How pilot Boris Baltsev saved Stalinabad at the cost of his life

When the engine of a Soviet I-16 fighter failed over Stalinabad on August 29, 1940, Major Boris Baltsev had residential areas below him. He steered the falling aircraft away from the city, sacrificing his own life to save civilians.

Baltsev was born in Yaroslavl on January 8, 1908. After graduating from a textile technical school in Ivanovo, he trained at the 11th Military Pilot School in Voroshilovgrad and received the rank of lieutenant in December 1933.

He served as an I-16 pilot during the national liberation war in Spain from January to July 1937. He was credited with shooting down enemy aircraft and was regarded as a master of aerial combat. His awards included the Order of the Red Banner and the medal “For Bravery.”

From February 1940, Baltsev served as deputy commander of the 116th Fighter Aviation Regiment in the Central Asian Military District. The regiment operated from an airfield near Gissar in the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.

The regiment had received 33 new I-16 fighters in April, but many arrived incomplete. Twenty-six lacked pilot armor plating, nine were missing parts for external fuel tanks, and the landing-gear fittings belonged to another modification. Tests also found oil overheating, severe engine vibration and carburetor problems. Despite those defects, pilots continued training. On August 29, five fighters took off from Gissar for a bombing exercise near Stalinabad. Five minutes after takeoff, the engine of Baltsev's aircraft failed while he was leading the formation.

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The enormous airfield of the civil air fleet was festively decorated. Attack aircraft flew low over the airfield. Leading them was the master of aerial combat, Major Boris Baltsev.