As is probably the case with any new project, I had no idea where to start with my research. Of course I did have some idea of what might interest the readers—thanks to my work as a researcher with Western historians, in the first place Antony Beevor and Max Hastings, the two people that showed me how interesting history can be, for which I am immensely grateful. Now, however, I was on my own. After discovering that most of the women pilots were already dead I felt somewhat disheartened. But, as a Russian saying goes, “The world is not without kind people.” My Moscow friend, the great historian Anatoly Chernobaev, editor of the journal Istoricheskii Arkhiv, encouraged me to look for materials at the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (TsAMO) and assured me that whatever happened with the book project, he would publish my article about these girl pilots in his journal.
The Russian “Aviatrissa” club that brings together female pilots did all they could to help me, with both contacts and informative literature. I deeply admire these women for the care and attention they pay to those of their fellows who are elderly and in poor health. A member of “Aviatrissa,” Lidiya Zaitseva, famous Soviet pilot and holder of many records, set to help me from the minute we met. She shared contacts, recommended literature and even personally took me to Kaluga to meet armorer Valentina Krasnoshchyokova. I cannot thank her enough.
It was also the “Aviatrissa” club that put me in touch with Anatoly Kanevsky, pilot and journalist, great enthusiast of aviation. Anatoly was extremely supportive and helped with advice, contacts and information.
I do not know how I will ever repay the kindness of several historians who helped me. After reading the book Wings, Women and War by American scholar Reina Pennington, I wrote to her. Reina was kind to me and generously shared whatever materials and information she could provide. For example, she shared an absolutely unique document, the unpublished memoir of Major Alexander Gridnev, who commanded the female fighter regiment from 1942.
Academic Mikhail Rudenko pointed me to the diary of Communist youth administrator Nina Ivakina, which was published as an appendix to another book and therefore was not listed in any catalogs.
I wrote to Artyom Drabkin who compiled the best-ever Russian collections of interviews of war veterans and, in spite of being a very busy man and the author of bestsellers, Artyom immediately replied and has been most generous and helpful.
Two school teachers, amazing enthusiasts of their work, were of enormous help to me and made a very strong impression—Emiliya Gaidukova and Valentina Vashchenko. Both of them were in charge of school museums and dedicated spare time to organizing their students and conducting research in order to commemorate the soldiers who died while fighting for their area of the U.S.S.R.—Vyazma oblast for Emiliya and Donbass for Valentina. Each had one particular person who was the main focus of their work: for Emiliya Gaidukova it was Katya Budanova and for Valentina Vashchenko it was Lilya Litvyak. After meeting these women I knew so much more about my heroines.
My heart is filled with gratitude to all those I have mentioned above. Another person to thank is my agent Andrew Nurnberg. He received the idea of such a book with great enthusiasm and encouraged me whenever I needed encouragement.
The person who I would like to thank most of all though, is my husband Martin. He is a pilot with a lot of experience and great enthusiasm, and it was he who explained the technical details, corrected what I wrote and even sent me flying a Yak. Not only that. Martin encouraged me to research and to write this story when both the timing and our location seemed absolutely unsuitable for both.