{{Short description|Soviet air force officer (1920–1962)}} {{Infobox military person |name = Pyotr Dolgov |birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1920|02|21}} |death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1962|11|01|1920|02|21}} |birth_place = Bogoyavlenskoye (now Dolgovo) in Zemetchinsky District, Penza Oblast |death_place = Stratosphere, above Volsk, USSR (now Russia) |burial_place= |image = PyotrDolgov.jpg |image_size = |caption = |nickname = |allegiance = {{USSR}} |branch = Soviet airborne forces |service_years = 1940–1962 |rank = Colonel |commands = |unit = |battles = |awards = Hero of the Soviet Union |relations = |other_work = }} thumb|right|Volga balloon gondola from which Dolgov made his fatal jump '''Pyotr Ivanovich Dolgov''' ({{langx|ru|Пётр Иванович Долгов}}; 21 February 1920 – 1 November 1962) (Hero of the Soviet Union)<ref name="warheroes">{{cite web |url=http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1875 |title=Hero of the Soviet Union Pyotr Dolgov: Heroes of the country |last=Ufarkinym |first=Nikolai V. |date=2000–2011 |access-date=15 July 2021 |publisher=Патриотический интернет проект "Герои Страны"}}</ref> was a colonel in the Soviet airborne forces. Dolgov died while carrying out a high-altitude parachute jump from a {{ill|Volga balloon|ru|Волга (стратостат)}} gondola.<ref name="warheroes"/><ref name="Astronautix">{{cite web |url=http://astronautix.com/astros/dolgov.htm |title=Dolgov |access-date=15 July 2021 |publisher=astronautix.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927040650/http://astronautix.com/astros/dolgov.htm |archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref><ref name="Vector Site">{{cite web |url=http://www.vectorsite.net/tamrc_15.html |title=[15.0] Stepping Up The Pace |last=Goebel |first=Greg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811053119/http://www.vectorsite.net/tamrc_15.html |date=1 March 2015 |archive-date=11 August 2016 |access-date=15 July 2021 |url-status=usurped |publisher=vectorsite.net}}</ref><ref name="Footnote">Dolgov's year of death is given as both 1961 and 1962 by the [https://web.archive.org/web/20020705003646/http://www.astronautix.com/index.html Encyclopedia Astronautica], but as 1962 by Goebel and at warheroes.ru. 1962 is correct, as shown by the ''Der Spiegel'' obituary cited below.</ref>

==Early life and career== Dolgov was born into a family of farmers in the village of Bogoyavlenskoye (now Dolgovo) in Zemetchinsky District, Penza Oblast. He served with the Soviet airborne in World War II.<ref name="warheroes"/> In January 1945, Dolgov became a company commander in the 350th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 114th Guards Rifle Division. Dolgov participated in the Budapest Offensive and the Vienna Offensive. On 6 April, Dolgov reportedly knocked out a self-propelled gun and killed 40 German soldiers. He was wounded but allegedly refused to leave the battlefield. Dolgov graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School in 1947.<ref name="warheroes" /> He worked as a parachute tester. He made 1409 jumps, setting eight world and Soviet records.

He reportedly designed the ejection seats for the Vostok spacecraft.<ref name="Spiegel">{{cite journal |journal=Der Spiegel |title=DER SPIEGEL 47/1962 - PJOTR IWANOWITSCH DOLGOW |issue=47 |date=21 November 1962 |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45125021.html |language=German |access-date=19 October 2012}}</ref>

==Death== On 1 November 1962, Dolgov and Major Yevgeni Nikolayevich Andreyev ascended in a Volga balloon gondola from Volsk, near Saratov,<ref name="StratoCat">{{cite web |url=http://stratocat.com.ar/globos/1962e.htm |title=Stratospheric balloons launched worldwide in 1962 |year=2012 |publisher=StratoCat |access-date=15 October 2012}}</ref> to make high-altitude parachute jumps. Andreyev successfully completed his jump. Dolgov, testing an experimental pressure suit, jumped at {{Convert|28640|m}}. The helmet visor of Dolgov's pressure suit hit part of the gondola as he exited, and the suit depressurized, killing him.<ref name="warheroes"/><ref name="Astronautix"/><ref name="Vector Site"/> On 12 December 1962, Dolgov was posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union.<ref name="warheroes"/>

If Dolgov's jump had been successful, he still would not have exceeded the record set by Joseph Kittinger for the highest-altitude parachute jump in history ({{Convert|31300|m}}, 16 August 1960). The current world record is held by Alan Eustace ({{Convert|41425|m}}, 24 October 2014).

==Legacy== At the time of Dolgov's death, the Soviet Army newspaper ''Red Star'' announced that he had died in the course of "carrying out his duties".<ref name="Spiegel"/> Over the years there have been false reports that Dolgov actually died on 11 October 1960, in a failed flight of a Vostok spacecraft.<ref name="Astronautix"/><ref name="Vector Site"/>

A fictionalized version of Dolgov's death (incorrectly dated in February 1961) appears in the short story "The Chief Designer" by Andy Duncan, which was published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' magazine and was a Hugo finalist.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110927040650/http://astronautix.com/astros/dolgov.htm Dolgov at Encyclopedia Astronautica] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20051228231500/http://www.asimovs.com/Nebulas03/thechief.shtml Text of "The Chief Designer"] *[http://www.asfs.org/id21.htm Interview with Andy Duncan about "The Chief Designer"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051221071731/http://www.asfs.org/id21.htm |date=2005-12-21 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolgov, Pyotr Ivanovich}} Category:1920 births Category:1962 deaths Category:People from Zemetchinsky District Category:People from Morshansky Uyezd Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Category:Soviet Air Force officers Category:Personnel of the Soviet Airborne Forces Category:Soviet balloonists Category:Soviet parachuting pioneers Category:Soviet spaceflight pioneers Category:Space diving Category:Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School alumni Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize Category:Heroes of the Soviet Union Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Category:Decompression accidents and incidents Category:Accidental deaths in the Soviet Union