Nikolai Kamanin

Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin
Kamanin (left) and Otto Schmidt
Native name	Никола́й Петро́вич Кама́нин
Born	(1908-10-18)18 October 1908 Melenki, Vladimir Governorate
Died	11 March 1982(1982-03-11) (aged 73) Moscow, Soviet Union
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service/branch	Red Army Soviet Air Forces
Years of service	1927-1972
Rank	Colonel General
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union Order of Lenin (3) Order of the October Revolution Order of the Red Banner (2) Order of Suvorov, 2nd class (2) Order of Kutuzov, 2nd class Order of the Red Star
Other work	Soviet space program, head of cosmonaut training

Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin (Russian: Никола́й Петро́вич Кама́нин) (18 October 1908 - 11 March 1982) was a Soviet aviator, awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1934 for the rescue of SS Chelyuskin crew from an improvised airfield on the frozen surface of the Chukchi Sea near Kolyuchin Island.

In World War II he successfully commanded an air brigade, air division, and air corps, reaching the rank of Airforce Colonel General and Air Army commander after the war. It was at this time that his son, Arkady Kamanin, became a fighter pilot at the age of 14, the youngest military pilot in world history.

From 1960-1971, General Kamanin was the head of cosmonaut training in the Soviet space program. He recruited and trained the first generation of cosmonauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov and Alexei Leonov. Kamanin was the Airforce representative to the space program, a proponent of manned orbital flight and Airforce influence over the Space Race. His diaries of this period, published in 1995-2001, are among the most important sources documenting the progress of the Soviet space program.

Nikolai Kamanin was born in Melenki, in Vladimir Governorate (now Melenkovsky District, Vladimir Oblast). Kamanin's grandfather was a wealthy shoemaker with his own workshop; however, his father, Pyotr Kamanin, broke with tradition and joined the Bolsheviks. He died in 1919 at the age of 49; mother, Stefanida Danilovna (1876–1964) lived all her life in Melenki. Stefanida and Pyotr Kamanin had 10 children; Nikolai survived all his four brothers. Alexander Ivanovich Kamanin, Nikolai's uncle, lived a very long life, including 50 years of religious hermitage, and had a reputation of a holy elder.