Mazuruk briefly served in the Soviet Air Forces during the late 1920s and then became a Civil Air Fleet pilot. After becoming a polar aviator, he commanded a modified Tupolev TB-3 during the North Pole-1 drifting ice station mission, it was the first such mission. For his actions Mazuruk was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He became head of the Glavsevmorput Polar Aviation Directorate. After rejoining the Soviet Air Forces, Mazuruk flew combat missions in the Winter War and World War II. Between 1942 and 1944, he successively led the Krasnoyarsk Air Route and the 1st Ferry Aviation Division, both responsible for ferrying Allied Lend-Lease aircraft from Alaska to Siberia. Mazuruk reached the rank of major general after the end of the war and continued to participate in polar expeditions, retiring from the Air Forces in 1953. He worked at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute after his retirement and died in 1989.
Early life
Mazuruk was born in Brest-Litovsk on 20 July 1906. In 1915, he moved to Lgov. Mazuruk graduated from primary school and until 1919 studied at a higher primary school. Between 1919 and 1920 he worked as a laborer at the Lgov railway station. In the summer of 1920 he and his family moved to Rivne, which soon became part of Poland. Mazuruk worked as a laborer at the railway station and as a night watchman at the hospital. In April 1923, he illegally crossed the border and immigrated to the Soviet Union.[1]
Between 1923 and 1924, Mazuruk worked as an assistant engineer at a power plant in Lipetsk. From 1924 to 1926, he was secretary of the Komsomol Volost Committee in the village of Kuzminskiye Otverzhki and the Lipetsky Uyezd Komsomol Committee, and head of the school department of the Oryol Governorate Komsomol Committee. Between 1926 and 1927, Mazuruk was deputy head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Oryol City Party Committee.[1]
Air Forces and Civil Air Fleet work
In October 1927, Mazuruk was sent into the Soviet Air Forces on a Komsomol travel ticket.[2]: 225 In 1928, he graduated from the Leningrad Air Force Military-Theoretical School. In 1929, Mazuruk graduated from the Borisoglebsk Air Force Pilot School.[3] In November 1929, he was demobilized. Between 1930 and 1932 he worked as a GVF (Civil Air Fleet) pilot in Central Asia. From April to June 1930, Mazuruk participated in the fighting against the Basmachi movement. In 1932, he became a pilot and detachment commander in the Far Eastern Directorate of the GVF. He was one of the first pilots to master a number of new air routes. In 1936, Mazuruk graduated from courses at the Bataysk GVF Flight School.[1]
Polar exploration
From October 1936, Mazuruk was a polar aviation pilot. In 1937, Mazuruk commanded a modified Tupolev TB-3 aircraft that airlifted personnel and material to North Pole-1, the first North Pole manned drifting station. His plane arrived at NP-1 on 26 May after an emergency landing, the last to arrive at the station.[4]: 76 He was decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin for his participation in this historic mission[3] on 27 June. In May 1938, he became head of the Polar Aviation Directorate of Glavsevmorput.[1]
Great Patriotic War
In January 1939, Mazuruk rejoined the Soviet Air Forces, receiving the rank of colonel on 29 January. In the same year, he graduated from refresher courses at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. Mazuruk fought in the Winter War between December 1939 and March 1940. He commanded a separate night bomber aviation squadron of the 8th Army Air Force. Mazuruk flew on several TB-3 missions. Mazuruk fought in the Great Patriotic War from June to October 1941, commanding the 2nd Aviation Group of the Northern Fleet Air Force. He flew on several sorties, including a Soviet raid on German naval bases in the Varangerfjord.[1]
Between December 1941 and August 1942, Mazuruk served as deputy head of Glavsevmorput and at the same time was the head of polar aviation. After the July 1942 destruction of Convoy PQ 17, he took part in the search for survivors and helped evacuate sailors from Novaya Zemlya.[5]: 308–311 In August 1942, he became head of the Krasnoyarsk Air Route, responsible for ferrying United States Lend-Lease aircraft. From June 1943 to June 1944, Mazuruk commanded the 1st Ferry Aviation Division, also responsible for ferrying aircraft.[1] During the war over 8,000 aircraft were delivered to the USSR via this route.[6] In late May 1944, Mazuruk met American Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the latter's Siberian visit.[7] In June 1944, he became deputy head of Glavsevmorput and head of polar aviation again, a position he held until March 1947.[1]
In 1940, Mazuruk wrote a children's book, Our Aviation (Russian: Наша авиация), published by Detizdat. Our Aviation went through multiple editions and was translated into Latvian, Bulgarian, and Romanian. In 1949 he wrote Pilots' Guide for Northern flights and Taiga conditions (Russian: Памятка пилоту для полетов в северных и таежных условиях), published by Aeroflot. In 1953 he wrote On Our Aviation (Russian: О нашей авиации) for older schoolchildren, also published by Detizdat. During his last years Mazuruk co-wrote Above the Arctic and Antarctic (Russian: Над Арктикой и Антарктикой) and Aeroflot Test Pilots (Russian: Летчики-испытатели Аэрофлота) with Alexander Lebedev, both published in 1991.[1][8]
