points where the rescue operation took place. I remember how the plane flew along the coastline of the then Soviet Union, the Chukchi Sea. So, they called me at some time during the flight to the cockpit to the pilots and showed me the point (coordinates of the ship) where and when I was born in the Kara Sea ... Since then, no one has organized anything. Now only the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic in St. Petersburg holds Chelyuskin readings.

But Karina Vasilievna does not feel forgotten. He says that there are people who are still interested in learning something about the Chelyuskinites.

We are not forgotten! - Karina Vasilievna is sure. - To those who remember the Chelyuskin people, especially to the Far East, I send a big hello! Greetings to the crew from Kamchatka (Klyuchi-1) of the personalized An-12 aircraft with the name "Rescuer of the Chelyuskin pilot Svetogorov", which appeared in the 11th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense. You are doing a great job - preserving the memory of our country and the exploits of our people. Thank you!

Konstantin Pronyakin.

How it was on the ship "Chelyuskin"

Karina Vasilyeva recalls:

I was born on Chelyuskin. It was interesting event and everyone took part in choosing the name. There were many different proposals. But now the name Karina has passed. It was considered that this is the most successful name, since I was born in the Kara Sea. I even have it written in my passport - the place of birth, the Kara Sea.

My birth happened before the Chelyuskin was captured by ice. But I was born on board a ship. Then there was a heavy ice situation. When a strong compression happened, the side was torn apart, and the expedition landed on the ice. Through a huge hole it was possible to go out onto the ice.

The first 3 days were very harsh, as everyone lived in rag tents at temperatures below 30 degrees below zero. Then the barrack was ready. It was covered with snow and ice. They made a stove out of a barrel. Mom and I were placed near the stove. Water was heated from ice. I was bathed in it. We lived on the ice floe for 21 days.

An extract from the historical form for 1934 of the Fifth (then Second) Joint Aviation Detachment of the FSB of Russia (Yelizovo, Kamchatka Territory) is published for the first time:

“... In February 1934, the squadron sent three aircraft to help the Chelyuskins: two ASh-2s and one Savoy-S62bis, piloted by pilot Svetogorov.

There were many more people who wanted to fly, but - "comrades," said Pompolit, "we must ensure the inviolability of our borders, and thereby the success of the operation to save the Chelyuskinites." And everyone understood that Pompolit was right and worked even harder, studied, mastered new places.

On March 28, the ship "Stalingrad" departed from Petropavlovsk on a second flight to the north. On board were powerful rescue equipment: two airships, snowmobiles, sleds, Bolotov's plane. Our expedition loaded on board the ship the Savoy C-62 bis aircraft - pilot Svetogorov, letnab - Tesakov, technician - Lukichev, gunner-minder - Zhuk.

Trying to go north, the ship hit plight. For 20 days it stood compressed from all sides by ice. The compression reached such an extent that 27 frames were damaged in the bow. It could be expected that the expedition itself would have to land on the ice. But the wind turned, and streaks formed in the ice field. The ship was able to get to clean water.

A day later, the ship again met strong soldered ice, which was impossible to bypass. We decided to take off from the ice airfield [near about. St. Matthew in the Bering Sea]. On April 29, the plane was unloaded, which was assembled three hours later. Early in the morning on April 30, the plane took off, taking with it medicines and the polar doctor Starokadomsky. A few minutes later the ship disappeared into the fog.

The strafing flight over the ice field covered with hummocks and leads continued for 4 hours. Frightened by the plane, birds took off from the wings. At 8 o'clock they landed in Provideniya Bay, where the base of the expedition to rescue the Chelyuskinites was located. A day later, the plane flew to Uelen Bay, from where Chelyuskin crews were delivered to Provideniya Bay on the first flight, among which was a woman with a girl Karina, who was born on the Chelyuskin steamer in the Kara Sea. In total, 29 Chelyuskinites were transferred by plane from different points. In addition, the task of the aircraft was to supply the Chelyuskinites with provisions. And the crew fulfilled this task with honor.

In order to fulfill the task of assisting the Chelyuskinites, the crew completed the government task of flying to Cape Schmidt. The plane delivered to Cape Schmidt to help the local population: the Chukchi and Eskimos doctor Starokadomsky and medicines. From Cape Schmidt, six people with scurvy were brought to Providence Bay from those wintering on the steamer Khabarovsk. This ended the flights in the Far North ... "

We have collected all the well-known and little-known participants in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites.

Chelyuskin Rescue Headquarters

Kuibyshev Valerian Vladimirovich (1888-1935)- Chairman of the Government Commission for Assistance to the Chelyuskinites (Moscow).

Ushakov Georgy Alekseevich (1901-1963)- authorized by the government commission for the rescue of the crew and passengers of the Chelyuskin steamer and the purchase from Pan American Airways Corporation - the national carrier of the United States - aircraft for pilots S. A. Levanevsky and M. T. Slepnev.

Petrov Gavriil Gerasimovich (1895-1984)- Head of the GUSMP polar station Cape Severny (now Cape O. Schmidt) of the Chaunsky district (now Egvekinot district), chairman of the emergency troika to provide assistance to passengers of Chelyuskin (in the area of ​​Cape Severny - Uelena, headquarters - Cape Severny, intermediate headquarters - Vankarem trading post , then - Cape Onman, the village of Ilhetan, 35 km from Vankarem, Chukotka National District).

Nebolsin Andrei Vladimirovich (1900-1944)- head of the Uelen sea checkpoint, member of the emergency troika to assist the passengers of the Chelyuskin.

Natauge- Chairman of the Eskimo District Executive Committee (Chaplino, Chukotsky District, formerly Chairman of the Yanrakynnot Native Council / Providence, Chairman of the First Sirenikovsky Association), member of the emergency troika to provide assistance to Chelyuskin passengers.

Pogorelov Yakov Gavrilovich (1903-1941)- Head of the border checkpoint in Dezhnevo (MKPP "Dezhnev" UPVO UNKVD DVK) in Uelen, a member of the emergency troika to assist the passengers of "Chelyuskin". Drowned while crossing the river. Neva November 1, 1941, find and buried in 1999, the memorial "Nevsky Piglet".

Beloborodov Mikhail Ivanovich- head of the border guard in Dezhnevo (MKPP "Dezhnev" UPVO UNKVD DVK) in Uelen, a member of the emergency troika to provide assistance to passengers of "Chelyuskin" (for replacement).

Trudolyubov- Chairman of the Chukotka Regional Executive Committee (Uelen), member of the emergency troika to provide assistance to Chelyuskin passengers.

Hvorostyansky N. N.- meteorologist at Cape Severny station, deputy head of Uelen station, member of the emergency troika to provide assistance to Chelyuskin passengers.

Pilots

first group, Chukotka

Kukanov Fedor Kuzmich (1904-1964)- reserve pilot, commander of the Chukotka air group for the rescue of Chelyuskinites, base - Cape Severny.

Lyapidevsky Anatoly Vasilyevich (1908-1983) - line pilot of the Chukotka air group to rescue the Chelyuskinites (base - Cape Severny), on March 5, 1934, flew from Uelen on an Ant-4 No. 1 aircraft, was the first to discover the Schmidt camp and took out 12 people - 10 women and 2 children Uelene went out of action on February 21, 1934, the landing gear and both propellers broke during landing). Hero of the Soviet Union No. 1.

Petrov Lev Vasilyevich (1900-1945)- pilot-observer of the crew of Lyapidevsky, the first head of the flight Chukchi expedition.

Konkin Evgeny Mikhailovich- co-pilot of the ANT-4 aircraft at Lyapidevsky, flight commander and political leader.

Rukovsky Mikhail A., flight mechanic Lyapidevsky.

« Polar Sea, Schmidt's camp. (Radio.) Today, March 5, is a great joy for the Chelyuskin camp and at the same time a holiday of Soviet aviation. The ANT-4 aircraft, under the control of the pilot Lyapidevsky, with the pilot-observer Petrov, flew from Wellen to our camp, descended on the airfield prepared by us and safely delivered to Wellen all the women and both children who were on the Chelyuskin. The plane took a direction over the ice and with amazing confidence went straight to the airfield. Landing and lifting were done surprisingly clearly and with a range of only two hundred meters.

The success of Comrade Lyapidevsky's flight is all the more significant because it is almost forty degrees below zero.

A large polynya formed between the camp and the airfield, so that for the crossing it was necessary to drag a boat from the camp through the ice for three kilometers.

The successful start of the rescue operation further raised the spirit of the Chelyuskinites, who were sure of attention. and care of the government and the whole country. Deeply grateful.

Expedition leader Schmidt».

the second group of pilots from Vladivostok

Kamanin Nikolai Petrovich (1909-1982)- a military pilot, on a P-5 plane (Pivenshtein's plane) made a group flight Cape Olyutorka - Vankarem, April 7, 1934, the third sat at the Schmidt camp (navigator Matvey Shelyganov), took out 34 people (he was nicknamed Aachek, that is, a young man, a young man). Hero of the Soviet Union No. 4, Star No. 2.

Molokov Vasily Sergeevich (1895-1982)- a pilot, on April 7, 1934, on a P-5 plane, the fourth one landed at the Schmidt camp, took out 39 people, on an unscheduled flight, on April 11, 1934, evacuated the sick Schmidt from the ice floe to Vankarem (he was nicknamed Ympenachen, which means old man). Hero of the Soviet Union No. 3. Flight mechanic Pilyutov Petr Andreevich (1906-1960), Hero of the Soviet Union (1943).

Pivenshtein Boris Abramovich (1909-?)- reserve pilot, April 1, 1934 near the village. Valkalten, gave the plane to Kamanin (at Kamanin's plane / flight engineer Konstantin Anisimov/ the shock-absorbing connecting rod of the landing gear burst), flew six times from Uelen to Providence Bay and twice from Providence Bay to Lawrence Bay, transferring 22 people in total.

Bastanzhiev Boris Vladimirovich (1909-1974)- a military pilot of the reserve from the Kamanin aviation detachment, April 1, 1934, an accident on a plane near the city of Anadyr.

Demirov Ivan M.- military pilot of the reserve, April 1, 1934, an accident on a plane near the city of Anadyr.

Farikh Fabio Brunovich (1896-1985)- reserve pilot, suspended from flying by Kamanin.

Shelyganov Matvey Petrovich (1909-1982) - navigator Kamanina.

the third group of civilian pilots from Khabarovsk

Galyshev Viktor Lvovich (1892-1940)- reserve pilot, flight commander, on April 11, an airplane (fuel pump) broke down in Anadyr.

Vodopyanov Mikhail Vasilyevich (1899-1980)- pilot, on April 12, on the R-5 plane, he took out 10 people (flight mechanics Aleksandrov and Ratushkin). Hero of the Soviet Union No. 6.

Doronin Ivan Vasilyevich (1903-1951)- pilot, deputy flight. On April 12, on the PS-4 aircraft (the "four" was assigned after assembling from broken PS-3 / Junkers W33 machines in the Irkutsk Dobrolet repair shops), onboard No. L-735 took out 2 people (flight mechanics Ya. Savin and V. Fedotov) . Hero of the Soviet Union No. 7.

fourth group from USA

Levanevsky Sigismund Alexandrovich (1902-1937)- pilot, on March 29, 1934, having taken off from Fairbanks - Nome (USA) on a Flitster plane (17АF Consolidated Fleetster), airborne "USSR-SL - USSR-Sigismund Levanevsky", was supposed to land in Uelen, but flew further, in Vankarem, 30 km away, he made an accident in the area of ​​Cape Onmana. Plenipotentiary Ushakov G.A. was on board. On April 29, 1934, on a U-2 aircraft, he delivered surgeon Leontiev from Uelen to Lavrenty Bay for an emergency operation for an acute attack of appendicitis to Alexei Bobrov, deputy head of the expedition of the Chelyuskin steamer. Hero of the Soviet Union No. 2, Star No. 4.

Probably, there was no louder epic in our history than the drift and rescue of the Chelyuskinites. For several weeks the whole country lived from news to news, without leaving the loudspeakers. How is Schmidt's camp? Did the pilots manage to take the polar explorers back to the mainland? 85 years ago On April 13, 1934, the rescue operation was completed. Polar pilots have done the impossible. It was for them that the most honorary title of the country was established - the Hero of the Soviet Union. Izvestia remembers how it was.

Columbus of the North

The Northern Sea Route is both an economic and a military necessity. But in the early 1930s, many did not take him seriously. The Arctic Ocean was considered practically impassable. And the sky of the Arctic by and large remained unconquered.

But the indefatigable head of the Glavsevmorput Otto Schmidt undertook to prove that modern technology can overcome the harsh temper of the Arctic Ocean, and on August 2, 1933, the icebreaker Chelyuskin set off from Murmansk to Vladivostok. The expedition was led by Schmidt himself. In the 20th of September in the Chukchi Sea, "Chelyuskin" was captured by ice. For almost five months the ship drifted - and ended up in the Bering Strait. The crew included pilot Mikhail Babushkin: on board was a small Sh-2 seaplane, on which he made reconnaissance flights, directing the ship.

But it was not possible to cope with the elements. February 13 at 15:30 155 miles from Cape North and 144 miles from Cape Uelen "Chelyuskin" sank, crushed by ice. Shmidtovtsy moved to the ice with exceptionally organized emergency supplies of food, tents, sleeping bags, and most importantly, an aircraft and radio equipment. During the accident, one person died - the supply manager Boris Mogilevich, the best hunter of all the expedition members. He died by accident: he fell into the water and was crushed by a log.

Rest 104 members of the expedition, including children, ended up on a drifting ice floe. Radio operator Ernst Krenkel sent a radiogram to the nearest village of Uelen, from which the mainland learned about what happened in the ice. Krenkel's call sign - RAEM - was soon recognized by the whole world.

Schmidt proved to be a real leader. Chelyuskinites not only survived. They published a wall newspaper with the characteristic title “We Will Not Surrender!”, composed songs, drew cartoons, organized rallies ... Schmidt enthusiastically lectured his comrades-in-arms on dialectical materialism and mathematics.

A government commission to assist the Chelyuskinites was already created on February 14th. A great responsibility fell on the shoulders of the experienced polar explorer Georgy Alekseevich Ushakov, who was appointed commissioner for rescue. He developed the operation strategy.

The ships "Krasin", "Stalingrad" and "Smolensk" were thrown to rescue the Chelyuskinites. The aviators got down to business. Two famous pilots - Levanevsky and Slepnev - went to the USA to buy planes there to search for Schmidtov's followers. According to the government's plan, it was necessary to use all the possibilities of both domestic and imported aircraft. Blind Arctic search flights will prove the advantages of Soviet aircraft.

Find and rescue

February and March are the hardest times in the Arctic. A snowstorm, no visibility, even clearing the runway is sometimes an impossible task.

The crew of pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky was the first to go on a search flight. He made 29 flights on his ANT-4 to no avail. The pilots peered painfully into the horizon - and did not see either the camp or any other signs of life in the icy desert ... But on March 5, in a 40-degree frost, Lyapidevsky not only discovered the camp, but also sat down safely on a tiny area of ​​even ice, which cleared for the plane by the Chelyuskinites. For them it was a day of fantastic happiness. Seeing a plane in the sky, they - almost sentenced to death - believed in their salvation. Lyapidevsky barely managed to accommodate ten women and two little girls in the ANT salon., one of which - Karina Vasilyeva - was born on board the Chelyuskin and received her name in honor of the Kara Sea. No wonder Krenkel nicknamed the dashing Lyapidevsky a ladies' pilot. Two hours later, the plane, overloaded with passengers, landed flawlessly at the base in Uelen.

The plane of the Chelyuskinites rescuer Anatoly Lyapidevsky after landing in Provideniya Bay

The country rejoiced. But the second time it was possible to get to the Chelyuskinites only on April 7th. And then the sky cleared up, and the matter began to argue. Molokov managed to take out 6 people on his two-seater R-5 aircraft, adapting parachute boxes for passengers. It was Molokov - Uncle Vasya, as they called him in the polar camp - who brought 39 Chelyuskinites to the mainland, the most. Nikolai Kamanin, the youngest and most energetic of the pilots, took 35 people out of ice captivity on his P-5 in nine successful flights. Vodopyanov managed to evacuate ten people in three trips. Mauritius Slepnev took out 6 polar explorers, including Otto Schmidt, who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, who, by order of the Council of People's Commissars, had to be sent to a hospital in Alaska. Ivan Doronin flew away with two more on his Junkers.

Babushkin and flight mechanic Georgy Valavin flew on their own from the ice floe to Vankarem on April 2. When they flew up to the airfield, the polar explorers, who were preparing to meet the heroes, saw with horror that one of the plane's skis was hanging, almost dangling. “However, at the very last moment, when the car lost speed, the ski straightened out and the plane glided easily to the Vankarem airfield.”

On April 13, 1934, Vodopyanov, Kamanin and Molokov flew to the ice camp for the last time. They delivered the last Chelyuskinites to the mainland: Schmidt's deputy Alexei Bobrov, radio operators Krenkel and Serafim Ivanov, boatswain Anatoly Zagorsky, minder Alexander Pogosov and captain Vladimir Voronin, who, according to tradition, was the last to leave the tent camp. On the last voyage, eight dogs were also taken from the ice floe, which helped the Chelyuskinites all the days of the drift. The ice camp was emptied forever to dissolve into the Northern Ocean.

The result exceeded the most optimistic forecasts: everyone was saved. “In the battle of Vankarem we won!” Ushakov reported. He had the right to be pathetic. It is difficult even to imagine a more spectacular bloodless victory. The chirping of aircraft engines in the 1930s sounded like heavenly music of the future - and our compatriots managed to pick it up.

Fanfares and praises

After the Chelyuskin epic, it became clear: our country came to the Arctic. The popularity of polar explorers in those years can only be compared with the glory of the first cosmonauts. They were vied with each other to be invited to work collectives to treat, honor, and glorify.

In metrics of newborn girls in 1934, a new name for Oyushminalda appeared - "Otto Yulievich Schmidt on an ice floe." As "Giant Generation Beard" (not otherwise!) Schmidt became the hero of a kind of epics - novelties that were composed and sung in those years by the famous storytellers Martha Kryukova and Pyotr Ryabinin-Andreev. And to the tune of "Murka" the city rake sang: "Schmidt sits on an ice floe, as if on a raspberry and shakes his long beard ..." And this is also glory.

In the 20th century, it became clear to the most perspicacious: it was not enough to accomplish a feat, it was still necessary to tell about it. Otherwise, everything will sink without a trace. It is customary to write about Lev Mekhlis in gloomy tones: a tyrant, a satrap, an initiator of repressions, one of Stalin's least charming nominees. But he was also a real professional, a talented organizer of the press, saying modern language- PR man. At that time, he occupied the office of the editor-in-chief of Pravda and oversaw the propaganda campaign that unfolded around the rescue of the Chelyuskinites. It turned out brilliant. In almost every yard, children played Chelyuskinites, Lyapidevsky and Vodopyanov. Yes, children, the whole world looked at the Arctic drama and its happy ending through the eyes of Mehlis. Even before the end of 1934 (unheard of efficiency!) The book “How We Saved the Chelyuskinites” was published with the memoirs of all the participants in the epic, with drawings and photographs of Schmidtovites - Fedor Reshetnikov, Anatoly Shafran, Pyotr Novitsky ... The book was translated into several European languages.

“What kind of country are you!.. You turned the polar tragedy into a national celebration!” exclaimed Bernard Shaw. His irony was always double-edged, but this time it still benefited the reputation of the USSR. It was after the rescue of the Chelyuskinites that the world believed in the Soviet Union. One has to reckon with a power that arranges grandiose scientific expeditions and can rescue its citizens from ice captivity with the help of aviation ... It was hard to brush aside the fact that in this operation, aircraft designed and manufactured in the USSR. This inspired respect for both the Soviet industry and the Red Army.

“The last people and even dogs were taken off the ice floe. This epic is one of the greatest among those heroic epics with which the history of Arctic exploration is so rich,” wrote the British newspaper Daily Herald. “Russian pilots put an end to the terrible drama, which at times seemed to lead to a tragic denouement. Their courage, endurance, devotion to the cause deservedly arouse the admiration of the whole world,” French journalists echoed the British. They wrote even more colorfully about Soviet polar exploits in the States.

The Magnificent Seven

The pilots who ferried the polar explorers from the ice camp to the mainland became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union. The Magnificent Seven- Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Vasily Molokov, Nikolai Kamanin, Mauritius Slepnev, Mikhail Vodopyanov, Ivan Doronin and Sigismund Levanevsky. Without exaggeration, this was an unprecedented feat. For the first time in history, polar aviation has shown itself so convincingly. They became the first heroes of the Soviet Union. At first it was just a title, without gold stars. But in 1939, all the first heroes were awarded the Golden Stars of the Heroes of the USSR. Sign No. 1 deservedly received Lyapidevsky.

As usual, the list of heroes raised some questions. It was striking that Levanevsky was included in the heroic cage with a stretch: it so happened that he did not take out a single Chelyuskinite from the ice floe. True, he managed under difficult conditions to deliver Georgy Ushakov and the surgeon Leontiev to Vankarem, who performed an emergency operation on Schmidt's deputy Bobrov. In addition, an experienced, enterprising, determined pilot was considered Stalin's favorite. A year before, Levanevsky found on Anadyr and delivered to Alaska the American pilot James Mattern, who had crashed. The "Leader of the Peoples" knew that Levanevsky was popular in the States, and this increased the shares of the pilot.

The first Heroes of the Soviet Union (from left to right): Sigismund Levanevsky, Vasily Molokov, Mauritius Slepnev, Nikolai Kamanin, Mikhail Vodopyanov, Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Ivan Doronin - polar pilots who saved the crew members of the Chelyuskin steamer

The eighth could be in the line of heroes - Babushkin is certainly worthy high rank. His merits in saving his comrades are comparable to the exploits of other hero pilots. But he found himself in an ambiguous position: on the one hand - a rescuer, on the other - one of the participants in the drift, a Chelyuskin man, and they were awarded more modestly than pilots. The title of Hero of Babushkin was awarded three years later, in June 1937, for participating in the Papanin landing at the North Pole. May 18, 1938 Hero of the Soviet Union, polar pilot Babushkin died in a plane crash near Arkhangelsk. He was a passenger on that flight.

But in 1934 there were no accidents. And we remember those events as one of the few "clean victories". No reservations.

April 13, 2014 marked the 80th anniversary of the successful completion of an unparalleled Arctic expedition to rescue 104 crew members and scientific expedition crushed ice steamer "Chelyuskin" in Chukotka.

This humanitarian mission had a powerful political resonance all over the world. It is no coincidence that three days after its successful completion, on April 16, 1934, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the USSR by its decree established the highest degree distinctions - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The first Heroes were seven pilots who took the winterers out of the ice floe:

• Lyapidevsky Anatoly Vasilyevich (Star of the Hero No. 1)
• Kamanin Nikolai Petrovich (Star of the Hero No. 2)
• Molokov Vasily Sergeevich (Star of the Hero No. 3)
• Levanevsky Sigismund Alexandrovich (Star of the Hero No. 4)
• Vodopyanov Mikhail Vasilyevich (Star of the Hero No. 6)
• Slepnev Mavriky Trofimovich (Star of the Hero No. 5)
• Doronin Ivan Vasilyevich (Star of the Hero No. 7)

The rest of the aviators - pilots and flight mechanics were awarded orders. Subsequently, more than 12 thousand people received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in the USSR for courage and heroism. AT new Russia this is highest distinction transformed into the title of Hero of Russia.

Meanwhile, flights to the ice floe and the evacuation of people from the ice camp are heroic, but only the “surface” part of the “iceberg” of the work done, while its “underwater” or “working” part has remained almost forgotten.

A fairly complete and "uninvented" picture of the collective feat was preserved only by the collection of memoirs "How We Saved the Chelyuskinites". On the eve of the celebration on November 7, 1933, the head of the scientific expedition on the Chelyuskin steamer O.Yu. Schmidt radioed to Moscow that they were in the Bering Strait off Diomede Island, only two miles from clear water.

Steamboat "Chelyuskin" under the Danish flag heading to Leningrad, 1938

The development of the vast expanses of the North and Chukotka at that time was one of the most important national economic tasks. In 1928, to solve it, under the leadership of the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Red Army S.S. Kamenev created the Arctic Government Commission. Built in 1933 in Denmark by order of the USSR, Chelyuskin was intended for commercial navigation in the Arctic, although it was not an icebreaker.

Shipping in the area of ​​the coast of Chukotka from year to year became more and more lively. If in the 1920s the American schooners and steamships "Stavropol" and "Kolyma" from Vladivostok only occasionally entered Chukotka, then in 1931 6 steamships came to Chukotka, in 1932 - 12, and in 1933 - at least 20. That year there was a particularly difficult ice situation. They could not get out of the ice captivity and three steamships hibernated, among them the Chelyuskin. Residents of the village of Wellen saw how the Chelyuskin, frozen in the ice, drifted into the Bering Strait. Several days of tense expectation passed after Schmidt's "labor report", but the hopes were not destined to come true. The beginning of the storm carried the ice in the opposite direction.

The Chukchi again saw the "Chelyuskin" in the area of ​​​​Cape Heart-Stone, 10-15 miles from the coast. He was helpless, the ice dragged the ship to the east. The hunters then said that if the ship could break through the edge and approach the shore, then a free path would be provided for it. The Litke ice cutter came out of Providence Bay to help the wintered steamers, but he could not get through to the Chelyuskin.

In October, a small air group was transferred to Chukotka to evacuate people from wintered steamships. On the recommendation of the pilot Kukanov, who subsequently took out some of the people from the Sever steamer on the U-2, A.V. got into it. Lyapidevsky. In response to his letter, he received a radiogram from the head of the flight sector of the Northern Sea Route, M.I. Sheveleva: “I intercede with Unshlikht, I give my consent.” In October 1933, Lyapidevsky received another radiogram from Shevelev: “Unshlikht is requesting an order to leave for Vladivostok at the disposal of the special representative in the Far East, Pozhidaev, to carry out a government assignment.” It was about the removal of people from three ships that had wintered in the ice.

On October 21, the Sergei Kirov steamer left Vladivostok, carrying two dismantled ANT-4s. The authorized officer of the Northern Sea Route appointed the pilot-observer Petrov as the head of the expedition. Lyapidevsky became the commander of one of the aircraft, the pilot Konkin - the flight commander and political leader. In Petropavlovsk, the planes were reloaded onto the Smolensk hospital ship. It was supposed to deliver coal to the Provideniya Bay for the Litke, Lieutenant Schmidt and Sverdlovsk steamers stationed there and then serve as a base for transferring patients from wintering steamers.

By the end of November, the planes were unloaded on the ice, assembled and flew around. On the 29th, Lyapidevsky tested the first aircraft in the air, landed on the ice near the steamer. Some defects were revealed, the mechanics began to eliminate them. Lyapidevsky was the most experienced pilot, in 1932 he trained at the ANT-4 at the Air Force Research Institute. Konkin did not fly the ANT-4, learning on the go during testing of the second aircraft. A total of seven landings were made.

Upon arrival, G.D. was appointed head of the expedition. Krasinsky, an experienced polar explorer who knew the ice conditions very well. In 1927-1929. he participated in three long-distance flights in Eastern Siberia and Chukotka. Lyapidevsky recalled that it was Krasinsky who first told him, “that the Chelyuskin, perhaps, will not get out of the ice - it will sink” and offered to remove people from the Chelyuskin in the first place.

The pilot of the Sh-2 amphibious aircraft from the board of the Chelyuskin - M.S. Babushkin

The complexity of the situation was aggravated by the polar night. It took about seven flying hours to get to the ship one way, and there were days when the sun did not rise at all. Having received Schmidt's permission, they tried to fly to Chelyuskin, despite the fact that there was a platform of only 600 by 50 m, and for ANT-4 it was required at least three times wider. The settlement of Wellen on Cape Dezhnev was to become an intermediate base. They were able to fly there only on December 20, although they flew out several times, but returned due to the unreliable operation of the engines. Several times the polar day was not enough to have time to start and warm up both engines.

Upon arrival at Wellen at the end of December, Lyapidevsky made two attempts to fly to the Chelyuskin, but due to a malfunction of the engines he returned both times. On takeoff, he caught on something with his right ski, but there were no incidents. On the second flight in frost at 34 °, Lyapidevsky suffered severe frostbite, and it was necessary to return to Provideniya Bay for the second aircraft, since the supply of compressed air to start the engines had dried up. For a whole week, from January 11 to 18, the journey on dogs to Providence Bay lasted. Due to a snowstorm, it was only possible to fly to Wellen on the second ANT-4, loaded with ten cylinders of compressed air, with a water and oil heater tied to the fuselage, but due to worsening weather, Lyapidevsky landed in the Gulf of Lawrence.

On February 13, Chukotka was the first to learn about the death of the Chelyuskin. While the ship, crushed by ice, was slowly sinking, they managed to remove everything necessary from it onto the ice floe, including the Sh-2 M.S. amphibious aircraft. Babushkin. During the evacuation, only the boatswain Mogilevich died, on whom a log fell.

The message that more than 100 people were on the ice spread around in a matter of hours and shocked the world. The next day in Moscow, immediately after receiving Schmidt's radiogram, on behalf of the deputy. Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V.V. Kuibyshev held a meeting with S.S. Kamenev, where they outlined the first steps to organize the rescue of the Chelyuskinites. The meeting had not yet ended, the draft resolution on the planned events was still being edited, as it became known that, on the initiative of I.V. Stalin created a government commission to assist the Chelyuskinites. A few hours later she got to work.

The main difficulty was the huge distance separating the Schmidt camp not only from Moscow, but also from the industrial regions of our country in general. In those years, about 15,000 Chukchi and Eskimos lived on the vast territory of Chukotka. Along the entire coast stretched a chain of camps and villages, at least 50. Near the sea, which fed, clothed and warmed the natives, two-thirds of the entire population lived. They were mainly engaged in hunting sea animals, which provided skins, meat, and fat. In the depths of Chukotka, in the tundra - nomads. Their wealth is deer and fur-bearing animals. In summer, the waterway served as a means of communication, in winter - dogs.

Life and customs of the Chukchi living in yarangas were figuratively described by Lyapidevsky: “Yaranga is a round tent. The inner surface of the yaranga is divided into two halves: the first is the vestibule. Dogs are usually kept here, a pantry, fresh prey is placed. The second half is residential. It is separated from the first by a special canopy. To get into the second half, you need to crawl under the canopy. It is very hot in the residential part, the Chukchi go naked here. Housing is heated with seal or walrus fat. There is something like a cauldron: a trough with two partitions is carved, fat is poured into the trough, and moss is placed along the edges, which is saturated with fat. And this cauldron shines and warms ...

When you enter the curtain, a woman undresses you. To refuse means to offend. The owner will not budge, they are fussing, only women are working. The man says, "I have to think where the beast went." They are treated with tea, kopalgin, this is walrus meat of spring and autumn slaughter. They kill the walrus, cut it into pieces and throw it into the pits. The meat begins to decompose, but does not have time to decompose at all - it freezes. In this frozen form, they eat it. Behind the canopy, men and women walk almost naked. The two women were dressed in European dresses, but this did not change the matter, because they do not take off the dress until it falls apart: there is nowhere and nothing to wash. Tea boils day and night on fire. Women wipe a tea mug with a dirty hem and pour tea for a guest into this mug. After everyone has drunk, the rest is again poured into the kettle until the next time.

It is not surprising that when S. Levanevsky flew to Anadyr for an accident in Chukotka during a round-the-world flight by an American pilot Mattern, the local population complained that “Mattern does not eat anything, as if he had not died. They ask us if we brought any food - he only eats chocolate ... ”Levanevsky gave him his emergency ration - 10-15 tiles and flew with Mattern to Nome. As he landed the American on shore, “Mattern fell to the ground and began clapping his hands on the ground, exclaiming, “America! America!" So Levanevsky became in America the "savior" of Mattern and almost a folk hero.

At the very first meeting, the government commission proposed to the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route to establish uninterrupted radio communications with the Schmidt camp and the Chukotka Peninsula. In Moscow, they decided to mobilize and use the local funds of Chukotka to help Schmidt. The commission immediately appointed an emergency troika in Chukotka under the chairmanship of the head of the station at Cape Severny, Red Banner Petrov. This trio was instructed to mobilize dog and reindeer transport, as well as to immediately put the planes that were in Chukotka on flight readiness.

Such an aircraft was the U-2 ("N-4") piloted by Kukanov at Cape Severny. In the autumn of 1933, he did a great job, transporting passengers from the ships of the People's Commissariat of Water Transport that wintered near the Cape of Shelagsky. In one of the last flights, the plane damaged the landing gear. At the Wellen polar station, there was another U-2 with an unreliable engine, originally assigned to the pilot Konkin, who flew as a co-pilot near Lyapidevsky (one crew for two ANT-4s). The second ANT-4 was originally listed as Chernyavsky, there is no information about his participation in the expedition. There was also a completely worn out YUG-1 (three-engine Junkers G.23), they did not even try to use it. The condition of the material part, including Lyapidevsky's aircraft, inspired fear in everyone.

While a government commission was being promptly created in Moscow and a plan of action was being discussed, in Chukotka local authorities tried to save the Chelyuskinites on their own. The very next day after the death of Chelyuskin, an emergency troika was created in the area, it included the chairman of the RIC Trudolyubov, the meteorologist of the Wellenskaya station Khvorostansky and the head of the border checkpoint in Dezhnev Pogorelov. The troika decided to mobilize 60 sleds and send them to Cape Onman, and from there straight across the ice to Schmidt's camp. The path on the ice was 140-150 km, and even from Wellen from Cape Onman 500 km. In a straight line from Wellen to the Schmidt camp - 265 km, from Cape North - 287 km. The plane was supposed to indicate the direction of the sledges. From it they were going to dump food for dogs, food for people along the way and pass on all orders. Such an expedition under the command of Khvorostansky set out already on February 14, taking 21 sleds in Wellen and intending to collect the rest along the way.

On February 18, the Wellen troika received a telegram signed by the chairman of the government commission, Kuibyshev, stating that Petrov had been appointed chairman. From Wellen to Cape North - 750-800 km. The next day, by order of Kuibyshev, the head of the Chukotka checkpoint, A. Nebolsin, was included in the emergency troika. He arrived in Wellen on February 18 and did not approve of the expedition: “To collect 60 sleds meant to expose the entire region. In addition, the expedition was to take about two months, its success is doubtful, and at this time here on the spot without dogs, no other measures of assistance would be possible. We should also remember the needs of the population. To mobilize all dogs for two months meant to leave the Chukchi without hunting, i.e. make them starve." Soon Petrov ordered to detain Khvorostansky's expedition. Four days later, Nebolsin caught up with him halfway and ordered him to go to Cape Onman, choosing landing sites along the way and preparing food.

On February 28, they arrived at Onman, where the village of Ilhetan and seven households (yarang) were located. There was no connection with other areas. Nebolsin prevented another expedition attempt to Schmidt's camp. Egoshin, an employee of the Northern Sea Route, also wanted to immediately move to the ice camp, but the Chukchi refused to go with him. The idea to create a base at Cape Onman was rejected, limiting itself to the installation of signal masts with flags on Onman and Kolyuchin Island. 35 km from Onman was the village of Vankarem, where there was a trading post, a school, and 12 farms. As a result, the decision of the commission to create a base in Vankarem appeared. There was no landing pad yet. The emergency troika in Chukotka was instructed to transfer fuel to Vankarem with the help of mobilized dog and reindeer transport. Fuel bases were located in Providence Bay, in Wellen and at Cape North. On the coast of the Chukchi, deer were not used as transport, they had to carry everything on dogs, 15 dog teams were allocated for this purpose. The normal load of one team is 150 kg, and in total they transported more than 6 tons of gasoline and 1.5 tons of oil. On three sleds, only by March 9, the radio station and service personnel were delivered to Vankarem.

More than 100 sledges (about 1200 pounds) of the main fuel - fin - were collected along the coast. 12 sledges were sent to the tundra for venison, but a special problem arose with the provision of food for the Chelyuskinites. The fact is that the Chukchi did not sell live deer, meat - please, but it still needed to be transported. This was due to a local belief that arose due to the fact that at the beginning of the century, when the Chukchi sold live deer to Alaska, they had an epidemic and the death of deer. With the help of local Komsomol members, they carried out explanatory work and concluded special agreements for the supply of meat by the Chukchi themselves in exchange for scarce goods.

From the first reports of Petrov, the commission came to the conclusion that local funds were not enough to save the Chelyuskinites, so a number of measures were immediately outlined. On the night of February 16, a decision appeared to leave through Europe, Atlantic Ocean and America to Alaska pilots S.A. Levanevsky and M.T. Slepnev, headed by the authorized government commission G.A. Ushakov. Their task included the purchase of two American 9-seat Consolidated Flitster passenger aircraft and a flight from Alaska to Chukotka to rescue the Chelyuskinites. Both pilots had previously visited Alaska. Levanevsky, as already mentioned, took Mattern there, and Slepnev with the flight mechanic F.B. Farihom in 1929 discovered the crash site of an American plane in Chukotka and transported the bodies of pilot Ben Eielson and flight engineer Borland to Alaska. Already on the evening of 17, this group arrived in Berlin, from where a flight to London followed, then a transatlantic flight by steamer to New York, a trans-American express to the Pacific coast, a steamer to the north, a train to Canada, and, finally, a flight to Fairbanks, where they were already two new Flitsters were waiting. This is actually trip around the world was considered faster and more reliable than traveling around the native country.

The most numerous second group consisted of military pilots led by N.P. Kamanin, "reinforced" by experienced civilian pilots who had experience in the North. Originally it was B.C. Molokov, F.B. Farikh, V. Galyshev and Lipp. Kamanin took his colleagues Demirov and Bastanzhiev with him, a little later they were joined by military pilots Gorelov and B. Pivenshtein with two R-5s. Initially, three R-5 groups of Kamanin were loaded onto the Smolensk steamer, on February 22 Kuibyshev ordered to load three more. But in the end, "Smolensk" left Vladivostok on March 2, having on board five R-5s and two U-2 pilots Pindyukov and Tishkov. Apparently, the "sharing" of the aircraft began even before departure, since Lipp and Galyshev remained on the shore.

"Flitster" pilot M.A. Slepnev at the airport in Vankarem

The latter a little later got into the third group formed from civilian pilots. In addition to him and I.V. Doronin on two PS-4s, M.V. entered it. Vodopyanov on R-5. Initially, this group was also going to be sent by steamer from Vladivostok, but they did not have time to go to the "Soviet", which went to Chukotka with two airships, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. Because of this, three aircraft "under their own power" reached Chukotka, starting an almost 6,000-km flight in Khabarovsk. This entire armada of ships and aircraft off the coast of Chukotka was supposed to be supported in the ice off the coast of Chukotka by the leader of the Soviet icebreakers Krasin. By decision of the commission, he was sent to circumnavigation across two oceans and the Panama Canal. But while numerous "rescue forces" were urgently transferred to Chukotka, A.V. was the closest to Schmidt's camp. Lyapidevsky. The blizzard that began on February 6 subsided only by the morning of the 18th. The thermometer is -19°, not a cloud in the sky, no wind. In 40 minutes the pilot flew to Wellen, where he boarded the first ANT-4 and flew off. After takeoff, it was discovered that “the instruments are not working again. The "saf", oil pressure gauge, water thermometer does not work. In addition, interruptions in the left engine ... ”I had to return. The next attempt, because of the weather, took place only on February 21. Lyapidevsky, according to his calculations, flew to the camp, but did not find an ice floe with Chelyuskinites: “This flight was remembered for a lifetime.” Having leaned the mixture to the limit, so that “shooting” began in the carburetors and having used up all the gasoline, the pilot, on the last drops, with sharply deteriorating weather at an altitude of 100-150 m, reached Wellen, landed on the move, while breaking the landing gear. Repairs required welding work, and there was no welder in Chukotka.

On the second car, he made a number of attempts to get to the camp, having made a total of 36 flights during the expedition. Among them, one flight from Providence Bay to Lawrence Bay and only one flight to the camp. The rest of the flights, as Lyapidevsky himself wrote, "all are unsuccessful, then the weather, then something else." He wrote that "on March 5 I finally became furious." At a temperature of -36 ° in the evening they heated water and oil, at dawn they flew to the camp. The crew, along with Lyapidevsky, included co-pilot Konkin, flight engineer Petrov and flight mechanic Rukovsky. The car was loaded with batteries, as Schmidt was running out of power for the radio station. The route, taking into account the experience of unsuccessful searches, was changed, Cape Heart-Stone was used as a "beacon", from there the course was 56 °. The first to notice Schmidt's camp and Babushkin's plane on the ice floe was Petrov. The site was 450 by 150 m, "all approaches to it were filled with two or three meters high ropaks." Having made two circles, Lyapidevsky managed to sit down successfully: “If I had missed a little, I would have climbed onto the ropaki.”

Having unloaded the batteries, deer carcasses, pickaxes, crowbars, shovels, and loaded the discharged batteries, the pilots set about landing people. On that flight they took all the women and children - 12 people: “The landing of women was more like loading. They took them by the legs and arms and put them on the plane... In the plane, the women were sitting cramped, but still they were sitting.” Due to a small overload, the aircraft was moved by hand to the very edge of the cleared clearing. During the general enthusiasm, the captain of the Chelyuskin was almost crippled: “Everyone got down to business so zealously that Voronin was hit on the cap by a propeller.”

The flight to the camp took 2 hours 15 minutes, we spent 1 hour 50 minutes in the camp, the return flight to Wellen - 2 hours 20 minutes. A successful flight gave everyone hope for a speedy rescue, but at the same time showed the need for an early transfer of the main base to Vankarem. From Wellen, at best, one flight could be made in a day, and from Vankarem, with good weather and proper organization of work, three. The weather constantly had to catch. The next day it snowed again, a blizzard began. From March 10 to March 13, with "variable" weather, Lyapidevsky "flew out every day, but returned because of the weather and because of a malfunction of the engine." On March 14, having changed the carburetor of the left engine, he flew to Vankarem, taking on board 2200 kg of gasoline. The crew also included flight mechanic Kurov and mechanic Geraskin. After unloading, they planned to immediately fly to the camp, but did not even reach Vankarem. In a frost of -39 ° above the throat of the Kolyuchinskaya Bay, a crankshaft burst near the left engine: “Suddenly some extraneous sound stifled hearing. A second - and the front of the radiator moved, the engine rumbled, the car fell heavily. Turning off the second engine, Lyapidevsky went to the forced on the ice. On giant sastrugi, the plane traced the ice with its right wing. It turned out that the right vertical truss of the chassis broke, the ears of the nodes were bent, one eye of the axle shaft came off. When examining the engine, they saw that the sub-frame was torn off, the ends of the radiator mount burst, and the front bolts of the engine and the radiator actually held on to the hose connection. So Lyapidevsky from "savior No. 1" turned into a "victim", he himself needed help. The Chukchi discovered them almost immediately and the next day they took them to Vankarem: “Towards us we came across endless strings of sleds that were returning from Vankarem after transporting gasoline.” During a blizzard, the mast of the radio station broke down there and the antenna was cut off. Therefore, until the 18th, Lyapidevsky's crew was considered dead all over the world. Subsequently, Slepnev showed American newspapers with reports of their deaths.

On March 16, the emergency troika decided first of all to repair Wellensky ANT-4 No. 2, but in fact they started repairing the first machine on the ice of Kolyuchinskaya Bay. In Vankarem, after a conversation with Lyapidevsky, the head of the troika, Petrov, ordered that the disassembled M-17 spare engine be delivered by dogs from Cape Severny to Kolyuchin. It weighed about half a ton, and it was the heaviest load ever carried by dog ​​teams. Kukanov on U-2 took Lyapidevsky to Wellen for a sub-frame, but only on April 7 Slepnev delivered it to Vankarem on his Flitster, then on a sled to Kolyuchin.

While Lyapidevsky "worked as a supplier" and got spare parts, the rest of the crew took up repairs. The entire "repair kit" consisted of one jack, a hand chisel, a blowtorch, two barrels and two two-meter logs. The Chukchi were attracted to help, there were nine people in total. A large snow mountain was built to disassemble and remove the engine and repair the chassis. The motor was filmed for five days. The vertical chassis truss folded “in a ram's horn” had to be unbent and boiled, but instead, a “cold forge” was opened on a huge stone. In one of the yarangas, a steel pipe with a diameter of about 60 mm was found, it seemed like a miracle. By the time Lyapidevsky arrived with a motor mount, the chassis was repaired, and the engine was installed. There were not enough working hands, but then the sledge parties of the rescued Chelyuskinites began to move along the coast, three of them - V. Agapitov, G. Durasov and S. Leskov - remained at the plane and turned into repairmen. With the next game, a message came about the awarding of all participants in the epic and the assignment of the title of Hero to Lyapidevsky. Finally, on April 23, a new motor was installed and tested. For two more days they dug up the plane and prepared the runway. 42 days after the accident, they flew to Wellen.

Lyapidevsky's accident disrupted all rescue plans. Ushakov's group sailed to America on February 28 and stayed in New York for 10 days. Negotiations on the purchase of aircraft dragged on, but Amtorg nevertheless agreed with Pan American Company to sell two Flitsters. The pilots reached Fairbanks only on the 20th of March. During the acceptance, the cars were repainted red, the American inscriptions were painted over, writing in black on the wings "U.S.S.R." and, for Mauritius Slepnev - "M.S.", and for Sigismund Levanevsky - "S.L". The Americans were taken as flight mechanics: Clyde Armstidt to Levanevsky and Bill Lavery to Slepnev.

Due to the weather, Levanevsky and Ushakov managed to fly out of Fairbanks only on March 26, but they reached Nome only on the 28th. Here Ushakov was already waiting for a telegram from a government commission concerned about the state of affairs: immediately fly with Levanevsky to Vankar, and Slepnev to wait in Nome until the situation was cleared up.

Having taken off from Nome on March 29, Levanevsky, Ushakov and Armstidt never made it to Vankarem. This flight and the accident that occurred were subsequently widely discussed, believing that Levanevsky violated the order to land at Wellen. and arbitrarily flew to Vankarem. Neither Ushakov nor Levanevsky confirm this "delicate" moment. Both write that according to the report received in Nome, it was cloudless to Wellen, and in Vankarem the height of the lower edge was 500 m. According to Ushakov, "not noticing any warning signs over the Wellen airfield, the pilot directed the car further west towards Vankarem." Levanevsky himself wrote that he had descended to 150 m, but "no signals were posted at the airfield." Having stumbled over the Kolyuchinskaya Bay on a large cloudy wall, the pilot was unable to climb above it and switched to low level flight when the plane began to ice up. Twice happily avoiding a collision with rocks, the pilot nevertheless knocked down the right ski on the hummock, after which he made an emergency landing on the fuselage at Cape Onman. When landing, Levanevsky smashed his head and lost consciousness, the rest were not injured. The aircraft was not subject to repair, but there is evidence that later, having changed the engine, it was restored.

Having reached Vankarem on dogs, Ushakov led the rescue operations, and Levanevsky, having recovered a little, sent to the address “Moscow. Kremlin. Stalin" radiogram: "I feel efficient and ready to work again." Later it was claimed that she, in high-flown terms, announced her readiness for further fulfillment of government tasks. But he didn’t have an airplane, so the pilot was taken on dogs to Wellen, he never hit the ice floe and didn’t take anyone out of Schmidt’s camp. In the end, Levanevsky made two more flights in Chukotka. In one, he took a U-2 with an unreliable engine to the Lavrenty Bay of the doctor to the patient, and in the other, at the request of Petrov, he drove to the Provideniya Bay to the steamer "a heavy machine that he had never flown and had not seen her close to." She was sent away because "the mechanic didn't want to stay with her." It is not clear if this was Yug-1 or a refurbished second ANT-4.

The second accident heated up the situation in Chukotka to the limit. People were on the ice floe for a month and a half, and again the question of a rescue party on dogs arose. Such an expedition was prepared, it could take 2-3 days, but many weak and elderly people remained on the ice floe. On planes, it was necessary to take out at least 30-40 people.

On March 31, Slepnev tried to break through from Alaska to Chukotka, but returned due to bad weather, he only got to Wellen on April 5. By this time, the population of the ice camp had decreased by two people: on April 2, pilot Babushkin and mechanic Valavin flew off the ice floe on their Sh-2. Those who followed them experienced several unpleasant moments: “Even looking through binoculars, we saw that one of the plane's skis was hanging. The entire population of Vankarem, watching the car coming in to land, froze in anticipation of a catastrophe. It seemed that the hanging ski would inevitably plow into the snow and the plane would take a nose-over. However, at the very last moment, when the car lost speed, the ski straightened out, and the plane glided easily to the Vankarem airfield.

As Ushakov writes, “A few minutes later the car was surrounded by spectators. The view ... it was so unusual that many, busy examining it, forgot to say hello to the arrivals ... Babushkin's plane, which made its way aboard the Chelyuskin from Murmansk, unloaded several times among the ice and again plunged aboard the ship, often received damage. He received no less damage in the ice camp. The plane was repaired either on board the Chelyuskin, or in even more difficult conditions of the ice camp. The nose was all smashed and rebuilt from plywood and plastered over. The uprights supporting the planes are broken and held together with thin twine. The chassis was also tied with twine, although of a larger diameter. General form The plane looked more like Trishkin's famous caftan than a modern car.

The Arctic "air wolf" Babushkin, who flew most of all over the polar ice in the harsh and capricious conditions of the polar night, tried to immediately return to the camp. But given the condition of his car and the low carrying capacity, even in that situation they did not risk it. Ushakov appointed Babushkin the head of the Vankarem airfield, and his plane was left in case of local flights and a possible hike on dogs, in order to indicate the direction of the party and keep in touch with it.

Large-scale evacuation of people from the ice began only on April 7, when Slepnev, Kamanin and Molokov flew to Vankarem. Only two planes of the Kamanin group managed to get to the ice camp, they had a lot of "adventures" and unpleasant "showdowns" on the way. They started at Smolensk. The expectation that the ship would deliver them to Provideniya Bay did not materialize due to the heavy ice conditions. The steamer "Stalingrad" with two Sh-2s on board was also stuck in Olyutorka, returning due to a lack of coal. In the wardroom of the Smolensk, a "production meeting" of sailors and pilots from both ships was held. There were many opinions: the sailors wanted to unload the planes, the pilots insisted on continuing the voyage. Molokov suggested that both captains make another attempt. Starpom "Stalingrad" proposed to bypass the ice on the American coast, and Farikh was going to sail to America and fly from the American coast. The pilots from the "shavrushkas" intervened in the dispute, wanting to fly on their own. As B. Pivenshtein wrote, “It was both funny and annoying. Everyone wanted to be their own master."

While there were disputes, the planes were unloaded ashore. The nervous situation led to a conflict between Kamanin and Farikh. He did not agree with the proposed route. According to Pivenshtein, the following dialogue took place in Kamanin's cabin:

"Kamanin. …So, Comrade Farikh. You refuse to go into formation and do not want to fly through the Gulf of Anadyr?
Farikh. Yes, I think there is nothing to go in the ranks. Anadyr Bay, in my opinion, is better to bypass. In general, why make the route mandatory for everyone?
Kamanin. Having no confidence in you, I remove you from the flight.
Farikh (biting his lip). Okay, just let the government know first.
Kamanin. Let me know if you need. I am responsible for my actions as a commander.”

Farikh and Molokov in this "team" were the most experienced, but Kamanin's one-man command won. Although in the end Farikh turned out to be right, the Gulf of Anadyr had to go around the coast, Kamanin, removing him, risked little. He returned the plane to the pilot from his squadron, Bastanzhiev, in addition, there was another "horseless" Gorelov, who flew as a flight mechanic. Judging by the memoirs of Molokov, who got a battered “blue deuce”, “very old, and, they say, the engine has already 108 hours of flight time”, he was always afraid that the car would be taken away from him. Following the example of the commander, Pivenshtein removed his navigator Ulyanov, who had doubts about success, from participating in the expedition. He could not even imagine that soon the same fate awaited him.

Five of Kamanin's planes loaded to the limit (each flying a navigator and a flight mechanic) began their flight from the harbor of the fish cannery on March 21. We flew along the coast of Kamchatka and Chukotka along the route Maina Pylgin - Anadyr - Kainergin - Natapelmen - Valkalten - Providence Bay - Wellen - Vankarem with a length of more than 2500 km. Most of all, in those days, they resembled musketeers, despite all the obstacles and losses of comrades in a hurry to England for diamond pendants. After the first flight, they lost Bastanzhiev's plane, which did not start due to dirty local gasoline. At Molokov, the propeller spinner collapsed in flight and flew away, fortunately, the propeller survived. During the next flight, Demirov's plane was lost in the clouds, which then landed on a forced one on the Opukha River and waited out a blizzard for several days. He returned to Maina Pylgin, from where, together with Bastanzhiev, they tried five times to fly to Vankarem, but returned because of the weather. On April 1, they again flew to Anadyr, but in the fog they crashed into the hills, one 15 km from the city, the second - 50 km. Demirov's plane burned down, Bastanzhiev was thrown about 30 meters on impact with a gas sector in his hand. Fortunately, no one was hurt. They safely reached the city in three days, only two frostbitten toes were amputated from Romanovsky's technician.

The remaining trio of Kamanin flew out of Anadyr on March 28 and tried to directly make their way to Vankarem through mountain range, so the path was reduced by more than 1000 km, but because of the weather they did not take risks, and landed in the village of Kainergin in the Gulf of Anadyr. The second attempt to break through was made on April 1, but when about 60 km remained to Vankarem, they failed to overcome the cloudy wall at an altitude of 2800 m and returned. The supply of gasoline was running out, so we flew around the coast. When there was about 15 minutes of fuel left in the tanks of Pivenshtein's plane, Kamanin went to land on the ice of the river near the village of Valkalten. Whether due to a rough landing, or because of the winding run on his plane, the shock-absorbing connecting rod of the landing gear burst. The remaining fuel was divided into two cars, Kamanin left the mechanic Anisimov assigned to him and the pilot Pivenshtein at his faulty plane, then the two of them flew on. Subsequently, this "moral-ethical" situation was widely discussed. Pivenshtein later wrote that he himself understood: "As a flight commander, Kamanin cannot do otherwise." Molokov’s comments are curious: “And again my mood deteriorates: I’m afraid that my car will not be taken away ... It’s a thing of the past, but if they decided to take my car away from me, I would not give it away. The conditions of the North dictate their own laws ... "There is a legend that Molokov had to defend his right to the car," exposing the trunk "...

While Pivenshtein was driving for gasoline, Anisimov adapted a “connecting rod” carved from wood to the chassis. His main "merit" was the search for a piece of wood among the Chukchi yarangas. On a "wooden leg" they flew to Providence Bay, where by April 13 they repaired the chassis. On this day, a blizzard began that lasted a week. An attempt on April 21 to fly further due to bad weather ended in an emergency landing and a burst center section tape. During trips on dogs for repairs, they learned about the end of rescue work. However, Pivenstein still got to Wellen, where he learned about the award of his Order of the Red Star. To celebrate among the “resting on their laurels”, he “with his old car” flew six times from Wellen to Providence Bay and twice from Providence Bay to Laurentia Bay, transferring 22 people in total.

Kamanin and Molokov flew to Wellen, where they could announce their arrival by radio station, on April 5th. On the 7th, together with Slepnev, they flew to Vankarem, and immediately flew to the camp. Slepnev's "Flitster" was faster, its maximum speed was 265 km / h, cruising - 200-210 km / h. Therefore, two P-5s were the first to take off, and 15 minutes later, Ushakov flew out with Slepnev, loading a team of dogs onto the plane. It was believed that the dogs would carry cargo from the camp to the airfield and be able to get to the place of emergency landing, but, apparently, they were preparing for a sledge expedition. Soon they caught up with both P-5s, but then the engine in Kamanin's car went haywire. Ushakov noted that "a dark tail of smoke wriggled behind the car." Navigator M. Shelyganov wrote that the supply of gasoline had been interrupted. The plane almost landed on a forced hummock, but at 20 meters from the ice the engine started working normally, and they returned safely to Vankarem. Molokov accompanied them on the second R-5.

Thus, Slepnev's "Flitster" became the second plane after Lyapidevsky's ANT-4 to arrive at the camp. Remember, more than a month has passed since then. However, an accident occurred on the landing. Having made several circles with a side wind, Slepnev, as Ushakov wrote, “led the plane, cutting off the wind direction line. The car quickly slipped through the cleared area, flew into the ropaki and, already losing speed, began to jump. Thanks to the brakes on the skis, the pilot was sometimes able to dodge oncoming rops. Finally, the car made a big jump up and froze motionless near a large ropak, like a wounded bird, raising its right wing high and putting its left on the ice.

First of all, the dogs were thrown out of the plane so as not to interfere with the inspection of the damage. This shocked the Chelyuskinites, who were watching the landing with binoculars from the signal tower: “They saw the car jumping over the ropaks and finally stopped in an obviously emergency position. Not knowing about our fate, they tried to see through binoculars the appearance of living beings from the plane, but when these living beings appeared, the Chelyuskinites involuntarily began to wipe the glass of the binoculars: the living beings that got out of the plane ran away from it on all fours ... "Slepnev this landing did not commented, writing only that “... the ties on my plane broke. It had to be repaired."

Half an hour later, when the Chelyuskinites, like barge haulers, dragged his car to a level place, Molokov and Kamanin flew in. Kamanin sat down normally, and Molokov turned around in front of the ropaks and started the car in a whirlwind. The landing gear and skis were saved, and the center section earring was torn off. He tied her with a rope. That day, two planes took five people off the ice floe. Ushakov and Slepnev's plane remained in the camp. The next day, in the fog, Molokov did not break into the camp, and at night the compression and hummocking of the ice began. The ice shaft almost collapsed on the camp, calming down just a dozen meters from the tents. The airfield was completely destroyed. On April 9, while the Chelyuskins were repairing the aircraft, they cleared a new site a kilometer away, but while they were about to drag the car, a crack of several meters formed. Within an hour, an ice bridge was “built” across it. While forty Chelyuskinites were dragging the car to the bridge, a new compression began, an ice shaft several meters high formed at the crossing site. Having cut a gap, the plane was dragged to a new airfield, and there the end of the runway was torn off.

At this time, Ushakov and everyone were very worried about the sharply deteriorating health of O.Yu. Schmidt. He was delirious, the temperature rose above 39 °, but did not want to fly away. The question of waiting until he lost consciousness and evacuating him in this form was seriously discussed. But they didn't go for it. On April 10, as soon as the weather settled and the "air bridge" started working again, Ushakov returned to Vankarem and gave a telegram to Kuibyshev. The next day, after a categorical order "from above", Molokov took Schmidt and the doctor out on the fourth "unscheduled" flight. Spare parts were brought to Slepnev and he flew off the ice floe, putting five people in a 9-seater Flitster. They didn’t want to take any more risks with “imported equipment bought for foreign currency”, and on April 12 Slepnev and Ushakov took the sick Schmidt to Nome for treatment in Alaska.

April 10 and 11 proved to be decisive days. Kamanin and Molokov, as if competing, flew continuously and took out more than 50 people, only 28 people remained on the ice floe. In those days, pilots significantly increased the “passenger capacity” of their two-seat P-5s. Quickly calculating that 3 people per flight would have to fly a lot, they began to put passengers in underwing parachute boxes. If on April 7 no one wanted to fly in them, then on the 10th a lean sailor was the first to sit in the box: “They put him head first, folded the man’s hands and, like a Whitehead mine, pushed him into a narrow box ... It was not particularly spacious for him to lie, but, perhaps better than four sitting in the same cabin. Molokov even tried to attach one on his knees and pedals, but this idea had to be abandoned. For one flight they took out from 4-5, and even 6 people, and they sat in the parachute boxes more willingly than in the cockpit.

On April 12, Vankarem's "aircraft fleet" was replenished with aircraft from Doronin and Vodopyanov. Their entire unparalleled flight from Khabarovsk was held under the motto "If only they could take one out." Vodopyanov at the beginning of 1934 flew to special detachment for the delivery of matrices of the Pravda newspaper from Moscow. After his accident last year in the area of ​​Lake Baikal, he gradually prepared for new long-distance flights. Under the guise of an "experimental flight", with the help of the Komsomol members of aircraft plant No. 89, he equipped his P-5 for long-distance flights: he installed an additional gas tank, heated drainage pipes, etc. In mid-February, during the work of the XVII Party Congress, Vodopyanov flew four times with matrices from Moscow to Leningrad. In an attempt to fly to the aid of the Chelyuskinites, he was refused, and on February 26 they scheduled a flight to the Caspian Sea to rescue fishermen from an ice floe. Only a written appeal “To the editorial office of Pravda” to Comrade Mekhlis helped. From the drummer of Pravda, pilot Vodopyanov. On the eve of departure, in the middle of the night, he was picked up and sent by train to Khabarovsk, where his plane was also delivered. Here Vodopyanov met with Doronin and Galyshev.

I. Doronin with flight mechanics Y. Savin and V. Fedotov and two cars were sent on March 1 from Irkutsk to Vladivostok, where V. Galyshev had previously flown. When they got there, it turned out that "Smolensk" had already left, but Galyshev remained. In the confusion, the planes were sent "at low speed", so they soon decided to detain the planes in Khabarovsk and fly from there.

The aircraft were assembled by the best technical team of the Far Eastern Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the guidance of engineer Petrov. The most direct participation was taken by the chief engineer of the department Filippovich and the head of the department Polyakov. The brigade included engineer Linderman, aircraft engineer Tyutin, senior technician Samofalov, technicians Bezymyansky, Domkin, Nygarden, mechanics Chernenko, Shishkin, Zuev, Konoplev, Zhuravlev, Schastlivtsev, tankers Sokolov, Kazakov, Varlamov, political department workers Monichev and Kuznetsov. For six days they worked for 16 hours, some even for 27-33 hours. By March 16, additional fuel and oil tanks were installed on all vehicles and tested in the air. Galyshev was appointed commander of the flight, and Doronin was appointed deputy.

The group started on March 17, to Nikolaevsk they were led by the pilot of the local airline Khabarovsk - Sakhalin Ivanov. Flight mechanics Aleksandrov and Ratushkin flew with Vodopyanov. The P-5, faster than the Junkers, created additional problems. From the very first section, Vodopyanov returned to Khabarovsk, afraid to collide in the fog. All this was taken as a good sign and "maturing" of Vodopyanov himself, known for his dashing. Either lagging behind the Junkers, or overtaking, and flying some sections together, the pilots reached Anadyr by April 4. Their flight with a length of 5850 km took place along the route Khabarovsk - N.-Tambovsk - Nikolaevsk - Shantar Islands - Ayan - Okhotsk - Nogaevo - Gizhiga - Kamenskoye - Anadyr. There were almost no “adventures” along the way, but there was one breakdown in Gizhiga.

Giving instructions on the preparation of airfields, it was proposed to lay out their borders with needles and branches. Here they overdid it and overlaid it with thick logs, and the panels of the landing "T" across the strip, so as not to be blown away by the wind, were also taken with logs. Vodopyanov, who arrived first from the air, noticed suspicious spots and conceded the “right of the first night” (landing) to Doronin, who, after several jumps, broke the chassis and sat on his stomach. The rest sat well.

There were spare parts, there were enough mechanics, the car was repaired in one day, but a blizzard swirled for four days. On April 11, in Anadyr, they learned that Molokov and Kamanin were taking people out of the ice floe. They urgently planned to fly directly to Vankarem, but it turned out that the fuel pump on Galyshev's plane was not holding pressure. It had to be removed for at least a day (it was necessary to lift the motor). Vodopyanov took off first, Doronin waited for about an hour, maybe some of the spare parts would be needed, but Galyshev himself suggested that he fly: “Fly away, you are needed there. We'll manage here ourselves." On three planes they carried a welding machine for Lyapidevsky, its parts were reloaded from Galyshev to Doronin. On the same day, he flew to Vankarem, and Vodopyanov "missed" in flight over the ridge and ended up on Cape North. This made everyone very happy, since the fuel supply in Vankarem was coming to an end, and there was a fuel base in the North. The next day, Vodopyanov and Pronin flew to the camp. The landing was normal, and on takeoff, Doronin's plane with four Chelyuskins jumped up and lay on its side. It turned out that the rack broke, broken in Gizhiga or somewhere along the route. In addition, the ball head of the landing gear burst in the neck, the crutch broke. The Chelyuskinites had a great experience in repairing Babushkin's aircraft, work soon began to boil. Kamanin was "ordered" a ball joint and tools, a scrap was borrowed from the Chelyuskinites, with great difficulty it was cut into three pieces. Two hours later, Kamanin returned “with an order”, the flight engineer Y. Savin inserted the pieces of scrap into a crutch and a rack and collected everything. Out of caution, only two were taken on board. They took off normally, but after takeoff, Doronin did not find skis in place. It turned out that at the end of the takeoff, pieces of scrap flew out, the ski hung on the shock absorber. When landing, the plane, having lost speed, furrowed its left wing in the snow, but everything worked out. In addition to Doronin, that day Kamanin and Vodopyanov took out 20 people, only six remained on the ice floe. Molokov did not fly on April 12, repairing the radiator.

By morning, the landing gear was properly repaired, but it was no longer necessary to fly onto the ice floe - everyone was taken out. Then the passenger PS-4 was used to transport the sick and weak from Vankarem to Providence Bay. On the second flight with three patients, the fuel pump clogged with snow failed, just like Galyshev had before. Having sat down on the forced one, having cleared it and together with a healthy passenger trampled the runway in the snow, they took off successfully. From Wellen, Doronin flew five times and transported about 20 people.

On the night of April 13, Vankarem was very worried about the remaining six - radio operators Krenkel and Ivanov, captain Voronin, boatswain Zagorsky, Schmidt's deputy Bobrov and "head of the airfield" Pogosov remained on the ice floe. Many, especially the local population, were very worried about the fate of the dogs on the ice floe, they were among the best in the area. In the end, the camp was even given lightning about dogs. In the morning, Vodopyanov was the first to go to the camp, but he did not find the camp and returned. Many began to get nervous, and the chairman of the troika, Petrov, even shouted at the mechanics: “What are you digging for, why don’t you fly?” Kamanin tried to calm him down, but everyone breathed a sigh of relief only when three planes of Kamanin, Molokov and Vodopyanov reached the camp in the fog. They took out all the people and dogs, and Vodopyanov was not even too lazy to pick up and bring back a "souvenir" - pieces of scrap that had flown out of the landing gear of Doronin's plane.

Thus ended the "heroic epic", the "working" part remained - to evacuate everyone from Vankarem. Despite the fact that they even organized a “social competition” for the cleanliness of the yarangas - they were swept, the walrus skins were cleaned, washed, aired, and the Chelyuskinites themselves later said that Vankarem was the cleanest village, no one wanted to stay there. Healthy people were collected in batches of 10-12 people, given 3-4 sleds, a guide, and sent to Wellen and Lawrence Bay. On April 10-13, the parties of Stakhanov (5 people), Rytsk (15), Filippov (12), Shirshov (8) and Buiko (13) took to the road. They went from 9 to 16 days. By this time, Smolensk had made its way into Provideniya Bay with the help of Krasin, and on the way to it from the Council, all the “aeronautical-aerosled-all-terrain” transport was overloaded, but it was not needed. In the general bustle, the flight of the pilot Svetogorov from about. Matvey in the Bering Sea to Wellen on the "shavrushka" - this is about 350 km above the ice slush in the ocean. Vankarem on April 26 "closed" the border guard Nebolsin. He traveled on dogs through the camps and yarangas, paying off the Chukchi for the work done. He paid about 50,000 rubles in money. In addition, for a personal bonus, they allocated wood and iron necessary for the construction of a yaranga, guns, binoculars, which, like the Winchester, is the most valuable thing for the Chukchi, with which he tracks down the beast. As Nebolsin wrote, “I must say, the Chukchi fully deserved all this, they worked truly selflessly, sparing neither themselves nor dogs. But dogs for the Chukchi are the most precious thing he has. ... It seems to me that many people still underestimate the major role that dogs played in saving the Chelyuskinites. After all, it was the dogs that made it possible for aviation to deal only with its immediate business - the removal of Chelyuskinites from the camp. Once they reached Vankarem, the planes no longer needed to be distracted for any other flights, except for flights to the camp. All the auxiliary work - the delivery of fuel, oil, the transfer of the first batches of people to Wellen - was done by dogs. But in our conditions, every extra flight of an aircraft, especially over long distances, meant an extra possibility of an accident, an extra risk of losing the aircraft. About 1,000 dogs were involved in the rescue operations of the Chelyuskinites. Among them were not only Chukchi dogs, but also border guards. The enormous work that the dogs have done is hard to even consider. Some of the dog teams ran up to 13,000 km. Nebolsin himself rode dogs for at least 3,000 km. The fatigue of the dogs led to the cancellation of the dog sled race regularly held on 1 May. The team of Nebolsin, who claimed the championship, used to travel the path Wellen - Lavrentiy in ten hours, in May it dragged empty for exactly a day.

On May 1, they limited themselves to a demonstration in Wellen, there were a lot of people, and the wing of Lyapidevsky's plane served as a "tribune". The political resonance from the rescue operation all over the world was enormous, but the most curious thing was the strong impression the planes made on the Chukchi, who had never seen them in such numbers. As Nebolsin wrote, “The Chukchi know most about America. Many of them sailed on American schooners, most of them came into contact with Americans who traded in Chukotka and bought furs until 1930. They saw American planes in 1929, when the Americans used them to export furs to Alaska. Among them there was talk that our Russian planes could not do anything. Whether it's American!.. Outwardly, our planes really looked pretty rude next to the American ones. But when it became possible to compare them in the work, the results were completely different. Here Levanevsky arrives on a plane as beautiful as a picture and almost shatters to smithereens. And then Lyapidevsky sits down on a Russian plane and restores the damage without much difficulty.

Slepnev, Kamanin and Molokov arrive. Their cars differ from each other like heaven from earth. Slepnev's American plane flew in from Alaska, where there is an airfield and hangars. He was all shiny. And right next to them stood the cars of Molokov and Kamanin, who spent two months in the open air. The planes were dirty, covered in oil, peeling, with paint cracked from 50-degree frosts. When landing, the cars demonstrated their qualities. Slepnev's plane landed with a huge mileage. He climbed right onto the hummock and failed to turn, as the car was hard to turn during taxiing. The people who ran up had to help turn the car around. At the same time Kamanin went down and sat down safely. Molokov whirled around and sat down as if he had lived all his life on this site. He stopped - as he drove up on dogs, exactly where he needed to. The Chukchi saw how Slepnev flew to the camp and did not return for three days. But Molokov and Kamanin keep driving and driving.

Faith in the irreproachable properties of all things coming from America was greatly shaken. But with great attention, the Chukchi began to listen to stories about the achievements of Soviet industry.

Dispassionate statistics support this conclusion. Most of all - 9 flights to the ice floe were made by the "Old Man" and "Young Man" (as the Chukchi dubbed Molokov and Kamanin, they were not interested in the names of the pilots). The first took 39 people on the P-5, the second - 34. Vodopyanov took 10 people on the P-5 in three flights, the rest: Lyapidevsky (ANT-4) - 1 flight (12 people), Slepnev (Flitster) - 1 flight (5), Doronin (PS-4) - 1 flight (2), Babushkin (Sh-2) - 1 one-way flight, (2 people). Only the R-5, simple and reliable as a stick, flew off without major breakdowns, although their tie bands in the center section were constantly torn. Without them, neither the ANT-4, nor the "Americans", nor the "Germans" would have done anything. The Chelyuskinites lived on the ice floe for exactly two months, waiting for the weather and the planes. The titles of Heroes were given to all pilots who flew to the camp, plus Levanevsky “for diplomatic reasons”, minus Babushkin, who saved himself (later he received this title for participating in an expedition to the North Pole). The rest received medals. The experience gained in such difficult conditions in the use of aircraft was very important. Later, Lyapidevsky wrote about the operation of engines in the conditions of the North: “There are no air bases in Chukotka, flight mechanics had to heat water for the engine, cutting down the bottom of a gasoline barrel. This barrel was inserted into another barrel with a door cut down at the bottom. They heated it with a fin, pouring oil on it. And when there was no fin, they had to pour water into cans and heat it up on blowtorches. The motors had to be heated with felt and asbestos, and we lined the oil tanks with sheepskin and reindeer fur. At low temperatures, the specific gravity of gasoline changes especially sharply. But we eliminated this by appropriate selection of jets. After he delivered an oil-and-water heater from Wellen to Vankarem "with transfers", it has been working around the clock since the beginning of April, this greatly simplified the launch and increased the number of flights.

“What motor is needed for the North? - wrote Lyapidevsky. - Here I express only my point of view. In my opinion, the North needs a Wright-Cyclone-type air-cooled motor with an Eclipse self-starter. With such a motor, it will not be necessary hot water, which is very difficult to obtain during forced landings.

What kind of aircraft do you need to work in winter conditions? In my opinion - a light single-engine, not requiring a large crew. The aircraft must have a powerful engine and a high payload ratio. Of course, the presence of a radio installation on the aircraft is mandatory. Flight uniforms are best made from fawn (young deer). The fawn is very soft and warm. The aircraft cabin must be closed and insulated. This is not only important for the crew, but also for the accurate operation of the instruments.” Unlike other pilots, who sparingly mentioned their breakdowns, Lyapidevsky wrote a lot about them. Perhaps because of this, right during the solemn meeting in Moscow, at the Mausoleum, he had an unpleasant conversation with the people's commissar of heavy industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze. He asked: "Why are you unhappy with the motors?" Lyapidevsky replied: “I am satisfied with the motors, but the motor that I had in Chukotka cut without a knife, sucked out all the blood, one might say, drove it into gray hair!”

The solemn meeting of the Chelyuskinites all the way from Vladivostok, where they were taken on the steamer "Stalingrad", to Moscow was grandiose. The pilots even complained that there were many Chelyuskinites, but there were few of them, so they often had to be “on duty” - around the clock at each station they had to go out and accept congratulations and gifts.

Happyend Chelyuskin epic, which literally the whole world watched with bated breath, showed everyone “the high professionalism, courage, courage and fortitude of all the people who took part in it - both Chelyuskinites and rescuers. The Chelyuskin epic remains in our memory as an example of nobility, courage and courage. The unparalleled skill of Soviet pilots and the technical excellence of Soviet machines evoked enthusiastic responses all over the world.

It is no coincidence that the Chief Political Commissar of the Red Army Lev Mekhlis wrote in the preface to the collection “How We Saved the Chelyuskinites”, published “in hot pursuit” after the return of the participants in the heroic epic to Moscow, the following: “Literally tens of millions of people warily followed the heroic struggle of the fearless detachment of Chelyuskinites, led Bolshevik scientist comrade Schmidt. New person, brought up by the great Land of Soviets, passed the test before the whole world for stamina, endurance, the ability to act collectively in the conditions of the greatest tragedy - the death of Chelyuskin. Will the expedition members withstand such a long ice captivity? Will they not lose their self-control, and will they not suffer the fate of many, many expeditions, when everyone saved himself personally, and the majority perished?

The news of the death of the Chelyuskin steamer and the people on the ice floe literally spread like lightning Earth and shocked the whole world. As L. Mekhlis stated, “even bourgeois leaders who were sympathetic to the Chelyuskinites were pessimistic about the situation. Many recalled the tragic death of Amundsen, who took off on a hydroplane to rescue Nobile's northern expedition. They considered the inevitable death of all or most of the members of the Schmidt expedition. “A quick rescue by aircraft,” wrote Prager Press, “is impossible, not only because in such remote places there is never a sufficient number of necessary aircraft, but also because the season counteracts flying: fogs, blizzards, strong winds” . The Danish newspaper "Politiken" hastened to print an obituary dedicated to the glorious leader of the Chelyuskinites - Otto Yulievich Schmidt. “On the ice floe,” she wrote, “Otto Schmidt met an enemy that no one else could defeat. He died like a hero, a man whose name will live on among the conquerors of the Arctic Ocean.”

Mekhlis did not forget how “the fascist press laughed at the Bolshevik plan of salvation. The Völkischer Beobachter, the rotten National Socialist officialdom, wrote that "the measures taken so far to save the Chelyuskinites are being carried out too hastily and without a plan." But no matter what measures you take, nothing will come of the Bolsheviks. Planes are sent to certain death, icing awaits them, "every landing is a risk and depends on a happy accident." We must leave people to themselves. Do not maintain radio communications with Schmidt's camp, the Völkischer Beobachter repeats, for "with psychological point The radio installation is harmful to the eyes because it arouses false hopes in the victims of the crash, which then will not be realized. Go on foot, the enemy was inciting, maybe then something will succeed. The expedition members showed an unsurpassed example of stamina and discipline. They passed the world test."

"We will not give up a single person as a sacrifice to the Arctic" - that was Stalin's password. And the Bolshevik organization went on the offensive against the ice, the storm, the harsh winter of Chukotka, on the Anadyr Range.

The political significance of the Chelyuskin epic was most accurately reflected by G.A. Ushakov, together with the recovered O.Yu. Schmidt, who returned to Moscow “along the western” route: “... And let our enemies remember: if Soviet pilots in Soviet cars managed to fly to the Schmidt camp, then they will be able to fly to the camp of capitalism ... Let them remember that our homeland, if necessary, with the same ease, instead of seven, it can give millions of heroes "...

The fates of the pilots - the first Heroes and the "main losers" - developed differently. At first, upon arrival in Moscow, they were not even particularly distinguished. As Mehlis wrote, “... the call of the government rose the best people- Lyapidevsky, Levanevsky, Molokov, Kamanin, Slepnev, Vodopyanov, Doronin, Galyshev, Pivenstein ... "

Praised by Mekhlis as "an exemplary pupil of the glorious Red Army" N.P. Kamanin "distinguished himself" twice - first, strengthening the unity of command, he removed the most experienced polar pilot F.B. Farikha, then, having “spread out” his plane on landing, took the car from B.A. Pivenshtein.

Farikh Fabio Brunovich (1896-1985) volunteered for the Red Army in 1918, took part in the Civil War and after demobilization in 1923-1928. worked as a mechanic on the Central Asian air lines of the Civil Air Fleet. In 1928, Farikh graduated from the Moscow School of Flight Mechanics and began flying in the crew of an experienced polar pilot M.T. Slepnev, mastering the air line Irkutsk - Yakutsk.

In 1930, the crew of Slepnev-Farih found the wreckage of an aircraft and the bodies of American pilots Eielson and Borland, missing in the Chukotka region. At the request of the Americans, our pilots delivered the remains of the dead to Alaska. In the same year, Farikh graduated from the Moscow Aviation School of the Civil Air Fleet and received the right to solo flights.

In the 1930s, in the Arctic, as a ship commander, Farikh made several most difficult flights, among them the first long-distance flight on the newly opened route Krasnoyarsk - Dudinka (1931) and the first flight along the newly opened route Moscow - Arkhangelsk - Ust-Kut on aircraft K-5 (1932). The flights took place in difficult weather conditions, without maps and navigation support.

In 1932, Farikh received an order to fly to Vaigach Island and bring F. Eichsmann, head of the OGPU expedition, to Moscow. Due to bad weather conditions, which led to forced landings, the failure of the material part, the task was extended for several months. For the performance of this work in the most difficult conditions, by the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in August 1934, Farikh was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

In 1934, after the failure to rescue the Chelyuskinites, F.B. Farikh flew in winter conditions from Cape Schmidt to Wrangel Island. In 1935-1936. he served in the agitation squadron. Maxim Gorky.

In 1937, from February 9 to June 14, the G-1 "N-120" aircraft with the crew of F.B. Farih and three passengers flew along the route Moscow - Kazan - Sverdlovsk - Omsk - Novosibirsk - Krasnoyarsk - Irkutsk - Verkholensk - Yakutsk - Anadyr - the coast of the Arctic Ocean - Amderma - Arkhangelsk - Yaroslavl - Moscow, having overcome 23,000 km, having made 47 landings. It was the first flight on a Soviet-designed aircraft across Siberia and along the entire route of the Northern Sea Route. The crew members were awarded orders, Farikh received "his" Order of Lenin. In the same year, the pilot took part in the search for Levanevsky's aircraft, but to no avail.

In November 1939 Major F.B. Farih was drafted into the ranks of the Air Force, he took part in, trained young pilots, made sorties in the rear Finnish army. During the Great Patriotic War, Lieutenant Colonel Farikh made eighteen sorties deep behind enemy lines, and was engaged in testing new types of aircraft. In 1944 he was awarded the order Patriotic War 2nd degree.

AT post-war years Farikh worked on the air routes of the Arctic - he transported mail, cargo, passengers. On July 1, 1948, he was arrested and, as an “enemy of the people,” was sentenced to 25 years in labor camps. Only on July 26, 1956, Farikh was released, fully rehabilitated and restored to his rights. In 1957, for health reasons, he left air fleet. From 1962 to 1975, the former outstanding polar pilot F.B. Farikh worked as a rationer and then as a watchman at the Krasny Metallist plant.

Fabio Brunovich Farikh died in Moscow on June 2, 1985 at the age of 89, was buried on Novodevichy cemetery.

No less interesting and tragic is the fate of another Kamanin "godson" - Boris Abramovich Pivenshtein, who was born in 1909 in Odessa. In 1937, Pivenshtein also participated in the search for the missing Levanevsky plane, in November on about. Rudolf was replaced by Vodopyanov's detachment as a pilot and secretary of the party committee of the ANT-6 squadron.

Before the war, Pivenstein lived in the infamous house on the Embankment. It has a museum where he is listed as dead at the front.

From the beginning of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Pivenshtein was at the front, commanding the 503rd assault aviation regiment (shap). And here he was unlucky: after an accidental strike on one of his air groups, the leader went to court, and the regiment commander was demoted and appointed squadron commander of the 504th cap. It was formed in Voronezh in early September 1941 on the basis of the 103rd short-range bomber regiment. In 1941-1942. the regiment successfully fought on the Volkhov and Bryansk fronts, on March 18, 1943, received the honorary title of Guards and was transformed into the 74th Guards.

Commander Pivenshtein also fought bravely, in particular, during the most difficult period of the Battle of Stalingrad, in two weeks of fighting, he made about a dozen and a half sorties.

And again misfortune. Shortly after receiving the guards banner, in April 1943, the Nazis shot down in the sky of Donbass an attack aircraft of the Guards Lieutenant Colonel Pivenshtein and Guards Sergeant A.M. Kruglov. The crew was taken prisoner. At the moment of captivity, the wounded Pivenshtein tried to shoot himself. Kruglov died while trying to escape from the camp.

By the way, Pivenshtein's "godson", General N.P. Kamanin, at that time commanded an assault air corps and, of course, did not fly personally on combat missions.

However, there is also evidence that Pivenshtein voluntarily flew over to the side of the Nazis, and he is even named among the active employees of Lieutenant Colonel G. Holters, the head of one of the intelligence units at the headquarters of the Luftwaffe.

The historian V. Zvyagintsev managed to find in the archives the materials of the court proceedings in the case of B.A. Pivenshtein, from which it follows that until 1950 he really was missing, and his family, who lived in Moscow, received a pension from the state. But soon the state security agencies established that Pivenshtein, “until June 1951, living on the territory of the American zone of occupation of Germany in the mountains. Wiesbaden, being a member of the NTS, served as secretary of the Wiesbaden Emigrant Committee and was the headman of the temple, and in June 1951 he left for America ... ".

On April 4, 1952, the Military Collegium condemned B.A. Pivenshtein under Art. 58-1 p. "b" and 58-6 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and sentenced to death with confiscation of property and deprivation military rank. The verdict stated: “Pivenstein in 1932-1933, while on military service in the Far East, had a criminal relationship with a resident of German intelligence Waldman. In 1943, being the commander of an air squadron, he flew out on a combat mission to the rear of the Germans, from where he did not return to his unit ...

While in the prisoner of war pilots camp in Moritzfeld, Pivenshtein worked in the Vostok counterintelligence department, where he interviewed Soviet pilots who were captured by the Germans, treated them in an anti-Soviet spirit and persuaded them to treason.

In January 1944, Pivenshtein was sent by the German command to the counterintelligence department, stationed in the city of Koenigsberg ... ".

Further, the verdict noted that Pivenshtein's guilt of treason and collaboration with German counterintelligence was proved by the testimony of the arrested traitors to the Motherland B.C. Moskalets, M.V. Tarnovsky, I.I. Tenskov-Dorofeev and the documents available in the Case. All this "Case" is clearly fabricated, but nevertheless ...

The further fate of B.A. Pivenshtein after his departure to America is unknown.

Based on materials: Anatoly Demin. Glory to the heroes-pilots or ... Ode to sled dogs and extraordinary troikas (forgotten pages of the Chelyuskin epic) // Legends and myths of domestic aviation. Digest of articles. Editor-compiler A.A. Demin. Issue 4. - M., 2012.