The Soviet air force general who personally led 1,927 helicopter drops over the burning Chernobyl reactor
"Tons of graphite were burning inside the reactor. Firefighters were powerless. We decided to extinguish the hearth from helicopters."
Born to a Mokshan peasant family and trained at the Orenburg military aviation school, he flew reconnaissance missions in the 1968 Czechoslovakia invasion, the 1969 Sino-Soviet border conflict, and over Afghanistan in 1979. As chief of staff of the Kyiv Military District Air Force, he received the call about the Chernobyl explosion on 26 April 1986, flew immediately to the site, and for ten days led helicopter crews dumping 4,925 tons of sand, lead, and boron into the burning reactor from 200 metres, personally flying over the crater. He continued serving until 1998 despite radiation exposure, then spent his final years as a United Russia deputy in the State Duma.
Activities and affiliations
- 1973–1979 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1965–1970Pilot and flight commander, reconnaissance aviation regiment
- 1973–1979Squadron commander then reconnaissance regiment commander, Odessa and Turkestan Military Districts
- 1980–1983Commander of Air Force, 20th Guards Army; then Central Group of Forces
- 1985–1988Chief of staff, Kyiv Military District Air Force; leads Chernobyl aerial operation
- 1988–1989Commander of Air Force, Central Asian Military District
- 1989–1993Commander of Air Force, Moscow Military District
- 1993–1997Commander of Frontal Aviation, Russian Air Force
- 2014–2021Deputy, State Duma of the Russian Federation (United Russia)
Related historical events
After retirement: veterans' organizations and State Duma legislative work
After retiring in September 1998, Antoshkin lived in Moscow and from 2002 chaired the board of the Moscow chapter of the Club of Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of the Russian Federation and Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory, working on veterans' commemorative activity. In 2014 he took a vacant State Duma seat and sat on the committee for natural resources, the environment and ecology; in 2016 he was re-elected to the seventh Duma on the United Russia federal list. As a deputy, 2014 to 2019, he co-sponsored 44 legislative initiatives and amendments. He also spoke publicly about the Chernobyl cleanup as one of its best-known witnesses. He died in Moscow on 17 January 2021 while being treated for COVID-19 and was buried at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery in Mytishchi on 20 January; a monument was unveiled at the grave in June 2023. His name is carried by the school in his native Kuzminovka, by a school and a street in Kumertau, and by a memorial plaque on the Dostoevsky Street house in Moscow where he lived.