Mariya Petrivna Nesterenko (Ukrainian: Марія Петрівна Нестеренко; 1910 – 28 October 1941) was a Soviet pilot who rose to the rank of major in the Air Force and became a deputy regimental commander before she was executed for being the wife of Hero of the Soviet Union Pavel Rychagov, a victim of one of NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria's purges of the air force.

[1][2] Nesterenko was born sometime during August 1910 to a Ukrainian family in the village of Budy, then part of the Russian Empire.

After completing her initial education she worked at a pottery factory while she dreamed of aviation in addition to having hobbies in music and sports.

[4] In July 1940 she flew as pilot-in-command with co-pilot Mariya Mikhaileva and navigator Nina Rusakova in an attempt to break the distance world record for a straight-line women's flight, which had been previously established by Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko, and Marina Raskova in 1938.

[5][6] Shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Nesterenko was arrested at an aerodrome on 26 June 1941 and executed along with dozens of other high-ranking officers on 28 October 1941.