Ivan Cherevichnyi

Born Mar. 18 (31), 1909, in Ol’viopol’, now Pervomaisk, Nikolaev Oblast; died Feb. 15, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet polar aviator. Hero of the Soviet Union (1949). Member of the CPSU from 1932.

From 1928 to 1930, Cherevichnyi studied at the Moscow Aviation School of the Society for Assistance to Defense, Aviation, and Chemical Construction; he later worked as a flight instructor. He became involved in polar aviation in 1934. Cherevichnyi reconnoitered several air routes in Siberia, including the Yakutsk-Kolyma route, and participated in the removal of I. D. Papanin’s expedition from the ice island research station SP-1 in 1938. He also conducted ice reconnaissance in the Kara Sea and Laptev Sea and piloted vessels along the Northern Sea Route. In 1941 he headed an air expedition that made several ice landings in the airplane SSSR N-169 in the Arctic Basin, and he was the first to reach the relatively inaccessible polar area. In 144 hours of flight time, the airplane piloted by Cherevichnyi covered a distance of 26,000 km. Cherevichnyi was a member of many high-latitude air expeditions (1948–55 and 1958–60). He commanded the air squadron in the first Soviet antarctic expedition (1955–57). Cherevichnyi was awarded three Orders of Lenin, five other orders, and various medals.