Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Ivan Vasilyevich Doronin (; – 2 February 1951,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

pilot and

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...

(April 20, 1934).

Biography

Doronin was born on in Kamenka, Nikolayevsky Uezd,

Samara Governorate Samara Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, located in the Volga Region. It existed from 1850 to 1928; its capital was in Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev ...

(now Pugachyovsky District,

Saratov Oblast Saratov Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Saratov. As of the 2021 Russian cens ...

) to a Russian peasant family. He volunteered for the

navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

(

Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...

) in 1920 and in 1924 he was assigned to

Yegoryevsk Yegoryevsk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Yegoryevsky District, Moscow Oblast, Yegoryevsk Urban Settlement in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the bank of the Guslitsa River southeast of ...

Aviation Theorethical School. He graduated from the Sevastopol Flying School in 1925 and then served as a navy pilot in the

Black Sea Fleet The Black Sea Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, are subordin ...

, later as instructor in naval aviation school. In 1930, Ivan Doronin joined the

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, which can be both private and commercial. Most countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and ...

in the Russian North. He was a crew commander at a line

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...

Bodaybo Bodaybo ( rus, Бодайбо, p=bədɐjˈbo) is a town and the administrative center of Bodaybinsky District in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. It is located from Irkutsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Geography The town is located in th ...

. He participated in exploration of

Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...

. Doronin was the first to fly over

Verkhoyansk Range The Verkhoyansk Range (, ''Verhojanskiy Hrebet''; ) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic, Russia near the settlement of Verkhoyansk, well-known for its frigid climate. It is part of the East Siberian Mountains. The range lies just west o ...

, he has mapped a line from Irkutsk to

Ust-Srednekan Ust-Srednekan () is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Srednekansky District of Magadan Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kolyma River, where it is joined by its tributary the Srednekan, from Seymchan, the administrative center ...

. In 1934, he took part in the rescue of the

Chelyuskin steamship SS ''Chelyuskin'' ( rus, «Челю́скин», p=tɕɪˈlʲuskʲɪn) was a Soviet steamship, reinforced to navigate through polar ice, that in 1934 became ice-bound in Arctic waters during a navigation along the Northern Maritime Route from M ...

crew from an improvised airstrip on the frozen surface of the

Chukchi Sea The Chukchi Sea (, ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, ...

, for which he would be awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1939 he graduated from

Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy () – is a higher military educational institution for training and retraining of engineers for the Russian Aerospace Forces. The academy trains specialists – engineers, research engineers in the fol ...

. Later in his life, Ivan Doronin headed experimental flight stations at Aircraft Factory №1 and Aircraft Factory №301. In 1947, he retired due to his illness. He died at February 2, 1951. Ivan Doronin is buried in Moscow, at

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

. Ivan Doronin was also awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

Memory

* Streets were named after Doronin in Astrakhan, Ekaterinburg, Moscow, Yaroslavl, Sevastopol. * A post mark was issued in 1935 to commemorate Ivan Doronin. * A river ship was named after him.

References

1903 births 1951 deaths People from Saratov Oblast People from Nikolayevsky Uyezd (Samara Governorate) Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Russian aviators 20th-century Russian explorers Soviet Navy personnel Soviet World War II pilots Heroes of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner {{Russia-mil-bio-stub