Abstract: Soviet pilot Lidiia Litviak was the first woman in the world to shoot down an enemy aircraft in combat, and has the highest documented score of any female pilot. She achieved this in fifteen and a half months of active service before she disappeared on 1 August 1943 during a dogfight over eastern Ukraine. Her remains were identified in 1979 and in 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev named her a Hero of the Soviet Union. Yet a rumor that Litviak was not killed in the war but survived and defected to the Germans has gained widespread acceptance. The author argues that based on accepted standards of plausibility, credibility and reliability, the preponderance of evidence shows that Lidiia Litviak died on 1 August 1943.
Citation: Reina Pennington, “The Death of Fighter Pilot Lidiia Litviak: Rumor and Hearsay as Historical Evidence,” Journal of Slavic Military Studies 37, no. 2 (2024).
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