(19 12-1943)
Woman Soviet pilot who persuaded Stalin to form three women’s combat wings at a time when there was no shortage of male aircrews and combat aircraft were scarce and outdated.
Marina Raskova was a talented organizer and bold dreamer, with a personality that endeared her to subordinates. She acquired specialized knowledge of navigation while employed as draftswoman at the N. E. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. The first Soviet woman to earn the diploma of professional air navigator, she became navigation instructor at the academy. She also trained to fly at the academy’s expense. A pupil of famous navigators A. Beliakov and I. Spirin, as well as a participant from 1935 in various competitive flights, Raskova became an important navigator in Moscow’s May Day air shows.
She gained special fame as the navigator of an ANT-37, Rodina (Homeland), piloted by Valentina Grizodubova and copiloted by Polina Osipenko, during a pioneering nonstop flight from Moscow to the Pacific (6,450 kilometers) executed on September 24-25, 1938. Having failed to reach the destination airfield in Komso-mol’sk on the Amur River, the pilot, running out of fuel, was forced to land immediately. (The crew suspected that their mechanics failed to refill the tanks after the aircraft had been tested on the ground.) Fearful of nosing over, the pilot ordered Raskova, located in the forward cabin, to bail out. As a result she unexpectedly spent ten days wandering in the taiga. For their feat, the crew of three were each awarded Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest Soviet military decoration, becoming the first three Soviet women to be thus honored.
After the German invasion, Air Group No. 122 was created. The recruitment of women to the air group began in October 1941 in Moscow and continued in Engels near Stalingrad. The women were at first trained as aircraft and technical support crews (1941-1942). The group evolved into three combat wings: 586th Fighter Regiment, 587th Dive Bomber Regiment (initially commanded by Major Raskova), and 588th Night Bomber Regiment. In 1943 the 588th and 587th were to be renamed, respectively, 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment and 125th M. M. Raskova Borisov Guards Dive Bomber Regiment.
After Raskova died in a crash during the heavy snowstorm of January 4, 1943, her subordinates pledged to earn the right for their unit to bear her name and qualify as a guards regiment. Both objectives were reached in 1943. Moreover, the regiment’s Second Squadron’s tactics, as applied in the air battle of June 4, 1943, over the Kuban area, became a model for the entire Soviet bomber aviation.
Raskova’s ashes were immured in the Kremlin Wall beside those of fighter pilot Polina Os-ipenko, who had perished in a training accident in 1939.
