Valery Chkalov (January 20 (February 2) 1904, Vasilyovo, Balakhna district, Nizhny Novgorod province, Russian Empire (now Chkalovsk, City district of Chkalovsk, Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia) - December 15, 1938, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR) - Soviet test pilot, brigade commander (1938), Hero of the Soviet Union (1936).
The crew commander of the aircraft that made the first non-stop flight across the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver, Wash., In 1937.
At the age of seven, Valery went to study at Vasilev Primary School. He studied moderately, but stood out with excellent memory and good mathematical skills, had a calm, balanced character, like many of his peers, he swam well, swam across the Volga, and dived under rafts and steamers. In 1916, after graduating from school, his father sent him to study at the Cherepovets Technical School (now the Cherepovets Forest Engineering College named after V.P. Chkalov). However, due to material difficulties and a shortage of teachers in 1918, the school was closed. Valery returned home and began working with his father as a hammerman's assistant, and with the start of navigation, a fireman on the Volzhskaya-1 excavator and the steamship Bayan.