Soviet DERULUFT - first soviet airlines company

gor · April 22, 2006

Shortly after the end of the Russian civil war in 1921, the new government established the chief administration of the civil air fleet to oversee budding air transport projects. One of its first acts was to help found Deutsch-Russiche Luftverkehrs - Deruluft - a joint venture to provide services from Russia to the West.

Deruluft was founded in November 1921 as a joint Soviet-German enterprise, with 50% ownership by the Soviet Government and 50% by Aero-Union of Germany. Aero-Union was a holding company, backed by HAPAG (Hamburg-America Line) and Luftschiffbau Zeppelin among others. When relations between Germany and the Soviet Union were normalized in the spring of 1922, Deruluft quickly opened a route between K?nigsberg (today's Kaliningrad) and Moscow. German ownership passed to Deutscher Aero Lloyd in 1923, following the merger of the airline affiliates of the HAPAG and Norddeutscher Lloyd (North German Lloyd) shipping companies, and changed again to Deutsche Luft Hansa, when the German national airline was created in 1926 by the merger of Deutscher Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr.

A new route from Berlin over K?nigsberg via the Baltic countries to Leningrad was opened in 1928. Deruluft's route network remained fairly intact until the airline discontinued operations in March 1937. By then, relations between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had deteriorated to a point where a joint venture was politically impossible.

Domestic aviation began around the same time when Dobrolet was established on 9 February 1923. It started operations on 15 July 1923 between Moscow and Nizhni Novgorod. In 1932 all civil aviation activities were consolidated under the name of Grazdansij Wozdusnyi Flot, simply known as Aeroflot. International flights started in 1937; before that date they had been carried out by a joint Soviet-German airline Deruluft. By the end of the 1930's Aeroflot had became the world's largest airline.

Sorry for long story.

I want to share with you unicum group of famouse russian pilot Shebanov who was awarded soviet honor badges 300.000 km,500.000 km and 1.000.000 km (all number №1 ) . He worked in DERULUFT and was awarded by DERULUFT badges 500.000 km and 1.000.000 km. There are his breast badge and cockade in this group too.

gor · April 22, 2006

breast badge №12

Edited May 22, 2006 by gor

gor · April 22, 2006

badges

Edited May 22, 2006 by gor

gor · April 22, 2006

Luggage label for Deruluft Airlines 1929

Chuck In Oregon · April 22, 2006

Thank you for the interesting history and for sharing your terrific collectibles. This is the first time I have seen any of them. Another great learning experience.

Chuck