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Marina Raskova – letchica-shturman, Geroy Sovetskogo Soyuza. Uchastvovala v ustanovlenii rekorda po dalnosti bespreryvnogo poleta na samolete ANT-37 («Rossiya»). Komandir pervogo zhenskogo aviapolka «Nochnye vedmy».

Raskova became a famous aviator as both a pilot and a navigator for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. She was the first woman to become a navigator in the Soviet Air Force in 1933.[5] A year later, she started teaching at the Zhukovsky Air Academy, also a first for a woman. She taught male and later, female students military navigation. She was the subject of skepticism by many of her male students but was able to prove herself capable. Later, the Academy sent Raskova to Tushino for the Central Flying Club in order to receive flying lessons, which she completed in August 1935. When Raskova's training ended, she was able to become an instrument flying instructor and was allowed to teach command personnel advanced navigation. In 1935, she divorced.[4] She set a number of long-distance records, a significant achievement in the eyes of the Soviet Union, which gave its aviators celebrity status. Most of these record flights occurred in 1937 and 1938, while she was still teaching at the air academy. She was referred to as the "Russian Amelia Earhart" for her achievements.

The most famous of her long-distance records was the flight of the Rodina (Russian for "Motherland"), Ant-37 – a converted DB-2 long range bomber – on 24–25 September 1938. She was the navigator of the crew that also included Polina Osipenko and Valentina Grizodubova. From the start, the goal was to set an international women's record for a straight-line distance flight. The plan was to fly from Moscow to Komsomolsk (in the Far East). When finally completed, the flight took 26 hours and 29 minutes, over a straight-line distance of 5,947 km (3,695 mi) (total distance of 6,450 km (4,010 mi)). However, the ordeal took 10 days when the plane was unable to find an airfield due to poor visibility. Because the navigator's cockpit had no entrance to the rest of the plane and was vulnerable in a crash landing, Raskova parachuted out before they touched down. She had forgotten her emergency kit and was unable to find the plane for 10 days, with no water and almost no food. The rescue crew had found the aircraft eight days after the landing, and was waiting when she found her way to it, after which all three women were taken to safety. On 2 November 1938, all three women were decorated with the Hero of the Soviet Union award, the first females ever to receive it and the only ones before World War II.[6]

World War II

When World War II broke out, there were numerous women who had training as pilots and many immediately volunteered. While there were no formal restrictions on women serving in combat roles, their applications tended to be blocked, run into red tape, etc. for as long as possible in order to discourage the applicants from entering any training program.[7] Raskova is credited with having used her personal connections with Joseph Stalin to convince the military to form three combat regiments of women. Following a speech by Raskova on 8 September 1941 calling for women pilots to be allowed to fight, Stalin on 8 October 1941 ordered the formation of the all-female 122nd Aviation Corps.[8] Not only would the women be pilots, but also support staff and engineers. After their training, the Group's three regiments received their formal designations as follows:

• A damaged and abandoned Po-2 forced to land in Ukraine, and subsequently captured by German troops, 1941. On this type of aircraft, the Night Witches flew more than 24,000 sortiesThe 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment (586 IAP/PVO): This unit was the first to take part in combat (16 April 1942) of the three female regiments. Equipped with Yakovlev Yak-1, Yak-7B and Yak-9, it flew 4,419 flights.[9] destroying 38 enemy aircraft in 125 air battles. Commanders were Tamara Kazarinova and later Aleksandr Gridnev.[10]

• The 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment, (later renamed the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment): Raskova commanded this unit until her death in a flying accident, while leading two other Petlyakovs to their first operative airfield, near Stalingrad,[11] whereupon the unit was given to Valentin Markov. It started service as the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment until it was given the Guards designation in September 1943. The unit was given the very best of the Soviet bombers, the Petlyakov Pe-2, while many male units used obsolete aircraft, which resulted in much resentment. The unit flew 1,134 missions, dropping over 980 tons of bombs. It produced five Heroes of the Soviet Union.[12]

• The 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (later renamed the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, nicknamed the "Night Witches" (die Nachthexen) by the Germans): This was the best known of the regiments and was commanded by Yevdokia Bershanskaya. It originally began service as the 588th Night Bomber Regiment (588 NBAP), but was redesignated in February 1943 as recognition for service which tallied 24,000+ combat missions by the end of the war. The regiment produced 24 Heroes of the Soviet Union.[13] Their aircraft was the Polikarpov Po-2, a very outdated biplane. They were the only one of the three regiments to remain solely female throughout the war, a distinction they went to some lengths to maintain.

Russian pilots and ground crew pose in front of a Pe-2 dive bomber at Poltava, June 1944. Marina Raskova died while flying this type of aircraft in a flying accident, near Stalingrad

Raskova died on 4 January 1943, when her aircraft crashed attempting to make a forced landing on the Volga bank, while leading two other Pe-2s to the first operative airfield near Stalingrad. The entire crew perished.[4] She received the first state funeral of the war.[14]

Legacy

Her ashes were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, beside Polina Osipenko's, on Red Square. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War I Class.[15] An American ship, Ironclad (launched as Mystic in April 1919), that had taken part in Convoy PQ 17 was transferred

to Russian ownership and renamed Marina Raskova in June 1943.

A street was named after her in Moscow and Kazan respectively, as well as a square in Moscow, some schools and Young Pioneer detachments.[16] There was a bust of her at the "M.M. Raskova" Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots in Tambov, but that school ceased to function in 1997.