Marina Mikhailovna Raskova

Navigator and pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (2 November 1938), Major, and the organiser of three women's air regiments. Born on 28 March 1912 in Moscow. She trained first for a career in music before coming to aviation, working as a draughtswoman in the air navigation laboratory of the Air Force Academy, passing the navigator's examination and becoming the academy's first woman instructor in air navigation. In September 1938 she was navigator on the non-stop flight from Moscow to the Far East aboard the aircraft Rodina, together with Valentina Grizodubova and Polina Osipenko. When the aircraft came down in the taiga she bailed out and took ten days to rejoin the crew. All three were made Heroes of the Soviet Union for the flight — the first women to receive the title for an aviation record. In the autumn of 1941 she obtained authorisation to raise women's air units and formed three regiments: the 586th Fighter, the 587th Bomber and the 588th Night Bomber. She took command of the 587th Bomber Regiment, flying the Pe-2. She was killed on 4 January 1943 while flying to the front, when her aircraft crashed in bad weather near Saratov. Her ashes are interred in the Kremlin Wall.