Li-2 crash site (Sol-Iletsk)

The Li-2 crash site is a memorial in the Sol-Iletsk district of the Orenburg region, in the steppe by the road to Akbulak and the Kazakhstan border, near Elshanka and the former villages of Saratovka and Boevogorskaya. On the night of 2 March 1943 a transport plane crashed here, killing Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Pavlovich Gorodnichev among others. This memorial to a fallen plane near Sol-Iletsk should not be confused with the An-2 aircraft displayed on the "machinery alley" on Yuzhnaya Street in the town itself.

History of the crash

On 2 March 1943 the Li-2 was heading for Orenburg when the weather turned sharply: clouds closed in and a snowstorm began. With poor visibility the crew could not reach the Orenburg airfield and tried to make an emergency landing near Sol-Iletsk. According to local historians, the plane came down about 7 km from the Sol-Iletsk airfield, and nine people died.

Among the dead was Guards Major Nikolai Pavlovich Gorodnichev, Hero of the Soviet Union. The plane was found by residents of Saratovka and Boevogorskaya, who also helped unload the surviving cargo. The authorities learned where it had crashed only once the snowstorm died down.

During the war Sol-Iletsk was an important home-front town: military trains passed through its railway junction, and it had hospitals for the badly wounded, factories and training units.

Legends and accounts

Old residents recalled hearing a low-flying plane at night, struggling through the snowstorm. As it neared Sol-Iletsk the sound stopped, and people assumed it had landed safely. Retellings differ on how the crash happened: some speak of an emergency landing, others of the plane falling, and the story that neither crew nor passengers were found near the wreck is not backed by documents.

What to see

At the crash site stands a memorial sign, described as shaped like an aircraft tail. Sol-Iletsk itself keeps Gorodnichev's memory: his remains lie in the town's Park of Military Glory, and a street and the mechanical shop of the machine-building plant bear his name. In 1967 the pioneer group of School No. 4 was named after him; a bust stands by the school, and in the school's Military Glory museum the "Poisk" search group tells visitors about the pilot's life. His son, German Nikolaevich Gorodnichev, made a film about him that was shown on district television and given to the museum.

Getting there

The sign is in open countryside of the Sol-Iletsk district, by the Orenburg – Sol-Iletsk – Akbulak road that leads to the Kazakhstan border. It is easiest to drive from Sol-Iletsk towards Elshanka; use the map pin, as there may be no signposts in the steppe.