Who became the very first Hero of the Soviet Union?
Over the entire existence of this prestigious state award, more than 12 thousand people have received it.
Seven people were simultaneously honored with this high title in 1934. They were pilots who participated in the rescue of the crew and passengers of the sunken steamer ‘Chelyuskin’.
The ship sank on February 13, 1934, in the Bering Strait, due to severe ice compression. However, almost everyone on board (104 people) made it out onto an ice floe with tents and supplies.
The organization of the rescue operation began immediately. It was decided to evacuate people using aviation.
In bad weather conditions and heavy fog, the search for the survivors' camp took a very long time. Only on March 5 did Anatoly Lyapidevsky's ANT-4 torpedo bomber land on the ice floe. He took the first party - 10 women and two children.
In total, the pilots made 23 flights, successfully transporting all the survivors to the mainland. On April 13, the operation was completed.
On April 20, 1934, in addition to Lyapidevsky, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Vasily Molokov, Nikolai Kamanin, Mavrikiy Slepnev, Mikhail Vodopyanov and Ivan Doronin.
Sigismund Levanevsky never made it to the ice camp - his plane had to make an emergency landing. However, the pilot also became a Hero of the Soviet Union, since he also took part in saving the lives of the people.
Immediately after transporting the people to the “mainland”, one of the steamship's crew members developed acute appendicitis. Levanevsky flew on a faulty U-2 airplane to the nearest village and returned to the patient with a surgeon on board.
Hero pilots and the expedition chief Otto Schmidt.
