In the life of this man, a sharp rise in his career is significant - having received the post of commander of an aviation regiment and the rank of lieutenant colonel in February 1941, he became Chief Marshal of Aviation on August 19, 1944, the youngest marshal in the history of the Red Army.
Stalin knew him personally and had paternal feelings for him. Stalin always, when this man came to his home, met and tried to help him undress, and when he left, he accompanied and helped to get dressed. The Marshal was embarrassed. "For some reason, I always felt terribly awkward at the same time and always, entering the house, I took off my overcoat or cap on the go. When leaving, I also tried to quickly leave the room and get dressed before Stalin approached." “You are my guest,” the Boss said to the embarrassed marshal, giving him an overcoat and helping him to put it on. Can you imagine Stalin giving his overcoat to Zhukov or Beria, Khrushchev or Bulganin ?! No! And again no! For the owner not inclined to sentimentality, this was something out of the ordinary. Sometimes from the outside it might seem that Stalin openly admires his own promoted person - this tall, heroic growth, a handsome light brown-haired man with large gray-blue eyes, who made a huge impression on everyone with his bearing, smartness, and elegance. "An open face, a kind look, free movements complemented his appearance" 2. In the summer of 1942, the military leadership orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Alexander Nevsky were established. After the victory at Stalingrad, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was brought in for approval their test samples. Prominent military leaders who had just returned from Stalingrad were in his office. Stalin, having attached the 1st degree Order of Suvorov, made of platinum and gold, to the heroic chest of the commander of Long-Range Aviation, Lieutenant General Golovanov, remarked: "That's who he will go to!" Soon the corresponding decree was published, and in January 43rd Golovanov became one of the first holders of this high military leader's award, receiving Order No. 9.
Marshal of the Soviet Union - Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
The senior adjutant of the marshal, even years after the first meeting with the commander, could not hide his involuntary admiration for Alexander Evgenievich Golovanov. "The impeccably fitted marshal's uniform on a slender figure. It was, without exaggeration, a classic example of male beauty. … In all Golovanov's appearance is courage, will and dignity. there is something eagle in it, irresistibly powerful. Rays of light fell from the windows at that moment. An unforgettable picture … "3 The spectators of another unforgettable picture were faces from the closest Stalinist entourage. When in the late autumn of the turning 43rd, the Marshal's daughter Veronica was born, and he came to his wife at the maternity hospital from the front, then Stalin, who learned about this, strictly ordered Golovanov's adjutant not to tell him anything about an urgent call to Headquarters, until the Marshal himself will not ask. For disobedience, the adjutant was threatened with dismissal and sending to the front. When the worried Golovanov arrived at Headquarters, the Supreme Commander himself greeted him with congratulations. The stern leader behaved like a hospitable host and carefully accepted his cap from the hands of the marshal. Stalin was not alone, and the "rabble of thin-necked leaders" witnessed this unique manifestation of paternal feelings: the birth of his own grandchildren never so pleased the leader as the birth of Veronica made him happy. And although Golovanov had just arrived from the front, the conversation began not with a report on the state of affairs in the troops, but with congratulations.
“Well, who to congratulate you with?” Stalin asked cheerfully.
- With my daughter, Comrade Stalin.
- She's not your first, is she? Well, nothing, we need people now. What was it called?
- Veronica.
- What is this name?
- This is a Greek name, Comrade Stalin. Translated into Russian - bringing victory, - I answered.
- It's very good. Congratulations 4.
Political denunciations and everyday slander were constantly written on the famous commanders. Stalin's favorite did not escape this either.
The party environment was dominated by ostentatious asceticism. The leader did not allow anyone to refer to himself by his first name and patronymic, and he always addressed his interlocutors by last name with the addition of the party word "comrade". And only two marshals could boast that Comrade Stalin addressed them by name and patronymic. One of them was the former colonel of the General Staff of the tsarist army, Marshal of the Soviet Union Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov, the other was my hero. Stalin, who had a fatherly attitude to Marshal, not only called him by name, but even wanted to meet with him at home, which he insistently hinted at several times. However, Golovanov avoided answering his proposals every time. The marshal reasonably believed that the leader's inner circle leaves much to be desired. Yes, and the wife of Marshal Tamara Vasilievna in those years "was in the prime of beauty, and, of course, he was afraid to lose her" 5. On the personal order of the leader, the marshal in 1943 was provided with a huge, by Soviet standards of the time, five-room apartment with an area of 163 sq. meters in the famous House on the Embankment. The Kremlin was visible from the windows of the study and bedroom. Children rode bicycles along the corridors. Previously, this apartment belonged to Stalin's secretary, Poskrebyshev. Poskrebyshev's wife was imprisoned, and he hastened to move. The marshal's wife, Tamara Vasilievna, already greatly frightened by the Soviet regime (her father was a merchant of the 1st guild, and the daughter of the bereaved for a long time did not have either a passport or food ration cards), took into account the sad experience of the previous hostess and her entire long life up to until her death in 1996, she was afraid to speak on the phone. Tamara Vasilievna's fears were generated by that terrible time in which she had to live. Political denunciations and everyday slander were constantly written on the famous commanders. Stalin's favorite did not escape this either.
Valentina Grizodubova
Having received a slander against the marshal, Stalin did not cut from the shoulder, but found the time and the desire to understand the essence of the unreasonable slander against his favorite. He even joked: “Finally, we have received a complaint against you. What do you think we should do with it?” 6. The complaint came from the famous pilot and idol of the pre-war years, Hero of the Soviet Union and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Colonel Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova, who wanted the aviation regiment she commanded to receive the honorary title of Guards, and she herself - the rank of general. And then, using her personal acquaintance with Comrade Stalin and other members of the Politburo, Grizodubova decided to play all-in. Violating all the rules of military command and service ethics, acting over the head of the division commander, the corps commander, not to mention the long-range aviation commander Marshal Golovanov, she turned to the Supreme Commander, and her complaint was personally forwarded to Stalin. The triumphant Grizodubova arrived in Moscow - "she already saw herself as the first woman in the country in the uniform of a general …" 7 The newspapers wrote a lot about women selflessly performing their military duty. The chairman of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Women, who has a bright beauty and is well known throughout the country, Valentina Grizodubova, who personally flew about 200 sorties to bomb enemy targets during the war and to maintain communication with partisan detachments, was ideally suited to become an iconic propaganda figure - the personification patriotism of Soviet women. Grizodubova, without a doubt, was a charismatic personality and media figure of the Stalin era. Often, ordinary people sent their appeals to the authorities at this address: "Moscow. Kremlin. Stalin, Grizodubova." She gave a lot and willingly a helping hand to those who were in trouble, and during the years of the Great Terror they turned to her, as the last hope for salvation, for help - and Grizodubova willingly helped. It was she who saved Sergei Pavlovich Korolev from death. However, this time it was not Grizodubova who complained, but she herself. Stalin could not dismiss the complaint signed by the renowned pilot. The marshal was accused of a prejudice against the all-Union famous pilot: allegedly bypasses both awards, and overwrites in service. There was a well-known reason in her words. Colonel Grizodubova fought for two years and made 132 night flights behind enemy lines (she always flew without a parachute), but did not receive a single award. Her gymnast was decorated with the Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor and the Red Star - all these awards she received before the war. At the same time, the chest of any commander of an aviation regiment could be compared with an iconostasis: so often and generously they were awarded. So, Grizodubova's complaint was not groundless.
It was the spring of 1944. The war continued. The Supreme had a lot of things to do, but he considered it necessary to personally orientate himself in the essence of this difficult conflict. It was demonstrated to the closest Stalinist entourage that even in times of military disaster, the wise leader does not forget about the people conscientiously performing their duty at the front. Marshal Golovanov was summoned for personal explanations to Stalin, in whose office almost all members of the Politburo, at that time the body of the highest political leadership, were already sitting. The Marshal realized that the Supreme, proceeding from higher political considerations, had actually already made a positive decision on the assignment of the guards rank to the aviation regiment, and on the assignment of the general rank to Grizodubova. But neither the one nor the other was impossible without an official submission signed by the commander of the Long-Range Aviation, who only had to draw up the necessary documents. The Marshal refused to do this, believing that Colonel Grizodubova did not deserve such an honor: she twice left the regiment without permission and went to Moscow, and the regiment had low discipline and a high accident rate. Indeed, no regiment commander would ever dare to leave his unit without the permission of his immediate superiors. However, Grizodubova was always in a special position: everyone knew that she owed her appointment to Stalin, "which she spoke about unambiguously." That is why her immediate superiors - both the division commander and the corps commander - preferred not to get involved with the famous pilot. Without risking to remove her from office, they deliberately bypassed the regiment commander with awards, to which Grizodubova had an undoubted right on the basis of the results of her combat work. Not fearing Stalin's anger and risking losing his post, Marshal Golovanov did not succumb to persistent persuasion or undisguised pressure. If Stalin's favorite had succumbed to this pressure, then he would have actually recognized the special status of Grizodubova. To sign the submission meant to sign that not only the immediate superiors, but also he, the commander of Long-Range Aviation, was not a decree for her. The marshal, who was proud of the fact that he personally obeyed Comrade Stalin and only him, could not go to this. Golovanov took great risks, but his act showed his own logic: he endlessly believed in the wisdom and justice of the leader, and he understood very well that the suspicious Boss was intolerant of those who were trying to deceive him. The marshal, relying on facts, was able to substantiate the absurdity of the claims of Grizodubova, spoiled by the attention of the highest circles, proving the slanderous nature of her complaint, and this only strengthened Stalin's confidence in himself. “However, I also knew how the Supreme Commander reacted to fiction and slander…” 9 As a result, a decision was made, according to which Colonel Grizodubova “for libel for mercenary purposes on his immediate commanders” was removed from command of the regiment.
Marshal, however, became entrenched in the idea that only a wise and just Stalin would always decide his fate. Belief in this predetermined all his future actions and, ultimately, contributed to the decline of his brilliant career. The favorable end of this story for the marshal prevented him from soberly looking the truth in the face: his incident was almost the only one. How often during the years of the Great Terror, innocently slandered people appealed not to the law, but to the justice of the leader, and they did not wait for it. At the same time, the marshal did not take the trouble to correlate the successful outcome of his business with another story, the protagonist of which he happened to be two years earlier. In 1942, he was not afraid to ask Stalin why the aircraft designer Tupolev, who was declared an "enemy of the people", was sitting.
Aircraft designer Andrey Tupolev and members of the ANT-25 crew: Alexander Belyakov, Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baidukov (left to right) on the eve of the flight Moscow - Udd Island. 1936 year. Photo: TASS photo chronicle
-Comrade Stalin, why is Tupolev imprisoned?..
The question was unexpected.
There was a rather long silence. Stalin was apparently pondering.
“They say it’s not English, or American spy…” The tone of the answer was unusual, there was neither firmness nor confidence in it.
- Do you really believe that, Comrade Stalin ?! - burst out from me.
- And do you believe?! - passing to "you" and coming close to me, he asked.
“No, I don’t believe it,” I replied resolutely.
- And I don’t believe it! - Stalin suddenly answered.
I did not expect such an answer and stood in the deepest amazement 10.
Tupolev was soon released. This short dialogue between the leader and his favorite radically changed the fate of the aircraft designer. For those who did not live in that era, the situation seems absolutely monstrous and immoral, going beyond good and evil. Arbitrariness reigned in the country, but those who were inside this system, with rare exceptions, preferred not to think so and were wary of making generalizations. The Marshal several times sought the release of the specialists he needed. Stalin never refused his favorite, although sometimes he grumbled: "You are talking about yours again. Someone is imprisoning, but Stalin must release" 11.
The Marshal was satisfied with the fact that he was deciding the issue of the liberation of a particular person, which in those conditions was colossal, but he drove away thoughts about the depravity of the system itself.
Deputy Chief of the Red Army Air Force Ya. V. Smushkevich with officers at the Douglas DC-3 aircraft at the Ulaanbaatar airfield
However, the time has come to talk about how his ascent began. During a noisy meeting of the new year 1941 in the House of Pilots in Moscow, later this building housed the Sovetskaya Hotel, Aeroflot chief pilot Alexander Evgenievich Golovanov found himself at the same table with Lieutenant General of Aviation Yakov Vladimirovich Smushkevich, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Before the war, only five people were honored to receive the high title of twice Hero, and by the 41st year only four survived. General Smushkevich, the hero of Spain and Khalkhin-Gol, was one of them. However, the fate of this major aviation commander hung in the balance. The general himself, who aroused Stalin's anger with his negative attitude to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, was well aware that his days were numbered. When conferring the first general ranks, the chief of the Red Army Air Force Smushkevich, who had the personal rank of commander of the 2nd rank and wore four rhombuses in his buttonholes, became only a lieutenant general, although he could claim a higher military rank due to his position and exceptional military merits. (In June 1940, 12 commanders of the 2nd rank became lieutenant generals, 7 people received the rank of colonel-general, and 2 military leaders - the rank of army general.) In August 40, he was first moved to the secondary position of Inspector General of the Air Force, and in December - to an even farther post from combat aviation as Assistant Chief of the General Staff for Aviation. In this critical situation, Yakov Vladimirovich was not thinking about his fate, but about the future of Soviet aviation, about its role in the inevitably impending war. Smushkevich never doubted that he would have to fight Hitler. On New Year's Eve, 1941, it was he who persuaded Golovanov to write a letter to Stalin dedicated to the role of strategic aviation in the coming war, and suggested the main idea of this letter: "… The issues of blind flights and the use of radio navigation aids are not given proper importance … Then write that you can take up this business and put it to the proper height. That's all "12. To the bewildered question of Golovanov why Smushkevich would not write such a letter himself, Yakov Vladimirovich, after a pause, replied that his memorandum would hardly be given serious attention. Pilot Golovanov wrote such a letter, and Smushkevich, who retained his connections in Stalin's secretariat, managed to convey the note to its destination. The chief pilot of Aeroflot Golovanov was summoned to the leader, after which a decision was made to form a separate 212nd long-range bomber regiment subordinate to the center, to appoint Golovanov as its commander and to assign him the rank of lieutenant colonel. The salary of the commander of the aviation regiment was 1,600 rubles per month. (Very big money at that time. It was the salary of the director of an academic institute. Academician for this title itself received 1,000 rubles a month. In 1940, the average monthly wage of workers and employees in the national economy as a whole was only 339 rubles.) that Golovanov, as the chief pilot of Aeroflot, receives 4,000 rubles, and in fact earns even more with bonuses, the owner ordered that the names of this amount be assigned to the newly minted regiment commander as a personal salary. This was an unprecedented decision. The People's Commissar of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko, who was present at the same time, noticed that even the People's Commissar did not receive such a large salary in the Red Army. "I left Stalin as in a dream. Everything was decided so quickly and so simply." It was this speed that stunned Golovanov and predetermined his attitude towards Stalin for the rest of his life. The repressions did not pass by his family: the husband of his sister, one of the leaders of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army, was arrested and shot. (His widow, until her death, could not forgive her brother-marshal that he went into the service of the tyrant.) Alexander Evgenievich himself narrowly escaped arrest in the era of the Great Terror. In Irkutsk, where he served, a warrant for his arrest had already been issued, and the NKVD officers were waiting for him at the airfield, and Golovanov, warned in advance of his arrest, left by train for Moscow the night before, where only a few months later he managed to prove his innocence. During the years of the Great Terror, astonishing confusion reigned. In the Central Control Commission of the CPSU (b), comparing the materials of the "case" about the expulsion of Golovanov from the party, which was to be followed by an imminent arrest, and the presentation of the pilot to the Order of Lenin for outstanding achievements in work, they made a Solomon decision: the order was denied, but life, freedom and membership in the party - preserved. Alexander Evgenievich belonged to the breed of people for whom state interests, even if misunderstood, were always above their personal experiences. "The forest is cut - the chips are flying," - even very worthy people reasoned in those years.
A. E. Golovanov - Commander of the 212nd Separate Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment (far right). Smolensk, spring 1941 Photo: Unknown author / commons.wikimedia.org
From the very first days of formation, the Separate 212nd Long-Range Bomber Regiment, the backbone of which was made up of experienced pilots of the Civil Air Fleet, who were well versed in the elements of blind flight, was in special conditions. The regiment was not subordinate to either the district commander or the Air Force chief. Golovanov retained this special status both as commander of an aviation division and as commander of long-range aviation. In 1941, Lieutenant Colonel Golovanov began to take off. The fate of General Smushkevich ended tragically: on June 8, 1941, two weeks before the start of the war, he was arrested, and on October 28, in the most hopeless days of the war, when the Red Army lacked experienced military leaders, after inhuman torture, he was shot at the training ground without trial. NKVD near Kuibyshev.
Golovanov brilliantly coped with the task assigned to him by the leader. Already on the second day of the war, the regiment, led by its commander, bombed an accumulation of German troops in the Warsaw area. The pilots of the air division, which he commanded, bombed Berlin during the most severe period of the war, when Goebbels propaganda shouted about the death of Soviet aviation. Long-range aviation aircraft, even at the moment when the Germans approached Stalingrad, bombarded enemy military facilities in Budapest, Konigsberg, Stettin, Danzig, Bucharest, Ploiesti … and the results of the raid on distant targets will not be known. Moreover, the commander of the ship that bombed Berlin received the right to send a radiogram addressed to the leader with a report on the fulfillment of the assigned combat mission. "Moscow. To Stalin. I am in the Berlin area. Task completed. Molodchiy." Moscow replied to the famous ace: "Your radiogram has been accepted. We wish you a safe return."
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ignatievich Molodchiy. 1944 year. Photo: RIA Novosti ria.ru
“The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, when ordering to strike at one or another distant object, weighed many circumstances, sometimes unknown to us. - are still vulnerable and are under the influence of Soviet aviation "15. Stalin was pleased with the actions of the ADD pilots, who proudly called themselves "Golovanovites". Golovanov himself was constantly promoted in military ranks: in August 41st he became a colonel, on October 25 - a major general of aviation, on May 5, 1942 - a lieutenant general, on March 26, 1943 - a colonel general, on August 3, 1943 - an air marshal, August 19, 1944 - Chief Air Marshal. It was an absolute record: none of the famous commanders of the Great Patriotic War could boast of such a rapid rise. By the end of 1944, a real armada was concentrated in the hands of Golovanov. In addition to more than 1,800 long-range bombers and escort fighters, 16 aircraft repair plants, several aviation schools and schools, where already flown crews were trained for the needs of the ADD, were in his direct subordination; The civil air fleet and all the airborne troops transferred to the marshal in the fall of the 44th on the initiative of the Supreme Commander. The airborne troops in October 44 were transformed into the Separate Guards Airborne Army, which consisted of three Guards Airborne Corps and had an aviation corps. The fact that this particular army will have to solve the most important tasks at the final stage of the Great Patriotic War was indicated by the indisputable fact that already at the time of the formation of the army it was given the status of a Separate one (the army was not part of the front) and was awarded the guards rank: neither the other rate has never been abused. This shock fist, created at the initiative of Stalin, was intended for the rapid final defeat of the enemy. The army was to act in an independent operational direction, in isolation from the troops of all available fronts.
The creation of such a powerful one hundred thousandth formation within the ADD could not but cause a certain jealousy on the part of other military leaders who were well aware of the special status of both the Long-Range Aviation and its commander. "… I did not have any other leaders or chiefs to whom I would be subordinate, except for Stalin. Neither the General Staff, nor the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Defense, nor the Deputy Supreme Commanders had anything to do with combat activities and the development of ADD. ADD went only through Stalin and only on his personal instructions. Nobody except him had a long-range Aviation experience. The case, apparently, is unique, because I do not know of any other similar examples. " Golovanov did not report on the results of his activities either to Marshal Zhukov, or to the commander of the Air Force, or to the General Staff. Alexander Evgenievich appreciated his special status and guarded it jealously. “It happened more than once,” recalled the chief of staff of the ADD, Lieutenant-General Mark Ivanovich Shevelev, “when Golovanov pulled me back for calls and trips to the Air Force headquarters to resolve operational issues:“Why do you go to them? We do not obey them”" 17.
To Marshal Zhukov, who held the post of Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, well-wishers transparently hinted that Marshal Golovanov was aiming at his place. Given the proximity of Golovanov to the leader, this assumption seemed very plausible. The question arose, who will be appointed commander of the airborne army? It was obvious that since the army was to play a decisive role in ending the war, its commander would receive victorious laurels and glory, titles and awards. Relying, probably on the recommendation of his deputy, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief considered General of the Army Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky the most desirable figure for this responsible post. The general served for a long time together with Zhukov as the chief of staff of the front and was the creature of Georgy Konstantinovich. Summoning Golovanov to Headquarters, Stalin invited him to approve the appointment of Sokolovsky. However, Golovanov, jealously defending the special status of the ADD and always picking command personnel himself, this time, insisted on his candidate. Sokolovsky was an experienced staff member, but his command of the Western Front ended in dismissal. Marshal Golovanov, who continued to fly as a commander, and when he was a regiment commander and a division commander, piloted an airship to bomb Berlin, Koenigsberg, Danzig and Ploiesti, he could hardly imagine General Sokolovsky jumping with a parachute and crawling on the enemy's bellies in the rear. General Ivan Ivanovich Zatevakhin was placed at the head of the Separate Guards Airborne Army, whose entire service was in the airborne troops. Back in 1938, he had the title of instructor of parachute training, he met the war as the commander of an airborne brigade. When the corps, which included this brigade, was surrounded in September of the 41st, it was Zatevakhin who did not lose his head, took command and after five days withdrew the corps from the encirclement. The commander of the Airborne Forces gave him a brilliant description: "Tactically competent, strong-willed, calm commander. With extensive experience in combat work. During battles he was always in the most dangerous places and firmly controls the battle." It was precisely such a person that Golovanov needed. On September 27, 1944, Chief Marshal Golovanov and Major General Zatevakhin were received by the Supreme Commander, stayed in his office for a quarter of an hour, from 23.00 to 23.15, and the question of the army commander was resolved: on October 4, Zatevakhin was appointed commander, and a month later he was promoted to lieutenant general … The army began to prepare for a landing across the Vistula.
Air Chief Marshal Alexander Evgenievich Golovanov
During the war, Golovanov worked with the utmost exertion of all his forces, literally without sleep or rest: sometimes he did not sleep for several days in a row. Even his heroic body could not withstand such an incredible load, and in June 1944, when intensive preparation for the Belarusian operation, Alexander Evgenievich was in a hospital bed. The medical luminaries could not understand the causes of the illness caused by severe overwork. With great difficulty, the marshal was put on his feet, but while the war was going on, there could be no talk of any reduction in the length of the irregular working day of the commander of the ADD. Intensively engaged in the preparation and future use of the airborne army, Golovanov again forgot about sleep and rest - and in November 44, he again fell dangerously ill and was hospitalized. The Chief Marshal submitted a report to the Supreme Commander with a request to relieve him of his post. At the end of November, Stalin decided to transform the ADD into the 18th Air Army, subordinate to the Air Force command. Golovanov was appointed commander of this army. Stalin told him on the phone: "You will be lost without work, but you will cope with the army and being sick. I think that you will also be sick less." Aeroflot was transferred to the direct subordination of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and the Separate Airborne Army was disbanded: its corps were returned to the ground forces. Golovanov lost his special status and began to obey the commander of the Air Force: in the victorious 1945, he was never at a reception with Stalin. However, Golovanov was not forgiven for his former proximity to the Supreme. Marshal Zhukov personally deleted his name from the list of military leaders nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for participating in the Berlin operation.
November 23, 1944 became an important milestone in the history of the Red Army. The war was still going on, but the Supreme Commander-in-Chief had already begun to think about the post-war structure of the Armed Forces and gradually began to build a rigid vertical of power. On that day, Stalin signed order No. 0379 on the People's Commissariat of Defense on a preliminary report to the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, General of the Army Bulganin, of all issues prepared for submission to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. From now on, all the chiefs of the main and central directorates of the NKO and the commanders of the branches of the armed forces were forbidden to contact the People's Commissar of Defense, Comrade Stalin, bypassing Bulganin. The only exceptions were three people: the Chief of the General Staff, the Chief of the Main Political Directorate and the Chief of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH". And four days later, on November 27, it was decided to merge the ADD with the Air Force, but neither Golovanov nor Air Force Commander Chief Marshal of Aviation Novikov had the right to report directly to the People's Commissar of Defense. The post-war decline of Golovanov's career fits perfectly into the logic of Stalin's actions in relation to the creators of Victory. Few of them managed to escape Stalin's anger and post-war persecution.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov fell into disgrace.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Rokossovsky was forced to take off his Soviet military uniform and went to serve in Poland.
Fleet Admiral Kuznetsov was removed from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and demoted to Rear Admiral.
Air Chief Marshal Novikov was convicted and sent to prison.
Air Marshal Khudyakov was arrested and shot.
Marshal of Armored Forces Rybalko, who dared publicly at a meeting of the Supreme Military Council to doubt the expediency and legality of both the arrest of Novikov and the disgrace of Zhukov, died under mysterious circumstances in the Kremlin hospital. (Marshal called his hospital room a prison and dreamed of getting out.)
Chief Marshal of Artillery Voronov was removed from his post as commander of the Artillery of the Armed Forces and only narrowly escaped arrest.
Artillery Marshal Yakovlev and Air Marshal Vorozheikin were arrested and released from prison only after Stalin's death.
And so on and so forth…
Against this background, the fate of the Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov, although removed in May of the 48th from the post of commander of Long-Range Aviation and miraculously escaped arrest (he hid in his dacha for several months and never again held high command posts corresponding to his military rank), this fate seems still relatively safe. After the Great Victory, the Master again surrounded himself with the same "rabble of thin-necked leaders" as before the war. Moreover, if before the war Stalin "played with the services of demihumans", by the end of his life his inner circle mastered this difficult art and began to manipulate the behavior of a suspicious leader. As soon as Stalin began to work directly with any of the military leaders, ministers or aircraft designers, the inner circle began to intrigue, seeking to denigrate such a person in the eyes of the Boss. As a result, the next caliph disappeared forever from the Stalinist horizon for an hour.
Marshal Zhukov, Admiral of the Fleet Kuznetsov, Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov, Minister of the Ministry of State Security General Abakumov, Chief of the General Staff General Shtemenko, aircraft designer Yakovlev became victims of insidious intrigues. These different people were united by one important circumstance: on the eve or during the war years, they were all promoted to their high posts on the initiative of Comrade Stalin himself, he closely followed their activities and did not allow anyone to interfere in their life and fate, he decided everything himself. For a certain time, these Stalinist nominees enjoyed the trust of a suspicious leader, often visited him in the Kremlin or at the "nearest dacha" in Kuntsevo and had the opportunity to report to Stalin himself, bypassing the jealous control of his inner circle. From them the leader often learned what the "faithful Stalinists" considered it necessary to hide from him. The former Stalinist favorite, who had emerged during the war years, had no place among them. (In 1941, the pilot, and then the regiment commander and division commander, Golovanov met Stalin four times, in the 42nd the Supreme Commander received the ADD commander 44 times, in the 43rd - 18 times, in the 44th - five times, 45 -m - not once, in 46th - once and in 47th - twice. The following year, Golovanov was removed from his post as commander of Long-Range Aviation, and the leader did not accept him anymore.20)
Only in August 1952, Golovanov, who had by that time graduated from the Academy of the General Staff and the "Shot" courses, after numerous requests and very severe humiliations, received the 15th Guards Airborne Corps, stationed in Pskov, under his command. This was an unprecedented demotion: in the entire history of the Armed Forces, a corps was never commanded by a marshal. Golovanov quickly gained authority among his subordinates. "If everyone were like him. Yes, we followed him into fire and water, he was crawling on our belly with us." These words of an admiring paratrooper, spoken in front of witnesses, will cost Golovanov dearly. Envious people will decide that it was no coincidence that the popular marshal, with such persistence, coveted a command post in the troops and constantly refused all high posts not related to commanding people and real power. Soon after Stalin's death, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, who led the Atomic Project, will call the corps commander to Moscow, and Alexander Evgenievich will take part in a secret meeting at which the issues of using nuclear weapons and conducting sabotage operations in Western Europe were discussed. However, the enemies of the Chief Marshal decided that Beria deliberately brought Golovanov, who had once served in the GPU, closer to him, in order to use his corps in the upcoming struggle for power.(In his youth, Alexander Evgenievich took part in the arrest of Boris Savinkov and was friends with Naum Eitingon, the organizer of Trotsky's assassination; during the war, ADD planes were used to send reconnaissance and sabotage groups behind enemy lines.) After the arrest of Lavrentiy Pavlovich, ill-wishers will recall to Golovanovia his proximity to Golovanovia: Behind his back they would call him "Beria's general" and in the same year 53 he would be hastily dismissed.
He never served again. He was given a small pension - only 1,800 rubles, Marshal Zhukov after his resignation received 4,000 rubles, and vice-admiral Kuznetsov, who was reduced in military rank, received 3,000 rubles in the scale of prices before the monetary reform of 1961 (respectively 180, 400 and 300 post-reform or, as they were often called "new" rubles). Half of the pension went to pay for an apartment in the House on the Embankment: the disgraced marshal was deprived of all benefits for housing, he sent 500 rubles a month to his old mother, as a result, the family, which had five children, was forced to live on 400 rubles a month. Even in those lean times, it was well below the cost of living. A subsidiary farm in the country, a hectare of land on Iksha helped out. Half a hectare was sown with potatoes, all the savings were spent on a cow and a horse. His wife Tamara Vasilievna herself ran the household, milked the cow, looked after her, made cottage cheese, cooked cheese. The marshal himself worked a lot on the ground, walked behind the plow, which was pulled by his horse Kopchik, the favorite of the whole family. Alexander Evgenievich even learned how to make wine from berries. When money was needed to buy school uniforms for children, the Golovanovs with the whole family picked berries and handed them over to a thrift store. He did not hide his contempt for the successors of Comrade Stalin and refused to sign a letter condemning the personality cult of Stalin, which was sent to him from Khrushchev. Refused to mention the name of Brezhnev in his memoirs (allegedly met with the head of the political department of the 18th Army, Colonel Brezhnev during the war and wanted to "consult" with him about the combat use of ADD), as a result, the book "Long-range bomber …" was published only after Alexander's death Evgenievich, which followed in 1975. The book came out only in 2004. Until the last days of his life, he remained a staunch Stalinist: in his memoirs, Stalin looks like a wise and charming ruler who has the right to count on an acquittal from History. Alexander Evgenievich described such an episode very sympathetically. On December 5 or 6, 1943, a few days after the successful completion of the Tehran Conference, Stalin told Air Marshal Golovanov: “I know… that when I’m gone, more than one tub of mud will be poured on my head.… But I’m sure that the wind of history will dispel all this … "22 Talking about the meetings with the military leaders who became victims of the Great Terror, he never once mentioned in his memoirs the tragic fate of Generals Pavlov, Rychagov, Proskurov, Smushkevich and Air Marshal Khudyakov. The aesthetic completeness of his relationship with Stalin is striking. There is a pre-established harmony in the fact that the leader brought him closer to himself in the midst of the great trials, and removed him when they were behind, and Victory was not far off. Stalinism became for Golovanov the very screw on which everything was held, if you remove this screw, then everything will crumble.
Joseph Stalin
“I saw Stalin and communicated with him for more than one day and more than one year, and I must say that everything in his behavior was natural. Sometimes I argued with him, proving my own, and after a while, even after a year or two, I: Yes, he was right then, not I. Stalin gave me the opportunity to be convinced of the erroneousness of his conclusions, and I would say that this method of pedagogy was very effective.
Somehow in a temper I told him:
- What do you want from me? I'm a simple pilot.
“I’m a simple Baku propagandist,” he replied. And he added: - You can only talk to me like that. You won't talk to anyone like that again.
… Quite often he also asked about health and about the family: "Do you have everything, do you need anything, do you need anything to help the family?" Strict demand for work and at the same time caring for a person were inseparable from him, they were combined in him as naturally as two parts of one whole, and were greatly appreciated by all people who were in close contact with him. After such conversations, the hardships and hardships were somehow forgotten. that not only the arbiter of destinies speaks to you, but also just a person … "23 (Italics mine. - SE) The disgraced marshal even convinced himself that Stalin, having alienated him from himself, actually saved him from big troubles: the authorities would certainly have concocted a new "case" on him - and Golovanov would not have gotten off so easily. Probably, the way it was in fact: the leader knew well the laws of the functioning of the system, which he himself created. Remember the logic of Stalin's reasoning in "Feasts of Belshazzar" by Fazil Iskander.
“They think power is honey, Stalin thought. No, power is the impossibility of loving anyone, that's what power is. A person can live his life without loving anyone, but he becomes unhappy if he knows that he cannot love anyone.
… Power is when you can't love anyone. Because you will not have time to fall in love with a person, as you immediately begin to trust him, but since you began to trust, sooner or later you will get a knife in the back.
Yes, yes, I know that. And they loved me and got paid for it sooner or later. Cursed life, cursed human nature! If only you could love and not trust at the same time. But this is unreal.
But if you have to kill those you love, justice itself requires you to deal with those you do not love, with the enemies of the cause.
Yes, Dela, he thought. Of course, Dela. Everything is done for the Cause, he thought, listening in amazement to the hollow, empty sound of this thought. 24
Perhaps Golovanov would agree with these arguments. In any case, the text of a work of fiction echoes his memoirs and finds its continuation and confirmation in them. "Stalin, communicating with a huge number of people, was essentially lonely. His personal life was gray, colorless, and, apparently, this is because he did not have that personal life that exists in our concept. Always with people, always at work "25. There is not a word of lie in Golovanov's memoirs - there is simply not the whole truth. At the same time, Alexander Evgenievich was not a dogmatist: in 1968 he condemned the introduction of troops into Czechoslovakia, constantly listened to the BBC and "talked about the fact that democratic changes in socialist countries must not be suppressed."
The system rejected an outstanding person. Stalin was the architect of this system. But only once, Golovanov, a memoirist, told readers about his doubts about the justification of the Great Terror: "… Sweeping away everything that interferes and resists from our path, Stalin does not notice how many people suffer, and whose loyalty could not be doubted. I was in pain and vexation: examples were well known … But, in my understanding, the threads of such troubles were drawn to Stalin. How, I thought, did he allow this? "27 However, it would be futile to look in the book for an answer to this rhetorical question.
I happened to see Alexander Evgenievich Golovanov twice. Once he spoke at our military department at Moscow State University, another time I accidentally ran into him in a half-empty metro car at Novoslobodskaya station: Golovanov was in a marshal's uniform with all the regalia. I remember well that I drew attention to the three military leadership orders of Suvorov 1st degree and the extinct gray-blue eyes of the marshal.
Shortly before his death, he said to his friend, showing with his hand a steep sine wave: "All my life - like this. I don't know if I will scratch myself now …" 28 His last words were: "Mother, what a terrible life …" he repeated three times. Tamara Vasilievna began to ask: "What are you? What are you? Why do you say that?"
Notes (edit)
1. Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … M.: Delta NB, 2004. P. 107.
2. Usachev E. A. My commander // Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of the regiment commander: Collection of documents and materials. M.: Mosgorarkhiv, 2001. S. 24
3. Kostyukov I. G. Notes of the Senior Adjutant // Ibid. P. 247.
4. Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … p. 349.
5. Golovanova O. A. If it was possible to return time … // Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of a commander: Collection of documents and materials. P. 334.
6. Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … p. 428.
7. Ibid. P. 435.
8. Ibid. P. 431.
9. Ibid. P. 434.
10. Ibid. P. 109.
11. Fedorov S. Ya. They were waiting for him in the regiments // Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of the regiment commander: Collection of documents and materials. P. 230.
12. Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … S. 25, 26.
13. Ibid. P. 36.
14. Ibid. P. 85.
15. Skripko NS By goals near and far // Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of a commander: Collection of documents and materials. P. 212.
16. Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … S. 15-16.
17. Reshetnikov V. V. A. Golovanov. Laurels and thorns. M.: Ceres, 1998. S. 39.
18. Great Patriotic War. Commanders. Military Biographical Dictionary. M.; Zhukovsky: Kuchkovo field, 2005. S. 79.
19. Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … p. 505.
20. See the index: At Stalin's reception. Notebooks (journals) of persons adopted by I. V. Stalin (1924-1953): Reference book / Scientific editor A. A. Chernobaev. Moscow: New Chronograph, 2008.784 p.
21. Golovanova O. A. If it was possible to return time … // Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of a commander: Collection of documents and materials. P. 310
22. Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … P. 366.
23. Ibid. S. 103, 111.
24. Iskander F. A. Sandro from Chegem. M.: All Moscow, 1990. S. 138.
25 Golovanov A. E. Long-range bomber … p. 113.
26. Mezokh V. Ch. "I'll tell you the following …" // Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of a commander: Collection of documents and materials. P.349.
27. Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of a commander: Collection of documents and materials. P. 28; A. E. Golovanov Long-range bomber … S. 37, 38.
28. Mezokh V. Ch. "I'll tell you the following …" // Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov: Moscow in the life and fate of a commander: Collection of documents and materials. P. 355.
29. Golovanova T. V. Mother of God, keep him alive // Ibid. P. 286.
