The first elections of deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, based on the new Stalin Constitution, were held in December 1937. Valery Pavlovich Chkalov, a Hero of the Soviet Union, the people’s favorite and a brave pilot, was proposed as a candidate in different parts of the country.

Valery Chkalov addressed the numerous requests to be elected in one of the districts by saying,

On October 23, 1937, mass rallies of thousands were held in the city of Gorky, where the residents nominated candidates for deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The very first speaker, a worker at the Ordzhonikidze plant, suggested that Valery Pavlovich Chkalov, Hero of the Soviet Union, be elected to the Council of Nationalities. This proposal was picked up throughout the Gorky Oblast and the Chuvash Republic.

In response to this initiative, Chkalov sent a telegram thanking the worker for his trust, and voters immediately started writing to him and inviting him to meetings even in the most remote regions. In his appearance on the radio in Gorky, Chkalov spoke in detail about himself and his historical flights across the Arctic Ocean to Kamchatka and the USA. He then ended his speech with the words,

Since the end of November, the pilot held over 70 meetings with voters in various districts of his constituency in three weeks. Almost half a million people had the opportunity to see and listen to the candidate for deputy.

The elections were held in December. Chkalov was unanimously elected in the Gorky electoral district: 2.5 million people voted for him. He received his deputy ticket number 17, which read,

The pilot’s wife, Olga Erazmovna Chkalova, was working alongside her husband — the people’s choice — as a secretary. During the time of Valery Chkalov’s career as a deputy, which tragically ended too soon, she registered almost 300 applications, complaints and petitions. Chkalov responded to every appeal.