Devyataev Mikhail Petrovich is a legend of Mordovia. Mikhail Petrovich devyataev Pilot devyataev war hero

Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev (July 8 , Torbeevo , Penza province - November 24 , Kazan) - guard senior lieutenant , pilot-fighter, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Military pilot

At the front

After interrogation, Mikhail Devyatayev was transferred to the intelligence department Abwehr, from there - to the Lodz prisoner of war camp, from where, together with a group of prisoner-of-war pilots, he August 13 1944 made his first escape attempt. But the fugitives were caught, declared death row and sent to a death camp. Sachsenhausen. There, with the help of the camp hairdresser, who replaced the number sewn on his camp uniform, Mikhail Devyatayev managed to change his status as a death row inmate to the status of a “penalty inmate.” Soon, under the name of Stepan Grigorievich Nikitenko, he was sent to the island Usedom, where in rocket center Peenemünde development of new weapons of the Third Reich was underway - cruise missiles « V-1" And ballistic missiles « V-2 ».

Escape by plane

Devyatayev and his associates were placed in filtration camp. After completing the filtration check, he continued to serve in the ranks of the Red Army.

In September 1945 he was found S. P. Korolev, appointed to lead the Soviet program for the development of German rocket technology, and summoned Peenemünde. Here Devyatayev showed Soviet specialists the places where rocket assemblies were produced and where they launched from. For assistance in creating the first Soviet rocket R-1- copies " V-2"- Korolev in 1957 was able to nominate Devyatayev to the title Hero.

After the war

In November 1945, Devyatayev was transferred to the reserve. IN 1946 with a diploma ship captain, got a job as a station attendant in Kazan river port. He became a boat captain, and later one of the first to lead the crews of the very first domestic hydrofoil ships - “ Rocket" And " Meteor ».

Mikhail Devyataev lived in Kazan. I worked as long as my strength allowed. In summer 2002, during the filming of a documentary about him, he arrived at the airfield in Peenemünde, lit candles for his comrades and met with the German pilot G. Hobom.
Mikhail Devyatayev is buried in Kazan at the site Arskoe cemetery, where is located memorial complex soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.

Awards

In 1957, thanks to the petition of the Chief Designer of Ballistic Missiles Sergei Korolev and after the publication of articles about Devyatayev’s feat in Soviet newspapers, Mikhail Devyataev August 15 1957 was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Memory of a hero

His feat was described in Soviet textbooks By history 1980s editions
The story “The Hundredth Chance” by Nikolai Sturikov.
IN Torbeevo, on Oktyabrskaya street, May 8 1975 open House-museum Hero of the Soviet Union M. P. Devyatayev.
In Kazan, in the Vakhitovsky district, from the River Station to Tatarstan Street, it takes place Devyataeva Street (formerly Portovaya).
His name bears small rocket ship project 1234.1, located in the 166th Novorossiysk Red Banner division of small missile ships 41st Missile Boat Brigade.
In Kazan, at the grave of M. P. Devyatayev Arskoe cemetery installed bust.
IN Germany A monument was erected to him and nine of his comrades in recognition of the special significance of their escape from the secret base Peenemünde.
Hydrofoil "Voskhod-72" bears the name "Hero Mikhail Devyataev". Currently not in use.
The passenger pleasure catamaran "Volga-3" bears the name "Hero of Devyatayev".
The Kazan River Technical School is named after Devyatayev.
IN Kazan in Victory Park in the Pantheon, around the Eternal Flame, there is a memorial plaque with the data of M. P. Devyatayev with a mention that the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to him only in 1957.
The monument “Escape from Hell” was erected in Vologda.
In Nizhny Novgorod, in Victory Park, a monument “Escape from Hell” was erected in honor of the participants in the escape from Fr. Usedom.
In Saransk in 2010, a memorial sign “Escape from Hell” was installed.
In Gadyach (Poltava region, Ukraine) a monument “Escape from Hell” was erected.
In Poltava, on Petra Yurchenko Street, in the area of the aviation town, the monument “Escape from Hell” was erected.
Streets are named after him Kazan , Saransk And Zubovaya Polyana.

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Notes

in the electronic document bank " Feat of the People» (archival materials TsAMO, f. 33, op. 690155, building 355, l. 18-19)
Pokryshkin A. I. // Know yourself in battle. - M. : DOSAAF, 1986. - 492 p. - 95,000 copies.
. Retrieved January 13, 2013. .
.
Natalia Bespalova, Mikhail Cherepanov.. "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" - Volga - Ural (No. 3366 of December 16, 2003). Retrieved January 11, 2011.
The future General Designer of Soviet missiles himself was released from sharashki only six months before these events.
Irek Bikkinin.// Tatarskaya Gazeta. - 1998. - No. 12 of November 23.
in the electronic document bank " Feat of the People» (archival materials TsAMO, f. 33, op. 686044, building 4402, l. 9-10)
.
.
Pyotr Davydov, Alexey Kolosov.// Red North: newspaper. - 2010. - No. 31 (26416) dated March 25. from the original source 17 Sep 2010 02:04:13 GMT.
.

Literature

Devyataev M. P./ Literary entry A. M. Khorunzhego. - M.: DOSAAF, 1972. - 272 p. - 150,000 copies.
Krivonogov I. P./ Literary record of Irina Sidorova.. - Gorky: Gorky Book Publishing House, 1963. - 192 p. - 75,000 copies.
Escape from Hell. - Kazan: Tatar. book publishing house, 1988.
Sturikov N. A. Hundredth chance. - Cheboksary: Chuvash. book publishing house, 1978.
Devyataev M. P. Escape from Hell. - Kazan: Tatar. book publishing house, 2000. - 192 p.
Devyataev M. P. Memories, responses, journalism, chronicle. - Saransk: type. Red October, 2007. - 248 p.
Cherepanov M. V. The escape that stopped the “angel of death” // Why is Death Valley alive? - Kazan: Heather, 2006. - 368 p.

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Excerpt characterizing Devyataev, Mikhail Petrovich

“Dieu sait quand reviendra”... [God knows when he will return!] - the prince sang out of tune, laughed even more out of tune and left the table.
The little princess remained silent throughout the argument and the rest of the dinner, looking fearfully first at Princess Marya and then at her father-in-law. When they left the table, she took her sister-in-law by the hand and called her to another room.
“Comme c"est un homme d"esprit votre pere," she said, "c"est a cause de cela peut etre qu"il me fait peur. [What a smart man your father is. Maybe that’s why I’m afraid of him.]
- Oh, he's so kind! - said the princess.

Prince Andrey left the next day in the evening. The old prince, without deviating from his order, went to his room after dinner. The little princess was with her sister-in-law. Prince Andrei, dressed in a traveling frock coat without epaulettes, settled down with his valet in the chambers assigned to him. Having inspected the stroller and the packing of the suitcases himself, he ordered them to be packed. In the room there remained only those things that Prince Andrei always took with him: a box, a large silver cellar, two Turkish pistols and a saber, a gift from his father, brought from near Ochakov. Prince Andrei had all these travel accessories in great order: everything was new, clean, in cloth covers, carefully tied with ribbons.
In moments of departure and change of life, people who are able to think about their actions usually find themselves in a serious mood of thought. At these moments the past is usually reviewed and plans for the future are made. Prince Andrei's face was very thoughtful and tender. He, with his hands behind him, quickly walked around the room from corner to corner, looking ahead of him, and thoughtfully shaking his head. Whether he was afraid to go to war, or sad to leave his wife - maybe both, but, apparently, not wanting to be seen in such a position, hearing footsteps in the hallway, he hastily freed his hands, stopped at the table, as if he was tying the cover of a box, and assumed his usual, calm and impenetrable expression. These were the heavy steps of Princess Marya.
“They told me that you ordered a pawn,” she said, out of breath (she was apparently running), “and I really wanted to talk to you alone.” God knows how long we will be separated again. Aren't you angry that I came? “You have changed a lot, Andryusha,” she added, as if to explain such a question.
She smiled, pronouncing the word “Andryusha”. Apparently, it was strange for her to think that this stern, handsome man was the same Andryusha, a thin, playful boy, a childhood friend.
-Where is Lise? – he asked, only answering her question with a smile.
“She was so tired that she fell asleep in my room on the sofa. Ax, Andre! Que! tresor de femme vous avez,” she said, sitting down on the sofa opposite her brother. “She’s a perfect child, such a sweet, cheerful child.” I loved her so much.
Prince Andrei was silent, but the princess noticed the ironic and contemptuous expression that appeared on his face.
– But one must be lenient towards small weaknesses; who doesn't have them, Andre! Don't forget that she was brought up and grew up in the world. And then her situation is no longer rosy. You have to put yourself in everyone's position. Tout comprendre, c "est tout pardonner. [Whoever understands everything will forgive everything.] Think about what it must be like for her, poor thing, after the life to which she is accustomed, to part with her husband and remain alone in the village and in her situation? This very hard.
Prince Andrei smiled, looking at his sister, as we smile when listening to people whom we think we see right through.
“You live in a village and don’t find this life terrible,” he said.
- I'm different. What to say about me! I don’t wish for another life, and I cannot wish for it, because I don’t know any other life. And just think, Andre, for a young and secular woman to be buried in the best years of her life in the village, alone, because daddy is always busy, and I... you know me... how poor I am in ressources, [in interests.] for a woman accustomed to the best to society. M lle Bourienne is one...
“I don’t like her very much, your Bourienne,” said Prince Andrei.
- Oh no! She is very sweet and kind, and most importantly, she is a pitiful girl. She has no one, no one. To tell the truth, I not only don’t need her, but she’s shy. You know, I have always been a savage, and now I’m even more so. I love being alone... Mon pere [Father] loves her very much. She and Mikhail Ivanovich are two persons to whom he is always affectionate and kind, because they are both blessed by him; as Stern says: “we love people not so much for the good they have done to us, but for the good we have done to them.” Mon pere took her as an orphan sur le pavé, [on the pavement], and she is very kind. And mon pere loves her reading style. She reads aloud to him in the evenings. She reads great.
- Well, to be honest, Marie, I think it’s sometimes hard for you because of your father’s character? - Prince Andrei suddenly asked.
Princess Marya was at first surprised, then frightened by this question.
– ME?... Me?!... Is it hard for me?! - she said.
– He has always been cool; and now it’s getting hard, I think,” said Prince Andrei, apparently on purpose to puzzle or test his sister, speaking so easily about his father.
“You are good to everyone, Andre, but you have some kind of pride of thought,” said the princess, more following her own train of thought than the course of the conversation, “and this is a great sin.” Is it possible to judge a father? And even if it were possible, what other feeling than veneration [deep respect] could arouse such a person as mon pere? And I am so satisfied and happy with him. I only wish that you all were as happy as I am.
The brother shook his head in disbelief.
“The one thing that’s hard for me, I’ll tell you the truth, Andre, is my father’s way of thinking in religious terms. I don’t understand how a person with such a huge mind cannot see what is clear as day and can be so mistaken? This is my only misfortune. But here, too, lately I have seen a shadow of improvement. Lately his ridicule has not been so caustic, and there is one monk whom he received and spoke to him for a long time.
“Well, my friend, I’m afraid that you and the monk are wasting your gunpowder,” said Prince Andrei mockingly but affectionately.
- Ah! mon ami. [A! My friend.] I just pray to God and hope that He will hear me. Andre,” she said timidly after a minute of silence, “I have a big request to ask of you.”
- What, my friend?
- No, promise me that you won’t refuse. It will not cost you any work, and there will be nothing unworthy of you in it. Only you can console me. Promise, Andryusha,” she said, putting her hand into the reticule and holding something in it, but not yet showing it, as if what she was holding was the subject of the request and as if before receiving the promise to fulfill the request, she could not take it out of the reticule this is something.
She looked timidly and pleadingly at her brother.
“Even if it cost me a lot of work...”, answered Prince Andrei, as if guessing what was the matter.
- Think whatever you want! I know you are the same as mon pere. Think what you want, but do it for me. Please do it! My father’s father, our grandfather, wore it in all the wars...” She still didn’t take what she was holding out of the reticule. - So you promise me?
- Of course, what's the matter?
- Andre, I will bless you with the image, and you promise me that you will never take it off. Do you promise?
“If he doesn’t stretch his neck by two pounds... To please you...” said Prince Andrei, but at that very second, noticing the distressed expression that his sister’s face took on at this joke, he repented. “Very glad, really very glad, my friend,” he added.
“Against your will, He will save and have mercy on you and turn you to Himself, because in Him alone there is truth and peace,” she said in a voice trembling with emotion, with a solemn gesture holding in both hands in front of her brother an oval ancient icon of the Savior with a black face in silver chasuble on a silver chain of fine workmanship.
She crossed herself, kissed the icon and handed it to Andrey.
- Please, Andre, for me...
Rays of kind and timid light shone from her large eyes. These eyes illuminated the entire sickly, thin face and made it beautiful. The brother wanted to take the icon, but she stopped him. Andrei understood, crossed himself and kissed the icon. His face was at the same time tender (he was touched) and mocking.
- Merci, mon ami. [Thank you, my friend.]
She kissed his forehead and sat down on the sofa again. They were silent.
“So I told you, Andre, be kind and generous, as you always have been.” Don’t judge Lise harshly,” she began. “She is so sweet, so kind, and her situation is very difficult now.”
“It seems that I didn’t tell you anything, Masha, that I should blame my wife for anything or be dissatisfied with her.” Why are you telling me all this?
Princess Marya blushed in spots and fell silent, as if she felt guilty.
“I didn’t tell you anything, but they already told you.” And it makes me sad.
Red spots appeared even more strongly on Princess Marya’s forehead, neck and cheeks. She wanted to say something and could not say it. The brother guessed right: the little princess cried after dinner, said that she foresaw an unhappy birth, was afraid of it, and complained about her fate, about her father-in-law and her husband. After crying, she fell asleep. Prince Andrei felt sorry for his sister.
“Know one thing, Masha, I cannot reproach myself for anything, I have not reproached and will never reproach my wife, and I myself cannot reproach myself for anything in relation to her; and it will always be so, no matter what my circumstances. But if you want to know the truth... do you want to know if I'm happy? No. Is she happy? No. Why is this? Don't know…
Saying this, he stood up, walked up to his sister and, bending down, kissed her on the forehead. His beautiful eyes shone with an intelligent and kind, unusual sparkle, but he looked not at his sister, but into the darkness of the open door, over her head.
- Let's go to her, we need to say goodbye. Or go alone, wake her up, and I’ll be right there. Parsley! - he shouted to the valet, - come here, clean it up. It's in the seat, it's on the right side.
Princess Marya stood up and headed towards the door. She stopped.
– Andre, si vous avez. la foi, vous vous seriez adresse a Dieu, pour qu"il vous donne l"amour, que vous ne sentez pas et votre priere aurait ete exaucee. [If you had faith, you would turn to God with a prayer, so that He would give you the love that you do not feel, and your prayer would be heard.]
- Yes, is that so! - said Prince Andrei. - Go, Masha, I’ll be right back.
On the way to his sister’s room, in the gallery connecting one house to another, Prince Andrei met the sweetly smiling Mlle Bourienne, who for the third time that day had come across him with an enthusiastic and naive smile in secluded passages.
- Ah! “je vous croyais chez vous, [Oh, I thought you were at home,” she said, for some reason blushing and lowering her eyes.
Prince Andrei looked at her sternly. Prince Andrei’s face suddenly expressed anger. He said nothing to her, but looked at her forehead and hair, without looking into her eyes, so contemptuously that the Frenchwoman blushed and left without saying anything.
When he approached his sister’s room, the princess had already woken up, and her cheerful voice, hurrying one word after another, was heard from the open door. She spoke as if, after a long abstinence, she wanted to make up for lost time.
– Non, mais figurez vous, la vieille comtesse Zouboff avec de fausses boucles et la bouche pleine de fausses dents, comme si elle voulait defier les annees... [No, imagine old Countess Zubova, with false curls, with false teeth, like as if mocking the years...] Xa, xa, xa, Marieie!
Prince Andrei had already heard exactly the same phrase about Countess Zubova and the same laugh five times in front of strangers from his wife.
He quietly entered the room. The princess, plump, rosy-cheeked, with work in her hands, sat on an armchair and talked incessantly, going over St. Petersburg memories and even phrases. Prince Andrei came up, stroked her head and asked if she had rested from the road. She answered and continued the same conversation.
Six of the strollers stood at the entrance. It was a dark autumn night outside. The coachman did not see the pole of the carriage. People with lanterns were bustling about on the porch. The huge house glowed with lights through its large windows. The hall was crowded with courtiers who wanted to say goodbye to the young prince; All the household were standing in the hall: Mikhail Ivanovich, m lle Bourienne, Princess Marya and the princess.
Prince Andrei was called into his father’s office, who wanted to say goodbye to him privately. Everyone was waiting for them to come out.
When Prince Andrei entered the office, the old prince, wearing old man's glasses and in his white robe, in which he did not receive anyone except his son, was sitting at the table and writing. He looked back.
-Are you going? - And he began to write again.
- I came to say goodbye.
“Kiss here,” he showed his cheek, “thank you, thank you!”
-What are you thanking me for?
“You don’t hold on to a woman’s skirt for not being overdue.” Service comes first. Thank you, thank you! - And he continued to write, so that splashes flew from the crackling pen. - If you need to say something, say it. I can do these two things together,” he added.
- About my wife... I’m already ashamed that I’m leaving her in your arms...
- Why are you lying? Say what you need.
- When it’s time for your wife to give birth, send to Moscow for an obstetrician... So that he is here.
The old prince stopped and, as if not understanding, stared with stern eyes at his son.
“I know that no one can help unless nature helps,” said Prince Andrei, apparently embarrassed. – I agree that out of a million cases, one is unfortunate, but this is her and my imagination. They told her, she saw it in a dream, and she is afraid.
“Hm... hm...” the old prince said to himself, continuing to write. - I'll do it.
He drew out the signature, suddenly turned quickly to his son and laughed.
- It's bad, huh?
- What's bad, father?
- Wife! – the old prince said briefly and significantly.
“I don’t understand,” said Prince Andrei.
“There’s nothing to do, my friend,” said the prince, “they’re all like that, you won’t get married.” Don't be afraid; I won't tell anyone; and you know it yourself.
He grabbed his hand with his bony little hand, shook it, looked straight into his son’s face with his quick eyes, which seemed to see right through the man, and laughed again with his cold laugh.
The son sighed, admitting with this sigh that his father understood him. The old man, continuing to fold and print letters, with his usual speed, grabbed and threw sealing wax, seal and paper.
- What to do? Beautiful! I'll do everything. “Be at peace,” he said abruptly while typing.

Mikhail Devyataev was born on July 8, 1917 in Mordovia, in the working-class village of Torbeevo. He was the 13th child in the family. His father, Pyotr Timofeevich Devyataev, a hardworking, artisan man, worked for a landowner. The mother, Akulina Dmitrievna, was mainly busy taking care of the children. By the beginning of the war, only six brothers and one sister remained alive. All of them took part in the battles for their homeland. Four brothers died at the front, the rest died prematurely due to front-line wounds and adversity.

At school, Mikhail studied successfully, but was too playful. But one day it was as if he had been replaced. This happened after the plane arrived in Torbeevo. The pilot, who seemed like a sorcerer in his clothes, the fast-winged iron bird - all this captivated Mikhail. Unable to restrain himself, he then asked the pilot: “How to become a pilot?”

You need to study well, came the answer. - Play sports, be brave and courageous.

From that day on, Mikhail changed decisively: he devoted everything to studies and sports. After 7th grade, he went to Kazan, intending to enter an aviation technical school. There was some kind of misunderstanding with the documents, and he was forced to enter the river technical school. But the dream of heaven did not fade away. She captured him more and more. There was only one thing left to do - sign up for the Kazan flying club.

Mikhail did just that. It was difficult. Sometimes I would sit until late at night in the airplane or motor class of the flying club. And in the morning I was already in a hurry to the river technical school. One day the day came when Mikhail took to the air for the first time, albeit with an instructor. Excited, beaming with happiness, he then told his friends: “Heaven is my life!”

This lofty dream brought him, a graduate of a river technical school who had already mastered the Volga open spaces, to the Orenburg Aviation School. Studying there was the happiest time in Devyatayev’s life. He gained knowledge about aviation bit by bit, read a lot, and trained diligently. Happy as never before, he took off into the sky, which he had only dreamed of quite recently.

And here is the summer of 1939. He is a military pilot. And the specialty is the most formidable for the enemy: fighter. First he served in Torzhok, then he was transferred to Mogilev. There he was lucky again: he ended up in the squadron of the famous pilot Zakhar Vasilyevich Plotnikov, who managed to fight in Spain and Khalkhin-Gol. Devyatayev and his comrades gained combat experience from him.

He received his baptism of fire during the Soviet-Fieland War of 1939-1940, having completed 3 reconnaissance missions on an I-15bis aircraft.

The Great Patriotic War found him near Minsk, in Molodechno, as a flight commander of the 163rd Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 49th Fighter Aviation Division. On June 22 he made his first combat mission. And although Mikhail Petrovich himself failed to shoot down the Junkers, he, maneuvering, brought it to his commander Z.V. Plotnikov. But he did not miss the air enemy and defeated him.

Devyatayev was soon lucky too. One day, in a break in the clouds, a Junkers 87 caught his eye. Mikhail, without wasting a second, rushed after him and a moment later saw him in the crosshairs. He immediately fired two machine-gun bursts. The Junkers burst into flames and crashed to the ground. There were also other successes. Soon those who distinguished themselves in battle were called from Mogilev to Moscow. Mikhail Devyatayev, among others, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

The situation became increasingly tense. Devyatayev and his comrades already had to defend the approaches to the capital. Using brand new Yaks, they intercepted planes rushing to drop their deadly cargo on Moscow. One day, near Tula, Devyatayev, together with his partner Yakov Schneier, entered into battle with German bombers. They managed to shoot down one Junkers. But Devyatayev’s plane was also damaged. Still, the pilot managed to land. And he ended up in the hospital. Not fully cured, he fled from there to his regiment, which was already located west of Voronezh.

On September 21, 1941, Devyatayev was assigned to deliver an important package to the headquarters of the encircled troops of the Southwestern Front. He completed this assignment, but on the way back he entered into an unequal battle with 6 Messerschmitts. One of them was shot down. And he himself was wounded. So he ended up in the hospital again.

In the new part he was examined by a medical commission. The decision was unanimous - to low-speed aircraft. So the fighter pilot ended up in the night bomber regiment, and then in the air ambulance. Flying the slow-moving U-2, he completed about 100 combat missions: he “processed” enemy rear areas and transported wounded partisans to the mainland. Only after meeting with A.I. Pokryshkin did he manage to return to the fighter regiment. It was already in April 1944, when Devyatayev found “Pokryshkin’s farm.” His new colleagues greeted him cordially. Among them was Vladimir Ivanovich Bobrov, who in the fall of 1941 gave blood to the wounded Mikhail Petrovich, and now took him as his wingman.

Devyatayev lifted his Airacobra into the air more than once. Repeatedly, together with other pilots of the division, A.I. Pokryshkina entered into battles with enemies. But then came the fateful July 13, 1944. On this day, the pilots of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, according to Devyatayev himself, shot down 20 enemy aircraft, 4 of them personally by the division commander. Mikhail also distinguished himself in an air battle over Lvov - he shot down one Messer. However, he himself was wounded, and his plane caught fire. At the command of the leader, Devyatayev jumped out of the fighter engulfed in flames... and was captured. By that time, the brave pilot had managed to make about 180 combat missions, conducted 35 air battles, in which he destroyed 9 enemy aircraft. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (twice) and the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree, and had 4 wounds.

Interrogation followed interrogation. Then transfer to the Abwehr intelligence department. From there - to the Lodz prisoner of war camp. And there again - hunger, torture, bullying. Following this - the Sachsenhausen concentration camp...

On August 13, 1944, together with a group, prisoner of war Mikhail made his first escape, albeit unsuccessfully. The fugitives were caught and sent to the mysterious island of Usedon, where a super-powerful weapon was being prepared, which, according to its creators, no one could resist. The prisoners of Usedon are actually sentenced to death...

From memories
Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev:

"...Little by little a group of people wishing to escape was formed. The plan was to fly home. The pilot was me. We looked at one Heinkel-111 - it was always warmed up in the morning, fully fueled. From the aircraft scrapyard they began to carry signs from the instrument panels , especially the Heinkels. I looked closely, memorized how the engines were started. That’s how we prepared, waiting for an opportunity.

But circumstances forced us to hurry. The fact is that for beating up an informer I was sentenced to “10 days to life.” This meant that over 10 days I had to be gradually beaten to death. Just recently, my friend Fatykh from Kazan, who was transferred with me from Sachsenhausen, was killed on the very first day of his “10 days of life”. He died in my arms and lay dead next to me until the morning.

When I had 2 “days to live” left, we were able to carry out our plan - during the lunch break we killed the guard, took his rifle, with great difficulty, but started the engines. I stripped to the waist so that no one could see my striped clothes, drove the guys into the fuselage and tried to take off. For some reason the plane did not rise, it was not possible to take off, at the end of the runway, when I turned the plane back, we almost fell into the sea. Anti-aircraft gunners ran towards us, soldiers, officers from everywhere. They probably thought that one of their pilots had gone crazy, especially since he was sitting naked.

The guys shout: “Take off, we’ll die!” Then they placed a bayonet on my right shoulder blade. I got angry, grabbed the barrel of the rifle, tore it out of their hands and went to scratch it with the butt and drove them all into the fuselage. I think that if we didn’t fly downhill, we certainly won’t go up. I drove the plane to where I started the acceleration for the first time and began the second takeoff. The plane again does not obey. And there the Dornier 217 had just landed from a combat mission, I thought I was about to crash into them, and then it dawned on me that the plane was not taking off because the trim tabs were in the landing position.

“Guys,” I say, “press here!” Three people finally piled on and overpowered us. And just like that, almost miraculously, they took off. As soon as we took off, they sang “The Internationale” in joy and let go of the helm, we almost crashed into the sea. Then I found the aileron and elevator trimmers, turned them, and the forces on the yoke became normal.

We flew in the clouds so as not to be shot down. On someone else's plane, when you can't read the instrument readings, it's very dangerous - several times I had breakdowns and we almost crashed into the sea, but everything turned out okay. Why the German fighters didn’t shoot us down immediately after takeoff, we can only speculate, because they flew very close. And then, when we entered the clouds, I headed northwest, towards Norway.

We flew to Sweden and turned towards Leningrad, there was a lot of fuel, I think we’ll make it. But I was so weak that I no longer felt control and turned towards Warsaw, just to reach the front line. German fighters met again; they were escorting some kind of ship. I shook my wings in time for them to see the yellow belly and crosses.

Near the coastline we were heavily shelled. It’s good that we were at a low altitude, so due to the large angular movement we were not hit. Then a Focke-Wulf began to approach us over the forest, I quickly undressed again, and the guys hid in the fuselage, but then the anti-aircraft guns began to fire again and he had no time for us. I started tossing the car left and right and almost completely lost altitude. And there was a bridge across the river. Look, our soldiers. And right along the flight there was a clearing in the forest. I miraculously landed the plane, stuck it right in, and the landing gear broke off.

They took the machine gun and wanted to go into the forest, suddenly the Germans were nearby. And we were completely exhausted, there was water and mud under the snow, and our feet immediately got wet. We returned back. Soon our soldiers began to run up: “Fritz, surrender!” We jumped out of the plane, when we saw the striped ones, there were only bones, no weapons, they immediately began to rock us and carried us in their arms. It was February 8th.

They saw that we were hungry and brought us to the dining room. They were boiling chickens there, so we pounced. The doctor took the chicken away from me, I would have eaten too much, I was hungry - and suddenly the chicken was fatty, I couldn’t do it right away, I could even die. I then weighed less than 39 kilograms. Just bones...

Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev - Guard senior lieutenant, fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, one of the first captainshydrofoil motor ships - “Raketa” and “Meteor”.

Escaped from a German concentration camp on a bomber he had stolen.

Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev was born on July 8, 1917. in the large Mordovian village of Torbeevo, Penza province, in a peasant family and was the 13th child in the family. Moksha by nationality. Member of the CPSU since 1959. In 1933 he graduated from 7 classes, in 1938 - Kazan River Technical School, flying club. He worked as an assistant captain of a longboat on the Volga.

In 1938, the Sverdlovsk Regional Military Committee of the city of Kazan was drafted into the Red Army. Graduated in 1940 from the First Chkalov Military Aviation School named after. K. E. Voroshilova.

In the active army since June 22, 1941. He opened his combat account on June 24, shooting down a Junkers-87 dive bomber near Minsk. Soon those who distinguished themselves in battle were called from Mogilev to Moscow. Mikhail Devyatayev, among others, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

On September 10, 1941, he shot down a Junkers-88 in the area north of Romen (on a Yak-1 as part of the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment).

On September 23, 1941, while returning from a mission, Devyatayev was attacked by German fighters. He knocked down one, but he himself was wounded in the left leg. After the hospital, the medical commission assigned him to low-speed aviation. He served in a night bomber regiment, then in an air ambulance. Only after a meeting in May 1944 with A.I. Pokryshkin did he again become a fighter.

The flight commander of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) Guard, Senior Lieutenant Devyatayev, shot down a total of 9 enemy aircraft in air battles.

On July 13, 1944, he shot down an FW-190 in the area west of Gorokhov (on an Airacobra as part of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, on the same day he was shot down and captured).

On the evening of July 13, 1944, he took off as part of a group of P-39 fighters under the command of Major V. Bobrov to repel an enemy air raid. In an air battle in the Lvov area, Devyatayev’s plane was shot down and caught fire; at the last moment, the pilot left the falling fighter with a parachute, but during the jump he hit the plane's stabilizer. Having landed in an unconscious state on enemy-occupied territory, Devyatayev was captured.

After interrogation, Mikhail Devyatayev was transferred to the Abwehr intelligence department, from there to the Lodz prisoner of war camp, from where, together with a group of prisoner-of-war pilots, he made his first escape attempt on August 13, 1944. But the fugitives were caught, declared death row and sent to the Sachsenhausen death camp. There, with the help of the camp hairdresser, who replaced the number sewn on his camp uniform, Mikhail Devyatayev managed to change his status as a death row inmate to the status of a “penalty inmate.” Soon, under the name of Stepan Grigoryevich Nikitenko, he was sent to the island of Usedom, where the Peenemünde missile center was developing new weapons for the Third Reich - V-1 cruise missiles and V-2 ballistic missiles.

On February 8, 1945, a group of 10 Soviet prisoners of war captured a German Heinkel-111 bomber and used it to escape from a concentration camp on the island of Usedom (Germany). It was piloted by Devyatayev. The Germans sent a fighter in pursuit, piloted by the owner of two Iron Crosses and the German Cross in Gold, Lieutenant Gunter Hobom, but without knowing the plane’s course it could only be found by chance. The plane was discovered by air ace Colonel Walter Dahl, returning from a mission, but was ordered by the German command to “shoot down the lone one.”Heinkel" he could not carry out due to lack of ammunition. In the area of the front line, the plane was fired upon by Soviet anti-aircraft guns and had to make an emergency landing. The Heinkel landed on its belly south of the village of Gollin (now presumably Golina (Stargard County) in the commune of Stargard Szczecinski, Poland) at the location of the artillery unit of the 61st Army. As a result, having flown just over 300 km, Devyatayev delivered strategically important information to the command about the secret center on Usedom, where the Nazi Reich’s missile weapons were produced and tested, and the exact coordinates of the V-2 launch sites, which were located along the seashore. The information provided by Devyatayev turned out to be absolutely accurate and ensured the success of the air attack on the Usedom training ground.

Devyatayev and his associates were placed in a filtration camp. He later described the two-month test that he had to undergo as “long and humiliating,” and there were even rumors that he had been in prison for fifteen years. After completing the inspection, he continued to serve in the ranks of the Red Army.

In September 1945, S.P. Korolev, who was appointed to lead the Soviet program for the development of German rocket technology, found him and summoned him to Peenemünde. Here Devyatayev showed Soviet specialists the places where rocket assemblies were produced and where they launched from. For his help in creating the first Soviet rocket R-1 - a copy of the V-2 - Korolev in 1957 was able to nominate Devyatayev for the title of Hero.

In November 1945, Devyatayev was transferred to the reserve. In 1946, having a diploma as a ship captain, he got a job as a station attendant in the Kazan river port. In 1949 he became a boat captain, and later one of the first to lead the crews of the very first domestic hydrofoils - “Raketa” and “Meteor”.

Mikhail Devyatayev lived in Kazan until his last days. I worked as long as my strength allowed. In the summer of 2002, during the filming of a documentary about him, he came to the airfield in Peenemünde, lit candles for his comrades and met with the German pilot G. Hobom.

Mikhail Devyatayev died on November 24, 2002 in Kazan, and was buried in Kazan in the section of the Arskoye cemetery, where the memorial complex for soldiers of the Great Patriotic War is located.

In 1957, thanks to the petition of the Chief Designer of ballistic missiles Sergei Korolev and after the publication of articles about Devyatayev’s feat in Soviet newspapers, Mikhail Devyatayev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on August 15, 1957.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Patriotic War I and II degrees, and medals.

Honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, as well as the cities of Russian Kazan and German Wolgast and Zinnowitz.

Memory of the hero:

Watch documentaries about M.P. Devyatayev - Escape from Usedom And

Devyataev, Mikhail Petrovich

(07/08/1917-11/24/2002) - fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1957), guard senior lieutenant. Participant of the Great Patriotic War from the first day. He fought as part of the 237 IAP and 298 (104 Guards) IAP, and was a flight commander. Shot down 9 enemy aircraft. On July 13, 1944, in an air battle over Lvov, he was shot down and captured. He was imprisoned in the camps of Lodz, Sachsenhausen and on the island. Usedom. On February 8, 1945, he hijacked a He-111H-22 from Peenemünde airfield and took out 9 more people on it. In 1957 he became the first captain of the hydrofoil ship "Raketa". Then he drove Meteors along the Volga. Honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, the cities of Kazan, Wolgast and Tsinovichi (Germany). Author of the books "Flight to the Sun", "Escape from Hell".

Devyataev, Mikhail Petrovich

(8.7.1917-24.11.2002). Legendary Soviet pilot. Born on July 8, 1917 in the village of Torbeevo (now a town in Mordovia) in a peasant family. Mordvin. Member of the CPSU since 1959. He was the thirteenth child in the family. When he was 2 years old, his father died of typhus. In 1933, he graduated from the 7th grade of high school and went to Kazan, intending to enter an aviation technical school. Due to a misunderstanding with documents, he had to study at a river technical school, from which he graduated in 1938. At the same time he studied at the Kazan flying club. In 1938, the Sverdlovsk RVC of Kazan was drafted into the Red Army. In 1940 he graduated from the Orenburg Military Aviation School named after. K. E. Voroshilova. Sent to serve in Torzhok. Later transferred to Mogilev to the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Western OVO). Participant of the Great Patriotic War since June 22, 1941. Already on the second day, he took part in an air battle in his I-16. He opened his combat account on June 24, shooting down a Ju-87 dive bomber near Minsk. Then he defended the sky of Moscow. In one of the air battles in the Tula region, together with J. Schneier, he shot down a Ju-88, but his Yak-1 was also damaged. Devyatayev made an emergency landing and ended up in the hospital. Having not fully recovered, he fled to the front to his regiment, which at that time was based west of Voronezh. On September 23, 1941, while returning from a mission, Devyatayev was attacked by Messerschmitts. He knocked down one of them, but he himself was wounded in the left leg. After the hospital, the medical commission assigned him to low-speed aviation. He served in a night bomber regiment, then in an air ambulance. Only after a meeting in May 1944 with A.I. Pokryshkin did he again become a fighter. Flight commander of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) Guard, Senior Lieutenant Devyatayev M.P. shot down 9 enemy aircraft in air battles. On the evening of July 13, 1944, he took off as part of a group of P-39 fighters under the command of Major V. Bobrov to repel an enemy air raid. In an unequal air battle in the Lvov area, he was wounded in the right leg, and his plane was set on fire. At the last moment, the falling fighter left with a parachute. Captured with severe burns. Interrogation followed interrogation. Then he was sent by transport plane to the Abwehr intelligence department in Warsaw. Having failed to obtain any valuable information from Devyatayev, the Germans sent him to the Lodz prisoner of war camp. Later transferred to the New Koenigsberg camp. Here, in the camp with a group of comrades, Devyatayev began to prepare an escape. At night, using improvised means - spoons and bowls - they dug a tunnel, pulled out the earth on a sheet of iron and scattered it under the floor of the barracks (the barracks stood on stilts). But when there were already a few meters left to freedom, security discovered the tunnel. Based on a denunciation from a traitor, the organizers of the escape were captured. After interrogation and torture, they were sentenced to death. Devyatayev and a group of suicide bombers were sent to Germany to the Sachsenhausen death camp (near Berlin). But he was lucky: in the sanitary barracks, a hairdresser from among the prisoners replaced his death row tag with the tag of a penalty prisoner (No. 104533), who was killed by the guards of a teacher from Darnitsa, Grigory Stepanovich Nikitenko. In the group of “stompers” I wore out shoes made by German companies. Later, with the help of underground workers, he was transferred from a penal barracks to a regular one. At the end of October 1944, as part of a group of 1,500 prisoners, he was sent to a camp on the island of Usedom, where the secret Peenemünde training ground was located, where rocket weapons were tested. Since the site was secret, there was only one way out for the concentration camp prisoners - through the crematorium pipe. In January 1945, when the front approached the Vistula, Devyatayev, together with prisoners Ivan Krivonogov, Vladimir Sokolov, Vladimir Nemchenko, Fyodor Adamov, Ivan Oleynik, Mikhail Yemets, Pyotr Kutergin, Nikolai Urbanovich and Dmitry Serdyukov, began to prepare an escape. A plan was developed to hijack a plane from an airfield located next to the camp. While working at the airfield, Devyatayev secretly studied the cockpits of German aircraft. Instrument plates were removed from damaged aircraft lying around the airfield. In the camp they were translated and studied. Devyatayev assigned responsibilities to all participants in the escape: who should remove the cover from the pitot tube, who should remove the chocks from the landing gear wheels, who should remove the clamps from the elevators and steering wheels, who should roll up the cart with batteries. The escape was scheduled for February 8, 1945. On the way to work at the airfield, the prisoners, choosing the moment, killed the guard. So that the Germans would not suspect anything, one of them put on his clothes and began to pose as a guard. Thus, they managed to enter the aircraft parking lot. When the German technicians went for lunch, Devyatayev’s group captured a He-111H-22 bomber. Devyatayev started the engines and began to taxi to the start. To prevent the Germans from seeing his striped prison clothes, he had to strip naked. But it was not possible to take off unnoticed - someone discovered the body of the murdered guard and raised the alarm. German soldiers were running towards the Heinkel from all sides. Devyatayev began his takeoff run, but the plane could not take off for a long time (later it was discovered that the landing flaps had not been removed). With the help of his comrades, Devyatayev pulled the helm with all his might. Only at the end of the runway did the Heinkel take off from the ground and fly over the sea at low altitude. Having come to their senses, the Germans sent a fighter in pursuit, but it failed to detect the fugitives. Devyatayev flew, guided by the sun. In the area of the front line, the plane was fired upon by our anti-aircraft guns. I had to go forced. The Heinkel made a belly landing south of the village of Gollin at the location of the artillery unit of the 61st Army. Special officers did not believe that concentration camp prisoners could hijack the plane. The fugitives were subjected to a harsh test, long and humiliating. Then they were sent to penal battalions. In November 1945, Devyatayev was transferred to the reserve. He was not hired. In 1946, with a captain's diploma in his pocket, he found a job as a loader in the Kazan river port with difficulty. They didn't trust him for 12 years. He wrote letters addressed to Stalin, Malenkov, Beria, but all to no avail. The situation changed only at the end of the 50s. On August 15, 1957, M. P. Devyatayev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1957, he became one of the first captains of the Raketa hydrofoil passenger ships. Later he drove Meteors along the Volga and was a captain-mentor. After retiring, he actively participated in the veterans’ movement, created the Devyatayev Foundation, and provided assistance to those who especially needed it. Awarded the Order of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Patriotic War 1st and 2nd degrees, medals. Honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, the cities of Kazan (Russia), Wolgast and Tsinovichi (Germany). A Hero Museum has been opened in Torbeevo. Died November 24, 2002. He was buried in the Alley of Heroes of the Arsk Cemetery in Kazan.

Large biographical encyclopedia. 2009 .

“He was allowed to mention both Peenemünde and the designer Korolev only a year before his death, 57 years after the flight”

Last week marked the anniversary of the legendary flight-escape from fascist captivity of Mikhail Devyatayev with 9 other comrades on board. On February 8, 1945, from the second approach, crushing the airfield staff, the Heinkel-111 bomber took off from the runway of the top-secret German base of Peenemünde and the pursuit aircraft. Those who fled did not know that they were stealing not just a plane, but a V-missile launch control...

CURSED ISLAND

Near the town of Peenemünde on the island of Usedom, in the Baltic Sea in northern Germany, during the Second World War there was a research institute, a missile base, a factory, an airfield and a concentration camp. Its prisoners were laborers, and sometimes “guinea pigs” for testing the notorious V-1 and V-2 rockets produced here, in underground workshops. The Fuhrer called them his weapon of retaliation. The database was personally supervised Hermann Goering, Reich Minister of the Reich Air Ministry, second in command after Adolf Hitler in the Third Reich. It was one of Germany's most secret military installations.

From here the Germans bombed Europe (Antwerp, Paris) with missiles, but the British especially suffered. "Angels of Death", "V-2", each of which carried a ton of explosives at the speed of sound, did not give Winston Churchill, the English Prime Minister, to begin active operations on the second front under their fire.

On August 17, 1943, the British Royal Air Force carried out its first raid on Peenemünde. 597 heavy bombers dropped thousands of bombs. The action made it possible to delay the serial production of missiles for six months. And yet, in 1944, the massive bombing of London and other British cities with V-2 radio-controlled ballistic missiles resumed. About 10 thousand deadly shells again fell unhindered on the British Isles. England began to think about leaving the coalition and neutrality.

It was not possible to intercept the missiles at launch. So the only way to fight them was to destroy the base itself, along with its launchers and their production workshops. But the Anglo-American bombing of Peenemünde, with all its activity and scale, for some reason no longer brought results. And one more thing. If you mentally draw a radius from the island of Usedom to London and outline the range of the V-2, then it will include not only all of Poland and the Baltic states, but also a significant part of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, including Minsk, Kyiv and St. Petersburg. So the threat emanating from the island of Usedom was also relevant for us. It was necessary to penetrate the damned island and find out the exact coordinates of the target. No matter how the most powerful Allied intelligence agencies struggled with this problem, they could not solve it. And so, hundreds of kilometers from the Baltic, over Lvov, on July 13, 1944, in an air battle, a fighter pilot of the famous division was shot down and captured by the Germans Alexandra Pokryshkina. The captured pilot completed this task six months later. His name was .

“AND YOU CAN’T TOUCH ME!”

A native of the Mordovian village of Torbeevo, Mikhail Devyataev remembered himself well from the age of seven. "Mother? How kind she could be with 14 children! ( His father died in the civil war when Misha, the 13th of the children, was two years old, and the youngest, Vasya, “was still in his mother’s belly” -approx. ed.). She, like any mother, naturally wanted the best for us and wished us good things. But due to her position, due to her poverty, she could neither put shoes on us nor clothe us. She herself would buy a sheep or some kind of animal at the market, she would slaughter and skin it herself; liver, head-legs, entrails - for us; and the meat - to the market, to the train. This is how we ate... I never got sick. I remember well, I ate onions from the neighbors’ garden, I got a stomach ache and fell. This neighbor, Uncle Matvey, came up: “What are you doing, Mishenka?” I say: “Well, I ate your onion.” I look: he brought a mug of milk and bread. He knew that if he beat me, he would no longer have a garden. And if he does good to me, then no one else will get into the garden.”

Misha was kicked out of school for his behavior, but then they took him back when he promised to improve before the formation. Then I studied well.

On August 7, 1932, on the initiative of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Joseph Stalin The “Law on Three Spikelets” was adopted - this is how the people called the famous resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the protection of the property of state enterprises, collective farms and cooperation and the strengthening of public (socialist) property.” His ignorance did not exempt him from responsibility, including execution. Seventh-grader Misha might not have been freed either, when in 1933 he and a friend picked up these same rye ears left on the harvested field and cooked a delicious stew. The police didn't let me finish eating. On the way, we managed to swallow the ill-fated stew, but the police still drew up a report. They were released for a while, and the juvenile criminals decided: it’s time! They rushed to Kazan, to their dream - to an aviation technical school. Without documents (there was no time for them when escaping!) they didn’t take me there. We took it to the river. The director looked at the ragged newcomers, at the red Devyaevskaya T-shirt sewn by his mother from the banner stolen by Misha from the roof of the village executive committee, at their bare dirty feet and heeded the argument of the assertive teenager: “So you’ll still kick out someone, well, those who with documents, but studies poorly.”

CALL SIGN - “MORDVIN”

In 1937, in his 4th year, 20-year-old Devyatayev was arrested by the NKVD for espionage. He blurted out the truth to his friend about the dubious beauty of his older girlfriend, and he let it slip out of drunkenness. A girlfriend, an NKVD informant, stole from the offender and burned the signature sheets for the census entrusted to him as an activist, saying in the office that Devyatayev sold them to the Germans. After seven months of imprisonment and constant interrogation, Mikhail was released from the barracks (“What? If I had nothing to do with it”). By that time, both my studies at the flying club and my first unforgettable solo flight had taken place. In 1938, Devyatev was drafted into the Red Army by the Sverdlovsk RVC of the city of Kazan, and in 1940 he graduated from the Chkalov Military Aviation Pilot School. On June 24, 1941, he shot down the first fascist in the sky over Minsk.

“And a day later he himself came under fire from a Messerschmitt and jumped out with a parachute from a burning donkey (I-16 fighter), writes the classic Soviet journalist, having met Devyatayev, in the essay “The Feat of Mordvin from Torbeev” Vasily Peskov. - If he had not shown resourcefulness, the war and life would have ended for him in this battle near Minsk - the Messerschmitt turned around to shoot the pilot. Mikhail pulled the lines and quickly rushed like a “sausage” to the ground. A hundred meters away, he allowed his parachute to open and escaped. Then he left burning planes more than once. By the summer of 1944, he shot down nine enemy aircraft. They shot him down five times. He was shot in the arm and leg. I was in the hospital."

Then there was an escape from the hospital, many months on the “corn farm” of the air ambulance and - again without documents, but under the patronage - the division of the legendary ace Pokryshkin. By 1944, Devyatayev was awarded three military orders.

And now - an unequal battle, in the headphones the heart-rending order of the commander: “Mordvin ( Devyatayev's flight call sign - approx. ed.), jump!” He fell out of the plane with a parachute. Unconscious, seriously wounded and burned, Devyatayev was captured.

GOOD RUSSIAN HAIRDRESSER

And you, my friend, why did you get caught? - he asked and looked at my card. Seeing the reason for my being sent to a concentration camp, he sighed and shook his head. - I see... Organizing an escape and sabotage. For this - a crematorium. Exactly...

Even though I knew what awaited me, these words made me feel uneasy, as if a bucket of ice water had been poured on my head.

Don’t be shy, brother, we’ll help you out of trouble,” the hairdresser said sympathetically. - Just do everything I tell you.

The new friend took the tag with the number from me, went out somewhere and a minute later returned and handed me the tag with the new number.

Here you go... Forget your own last name for now. Now you will be Nikitenko. I also changed the card...

Whose tag is it? - I got worried.

One person just died. Let them think it's you. Understand?..

I nodded my head: everything is clear.”

So, according to the official literary version, Devyatayev became Grigory Nikitenko, a teacher from the Ukrainian Darnitsa. Kazan researcher Ravil Veniaminov On February 8, 2015, he wrote for BUSINESS Online about this book that it is “the fruit of the labors of two professionals who literary processed the memories of the hero, one reviewer, three editors and two proofreaders; only the modest employees of Glavlit - the Main Directorate for Literary Affairs - are not mentioned and publishing houses." In a word, censors. Both censors and editors in our case distinguished themselves either by increased vigilance, or by a stunning lack of professionalism: there are so many embellishments, inconsistencies and other flaws in the book.

And the head of the museum-memorial of the Great Patriotic War in the Kazan Kremlin Mikhail Cherepanov in a conversation with a “BUSINESS Online” correspondent, he couldn’t help but laugh maliciously: “For the Nazis, with their counterintelligence and the Gestapo, to allow an enemy pilot who had not been shot to reach a secret base, and even an airfield! And when they tell us that it was some kind hairdresser who gave him the documents of a deceased teacher and thus provided him with a “ticket” to the missile camouflage team - well, it’s just not even funny!”

REAL COLONEL

Nevertheless, let us turn again to the book “Escape from Hell” - at least the truth is still present there, albeit in a greatly truncated form. Devyatayev... well, or, let’s say, the main character writes: “I met and then became friends with two suicide bombers: Colonel Nikolai Stepanovich Bushmanov and political instructor Andrei Dmitrievich Rybalchenko... They never lost heart, instilled in people faith in our victory, organized masses of prisoners to actively fight the enemy in concentration camp conditions... Back in 1942, in one of the prisoner of war camps near Berlin, they created an underground organization that disrupted many German activities directed against our Motherland.

Since 1943, Bushmanov and Rybalchenko were active in the Berlin underground, producing and distributing leaflets calling on prisoners of war and foreign workers taken to work in Germany for active resistance and sabotage at military enterprises - damaging machines and equipment, destroying materials and finished products, producing defective products.

Through foreign communists, Nikolai Stepanovich and Andrei Dmitrievich organized material assistance for exhausted Soviet patriots and foreign anti-fascists... They told us about the situation at the fronts according to the latest reports from the Soviet Information Bureau, received by the underground camp radio.”

“Yes,” continues Mikhail Cherepanov. “It was after meeting these people that Mikhail Petrovich soon found himself at the Peenemünde base under the new name of the Ukrainian Nikitenko. After the war, Hero of the Soviet Union Devyatayev met Bushmanov as an old friend and fellow soldier. And they always showed mutual sympathy for each other. So who exactly was Colonel Nikolai Stepanovich Bushmanov?

He was born in 1901 in the Kurgan region. In the ranks of the Red Army - from February 18, 1918, at the same time he became a communist. He ended the civil war as a platoon commander. Since 1931 - head of the regimental school. Since 1937 - senior teacher of tactics at the special faculty of the Frunze Military Academy. That is, while preparing intelligence officers, he himself was preparing for illegal intelligence work. Since 1938, Colonel Bushmanov was already the head of the academy department, a candidate of military sciences. He spoke four languages.

When the Great Patriotic War broke out, Colonel Bushmanov served as chief of staff of the 32nd Army of the reserve front. On October 22, 1941, he was captured. And in March 1943 he was already... assistant to the head of the Dabendorf school of the ROA (Eastern Special Purpose Propaganda Department) in the Berlin suburb of Wulheide. Deep behind enemy lines, in the barracks of the Wehrmacht intelligence school, Nikolai Stepanovich creates an underground organization “Berlin Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)” with an extensive international agent network throughout Germany. The organization carried out sabotage and sabotage at German factories, and had its agents in both the ROA and the Idel-Ural legion.

The scale of the subversive work could not remain unnoticed by the Gestapo. On June 30, 1943, Bushmanov was arrested. He was held in the Berlin Moabit prison. In his letters to the Kazan publicist and jalilev writer Rafael Mustafin a former prisoner described his communication in prison with the legendary Tatar poet. In November 1943, Bushmanov was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as a suicide bomber, where he met with Devyatayev.

Thanks to the efforts of fellow anti-fascists, Nikolai Bushmanov lived to see liberation. But, like most GRU secret agents, he was convicted under Article 58 for “anti-Soviet activities” on July 29, 1945 and sentenced to 10 years in the camps. He was released on December 5, 1954, but was in exile until October 25, 1955. On September 1, 1958, he was rehabilitated by the Military Tribunal of the Moscow Military District and declared a personal pensioner of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Worked in the central archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense. He died on June 11, 1977 and was buried with military honors on the territory of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.”

ACT “ACCORDING TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES”!

Why did such a seasoned intelligence officer, in the opinion of Mikhail Cherepanov - “of Sorge’s level,” Bushmanov choose Devyatayev for his “business trip” to Peenemünde? I think that the civilian “feats” and military deeds described above provide a comprehensive answer to this. A 27-year-old irrepressible troublemaker, persistent, unyielding, incredibly tenacious, man-like, tenacious and inventive, keen-eyed, possessing an extraordinary memory, and despite his youth, having vast experience in combat missions, Mikhail Devyatayev was the best suited for the operation when action was needed it was, as the military says, “according to the situation,” in absolute uncertainty, as in pitch darkness, controlled and shot through by the fascists down to the second and millimeter. “According to the situation” - no intelligence service in the world could give more detailed instructions in this situation, even if it consisted of solid Stirlits. True, in the same book, the main character says that the idea of hijacking the plane was suggested to him by political instructor Rybalchenko, but, alas, there is no one to ask how true this is.

In November 1944, through the efforts of underground intelligence officers, Devyatayev-Nikitenko found himself at his cherished goal - at the Peenemünde base. He managed to get a job in the “bomb team”, which dug up and removed unexploded landmines. “Volodya Sokolov was from an orphanage and knew German perfectly,” Devyataev says in an interview with the Doskado website. - And he told the Germans that he was not Russian, but from the Volga Germans. He is made the foreman of this team... The Germans were poorly dressed. On his feet are boots made of bast and an overcoat. We also used paper - from under the cement coolies - and made holes for the hands and for the head. They were so thin that they could climb into a cement bag. But if such a bag was found on us, they scolded us and even beat us. And the poor thing is freezing! Then Volodya Sokolov approached the German: “Herr comrade, why are you freezing? Yesterday your friend, Hans, sent us over there, we got some reeds, lit a fire, and then he sent us over there, to the landfill - where the plane crashed. We not only brought firewood from there, but we even took rubber from the tanks and rubber protectors. And they burn like gasoline!” The German was jealous: “Go, get it too.” “Will you allow me to take this prisoner?” And he points at me. “Well, take it.” Volodya and I go there, to the landfill. I’m in the cockpit, starting to study the plane, and Volodya is watching so that no one captures us. That's how we studied. They tore off inscriptions and devices. Where to push, say, the blinds... Volodya was my translator - he read the instrument inscriptions.”

“Working at the airfield, we now noticed all the details of his life: when the planes refueled, when the teams left for lunch, which car was most convenient for capture. We stopped our attention on the twin-engine Heinkel-111. He flew more often than others, we read in Vasily Peskov’s essay. - The incident helped to trace the launch operations. One day we were clearing snow near the caponier, where there was a Heinkel just like “ours.” From the shaft I saw the pilot's cockpit. And he noticed my curiosity. With a grin on his face - look, they say, Russian onlooker, how easily real people cope with this machine - the pilot defiantly began to demonstrate the launch: they drove up, connected the cart with batteries, the pilot showed his finger and let it go straight in front of him, then the pilot specially for me I raised my leg to shoulder level and lowered it - one motor started working. Next is the second one. The pilot in the cockpit laughed. I, too, could barely contain my jubilation - all phases of the Heinkel launch were clear.”

And the plane “favored” by the conspirators turned out to be the personal car of the commandant of the aviation garrison, Steinhof. And not just an executive vehicle for a high-ranking boss. On it stood the V-missile launch control.

“Of course, there was more than one missile control panel at the base,” notes Mikhail Cherepanov. “But time was lost.” Therefore, the flight from captivity of Devyatayev and his comrades, albeit briefly, disrupted further tests of the “weapon of retribution” and gave a respite to England, exhausted from the barbaric bombings.

THE END OF THE WARPEN'S NEST

To say that his escape by plane from his own lair swarming with enemies was dramatic would be an understatement. Much has been written about it; just don’t be lazy and use an Internet search engine. Not even the most intricate script of the most Hollywood action movie can compare with Nyatyaev’s “actions according to the situation.” Just as no fiction can surpass the devilish ingenuity of life itself. In general, one way or another, Heinkel-111 with a dozen prisoners of war landed on Polish soil, already liberated by Soviet troops. The fugitives ended up at the location of the 61st Army. The magic word “Penemünde” led to Devyatayev’s swift summons to the commander. “When I told Belov, Lieutenant General, where to bomb, he gasped,” the pilot recalled. - Blow two hundred meters from the seashore, I say, and you’ll get there. They [the missile launchers] are all camouflaged, they are in the forest. And the ones that were bombed were not real. Layouts. “Can you draw?” “I can.” Then he apparently contacted the front commander. For five days, from the 13th, our allies bombed.” The last missile left this test site on February 14, 1945. The Peenemünde base ceased to exist as a combat unit. The task was completed, the Soviet pilot deprived Hitler of his last hope for continuing the war. The Fuhrer included him in the camp of his personal enemies.

Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev, having delivered strategically important intelligence data to his homeland, spent from February to September 1945 as a German spy in the central camp in Poland. Neither the SMERSH counterintelligence officers nor the specialist pilots believed his story. “First a senior lieutenant came, then a general,” says a former prisoner of friends and foes. - “Which school did you graduate from with the Germans? Who trained you and where? What is your task? A fighter cannot immediately transfer to a bomber. Especially in German!” “You know, it’s a shame that someone gave you a general,” I told him. He was offended...”

EXCURSIONS FOR THE CHIEF DESIGNER

“They started taking us away on foot from the central concentration camp in September,” says Mikhail Petrovich. - They drove me along the stage, without asking... They took me away on a horse. Polish territory. We: “Sir, give me sausages, give me vodka!” Give me some tobacco." And only then others, dressed in uniform: “Sir, you bought a stolen horse!” And they took the horse back. The second time we “sold” it. Third...

The American Willys is catching up. The senior lieutenant and two soldiers put me under guard and brought me to this island [Usedom]. Right here. Right here in this place. This is our camp. I ended up at the disposal of “Sergeev” Sergei Pavlovich. It was Korolev. The senior lieutenant says: “Comrade Colonel, I am responsible for him.” “Get out of here! When I tell you, then you will come.” He was a hot colonel. September 12, 13 and 14 - at this time Korolev and I went and inspected the missiles. Here is the von Braun Institute.”

Korolev and Devyatayev managed to find and bring to Kazan the so-called mixer, the most important part of the V-2 engine. It is still studied by KAI students. On its basis, the first Soviet rocket engine was designed in Kazan in 1945. But this is a completely different story, for which Mikhail Devyatayev received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union at the suggestion of Korolev only in 1957, after the launch of the first Earth satellite...

“He was allowed to mention Peenemünde, and designer Korolev, and other rocket matters only about a year before his death, 57 years after the flight,” Mikhail Cherepanov, one of the last close acquaintances of the legendary pilot, tells the BUSINESS Online correspondent. - In February 2001, another interview with Mikhail Devyatayev, “Vertical of Courage,” appeared in “Red Star”. It was the first time it was mentioned that, largely due to the feat of the Russian pilot, the German missile research center in Peenemünde was unable to complete Hitler’s so-called retaliation weapon. That's where he first began to call a spade a spade. And that's not all. And on February 8, 2002, just on the day of the escape, he called me: “Urgently grab your video camera and come to me! I’ll tell you something.” And he told me. But questions remained - he did too much work to immediately understand it to the end...”

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