Background
Marina Chechneva was born on 15 August 1922 in the village of Protasovo in the Maloarkhangelsk District of the Orel Region and spent her first twelve years in this bleak area of northern Russia. In 1934 her family moved to Moscow.
1945
Soviet women's squadron, soviet women pilots, World War II.
In 1963 Marina Chechneva graduated from the CPSU Central Committee Higher Party School.
Marina Chechneva, the hero of the Soviet Union, female pilot of the 46th Guards Night Bombing Regiment.
Soviet female pilots of the 46th Guards Night Bombing Regiment Nadezhda Popova (L) and Marina Chechneva. The Nazi called these brave ladies pilots 'Night witches' during World War II.
Soviet attack pilot Grigory Sivkov, 46th "Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment squadron navigator Yekaterina Ryabova, the same Regiment squadron commander Marina Chechneva, and attack pilot A.Kushch (L-R) during World War II.
Marina Chechneva was born on 15 August 1922 in the village of Protasovo in the Maloarkhangelsk District of the Orel Region and spent her first twelve years in this bleak area of northern Russia. In 1934 her family moved to Moscow.
At the age of sixteen, Chechneva enrolled in an Osoaviakhim flying club, where she learned sport flying.
Chechneva longed to become a fighter pilot but settled for a job as an instructor pilot at the Central Flying Club in Moscow from 1939 to 1941. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the club was evacuated to Stalingrad. In October 1941 Chechneva was permitted to join the new women's aviation group formed by Marina Raskova.
After completing training, Chechneva was assigned to the 46th Guards Bomber Regiment, which flew the frail Po-2 biplane. She became a squadron commander in 1942. Chechneva completed 810 combat sorties and dropped 115 tons of bombs. She was considered one of the best and bravest pilots in her regiment and often was assigned the most dangerous missions, including daytime reconnaissance flights. She once flew 18 sorties in a single night; this was possible because of the long winter nights in Russia and the relatively short sortie duration of the Po-2. However, few male Po-2 pilots achieved the maximum sortie rates that Chechneva and others in the 46th attained. Chechneva remained in the air force after the end of the war, serving in ground-attack aviation with a Soviet unit in Poland. She had her first child during this period and continued flying until she was demobilized in 1948. She and her pilot husband returned to Moscow, and after he was killed in an accident the next year, Chechneva devoted herself to aerobatic performances.
In 1957 her health forced her to retire from flying; thereafter she served with DOSAAF (the successor to Osoaviakhim) and as an editor with an aviation magazine.
In the 1960s Chechneva completed graduate work in history and wrote a dissertation on Soviet women who had served in the Second World War.
Marina joined the Communist Party in 1942.
Quotations: "Not everyone believed that we would be able to work in this field on an equal basis with men. The example of the famous women pilots did not convince the skeptics. 'Aviation is not a woman's affair', they declared repeatedly and tried in every way possible to dissuade young women from joining the aeroclub."
Marina was a member of several committees, including the Presidium of the Central Committee of the DOSAAF, Presidium of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans, and the Committee of Soviet Women, and served as the deputy chairman of the Central Board of the Soviet-Bulgarian Friendship Society.
Marina dreamed of becoming a professional pilot, an ambition that was encouraged by her father, abhorred by her mother, and supported by Valeriia Khomiakova, one of the air club's instructor pilots and later a famous fighter pilot.
In November 1945 Marina Chechneva married fellow pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Konstantin Davydov. In 1946 she gave birth to their daughter Valentina. In 1949 her husband, who worked for the DOSAAF, was killed in a plane crash.