Valentina Grizodubova

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Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova (Russian: Валентина Степановна Гризодубова) (May 10, 1909 in Kharkov – April 28, 1993 in Moscow) was a one of the first female pilots in the Soviet Union and was awarded titles Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labour. On September 24-25, 1938 as the commander of the crew she completed the flight of the Rodina (Russian for "Motherland"), the ANT-37 airplane, setting an international women's record for a straight-line distance flight. Since March 1942 she took part in the Great Patriotic War.

In the 1940s she served as the sole female member of the "Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Crimes of the Fascist German Invaders and Their Accomplices, and of the Damage They Caused to Citizens, Collective Farms, Public Organizations, State Enterprises, and Institutions of the USSR" (Chrezvychainaia gosudarstvennaia komissiia or Чрезвичайная Государственная Комиссия; ChGK), appointed to investigate Nazi war crimes in the Soviet Union.

Grizodubova was the Honorary Citizen of Penza, there is a monument to her in Moscow.

[edit] Awards

Hero of the Soviet Union (November 2, 1938)
Hero of Socialist Labour (January 6, 1986)
two Orders of Lenin
Order of the October Revolution
Order of the Great Patriotic War, 1st Class
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Order of the Red Star
various medals

[edit] References

Sorokina, M. A. "People and Procedures: Toward a History of the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in the USSR," Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Volume 6, Issue 4, (2005) 797-831.