MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS Correspondent Polina Boldyreva/. The plane that once served leader of the USSR Communist Party winds up the lifecycle north of the Arctic Circle. The Ilyushin Il-14P liner in 1959 "helped" Khrushchev persuade writer Mikhail Sholokhov to travel to America, later on, after a crash, the aircraft still continued working, it transported a cosmonaut and used to supply Arctic stations. Here is how at the end of its story, it ended up lying in the "airplane cemetery" far away in the North.

Abandoned aircraft

In 2025, aviation in Russia's biggest region, Yakutia, celebrates its 100th anniversary. Here, on the edge of the earth, is the village of Chersky with a monument to the Lisunov Li-2 aircraft, used in the Arctic exploration in the 20th century. The Kolyma River's icy waters run westwards, and the endless tundra stretches towards the east.

"A hundred years ago, newspaper articles were telling about how Yakuts reacted to airplanes. Many people back then saw them for the first time, thinking those were some weird animals. The locals were sure those were exceptional crafts," aviation historian Viktor Mazurenko said.

Here, in the village of Chersky, outside the existing airport, remains the plane on which Nikita Khrushchev flew to visit Mikhail Sholokhov, author of The Quiet Don and the Nobel Prize winner. Grass is sprouting through the fuselage of the once famous aircraft.

A special-purpose aircraft

The IL-14P was developed at Sergei Ilyushin's design bureau in Moscow in the middle of 1950. Letter "P" indicates this is a passenger configuration.

The Il-14 aircraft was a historic epoch in the Soviet civil aviation: the cargo it transported has increased many times, new flight routes appeared. The aircraft was reliable, safe, and comfortable, historians say. It was the last Soviet passenger liner with piston engines. Further on, it was replaced with more powerful turbojet aircraft.

The plane, which now remains in the Yakut tundra, was assembled at the Moscow aircraft factory in 1957, and that year it joined the newly formed special-purpose aviation squadron.

"Back then, in the 60s, right when Khrushchev took the office, the USSR became more open to the world, and at that time began flights to improve cooperation between countries. That's when a special squadron was organized. It served planes for top officials," aviation historian Vasily Gogolev said.

Nikita Khrushchev wrote in memoirs that airplanes had captivated him in the youth. "I flew when I worked in Kiev in 1928-1929. Pilot Deich served there. <...> and he "treated" me to an airplane flight for the first time in my life. It made a strong impression on me. Later on, I often flew Junkers...> So, by that time, I was already an "airwolf". When I worked in Moscow as the party secretary, I even flew an experimental Stal-2 aircraft."

When Khrushchev became the party leader, he could use an air fleet. "The concept of a "personal plane" did not exist either in the USSR or now. Planes were just on duty. For example, one plane flies today, and the next day - another one," the historian said.

However, the special-squadron airliners anyway differed from regular ones: they had a more spacious cabin with wide upholstered chairs and tables, as well as a small kitchen. Such an aircraft could take up to 18 passengers. Various memoirs say Khrushchev paid great attention to comfort during flights. Later on, in 1960, when shown the French passenger liner Caravelle, where there was almost no vibration in the cabin, the Soviet leader ordered aircraft designers to create an aircraft not inferior in comfort to the Caravelle.

Meeting on the Don

That very Il-14P did not serve in the special aviation squad for long, though it was on the iconic photo of the meeting between Khrushchev and the Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Sholokhov. Khrushchev and his family flew to see the writer in the Rostov Region's village of Vyoshenskaya in the summer of 1959.

On the photo, smiling Khrushchev waves a white hat to greeting people as he is walking against the background of a rounded fuselage with the inscription "USSR." According to the Sholokhov Museum, together with the writer, the country leader sailed along the Don on motor boats, went duck hunting, and at the writer's house guests were treated to the famous Don fish soup of sterlet.

At that time, Khrushchev invited Sholokhov to join the Soviet delegation on the first official visit to the US, which took place a month later.

Historians are not sure how many flights Nikita Khrushchev made on Il-14P. According to Viktor Mazurenko, it was after an air accident that Khrushchev decided to change planes: "What I know is that he flew to Sholokhov, and then there was an engine fire on that plane, already without Khrushchev on board. This was reported to him, and he changed that aircraft for an IL-18."

Service in the North

In 1965, the aircraft was transferred to the Yakutsk Civil Aviation Administration, where it served local top officials and also was used for pilot training and test flights.

The aircraft was used in ice reconnaissance during the spring flood and could be involved in search missions. In the spring of 1967, the liner participated in a mission to find the crashed IL-14 passenger plane.

In those years, cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky flew in the cabin (he went into orbit three times and spent more than 20 days there). In the summer of 1965, during a visit to the region, he flew the plane from Yakutsk to Mirny.

The plane's last chapter was not about a passenger liner. The aircraft's salon was top equipped with tables, armchairs, sofas, historian Vasily Gogolev said telling us about the time the aircraft was transferred for basing at the Chersky airport. "That interior was dismantled and destroyed, and it became a cargo plane," he said.

After 1980, in Chersky, the plane carried everything necessary for Yakutia's north, for the North high-latitude expeditions, and for the North Pole drifting stations. "It was one of the last polar aviation bases there. From there aircraft used to fly to the North Pole, and flying to the North Pole can be on reliable aircraft only," Viktor Mazurenko said.

It underwent repairs and a few days later returned to Chersky to serve for another four years, after which it anyway was decommissioned. Since then, the hardworking aircraft has remained in the Arctic settlement.

An eyewitness to history

Nowadays, like it was in Soviet times, it is not easy to get into the village that is in the border zone with mandatory passport control. A flight there takes four hours, and those flights are far from being daily.

It was in the 90s that historians and aviation enthusiasts began talking about Khrushchev's former aircraft in Chersky. They could have identified it by the number on the body. The metal fuselage, crossed by a blue stripe reading 'Aeroflot', lies near the existing airport.

It is doubtful the IL-14P may be transported to Yakutsk due to the high cost and the aircraft's poor condition, but Vasily Gogolev still hopes for an aviation museum in Yakutsk.

"In Soviet time, our region was a frequent-flyer. Every person used to fly three times a year," the historian said. "I only hope people would treat aircraft not as hardware, but as an eyewitnesses to our history."