On August 29, 1940, the engine of a Soviet fighter I-16, performing a flight in the sky over Stalinabad, failed. Below were residential areas of the city. Pilot Boris Baltsev, sacrificing his own life, steered the aircraft away from residential quarters, thereby saving peaceful citizens.

Major Boris Ivanovich Baltsev was born on January 8, 1908, in the city of Yaroslavl (Russia). In 1932, he graduated from a textile technical school in Ivanovo. From July 1932 to December 1933, he underwent training at the 11th Military Pilot School named after Myasnikov in Voroshilovgrad.

In December 1933, he was awarded the military rank of “lieutenant.” He participated in the national liberation war in Spain from January 14 to July 26, 1937, serving as a pilot of the I-16 fighter.

He had enemy aircraft shot down to his credit and was considered a master of aerial combat. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (June 27, 1937) and the medal “For Bravery” (November 14, 1938).

From February 1940, Major Baltsev served in the Central Asian Military District as deputy commander of the 116th Fighter Aviation Regiment stationed at an airfield near the settlement of Gissar in the Tajik SSR.

In April 1940, new I-16 fighters were delivered by train in disassembled form to Stalinabad, a total of 33 aircraft. The first thing the acceptance commission headed by Major Baltsev discovered on site was that most of the aircraft were delivered incomplete; in particular, 26 aircraft lacked pilot armor plating.

Nine I-16s were missing collector manifold cranes for external fuel tanks, and all the fittings for landing gear struts turned out to be from a different modification.

Acceptance tests began, which revealed some defects. Oil overheating and the resulting severe engine vibration were observed, as well as poor carburetor operation. Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties, pilots continued to fly and master the new aircraft.

On August 20, 1940, Major Baltsev participated in an air parade over Tashkent dedicated to Aviation Day.

“…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. They aimed at the enemy’s hangars. Bombs fell downward. The hangars burned.

Drowning out the enthusiastic exclamations of spectators with the ringing roar of engines, fighters flew over the airfield. They soared upward, then plummeted downward, performing intricate loops, Immelmans, barrel rolls…” (“Red Star,” August 20, 1940).

On August 29, 1940, a flight of five red-starred I-16 fighters of the 116th Fighter Aviation Regiment took off from the Gissar airfield to conduct bombing runs at one of the training ranges near Stalinabad.

At 9:30, having climbed to an altitude of 3,000 meters, the flight broke through light cloud cover and set course as assigned. Five minutes after takeoff, the engine of Major Viktor Baltsev’s aircraft, who was leading the flight, failed. As it was later determined, the cause of the failure was an interruption in fuel supply.

Boris unsuccessfully attempted to restart the engine, but the aircraft continued to lose speed and altitude. The cloud cover became thinner, and below, the city quarters of Stalinabad became visible.

The fighter, fully armed with a FAB-50 bomb mounted on the bomb rack and full fuel tanks, was plummeting rapidly toward the ground. He could have used his parachute, but then the aircraft would have crashed on the city quarters, and people would have died. Boris Baltsev, with tremendous effort, held the aircraft from falling; the I-16 crashed on a wasteland at the city’s edge, the pilot perished, but the city was saved.

On September 3, 1940, hundreds of citizens, delegations from industrial enterprises of Stalinabad, workers of the Tajik Civil Aviation Administration, members of the aero club, pilots of the 116th Stalinabad Fighter Aviation Regiment, and members of the City Council came to the funeral of Boris Ivanovich.

In 2020, through the efforts of the volunteer group “Memory-201,” the grave of Boris Baltsev was restored: a monument and new fencing were installed.