Babushkin, Mikhail

Babushkin, Mikhail Sergeevich 

Born 1893; died May 18, 1938. Soviet arctic pilot. Hero of the Soviet Union (June 27, 1937). Member of the CPSU from 1935. Born in the village of Bordino, Moscow Province, near the settlement of Losinoostrovskii (between 1939 and 1960 the city of Babushkin, now part of Moscow).

Babushkin was drafted into the army in 1914 and graduated from the Gatchina Military Aviation School. In 1915 he attained the rank of pilot and remained at the school as an instructor. In 1917 he became an ensign. In 1920 he participated in the Civil War as a member of a partisan detachment. Demobilized in 1923, he entered the civil air force and served in the arctic. In 1928 he took part in search operations for the Nobile expedition. In 1933 he participated in the expedition of the icebreaker Cheliuskin, and in 1935 he was part of the high latitude expedition of the icebreaker Sadko. In 1937, Babushkin was second pilot of the flagship in the flight to the north pole which planted the floating station Severnyi Polius-1. During 1937–38 he took part in the search for the missing plane of S. A. Levanevskii. He was awarded the Order of Lenin. Babushkin was deputy to the first convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He died in a plane crash.