The permanent exhibition of the local history museum includes the personal belongings of one of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union — Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov. In 1934, together with six pilots, he took part in the rescue of the steamer Chelyuskin, which sank in the ice of the Arctic Ocean.
After the ship had sunk, over a hundred people were left on a drifting ice floe. Thanks to the selfless feat of the pilots, all the people were saved, and on April 16, 1934, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was established in the country. Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov was also awarded the Golden Star of the Hero (number 6).
The famous polar pilot participated in the Great Patriotic War. In July 1941, Mikhail Vodopyanov was appointed commander of the 81st long-range bomber aviation division. In August of the same year, together with other pilots, he bombed Berlin.
Vodopyanov was awarded four Orders of Lenin and four Orders of the Red Banner, as well as the Order of the Patriotic War. Mikhail Vasilyevich wrote several books about pilots. He laid air routes to the Far East and the Far North. His love for the cold inhospitable land became a real “disease of the North”, which forced him to fly in any weather.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov recalled: “Sometimes, my feet in fur boots would freeze.” His personal belongings — the sledges, mittens and boots — are presented in the diorama “Vodopyanov and Schmidt at the North Pole”. The diorama tells about the most difficult operation of the Soviet polar explorers, who were the first people in the world to install a research station on a drifting ice floe in 1937.
The flagship aircraft ANT6, piloted by Vodopyanov, was the first to land on ice in the vicinity of the North Pole, using a brake parachute. The pilot brought a group of explorers —Otto Yulyevich Schmidt, Ivan Timofeevich Spirin, Evgeny Konstantinovich Fedorov, Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin, and Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel, who organized the first drifting station North Pole-1. The station was closed on February 19, 1938.
After the ship had sunk, over a hundred people were left on a drifting ice floe. Thanks to the selfless feat of the pilots, all the people were saved, and on April 16, 1934, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was established in the country. Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov was also awarded the Golden Star of the Hero (number 6).
The famous polar pilot participated in the Great Patriotic War. In July 1941, Mikhail Vodopyanov was appointed commander of the 81st long-range bomber aviation division. In August of the same year, together with other pilots, he bombed Berlin.
Vodopyanov was awarded four Orders of Lenin and four Orders of the Red Banner, as well as the Order of the Patriotic War. Mikhail Vasilyevich wrote several books about pilots. He laid air routes to the Far East and the Far North. His love for the cold inhospitable land became a real “disease of the North”, which forced him to fly in any weather.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov recalled: “Sometimes, my feet in fur boots would freeze.” His personal belongings — the sledges, mittens and boots — are presented in the diorama “Vodopyanov and Schmidt at the North Pole”. The diorama tells about the most difficult operation of the Soviet polar explorers, who were the first people in the world to install a research station on a drifting ice floe in 1937.
The flagship aircraft ANT6, piloted by Vodopyanov, was the first to land on ice in the vicinity of the North Pole, using a brake parachute. The pilot brought a group of explorers —Otto Yulyevich Schmidt, Ivan Timofeevich Spirin, Evgeny Konstantinovich Fedorov, Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin, and Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel, who organized the first drifting station North Pole-1. The station was closed on February 19, 1938.
