"Norway" in Gatchina
... April 1926. Audience geographical faculty of Leningrad University. It honors the crew of the airship "Norge".
In the hall there are members of the expedition led by Riesser Larsen, Vice Amundsen. On behalf of all present Amundsen sent a congratulatory telegram. And then start talking. And so the expedition meteorologist Finn Malmgren said that his work (as well as the success of the case) depends on the weather forecasts, which take on the radio. A young Walid Delakroa, radio operator by profession, just a lively interest in radio communications in flight conditions. The conversation got going, where they found a common language (German) and the overall theme that worried both - the upcoming flight.
And a few days Walid Delakroa with Finn Malmgren examines the unique at the time the airship "Norge", standing in Trotsky (since then called Gatchina).
Malmgren shows and radio - compactly mounted in a small radio room and its equipment has been very perfect.
The expedition was a radio operator known Russian polar explorer Gennady Olonkin. But transpolar flight to constantly be uninterrupted radio, needed a professional, experienced in a multilingual radioobmene. And Malmgren suggested Walid to become a member of the expedition as a radio operator.
Being the first in a new, undiscovered? Where there is not any man will rise!
But it is in its nature! And this has already happened. Even in 1923, the Maritime Register of the USSR held the first state certification of all signalers. Certificate radioman first class with the right to serve, as stated therein, "to the courts, bearing the Russian flag," the first among the women was just Walid Delakroa. It was her then twenty-two years ...
Telegrapher for pedigree
The fate of Waleed decided, as she herself said, "genes communication ...
Father Vladimir Walid Wittenburg in Warsaw and Lodz in charge of the telegraph stations. After the defeat in 1864, the tsarist troops of the Polish uprising of his exiled to Siberia for settlement. And in 1877 appointed telegrapher first class in Vladivostok.
In the family of her grandfather, Vladimir Wittenburg and his wife, Maria Ivanovna had nine children. The eldest daughter, Elena Wittenburg before marriage also worked as a telegrapher. In 1891, she married a Frenchman Ernest Delakroa - also an employee of telegraph. In 1904, Ernest Delakroa arrived in St. Petersburg.
But a decisive role in choosing a profession played, probably, still older brother Walid Vladimir Delakroa. After graduating from a technical school in 1910, he joined the Electrical Department (Department) Electrotechnical Institute. Alexander III. From the first days of the revolution worked in radiootdele Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs, first in Petrograd, then in Moscow. Participated in the installation and trial operation of the first in our country phototelegraphic apparatus for communication with Berlin, as well as highways connecting Moscow to Leningrad, Sverdlovsk, Tashkent and other cities of the USSR.
The summer of 1942 Vladimir Delakroa arrested and convicted under the infamous Article 58. In 1943, he died in the East-Urallage. In 1957 it completely rehabilitated due to "lack of evidence" ...
First appointment
Immediately after high school Walid completed the first professional school of the Moscow Radio personnel, was assigned to the Volga to Kazan. Initially as a trainee, understudy to the military field radios learned to encrypt. The next "step" radioraboty was interesting, exciting, or something. We had to catch big (like it was in those days) rate - more than 100 characters per minute. In the new duties include reception and press these "whales" of the international radio as they were German, French, Scandinavian and other wireless operators.
And Walid became involved in painting. Began to be engaged in the artist Pavel Mansurov. It is this passion led her to the sea ...
It all started with a meeting of old friends - talented young artists Pavel Mansurov, and Vladimir Tatlin. In the past, Tatlin was a sailor and a friend, first mate of the ship "Karl Marx", he knew that in Petrograd the port are seagoing vessels that can not go to sea because of lack of radio operators. Learning from Mansurova that Delakroa on the main profession radioman, Tatlin had recommended her to work in Baltmortran (both formerly known as the Baltic Shipping Company).
But was not forgotten and the second love - painting. In 1922 Walid Delakroa became a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Petrograd, and four years later, having finished their studies - a professional artist.
No room for error
But the sea was still in the first place. Flights to distant lands: first, Europe - Germany, England, Scotland, Denmark, and then America and overseas Asian countries. Walid Delakroa went on such vessels as "Karl Marx" (before the revolution - "Diana"). By the way, the captain of her from 1899 to 1903 was the legendary Peter P. Schmidt. Then - on "Kamo" led by "accident-free captain AP Smirnova, with whom was a friend of many years. In addition, its record number and "Karl Liebknecht", and "Decembrist" (formerly "Anadyr", in the Russian-Japanese War took part in the Battle of Tsushima).
In these flights young wireless-operator was an excellent school, moreover, in a very difficult international environment. The slightest error in the radio could lead to serious political complications.
... Offer Finn Malmgren to become a member of the team Amundsen Walid, alas, failed to take advantage. The reason was purely personal - seriously ill mother. Soon after she died ...
But life went on. And once it became clear that an excellent knowledge of French, English and German languages is not enough. Walid ordered to urgently learn Italian. Later it became known that he was talking about the case of national importance: the biggest in the Baltic cargo-passenger ship "Transbalt" preparing to carry out special assignments. It should have been delivered to an international conference in Genoa, our diplomatic mission, headed by Lenin.
However, fearing an attempt on the head of government, in Genoa, it was decided to send George Chicherina, and not by sea. The flight did not take place, but yet another recognition of our heroine, in my opinion, obviously.
In the late 1920 Walid Ernestovna was on for a new pedagogical endeavors. In Petrograd the first time in the country opened up the sea of radio at college. Delakroa invited to conduct classes on practical radio.
But not everyone was clear the role of radio in the sea. "Swam without a century, radio, and live there now," - said very experienced sailors. And not only them. And in 1925 in college unexpectedly to all come under strict orders from Moscow: "Exchange close! As useless!"
The initiative to restore the rates assumed Walid Ernestovna. In Moscow, she was able to achieve and more: it was allowed to open a special radio department of the Leningrad naval college. Half a century later, after World War II, it became a base for the opening of Radio Engineering Faculty of the Higher Marine Engineering College of. Admiral Makarov.
... By flying, but the memory of the pioneers - the first women who have conquered a man's true profession - still alive today. In 1972 Walid Ernestovna Delakroa (in marriage Nesmelova) is not. In 1999, it was noted
100 th anniversary of her birth. Holy preserves the memory of his mother's son, Nikita Sergeyevich Nesmelov. It organizes exhibitions of paintings and graphic works, published articles and memories, creating videos.
In honor of an amazing woman named passenger boat Radist Nesmelova. And on the Radio Engineering Department Naval Academy. Admiral Makarov hangs a marble plaque: "the first female radio operator of the USSR on seagoing ships" ...
//Alla SOKOLOVSKY
http://www.nvspb.ru/stories/russkoj_..._pomogali_genu