Marina Mikhailovna Raskova (1912 to January 4,1943) was a Soviet Air Force pilot during the Second World War, who organized the 588th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Marina Raskova had been a world-breaking aviator for making a nonstop direct flight with two other Soviet women. On the journey the plane began to ice over while traveling above the Siberian wilderness. The three woman began to throw anything not tied down out of the plane in order to maintain altitude, but it kept going down. Marina heroically made note of the plane's locations, and bailed out; making the plane light enough to finish the journey. She was later rescued by a Siberian hunter, and the three woman were honored in Moscow by being decorated with The Hero of the Soviet Union award, which was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union.
When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 the soviets instituted Operation Barbarossa, which created three all-female air regiments. Marina was summoned to organize the first of these regiments, The 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, and later was appointed commander of the The 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. The Germans would come to know the 46th as, the Night Witches. This regiment was the only one to remain all female though out the war.
On January 4, 1943, she and her bomber crew perished attempting to make forced landing near Stalingrad. She was the first to receive a Soviet state funeral during the war, and was posthumously awarded the Order of Patriotic War 1st Class. The M.M. Raskova Higher Air Force School in Tambov was named in her honor, but ceased to function in 1997.