There is a widespread belief that the parachute that Kotelnikov developed was not approved for use by the military - supposedly the command did not want them to leave the planes. We have verified the veracity of such statements.

The backpack parachute, modeled by actor and self-taught inventor Gleb Kotelnikov in 1911–1912, is considered one of the most famous Russian inventions of the 20th century. At the same time, many thematic materials note that in their homeland they did not give it a chance even during the First World War, when a parachute could have saved the lives of aviators. It is often stated that Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich was an opponent of parachutes. He allegedly said that “a parachute is a harmful thing” because pilots would jump from the plane prematurely instead of saving the expensive device. This statement can also be found in popular science books, and in newspaper articles, and in blogs.

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (1866–1933), cousin and at the same time brother-in-law of Emperor Nicholas II, was one of the main enthusiasts of the development of military aviation in Russia. During the First World War, he was in charge of aviation on the Southwestern Front, and from February 1915 - in the entire army of the Russian Empire.

For the first time, information that the Grand Duke had a negative attitude towards parachutes is found in the book of Kotelnikov himself “The story of one invention: the Russian parachute", published already in Soviet times, in 1938. As one might expect, it contains very harsh assessments of pre-revolutionary Russia and its ruling class. In particular, Kotelnikov writes:

At the end of the imperialist war, the parachute already had many friends. There were generals who appreciated the benefits of a parachute. They asked Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who was then the chief commander of the Russian air force, to introduce parachutes into aviation. On this report, the prince wrote the following resolution: “A parachute in general in aviation is a harmful thing, since pilots, at the slightest danger threatening them from the enemy, will escape by parachute, leaving their planes to destruction.”

What a striking contrast with this resolution are the wonderful words spoken by the great leader of our country, Comrade. Stalin to one of our valiant pilots, now a hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Chkalov: “Your life is more valuable to us than any machine.”

Compare these words. In them, in these words, you will see how people were treated in Tsarist Russia and how they are treated now in our country. Then the tsarist government was afraid to trust not only the soldiers, but even its officers. Now, these wonderful words of our leader reflect that genuine concern of the Soviet state for people, which makes a person’s work joyful and life happy.

In the second edition (1939), Kotelnikov added more pathos:

This cynical grand-ducal resolution, like the sun in a drop of water, reflected the entire regime of that time, the entire era, the entire state of our country: huge, helpless, technically backward, crushed under the heavy boot of autocracy. In this vast Russia there were very few cars and too many people - this “cannon fodder”, even officers, because in those days, as a rule, only “gentlemen officers” could be pilots.

At the same time, Kotelnikov does not indicate how he became aware of the Grand Duke’s resolution. It is no coincidence that the most complete biography of Kotelnikov by Gennady Chernenko (1988) there is no phrase from the Grand Duke about the dangers of parachutes.

In the works of military historians devoted to Russian aviation during the First World War, criticism of parachutes by Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich is not mentioned. In the article by Leonid Minov “The use of parachutes in the Russian army during the First World War"(1976) it is indicated that at the beginning of the war, the Main Military-Technical Directorate ordered 70 parachutes of the Kotelnikov system, which were allocated to the Ilya Muromets bomber squads and aeronautical companies that used airships. However, parachutes lay idle for a long time due to the fact that the pilots themselves were “not morally prepared” to use them, that is, they obviously did not trust the new invention.

The situation changed when it became known about the successful parachute jumps of a group of French balloonists near Verdun in the spring of 1916. After this, Major General Anatoly Barsov, head of the office of the head of aviation and aeronautics of the active army, that is, that same Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, issued circular No. 10493 on June 10, 1916, ordering the immediate issuance of parachutes to all interested aeronauts. There were not enough Kotelnikov parachutes, and the Russian command ordered a large batch of Zhukmez system parachutes from France. At the same time, aviators tried to refine Kotelnikov’s model, which was reflected in the “Instructions for using parachutes on kite balloons” dated October 25, 1916. According to Minov, from January 25 to November 7, 1917, military aeronauts made 65 parachute jumps from balloons and airships, including 29 voluntary and 36 forced, that is, the use of parachute among Russian military aeronauts became widespread. As for aviation, Minov mentions only one training jump from a biplane in July 1917, but this initiative “was not supported by the leaders of the air fleet and did not spread.” Unfortunately, Minov does not specify who exactly opposed it, but it could not have been Alexander Mikhailovich, since he was dismissed from service in the spring of that year, after the February Revolution.

It is noteworthy that a very similar story about the ban on the use of parachutes by aviators is set out in the memoirs of the British military pilot Arthur Lee “No parachute. Fighter pilot in World War I"(1968). Lee notes that during and after the war, there were widespread rumors that pilots were not given parachutes for fear that they would abandon expensive aircraft unless absolutely necessary. According to Lee, he did not find a single document in the archives of the British War Department where such a point of view was expressed explicitly. But skepticism towards parachutes was characteristic of the entire command of the British aviation, so the Colthrop model parachute, patented back in 1913 (two years later than Kotelnikov) and successfully tested, was never used by British pilots (as opposed to aeronauts) in the First World War.

It can be assumed that a similar picture was typical for the Russian army. There is no documentary evidence that the command ever officially banned parachutes, and the quote attributed to Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich was almost certainly invented by Kotelnikov himself. However, rumors that management cared more about machines than people may indeed have been as widespread among Russian pilots as among British ones. However, both the command and, probably, at least some of the pilots simply did not trust parachutes, so they were used less often than they could have been.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons