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Nikolai Melnyk, helicopter pilot hero, R.I.P.


DiCE81

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indeed, but what about all the other Hero's?

 

Lots of people have given there lives, right there and then.

 

Nothing negative towards Nikolai Melnyk though, just saying he was one of many hero's there.

Edit: Skimming, misread your meaning.


Edited by maturin
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RIP. A hero to be sure.

 

And I suspect that most of them were heroes because they were good at killing people in wars

 

Time to ask what makes someone deserving of a "hero" award. Mr. Melnyk was doing his job, just like a good many attack helicopter pilots have done. It's more complicated than you make it out to be.

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Why Melnyk? Besides the fact that he just died, the Soviet government would often choose (usually deserving) people to become symbolic of a larger effort. PR heroes or figureheads.

 

But it goes without saying that Soviet society rarely erred on the side of individual credit (Stalin/Lenin aside) and always stressed the collective nature of any struggle or achievement.


Edited by maturin
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  • 2 weeks later...

I didn't manage to meet him in person while I was working with Ka-32 helicopters but he was a partner of my previous company and all of my older colleagues knew him so I've heard a lot about him. After Chernobyl he has got leucaemia (blood cancer) and his blood has been changed every year.

"See, to me that's a stupid instrument. It tells what your angle of attack is. If you don't know you shouldn't be flying." - Chuck Yeager, from the back seat of F-15D at age 89.

=RvE=

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