This is the uniform for the 1945 Victory Parade in the Red Square, Moscow, belonging to Hero of the Soviet Union, Raisa Aronova. The uniform is formed of a skirt which comes up to the waistline, with a belt. The front of the skirt has pleats and pockets. The uniform is decorated with uniform buttons on the seam, collar, breast pockets and cuffs. A service ribbon is attached to the front of the uniform, whilst Lieutenant epaulettes are attached to the shoulders.
Raisa Aronova was born in Saratov to a family of railway workers. She became interested in aviation towards the end of her schooling, and this fascination would continue throughout the rest of her life. She was not accepted into the flying college, so she enrolled at the Saratov Institute of Agricultural Engineering, where she studied for two years. At the same time, she started to take lessons at a flying club. IN 1940, Aronova enrolled as a student at the Moscow Aviation Institute.
In 1941, the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League set up a special enrolment of volunteers for a women’s air force. Training was led by a famous female pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Marina Raskova, who suggested becoming a navigator to Aronova. From October 1941, Aronova served in the Red Army. In 1942, she graduated from the Engels Military Pilots’ School, after which she entered straight into the active army, where she started out as a navigator, before becoming a pilot in the women’s Night Air Force. Raisa Aronova flew over 900 operational sorties throughout the years of the Great Patriotic War, spending 1148 hours in the night sky and dropping 120 tons of explosives. Under the cover of darkness, her plane would approach enemy positions and drop its deadly load with surgical precision. The enemy referred to the Women’s Night Bomber Aviation Regiment as the ‘Night Witches’.
Aronova took part in the defense of the Caucasus, the liberation of Crimea, Belarus and Poland and in defeating the enemy in Germany. In 1943, Aronova sustained an injury. In 1946, Raisa Aronova received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for her 941 operational sorties, her involvement in large-scale attacks on the enemy and for her displays of valor and courage.
In 1973, Raisa Aronova donated her Victory Parade uniform to the Saratov Regional Museum.
Raisa Aronova was born in Saratov to a family of railway workers. She became interested in aviation towards the end of her schooling, and this fascination would continue throughout the rest of her life. She was not accepted into the flying college, so she enrolled at the Saratov Institute of Agricultural Engineering, where she studied for two years. At the same time, she started to take lessons at a flying club. IN 1940, Aronova enrolled as a student at the Moscow Aviation Institute.
In 1941, the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League set up a special enrolment of volunteers for a women’s air force. Training was led by a famous female pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Marina Raskova, who suggested becoming a navigator to Aronova. From October 1941, Aronova served in the Red Army. In 1942, she graduated from the Engels Military Pilots’ School, after which she entered straight into the active army, where she started out as a navigator, before becoming a pilot in the women’s Night Air Force. Raisa Aronova flew over 900 operational sorties throughout the years of the Great Patriotic War, spending 1148 hours in the night sky and dropping 120 tons of explosives. Under the cover of darkness, her plane would approach enemy positions and drop its deadly load with surgical precision. The enemy referred to the Women’s Night Bomber Aviation Regiment as the ‘Night Witches’.
Aronova took part in the defense of the Caucasus, the liberation of Crimea, Belarus and Poland and in defeating the enemy in Germany. In 1943, Aronova sustained an injury. In 1946, Raisa Aronova received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for her 941 operational sorties, her involvement in large-scale attacks on the enemy and for her displays of valor and courage.
In 1973, Raisa Aronova donated her Victory Parade uniform to the Saratov Regional Museum.
