The Russian Review
Abstract
Our cover features a memorial to Nadezhda Kurchenko, a flight attendant killed by two hijackers when they seized an Aeroflot plane in October 1970.Soon after her death, Kurchenko was celebrated as a young Soviet martyr who achieved a heroic feat, or podvig, by dying while trying to stop the hijacking and protect the passengers and crew.Shaped by the spiritual turn in Soviet atheism under Brezhnev, Kurchenko's martyrdom offered a new template for heroism aligned with the conservative values of mature socialism.This memorial, opened on the tenth anniversary of her death, is located in Kurchenko's home village of Novopoltava in Altai krai.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Russia and Soviet political economy
Soviet and Russian History
Human auditory perception and evaluation
Publication details
- Journal / source
- The Russian Review
- Volume
- 85
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1–4
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- EN