Russian's Record Flight Over North Pole poster

In the early 1930s, the USSR wanted to prove its status as the world's leading aviation power. The long-haul flight was developed to realize this goal.

In this poster, Stalin celebrates the achievement of Soviet aviators and technology achieving the first non-stop flight over the North Pole in 1937. It was dubbed 'Stalin's Route'.

On 18 June 1937, pilot Valery Chkalov, co-pilot Georgy Baydukov and flight navigator Alexander Belyakov took off in a Tupolev ANT-25 aircraft from the Shchyolkovo airfield near Moscow and headed towards the North Pole. The flight lasted 63 hours and covered a distance of 8,504 km without a single stop before landing near Vancouver in Washington, United States of America.