The ace who told Stalin Soviet planes were flying coffins
9 April 1941, a Politburo meeting on aviation accidents. Stalin asked why so many pilots were dying. Rychagov stood up: "Because you are forcing us to fly in coffins!"
A fighter pilot who scored six individual and fourteen shared kills in the Spanish Civil War and became a Hero of the Soviet Union at twenty-five. He served as an aviation adviser in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and commanded the 9th Army's air force in the Winter War before being appointed head of the Red Army Air Force at the age of twenty-nine. At a Politburo meeting on 9 April 1941, when Stalin demanded to know the cause of the high accident rate, Rychagov shot back: "You are forcing us to fly in coffins!" He was dismissed on the spot, arrested three days into the German invasion, and executed without trial at Barbysh on 28 October 1941. Posthumously rehabilitated in 1954.
Career Timeline
- 1931–1936Fighter pilot rising to squadron and detachment commander in Kiev Military District
- 1936–1937Commanded I-15 fighter group in Spain; 6 individual and 14 shared kills, awarded HSU
- 1937–1938Senior Soviet aviation adviser in China ('General Batalin'), directing air operations against Japan
- 1939–1940Commander of 9th Army air force in the Winter War, then deputy and first deputy head of VVS
- 1940.8–1941.4Head of the Red Army Air Force and Deputy People's Commissar for Defence (Aviation)
- 1941.6Arrested three days into the German invasion; executed without trial on 28 October
Related historical events
- 1936–1939The Spanish Civil WarCommander of an I-15 fighter groupCredited with six individual kills at twenty-five and made Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeTarget of wartime extrajudicial executionThe former air-force chief fell over aviation losses, was arrested in 1941 and shot without trial on 28 October.
- 1939.11–1940.03The Winter WarCommander, 9th Army Air Force