Mikhail Vodopyanov (1899–1980) was a Soviet aircraft pilot, a participant in the Chelyuskin expedition rescue operation in 1934, one of the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union (1934), a Participant of high-latitude Arctic expeditions. He was a Major General of Aviation (1943).
Mikhail Vodopyanov was born on November 6 (18), 1899, in the village of Bolshiye Studyonki (presently, part of the city of Lipetsk) of the Lipetsk Uyezd, Tambov Province. In 1929, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Technical School and worked in the Transaviation Far Eastern Air Lines Directorate of the Dobrolyot Company in Khabarovsk. On January 10 of 1930, onboard the plane Junkers F-13 (flight number SSSR-127) he laid the air route Khabarovsk - Okha - Alexandrovsk-on-Sakhalin. In 1934, he insisted on being sent to participate in the rescue operation of the team of the Chelyuskin steamship. Onboard an R-5 airplane, he made a flight of almost 6,500 km from Khabarovsk to Vankarem accompanied by V. Galyshev and I. Doronin. In March of 1935, he made a flight along the route Moscow - Sverdlovsk - Omsk - Krasnoyarsk - Irkutsk - Chita - Khabarovsk - Nikolaevsk-on-Amur - Okhotsk - Magadan - Gizhiga - Anadyr - Uelen - Cape Schmidt in order to lay a new air path for the arrangement of postal and passenger communications.
Mikhail Vodopyanov was a participant in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940 as the commander of the TB-3 heavy bomber. He participated in the Great Patriotic War from July of 1941 as the commander of the 81st Long Range Bomber Aviation Division. In 1948-1950s, he participated in the military high-latitude expeditions Sever (North) and Sever-2 (North-2).
M. Vodopyanov is the author of two dozens of biographical books about the conquest of the sky, a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.
The envelope with a commemorative stamp provides a portrait of Major General of Aviation Mikhail Vodopyanov against a panorama of Berlin and flying TB-7 airplanes; the commemorative stamp features the emblem of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
| Denomination |
Paper |
Printing method |
Format of the envelope |
Edition |
| Letter “A” |
High Whiteness Modified (HWM) |
Offset |
110 × 220 mm |
0,5 million copies |