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Aviatresses

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Aviatresses

15.01.2019

For Russian women who pioneered aviation, everything started in 1911. The skies virus used to penetrate their hearts through various paths. In some cases it came along with love. A general’s daughter. A duchess by her husband’s right, who belonged to the Rurik dynasty. A professional actress. A genteel and well educated lady. A princess by birth. An Odessa native with millionaire uncle of Italian origin. And a lady of incomprehensible origin. In the early 20th century such girls and ladies were known as Aviatresses. Though they dubbed themselves as “air wanderesses”.

The Society of Air Fleet’s Friends was established in 1923, the Aviakhim (the Society for Assistance to Aviation and Chemical Defense) was formed in 1925, the OSOAVIAKHIM  (the Society  for Assistance to Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction) was opened in 1927; aero clubs were established all over the country... Those were great achievements, weren’t they? So, for example, Valentina Grizodubova, the first female Hero of the Soviet Union, finished one of Osoaviakhim’s flight schools. Soviet women pilots rode the lead in the 1930s, when they set records of all kinds testing themselves and their aircrafts to the limit. During the Great Patriotic War 90 women were awarded the Gold Star of the Hero, every third of them was a pilot. The above said results in an obvious conclusion: history of aviatresses in Russia began after 1917. Just as a lot of other things. For instance, Border Forces celebrate their birthday on May 28. In 1918 Border Guards of the RSFSR were formed. This is a dignified date, nobody argues with that. But here is the fact: the Special Corps of Border Guards were established by the Imperial Decree on October 27, 1893; its effective strength was nearly 37 thousand soldiers. It seems they were ghost guards.

As for Russian women who pioneered aviation, everything started in 1911. The skies virus used to penetrate their hearts through various paths. In some cases it came along with love. As it happened with a lady of incomprehensible origin.

Photo: Photo by courtesy of M. Zolotaryov
A girl in a suit made of aeronautics attributes at a celebration in Brest-Litovsk. The 1910s.

DOMNIKIA, THE DAREDEVIL

The International Aeronautic Week in Saint Petersburg went off in May 1911. On the very first day, May 27, Voldemar Smith, a pilot, crashed right in front of tens of thousands of spectators that had come to Komendantskiy Aerodrome in Kolomyaghi. Alexander Blok was among witnesses of the tragedy. Soon he wrote Aviator, a poem inscribed to Smith in its draft. It has the following lines: Why were you in the sky, the man of courage? // It was your first time, and it was your last. The great poet kind of altered the reality. Smith finished the Blériot’s Flight School in 1910 and at that time he was considered to be an experienced pilot.

However, Domnikia Kuznetsova-Novoleinik made the very first attempt to bring her airplane to the sky right in the middle of the second Aeronautic Week. Smith’s death did not prevent her. On June 5th the Peterburgskaya Gazeta published an eye-opener that an Empire’s citizen and a wife of Pavel Kuznetsov, a construction engineer and also a pilot, was able to get a heavier-than-air machine off the ground! Though Ms.Domnikia’s experiment could hardly be considered as a proper flight. As soon as the Blériot-XI climbed up to a low height, it plummeted to earth in no time. The cause of the accident was not verified. However experts believed that the lady who had just become familiar with the aircraft control theory and had no any flight training, outbalanced the controller, and the "stack" turned over.

Photo: Photo by courtesy of M. Zolotaryov
The Kuznetsovs, family of aviators: Pavel Kuznetsov and Domnikia Kuznetsova-Novoleinik


Exceptional courage is required for someone to get into the cockpit and handle controls, if s/he cannot pilot an aircraft. And what about her husband? His behavior was weird, and there is nothing to add. He performed display flights in various cities and towns of the Empire. Mr. Kuznetsov was a holder of the merit certificate issued by the Imperial Russia-wide Aero Club confirming the professional status of the pilot. His wife accompanied him during trips and was Kuznetsov’s voluntary impresario. However she was not able to gain any practical skills due to a trivial reason: the only aircraft of her husband was the single-pilot one. An instructor and a student were not able to get off to the sky at the same time. There were no any simulators at that time. Kuznetsov was going to take part in the Aeronautic Week, but the engine of his Blériot demonstrated low performance time and again. So the pilot cancelled his participation in the official competition. If that was the case, how come he allowed his beloved wife to get into the cockpit?  It still remains under wraps! On the other hand, it is absolutely clear why Domnikia did not make any other attempts to take off. She was scared. And her husband forbade it. Though he allowed her to take a fling onstage. The more so, due to the tough air accident he got into in 1912, Mr. Kuznetsov had to bid farewell to the skies. She was good at acting; and her career was quite successful. The family lived in Kislovodsk, where in 1962 the first Russian (unlicensed) aviatress passed away at the age of 76.

GENERAL’S DAUGHTER

On August 24, 1911 the Novoe Vremya reported that two days earlier “I.S. Astvatsaturov, the commissioner in charge of the Imperial Russia-wide Aero Club, gave examination to Lydia Zvereva, a student of the private aeronautic school of the Schetinin plant, which was witnessed by pilots Agaphonov and Kolchin, as well as by officers from the aeronautic school.” Few days later 21-years old Lydia was granted a pilot certificate. Its number was 31! In other words, she opened the fourth score of Russian professional pilots, becoming at the same time the first in the Empire licensed aviatress.

Photo: Photo by courtesy of M. Zolotaryov
Lydia Zvereva together with cadets and instructors of the aeronautic school in Gatchina. 
Vladimir Slusarenko, a Russian pilot and Lydia Zvereva’s husband to be, is on the far right.

Everything started in her childhood. Lydia was the youngest daughter of Vissarion Lebedev, a Major General of the Russian Army and a hero of the last Russo-Turkish War. Having two daughters and no sons, the General had no other options but to confide his memories to Lida. Fortunately she listened to him with profound interest, just as a boy would do. In her opinion, girlish fun and play, like dolls and outfits, were odious. She loved "boy" toys and "boy" games. The story goes that once Lidochka was found in dense nettle with a sprained ankle. A broken umbrella was found next to her. They credited it to jumping from a roof or a tree.

Her father was appointed as governor of the Osowiec Fortress, which was put into world history books because of so called “Dead men attack” during the Great War. But during General Lebedev’s time, everything was running its peaceful course. A unit of aerostats was deployed in the Fortress. The only dream Lida had was to take off into the skies on such miracle machine. The regimen banned such things in a categorical manner. However her father had mercy. What it feels like — to hover over the ground at height of half-kilometer and be able to see everything in the vicinity of 25 versts! And you are just 12 years old.

Airships and aerostats took over all her dreams. Airplanes were not there yet. But she had to be patient. The General’s daughter should have manners of high society. At the age of 17 she graduated from the Belostotskiy Institute for Noble Young Ladies founded, by the way, in 1837, and was immediately given in marriage to Ivan Zverev, an engineer. The marriage never got a chance to work out for the best: Ivan died of appendicitis. The 19-years old widow moved to her father, who lived in Saint Petersburg.  And it did not take long till opening of the great show: the First Aeronautic Week at the Kolomyazhskiy race course! Among male participants of the air show there was one French lady, Raymonde de Laroche. By the way, she bids for the title of the world's first aviatress with another French lady, Thérèse Peltier.

Decision to fly turned to be irreversible. But how could it be accomplished if there were no civil aviation schools in Russia, and military schools in Gatchina and Sevastopol were closed for young ladies by default? The first Russian aviators studied abroad, but for a woman such a path was also unavailable. A few months later, the  Gamayun private aviation school was opened in Gatchina; they did not pay attention if applicants were male or female, the only requirement was to pay two bills (one for tuition and one for insurance) and both of them were for significant amounts. In June 1911, Zvereva took off airplane for the first time together with an instructor. A month later there came the first grimace of fate and the first tragedy. In her diaries Lydia Vissarionovna wrote: “Taking off from Petersburg, we took the direction to Moskovskoe highway, but on the way the engine began to fail; in order to avoid an accident, we had to come back. For the second time I didn’t fly just because the aviator Shimansky offered Slusarenko his engine and, as its owner, flew as a passenger. The result is known - both fell down; Shymanskiy crashed to death and saved me at the cost of his life.”

Photo: Photo by courtesy of M. Zolotaryov
The last meeting of aviators and other participants of Petersburg - Moscow aero club flight in 1911. Lydia Zvereva is among those present.

After studying a month and a half only, Lydia conducted her first solo flights. Konstantin Artseulov, her fellow student, recalled: "Zvereva flew boldly and confidently; I remember that everyone paid attention to her skillful flights, including high-altitude ones." In 1912, the aviatress got married again to the above mentioned Vladimir Slusarenko, who, unlike Shimansky, got off with a fracture of both legs. Together with her husband she moved to Riga. They gradually opened a flight school, a repair shop, a small plant to manufacture aircrafts. There, in Riga, Zvereva almost died in April. She took off to the skies for display flight in presence of curious crowd, but strong wind pushed the aircraft towards stands. The aviatress had to change the course dramatically. The aircraft overturned and fell. “I’m barely alive,” said Zvereva describing her condition. But serious injuries were miraculously avoided. Only lungs were severely sore, since her chest was pressed down by wrecks from the "stack."

The First World War began, and Zvereva-Slyusarenko’s  property was moved to St. Petersburg. At the request of the military department, the plant produced about 80 combat aircraft, such as Maran, Farman and Nieuport. In spring of 1916, Lydia Vissarionovna became infected with typhoid fever and died. There is an opinion that the cause of her death was rather related to foreign intelligence. By that time, she finished design of a new proprietary combat aircraft. After her death, a letter about it written by Peter Nesterov, an outstanding pilot, was found in Zvereva’s papers. But drawings of the future aircraft were not there. 




Aviator’s license received by Lydia Zvereva on August 23, 1911.


FEARLESS DUCHESS 

Life is just a reckless gamble. This lady is often entitled as the Princess Shakhovskaya. In this case some prolixity is unavoidable. It is appropriate to recall, that a princess is a daughter of the Duke. And a duchess is his wife. That simple. In addition to the above, a duchess may be a princess by birth if she is from another princely family. Eugenie Mikhailovna Shakhovskay was not a princess. She was born in the family of Mikhail Andreev, a wealthy merchant from Petersburg, in 1889. She got the princely title due to marriage to Andrey Shakhovskoy; which resulted in her being mistakenly considered to be related to the Rurik dynasty. To be honest, some researchers give vague hints that Eugenie was an illegitimate daughter of another Shakhovsky - Mikhail, who was the senator. But a bastard still did not have any rights for the princess title.

The marriage was unhappy and short in duration. There was a joke in the high society that duchess cheated on her husband constantly. Though she did not cheat with men, but cars. Passion for men's hobbies seemed to be in her blood: shooting, horse riding, swordplay, and, again, cars.

Raymonde de Laroche inspired the duchess. The graduate of the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens received a pilot diploma in Germany in 1912. Her favorite joke was that aviation was rather simple. The main thing is to overcome fear. Fearlessly she took an airplane in the air in 1913. The famous pilot Vsevolod Abramovich was her co-pilot and at the same time a hero of her passionate affair. One of newspapers wrote: “At the altitude of just 8 meters, the aircraft got into an air funnel formed by another aircraft descending below it. The aircraft turned over and fell at once to the ground.” According to other sources, the loss of control occurred at the altitude of 60 meters. In such a case, it is hard to believe that death did not overtake both pilots. One way or another, but two days later Abramovich died in the hospital. His wounds were fatal. The duchess survived. And she decided to quit aviation.

Everything changed when the war started. Shakhovskaya submitted a request to the highest name to send her to the front in one of the air detachments. That was the third attempt to become a military aviatress. The first one dated back to 1912, which was during the Italo-Turkish war, the second attempt took place around the same time during another Balkan turmoil. At first, Shakhovskaya was sent to serve in the hospital train named after the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna. But the irrepressible temperament of the duchess finally brought her all the way to military aviation. In November 1914, Shakhovskaya found herself in the rank of warrant officer in the Kovenskiy air detachment. The media immediately entitled her to be the first Russian military aviatresses.

The duchess Eugenia Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya and Vsevolod Mikhailovich Abramovich. 1913

A possible reason for such decision was her close ties with Grigory Rasputin. The duchess met him when she was in deep depression after Abramovich’s death. According to some sources, in that period Shakhovskaya had also passion for opium and cocaine. In any case, the aviatress did not participate in battles for long, just little more than a month. As a result of some obscure story she was accused in espionage in favor of Germany. 

In the early years of the war, Russia was gripped by a frenzy of spy hysteria. It is enough to recall the grim fate of Colonel Sergey Myasoedov, who was hanged on charges that had been trumped up. The court was quick and efficient. Shakhovskaya was sentenced to death. The execution was then replaced with monastic imprisonment by the personal order of the Emperor. Again there comes a thought about Rasputin. February 1917 released a lot of people. Some of them were guilty, some were innocent. October 1917 pushed free from any chains duchess to the Bolsheviks. Well, she did not fly anymore. She served in the Cheka, in Kiev. Apparently, her colleagues were flattered to have a noble warrior with counterrevolution among them, not just a victim of the royal regime.

It all ended, as expected. In the autumn of 1920, Shakhovskaya died. It either happened to her in a drunken exchange of fire with colleagues, or she was executed by shooting for murdering an aircraft mechanic in Gatchina. 

Evdokia Anatra (in a headwear with a white stripe) among aviators


RECORD HOLDER

At the beginning of the 19th century, Giuseppe D’Anatra, a sea merchant, a captain like Edmond Dantes from Alexander Dumas’s well-known novel The Count of Monte Cristo, came to Odessa from Italy. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries his descendant Arthur Anatra was a significant business figure in the south of Russia. He was very much interested in aircraft manufacturing, considering it to be a long-term and profitable perspective. As a result, in 1911 he set up a small aircraft assembling factory Odessa and opened a private flight school. During the Great War, the factory became one of the largest suppliers of the Russian army in terms of combat aircraft. In 1916, Anatra opened another plant in Simferopol.

Evdokia Vasilievna Anatra was the wife of Artur Antonovich’s younger brother, who died in a plane crash at the age of 18. As to Evdokia, she received an aviator diploma at the Gamayun School on October 16, 1911. Information about the holder of the diploma number 54 is extremely scarce. If you compare the dates, then questions come up automatically. An 18-year-old but already married man dies in a plane crash. It was difficult to die in such a way in Russia before 1910. And his widow, contrary to logic, becomes an aviatress... There is no doubt that the millionaire had a brother. (According to Kamenetsky, a researcher from Odessa, Arthur Antonovich tragically died a few days after receiving news about barbarian loot and destruction of the Anatra family vault at the time the 1st Christian Cemetery being liquidated. Arthur Antonovich’s mother, father, sisters and brother were buried in the vault.) There is also no doubt that Evdokia was not a relative of the family, but the spouse of one of the Anatras. Otherwise her patronymic – Vasilievna – would have been different.

But that is not the point. There is nothing more to say about Evdokia. Except one thing – in 1913 she set the altitude record for aviatresses — 3 thousand meters. No further achievements have been known.

Lyubov Golanchikova among aviators. 1912 

ACTRESS and AVIATRESS

Posters announcing performances Molly Mohr, a singer and an actress, were often posted out on Petersburg advertisement stands. But one day they disappeared. Growing up in a poor family, Lyuba got used to make decisions independently. That time she decided to change her fate inspired by experience during the flight, when she was a passenger on an airplane of the first Russian pilot, Mikhail Yefimov. She did not leave the stage right away, as just like Zvereva, she had no place to study flying in Russia in 1910.

A year later, Golanchikova graduated from the Gamayun School and received diploma number 56; however she also performed on stage. Finally she left the stage for aviation in the spring of 1912. Bulletin of Aeronautics Magazine informed the Petersburg public about the occasion. And before long, Golanchikova got into an air accident at the local race course near Riga, where aviators used to arrange display flights from time to time.  The airplane crushed to pieces, but Lyubov Aleksandrovna got off with insignificant damages. So her first grand tour through Russian cities ended in such a way. Then she flew regularly only within St. Petersburg. Then she met Antony Fokker, a Dutch aircraft designer, at the military aircraft contest. He brought to the show a powerful monoplane with an engine of 100 horsepower. Nobody knows what happened there; however Fokker invited Golanchikova to Berlin to test his airplanes. In November 1912, she set an altitude record for women – 2 400 meters (according to other sources - 2 000m).

Duchess Sofya Alekseevna Dolgorukaya during the 1910 race for the prize of Nicholas II 

In December 1913, the aviatress signed a curious contract with an aircraft-building workshop owed by Fyodor Tereshchenko, a sugar tycoon, which he established to assemble Farman airplanes. One of the contract points stated that Golanchikova was invited to test aircraft. It is hard to escape a conclusion that no one else but Lyubov Alexandrovna deserves the title of the first Russian test aviatress.

At the beginning of World War I, Golanchikova, who married a rich merchant, did not fly. But after some time, she resumed activities she loved and tested aircrafts in the skies. After the October Revolution, she trained the Red aviators to be, but lost interest in the Bolsheviks’ innovations and emigrated first to Germany, a country she had been familiar with since pre-war times, and then to the USA. Apparently, her life in the States was not easy, since in 1942, being 53 years old, she started working as a driver. She died in New York in 1961.


RACER

Elena Samsonova became famous after a car race in a Moscow suburb in the autumn of 1913. There she won a special prize. Steering and wheels were her natural talent. But it was not the only one. A few months earlier, she had received a pilot diploma. Moreover, unlike most of aviatresses, she did not receive it in St. Petersburg, but at the Moscow airfield. You can say that Samsonova is the first certified aviatress in the First Capital City.

There is no much information about Elena Pavlovna. She was born in a military engineer’s family in 1890. She died in Sokhumi in 1958. Judging from the fact that she graduated the Belostotskiy Institute for Noble Young Ladies, just like Zvereva did, her father served at the Empire western boundaries at that time. The Institute’s Golden Medal led her to the Bestuzhev Higher Courses for women in Petersburg. Opportunity to be a gymnasium teacher did not appeal to Samsonova. So she went back to the Russian West and graduated from a driving school in Warsaw. The past is mean for information: she was driving in an expert manner.

During World War I she served as a sister of mercy in a military hospital, again in Warsaw. Samsonova made it through to the Southwestern Front, to Galicia. There she served in the automotive detachments of the 9th Army. During the Great Retreat of 1915, she was called back to Moscow. Some sources say that for short time she managed to fight in the Russian Imperial Military Air Force, as part of the 5th corps air detachment. But for time being, this is just a hypothesis. However all sources claim that after the February Revolution she got permission to join the 26th corps air detachment as an air observer. Though one meticulous source is the exception. It has been accurately listing those participated in First World War, including officers and special staff. So far, however, the name an air observer  Samsonova has not been there. But there is another name.


ROYAL LINEAGE

The official record reads: "The warrant officer (the exam for the rank of warrant officer was tested out at the Nikolaevsk Engineering School in 1917), a junior officer of the detachment from October 13, 1917, is assigned to the 26th corps aviation detachment after graduating from the Gatchina Aviation Officer School of Aviation Division, in October 1917.”

Countess Bobrinskaya was born in the family of Count Alexei Bobrinskiy, a senator, the chief master of the court, the chairman of the Imperial Archeological Commission, in December 1887. Sofia was obviously of the royal lineage. The Bobrinsky family line originated in Russia in the 18th century. Empress Catherine II granted the name, as well as the count's title to her illegitimate son born from her passionate affair with Grigoriy Orlov.

Sofia was a lady of various attainments. After completing medical education, from time to time she went to work as a surgeon in military hospitals. Such postulancy of hers continued for five years - from 1907 to 1912. She was honored in Belgrade for her service during the Serbo-Bulgarian war. At the same time, she was actively involved in auto racing, since financial position of the family allowed her to do anything. She took part in races, including multi-stage ones. She was the only woman among 48 racers who participated in the motor rally of 1910 for the prize of Nicholas II. The rally covered lands of the Great Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and distance of 3200 kilometers. In 1912, Duchess Dolgorukaya had a pilot training in France conducted by the great Louis Blériot, who first flew over the English Channel in 1909. After that she returned to Russia and studied at the Higher Women's Courses. She got a pilot diploma in 1914, just a few days prior to the war, after completing training in the Imperial Russian Aero Club.

She was not allowed to go to war. At that time, Sofia, who had divorced the colonel of the Life Guards of the Horse Regiment, Prince Sergei Dolgorukiy, and became again Countess Bobrinskaya, joined the State Duma Red Cross as a sister of mercy. She served in Galicia and Transcaucasia and was honored with four medals. Only in early 1917 she managed to get transferred to the Gatchina Aviation School for retraining. It was autumn when she came to the 26th corps aviation detachment; that time Russian military aircraft did not really fly anymore.

Surprisingly enough, the Soviet authorities did not interfere with the Countess/Duchess of the royal lineage. Same could be said about her new husband, Duke Peter Volkonskiy, whom she married in November 1918 in Petrograd. To be more accurate, Sofia Alekseevna was not interfered at all, but her husband was arrested. In 1921, the duchess was able to return to the RSFSR in a miraculous way and rescue her spouse from behind the bars. After that she and her husband left their homeland for good. She died in Paris in 1949, having worked as a taxi driver, a casino interpreter, a secretary and even a writer...

***
When the airplanes and airships had not yet been invented, people used to go up into the skies with air-balloons. Those pioneers were not all men; there were women among them as well. In May 1804, Alexandra Turchaninova, a young lady, who came to Moscow from Penza to visit her relatives, plunged into an air-balloon brought by the French to the show, because none of men present showed any desire to do so. She went up, rising above the First Capital City. There was a rumor going around that she was not alone, but together with the extravagant and beautiful princess Praskovya Gagarina.


Click here to read the original article in Russian.

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