Notes of Ivan, the Flying Dutchman

Life is an unparalleled creator of incredible plots. Even the best novelists cannot compete with it. In relation to the hero of this book, the goddesses of fate were not stingy with imagination. The twists and turns in the life of a man with such a simple, even banal name for a Russian, would make even Jack London and Dumas, as well as the masters of adventure cinema, envious. Before you is the story of a simple boy from a provincial Russian town who became one of the most decorated pilots of the 20th century and a hero of four states, who survived several wars, numerous dangerous adventures, was an exile, accused, homeless, and stood at the origins of one of the oldest airlines in the world. History has it that this amazing man is better known today in Europe and across the oceans, is extraordinarily revered in the Netherlands – where streets are named after him, and a museum exists – and almost no one has heard of him in Russia. It is time to correct this injustice. Moreover, Ivan Smirnov himself honestly and impartially told about himself, hiding nothing and not embellishing. Today we have the opportunity to read his memoirs and marvel at such a difficult, bright, beautiful, and honest life. And although for a large part of it he was torn from his homeland and longed for it, nothing in this fate will make us shamefully lower our eyes. On the contrary, with pride and joy, we want to recognize in Ivan Smirnov a compatriot who has finally returned to beloved Russia. At least in memory.