Mark Gallay
Russian aviator, writer and test pilot (1914–1998)
Mark Lazarevich Gallay (Russian: Марк Лазаревич Галлай; 16 April [O.S. 3 April] 1914 — 14 July 1998) was a Soviet test pilot, World War II veteran, and Hero of the Soviet Union.
Early life
Gallay was born on 16 April [O.S. 3 April] 1914 to a Jewish family in Saint Petersburg. His father Lazar Moiseevich Gallay was an engineer, and his mother Zinaida Alekzandrovna Gallay née Levinson was an actress. His uncle Oskar Gallay was a film director. After completing secondary school when he was sixteen, he started working as a turner at the Krasny Oktyabr plant. From 1932 to 1935 he studied at the Leningrad Institute of Engineers of the Civil Air Fleet. In 1935 he attended the Leningrad aeroclub, where he practiced parachuting and flying gliders, and after graduating from initial training in 1936 he worked as a parachuting instructor there. From 1935 to 1937 he studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where he graduated in 1937. After graduating he worked as an engineer at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, where he also attended training to become a test pilot, graduating later that year. After becoming a test pilot, he participated in test flights on the Tupolev SB, Yer-2, UPO-22.
“Mark Gallay” enters the record as russian aviator, writer and test pilot (1914–1998). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mark, Gallay and Russian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Mark Gallay” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mark, Gallay and Russian provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1900207. VIAF identifies the subject as 8179097. The Library of Congress control number is n85326544. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 1998, 1932 and 1935.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mark Gallay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.