Irina Viktorovna Dryagina (russian: Ирина Викторовна Дрягина; 31 March 1921 – 9 June 2017) was botanist and veteran of the Second World War. During the conflict, she served as a squadron commissar in the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment until the post of squadron commissar was abolished, after which she transferred to the post of assistant chief of the political department for the Komsomol of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, commanded by

Alexander Pokryshkin Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

Biography

Dryagina was born in

Saratov Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...

on 31 March 1921. Her father was a Volga sailor, then a captain of his own vessel. During her childhood, Dryagina and her family regularly sailed on a barge from

Astrakhan Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...

; her brother Viktor died when he was just 37 years old. She learned to fly at the Saratov aeroclub before entering the military in 1941. Having been a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

since 1940, she was initially made a squadron commissar. In May 1942 she was deployed to the Southern Front with the women's 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (later renamed as the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Aviation Regiment), and she participated in her first combat sortie later that month. While part of the night bomber regiment she participated in the battles for the Caucasus, Kuban, and Crimea, totaling 105 sorties on the

Po-2 The Polikarpov Po-2 (also U-2, for its initial ''uchebnyy'', 'training', role as a flight instruction aircraft) served as an all-weather multirole Soviet biplane, nicknamed ''Kukuruznik'' (russian: Кукурузник,Gunston 1995, p. 292. NA ...

. After the position of squadron commissar was officially abolished in 1943 she transferred to the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division as an assistant chief of the political department for the Komsomol.

Postwar

After the war, Dryagina studied at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. In the 1960s, she started working with the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in the All-Union Research Institute of Selection and Seed Production of Vegetable Crops. From 1963, she was assistant professor of the Department of Genetics, Biological and Soil. She completed her doctorate on 5 January 1972. From 1978 to 1984, she headed the Laboratory for Selection and Seed Production of Flower Cultures. Dryagina worked on varieties of iris, flowers and ornamental crops and named her varieties after pilots she had served with. In 2007 her memoirs were published, titled "Записки летчицы У-2" (English: ''Notes of the U-2 pilot''). She died in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 2017.

Awards

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of t ...

* Two

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War (russian: Орден Отечественной войны, Orden Otechestvennoy voiny) is a Soviet military decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to partisa ...

1st class * campaign and jubilee medals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dryagina, Irina 1921 births 2017 deaths Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Military personnel from Saratov Russian women botanists 20th-century Russian botanists Russian women scientists Soviet botanists Women air force personnel of the Soviet Union Night Witches aviators Soviet World War II bomber pilots Scientists from Saratov