Marina Raskova and Soviet Women Aviators of WWII

The American Committee for Aid to the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany announced that on June 22, 1943, a supply ship would be launched at one of the wharfs in California. It would be named “Marina Raskova” in memory of the heroic Russian Air Force pilot.

Pravda, 

Moscow, June 10, 1943

“At daybreak we received an order to bomb the HQ of Nazi troops, located in the center of Novorossiysk. So we took off again. As a result of this raid, the headquarters were destroyed. After we returned to home base, we received
a radiogram from a unit of marines in the battle zone.
It read: “Thank you, brothers, for your air support.” 

They were unaware that 

‘sisters’ flew along-side 

the ‘brothers.’”

Senior Lieutenant Serafima Amosova-Taranenko

January 4 marks the 60th anniversary of the death of Marina Raskova, one of the most venerated and best-loved women aviators of Soviet Russia. Largely unknown in the West, Raskova is admired for her achievements in aviation in the same way Amelia Earhart is in the United States.

Founder of the world’s first women’s air regiments during the Great Patriotic War (WWII), Raskova rose to the rank of major and became the first woman navigator in the USSR, as well as commanding officer of the 587th Dive Bomber Regiment, which was subsequently renamed the 125th M.M. Raskova Borisov Guards Dive Bomber Regiment after her death.

One of the first women to earn the coveted title Hero of the Soviet Union, Raskova served as a role model for her fellow aviators, male and female, for not only her tremendous skill and personal courage, but her ability to make decisions and lead her regiment under often very difficult circumstances.

Marina Mikhailovna Malinina was born on March 28, 1912 in Moscow. Long before her aspirations would take her to the skies, Raskova dreamed of becoming an opera singer. At the age of six she began attending the Pushkin School of Music. At 10, she was accepted into a conservatory and later transferred to a technical school of music. In addition to her singing lessons, her favorite subjects in school were biology and chemistry.

A middle-ear infection at the age of 15 cut Raskova’s music studies short and pushed her life down a different path. She chose to pursue a career in the field of chemistry and, following graduation in 1929, became an apprentice at the Butyrsky Aniline Dye Plant. Half a year later she landed a job as a laboratory technician. During this time she met and married Sergey Raskov, an engineer working at the plant. The couple divorced in October 1935, five years after Raskova gave birth to their only child, Tanya.

Following her resignation from the plant to care for her infant daughter, Raskova soon sought new challenges outside the home. In October 1931, she was offered a position as a draughtswoman in the Navigation Laboratory of the N. Ye. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. It was the first step in her aviation career. By the end of the year Raskova was promoted and became a teaching and laboratory assistant. While learning the theory of air navigation, Raskova also studied extramurally mathematics, physics, geometry and mechanical engineering at the Aviation Institute in Leningrad. The director of the laboratory, A.V. Belyakov, who in 1937 was the navigator of a pioneer flight from Moscow to the United States via the North Pole, became her mentor.

Having mastered the theory of navigation, Raskova had an opportunity for practical training when she accompanied Belyakov aboard a three-engine aircraft where she was allowed to fly as navigator. In the fall of 1933, a new Odessa-Batumi passenger air service was planned and the airport sites needed to be chosen. Raskova took part in the Academy’s expedition for this purpose and flew over the entire Crimea, the Caucasian shore and the Azov Sea. She became the first woman in the Soviet Union to earn the diploma of professional air navigator, going on to become an instructor at the Academy.

As an instructor, Raskova taught military navigation to male officers, who though initially skeptical of her knowledge and abilities, would later admit that they were now convinced, based on her performance, of women’s capabilities in aviation. The Academy rewarded Raskova by sending her to the Central Flying Club at Tushino, near Moscow, for flying lessons, which she completed in August 1935. Afterwards, she became an instrument flying instructor and taught advanced navigation for command personnel.

By the mid-1930s, Raskova became involved in an increasing number of important aviation-related events, and in August 1935 she made her first independent flight as a pilot. It was a group flight from Leningrad to Moscow of six women pilots, each with a female passenger, organized by the Experimental Aviation Institute. Up until this time, Raskova had only flown training aircraft, but for this flight she flew the Yakovlev sport plane, with which she was unfamiliar. Despite her inexperience, she successfully landed on an improvised airstrip when bad weather and darkness set in, making it impossible to reach an airport in time.

According to Kazimiera J. Cottam, in Women in War and Resistance, in July 1936, Raskova began probationary navigator training in the 23rd Heavy Air Brigade. In the meantime, she continued instructing at the Academy. Between February 1937 and February 1939 she was employed as a full-time consultant in the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD). In February 1939, Raskova became a representative of a special NKVD department and joined the 3rd Directorate of the People’s Commissariat of Defense (NKO) on or before June 3, 1941, while continuing her navigator-pilot training.

setting records

In June 1937, Raskova participated as navigator in an air race from Moscow to Sevastopol and back to Moscow, flying the same plane as in the 1935 group flight, but this time with additional fuel tanks. She was the fourth to arrive in Sevastopol and the sixth to return to Moscow, completing the journey within 24 hours. That same year, Raskova met pilot Valentina Grizodubova, who proposed to her that they fly together in a Yak-12 to establish a long distance record. On October 24, 1937 the pair set a new women’s record when they flew 1,443 km from Moscow to Aktyubinsk, Kazakhstan.

On July 2, 1938, Raskova again established a new women’s long distance record (5,947 km) when she flew (as navigator) with pilot Polina Osipenko and co-pilot Vera Lomako in an MP-1 non-stop from the Black Sea to the White Sea, taking off in Sevastopol and landing in the vicinity of Arkhangelsk, on Lake Kholmovskoye. The route lay across four different air masses: tropical, continental, polar and arctic, and required tremendous flying skill. As a result of this record-setting flight, Senior Lieutenants Osipenko and Lomako as well as Lieutenant Raskova (who became a career officer in 1938), were each awarded the Order of Lenin.

Not long after this flight, Grizodubova, with Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s support, arranged for an aircraft to be assigned to herself and Raskova for a flight to the Far East (with Osipenko as co-pilot). The plane was an ANT-37 (a converted long-range DB-2 bomber), which Grizodubova nicknamed Rodina (“Homeland”). The flight was delayed when Raskova developed appendicitis, and, in September 1938, a state commission cancelled the flight because it was now too late in the year and bad weather was anticipated. Stalin, however, overruled the decision and the Rodina took off on September 24, 1938 at 8:16 AM.

After passing over Kazan, an ice crust formed both on the inside and outside of the Rodina. The temperature plummeted to as low as -36° C inside the cabin, and -37° C degrees outside. The radios failed in the freezing temperatures, making blind flying at twilight extremely difficult. Raskova was forced to rely completely on the stars to determine the airplane’s location.

On the second day of flight, an emergency light informed the crew that only enough fuel remained for 30 minutes of flight. Apparently, the mechanics had forgotten to top off the tanks after the Rodina’s pre-flight engine warm-ups. Unable to reach the destination airfield at Komsomolsk-na-Amur, Grizodubova was forced to attempt a belly landing in the taiga. Fearing that the aircraft might nose over, she ordered Raskova, who was situated in the forward cabin, to bail out of the plane.

With a military parachute strapped to her back, Raskova jumped from an altitude of 7,546 feet. Once on the ground, she found herself in a dense, swampy and virtually impassable Siberian forest. At night, the temperature often dropped below freezing. For food, she lived off of two chocolate bars, mint candies and wild berries, escaping a close encounter with a black bear. Her survival experience—it took her 10 days to find the Rodina—became the stuff of legend.

Some 50 aircraft in the Kerbi district participated in the search to find the Rodina. Two search planes actually collided and crashed, killing 16 men, including the Commander of the Army Air Force Ya. Sorokin and his Chief Navigator A. Bryandinsky, in full view of the Rodina crew. After an arduous journey back to Moscow, the three exhausted women were treated to a parade procession in open cars to the Kremlin, along main streets decorated with flowers. Stalin greeted the women aviators with kisses. For, despite the harrowing end to their journey, they had set a new non-stop women’s flight distance record  of 6,450 km (5,908 km in a straight line), beating the previous record of Great Britain’s Elizabeth Lyon, who had flown 4,063 km.

role model

Raskova spent several months recovering from the injuries to her legs sustained during the historic flight of the Rodina. Meanwhile, the 26-year-old pilot—intelligent, beautiful and courageous—was elevated to the status of Soviet celebrity. She was awarded a second Order of Lenin, and, together with Grizodubova and Osipenko, the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union. They were the first three women to receive the country’s highest honor, and the only women to receive it before the war.

This celebrity status helped Raskova inspire hundreds of young women to fly for their Motherland when the time came to defend it. In Reina Pennington’s book Wings, Women and War, pilot Yevgeniya Zhigulenko recalled Raskova before the war: “Marina Raskova was an exceptional person. A famous pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union, she was still a simple, kind woman. She helped many young women who wanted to fly.” Raskova became the idol of many, including Lilya Litvyak, who would become the first woman in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft (see box, page 44). Litvyak reportedly kept pictures of Raskova in her notebook.

The aircrew of the Rodina met for the last time on March 8, 1939 at the Pilots’ Club on International Women’s Day. Osipenko died just two months later in a plane crash. Stalin himself was one of the pallbearers.

Having now decided to pursue a military career, Raskova began studying at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy. When the German Army invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Raskova sent her mother and daughter to the distant settlement of Vasilsursk on the Volga for their protection.

Raskova, who was working as a civil defense volunteer while continuing her studies at the Academy, began receiving hundreds of letters from women pilots eager to use their flying skills in the war. In October, after receiving the full support of Stalin, Raskova set in motion a voluntary recruitment of women fliers. Aviation Group 122 was born.

Three female combat aviation regiments were formed under the auspices of Aviation Group 122: the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Yak-1 fighters) which would later become part of the 270th Bomber Division of the 8th Air Army, 587th Dive Bomber Aviation Regiment (Pe-2 bombers), and the 588th Night Bomber Regiment (Po-2 biplanes). In February 1943, the 588th was renamed the 46th Taman Guards Bomber Regiment in recognition of its outstanding achievements. The 46th was the only one of the three original regiments that remained all female throughout the war. The 46th flew a total of 24,000 combat missions and was the most decorated of the women’s regiments: 23 of its members were awarded the Gold Star of the Soviet Union (by 1990), five of them posthumously. In September 1943, the 587th was renamed the 125th M. M. Raskova Borisov Guards Bomber Regiment in honor of Raskova, who was its first commander.

Historians have several theories why Stalin approved the unprecedented formation of the women’s air regiments. One theory is that the women were recruited because of a presumed shortage of male pilots. In Wings, Women and War, Pennington debunks this theory: on the eve of the war, the Soviet Air Force was the largest in the world. Yet there was actually a shortage of aircraft when Aviation Group 122 was formed. Others argue that the women’s regiments were created for purely propaganda purposes. But the most credible explanation is that the Aviation Group was established because of the popularity and persistence of Raskova.

Raskova personally interviewed the hundreds of girls who answered the call to fly. One thousand were selected and transported to flight training classes in Engels, a city on the Volga River just north of Stalingrad. After nine days on the train, the girls arrived in Engels, had their hair cut short and began a rigorous program of study—10 courses a day. In Pennington’s book, Raskova is remembered telling her young pilots: “Study persistently, with perseverance. The examination will be given on the field of battle.” The women had little choice but to follow Raskova’s advice: they were being given a three year flight-training program in less than six months. Many of the pilots, many still in their teens, were studying and flying 14-hour days in oversized flight suits and boots designed for men.

Raskova, now 30, directly supervised all the training, pushing herself and her students to their limits. She seemed to the female fliers to possess boundless energy. Although she could be a demanding commander, asking much of her students, Raskova is also remembered for being soft-spoken, friendly and for having a keen sense of humor and a kind heart. She enjoyed reading poetry and late at night could sometimes be found playing the piano.

night witches

The women pilots of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment came to be nicknamed Nachthexen (“Night Witches”) by their German counterparts, who came to fear their successful aerial tactics in the wooden Po-2 biplanes they flew on their night missions. The 588th, like all night bombing regiments, practiced harassment bombing. This technique consisted of bombing the encampments, rear area bases, supply depots, etc., where the enemy was resting from a day of heavy fighting. Harassment night bombing was difficult enough, more so considering the low performance of the Po-2 biplanes (their top speed was 94 mph, less than most World War I fighters). They were very vulnerable to enemy night fighters, but the women pilots learned their craft well. The Po-2 was slow but maneuverable. When a German Me-109 tried to intercept it, the Soviet plane could turn quickly in a tighter radius and at much less than the 109’s minimum speed (or stall speed), requiring the Nazi pilot to make a wide circle and come in for another pass. The German fighter could only try again and again until he grew frustrated and left the Po-2 alone.

In Shelley Saywell’s, Women in War, 588th pilot Nadezhda Popova recounts her first combat mission near the southern front in the Ukraine:

It was a very, very dark night. Not one small star could be seen. The sky was covered in cloud; it seemed that it was an abyss of darkness, pitch black … and when I got up in the air, I could see the front line marked by green, red and white tracer lights, where skirmishes continued throughout the night. I followed the lights towards the accumulation of enemy troops. Suddenly, the plane in front of mine got caught in three and later five projector lights, which blind pilots. I watched them fall to the earth right in front of my eyes and saw the explosion of flames below. I flew towards the enemy lines, thinking I must help my friends. Irrational thoughts … I knew they were dead. We dropped the bombs on the dots of light below. They shot at us and I circled round and flew back towards the base. When I landed I could see they already knew. I was ordered to fly another mission immediately. It was the best thing to keep me from thinking about it.

death before combat

While in the process of transferring her regiment to the front at Stalingrad on January 4, 1943, the plane Raskova was piloting crashed after being caught in a heavy snowstorm and dense fog, killing all four crewmembers aboard. Raskova, who had been commander for only a few months, never got to experience combat. Her death came as a great shock to her fellow pilots and countrymen. Her regiment pledged to become worthy of bearing Raskova’s name and to qualify as a Guards regiment. The title of Guards was conferred on the regiment on September 23, 1943. In Cottam’s Women in War and Resistance, pilot Katya Ryabova, squadron navigator of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, in a letter home to her family wrote: “… I will always remember her young, beautiful, brave, her face looking tired and intense.”

Raskova was posthumously awarded the Order of Patriotic War, First Class. Her ashes were interned in the Kremlin Wall beside Osipenko’s. Streets in Moscow and Kazan were named after her, as well as a square in Moscow, a supply ship, schools and Young Pioneer detachments. Raskova was acutely aware that she and her fellow pilots were making history. In May 1942, she told the members of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment after accompanying them to the front near Stavropol: “…I believe that all of you will come back as heroes. Epics and songs will be composed about you. You will be glorified by future generations!”  RL