High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Georgy (Yegor) Alekseyevich Prokofiev (born August 17, 1902 in Teleshovo, Vyazma District - died April 23, 1939 in Moscow) was a Soviet Air Forces balloonist who coordinated military stratospheric balloon program in 1931–1939. September 30, 1933, USSR-1 under Prokofiev`s command set an unofficial world altitude record of 19,000 meters (60,698 feet).