The Day The Russians Invaded Vancouver

Framed photograph featuring the Soviet long distance aircraft which landed at Pearson Field in Vancouver Washington on June 20, 1937, 78 years ago today. Note the US Army personnel on guard with Smokey-the-Bear hats and long coats. The picture measures 19 inches by 14 1/2 inches in frame. $30

Full story of the flight below the slideshow.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

About the picture:

In mid-June of 1937 three Soviet pilots attempted a daring secret journey. They were bent flying non-stop, from Moscow to the west coast of the United States in service of their red overlords and the secret international cabal of communism.

Naturally, they were headed to San Francisco but like so many subversives ended up in the Portland area instead.

This was the era of daring flights and first flights, and this was both. Their mission: To make the first non-stop flight from Moscow to the United States over the North Pole.

In case of accident that might reflect poorly upon the Soviet management they took off in secret from Moscow at dawn on Friday morning.

As is often the case with secrets, the news started to leak out within 24 hours. Shortly thereafter people started paying attention to this attempt and the Canadian Signal Corps, with nothing else to do, started checking the airwaves for the flight. It was a major improvement on the white noise whiteout show which was the big hit program of the signal corps in the summer of ’37.

Things were not going as smoothly for the fliers as was initially hoped. First, navigation was a bit tricky. Compasses aren’t so useful at the poles, due to some complicated scientific thing about the direction of the magnetic poles and that there comes a time when north is down.

Then the weather turned bad, meaning they couldn’t navigate properly and had to rely on ‘dead reckoning’ (a.k.a. “I reckon we’ve got to get this right or we’ll be dead” navigation).

The weather conditions also presented them with storms, squalls and headwinds. It was damn cold too. Summer at the North Pole is comparatively nice but it is still icy at a few thousand feet altitude.

Icing made the plane less efficient, storms and headwinds mean they used fuel faster than planned. The drinking water froze, even the engine coolant started to freeze . . . resulting in an in-flight improvisation utilizing the crew’s own “salty fluid reserves” to keep the engines going.

The Canadians first heard from them early on Saturday morning and passed word onto the world that the Russians were indeed coming They expected to land somewhere “between Seattle and Oakland” depending on fuel use (ummm why not just say ‘somewhere in western north America’ instead?).  As they flew down the west coast the excited citizenry started to gather at likely landing places. Since they were specifically named by the Russians, the Seattle and Oakland airports acquired good-sized crowds. Portland’s own Swan Island airport was a possibility too and a large crowd assembled.

The Russians continued onward, but somewhere south of Salem they developed a fuel pump problem and turned northward. Destination: Portland!

June 20, 1937 presented middling temperatures (lows in the 50’s, high about 65) and clouds. Enough clouds that upon breaking through the deck at the Little Beirut airport the Russians were surprised to see a large crowd of people. A frighteningly large crowd of people. A crowd that elicited the fear of being charged and having the plane, or themselves, torn apart for souvenirs.

Wisely they turned north for refuge to the nearby US Army post at Pearson Field, Vancouver. The army, true to form was entirely surprised when a Soviet bomber aircraft arrived and landed on their airfield. Thankfully the Russians were unarmed and the post commander was George C. Marshall who was so excited at having something meaningful to do that he drove across the base golf course in his hurry to meet the Soviets. Marshall would later become famous as the architect of the Marshall Plan reconstructing Europe after World War Two, acted as Secretary of State and should perhaps be best remembered as the Army Chief Of Staff during the war.

The Russians were celebrated as heroes, both here and there and enjoyed a brief period of celebrity. All three crew were made Heroes of the Soviet Union. For the pilot Valery Chkalov this celebrity ended 18 months later with his death in a test flight crash. Such was his status that Molotov and Stalin served as pallbearers.

Co-pilot Georgiy Baydukov flew in the Second World War, helped secure American military aid and lived until 1988. The navigator, A. V. Belyakov survived until 1982, fought against the Germans during the Battle of Berlin, became a university professor and was elected to the Supreme Soviet.

Both Baydukov and Belyakov returned to Vancouver for the unveiling of a monument celebrating the flight in 1975.