The youngest marshal of the Red Army of the Soviet Union was Alexander Golovanov. He literally rocketed up the career ladder, having risen from colonel to the coveted marshalship at the age of 40. However, after the Second World War, Golovanov actually fell into disgrace and lived almost in poverty. How did the fate of this man develop, and what place did the leader of the peoples, Joseph Stalin, occupy in it?
An interesting fact: Alexander Golovanov was the grandson of Nikolai Kibalchich, a Narodnaya Volya revolutionary who participated in organizing an assassination attempt on the emperor of the Russian Empire, Alexander II. Grandfather was executed in 1881. Standing on the scaffold, the revolutionary could not even imagine that his grandchildren would live in a completely different country and even a different society. He could not imagine that his grandson would command the most high-tech troops at that time - aviation.
Our hero was born in 1904. At the age of 8, Alexander Golovanov, already distinguished by his great height, was sent by his parents to the cadet corps. In 1917, like many other young people, he found himself among the revolutionaries. External data helped the 13-year-old guy throw himself another 3 years and join the Red Guard. In the civil war, Golovanov managed to fight at the front for 3 years, until in 1920, after a serious shell shock, he was assigned to the headquarters. In 1924, Alexander Evgenievich Golovanov served in the OGPU and even participated in the arrest of the Social Revolutionary Savinkov. And in 1932, our hero still reached for his dream and graduated from flight school. For 7 years, Golovanov flew more than 1 million km, did not allow a single accident or misconduct. He served in Moscow, Ashgabat, Irkutsk.
New 1941 Alexander Evgenievich met in the company of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot Smushkevich. They argued with him that civilian pilots are better at long-distance flights than military pilots. Smushkevich advised me to write about the interesting experience directly to the Kremlin. In February 1941, a letter on this issue was nevertheless written and Golovanov was summoned to the very top in person to Stalin. The conversation was short. Iosif Vissarionovich offered the pilot to lead the newly created long-range bomber regiment. Golovanov personally selected people for the regiment. In addition, the future marshal tried to introduce all kinds of innovations in his unit.
All this bore fruit at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Already after June 22, Golovan's regiment successfully bombed Wehrmacht facilities located in occupied Poland. And on August 17, 1941, Alexander Evgenievich was assigned the most important task - an air raid on Berlin. The bombing of the capital of the Reich did not cause too serious damage to Berlin, but had the hardest for Germany propaganda consequences, since shortly before this, Goebels' propaganda trumpeted the defeat of Soviet Air Force. In August-September 1941, the 81st long-range division dropped 21 tons of bombs on the enemy's lair.
Stalin personally monitored the successes of the bombers. Not all planes were able to return home safely. So Vodopyanov's crew only reached Estonia. Soviet pilots at that time were able to eventually return to their own. The local population and one of the pilots, who was an ethnic Estonian, helped. Of course, the pilots from the Golovanov regiment, who came to the front line "on their own two", like all other prisoners and "surrounders", had to survive checks in filtration camps. Alexander Evgenievich personally took care of his guys, believed that there could be no traitors among them, and took full responsibility for the guys. Stalin criticized Golovanov in every possible way for such an attitude, but nevertheless went to meet the pilot.
In 1941, Golovanov's pilots also distinguished themselves in the Battle of Moscow. Golovanov himself also flew, almost every day he made sorties. In 1942, Alexander Evgenievich was transferred to the service in long-range aviation. He took part in the Battle of Stalingrad, making a significant contribution to the defeat of Paulus with bombers. In the future, in 1943 alone, Soviet long-range aviation made over 70,000 sorties. The pilots played a huge role in supplying the partisans. Golovanov even participated in the rescue of Tito's Yugoslav partisans in 1944.
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The merits of Alexander Evgenievich at the top were appreciated in the most appropriate way. At 38, he became the youngest Marshal of the Soviet Union. Golovanov was one of the few people whom Stalin called by his first name and patronymic. In 1944, Alexander Evgenievich's health deteriorated greatly. Three heart attacks in a row. Then he asked to be relieved of his post for health reasons.
After 1953 and the death of Stalin, Golovanov's fate was not the best. In preparation for the 20th Congress, the marshal refused to sign an exposé on the deceased leader of the country and the party, calling them slander. This Alexander Evgenievich was not forgiven. He was dismissed "due to illness" and appointed the most modest marshal's pension. Golovanov received almost two times less than other marshals - 1,800 rubles, of which half went to apartment, another 500 rubles Golovanov sent to his old mother, and for the remaining 400 rubles he had to support his wife and mother. As a result, in his old age, the Soviet pilot was forced to start a garden and stand behind the plow. However, as always in life, Alexander Evgenievich met the difficulties with his head held high. The memoirs of the youngest marshal of the USSR were published only 29 years later in 1975. For a long time, supporters of the 20th Congress did not want to see in print the story of their beloved pilot Stalin.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why, after the death of Brezhnev, his order "Victory" was withdrawn and 6 more curious facts about the main award of the USSR.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/190122/61899/