Fedoseenko, Pavel

Born May 1, 1898, in the settlement of Novaia Sotnia, Voronezh Province; died Jan. 30, 1934, near the village of Potizh-Ostrog, Insar Raion, Mordovian ASSR. Soviet military pilot and aeronaut. Commander of the crew of the stratosphere balloon Osoaviakhim-1.

Fedoseenko joined the Red Army in 1918; from 1918 to 1920, during the Civil War, he served as a commander of an aerostation detachment. In 1932 he graduated from the Air Force Academy and the department of dirigible construction at the Civil Air Fleet Training Center. In 1922, 1926, 1927, and 1931, Fedoseenko established Soviet records for flight length and altitude in a balloon, and in 1933 he set a world record for class A balloons with a passenger.

On Jan. 30, 1934, under Fedoseenko’s command, the stratosphere balloon Osoaviakhim-1 established a world altitude record of 22,000 m during a research flight in honor of the Seventeenth Congress of the ACP(B); Fedoseenko was accompanied on the flight by aerological engineer A. B. Vasenko and physicist I. D. Usyskin. An accident occurred during the balloon’s descent, and all the crew members perished; they were buried on Red Square at the Kremlin Wall.

Fedoseenko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and, posthumously, the Order of Lenin.