The future submariner was born on January 15, 1913. His father, Ivan Alekseevich Marinescu, was from Romania. An orphan from the age of seven, he, being smart and hardworking, rose to the respected position of an agricultural machinery operator. In 1893 he was drafted into the Navy and assigned as a fireman on a torpedo boat. Ivan Alekseevich coped with his duties until one of the officers harassed him. After being hit in the face, the enraged sailor, according to one version, beat the senior in rank, according to the other, pushed him away with force. Without waiting for the trial, the sailor, with the assistance of his comrades, escaped from the punishment cell, swam across the Danube and moved to the Ukraine. The expectation of getting lost was justified. Until 1924, Ivan Alekseevich did not apply for citizenship, stayed away from large cities, and also changed his last name to Marinesko. By the way, he found a piece of bread everywhere - his golden hands saved him.
In 1911, while in the Poltava region, Ivan Alekseevich met the black-eyed beautiful peasant woman Tatyana Koval, and after a short time they got married. The young people moved to Odessa, where Marinesko found a job in his specialty. It was here that they had two children: daughter Valentina and son Alexander. According to the recollections of the submariner, a very gentle and condescending father emerged from the former state criminal, while his mother was much stricter, with a very heavy hand.
The young years of Alexander Ivanovich were spent on the streets of Odessa. The submariner himself said: “At the age of seven I already swam beautifully. Behind the shipyard there was a cemetery of old ships. Adults did not look there, and we spent whole days fishing, swimming, eating and smoking. Our routine was rarely changed and only for a variety of impressions. Sometimes we would go in a crowd to the passenger docks and ask the passengers of regular steamers to throw dimes into the water. Whenever someone threw a coin, we dived after it into the clear water. It happened that they took possession of them in battle, to the delight of the passengers who watched the underwater battles."
The first ships for Alexander Ivanovich were the Black Sea yachts. Light-winged and snow-white, they seemed to the grimy Odessa children as fabulous visions, unattainable for ordinary people. The revolution made significant adjustments to this view. The yachts began to belong to the factory collectives, but they accepted anyone who was ready to work properly in the Odessa Yacht Club. Marinesco said: “After graduating from the fifth grade, I thought only about the sea. The first school for me was the local yacht club. All spring I helped to repair yachts, and by the beginning of navigation I was among the best enrolled in one of the teams. All summer I sailed, acting as a real sailor. And at the end of the summer I already took part in real competitions”.
Despite such a successful start, the yachts soon had to leave - the club moved to the Arcadia area. Parting with his beloved ship, Alexander experienced painful - without ships and the sea, he could no longer exist. Fortunately, there was a temporary way out. Marinesco got a job as an apprentice at the central rescue station located on Lanzheron. His service began with duty on the tower, since he had experience as a signalman. Then he underwent initial briefing and was admitted to rescue operations.
Despite his restless nature, Alexander studied quite well and read a lot. However, he spent only six years at the school desk - until 1926. After he turned thirteen, Marinesco, as an apprentice of a sailor, began to sail on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company. At the age of fourteen, the teenager saw the Caucasus and the Crimea, and soon a decree came about enrolling Alexander in the school for young men.
To become a pupil of this institution was not only a great honor, but also a serious challenge. The first year of study included classes in carpentry, turning and plumbing - a sailor must be able to do everything. The guys studied the basics of navigation and rigging, learned to read nautical guidelines and ship documents. All this was easy for Alexander. In the second year, science became more difficult. The entire course was sent to the Lakhta blockade, driven from the Baltic. There, the guys lived in a barracks position, with a routine close to a military one. Everything was done at the signal of the bugler, there was no entertainment. Despite the fact that the block ship was near the breakwater, the students went ashore only on Saturdays, and even then if they were not on duty. Hereditary sailor Sergei Shaposhnikov, who studied together with Marinesko, said: “The old boatswains of the tsarist service did not let anyone launch. But the forced seclusion had its own charm. We became friends, learned to live in such a way that no one annoyed or oppressed anyone. Today, in the era of nuclear submarines and space flights, the problems of mutual adaptation and psychological compatibility are being developed by scientists. Then they did not even know such words. But there was a deep meaning in the strict procedures on the Lakhta. It was a filter. Such a life does not suit - go to the boat and goodbye. Nobody holds, as it will be more difficult at sea. Two years was the period of study at the Jung school. Marinesko, as the most successful, was reduced to one and a half years, after which he was enrolled in the Odessa Naval School without exams.
"Seaman" trained future navigators of long-distance voyages. A year of hard study, and then a five-month practice on the famous sailing ship "Comrade" ended for Alexander with a state exam. The twelve captains who received him were impartial and merciless - out of forty cadets after the tests, only sixteen remained. After graduating from college, Marinesko returned to the shore for some time. Marine science was still in the first place, but this did not prevent him from doing public affairs. In a short time, Alexander played the most unexpected roles - an activist of the "Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema and Photos", an entertainer, a member of the amateur ensemble of the "Moryak" club. And in April 1933, Alexander Ivanovich received his first assignment - to the Black Sea Fleet steamer "Red Fleet" as the fourth mate of the captain. This is what Marinesco said about his debut: “Our steamer is an old vessel of a thousand tons with a displacement. He sailed along the Crimean-Caucasian line, transporting grain. The captain, an experienced sailor and a great drunkard, looked closely at me for two weeks, and then trusted completely and during the sailing watch he practically did not look at the bridge. Two months later, I became the second assistant, and in this position I had a lot of grief. There was an accelerated transportation of grain from Kherson, Skadovsk and Nikolaev to the ports of the Caucasus. In order to overfulfill the plan, the steamer was unnecessarily loaded, which managed safely for the time being. Once, twenty hours from Batumi, we got into a storm of points eight. There were a lot of damages on our box, the front ladder and the boat were blown away by the waves. In Batumi, when the holds were opened, they saw what saved us the soaked, swollen grain, which clogged the hole and stopped the flow of seawater."
Alexander Ivanovich did not have to sail on steamers for a long time - in the fall of 1933 he was drafted into the cadres of the Navy. Already in November, he arrived in Leningrad and, having received the insignia of the commander of the sixth category, was sent to the navigator classes of special courses for command personnel. Together with him, Nina Marinesko (nee Karyukina) came to the northern capital of Russia. Their wedding took place shortly before leaving. Little is known about the beginning of Marinesco's naval service. Old comrades who saw him in the first months unanimously noted: “Alexander studied well, neither the Komsomol organization nor the command had any complaints against him, but his mood was at times depressed. A certified navigator, in the near future the captain of a Black Sea ship, here he again turned into a cadet, comprehending a lot from the beginning."
Alexander Ivanovich graduated from the courses ahead of schedule in 1935 and was assigned to the submarine Shch-306 "Haddock" as an understudy of the navigator. Already a couple of days after the appearance of Marinesko, the submarine began to prepare for a multi-day cruise. Alexander Ivanovich - physically strong, of small stature - easily mastered his economy, quickly learned to navigate on a boat, figured out cars and weapons. He did not know how to get bored and prepared for the campaign with zeal. Veteran submariner Vladimir Ivanov recalled: “That autonomous campaign lasted forty-six days. For a "pike" this is a lot. In such voyages, a person fully reveals himself. Alexander was a real sailor, he served impeccably. Cheerful and cheerful, the team immediately fell in love with him. After a couple of months, he knew the whole boat perfectly - it was evident that he was preparing himself for steering."
By 1937, the turning point in the life of Marinesco was over. He considered himself a real submariner, he had a new goal in life, and in November Alexander Ivanovich was sent to the Higher Courses for Command Staff. Those who graduated from them deserved the right to independently control the ships. But then, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, in the midst of practical training in the summer of 1938, an order came to the courses: "Expel student Marinesco and demobilize from the fleet." The order was not connected with any sins of Alexander Ivanovich. Among the most possible reasons, historians name a purely personal circumstance - a short-term stay of the young Sasha in the lands occupied by whites, or the Romanian origin of his father.
So the young sailor was left without what he loved. Attempts to get a job in the merchant fleet did not lead to anything. Alexander Ivanovich endured the agonizing exile in silence. Realizing that it was pointless to demand explanations, he did not write statements and did not go to the authorities. Trying to occupy himself, Marinesco, avoiding the piers, wandered around the city, met with a few friends and helped them in everyday life. He did not want to talk about his experiences, and to all questions he answered shortly: "There was a mistake, they will figure it out." Fortunately, this state, exhausting the soul, did not last long. As suddenly as the order for demobilization, the order came to the service, and Marinesco, reappearing in the Training Detachment, enthusiastically began to make up for lost time. In November 1938, after graduating from the courses, Alexander Ivanovich received the rank of starley and took command of the M-96 submarine.
From the very first days of submarine control, unforeseen difficulties emerged, the main one of which was that the M-96 submarine was completely new. A new boat is a new team that is not welded together and has not accumulated joint traditions and experience. For the first six months, builders worked on the boat, whose presence made it difficult to carry out daily duty. Another difficulty was that, due to the small size of the submarine, the positions of military commissar and assistant commander were not provided on it. Alexander Ivanovich himself did not swim as an assistant, he also did not have experience in political work. To cope with these difficulties Marinesko was helped by the head of the "babies" division Yevgeny Yunakov. As a talented educator, Evgeny Gavrilovich set himself the task of bringing up the missing starpom qualities in a clearly gifted young submarine commander. Subsequently, he said: “There was no need to make a sailor from Marinesco. It was necessary to make a naval sailor. " How zealously the commander of the M-96 got down to business can be judged by the fact that in 1940 the crew of the submarine, according to the results of political and combat training, took first place, and Alexander Ivanovich was awarded the golden watch and was promoted to lieutenant commander. In January 1941 the strict and experienced Yunakov gave the following characterization to the twenty-seven-year-old submarine commander: “Marinesko is decisive, courageous, resourceful and quick-witted. An excellent sailor, well prepared. Knows how to navigate quickly and makes the right decisions. It transfers its skills, knowledge and fighting spirit to subordinates. He neglects personal interests for the sake of the benefit of the service, is restrained and tactful. He takes care of his subordinates."
Before the war, the "baby" of Alexander Ivanovich regularly carried out patrol and intelligence services. The submariner wrote about the last pre-war voyage of the M-96: “On the ninth day of being at sea, everyone was very tired … We did a good job - last year's standards, which gave us the general fleet leadership, were noticeably exceeded. From now on, for an urgent dive, we need only seventeen seconds (according to the norms of 35) - so far not a single "baby" has achieved this. It was difficult, but nobody complained. " News of the beginning of the war found the M-96 at sea. The Hanko garrison - a rocky peninsula rented from the Finns, where the Marinesco family moved before the war - was preparing to repel the attack, but the civilian population had to be urgently evacuated. Nina Ilyinichna, taking the most necessary things, together with her little daughter Laura sailed on a motor ship to Leningrad. Alexander Ivanovich could not see them, in July 1941 his M-96 entered a combat position in the Gulf of Riga. The mine situation at that moment was relatively bearable, but on the way back it noticeably changed for the worse. Marinesco, who did not yet have experience of walking through minefields, was one of the first to master this science - a science where any mistake threatened death. Alexander Ivanovich said: “There is nothing more painful than passing a minefield underwater. It's like a fight with invisibility. Mina does not betray herself, it is not for nothing that she is called silent death. You can only guess about her true location, relying on the stories of comrades who went before you and your own instinct. " They were not without reason worried about the fate of the M-96, but Alexander Ivanovich brought the boat to Kronstadt.
After returning to the base, an order came - two Baltic "babies", including "M-96", to send to the Caspian fleet. To send the boat, it was necessary to dismantle and disarm, and this began to be implemented. However, due to the rapid advance of the German troops, the order was canceled, and the boat was again brought into a combat-ready state. By that time, the situation on the Leningrad front was critical, and for some time the M-96 was mined. And in late autumn 1941 the boat was driven to the floating base "Aegna". During the shelling of Leningrad in mid-February 1942, an artillery shell exploded two meters from the left side of the submarine. The sturdy hull could not stand it, and water flooded two compartments. The boat had only eight cubic meters of positive buoyancy left when, thanks to the efficiency of the crew, the disaster was averted. The accident turned out to be major (especially for the siege conditions), in addition to the hull work, damage to the diesel engine was found. The restoration of the sub was completed only by the summer of 1942, and at the beginning of August the crew of the M-96 began preparations for a military campaign.
In this voyage, Marinesco's experience gained on merchant ships came in handy. He knew very well the sea routes along which transport ships moved. The result was the sinking of a German transport with a displacement of seven thousand tons. The attack was carried out from a submerged position during the day, and both torpedoes hit the target. The transport was guarded by three patrol ships, and Marinesko decided to leave the pursuit not in the direction of the bases, but in the direction of the port of Paldiski occupied by the enemy. The enemy was confused, and the submarine, breaking away from the pursuit, on the eleventh day appeared at a rendezvous with Soviet boats awaiting her. It is curious that upon surfacing the ships fired at the M-96 by mistake. In the words of one submariner of their crew, Marinesco: “The commander discovered a rare endurance even here. After a second ascent, he placed the sub between the two ships so that if they opened fire on us again, they would hit each other. This brilliant calculation bought time. Later we asked why we were mistaken for fascists. The katerniki replied that there was a swastika on the deck of the boat. Later we figured it out - here and there white camouflage paint appeared and it really came out like that”. For this campaign, Alexander Ivanovich was awarded the Order of Lenin and until the end of navigation was able to successfully complete another voyage with a special reconnaissance mission. In addition, he was promoted to captain of the third rank and accepted as a candidate of the CPSU (b). Among the thirty officers who distinguished themselves in the summer campaign, he received permission to fly from surrounded Leningrad to his family and celebrate the New Year with her.
1943 was the most difficult year for the Baltic submariners, the time of forced inactivity and severe losses that remained in their memory. The German command, making sure that the barriers installed at the exit from the Gulf of Finland were not so impassable, took additional measures. At the very beginning of the campaign, crossing the barriers, several first-class Soviet submarines were blown up, and our command decided not to send more submarines to death. During this time, Alexander Ivanovich was transferred to the commander of the submarine "S-13". He took the new appointment seriously: “The boat is big, everything is new - both people and equipment. On the "baby" I knew every nut, brought up a team, believed her, and she believed me. " Nevertheless, Marinesco got down to business thoroughly. He trained the personnel in his own way, constantly conducting dives on the Neva. The commander also stubbornly prepared artillery crews. On the S-13 submarine, in addition to the forty-five-millimeter cannon, there was a 100-mm long-range cannon, which served seven people. By the beginning of the navigation, the submarine was "on tovs!", But in 1943 Marinesko was not released into the sea.
The grief for the dead friends, together with the forced inaction, was painfully experienced both by the sailors and their commanders. Soviet troops on almost all fronts went over to the offensive. The accumulated experience demanded application, and force demanded an exit. People became more nervous and irritable, Alexander Ivanovich, only in the summer and autumn of 1943, twice visited the guardhouse, having received a warning from the party line, and then a reprimand. Marinesco gave his word to improve, and he kept his promise. In May 1944, the party committee of the submarine brigade decided to remove the reprimand from him in connection with "atonement for high discipline and honest work."
After Finland's surrender, it was time for new campaigns. The S-13 left Kronstadt on October 1, heading for a position in the Danzig Bay area. On October 9, the submarine found the armed transport Siegfried. The torpedo attack failed. Despite the fact that the torpedo triangle was correctly identified, the ship's captain stopped the course in time, and all the torpedoes passed along the bow. Such a misfire did not discourage Alexander Ivanovich, he again attacked with one torpedo, but she was noticed, the transport set in motion, and the torpedo passed astern. It seemed that everything was lost, but Alexander Ivanovich gave the command "artillery alert". An artillery duel ensued between the submarine and the transport. Soviet sailors fired better and soon the enemy ship began to sink into the water. Having successfully broken away from the enemy destroyers, the S-13 arrived at the Hanko harbor, where Soviet floating bases were already stationed. For this campaign, Marinesko received the Order of the Red Banner, and the damaged Siegfried was towed by the enemy to Danzig, where it was restored until the spring of 1945.
Throughout November and December 1944, the boat was under repair, and Marinesco was suddenly attacked by a blues. It should be noted here that at this time his family broke up. Subsequently, Nina Ilyinichna said: “Today I understand that when an inhuman exertion of strength is required from a person in battle, it is impossible to wish him to be a good boy in everyday life. But then I was younger - and did not forgive. On New Year's Eve, Alexander Ivanovich, unexpectedly for everyone, committed a grave offense - he voluntarily left the floating base, went on a spree in the city and appeared only in the evening of the next day. The incident was extraordinary and unprecedented. The war was not over yet, and strict martial law remained in force, especially in newly hostile territory. Alexander Ivanovich was threatened with a tribunal trial. Nevertheless, the command showed common sense - the submarine was ready for the campaign, and the commander enjoyed great confidence in the crew. Marinesco was allowed to atone for his mistakes in the battle with the enemy, and on January 9, 1945, the S-13 sailed again to a position in the area of the Danzig Bay.
Once in his usual place, Alexander Ivanovich again became what the team knew him - a brave, calculating and energetic fighter. For thirteen days, the boat sailed in the middle part of the designated area of operations, a couple of times coming into contact with enemy ships. However, Marinesco never attempted an attack, keeping the torpedoes for the larger game. In the end, he made the decision to move to the southern part of the area. On the night of January 30, the submariners spotted a group of ships leaving the Danzig Bay and moving to the northwest. And soon there was a message from the hydroacoustics, who heard the noise of the blades of a huge twin-screw ship. "S-13" went to a rapprochement. There was no visibility on the bridge at that time - a snowstorm and storm rolls interfered - and the commander ordered a dive to a depth of twenty meters, safe from a ramming strike. However, the speed of the submarine decreased, and Marinesko understood from the acoustic bearing that the target was moving away. Taking into account the imperfection of the then equipment, he did not shoot blindly, and when the target passed the bow of the submarine, he gave the command to surface. Visibility improved, and the divers, taking a course parallel to the huge liner, rushed in pursuit.
It was not easy to compete with an ocean liner during the course. After two hours of chase, Alexander Ivanovich made a risky decision to force the engines. The crazy race lasted for about an hour, and all this time the commander did not leave the bridge. The visibility still left much to be desired, but there is a silver lining - the boat was also not seen on the ships of the convoy. And finally, the decisive moment has come. The torpedo attack was perfect. Three torpedoes fired hit the target, hitting the ship's most vulnerable spots. The fourth torpedo, by the way, came out of the vehicle by half, and later the torpedoists of the compartment pulled it into place. The liner sank after half an hour, but the crew of the submarine did not see this anymore - after the explosions, Marinesco ordered an urgent dive. It should be noted that the S-13 attack was carried out according to the commander's plan from the coast. The calculation of Alexander Ivanovich turned out to be correct - the escort, consisting of six destroyers, did not expect an attack from this side in any way and at the first moment was confused, which allowed the boat to go to the depth. The negative aspects of the decision were made later, when the escort ships found the approximate location of the submarine. At coastal depths, the lurking boat was much easier to spot and overlay. And then Alexander Ivanovich showed the art of maneuvering. The mortal battle lasted four hours, and none of the two hundred and forty bombs dropped on the boat damaged the hull (such trifles as light bulbs broken by a concussion and failed devices do not count). Later, Marinesco said: “When they tell me about my luck, I laugh. I would like to answer in Suvorov's way - once lucky, twice lucky, well, put something on the skill … . Catching the moment when the pursuers ran out of depth charges, the submarine gave a move and left the dangerous area.
The news of the death of the superliner "Wilhelm Gustlov" spread with the speed of a sound wave. Soviet submariners at the Finnish shipyards heard about the feat of the S-13 even before it returned to the base. The participants in the "attack of the century" themselves did not seek home. After carrying out minor repairs and reloading the torpedo tubes, the crew began to prepare for new attacks. With the next goal, the submarine was helped by the Baltic aviation. Arriving at the indicated coordinates, "S-13" found a cruiser of the "Emden" class in combat escort of six destroyers of the latest type "Karl Galster", moving towards Germany. The chase began, somewhat similar to the recent race for the liner. Again, full speed in cruising position, again forcing the engines. This time, Marinesco decided to shoot the stern. Despite the known risk - there were only two feed units, not four - such an attack made it possible to quickly escape from pursuit. The volley, fired on February 10, 1945, was unusually accurate. The target was hit by both torpedoes, and the auxiliary cruiser General Steuben sank in a matter of minutes. Instead of an urgent dive, Aleksandr Ivanovich ordered “full speed ahead!” And the S-13 disappeared into the open sea.
Despite the outstanding successes, for this campaign the commander received only the Order of the Red Banner. The reduced assessment of the feat was influenced by his sin on New Year's Eve. The legendary submariner himself did not absolve himself of his guilt, however, he told his colleagues: “And the team's awards were knocked off. Does she have something to do with it? " The S-13 set off on a new campaign on April 20. The crew was in a fighting mood, but the voyage did not meet the expectations of the submariners. By the way, only the combat score of the boat did not increase, but in terms of its tension the campaign was not inferior to the rest. In just ten days (from April 25 to May 5), the submarine evaded fourteen torpedoes fired at it. It is unlikely that at the end of the war, the enemy's submariners forgot how to shoot - with such a number of torpedoes it is possible to destroy an entire squadron, and only thanks to the vigilance and excellent training of the Marinesco crew, none of them hit the target. The underwater ace ended the war in the same way as he began - on patrol. The sailors celebrated the victory lying on the ground, observing all precautions. The return home was delayed - the command considered it inappropriate to immediately withdraw the submarines from their positions. It is curious that of the thirteen diesel-electric torpedo submarines of the Baltic fleet "C" class, during the war, only the one that was commanded by Marinesko survived.
After the crowdedness and constraint, after the monstrous overstrain of the forces of the people on the shore, it was irresistibly tempted to "hum", to feel free. Alexander Ivanovich perfectly understood this and, under personal responsibility, released the sailors' detachments ashore. This was called "going to demagnetize". Unfortunately, the commander himself did not live up to the confidence of the command. Nervous exhaustion, loneliness, mental disorder resulted in his unauthorized absences and conflicts with his superiors. In addition, Marinesco showed the first signs of epilepsy. The management decided to demote him to the rank of starley and transfer him to another boat to the position of assistant. The military leaders who passed the verdict appreciated Alexander Ivanovich and wished to save him for the submarine fleet. However, for Marinesco, the prospect of saying goodbye to the S-13, getting under the command of another commander was intolerable. The famous admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov wrote: "In this case, the punishment did not correct the person, but broke him." Upon learning of his demotion, the underwater ace left the service in November 1945.
In 1946-1948, Alexander Ivanovich sailed on merchant ships as an assistant to the captain, and visited foreign voyages. However, he never became a captain and was fired due to visual impairment. While sailing on the ships of the Leningrad Shipping Company, Marinesko met the radio operator Valentina Gromova, who became his second wife. Following her husband, she moved ashore, and soon they had a daughter, Tanya. And in 1949 the secretary of the Smolninsky district committee offered the submariner a job at the Institute of Blood Transfusion as deputy director for economic affairs. Unfortunately, the director did not need an honest deputy who interfered with self-supply and building a dacha. Enmity arose between them, and soon Marinesco, who handed out several tons of peat briquettes, written off as unnecessary, to employees after the director's verbal permission, was accused of plundering socialist property. A trial was held, at which the prosecutor dropped the charges, and both people's assessors expressed a dissenting opinion. The case was considered in a different composition, and the sentence was three years in Kolyma. By the way, a year later, the director of the economic unit, who was finally entangled in his machinations, also ended up in the dock.
It is curious that, finding himself in difficult circumstances, Alexander Ivanovich got ready. Sick and broken, he did not collapse either morally or physically, did not become embittered and did not lose his human dignity. During the entire period of his imprisonment, he did not have a single epileptic seizure. The submariner wrote letters to his wife cheerful, with humor: “I live, work and count the time not as days, but as hours. There are about 1800 of them left, but if you throw out the hours of sleep, then 1200 comes out. Go to the bathhouse eight times, eat seventy kilograms of bread."
After returning to Leningrad in October 1951, Alexander Ivanovich worked as a loader, topographer and finally got a job at the Mezon plant. Marinesco fell in love with his new job in the industrial supply department, lived in the interests of the enterprise and, when meeting with old comrades, always talked about factory problems. He said: “I allow myself a lot there. I write critical articles in the factory newspaper, I object to the authorities. Everything goes down. Well, I can get along with workers. " It is incredible, but the fact is that what Alexander Ivanovich did during the war, the workers of the plant learned only from the newspapers, while the legendary submariner himself never told anything about his exploits. The last years of his life passed relatively calmly. Daughter Marinesco said that her father had many interests: “In his youth, he boxed well. He painted well with paints and pencils, mainly ships and the sea. He loved to tap-dance - he specially took lessons from one sailor. He sang beautifully Ukrainian songs. And during the holidays I got into a boat and went fishing. " Marinesco also broke up with his second wife. And in the early sixties, Valentina Filimonova entered his life, becoming the third and last wife. They lived very modestly. Valentina Aleksandrovna recalled: “We had neither a decent chair, nor a table, at first we slept on plywood. Later they got hold of an ottoman and were happy."
At the end of 1962, doctors discovered that Marinesko had a swelling of the throat and esophagus. The surgeon who operated on Marinesco wrote: “Alexander Ivanovich in the hospital behaved courageously, patiently endured torment, was, like a child, shy. He never once mentioned his merits and did not complain about fate, although he was frank with me … He understood everything, but did not lose hope, did not lose heart, did not "go into illness", on the contrary, he was interested in everything that happened outside the hospital walls " … The legendary submariner died on November 25, 1963, at the age of fifty, and on May 5, 1990 he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
