18.12.2022
Yuri Alekseyevich Chkalov arrived to the city on October 25, 1955 and on November 8, 1957 he went to the place of regular service. Thus, he stayed in Chkalov for two full years.
In other words, much longer than in the flying club. Despite this, the “Chkalovsky” period of the first cosmonaut’s life is much poorer represented in literature than the “Lyuberetsky” and “Saratov” periods. There are only three books, fully devoted to Gagarin in Chkalov-Orenburg, and those are collections: “Gagarin in Orenburg: memories, documents, speeches, essays, photographs” (1975), “Gagarin and Gagarinites” (1980), “Do You Remember How Cadet Gagarin Walked Our Streets…” (2014). Unfortunately, in them we find mostly fragments from previously published books, against which the rare original testimonies of eyewitnesses are simply lost. Fortunately, quite detailed recollections of flight instructors who worked with Gagarin in Chkalov have survived. We will try to reconstruct his cadet life on the basis of these testimonies.
Orenburg – an ancient city, founded as a fortress in 1743 at the confluence of the river Sakmara in the river Ural. After the establishment of Bolshevik power the city became the capital of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic (KASSR), but in June 1925 the capital was moved to Kzyl-Orda, and Orenburg was administratively subordinated to the RSFSR. The city changed its name in 1938 in memory of the test pilot Valery Pavlovich Chkalov, who died on December 15 of that year during the first flight of the fighter plane “I-10” at the Central Airport of Moscow. Large-scale industrial development of Chkalov-Orenburg began during the Great Patriotic War, when important military enterprises were evacuated there, including aircraft repair plant ¹ 47 (p/b 936). Later, transformed into Chkalov Machine-Building Plant (now PO “Strela”), this enterprise produced not only military aircraft, but also rockets of various purposes.
In his memoirs about Gagarin, Lieutenant Colonel Aron Izrayilevich Reznikov, teacher at the 1st Chkalov military flying school, described in great detail the town where the future cosmonaut was to begin military service (I quote from a tape recording made on March 1, 1983)
“Orenburg is a wonderful city. For those who live there, to move from one part of the world to another in a few minutes is the most ordinary thing. Its inhabitants made such journeys long before the flight of the first spaceship: the city extensively sprawls over the Southern Urals in the interfluve of the Urals and Sakmara. The Sakmara is a small river with lazy water movement. It flows into the Ural River, which is so swift, with such a strong current that if you go up to your chest, you won’t be able to stand on your feet. Across the Ural there is a wooden footbridge to the Zauralnaya grove, a vacation spot for Orenburgers. On this shore is still Europe, there is Asia.
The steppes near Orenburg are as flat as a table, a perfect place for airfields. But in the steppes you can still come across individual hills and hillocks: because here is the southern tip, the last splashes of the enormous thousand-kilometer-long Ural Mountains.
At the highest point of the city, on the bank of the Ural Mountains, there is a monument to Chkalov. It is a bronze monument to Chkalov, dressed in a fur overalls, standing tall on a high pedestal, looking into the distance… Our college is situated near the monument, in a big building of the old construction.
Every morning I come to my class. There’s already waiting for me a class – a group of 20-25 cadets…”.
The main building of CHVAUL, next to which a monument to Chkalov is placed, is still located at 1 Sovetskaya St. It has a respectable history. The first five-story building in the city was built in 1882 to house the 2nd Orenburg Cadet Corps. Since 1920, the School of Red Commanders was located there. In 1927 the Serpukhov School of Air Combat and Bombing was transferred there, and a few years later – the Leningrad Higher School of Flight Observers. They were merged into the school, which was called the 3rd Military School of Pilots and Flight Observers named after K. E. Voroshilov. In February 1939 the school was divided into two separate schools: the 1st Chkalov Military Aviation School for pilots, named after K. E. Voroshilov, and the 2nd Chkalov Military Aviation School for navigators. Tens of thousands of air fighters left the walls of the building on Sovetskaya Street. About 350 graduates who later became generals commanded in various years aviation formations. 321 graduates received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 10 – twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Among the most famous “students” of the school are: Valery Chkalov, Mikhail Gromov, Andrey Yumashev, Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, Anatoly Serov, Ivan Polbin. In general, the new cadets had someone to look up to.
Having graduated with honors, Yuri Gagarin was exempted from exams, and he was immediately, on October 27, enrolled as a cadet. But, of course, he did not go anywhere, but stayed with his comrades, helping them as much as he could. All the newcomers to Chkalov got a place in the barracks located there – in the complex of buildings adjacent to the main building on Sovetskaya street. The test proved difficult: some were rejected by the medical commission, some failed to pass the exams. Some of the Saratov students were transferred to Uralsk before the exams were completed; many of them later became civil aviation pilots.
Those who stayed and managed to overcome all the “slingshot” were given the title of “cadet” and given military uniforms. For a description of it, let’s turn to Alexander Valentinovich Glushko’s article “Uniform of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. Varieties and Peculiarities of Wearing” (2014). The researcher points out that the first photo of the future cosmonaut in cadet uniform was probably taken between October 30 and November 2, 1955. Uniform, in which he “beautifies”, was introduced by order of the People’s Commissariat of Defense of the USSR № 25 as early as January 15, 1943, and with minor changes existed until 1969. The parade variant looked like this: cap of protective color with blue edging and cuffs; closed uniform of protective color, breastplates; pants galifé of blue color, waist-belt; boots. The collar of the uniform had straight buttonholes of blue color, and on shoulders – blue pentagonal shoulder straps with a black edging, covered with gold lace on the three free sides (except for the bottom). Daily “field” variant consisted of a cloth cap of protective color or the same cap with blue cap-back and cuffs; jacket and breeches of protective color; belt and boots; badges were also provided.
During the fall months, the newly graduated cadets of the experienced platoon captain Boris Fedorov were absorbing the “young fighter course,” that is, learning the basics of the internal, garrison and guard duty, cramming the manuals, training in drill, studied the history of the school and the basics of handling small arms. On December 6, the first live-fire exercises took place.
To imagine the life of Gagarin’s initial period of training in CHVAUL, it’s enough to read one of his letters to Saratov instructor Martyanov (dated December 26, 1955): “Tolyan [Anatoly Osinov] and I are fine. Our studies are going well. We study in the same class section, we sleep a few bunks apart. We haven’t gone on leave yet. We haven’t taken the oath of allegiance yet, but we think we will soon. All the days we are busy studying. The instructors here are good, but strict, and so are the commanders. They give us syringes a lot. We go to the Trans-Ural Grove for classes. There are often frosts here. Today, for example, the frost is -29. In addition, strong winds blow. But we get used to it. We get used to the soldier’s life. It’s not very difficult for us. Often we just have to, as we say, steer, that is, scrub the floor. We spend our free time well. We watch two movies a week at the club. We also have dances every week at the club. There are a lot of city girls at the dances. Me and Tolyan dance a lot. In addition, Gagarin was engaged in the usual things: sports, amateur art, participation in the issue of “combat leaflet” and organization of literary evenings.
On January 8, 1956, after receiving credits, Yuri took the military oath. He was already in the limelight – his desire to take part in public work was noticed: soon he became a class section commander and a secretary of the Komsomol bureau (on January 20 Gagarin received a new membership card #02959544 during a routine replacement). Classes began: basics of aerodynamics, flight theory, aircraft material, engine design, weapons of NATO countries, air combat tactics, radio communications, and the like.
On February 19 he wrote to Martyanov the following: “Yesterday I received a letter from you, for which I thank you very much. We’ve had some changes here organizationally. Tolya [Osipov] is not studying with me now. He was transferred to graduate in 1958, that is, for three years of study. He wanted to go home, but I talked him out of it. I’m studying to graduate in 1957. Waiting for spring, summer, and flying to come. Recently there have been heavy snowstorms. Trains on the roads were snowed in with a steam pipe. We went on a snow plowing trip. The winds were reaching 56 m/sec. It was hard to stay on our feet. So I believed that if you tied Po-2 to something with a rope, it would float in the air, and if you let go, you couldn’t catch it with any rope. Greetings to the commanders and instructors of the flying club.
The following is interesting in this letter. The normal period of study in a military aviation school is three to four years, not two. Consequently, Gagarin fell into some special reduced training program. We find confirmation of this in the recollections of flight instructors and documents on the numerous reorganizations of the school.
Let us first turn to the documents, bearing in mind that we are fundamentally interested only in the period 1955-1957. In March 1955 the PVAUL K.E. Voroshilov switched to the staff № 20/503, whose task was to train cadets who had arrived from the flying clubs and flying schools of initial training, on Yak-18, and from 1956 – on Yak-18U. Since it was known that the staff would soon be changed again due to the mass introduction of jet aviation, it was decided as an experiment to start training some pilots under an accelerated program. At the beginning of 1956 twenty cadets were allocated from the students’ staff to complete a two-year training program on Yak-18U. We also find confirmation of this from Yuri Gagarin himself (“The Road to Space”, 1961 edition): “The school received experimental planes – the same “Yak-18”, but somewhat modified, with a nose wheel for practicing landing, so that in the future it was easier to switch to jet machines with three-wheeled chassis. We flew a lot, but to be honest, we did not really like the new aircraft. It was heavy; it lacked, as aviators call it, “power” – the engine was too weak. And during aerobatics it often fell into a stall, but it came out of it just as quickly, if only you leave the control”. Reference books tell us that the Yak-18U, mass-produced since January 1955, was indeed different from the Yak-18 because it had a big front wheel instead of a small tail one, which made it closer to jet planes for takeoff and landing.
It turns out that Yuri Gagarin was lucky again. He could have been sent to another school, like other Saratov residents, and then gone to civil aviation; he could have been in a regular group of cadets, like his friend from the flying club Anatoly Osipov, and stayed in the school for another year or two, if he had to retrain for jet fighters in the standard program; he could have been out of the “experiment” because of changes in the school staff – in any of these cases he would have hardly been in the first set of cosmonaut squadron. But is it luck? After all, we have repeatedly had the opportunity to make sure: the right to go out of the general rut Yuri Alekseyevich won the hard work on the verge of physical and psychological exhaustion, its incredible determination and indefatigable desire to learn new things, overcoming any difficulties. Not everyone from Gagarin’s entourage was ready and able to reproduce his path – something always got in the way: levity, laziness, a desire for comfort and a simple career. Take for example the “experiment” of the college, where Gagarin was put in for excellent grades: he had to master the full two-year theory and practice course on the new plane within a year, and no one was going to give discounts on overload – how many will take such a perspective with enthusiasm? One way or another, on February 22, 1956, Yuri Gagarin was promoted to the rank of “Cadet Sergeant”. On his epaulettes appeared three crossed lapels. It is interesting that there is no any photo, where Gagarin was photographed with two stripes on epaulettes, i.e. in rank of junior sergeant. There are no documents showing that he received this intermediate rank either. We are left to conclude that Gagarin immediately became a sergeant. It is likely that his appointment as assistant platoon commander in the accelerated training group facilitated such a rapid career rise.
Despite the heavy workload, mastering the theory went well. After the May Day parade the cadets were sent to the airfield Menovaya Dvor (Orenburg-2), located near the railway station of the same name and 6 km to the southwest of Orenburg. At that time the 814th training aviation regiment of transition aircraft (v/h 19110) was stationed there, consisting of five squadrons. Gagarin and his comrades were in the fifth squadron. Again we had to live in a tent camp and read flight manuals. It was still very cold, some of the cadets caught cold and went to town. Finally sunny weather arrived and the ground dried up. On June 4, according to the schedule, the flights started: first – on ordinary “Yak-18” to restore the piloting skills, then – on the new “Yak-18U”. There is a photo with Gagarin posing on the wing of exactly Yakovlev Yak-18U with front wheel and tail number “59”. It was probably the one that Yuri flew in the summer of 1956. The instructor was Ivan Kryuchkov, who was quite satisfied with the cadets’ flying skills. The total flight time of Gagarin that summer was 103 hours and 5 minutes. On August 21, his successes were commended in an order and a letter of commendation. From August 26 to September 15 cadets worked on the potato harvest at one of the collective farms of Sharlynsky district. On September 20 the school resumed classes: “The “experimental” group began to study MiG-15bis jets. Let’s turn to the memoirs of the teacher Aron Israelovich Reznikov:
“1956, autumn, beginning of the school year. A good and beautiful building of the college, with numerous noisy flocks of pigeons, nesting under the roof. The school has long wide corridors and many classes for various specialties. My class is for aviation jet engines. The class is large and bright. By the wall is set on a stand a real turbo-jet engine, resembling a huge pear. A “quarter” is carved out of the pear, and thanks to this you can clearly see all the inner workings – the compressor, the combustion chambers, the turbine, the jet nozzle. On shelves in glass cabinets there are units and instruments, on the walls there are colorful schemes, posters, and movable models.
He is a good-looking guy of average or even slightly below average height. His face is severe, with regular features, but still very young, with characteristic dimples in the corners of his lips. His hair was cut in a short haircut. Clear blue-gray eyes look bold. The sonorous voice and open gaze make a pleasant impression. He is taut, militarily forward-looking, and his whole appearance expresses a readiness to get down to work immediately. His appearance is immaculate-a blazer with shiny buttons and a pinned Komsomol badge, carefully pressed and straightened in the front under his belt, and all the folds are pulled back. Under the buttoned collar, the hem of the hemmed collar protrudes with a snow-white streak. I know that the most disciplined cadet is made foreman of the class, but not just an executive quiet one – one that has organizational skills and authority among his comrades. After all, the petty officer is the commander, the leader of the entire group. Naturally, of all the cadets, the instructor remembers the petty officer first and best.
I look at the cadets sitting at the tables. The strange thing is that, at first glance, all the cadets seem almost identical. Their uniforms contribute to this impression. However, I already know from previous experience that as we get to know each other better, this “sameness” will dissolve, and each will reveal his or her individuality. One will discover that one is a businesslike, active guy; the other is lazy or sly; the other is slow and unflappable; the other is intemperate and irascible. And in terms of ability, there will quickly be a division in the eyes of the instructor.
The cadets, of course, look at their instructor with no less interest. First impressions are forming. ‘…’ I also vividly remember one incident concerning Gagarin personally. In the school after the main lessons the cadets were given two hours to prepare themselves. During these hours the instructor would come into the classroom as needed, mainly to monitor the lessons or to help individual cadets.
One day during the self-study period, I opened the door of my classroom, looked inside, and was terribly outraged. The cadets were sitting in small groups and alone, doing various academic things. It was all usual for self-study, and the low murmur of voices discussing something was also usual. But there was tobacco smoke in the classroom! As I entered the classroom and looked around, I saw that the source of the smoke was right there. Gagarin was standing at the far table, in one hand holding some kind of engine unit, and in the other a smoking cigarette. My indignation was quite understandable, not to mention the fact that smoking in class was, of course, forbidden, I knew that few of the cadets smoked, I knew that Gagarin had not smoked before.
He asked the question in a tone that required no further explanation. There was complete silence in the classroom. I saw Gagarin blush, but it was not the color of embarrassment of a student caught off guard. His face expressed the resentment and even anger of a man who had been misunderstood and distracted from an interesting case. For this reason he did not answer the question at once.
For Gagarin such meticulousness and desire to understand at all costs in the issue that interested him was very characteristic. But at the same time, of course, he was not a “dry man,” immersed up to his ears in the study of science. Like all cadets, he liked to chat about various events from academic and nonacademic life, liked to joke and understood humor.
This is the kind of story that you can’t make up on purpose. And through the teacher’s story we see the real, living Yury Gagarin, who has not yet been overshadowed by the artificially hollowed image invented by Soviet propagandists.
In addition to their studies the cadets had to prepare for the parade of the Orenburg garrison, scheduled for November 7. The parade was a success, and the next day the fifth squadron received their leave papers, Yuri went home to Gzhatsk. He had much to discuss with his parents, including the question of his upcoming marriage.
