This man lived in the everyday life of large-scale projects and great construction projects. People of that generation performed feats without thinking about it at all. Nikolai Kamanin took part in historical events, clearly following the orders of the command.
Starting conditions
Our planet is not well suited for happiness. So one of the once popular poets put it. And what can we say about the territory of our country. When developing the northern territories, the pioneers had to risk their lives. But dreamers and scientists have always remembered that the Motherland will always come to their aid. Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, one of the best Soviet pilots, took an active part in rescuing the passengers of the Chelyuskin steamer that sank in the Berengovo Strait. For his participation in this operation, he was awarded the honorary title "Hero of the Soviet Union".
The future air force general was born on October 18, 1908 in a large family. Parents lived in the town of Melenki on the territory of the Vladimirovsk province. My father was engaged in sewing shoes in the artisan workshop. Mother worked as a weaver in a textile factory. The boy had to do small household chores from an early age. When the age approached, he was enrolled in elementary school. Nikolai studied well. Most of all he liked the lessons of mathematics and plumbing in school workshops.
From cadet to general
After leaving school in 1927, Kamanin was drafted into the ranks of the armed forces. The competent boy was sent to study at the Borisoglebsk school of military pilots. After completing his studies, Nikolai Petrovich departed for further service in the Far East. In February 1934, Senior Lieutenant Kamanin led a group of five aircraft that flew to rescue the passengers of the Chelyuskin steamer. Overcoming all sorts of difficulties, the pilots fulfilled the task of the Party and the government. People were rescued from ice captivity.
Colonel Kamanin met the beginning of the war in Tashkent as the commander of the air forces of the Central Asian Military District. He took part in the preparation and dispatch of aviation formations to the front. In 1942, the colonel was transferred to the Kalinin Front and appointed commander of the assault aviation division. Kamanin met the victory in the rank of lieutenant general on the territory of Austria. Took part in the parade on the Red Square of Moscow on June 24, 1945. After the war, Nikolai Petrovich continued to serve in various positions in the structure of the country's air force.
Recognition and privacy
In the late 1950s, Kamanin was appointed responsible for the selection and training of pilots for the cosmonaut corps. He got an honorable and responsible mission to sign the flight assignment for the first cosmonaut of the Earth, Yuri Gagarin.
The personal life of Nikolai Petrovich turned out well. At one time he married Maria Mikhailovna Misyul. Husband and wife raised and raised two sons who linked their fates with aviation. Colonel General Kamanin died in March 1982. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
