Calvitsa (Calvits) Otto Arturovich
(01.12.1888–07.03.1930)
One
of the first polar pilots, aerial explorer of the Arctic, Siberia
and the Far East.
Born in the city of Joensu, Vyborg Province of Finland, in the
family of a working sawmill. The
income of his father, a highly skilled worker, allowed him to send
his son to the gymnasium in Helsingfors, which he graduated in 1903. However,
there was not enough money for further training, and a 13-year-old
boy was apprenticed to a mechanical factory. Heavy
physical labor hardened him, and communication with Russian and
Finnish workers laid in him a sense of internationalism and
revolutionary sentiment. In
1905, Calvitsa took an active part in the general strike of
solidarity with the Russian proletariat, the four-month strike in
Helsingfors and in the strike of 1906 in support of the Sveaborg
uprising of Russian soldiers and sailors.
In 1908, having received the qualification of a metalworker,
Calvitz went to work as a fireman of a sea merchant ship. Having
accumulated the necessary amount of money for three years, he
graduated from Helsingfors industrial school and again went to the
fleet as a mechanic on the ships of the Finnish inland lakes.
Calvitz took the most active part in the revolutionary events of
1917. He
was elected commissar of the sailors of the insurgent ships, he
joined the Social Democratic Party of Finland. After
the victory of the counterrevolution in Finland, Kalvitsa managed to
escape to Kronstadt, but in 1918, having already become a Bolshevik,
he returned to Finland on the instructions of the party for
underground activities. Issued
provocateur, he was sentenced to death, which was replaced by hard
labor.
Five months later, Calvitsa and his friend made a bold escape
from prison in Russia, which became his second homeland.
A technically trained Kalvitsa was sent to the Finnish air
squadron school in Petrograd, but he did not have to study for a
long time. All
forces were sent to fight Yudenich, the squad was disbanded, and
Calvitsa fought as a machine gunner apprentice. He
continued his studies at the flight school of sea pilots in Samara.
After graduating from school in 1920, Calvitsa participated in
the suppression of the Kronstadt insurgency in the ranks of the
Baltic Air Fleet, for which he was awarded a silver watch on behalf
of the Petrograd Soviet, and then as the head of one of the hydro
squadrons he fought with the White Finns in Soviet Karelia. For
his bravery, he was presented to the
Order of the Red Banner, but he
did not receive a well-deserved reward.
In August 1925, together with the famous polar pilot B.G. Chukhnovsky Kalvitsa
made the famous flight on a seaplane on the route Leningrad - Novaya
Zemlya. They
participated in the search for the Northern Sea Route, the
exploration of ice near Novaya Zemlya, accompanied by a convoy of
cargo ships to the Kara goods exchange expedition through the
Matochkin Shar Strait. With
this flight began the regular work of Calvica in the Arctic. In
the summer of 1926, together with a small seaplane on the ship
“Stavropol”, he sailed from Vladivostok to Wrangel
Island as part of an
expedition led by G.A. Ushakov. The
purpose of the expedition was to create the first permanent Soviet
settlement on the island in order to stop the encroachment on him by
the United States and Canada. Together
with Ushakov, Calvitsa made several flights that allowed him to
establish the true configuration and size of the island, to find
places for the accumulation of fur-bearing animals, to choose a
place for the Soviet colony.These were the first flights in the Far
East North.
When returning to Vladivostok, Kalvitsa made agitation flights
for the first time in Anadyr, organized a ride on an airplane of
local residents.
In 1927, he was transferred to the civil aviation of the Dobrolet
Society and sent to Verkhneudinsk (Ulan-Ude) to fly the first
international airline in the country to Ulan Bator. For
his dedicated work, the government of the Buryat-Mongolian Republic
awarded him a silver badge.
In 1928, Calvitsa was transferred to Irkutsk on the
Irkutsk-Bodaibo hydro-salvage valve, Irkutsk-Yakutsk. These
hydroavia lines, due to geographical and meteorological conditions,
of great length were considered the hardest in the country. The
Board of “Dobrolet” selected the most experienced, courageous and
hardy people to work for them. And
Calvitsa did not disappoint. The
most experienced hydrist pilot, fearless polar ace, a kind and
reliable friend, he won indisputable authority and great respect in
the team of hydroelectric power stations and the Office of Siberian
air lines. Among
his comrades, he was called the Northern Wolf.
In the summer of 1929, the government decided to organize a
flight along the coast of Chukotka and Yakutia, to find out the
possibility of exporting furs from the factories by aircraft and
reconnoiter the ice situation in the Long
Strait for
the wiring of the vessel with a removable watch on Wrangel
Island. In
an air expedition for the difficult and responsible flight,
Calvitsa, already experienced in flying to the island, was appointed
as a pilot, and the flight engineer, F. Leongardt, was a Hungarian
revolutionary who had fled from his home country from the death
penalty. With
the aircraft "Junkers-13" by train to Vladivostok, then on the ship
"Lozovsky" the crew arrived in the Lawrence Bay. From
here, having collected and tested the plane, the pilots on July 25
began a large flight, making their way through the thick fogs to
Wrangel Island. Having
made several intermediate landings, July 30 arrived on Wrangel
Island. After
taking off from the island on July 31, they dropped information on
the ice situation on the deck of the ice-cutter “F. Litke"and continued the flight.
Only on August 19, after visiting a number of points on the coast
of the East
Siberian Sea, Nizhnekolymsk and Srednekolymsk, Bolshoy Lyakhovsky
Island, they landed in
Bulun on
a pretty battered plane. The
task was performed on "excellent". In
his report, Calvitsa recorded all the information received about
flight conditions, ice conditions, developed requirements for types
of aircraft suitable for work in these conditions, and made
important conclusions about the necessary modernization and
retrofitting.
The development of the airways of Yakutia developed on a wide
front, so the most important task, in addition to expanding the
aircraft fleet, was the training of new young cadres. As
the most experienced pilot, polar ace, Calvitsa paid much attention
to the training of newcomers, combining this work with the
maintenance of airlines and the implementation of various special
tasks.
On March 5, 1930, the crew of Kalvitsy was ordered to fly to
Bulun to provide quick medical care to wounded security officers who
suppressed counter-revolutionary actions.
On March 7, a PS-3 “USSR-176” plane took off from Yakutsk. In
addition to Calvica, there was a mechanic FF on board. Leongart
and radio operator S.S. Karchevsky.
The flight took place in severe weather conditions that led to
the accident near the settlement of Sangary. An
investigation into the accident showed that the plane approached the
village of Sangary at an altitude of 600–700 meters, made two
circles over the river, choosing a landing site, since weather
conditions did not allow to continue. At
an altitude of 70–100 meters, a car was thrown down on the nose by a
gust of wind, and an unattached mechanic Leongart flew overboard. Dropping
out, he obviously hit the steering wheel and knocked him forward,
which moved the plane to the peak. Because
of the low altitude the pilot was unable to bring the plane, and he
crashed into the ice at speed. The
lightning reaction of the pilot allowed him to take a punch on the
right wing (the pilot was sitting on the left), but nothing helped. The
strike went to the engine, then the plane turned over, the tail
section was torn off and thrown aside. Leongart
crashed, Calvitsa was crushed by the engine, the radio operator
Karchevsky was killed by a shock load in the fall.
The government of the Yakut Republic requested permission from
the central board of Dobrolet to bury the pilots in their city, but
the Kalvitsa and Leonhart families, the staff of the Irkutsk
hydroelectric station, and the heads of the Siberian air lines
insisted on the burial of pilots in Irkutsk. With
a special plane, their bodies were taken to the city and, with a
large gathering of residents, the brave pilots were buried in the
mass grave of Revolution Fighters at the central entrance to the Jerusalem
cemetery (now Central Park of Culture and Rest). A
monument was erected over their grave - a four-sided truncated
pyramid, turning into a pylon on which a propeller was fixed. On
the banks of the Lena opposite the site of the catastrophe is a
monument. Karchevsky
buried in Yakutsk.
![](http://www.gpavet.narod.ru/Names1/Kalvitsmem1.jpg)
The first monument O.A. Calvica
on the banks of the Lena opposite the crash site |
![](http://www.gpavet.narod.ru/Names1/Kalvitsmem_new.jpg)
New monument O.A. Calvica |
Bay in
the Sakhanikha Bay in the south-west of the southern island of
Novaya Zemlya. Named
by hydrographs of the North Hidrographic expedition in
1930. |