Test pilot Valery Pavlovich Chkalov lived a short life. For 34 years, he managed to learn to fly well, tested airplanes, participated in parades and made several record flights. As part of the team, Chkalov for the first time in history flew over the North Pole to Vancouver and became a real legend of Russian aviation.
Memorial Museum in Chkalovsk
Pavilion - hangar of the V. Chkalov Memorial Museum. The main exhibit in the hangar is the ANT-25 aircraft
Chkalov was born and graduated from school in the village of Vasilevo, Nizhny Novgorod province. In 1937 it was renamed the city of Chkalovsk. One of the most popular museums in the Volga region consists of a memorial house in which the future pilot grew up, and a covered hangar with a collection of aircraft and equipment from the 1930s.
The museum was opened in 1940 in a wooden house built by the pilot's father. The exposition tells about Valery's childhood, his family, first teachers and years of study at the Cherepovets Technical School. Memorial things are kept here - a flight suit, a lighter, a smoking pipe and a pilot's cork helmet, which Chkalov wore during his first flight.
In the covered pavilion, the pilot's personal car is displayed - a blue American Packard and a speedboat. Here you can also see the I-16 fighter and the I-17 experimental vehicle. The central place is occupied by the ANT-25 aircraft, which carried out a direct flight over the Arctic ice to North America.
Troitsky bridge in St. Petersburg
View of the Troitsky Bridge
The Russians are well aware of the romantic legend of how the enamored Chkalov, wishing to attract the girl's attention, flew under a stone bridge. This episode was even filmed in a feature film. Professional pilot Borisenko, posing for the cameramen, really did a dizzying stunt, flying his plane under a bridge over the river.
History has not preserved the exact date of the flight, under the bridge it was possible to fly only during the day. The place is crowded, but not a single witness was found who would have seen Chkalov's flight. The second wife of the pilot, Olga Erazmovna, for the sake of whom, it is believed, he decided on a dashing act, said many times in interviews that Chkalov did not do this in her presence. Descriptions of the legendary flight under the Troitsky Bridge appeared only in 1939, after the release of the feature film.
Houses where Chkalov lived
House number 11 on Vsevolod Vishnevsky Street in St. Petersburg, where V. Chkalov lived
Many villages and towns, streets, squares, avenues, schools, factories, an island in the Sea of Okhotsk, a mountain in Antarctica, an airport and one of the Moscow metro stations are named after the famous pilot. In Vancouver, a park and a street are named in honor of the Russian pilot, and at the local airfield there is an obelisk and a museum of the legendary flight.
Memorial plaques are installed on the houses in which Chkalov lived. This building is at 4 Krasnoarmeisky Prospekt, in Troitsk (1926-1928), houses at 11 Vsevolod Vishnevsky Street (1924-1927), and at 21 Tekstiliy Street (1929-1930), in St. Petersburg. Another address is located in Moscow - house 14/16 on Zemlyanoy Val. In Soviet times, this street was called Chkalovskaya, and then its historical name was returned to it.
Memorial stone at the edge of the Khodynskoye field
Memorial stone on the Khodynskoye field, at the site of V. Chkalov's death, installed in 1998
Before the war, Moscow's Central Civil Airfield was located on the spacious Khodynskoye Field. On December 15, 1938, a terrible tragedy took place here. During the test of the new I-180 aircraft, when landing, the car caught on electrical wires and crashed into the ground. Chkalov was thrown out of the cockpit, the pilot was injured and died a couple of hours later in the hospital.
In 1998, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the pilot's death, a large memorial block was erected at the site of the tragedy - the intersection of the Khoroshevskoye highway and the Khoroshevsky deadlock. The memorial stone rises on a low pedestal and is surrounded by a neat metal fence. The name of the pilot and the date of the accident are indicated on the plate.
Chkalovskaya Stairs in Nizhny Novgorod
Article: Chkalovskaya stairs - one of the symbols of Nizhny Novgorod
View of the Chkalovskaya Stairs in Nizhny Novgorod from the Volga
One of the business cards Nizhny Novgorod associated with the legendary pilot. An interesting Nizhny Novgorod landmark is named after Chkalov - an original staircase on the right bank of the Volga. The wide spans in the form of a huge figure eight are so large in size that they are visible even from space.
In 1940, the city decided to perpetuate the memory of the deceased pilot and erected a bronze monument to Chkalov on the Volga slope. The staircase from the monument to the river was opened in 1949. Today, an excellent view of the confluence of the Volga and Oka opens from the observation deck near the pilot's figure. A staircase of half a thousand steps descends to the shore, where the Hero boat monument is located.
Necropolis at the Kremlin wall
Article: The necropolis at the Kremlin wall is a unique cemetery in the very center of Moscow
Burial place of Valery Pavlovich Chkalov
The death of the legendary pilot was talked about on the radio and in all the newspapers. The government decided to bury the hero at the Kremlin wall, and a special commission was created to conduct the funeral, which included Chkalov's friends - MM Gromov, AV Belyakov and GF Baidukov. The pilot was seen off on his last journey by the whole country. To say goodbye, the coffin was installed in the Hall of Columns, then the body was cremated, and on December 18, the funeral took place.
The urn with the ashes was carried from the stands of the mausoleum to the Kremlin wall and closed in a niche. The sad and solemn ceremony was watched by tens of thousands of people in Red Square. Chkalov's ashes are walled up between the burial places of Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova and Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya.
