One hundred years ago, on May 20, 1916, Alexey Petrovich Maresyev, one of the most outstanding fighter pilots in the history of aviation, was born. His merits do not lie in the account of downed enemy aircraft, but primarily in high morale and willpower and the desire to return to the air after a severe accident, no matter what.

Maresyev was born in the Volga city of Kamyshin. When the boy was barely three years old, his father died, and his mother was left alone with three children. After graduating from school, Alexei became a metal turner at a school at a woodworking plant. In 1934, the young man was sent to build distant Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Despite rheumatism (a consequence of a difficult childhood) and malaria, after work he goes to the flying club, is interested in parachuting - and wins diseases.

Alexey Maresiev. 3 row 4 right
http://voel.ru/

In 1937, Maresyev was drafted into the army. First, he serves in the air border detachment on Sakhalin, in the village of Kirovskoye, and then goes to the Anatoly Serov Bataysk Aviation School. Shortly before the war, Maresyev graduated from the school and received the rank of junior lieutenant.

War

According to award documents, Maresyev started the war on June 28 (according to other sources - August 7), 1941 - on the Southwestern Front, defending Krivoy Rog. The pilot completed the first sortie on August 23. Maresyev, fighting under the command of Captain Nikolai Ivanovich Baranov on the I-16, earned the first thanks in the reports. Then, from the end of March 1942, he fought on the North-Western Front, in the 580th Fighter Aviation Regiment, already on the Yak-1. In February 1942, the troops of the North-Western and Kalinin Fronts closed the Demyansk Cauldron. German aviation began to actively supply those surrounded by air, and Soviet pilots tried their best to prevent this. Flight commander Aleksey Maresyev was credited with three downed Ju 52 transport planes - the first was destroyed on April 1, and two more on April 5, 1942 (so in the documents - Maresyev was shot down on April 4, but on the list of missing persons it appears on April 5).

Probably, this particular battle is described by Boris Polev in "The Tale of a Real Man":

“This is where Alexei made a mistake. Instead of strictly guarding the air over the attack area, he, as the pilots say, was tempted by easy game. Leaving the car in a dive, he rushed like a stone at the heavy and slow "cart" that had just taken off from the ground, with pleasure heated its quadrangular motley body made of corrugated duralumin with several long bursts. Confident in himself, he did not even watch the enemy poke into the ground. On the other side of the airfield, another Junkers took off into the air. Alexei ran after him. Attacked - and unsuccessfully. Its fire trails slid over the slowly climbing machine. He turned sharply, attacked again, missed again, again overtook his victim and dumped him somewhere off to the side above the forest, furiously driving several long bursts from all the onboard weapons into his wide cigar-shaped body. Having laid down the Junkers and given two victorious laps at the place where a black column rose above the green, disheveled sea of ​​an endless forest, Alexei turned the plane back to the German airfield.

Amazing accuracy for a fiction book! Boris Polevoy throughout the war strove for maximum accuracy in military reporting - and here, too, he did not betray himself. It is no less typical for Polevoy that a won air battle is described without the slightest pathos, and can even be assessed as a mistake (the pilot will be left without ammunition, and he will be shot down). What it cost with frostbitten legs, almost without food, for eighteen days to wander through the dense forest, hobble, crawl to your own - only Maresyev himself knows. Finally, he is picked up by the inhabitants of the burned village of Plav.

The book mentions the squadron commander, Hero of the Soviet Union Andrey Degtyarenko:

“Aleksey opened his eyes, but it seemed to him that he was continuing to sleep and in a dream he saw this wide, high-cheeked, rough, as if made by a carpenter in black, but not wiped with either sandpaper or glass, the good-natured angular face of a friend with a crimson scar on his forehead, with bright eyes , pubescent with the same light and colorless, pig - as Andrei's enemies said - eyelashes. Blue eyes peered in bewilderment into the smoky twilight.

Andrei Nikolaevich Dekhtyarenko served in the Red Army since 1931, in 1939 he fought at Khalkhin Gol, where he earned the Order of the Red Banner. In the spring of 1942, Dekhtyarenko commanded the 2nd squadron of the 580th air regiment, part of the 6th Attack Air Group of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. For three sorties, nine Ju 52s were recorded at Dekhtyarenko's account - two of them on the ground. The first of these sorties took place on 1 April 1942. In the area of ​​the Istoshino airfield near Demyansk, Dekhtyarenko was the first to notice a group of 18 Ju 52s, attacked and destroyed three aircraft. For this fight, Dekhtyarenko received another Order of the Red Banner. On April 4, he destroyed two more aircraft on the ground.

Andrey Dekhtyarenko
http://soviet-aces-1936–53.ru/

On April 8, the Dekhtyarenko troika met about 30 Ju 52s at the same airfield. As a result of the battle, nine transport workers were declared shot down, four of them - by the group commander. The link completely used up the ammunition, in the tanks after landing there were literally 20 liters of fuel each. April 21 Dekhtyarenko was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. On May 8, Dekhtyarenko destroyed a He 111 bomber and then a Bf 109 fighter with rockets and bursts of his Yak-1, and then a Bf 109 fighter. From March 31 to May 8, his squadron made 220 sorties, shot down 31 German aircraft in air battles and destroyed 10 more on the ground.

It was Dekhtyarenko who took Maresyev out of the wilderness on the U-2 - both in the book and in life. On July 11, 1942, Dekhtyarenko did not return from a combat mission ...

Pilot without legs

With indescribable efforts, after the amputation of both legs, Maresyev learned not only to walk on prostheses, but also to run and even dance. According to the memoirs of aircraft engineer Pivkin, Maresyev returned to the fighters to pay off the Germans.

After treatment and training, Alexei was sent to the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Pavlovich Ivanov: “The experienced ace himself, he understood from the sounds rushing in the ether that the battle was hot, that the enemy was strong and stubborn and did not want to give in to the sky.” For the battles to destroy the Demyansk group, Ivanov was awarded the "Red Banner", and in March 1943 he was presented to the Order of Alexander Nevsky. We can say that the regiment in absentia settled scores for Maresyev and other downed pilots.

The squadron, where Maresyev will have to fight, was commanded by Alexander Mikhailovich Chislov (in the book - Cheslov). He fought exceptionally competently, from the first days to the end of the war, made 342 sorties, personally shot down 21 aircraft and two in the group, while he was never wounded. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of Alexander Nevsky and two Orders of the Red Banner. On February 23, 1945, Chislov's La-7 was shot down, and the pilot himself was wounded, but was able to fly to his airfield and land.

Chislov and Maresiev
http://soviet-aces-1936–53.ru/

Since July 10, 1943, Maresyev has been fighting again. He was taken care of for a long time, giving only to cover the airfield. Chislov was one of the first to go into battle together with Maresyev. According to Maresiev, “... perhaps, in this battle, I learned from Alexander how to fight ... On the ground, Alexander told me - you won’t get lost in a pair with you”. Chislov later recalled: “It was difficult ... But for me, for example, the main thing is that I trained a pilot who flew without legs”.

In the battles over the Kursk Bulge, in the Oryol direction, Maresyev made seven sorties on the La-5, personally shot down three German aircraft. So, on July 20, 1943, in an unequal air battle, Maresyev saved the lives of two pilots (one of whom was the commander of a neighboring air regiment) - and this is also reflected by Polev. In that battle, Maresyev destroyed two fighters:

“An unfamiliar hoarse bass rumbled at the ear:

- Well, thank you, senior lieutenant! Cool hit, appreciate it, saved me. Yes. I walked him to the very ground and saw how he poked ... Do you drink vodka? Come to my CP, follow me a liter. Thank you, I press five. Take action."

Three vehicles shot down by Maresyev were confirmed by the crews of other aircraft and ground units of the 63rd Army. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Maresyev and Chislov by one decree, on August 24, 1943. Having learned about the battles of the Guards Regiment, which shot down 47 aircraft in nine days, losing only five of his own and three pilots, Pravda's military commander Boris Polevoy flew to his location.

Alexey Maresyev at the plane
http://www.airaces.narod.ru/

“The chief of staff, completely hoarse, with eyes red like a rabbit’s from insomnia, at first snapped, and then, after examining my shoulder straps, he caught himself, uttered some crumpled apologies and declared:

- Alyosha Maresyev will return from the battle. He just shot down his second plane today. Step up to him. He is at nine. The “nine” will sit down, you dive right on it.

The "nine" sat down, taxied to its caponier at the edge of the forest, and I "dived" on a young stocky guy who, with some special bearish grace, got out of the plane. He could hardly stand on his feet. Still: six fights, two downed opponents.

Later, after dinner, Maresyev invited the correspondent to spend the night in his dugout - the fighter's neighbor did not return from a combat mission.

“The pilot went outside, and one could hear him noisily brushing his teeth, dousing himself with cold water, grunting, snorting at the whole forest. He returned cheerful and fresh with drops of water on his eyebrows and hair, lowered the wick in the lamp and began to undress. Something hit the floor hard. I looked around and saw something that I didn't believe myself. He left his feet on the floor. Legless pilot! Fighter pilot! A pilot who just today made seven sorties and shot down two planes! It seemed absolutely incredible.

But his legs, more precisely, prosthetic legs, deftly shod in military-style boots, lay on the floor. Their lower ends protruded from under the bed and looked like the legs of a person hiding there. At that moment, my eyes must have been very puzzled, because the owner, looking at me, asked with a sly, contented smile:

Haven't you noticed before?

It didn't even cross my mind.

That's good! Well, thank you! I'm just surprised no one told you. We have as many aces in our regiment as there are ringers. How did they miss a new person, and even from Pravda, and not boast of such a curiosity? This is because everyone is so exhausted today ... "

In response to Polevoy's words that the history of aviation does not know a pilot who fought on a fighter without legs, Maresyev showed him a worn clipping from an old magazine about a pilot who fought on the Farman without a foot. The episode with Prokofiev-Seversky (a legless pilot, future aviation consultant to President Roosevelt) was also included in the book, and later in the film. Perhaps Maresyev read an article about Yuri Gilsher, who also lost his leg, continued to fly and died in battle in the summer of 1917. Apparently, Polevoy simply could not know about the British fighter pilot Douglas Bader, who lost his legs before the war and was in German captivity at that moment.

From the page of the magazine, the unfamiliar face of a young officer with a small mustache, twisted with an "awl", with a white cockade on a cap pulled down to his ear, looked at Alexei.
http://airaces.narod.ru/

Polevoy was not allowed to publish an essay about a legless pilot immediately, so as not to feed enemy propaganda. To return to the history of Maresyev Polevoy could only after the war, when much had already been lost. Could not even find the interlocutor: “Unable to strictly adhere to the facts here, I slightly changed the hero’s surname and gave new names to those who accompanied him, who helped him on the difficult path of his feat. Let them not be offended by me if they recognize themselves in this story.. An example of the honesty of a military journalist and writer!

In total, during the war, Maresyev made 86 sorties, 11 aircraft were recorded on him as shot down (according to Polevoy, two in the Baltic states).

After the war

In 1946, Polevoy's book "The Tale of a Real Man" was published, and in 1948 - the film of the same name. The consultant was the famous fighter pilot, Air Marshal Yevgeny Yakovlevich Savitsky.

According to the diaries of Pavel Kadochnikov, who played Maresyev in the movie, the scene where Maresyev stands on a chair in front of the medical board and then jumps off it is not invented. Maresiev and Kadochnikov were very worried at the first meeting. Finally, Maresiev asked: “You are probably most interested in how I managed to overcome ...” - “Now he will say“ black forest area ”, thought Kadochnikov. "... overcome the medical commission and prove that I am a physically healthy person",- finished Maresyev. And, “softly and freely,” standing on a chair, he told how he passed it.

In the episode with the bear, a real bear from the zoo, Maryam, was filmed:

“Kadochnikov is lying. He feels the close breath of the beast on his face. He, like Meresyev, madly wants to jump up, but by an enormous effort of will he restrains himself and lies motionless, as if dead. After sniffing the man's face, Maryam proceeds to examine his jacket, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Maryam sniffs the jacket, it smells of something very tasty; the she-bear knows perfectly well what to do in order to get a tasty morsel. After all, more than once Kadochnikov deliberately hid something tasty in his pocket and taught Maryam how to get it. With huge, strong claws, the she-bear tears the jacket, takes out a hidden piece and leaves. She leaves because Galina Grigorievna waves her hands and pours a whole bag of sugar on the ground. Maryam rushes to the sugar. Filming is over."

Director Stolper did not tolerate the slightest falsehood. For a long time he could not achieve the impression that the actor was walking with shattered legs. After long tests, Kadochnikov poured pine cones into high fur boots and put them on his bare feet. At the end of filming, even Maresyev could not stand it, saying: “I have been crawling for eighteen days and almost all the time in a semi-conscious state, and he has been crawling in full consciousness here in the forest for more than three months.”

Maresyev on the set of the film. RGAKFD

After the war, Maresyev got married, worked for decades in the Soviet Committee of War Veterans. He went in for gymnastics, rode a bicycle in the summer, skied and skated in the winter. Once he was part of the Soviet delegation to the United States. The press release said that among the participants will be the author and hero of the book "The Tale of a Real Man." Polevoi, with aggravated rheumatism, received after a concussion in Stalingrad, awkwardly sideways descended from the ladder, and Maresyev easily fled to the ground. As a result, for some time in the photo of Polevoy they signed as Maresyev, and Maresyev as Polevoy. It was only at the laying of flowers at Arlington Cemetery that the confusion cleared up.

Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Petrovich Maresyev died on May 18, 2001, right during a gala evening dedicated to his 85th birthday ...

Sources and literature:

1. Site materials http://podvignaroda.mil.ru
2. Site materials https://pamyat-naroda.ru
3. Site materials http://www.airaces.narod.ru
4. Anokhin V. A., Bykov M. Yu. All Stalin's fighter regiments. The first complete encyclopedia. - Moscow: Yauza-press, 2014
5. Brickhill Paul. Legless ace. - M.: AST, 2003
6. Bykov M. Yu. Aces of the Great Patriotic War. The most productive pilots 1941-1945 / Ed. A. B. Vasil'eva. - M.: YAUZA, EKSMO, 2007.
7. Field Boris. These four years. From the notes of a war correspondent. Volume I - M., Young Guard, 1978

May 20, 1916 Soviet military leader, pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Petrovich Maresyev. Due to a severe wound during the Great Patriotic War, both legs were amputated. However, despite the disability, the pilot returned to the sky and flew with prostheses.

Alexey Petrovich Maresyev
Alexey Petrovich was born on May 20, 1916 in the city of Kamyshin (now the Volgograd region) in a working class family. At the age of three, he was left without a father, who died shortly after returning from the First World War.

Pilot Alexey Petrovich Maresyev
After graduating from the 8th grade of secondary school, Alexei entered the FZU, where he received the specialty of a locksmith. Then he applied to the Moscow Aviation Institute, but instead of the institute, he went to build Komsomolsk-on-Amur instead of the institute on a Komsomol ticket. There he sawed wood in the taiga, built barracks, and then the first residential quarters. At the same time he studied at the workers' faculty and at the flying club.

Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot Alexei Maresyev on Mamayev Kurgan on February 2, 1958
He was called up for urgent military service in 1937, sent to the Border Troops of the NKVD of the USSR. He served as an aircraft technician on Sakhalin Island in the air detachment of the Sakhalin Sea Border Detachment, then in the 12th Aviation Border Detachment.


Military pilot Alexei Maresyev, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Veterans and Invalids of Russia. Moscow. 1993
In 1939 he was sent to study at the Bataysk Military Aviation Pilot School, which he graduated in 1940. He served as a flight instructor.

Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Meresyev with a cadet before a training flight, 1945
He made his first sortie on August 23, 1941 in the Krivoy Rog region on the Southern Front.

With a torch - Hero of the Soviet Union Maresyev A.P. 1967
The pilot of the 580th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the North-Western Front, Lieutenant Maresyev A.P., opened a combat account at the beginning of 1942 - he shot down a Ju-52. By the end of March 1942, he brought the number of downed Nazi aircraft to four.

Since 1943, already flying with prostheses, Alexey Maresyev (left) added seven more downed enemy aircraft to the four previous victories over the enemy
On April 4, 1942, in an air battle over the Demyansk bridgehead (Novgorod region), the plane of A.P. Maresyev was shot down. He tried to land on the ice of a frozen lake, but released the landing gear early. The plane began to quickly lose altitude and fell into the forest.

For 18 days, Maresyev crawled to his own. He had frostbite on his feet and had to be amputated. However, the pilot decided not to give up. When he got the prostheses, he trained long and hard and got permission to return to duty. He learned to fly again in the 11th reserve aviation brigade in the city of Ivanovo.


I.I. Rodionov, N. E. Aksenenko, A.P. Maresiev at a meeting in the Central House of Culture. 1998
In June 1943, A.P. Maresyev returned to service. He fought on the Kursk Bulge as part of the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, was a deputy squadron commander. In August 1943, during one battle, Alexei Maresyev shot down three enemy FW-190 fighters at once.

Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Maresyev
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 24, 1943, Guards Senior Lieutenant Aleksey Petrovich Maresyev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

The famous Alexei Maresyev is the first on the left
Later he fought in the Baltic States, became a regiment navigator. In total, he made 86 sorties, shot down 11 enemy aircraft: 4 - before being wounded and seven - with amputated legs. In June 1944, Major Maresyev of the Guard was appointed inspector-pilot of the Office of Higher Educational Institutions of the Air Force. Member of the CPSU (b) / CPSU in 1944-1991.

Alexey Maresyev before the flight
The legendary fate of Alexei Petrovich Maresyev is dedicated to the book by Boris Polevoy "The Tale of a Real Man". In 1948, it was made into a feature film of the same name. The name of the Hero became known to the whole world.

In July 1946, Major A.P. Maresyev was dismissed. Until 1953 he worked at the 1st Moscow Air Force Special School. In 1952 he graduated from the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in 1956 he completed postgraduate studies at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, PhD in History.


Maresyev in the city sky
In the same 1956, he became the executive secretary of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans, in 1983 - the first deputy chairman of the committee. In this position, he worked until the last day of his life.


AP Maresyev speaks at the Plenum of the Komsomol Central Committee, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Lenin Komsomol. Moscow, Kremlin, 1968

Alexey Maresyev shares his flying experience with young test pilots


Lived in Moscow. Passed away May 18, 2001. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (section 11), where on February 23, 2005, a monument on the grave of the Hero was opened in a solemn ceremony.


The grave of the Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Maresyev at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow
On May 20, 2006, on the day of the 90th anniversary of the birth of A.P. Maresyev, a bronze monument to the brave pilot of the Great Patriotic War was opened in his hometown of Kamyshin, Volgograd Region (the author is Honored Artist of Russia, sculptor Sergei Shcherbakov), and in the local history The museum opened the Maresyev Hall with unique exhibits.



By decision of the veterans and the City Duma, the central street of Kamyshin, where the monument to the Hero was erected, was renamed Maresyev Boulevard. The name of the Hero was given to school number 13 in the city of Orel.

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To the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Soviet pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Petrovich Maresyev

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May 20, 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Petrovich Maresyev, the legendary pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, and an outstanding patriot of Russia. With the light hand of the writer Boris Polevoy, who wrote a story about the life and exploits of A.P. Maresyev, he entered the popular consciousness as the standard of the "Real Man" and under this high title was forever inscribed in our history.

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I remember well how, in my school years, like many of my peers, I read The Tale of a Real Man, mentally experiencing with the hero all the dramatic stages of his epic.
There are short feats, like a flash, associated with some kind of one-time effort of will, with some kind of "highest point" of heroism. But the peculiarity of what was accomplished by Alexei Maresyev is that you cannot determine here where, in fact, the "highest point" of the feat. The fact that after the death of his plane for 18 days, crawling through the Valdai forests, with crushed legs, made his way to his own, was in itself a feat. But even more amazing is that after the amputation of two legs, Maresyev did not give up, did not break down, but did the unbelievable: having overcome a lot of medical and administrative barriers, he managed to return to flying service.

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Maresyev's combat accomplishments are also admired. Before the tragedy, he managed to shoot down 4 enemy aircraft, and, making sorties with leg prostheses, he added 7 more downed fascist vultures to the combat score. The most striking episodes happened in July 1943, during the days of the famous Battle of Kursk, when the legless pilot shot down the Junkers-87 in the first battle after returning to duty, and a few days later destroyed 2 of the newest German Fockewulf-190. Officially, it was for these military victories that A.P. Maresyev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But in the rays of this Golden Star, of course, everything that the "Real Man" had gone through before that was reflected! 5:1678

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Maresyev is the very case when one can rightfully say: all life is a feat. Moreover, even after the war, for many years he brought great benefits to our Air Force, training young pilots. And since 1956, when the Soviet (later Russian) Committee of War Veterans and Military Service was formed, retired Colonel Alexei Maresyev headed it.

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He was in this public (but in his own way, also military) post until the last day of his life.

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Personally, I was always struck by the amazing modesty of Alexei Petrovich. I remember the phrase he said in one of the interviews: "I'm not from a legend, I'm from life". And also arguments about how incorrect the journalistic cliché is about the fact that the fighters at the front, they say, fought the enemy, "not sparing their lives." "We are not some kind of fanatics, so as not to spare life, he explained. - Here - another! Motherland, her freedom, the well-being of loved ones were above all! And in the name of this, the front-line soldiers accepted the torment of trials, were ready for self-sacrifice. But even more we wanted to survive in order to continue to fight and defeat the enemy!". 7:3015

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At the same time, the 100th anniversary of Maresyev prompts us to think: is the feat of a unique hero well promoted in our society today? Isn't it sad that because of the leapfrog with educational standards, "The Tale of a Real Man" is not everywhere included in the lists of literature required to be studied in schools? Take the history books. I happened to hold in my hands such ones where children could not read a single line about Maresyev (as, indeed, about N. Gastello, V. Talalikhin, A. Matrosov and other canonical heroes of the Great Patriotic War). And in general, the story of the great battle with fascism fit into a few paragraphs. It is very important that this debilitating forgetfulness be eventually eradicated from our school system!

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There is a film based on the novel by B. Polevoy. But tell me, how long has anyone seen him on TV? Yes, this movie was made in 1948. Therefore, she, perhaps, is already in some way unable to satisfy the needs of the modern (especially young) viewer. So maybe the time has come for our filmmakers to make a new film about Maresyev, telling about the feat of the pilot in modern film language? 9:1215

And there is one more thing I would like to say. It's great that in a number of cities there are Maresyev streets, that there are schools that bear the name of the hero. It is good that there are public organizations and foundations that aim to perpetuate the memory of the famous pilot. I would especially note the Regional Public Foundation named after A.P. Maresyev, created in the small homeland of the hero - in the city of Kamyshin. Its organizers have made it a rule to annually present the Memorial Sign "For the Will to Live" to those who, overcoming some injuries and physical limitations, continue to live a full life and benefit the country.

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Good start! But here's what I thought about: why not develop it, doing the same not only at the regional, but also at the national level?

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In the Volgograd region, a monument to the aircraft of the Great Patriotic War - Yak-1 was erected. It is located on the central square of the city of Kamyshin, where the hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Maresyev was born and raised. Model of a combat vehicle, which the pilot flew until April 1942. The plane was placed at the intersection of Lenin and Nekrasov streets. The Yak-1 Maresyev fighter was shot down on April 5, 1942 in the area of ​​the Demyansk Cauldron. By the way, unsuccessful searches for the plane of the famous pilot are still going on in Valdai.

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What do Maresiev and his feat mean to us today? This is not a myth, not a beautiful legend. It is the very embodiment of our national character. It is a great tradition inherent in Russians - never to give up. It is faith in our ability to endure any challenge, making even the impossible possible.

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Personal life. Despite the glory surrounding him, Alexei Maresyev always remained a modest person and tried not to use either his official position or the title of hero. The exception is the only case related to his personal life. In the General Staff of the Air Force on the eve of the end of the war, he saw a beautiful girl, whom he was embarrassed to approach, firstly, ashamed of her disability, and secondly, doubting whether she was free.

So the only time when Alexey Petrovich took advantage of his official position was an appeal to the personnel department about the marital status of Olga Viktorovna, whom he proposed to marry a month later. They lived a long happy life. The family had two sons - Victor and Alex. None of the boys followed in their father's footsteps. The eldest son dreamed of cars and became an engineer, and the youngest was a disabled child, so he could not even dream of the sky.

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Maresyev always kept himself in excellent physical shape - he worked out in the pool, rode a bicycle and skated, went skiing. Moreover, he even swam across the Volga, setting a time record.

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In the post-war period, the life and exploits of Alexei Maresyev were widely covered in the press. Boris Polev, who personally knew the pilot, wrote the legendary Tale of a Real Man. But the hero himself was more than reserved about fame. His words are known: “Everyone fought. There are so many people in the world for whom Polevoy was not found.

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Two days before the 85th birthday of the legendary hero, a concert dedicated to his anniversary was to be held at the Theater of the Russian Army. But just one hour before the start of the celebration, Alexei Petrovich had a heart attack, which turned out to be fatal. As a result, the holiday was transformed into an evening of remembrance, which began with a moment of silence.

In memory of Alexei Maresyev, many monuments have been erected, in many cities there are streets that bear his name. Also, the cinema did not bypass him. Even under the USSR, the film “The Tale of a Real Man” was released, in which Pavel Kadochnikov played the main role, although the director initially wanted to shoot the pilot himself. In 2005, the documentary film "The Fate of a Real Man" was created.

From the editor.

The desire to defend an idea is sometimes stronger than the desire to live. For the idea they live and die, suffer and suffer hardships. An idea is something that connects the seemingly incompatible. The idea gives birth to something that would never have been born in other conditions.

Once the idea of ​​justice for all people of the globe gave birth to socialism.

There were many heroes of the Civil War who died for what seemed like a dream, for socialism, which was a dream, but was not the current historical reality. Time passed, and the daredevils, whose hut was always not on the edge, but in the very center, in the thick of things, began to build this new world. These guys first went to take part in the "great construction projects of socialism", first and become communists first explored new lands, attacked first and gave their lives for our Soviet Motherland.

Nazi Germany also knows cases of heroism. There were even more cases of obstinacy and self-sacrifice, for example, in the Middle Ages among religious fanatics. Belief in an idea at all times worked wonders, regardless of whether it was correct, whether it was realizable ...

But mass heroism became a reality only in the Soviet Union. There were not hundreds or thousands of heroes. There were millions of heroes. After all, it was in the Soviet Union that the idea practically did not conflict with its implementation.

Some of these characters will be discussed in the following article.

May 20, 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous Soviet pilot Alexei Pavlovich Maresyev (1916 - 2001).

A.P. Maresyev was born in the city of Kamyshin (now the Volgograd region). At the age of three, he lost his father. His mother, who worked as a cleaner at a factory, raised three sons alone. In 1934, on a Komsomol ticket, Alexei Maresyev went to build Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Simultaneously with work, he is engaged in the flying club.

The young man applied to the flight school three times. Twice he was refused for health reasons, but the third time he was accepted. In 1940, Alexei Maresyev graduated from the flight school and received the military rank of junior lieutenant. In August 1941, he made his first sortie.

On April 4, 1942, over the territory of the Novgorod region, the plane of A.P. Maresyev was shot down by the Germans. For 18 days, Maresyev traveled through the forest to his own people, and, finally, peasant children found him, completely exhausted.

Maresyev had both legs amputated above the knee. But, despite this, he decides to return to duty and actively trains.

In February 1943, Alexei Maresyev made the first test flight. And in June 1943 he returned to the front on the Kursk Bulge. He made 86 sorties, shot down 11 aircraft (7 after losing his legs).

On August 24, 1943, Alexei Petrovich Maresyev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

After the war A.P. Maresyev graduated from the Higher Party School, defended his Ph.D. thesis in history, and since 1956 worked as Secretary of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans.

Soviet pilot Alexei Maresyev

In 1946, in just 19 days, the writer Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy (1908 - 1981) wrote the book "The Tale of a Real Man." This book gained great popularity both in the Soviet Union and in other countries. In 1948, a film was made based on the book, and the composer Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev (1891-1953) wrote an opera. However, Prokofiev's opera was not very successful and was not often performed on stage.

During the Great Patriotic War, there were other pilots in the USSR who flew without legs: For example, Leonid Georgievich Belousov (1909 - 1998) and Zakhar Artemovich Sorokin (1917 - 1978). Both of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1973, Soviet military pilot Captain Yuri Valentinovich Kozlovsky (born 1943) was in a plane crash. They searched for him for several days and found him unconscious with injuries incompatible with life. Doctors saved the pilot's life, but both legs had to be amputated. Kozlovsky really dreamed of returning to flight work, but did not receive permission: modern technology makes higher demands on pilots. Yu.V. Kozlovsky graduated from a technical university, fruitfully worked as an engineer in a design bureau. At the same time, he continued to pilot small training aircraft in the flying club.

English military pilot Douglas Bader (1910-1982) flew without two legs on prostheses. For this, the Queen of England granted him the nobility and the right to be called Sir Douglas.

A similar incident took place in Nazi Germany, however, the pilot lost only one leg. The name of the German pilot was Hans Ulrich Rudel (1916 - 1982). Unfortunately, Rudel was a convinced fascist and remained so until the end of his life.

And one more striking example. From the depths of centuries, the legend of the Defender of the Earth of the Russian hero Ilya Muromets has come down to us. There is a very strange detail in this legend: until the age of 30, Ilya Muromets, who lived in the village of Karacharovo, did not get off the stove. For a peasant son, such a way of life was possible only in one case: if he was a severely disabled person. To test this hypothesis, the researchers opened the grave with the relics of the hero in Kiev and examined the bones using modern methods. The assumption was confirmed: Ilya Muromets had a severe connective tissue disease and his legs were, apparently, paralyzed. The legendary hero really was Alexei Maresyev of the 11th century.

“A healthy mind in a healthy body,” they said in Ancient Greece. Physical health is, of course, very good, but it does not form a healthy spirit in itself. And it is not a necessary condition for maintaining and maintaining a healthy psyche. A healthy spirit may well be combined with bodily weakness. In Russia, this was first mentioned by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov in the poem "Mtsyri". And after the Great October Socialist Revolution, Nikolai Ostrovsky's novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" appeared. The hero of this novel, who was dying of Bekhterev's disease, had the psyche and range of interests of a healthy person. As the writer rightly showed, this was due to the involvement of Pavel Korchagin in the activities of building a new society.

To some extent, Alexei Maresyev repeated the fate of Nikolai Ostrovsky. And, probably, the book about Alexei Maresyev helped many seriously ill people, despite a serious illness, to stay in the ranks.

People who work with seriously ill children understand that their main task is to make the child not think about his illness. The knight from the last great work of Soviet children's literature "Plutish's Tale" by V. Ozerov brought a stamp to a boy crippled in the war ...

On May 18, 2001, an evening dedicated to the 85th anniversary of A.P. was to be held at the Russian Army Theater in Moscow. Maresyev. A few hours before it began, Alexei Maresyev died suddenly.

Ph.D. Sergey Bagotsky

(May 16, old style) 1916 in the city of Kamyshin, Saratov province (now located in the Volgograd region) in a working class family.

This is evidenced by an entry in the metric book of the Holy Trinity Church of Kamyshin. Subsequently, in Maresyev's documents, his birthday was mistakenly written on May 20, which he did not pay attention to.

At the age of three, he was left without a father who died shortly after returning from the First World War. The mother raised three sons alone.

After graduating from seven classes, Alexei Maresyev went to work at a sawmill as an oilman and began to study at the factory apprenticeship school. After graduating from the FZU, he worked as a turner at a sawmill. In 1929 he joined the Komsomol and was elected secretary of the shop cell of the Komsomol.

Dreaming of becoming a pilot, Maresyev tried to enter a flight school, but for health reasons he was not accepted. He suffered from rheumatism, a complication resulting from a severe form of malaria suffered in childhood.

In 1932, Alexei Maresyev was enrolled in the Kamyshinsky Workers' Faculty. M. Gorky Saratov Agricultural Institute.

In 1934, in the direction of the Kamyshin district committee of the Komsomol, Maresyev went to the Khabarovsk Territory to build Komsomolsk-on-Amur. He first worked as a lumberjack, and in 1935-1937 as a diesel mechanic on a boat, at the same time he worked at a local flying club, learning to fly.

In 1937, Maresyev was drafted into the army, he was sent to serve in the 12th air border detachment on Sakhalin Island. Then he was sent to the Chita Aviation Pilot School. In 1939, cadets of the Chita Aviation School were transferred to the Batai Military Aviation School.

After graduating from the aviation school in 1940, Maresyev served as an instructor pilot in it.

In August 1941, Alexei Maresyev was sent to the front. He made his first sortie on August 23, 1941 in the Krivoy Rog region, and at the beginning of 1942 he shot down the first enemy aircraft. By the end of March 1942, Maresyev brought the number of downed Nazi aircraft to four.

On April 5, 1942, in an air battle over the Demyansk bridgehead (Novgorod region), Alexei Maresyev's plane was shot down and fell into a forest behind enemy lines.

During the fall of the plane, the pilot was thrown out of the cockpit, and he, falling into the trees, and then hitting the ground, injured his feet. For 18 days, Maresyev crawled, with frostbitten legs, making his way to the front line, eating bark, berries, and cones. Barely alive, he was discovered in the forest by residents from the village of Plav, Valdai district, Novgorod region. A few days later, Maresyev was taken to the hospital, where both legs were amputated. However, the pilot did not give up. He trained long and hard to not only learn to walk on prostheses, but also to be able to return to aviation.

In early 1943, Maresyev was sent to the medical board, which allowed him to return to duty. He received a referral to the Ibresinsky flight school in Chuvashia. In February 1943, Maresyev successfully conducted the first test flight after being wounded.

Got sent to the front. In June 1943 he arrived in the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. He fought on the Kursk Bulge, was a deputy squadron commander. Later he fought in the Baltic States, became a regiment navigator. In total, during the war he made 86 sorties, shot down 11 enemy aircraft, seven of them with amputated legs.

In June 1944, Major Maresyev of the Guards was appointed inspector-pilot of the Office of Higher Educational Institutions of the Air Force. In July 1946 he was dismissed. Until 1953 he worked at the 1st Moscow Air Force Special School.

In 1952, Alexei Maresyev graduated from the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in 1956 he completed postgraduate studies at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, candidate of historical sciences.

In 1956, he became Executive Secretary of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans, in 1983 - First Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans (since 1992, the Russian Committee of War Veterans and Military Service). Maresyev worked in this position until the last day of his life.

He created and headed the regional public fund "Invalids of the Great Patriotic War".

Maresyev is the author of the memoirs "On the Kursk Bulge" (1960).

Hero of the Soviet Union (1943), retired colonel (1978) Alexei Maresyev was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1943, 1986), Orders of the October Revolution, Red Banner, Patriotic War 1st degree, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, Orders of Friendship of Peoples, Red Star, Honor, "For Services to the Fatherland" III degree (1996), medals, as well as orders and medals of foreign states.

Maresyev was married and raised two sons.

The fate of Alexei Maresyev is the subject of Boris Polevoy's book "The Tale of a Real Man" (1946), which was made into a feature film of the same name in 1948. Sergei Prokofiev wrote an opera based on it.

In honor of Alexei Maresyev, a minor planet of the solar system, his name was given to schools in Moscow, Orel, a lyceum in Kamyshin. In many cities, streets are named after Maresyev. In Kamyshin, in 2006, a monument to the pilot was unveiled, and in 2010, in the same city, on the Alley of Heroes, his bust was erected. In Moscow, a memorial plaque was opened on the house where Alexei Maresyev lived, and a bust of the hero was erected in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

In 2004, by order of the Moscow government, the A. Maresyev Prize "For the will to live" was approved. It is awarded to people who managed to survive in extreme situations, who showed courage and heroism.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources