Marina Raskova was a Soviet Russian Aviator during World War II. The first woman to become a navigator in the Soviet Air Force, she set numerous flight records in the 1930s flying Soviet military aircraft.
Background
Marina Raskova was born on March 28, 1912, in Moscow, at that time part of Russia within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). She was born to a middle-class Russian family. Marina's father, Mikhail Dmitrievich Malinin, was a singer, opera artist, entrepreneur, vocal teacher. He died in Moscow on October 1919 at the age of 66 - fell under a motorcycle. Her mother, Anna Spiridonovna Malinina, worked as a secondary school teacher in the cities of Torzhok, Vyazma, and Moscow. Marina had a brother, Roman Malinin, who was a radio engineer.
Education
From an early age, Marina had an excellent ear for music and a good voice. The father saw her as a potential opera singer and sought to develop her daughter's talent. Perhaps she would have followed in the footsteps of her father, if not for his tragic death. Marina graduated from music school and studied at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 1934 she graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Civil Air Fleet Engineers, became a professional navigator.
In 1935 she graduated from the school of pilots at the Central Aero Club in Tushino.
Career
Marina Raskova became a famous pilot as well as a navigator, setting a number of long-distance records. This included the famous 'Flight of the Rodina' covering 6000km from Moscow to Komsomolsk, which she conducted with two other female pilots, Polina Osipenko and Valentina Grizodubova. However, the flight ran into difficulties at the end of its 26 and a half hour journey when poor visibility hampered the landing. As the navigator's pit was vulnerable in crash landings, Raskova bailed out with a parachute while the two pilots completed the landing. She survived with no water and almost no food for 10 days before she found her way to the landing site and reunited with her team. All 3 women were decorated with the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ award, the first women ever to receive it.
With the outbreak of World War II the Soviet Union was in need of pilots and many women volunteered. However, while there were no formal restrictions on Soviet women in the military, many found their applications were denied or mysteriously delayed. Raskova proposed the creation of women's aviation units and used her celebrity status to propose the idea directly to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Following a speech by Raskova in September 1941 calling for women pilots to be welcomed into the war, Stalin ordered the creation of 3 new air regiments, the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment, and the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, dubbed The Night Witches. These regiments were entirely formed by women, from the pilots to the engineers to the support staff. Each regiment contained around 400 women, most of them in their early twenties, who completed 4 years' worth of training in a matter of months.
Raskova personally took command of the 125th Bomber Regiment, for which she obtained the very best equipment available, including the state-of-the-art Petlyakov Pe-2 bombers, which caused some resentment from male units. The 125th regiment went on to fly 134 missions over the course of the war, dropping over 980 tons of bombs.
Raskova herself was killed on January 4th, 1943, while attempting to lead two other Pe-2's to a safe airfield. She was forced into making a forced landing on the Volga Bank, which resulted in the deaths of the entire bomber crew.
In April 1929, Marina was married to Sergey Raskov, an engineer. They had a daughter, Tatyana. In 1935 she divorced Sergei and focused on her flying career.