Nikolay Melnitsky

Although born in today’s Ukraine, Nikolay Melnitsky was a descendant of the nobility of the Pskov region in north-western Russia. He was educated at the 2nd Cadet Corps and the Pavlovsk Military School, both in St. Petersburg. He began his military career with the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment.

In 1912 he was trained as a pilot and graduated from the Officer School of Aviation as a military pilot. In the same year, Lieutenant Melnitsky competed in the 1912 Olympic Games, winning silver in the team event with the duelling pistol. He also narrowly missed another medal as a member of the fourth placed team in the free pistol shooting, just three points behind the bronze medallists from Great Britain.

In World War I, Melnitsky was a staff captain of the Life Guards, serving as a military pilot in the Aviation Detachment. From 1915 in this role he was responsible for the protection of the Imperial Residence, the Tsar’s Headquarters in Mogilev. In 1917 he was appointed commander of the 13th Corps Aviation Detachment as captain of the Life Guards. During the war, he was awarded the orders of St. Stanislaus and St. Anna.

In the Russian Civil War he joined the White Army of General Miller at the Northern Front in 1919, serving in the 1st Automobile Division. From 1920 he was the head of aviation of the Arkhangelsk region and the acting commander of the Aviation Division. Later that year, he fled to a military camp in Norway, moved on to Hungary, and appeared in 1926 as an emigrant in Paris. There he was engaged in various associations of Russian emigrants.