THE EARLY YEARS 

Пётр Иванович Хара was born on May 15, 1908, in the Staromlinovka Staro-Kermechensky (now Velikonovosilkovsky) village in the Donetsk region, the son of a peasant Greek family. We do not know so far the family history or the actual Greek surname. However, a short story about Greek presence is vital to understand Пётр life. Greeks came to the Crimea — a dramatically mountainous peninsula that juts into the Black Sea — in the 5th century B.C., or maybe even the 7th, or just possibly, based on some archaeological digs there, the 9th. The Greeks arrived in present-day Ukraine before the Tatars, before the Russians, before the Jews, and possibly even before the Ukrainians themselves. In fact, maybe Ukraine’s oldest existing ethnic group. What’s indisputable, though, is that when they got to the region around today’s Donetsk, in easternmost Ukraine they were most definitely the first settlers. The Crimean Greeks lived for about 300 years under the rule of the Muslim Khanate, and when imperial Russia made a move to conquer the Crimea they asked Catherine the Great to offer them her protection. She ordered them to leave the area they lived in for the past two millenniums and set up in a new land just acquired in her Empire, far to the east. She practically moved the entire Greek population there. She awarded lands to the Greeks and rescued them from the Muslims. Starting on the shores of the Sea of Azov, the Greeks settled in villages on the steppe. They were exempt from conscription and they prospered. When the city of Donetsk was founded in 1869 by the Welshman John Hughes, as a coal center, they began migrating into town. They kept their native language — or, actually, languages. Those whose families came from the coastal towns of the Crimea spoke Greek that were heavily influenced by the Turkish language of the Khans. Those whose roots were in the remote mountains spoke a language that descended directly from ancient Greek. In the 1920s, in the first blush of the proletarian revolution, the early Soviet Union strongly encouraged the development of ethnic cultures, a sort of de-Russification after czarist rule. Then in 1937, Joseph Stalin decided that this was, in fact, criminal behavior. About 20,000 Greeks were executed others were deported to Kazakhstan or Siberia. After 1937, people were afraid of saying they were Greeks. But deep in the villages, within their own homes, families kept the old memories, and the old languages, alive. Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Greeks were free again to express themselves.

Returning back to our story Пётр Иванович Хара graduated from 7th-grade school in 1927 and agricultural vocational school in 1930. He entered the Moscow Institute of Sheep Breeding, but after completing the first year he was drafted into the Red Army on May 26, 1931, after he joined first the Communist Party in the early days of that year. What is interesting and sometimes confuses the researchers (especially those of no Greek heritage) is the fact that in his military file, he states:

"I speak and write in Russian, I speak Ukrainian, my native language is Tatar, nationality is Crimean Tatar."

It seems that the pressure of the Communist Party against different ethnic groups was not only active but also being a member of an ethnic minority could block the way for serving in the Soviet Armed Forces as an officer, especially then as a pilot. However, it must be noted that his military file state clearly that his nationality is Greek. Belonging to either the Greeks or the Crimean Tatars did not promise anything good in Stalin's times! Until August 1932, he attended the Kacha Military Aviation School. He served in the Belarusian Military District until January 1935 as a pilot of the 4thFighter Aviation Regiment, (4th IAP) and later he was a senior pilot and Commander of the 107th Fighter Squadron(107th IAE) of the 83rd Fighter Air Brigade (83rd IAB) flying I-3s and I-5s fighters. Soon he married his sweetheart Praskovya Vlasovna Khara (Ponkratova) and was blessed with two daughters Lydia (Lidochka) and Galinka. In 1935, Пётр was among the first in the Air Force to successfully master the newest I-16 fighter and participated in an air parade over Red Square. On November 10, 1935, Хара performed  exceptionally, when he landed his plane without landing gear because of a malfunction, for which the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR gave him a personalized gold watch with the inscription:

"To the brave pilot from the People's Commissariat of Defense  Климе́нт Ефре́мович Вороши́лов​."

A few days later Пётр engaged in another mishap. His squadron was returning from a training flight when the commander ordered his pilots to drop their landing gears. However, Хара right landing gear didn’t  He tried in vain to check for the malfunction without being successful. Meanwhile, the squadron landed and the pilots left their cockpits and looked at the sky for the lonely pilot. The Commander took off with another plane and soon flew on Хара wing. He ordered the young pilot to proceed to some aerobatic maneuvers and barrel rolls hoping that the gear would drop. He was unlucky once more. He took out his notebook and wrote that he was going to land without landing gear. Soon his Commander flew once more beside him and told him to make 6 more barrel rolls and in case he was unsuccessful again he should raise the left gear, turn off the engine and make a crash landing on plowed soil. The young pilot was relieved knowing that his Commander trusted and believed in him. Хара gained height, turned off the engine, shut off the fuel feeding pump, and prepared to land. The deafening roar of the engine was replaced by a monotonous wind whistle. The airplane was going down. His propeller now windmilling. He had to keep the minimum speed, to avoid stalling his kite while the ground was approaching fast. The outcome was about to be decided in the next few seconds. Ηe aimed his landing point at a narrow strip of soft ground and skillfully landed and save his airplane. Despite the fact that he wasn’t experienced, the obstacles he had to avoid during his gliding, and the danger to stall and crash to his death, the young Soviet Greek pilot acted calmly and skillfully. His squadron mates run to him and a joyful pilot came out from the cockpit of his completely unharmed airplane. The Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, 16.11.1935 reported with great enthusiasm that:

"His desire to fulfill his Commander’s order at all costs, his high personal courage and his excellent flight training, truly Bolshevik, and his care about the expensive military equipment allowed  Comrade Хара to perform this wonderful feat. His squadron is proud of his accomplishment which once more showed the courage and flying skills of our proud falcons."

Пётр reported that:

"I was absolutely calm and confident that I would succeed, I had about  1,000 landings, and I have never had an accident."