Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko (January 2, 1913, Odessa - November 25, 1963, Leningrad). Commander of the Red Banner submarine S-13 of the Red Banner submarine brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, captain of the 3rd rank, known for the “Attack of the Century”. Hero of the Soviet Union (1990).

Born in Odessa in the family of a Romanian worker, Ion Marinescu, and a Ukrainian peasant woman, Tatyana Mikhailovna Koval.

In 1920-1926 he studied at labor school No. 36 (now school No. 105, Pasteur St., 17), where he graduated from 6 classes, after which he became a sailor's apprentice.

For diligence and patience, he was sent to a jung school, after which he went on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company as a sailor of the 1st class.

In 1930 he entered the Odessa Nautical College and, graduating from it in 1933, went to the third and second assistant to the captain on the steamships Ilyich and Krasny Fleet.

According to the submariner Gennady Zelentsov, who served with Marinesko, Alexander Ivanovich himself never wanted to be a military man, but only dreamed of serving in the merchant fleet.

In November 1933, on a Komsomol voucher, he was sent to special courses for the command staff of the RKKF, after which he was appointed navigator on the submarine Shch-306 ("Haddock") of the Baltic Fleet.

In March 1936, in connection with the introduction of personal military ranks, Marinesko received the rank of lieutenant, in November 1938 - senior lieutenant. After graduating from retraining courses at the S. M. Kirov Red Banner Diving Training Unit, he served as an assistant commander on the L-1, then as commander of the M-96 submarine, the crew of which, following the results of combat and political training in 1940, took first place, and the commander was awarded gold medals. hours and promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

Alexander Marinesko during the Great Patriotic War

In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, the M-96 submarine under the command of Marinesko was relocated to Paldiski, then to Tallinn, stood in position in the Gulf of Riga, and had no collisions with the enemy.

In August 1941, they planned to transfer the submarine to the Caspian Sea as a training one, then this idea was abandoned. In October 1941, Marinesko was expelled from the candidates for membership of the CPSU (b) for drunkenness and organizing gambling card games in the submarine division (the division commissioner, who allowed this, received ten years in camps with a suspended sentence and was sent to the front).

On February 14, 1942, the submarine was damaged by an artillery shell during shelling, repairs took six months. Only on August 12, 1942, the M-96 went on another combat campaign.

On August 14, 1942, the boat attacked a German convoy, consisting of three transports guarded by two heavy floating batteries. According to Marinesko's report, he fired two torpedoes at German transport, did not observe the results of the attack, heard a strong explosion, interpreted as the result of a torpedo hit, as a result of which the boat was credited with sinking the transport. According to German sources, the attack was unsuccessful - the ships of the convoy observed the trail of one torpedo, which they successfully evaded, and then attacked the submarine with artillery and depth charges to no avail.

Returning from the position ahead of time (fuel and cartridges for air regeneration were running out), Marinesko did not warn the Soviet patrols, and did not raise the naval flag when surfacing, as a result of which his own boats almost sank the boat.

In November 1942, the M-96 entered the Narva Bay to land a group of scouts for an operation to capture the Enigma cipher machine at the headquarters of a German regiment. But there was no encryption machine in it. Nevertheless, the actions of the commander in the position were highly appreciated, and Marinesko was awarded the Order of Lenin.

At the end of 1942, Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank, he was again accepted as a candidate member of the CPSU (b), but in a generally good combat performance for 1942, the division commander, captain of the 3rd rank Sidorenko, nevertheless noted that his subordinate "on the shore prone to frequent drinking".

In April 1943, Marinesko was appointed commander of the S-13 submarine, where he served until September 1945.

In 1943, the S-13 did not go on military campaigns, and the commander got into another "drunk" story. The submarine under his command went on a campaign only in October 1944. On the very first day of the campaign, October 9, Marinesko discovered and attacked transport "Siegfried"(553 brt). The attack with four torpedoes from a short distance failed, and artillery fire from the 45-mm and 100-mm guns of the submarine had to be fired at the transport. According to the commander's observation, as a result of the hits, the ship (whose displacement Marinesko inflated to 5000 tons in the report) began to quickly sink into the water. In fact, the damaged German transport was later towed by the enemy to Danzig and restored by the spring of 1945. For this trip Marinesko received the Order of the Red Banner.

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

From January 9 to February 15, 1945, Marinesko was on his fifth military campaign, during which two large enemy transports, Wilhelm Gustloff and Steuben, were sunk.

Before this campaign, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, V.F. Tributs, decided to bring Marinesko to court-martial for unauthorized abandonment of the ship in a combat situation (on New Year's Eve, the commander left the ship for two days, the crew of which during this time "distinguished" by sorting out relations with the local population), but he delayed the execution of this decision, giving the commander and crew the opportunity to atone for their guilt in a military campaign.

Thus, S-13 became the only "penalty" submarine of the Soviet fleet.

On January 30, 1945, C-13 attacked and sent the Wilhelm Gustloff liner (25,484 brt) to the bottom, on which there were 10,582 people: 918 cadets of junior groups of the 2nd submarine training division, 173 crew members, 373 women from of the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded soldiers and 8956 refugees, mostly the elderly, women and children. The transport, the former ocean liner "Wilhelm Gustloff", went without an escort (the torpedoes of the training flotilla TF-19 returned to the port of Gotenhafen, having received damage to the hull in a collision with a stone, accompanied by the second ship from the escort attached to the Gustloff - the light destroyer "Löwe" .)

Due to a lack of fuel, the liner was heading straight, without performing an anti-submarine zigzag, and the damage to the hull received earlier during the bombings did not allow it to reach high speed (the ship sailed at a speed of only 12 knots).

Alexander Marinesko - Attack of the Century

It was previously believed that the German Navy was seriously damaged. So, according to the Marine magazine (1975, No. 2-5, 7-11, Germany), 1300 submariners died with the ship, among which were fully formed submarine crews and their commanders. According to the commander of the division, Captain 1st Rank Alexander Evstafyevich Orel, the dead German submariners would be enough to equip 70 submarines of medium tonnage.

Subsequently, the Soviet press called the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff "the attack of the century", and Marinesko - "submariner No. 1", which is not entirely justified (submariners from other countries sank much larger ships, including combat ones, for example, the American submarine "Destroyed the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano with a displacement of 71,890 gross tons, and the German boat U-47 on October 14, 1939 sank the English battleship Royal Oak with a displacement of 29,150 gross tons right in the harbor of Scapa Flow).

According to modern data, 4850 people died with the Gustloff, of which 406 sailors and officers of the 2nd submarine training division, 90 members of their own crew, 250 female soldiers of the German fleet and 4600 refugees and wounded (including almost 3 thousand children ). There are other estimates of the number of victims, up to 9343 people.

Of the submariners, 16 officers died (including 8 of the medical service), the rest were poorly trained cadets who still needed at least a six-month training course.

"Wilhelm Gustloff" was the largest ship in terms of tonnage sunk by Soviet submariners, and the second in terms of the number of victims (the leader is the ship "Goya", sunk on April 16, 1945 by the submarine "L-3" - about 7000 people died on it).

Estimates of the actions of Marinesko and the crew of the C-13 vary greatly, from extremely positive (in Soviet sources) to condemning (in anti-Soviet literature).

Some German publications during the Cold War called the sinking of the Gustloff a war crime, just like the Allied bombing of Dresden. However, the disaster researcher Heinz Schön concludes that the liner was a military target and its sinking was not a war crime, since: ships intended for the transport of refugees, hospital ships had to be marked with the appropriate signs - a red cross, could not wear camouflage, not could go in one convoy along with military courts. On board could not be any military cargo, stationary and temporarily placed air defense guns, artillery pieces or other similar means.

Legally speaking, the Wilhelm Gustloff was a Navy auxiliary ship that allowed 6,000 refugees to board. All responsibility for their lives, from the moment they boarded the warship, lay with the appropriate officials of the German navy.

Thus, "Gustloff" was a legitimate military target of Soviet submariners, in view of the following facts:

1. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was not an unarmed civilian ship: it had weapons on board that could fight enemy ships and aircraft;

2. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was a training floating base for the German submarine fleet;

3. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was accompanied by a warship of the German fleet (destroyer "Löwe");

4. Soviet transports with refugees and the wounded during the war years repeatedly became targets for German submarines and aviation (in particular, the ship "Armenia", sunk in 1941 in the Black Sea, carried more than 5 thousand refugees and wounded on board. Only 8 people survived However, "Armenia", like "Wilhelm Gustloff", violated the status of a sanitary vessel and was a legitimate military target).

Most of the dead had nothing to do with the German Navy. Of the (estimated) 918 officers and cadets of the 2nd training division of submarines on board, (presumably) slightly less than half died.

The sinking of the transport "Steuben"

On February 10, 1945, a new victory followed - on the approach to the Danzig (Gdansk) Bay, S-13 sank the Steuben ambulance transport (14,660 brt), on board of which there were 2680 wounded military personnel, 100 soldiers, about 900 refugees, 270 military medical personnel and 285 members of the ship's crew. Of these, 659 people were saved, of which about 350 were wounded.

It must be taken into account that the ship was armed with anti-aircraft machine guns and guns, was on guard and was transporting healthy soldiers as well. In this regard, strictly speaking, it could not be attributed to hospital courts.

It should also be noted that Marinesco identified the attacked ship as the light cruiser Emden.

The S-13 commander was not only forgiven for his previous sins, but was also presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the higher command replaced the Golden Star with the Order of the Red Banner.

The sixth military campaign from April 20 to May 13, 1945 was considered unsatisfactory. Then, according to the commander of the submarine brigade, Captain 1st Rank Kournikov, Marinesko “I had many cases of detecting enemy transports and convoys, but as a result of improper maneuvering and indecision I could not get close for an attack ... The actions of the submarine commander in position were unsatisfactory. The commander of the submarine did not seek to search for and attack the enemy ... As a result of the inactive actions of the commander of the submarine "S-13" did not complete the combat mission ".

On May 31, the commander of the submarine division submitted a report to the higher command, in which he indicated that the submarine commander was drinking all the time, was not engaged in official duties, and his continued stay in this position was inappropriate.

On September 14, 1945, order No. 01979 of the People's Commissar of the Navy N. G. Kuznetsov was issued, which stated: “For negligence in official duties, systematic drunkenness and everyday promiscuity of the commander of the Red Banner submarine S-13 of the Red Banner submarine brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, captain 3rd rank Marinesko Alexander Ivanovich, removed from his position, demoted in military rank to senior lieutenant and enlisted at the disposal of the military council of the same fleet".

In 1960, the order to demote was canceled, which made it possible for Marinesko, by that time already very ill, to receive a full pension.

From October 18, 1945 to November 20, 1945, Marinesko was the commander of the minesweeper T-34 of the 2nd minesweeper division of the 1st Red Banner minesweeper brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (Tallinn Marine Defense Region). On November 20, 1945, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy No. 02521, Senior Lieutenant Marinesko A.I. was transferred to the reserve.

Submarines under the command of Alexander Marinesko made six military campaigns during the Great Patriotic War. Two transports sunk, one damaged. The M-96 attack in 1942 ended in a miss.

Alexander Marinesko holds the record among Soviet submariners in terms of the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk: 42,557 gross register tons.

After the war, in 1946-1949, Marinesko worked as a senior mate on the ships of the Baltic State Commercial Shipping Company, in 1949 - as deputy director of the Leningrad Research Institute of Blood Transfusion.

In 1949 he was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of squandering socialist property, he served his sentence in 1949-1951 in Vanino.

In 1951-1953 he worked as a topographer for the Onega-Ladoga expedition, since 1953 he was in charge of a group of the supply department at the Mezon plant in Leningrad.

Marinesko died in Leningrad after a serious and prolonged illness on November 25, 1963. He was buried at the Theological Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Not far from here (Kondratievsky pr., 83) is the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces. A. I. Marinesko.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was awarded posthumously on May 5, 1990.

Attitudes towards Marinesco have never been unambiguous. The official authorities, represented by the commanders of the Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet, did not dislike it, but rather envied its glory. The commander of the submarine division Alexander Orel (later the commander of the DKBF) presented Marinesko to the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for the destruction of two German ships "Wilhelm Gustloff" and "General Steuben", but the award was reduced to the Order of the Battle Red Banner. They explained, they say, the Hero should be a textbook: a staunch Leninist, not have any disciplinary action, be a role model for others.

Inconvenient Commander

Yes, Marinesko had a ruffy character, he always cut the truth in the eyes, he was principled and uncomfortable when someone wanted to say something. But one little-known fact: after the incident in the Finnish city of Turku, in January 1945, they wanted to remove Marinesko from command of the S-13 submarine and generally send the boat on a combat campaign with another crew. But the crew of the submarine "revolted", refused to go to sea with another commander, and the command was forced to give in: by that time, only the S-13 was combat-ready in the Baltic Fleet. Marinesko went on a campaign, to which an additional "special officer" was assigned.

But back to the biography of Alexander Ivanovich. He was born on January 15, 1913 in Odessa. His father, the son of the blacksmith Ion Marinescu, a Romanian by nationality, was a sailor of a battle cruiser, but one day he could not stand the abuse from the officer and with a mighty blow he bloodied the nose of the offender. Jonah was sentenced to death, but it turned out that the punishment cell that night (the execution was supposed to take place at dawn) was guarded by a fellow countryman of Jonah, with whom they grew up in the same village. So the compatriot opened the cell, led Marinescu into the common corridor and pushed him to the window. Below, the restless Danube seethed, in order to survive it, it was necessary to swim across, which was not given to everyone. But it was the only way not to bring trouble on the guard's head. Like, they didn’t shoot, so he drowned ...

Jonah swam out, but left Romania forever, hiding first in Bessarabia, then moved to Odessa, where it was easier to dissolve in a crowded crowd. They searched for him for some time, but then they stopped, thinking that he really drowned.

From the age of 13 at sea ...

Marinesko Jr. grew up very restless, it was very difficult to keep him at home, all with the boys, either at sea or in the port. But secretly, Jonah hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps, connect his life with the sea. And so it happened. Already from the age of 13 he studied at the jung school, then in a sailor. Went on civilian ships, one of the captain's assistants. Once, in stormy weather, he showed courage, high skill and saved a cargo ship from certain death. He was awarded a valuable gift, which Iona Marinesko was very proud of (he, in the end, transferred the Romanian ending of the surname to “u” to the Ukrainian “o”).

The decision to connect his life with the army was given to Alexander Ivanovich not immediately. And even at the courses of the commanding staff, not everything went well with him, but Marinesko “took up his mind in time” and avoided expulsion ...

He started the war on the "baby", as small submarines were called. In addition, the M-96 was also slow-moving, it was very difficult to attack large surface targets with it. Firstly, it was not possible to catch up with something fast, and, secondly, after the attack, it was far from always possible to escape from the enemy. But Marinesko was a very risky person. Alexander Ivanovich "sank" his first ship - a heavy floating battery - in August 1942, in any case, he reported to his superiors. But four years later, when the Germans transferred the surviving ships to the Baltic Fleet, this floating base was among the trophies, which in 1942 was towed and then repaired.

But Marinesko earned his first order - the Order of Lenin - in November 1942, when he landed scouts to capture a German cipher machine. And even though there was no encryption machine (the Germans changed the route at the last moment), the submarine commander himself acted flawlessly...

In October 1944 (by that time Marinesko was in command of the S-13 boat), the Siegfried transport was seriously damaged in a military campaign, as it turned out later, the “sunk” transport, as in the first case, did not go to the bottom. And Alexander Ivanovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of War.

Three components of the "attack of the century"

Now directly about the events of January 30, 1945. The "attack of the century" could not have taken place for three reasons. Firstly, if Marinesko had not changed the “hunting area”. German intelligence worked very well, and, obviously, the subordinates of Admiral Doenitz knew where the sea hunter in the face of the S-13 boat was waiting for them. How else can one explain the fact that the transports diligently bypassed the traps. All this seemed suspicious to Marinesko and he changed the area without informing the command about it.

Secondly, if so much perseverance and patience had not been shown. The speed of the "Wilhelm Gustloff" was more than that of the "S-13" and our submarine worked for several minutes at the limit, for wear and tear. If the pursuit had continued for another five minutes, the boat would have simply failed.

Thirdly, few people know that Marinesko committed another act that can hardly be called disciplined. Knowing that the "special officer" is unlikely to allow him to attack as he pleases, the submarine commander locked him in the hold. And it was not at all "old sins" that were the reason that Alexander Ivanovich was not given the Hero. He grappled with powerful "authorities", which ensured that in the same victorious 1945, Marinesko was demoted in military rank from captain III rank to senior lieutenant. A reverse example: Yuri Gagarin was awarded the military rank of "major" after a space flight, also bypassing the rank of "captain".

There is another little-known fact: one of the torpedoes that was fired at the Wilhelm Gustloff got stuck in the same way as 55 years later, on the Kursk submarine. But "S-13" was more fortunate. Her torpedo was removed, she did not explode ...

But most of all I was struck by the fact that Marinesko left the German hunters in shallow water, along the coast. Between 150 and 200 depth charges were dropped by the Germans. Some of them exploded in the immediate vicinity of the submarine. But the solid casing of the hull withstood ...

Hitler and Marinesco

And now for the question in the title. There is a beautiful myth that Hitler personally declared Marinesco his enemy No. 1, and throughout Germany there was a three-day mourning on the occasion of the death of the Wilhelm Gustloff (according to various sources, from 5 to 7 thousand not only military personnel, but also civilians). In fact, all this did not happen: it is unlikely that a message about this would raise the morale of the Germans, who are suffering one defeat after another. And although this myth is beautiful, it is still a myth ...

I would like to end my story with a sketch about one tradition. Every year on January 30, submariners gather at the Museum of the World Ocean. A roasted pig is obligatory on the table (after each victory at the base of the submarine, this is how they meet). We remember Alexander Ivanovich, his military service. Heroes don't die...

On January 30, late in the evening, the submariner Marinesko accomplished his main feat. "Attack of the century" is described enough. It would never have happened if Marinesko, contrary to orders, had not changed course at sea. Marinesko leaves the area and, like a free predator, goes hunting and tracks down the ocean giant - "Wilhelm Gustlov" ... All three torpedoes hit the target. There were about ten thousand people on the liner. Saved less than a thousand...

On January 30, 1945, the legendary Russian submariner Alexander Marinesko sank the German transport Wilhelm Gustlov.

The German writer, Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass, published a novel-essay "The Trajectory of the Crab", which is based on the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlow liner, the pride of the German fleet, by the legendary submariner. The novel became a bestseller, in Europe interest in the events of military prescription, in the personality of Marinesko was awakened anew.

2003 can be called the year of the submariner Marinesko. January 15 marks the 90th anniversary of his birth. November 25th marks the 40th anniversary of his death. Between these round dates - today's, not round: on January 30, late in the evening, he accomplished his main feat.

"Izvestia" once wrote about the feat of Alexander Marinesko, submariner No. 1. After each publication, "Izvestia" received huge bags of angry letters - "Shocked ... My God!", "The story of Marinesko is our national shame", " How long will the faithful sons of Russia be in the position of courtyards?", "I can no longer be in your vile party ...". Demonstrations took place in the cities in defense of Marinesco.

HE DID NOT FEAR ANYTHING

Actually, initially - Marinescu. His father is Romanian. In 1893, he beat an officer, threatened with the death penalty, but he escaped from the punishment cell, swam across the Danube. He married a Khokhlushka, changed the letter "u" at the end of his last name to "o".

By determination, prowess and fearlessness, Alexander Ivanovich - in his father.

At the age of 13, he began to swim as a sailor's apprentice.

At the junior school, he, as the best, was shortened the period of study and, without exams, was transferred to a nautical school.

Then - the higher courses of the command staff. In the midst of classes, an order came: the listener Marinesko was expelled, demobilized from the fleet. The reason - "questionnaire". He was refused even in the merchant marine.

Proud and proud, Marinesko did not write a single request - to sort it out.

In the end - restored, the courses finished ahead of schedule.

A year after Marinesko accepted the Malyutka submarine, she set a record for sinking speed, carried out torpedo firing most successfully, and in 1940 was recognized as the best in the Baltic. At the beginning of the war, on a low-powered "Baby" Marinesko sank a transport with a displacement of 7000 tons and was awarded the Order of Lenin. Alexander Ivanovich is being transferred to S-13. In the very first campaign with a new commander, the boat sinks another transport. Another order - the Red Banner.

The feat was meant for him.

No study gave what was inherited from God. At sea, he acted contrary to all the laws of submarine warfare and even logic. Sometimes he attacked from the side of the German coast, from shallow water, and left the chase - to the place of drowning. He climbed into the most dangerous places - because he was not expected there, and there was a higher logic in this illogicality.

13 "Esok" submarines fought in the Baltic.

The only one survived, under an unlucky number.

He was not afraid of anything, neither at sea nor on land. But if at sea he was prudent and cunning, then on the shore he knew neither moderation nor caution. With the authorities - direct, sometimes - impudent. His directness and independence irritated the coastal staff workers. They didn't love him. Yes, and he had no sympathy for them.

For the entire service in the Navy - from 1933 and for the entire war until 1945, Alexander Ivanovich "broke" twice. Both unauthorized absences and being late were associated with drinking.

We need explanations here. The Germans were much better prepared for submarine warfare. The Baltic was densely mined, she, like Leningrad, was under blockade. For many months the boats were idle at the docks - in repairs. But most importantly, in 1943, when crossing the barriers, several first-class boats were blown up. There was a pause until the autumn of 1944.

Then, in 1944, Marinesko's father died of severe wounds.

He turned to Orel, the divisional commander: "I'm tired of idleness. It's a shame to look into the eyes of the team."

The year 1945 was fatal for Marinesko. He and his friend were released to the city (Turku, neutral Finland). In an empty hotel restaurant, they, with Slavic breadth, asked to set the table for six. As he himself recalled: "We drank in moderation, ate a bite, and began to slowly sing Ukrainian songs." Marinesko charmed a young beautiful hostess of the hotel - a Swede and stayed with her.

In the morning, the maid knocked, said that the bridegroom of the mistress with flowers was waiting downstairs. "Get out," he said. - "You won't marry me?" - "I'm not getting married," Marinesco said, "but send me away anyway." Soon there was a knock on the door again, now an officer from the boat: "Trouble, there is a commotion at the base, they are looking for you. The Finnish authorities have already been told ...". "Get out," she said. "How so - I can not." - "I drove the groom away for your sake. What kind of winners are you, you are afraid to sleep with a woman."

And the commander said to the officer: "You didn't see me."

Returned in the evening.

There was a rumor that he was recruited by enemy intelligence. Marinesco was to appear before a military tribunal.

The crew refused to go to sea with another commander.

Alexander Evstafievich Orel, divisional commander (later - admiral, commander of the Baltic Fleet):

I allowed them to go to sea, let him redeem himself there. They told me: "How did you let such an Arkharovian go?" And I believed him, he did not return empty from the campaign.

doomsday

"Attack of the century" is described enough. I can only say that it would never have happened if Marinesko, contrary to orders, had not changed course at sea. For 20 days, the "eska" cruised in vain in a given area. Marinesko leaves the area and, like a free predator, goes hunting and tracks down the ocean giant - "Wilhelm Gustlov". All three torpedoes hit the target.

Günter Grass believes that there were about ten thousand people on the liner. Less than a thousand were saved.

The main sufferers are children, the elderly and women. There were too few boats and life rafts, the "sunny" deck that led to them iced up like a skating rink, when it tilted, people poured into the sea funnel. 18 degrees of frost with an icy wind. The refugees, crowded on the upper deck - at the height of a ten-story building, froze to death and continued to stand like pillars of ice. "Old people and children," writes Günter Grass, "were trampled to death on wide stairs and narrow ladders. Everyone thought only of himself." Teaching officer

The foreman shot three children, his wife, and shot himself in the cabin.

Today, the last of the officers of the S-13 submarine is alive - navigator Nikolai Yakovlevich Redkoborodov:

Torpedomen made inscriptions with chalk on all torpedoes - "For the Motherland!", "For Stalin!", "For the Soviet people!", "For Leningrad!".

In the empty pool of "Gustlov", lined with multi-colored tiles and mosaics, girls from the auxiliary naval battalion - 370 people - were accommodated in cramped quarters. Torpedo with the inscription "For the Soviet people!" got into the pool and turned everything into a mess. "Many girls were torn to pieces by fragments of tiles and mosaic panels. The water quickly arrived, pieces of human bodies, sandwiches ... life jackets floated in it."

The worst thing was the sight of the dead children: "They all fell from the ship with their heads down. So they got stuck in their bulky vests with their legs up ..."

More than four thousand children died.

The "collective cry" from the sinking ship and from the sea - from the boats and rafts was covered by the siren of the dying "Gustlov" - an eerie two-voice. "This scream is impossible to forget," the pregnant woman was then 18 years old.

"Yes, mostly women and children died: in an indecently obvious majority, men escaped, including all four captains."

Contrary to persistent and beautiful legends, there was no three-day mourning in Germany, and Hitler did not declare Marinesko a personal enemy. Not a word about the death of the Fuhrer's favorite liner. Such a message could undermine the nation's fortitude.

The Soviet propaganda was also silent.

The Soviet military command gladly picked up this version: they could not forgive Marinesko for his spree.

Meanwhile, the once snow-white tourist liner "Wilhelm Gustlov" has long become a floating training base for German submariners, "suicide bombers" were trained here (out of 30,000 German submariners, more than 80% died). On board the liner, according to Günter Grass, there were more than a thousand submariners (according to other sources - 3700), a female battalion of the Navy, a military formation of the 88th anti-aircraft regiment, Croatian volunteers. It was an armed liner, subordinate to the Navy, which was unmarked, with escort.

As the whole world later admitted, including the Germans, "it was a legitimate target for attack."

After this attack, Marinesko was in no hurry to the base, and after 10 days he also sank a powerful cruiser, on board of which there were about three thousand soldiers and officers.

* * *

"Attack of the Century" is not our assessment, this is how English historians assessed the feat of the Eska crew. Western researchers - British, West German, Swedish - for decades have studied the history of the S-13 submarine, whose crew, in terms of tonnage, sank an eighth of what all the other Baltic submariners did during the war. Why is Marinesko not a Hero? they ask. And they come to the conclusion: the Soviet military command did not believe in fantastic victorious results.

Divisional Commander A. Orel introduced Marinesko to the Golden Star. Marinesko's award was reduced to the Order of the Red Banner. Guilt was subtracted from the feat. Accordingly, the rewards for the entire crew were sharply reduced.

Awarding Marinesko with the Golden Star will have a corrupting effect on the sailors - I myself heard this explanation from the leadership of the Navy. It is necessary that the Hero be by all means textbook, statutory.

A textbook would never do something like that. However, what to talk about, whole nations were extra-statutory.

Navigator Redkoborodov:

For many decades, his name was called a half-whisper, as if it was not about a feat, but about a crime.

STATE "ATTACK OF THE CENTURY"

After he and the entire crew were deprived of well-deserved awards, Marinesko gave himself free rein - drinking, conflicts with superiors. According to the writer A. Kron, he began to have epileptic seizures. It's hard to believe, but Alexander Ivanovich, with his pride, self-esteem, asks the party commission of the BPL KBF: I'm tired, I'm drinking because I'm sick, please send me to be treated ...

It was August 1945. The war was already over. Now the state does not need him even sober. Marinesco was simply fired from the fleet, lowered in rank by two steps at once.

What the Soviet government did to him right up to his beggarly death and after death can also be called the "attack of the century."

Again, an involuntary parallel - with them, with us. In the post-war years, the ruin of the Gustlov continued - various divers, treasure hunters, and other predators were looking for the legendary Amber Room, the gold of the Imperial Bank there.

In the second half of the eighties, a monument to Marinesko was erected in Liepaja with the money of sailors. By order of the political department of the Navy, the name Marinesko was torn off the monument - at night, like a thief. It was then that Izvestia got involved in a two-year (seven publications!) struggle, not just unequal - hopeless, for the name of the legendary submariner, for conferring on him the title of Hero. Izvestia was attacked not only by the military department (bureaucratic admirals threatened to sue), but also by the Army's Main Political Directorate and the USSR Ministry of Defense. Personally, Minister Marshal Yazov wrote a complaint to the Central Committee against Izvestia.

The editor-in-chief (ID Laptev) did not flinch. But it was not Yazov's complaint that was the most unpleasant.

Marinesko's daughter from her first marriage, Leonora, complained about Izvestia.

Why are you poisoning the naval department? she told me on the phone. - You want me to quarrel with them? You don't know your father, he left us with his mother and did not pay alimony.

What time was it?

It turned out that at a time when Alexander Ivanovich was completely helpless and himself needed at least a penny support.

At this time, not he, but you had to help him.

You won't achieve anything anyway, he'll never get a Hero.

Leonora submitted her complaint to Red Star, which used it in her new persecution of Marinesko.

And Tanya, daughter from the second marriage, Alexan

ra Ivanovich, called after the first publication:

Thank you.

The fatal, mystical Marinesko, both during his lifetime and after his death, split the whole world in two.

LETTERS FROM CAPTURE

Since 1948, Marinesko worked as a deputy director at the Institute of Blood Transfusion. The grabber director was building a dacha, he wanted to get rid of the principled deputy. With the consent of the director, Alexander Ivanovich took the decommissioned peat briquettes lying around in the yard to the homes of low-paid workers. The director, Vikentiy Kukharchik, called the OBKhSS himself.

The first composition of the court broke up. The prosecutor, a front-line soldier, seeing the linden, refused the accusation, both people's assessors expressed a dissenting opinion. Only Judge Praskovya Vasilievna Varkhoeva did not give up.

Marinesko was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

For such a period they do not send far. But Marinesko was driven to Kolyma. They stuffed me into the same car with the recent policemen.

From Marinesko’s story to Kron: “The distribution of food is in their hands ... I feel we won’t get there. I began to look closely at people - not all of them are bastards. I see: mostly a swamp, it is always on the side of the strong! Luckily, there were several sailors nearby. ... At the next distribution of food, a fight broke out. I confess to you: I kicked my ribs and was happy." The head of the train appeared, figured it out, "power" was transferred to the sailors.

These letters are more than half a century old. Alexander Ivanovich wrote them to Valentina Ivanovna Gromova, his second wife.

"Hello, dear, dear Valyushka!

The city of Vanino is a large village, there is no running water, no sewerage.

A strong snow blizzard swept our house up to the roof, and in order to get out, we had to crawl out through a hole in the ceiling (for a makeshift stove) and clear the snow from the door.

I do not lose hope and I am firmly convinced that I will happily live out my life with you (up to 80-90 years), I have already begun preparations, I gave 50 rubles for this paycheck to the tailor, whom I ordered to sew a "Muscovite" - a short coat from an overcoat, and In total, you have to pay 200 rubles for the work.

With that, loving you immensely, your servant and husband. 4/1-1951"

These are censored letters.

And this is real life. A book was stolen from Marinesko - a gift from his wife. Having learned about this, the owner of the chamber, the "godfather", said: "In a minute you will have the book." But it turned out that the young thief had already cut the book into cards. By order of the "godfather" four lessons killed the guy: they swung him and - on the floor.

In his own way, in an animal way, he was "cherished" in the cell. What is the attraction of personality even for a lesson? After all, they did not know about the exploits of Marinesko.

Alexander Ivanovich found a way to correspond not through the camp mailbox. “Hello, dear Valyusha! The authorities came to check on us and, having learned that I was not writing letters through the PO box 261/191, they took away all your letters that I kept and punished me by removing me from the foremen and transferring them to loaders.

Goodbye, my invisible happiness! 29/1-1951"

"Hello, dear, sweet and closest of all that exists in the world, Valyusha!

My overcoat turned out to be a very good "Muscovite".

Alexander Ivanovich wanted to save money for trousers, too, but...

Marinesko parted with his first family a long time ago, and suddenly - a surprise.

“I received news: Leonora Alexandrovna (an eighteen-year-old daughter. - Auth.) sent an “executive list” to the mailbox. Of course, Laura could write me a letter, explain her situation, and, of course, I would somehow help her, but , apparently, her mother led the matter in such a way as to finally take off my pants. But what to do? Until now, I received 200 rubles in my hands, and now I can live without them. 20 / IV-51 years "

Marinesko's mother, old woman Tatyana Mikhailovna, having learned about the "Executive List" for her son from his adult daughter, got a job to help her son. She wrote a letter to Stalin.

"Our dear and beloved Joseph Vissarionovich!

The mother of the war hero Alexander Marinesko, who suffered in agony, is writing to you.

Over my son hung - a lie!

Our dear Joseph Vissarionovich! I kneel before you, I beg you - help... Comfort your mother's heart. Be a father to my son.

We know that you are the most just person on earth."

Anxiety is brewing: "Dear Valyusha! I am writing a third letter, but there is still no answer from myself. Probably, you are already tired of waiting for me."

She answered from some northern Zateika, where she worked on a geological exploration expedition. She called to herself.

“There was no limit to my joy. But is there a court in Zateyka where I could get a job as a foreman of the ship? And will they take me?

Now I have a good “Muscovite”, but there is nothing else, it’s not even quite decent to go straight to your place in Zateyka, which means that you need to stop by Leningrad for documents and other trifles - at least for a razor. If you knew how much I want to be with you! I don't want to linger even for a moment. But now it has become much more difficult to earn offsets. Today I received a letter from my mother ... He is going to send a parcel to me. I will not write about my feelings, because I am to blame for everything. Write to her that when I am free and we save a little money, we will definitely come to her in Odessa ... "

Note, the unfortunate prisoner prolongs his future:

“You and I have no more than 50-60 years of life left. My dear baby, you write to me that you have become white. And my beard is white to a single hair, as well as whiskey. When we are together, then, probably, everyone will admire us - young, but white. Do not worry, we will give "life" with you.

“My beloved Valyusha! I put in a lot of work for the fastest release, but the reason is money: if I had 500 rubles, I would have returned 2 months earlier. Even here money decides the issue.

Today I feel very bad, it hurts in the right side of my chest and the temperature is up to 38 degrees, but I need to work - I need offsets for working days. I pray to God almost every day for a speedy date with you. But God, obviously, does not hear me, but thank him that he gives me hope!

"All life depends on ourselves - on our attitude to each other and to people."

On October 10, 1951, he was released early. Sat for almost two years. By this time, the director of the institute had already been imprisoned for embezzlement.

He worked as a loader, topographer, and then came to the Maison plant,

lived a lot of thanks, his portrait hung on the Board of Honor. Until 1960, when Alexander Kron appeared in the newspaper, no one around knew about the military merits of Alexander Ivanovich. The owner of the apartment once saw the Order of Lenin and asked. "There was a war," he answered shortly, "many received it."

In the late fifties, having lived together for 15 years, Alexander Ivanovich broke up with Valentina. They remained on good terms.

He received a small pension, so his income was limited. Plus alimony. Factory managers went forward, allowed to earn above the ceiling. A revision came up, according to the court (again the court!) Marinesko began to return the surplus. When he fell mortally ill - two cancers, throat and esophagus, the surplus began to be deducted from the pension.

About two hundred officers, among them - 20 admirals and generals, 6 Heroes of the Soviet Union, 45 commanders and commissars of submarines appealed to the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Given the exceptional services of A.I. Marinesko to our Motherland, we earnestly ask and intercede for the appointment of Marinesko personal pension It cannot be considered fair that such a well-deserved submarine commander ended up in a pension provision in an immeasurably worse position than officers who did not participate in the war.

The request was denied.

Marinesko wrote to Kron: "Recently, at the age of 51, I begin to lose faith in Soviet power."

After Marinesco's death, his name was withdrawn from circulation.

The shipbuilders turned to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Gorshkov, with a request to name one of the ships after Alexander Marinesko. The admiral put a resolution on the collective letter - "Unworthy".

Sergey Georgievich Gorshkov received both of his Gold Stars of the Hero many years after the war - as a gift. It was with his participation that the epic of Malaya Zemlya with Colonel Brezhnev was inflated. He commanded the fleet for 30 years.

I met with the Commander-in-Chief.

Marinesko? He just got lucky with this sinking, - he answered with irritation. - Yes, and in 1945 it no longer played a role, the end of the war ...

This means that those who stormed Berlin three months later have no price at all.

He, Sergei Georgievich, refused to support the application for a personal pension for Marinesko's mother. Tatyana Mikhailovna outlived her son by 12 years. She lived in Odessa in a communal apartment, in her ninth decade she went to the yard for firewood and water and received a pension - 21 rubles.

* * *

She is to blame, mother, she is to blame: she gave birth to the wrong son.

* * *

ONLY WE WILL NOT CLINK

There was also a joy at the end of life. There was a small corner. The woman who shared the last torment.

Valentina Aleksandrovna Filimonova:

We met with friends. Trousers in patches, a jacket on elbows in patches. The only thing was the shirt, the collar of the shirt fell off, just kept on the tie. Clean, very neat, but already so poor. He went to see me off and stayed with me. He had some kind of attraction force, like hypnosis, both children and adults felt it. He had an unusual gait: his head was slightly raised - so proudly, majestically striding. Especially when they went out to the embankment, to the Neva - it merged with granite. He brought 25 rubles as a payday, a little more as an advance. And in order to show my mother that a man really appeared in the house, I began to put my money on him and gave it to my mother.

A year later, we went with him to a meeting of submarine veterans, I didn’t understand anything: they call Sasha’s last name and such a thunder of applause, they don’t let him talk further. It was only then, a year later, that I found out who he was.

They only had a life - a year. The other two Alexander Ivanovich was painfully, mortally ill.

M. Weinstein, former division mechanic, friend:

Marinesco was in a very bad hospital. He did not have enough experience for the hospital. We, veterans, went to the commander of the Leningrad naval base Baikov. The admiral was furious: "In our hospital, the devil knows who is being treated, but is there no place for Marinesko?" Immediately ordered, gave his car.

Valentina Alexandrovna:

It was then, and not later, as many write, that on the way from hospital to hospital we saw ships in the roadstead, and Sasha cried for the only time: "I will never see them again."

Mikhail Weinstein was the last to see Marinesko:

His mood was gloomy: "That's it, this is the end." It's time for dinner, and the wife is rumpled. He says: “Nothing, let him look, he can. She unbandaged her stomach, and I saw the tube that came from the stomach. Valentina Alexandrovna inserted a funnel and began to pour something liquid. We drank a glass of cognac with him, it was all the same - the doctors allowed. He said: "Just don't clink glasses" - and they poured cognac into the funnel. The throat was black, apparently, they were irradiated. And the second time I came, there was already a tube in my throat. It quickly became clogged, Sasha was suffocating, and Valentina Alexandrovna cleaned it every 20-30 minutes.Now that death was near, he, as always in the most difficult moments in the war, jumped fighting spirit.Apparently, when I entered, he was confused, he could no longer speak, took a piece of paper and wrote: “Misha, you have frightened eyes. Drop it. Now I believe in life. I'm going to have an artificial esophagus."

The money that he was overpaid at the factory did not have time to deduct everything from a small pension. And the dead remained indebted to the Soviet government.

* * *

Fate, as if testing him, subjected him to double tests. Two dismissals from the fleet (the first - because of the "questionnaire"). Two courts. Two crayfish with two tubes.

And the hat in a circle was also thrown twice - on the monument and during his lifetime. On October 4, 1963, the writer Sergei Smirnov said in a TV show that the legendary submariner lives practically in poverty.

From all over the country, money poured into Leningrad, including from students, pensioners - often three, five rubles each.

Valentina Alexandrovna was now able to quit her job, they put a bed next to her in the ward.

He died, and all the transfers went on.

In 1990, on the anniversary of the Victory, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was finally posthumously awarded the Gold Star.

The readers of Izvestiya won, or, as we habitually and anonymously say, "the people."

He became the most effective submariner of the Great Patriotic War, but turned his own life into an adventurous romance with a sad ending and almost disappeared into obscurity.

The name of Alexander Marinesko is far from known to every inhabitant of our country, although military experts dubbed one of his underwater strikes the "attack of the century", which no one has yet been able to repeat.

Despite his highest professionalism and personal courage, he could not become an example to follow. And all because he had the most difficult character, did not stand on ceremony with commanders and political workers, often sending them very far with or without reason. And Marinesko's success with beautiful women aroused the envy and anger of other officers.

Indigenous Odessa

Alexander Marinesko was born in 1913 in Odessa in a Romanian-Ukrainian family. His father was a Romanian sailor who severely beat his commander. Fleeing from the tribunal and hard labor, he fled to Russia, settling in Odessa-mama.

In this seaside town, the fugitive quickly made contacts with local smugglers and crooks, who mistook Ion Marinesco for their own, and offered to participate in several risky operations.

According to some reports, the man did not stay as a smuggler for long. He did not slide down to the level of a simple bandit, but found himself a job in the seaport. Ion married a peasant woman from the Kherson province, Tatiana Koval, who also came to Odessa in search of a better life.

Their son Alexander completely went to his father, adopting his indomitable and freedom-loving disposition. Many researchers of the biography of Alexander Marinesko admit that a boy in gangs of the same barefoot tomboys could steal on Privoz, but there is no direct evidence of his criminal childhood.

"Become a real captain"

By the age of seven, Sasha swam like a fish, disappearing for hours on the shore, where he listened to sea tales told by experienced fishermen. And even though most of these stories were ordinary fiction, the sea romance completely captured Sasha, who decided to become a real sailor.

The future hero was not interested in studying at a regular school, and after the 6th grade at the age of 13 he ran away from home, getting a job as an assistant sailor on one of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet.

Alexander demonstrated such zeal and discipline that he was sent to study at a junior school, and by the age of 17 his name appeared on the list of 1st class sailors.

In 1930, Sasha Marinesko, despite a serious competitive selection, easily enters the Odessa Nautical College. In his studies, he demonstrates incredible zeal, extremely pleasing to his teachers.

In 1933, twenty-year-old Alexander received a diploma with honors and by the age of 20 became the assistant captain of the Red Fleet ship. An incredible career even for that time!

Hit on a childhood dream

Such specialists were needed by the Red Army, and after a few months Alexander received a Komsomol ticket for special courses for the command staff of the navy.

It was a serious blow to the pride of a young man who saw himself as a free captain of a civilian ship, but was supposed to become a military sailor, unquestioningly obeying other people's orders.

At the end of the course, Alexander Marinesko was sent to serve as the navigator of the Shch-306 Haddock submarine, based in the Baltic Fleet. The cold Baltic was strikingly different from the gentle and friendly Black Sea. The young officer was seized with depression, which he increasingly relieved with alcohol.

Excellent student and sloven

Hoping for a possible transfer to the reserve, he becomes aggressive and not always manageable, does not reach into his pocket for swear words. He does not think about the consequences of non-observance of subordination, enters into skirmishes at the first opportunity.

But during training trips he demonstrates such high professionalism that the command was forced to give him the rank of lieutenant in 1936, and in 1938 - senior lieutenant. Although in both submissions for the title it was indicated: "Not disciplined enough."

In those years, the country was preparing for a future big war, and throwing away personnel like Alexander Marinesko was akin to sabotage, for which commanders could be repressed and sent to the Gulag (if not shot).

The investigation of drunken stories, in which the young officer was the main instigator, was put on the brakes, and the penalties received by Alexander were removed from him almost immediately.

The high professionalism of the submarine officer is evidenced even by the fact that the best submarine of the Baltic Fleet in 1940 was recognized as the M-96 submarine, commanded by ... Lieutenant Commander Alexander Marinesko.

His crew set an incredible diving speed record, even for today's submarines, of 19.5 seconds. And this despite the fact that the standard was 35 seconds.

Womanizer and organizer of gambling

From the beginning of the war, the M-96 submarine patrolled the Gulf of Riga, and in his free time, Alexander Marinesko had fun in the company of other officers and women of easy virtue.

In August 1941, a real scandal thundered when a group of submarine officers was convicted of organizing gambling. The ringleader of the company, as always, was Marinesko, who was immediately expelled from the candidates for membership of the CPSU (b).

Do you think it helped? In November 1942, Marinesko carried out a brilliant military operation for a covert landing in Narva Bay. The paratroopers defeated the German headquarters, which was supposed to be the Enigma cipher machine. And even though the machine itself was not at the headquarters, a large number of super-important documents fell into the hands of the Soviet command.

For professionalism and courage, the officer received the next military rank of lieutenant commander, the Order of Lenin and was reinstated as a candidate member of the party. Although in his service record, the item about excessive addiction to alcohol was still preserved.

"Uncontrollable" commander of the legendary S-13

In the spring of 1943, Alexander Marinesko was appointed commander of the S-13 submarine, which had been under repair for almost a year and did not go to sea. From idleness at the base, the officer took to drink, went on a spree, since there were always a lot of easily accessible women around financially well-to-do submariners. He twice sat in the guardhouse, received penalties through the party line.

In October 1944, during its first trip to the sea, the S-13 submarine discovered the German Siegfried transport. The attack with four torpedoes was unsuccessful, and Marinesco gave the order to surface. The submarine shot the vessel from artillery pieces, after which it disappeared into the abyss from the hunt unfolding on the S-13. For this campaign, the officer received another Order of the Red Star, and all his previous sins were completely written off.

By the end of 1944, the S-13 submarine was transferred to one of the ports of Finland, which by that time had left the war.

On the night of January 1, 1945, Alexander Marinesko arbitrarily left the submarine that was on combat duty and went to visit his new lover (Swede).

The crew left without a commander met the New Year with a huge amount of alcohol, after which he went to sort things out with the local population. It all ended in a mass brawl, which only by a lucky chance did without human casualties.

The commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vladimir Tributs, demanded that the S-13 commander and the entire crew be tried by a military tribunal. But he made it possible to rehabilitate himself by sending him on a “penalty” military campaign on January 9th.

In fact, the S-13 submarine became the only “penalty” submarine of the Great Patriotic War.

Save lives and careers

For almost a month, S-13 patrolled the indicated square, which German ships did not enter at all. Realizing that after returning to the base he will appear before the court-martial, Marinesco makes an unauthorized decision to change the patrol square. The political worker who tried to express indignation at the flagrant violation of the order was immediately sent to hell, and the boat headed towards the besieged city of Koenigsberg.

On January 30, Alexander Marinesko saw in the periscope a huge floating hospital "Wilhelm Gustloff", which before the war was a cruise ship. For unknown reasons, he went without a convoy and could be an excellent target for C-13 torpedoes.

The commander personally brought his submarine to the strike position. Each of the three torpedoes fired hit the target, and the Wilhelm Gustloff, with about 10.5 thousand people on board, sank. German documents indicate that as a result of the S-13 attack, 4,855 people were killed, including 405 submarine cadets, who could have completed several dozen crews of German submarines.

On February 10, in the area of ​​​​the Danzig Bay, S-13 attacked the Steuben ambulance transport, on which there were more than 4 thousand wounded and refugees. The ship sank within a few minutes, and only 659 people were saved.

Later, Alexander Marinesko admitted that he mistook this ship armed with anti-aircraft guns for the light cruiser Emden.

Instead of glory - "a spit in the soul"

The "penalty" crew returned to the base as heroes. All submariners were forgiven for old sins, the commander was offered to be awarded the golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

But the brigade commander Lev Kournikov went on principle, recommending that Marinesko be awarded the Order of the Red Banner, which offended the officer “to death”.

In the next military campaign, Alexander Marinesko did not show much activity in finding targets, he drank on board, and the results of the campaign itself were recognized as unsatisfactory.

At the end of the war, Marinesko's drunken antics were no longer looked through. In September 1945, he was removed from command of the submarine, demoted from captain of the third rank to senior lieutenant (by two steps at once) and appointed commander of the minesweeper T-34.

Alexander's sea soul could not bear such an insult, and on November 30, 1945, he managed to retire to the reserve. For four years he served as an assistant to the captain of a merchant ship, and in 1949 he moved to work as director of the Leningrad Institute of Blood Transfusion.

There, the hero-submariner stole, after which he spent three years in the Kolyma camps.

In 1953, Alexander Marinesko returned to Leningrad, where he was helped to get a job as the head of the supply department at the Mezon plant in Leningrad.

He was very ill, until 1960, until his friends succeeded in canceling his demolition, he received a meager pension. He died November 25, 1963 at the age of 50.

Restoration of a glorious name

From complete oblivion, Alexander Marinesko was returned to the times of perestroika and glasnost. First, the Izvestia newspaper published an article about the captain of the S-13 submarine, who turned out to be the most productive Soviet submariner in terms of the total tonnage of Nazi ships sunk to the bottom.

Mikhail Gorbachev was shocked to learn how arrogantly the officers of the political department of the fleet overworked a talented sailor, depriving him of well-deserved awards and titles.

It turned out that back in 1977, the sculptor Valery Prikhodko erected a monument to Alexander Marinesko and members of his heroic crew in Liepaja with the money collected among the sailors. But on the same night, by direct order from Moscow, the captain's name and the word "heroic" were cut down from the monument.

The public outcry was so strong that on May 5, 1990, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

Alexander Marinesko is one of the most controversial figures of the Great Patriotic War, around whom controversy still does not subside. A man covered in many myths and legends. Undeservedly forgotten, and then returned from oblivion.

Today in Russia they are proud of him, they perceive him as a national hero. Last year, a monument to Marinesko appeared in Kaliningrad, his name was entered in the Golden Book of St. Petersburg. Many books have been published dedicated to his feat, among them the recently published "Submariner No. 1" by Vladimir Borisov. And in Germany they still cannot forgive him for the death of the Wilhelm Gustloff ship. We call this famous combat episode the "Attack of the Century", while the Germans consider it the largest maritime disaster, perhaps even more terrible than the sinking of the Titanic.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the name of Marinesko in Germany is known to everyone, and the topic of "Gustloff" today, after many years, excites the press and public opinion. Especially recently, after the story "The Trajectory of the Crab" came out in Germany and almost immediately became a bestseller. Its author, the famous German writer, Nobel Prize winner Günther Grass, reveals the unknown pages of the flight of East Germans to the West, and in the center of events is the Gustloff disaster. For many Germans, the book was a real revelation...

The death of the Gustloff is not without reason called a "hidden tragedy", the truth about which both sides hid for a long time: we always said that the ship was the color of the German submarine fleet and never mentioned the thousands of dead refugees, and the post-war Germans, who grew up with a sense of repentance for crimes of the Nazis, hushed up this story, because they feared accusations of revanchism. Those who tried to talk about those killed on the Gustloff, about the horrors of the German flight from East Prussia, were immediately perceived as "extreme right." Only with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the entry into a united Europe did it become possible to look east more calmly and talk about many things that for a long time were not customary to remember ...

The price of the "attack of the century"

Whether we like it or not, we still cannot get around the question: what did Marinesko drown - a warship of the Nazi elite or a ship of refugees? What happened in the Baltic Sea on the night of January 30, 1945?

In those days, the Soviet army was rapidly advancing to the West, in the direction of Koenigsberg and Danzig. Hundreds of thousands of Germans, fearing retribution for the atrocities of the Nazis, became refugees and moved towards the port city of Gdynia - the Germans called it Gotenhafen. On January 21, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz gave the order: "All available German ships must save everything that can be saved from the Soviets." The officers were ordered to redeploy submarine cadets and their military equipment, and in any free corner of their ships - to accommodate refugees, and especially women and children. Operation Hannibal was the largest evacuation of the population in the history of navigation: over two million people were transported to the west.

Gotenhafen became the last hope for many refugees - there were not only large warships, but also large liners, each of which could take on board thousands of refugees. One of them was the Wilhelm Gustloff, which seemed unsinkable to the Germans. Built in 1937, the magnificent cruise ship with a cinema and a swimming pool served as the pride of the "Third Reich", it was intended to demonstrate to the whole world the achievements of Nazi Germany. Hitler himself participated in the descent of the ship, which was his personal cabin. For the Hitlerite cultural leisure organization "Strength through Joy", the liner delivered vacationers to Norway and Sweden for a year and a half, and with the outbreak of World War II it became a floating barracks for cadets of the 2nd diving training division.

January 30, 1945 "Gustloff" went on his last flight from Gotenhafen. About how many refugees and soldiers were on board, the data of German sources differ. As for refugees, until 1990 the figure was almost constant, since many of the survivors of that tragedy lived in the GDR - and there this topic was not subject to discussion. Now they began to testify, and the number of refugees grew to ten thousand people. In relation to the military, the figure almost did not change - it is within one and a half thousand people. The calculation was carried out by "passenger assistants", one of whom was Heinz Schön, who after the war became the chronicler of the death of the Gustloff and the author of several documentary books on this topic, including The Gustloff Catastrophe and SOS - Wilhelm Gustloff.

The submarine "S-13" under the command of Alexander Marinesko hit the liner with three torpedoes. The surviving passengers left terrible memories of the last minutes of the Gustloff. People tried to escape on life rafts, but most only lasted a few minutes in the icy water. Nine ships participated in the rescue of its passengers. The terrifying pictures are forever etched in my memory: children's heads are heavier than their legs, and therefore only their legs are visible on the surface. Lots of baby feet...

So, how many managed to survive this catastrophe? According to Shen, 1,239 people survived, of which half, 528 people, were German submariners, 123 female auxiliaries of the navy, 86 wounded, 83 crew members, and only 419 refugees. These figures are well known in Germany and today it makes no sense to hide them with us. Thus, 50% of the submariners and only 5% of the refugees survived. We have to admit that, basically, women and children died - they were completely unarmed before the war. Such was the price of the "attack of the century" and that is why in Germany today many Germans consider Marinesco's actions a war crime.

Refugees become hostages of a ruthless war machine

However, let's not rush to conclusions. The question here is much deeper - about the tragedy of war. Even the most just war is inhuman, because the civilian population suffers first of all from it. According to the inexorable laws of war, Marinesko sank a warship, and it is not his fault that he sank a ship with refugees. A huge blame for the tragedy lies with the German command, which was guided by military interests and did not think about civilians.

The fact is that the Gustloff left Gotenhafen without proper escort and ahead of schedule, without waiting for the escort ships, since it was necessary to urgently transfer German submariners from the already surrounded East Prussia. The Germans knew that this area was especially dangerous for ships. A fatal role was played by the side lights turned on on the Gustloff after a message was received that a detachment of German minesweepers was moving towards it - it was through these lights that Marinesko discovered the liner. And finally, on her last voyage, the ship left not as a hospital ship, but as a military transport, painted gray and equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

Until now, Shen's figures are practically unknown to us, and data are still being used that the color of the German submarine fleet died on the Gustloff - 3,700 sailors, who could have equipped from 70 to 80 submarines. This figure, taken from the report of the Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet" dated February 2, 1945, was considered indisputable by us and was not questioned. Until now, the legends created back in the 1960s with the light hand of the writer Sergei Sergeyevich Smirnov, who raised the then unknown pages of the war - the feat of Marinesko and the defense of the Brest Fortress, are still unusually tenacious. But no, Marinesco was never "Hitler's personal enemy", and a three-day mourning was not announced in Germany for the death of "Gustloff". This was not done for the simple reason that thousands more people were waiting to be evacuated by sea, and the news of the disaster would have caused panic. Mourning was declared for Wilhelm Gustloff himself, the leader of the National Socialist Party in Switzerland, who was killed in 1936, and his killer, student David Frankfurter, was named Hitler's personal enemy.

Why do we still hesitate to name the true extent of that tragedy? It is sad to admit it, but we are afraid that the feat of Marinesko will fade. However, today even many Germans understand that the German side provoked Marinesko. “It was a brilliant military operation, thanks to which the initiative to dominate the naval war in the Baltic was firmly intercepted by Soviet sailors,” says Yury Lebedev, deputy director of the A.I. Marinesko Museum of Russian Submarine Forces. the end of the war. It was a strategic success for the Soviet navy, and for Germany - the largest maritime disaster. Marinesco's feat is that he destroyed the seemingly unsinkable symbol of Nazism, a dream ship promoting the "Third Reich". on the ship, became hostages of the German military machine. Therefore, the tragedy of the death of the Gustloff is not an accusation against Marinesco, but against Hitler's Germany."

Recognizing that not only German submariners, but also refugees were on the sunken Gustloff, we will take one more step towards recognizing a historical, albeit unpleasant for us, fact. But we need to get out of this situation, because in Germany "Gustloff" is a symbol of trouble, and in Russia it is a symbol of our military victories. The question of "Gustloff" and Marinesko is a very complex and delicate one, affecting the present and future of relations between Russia and Germany. It was not for nothing that Consul General of Germany Ulrich Schoening, who recently visited the Museum of the Submarine Forces of Russia named after A.I. This is called for by the sinking of the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945.

Today we have the opportunity to move towards reconciliation even in such a difficult issue - through historical authenticity. After all, there are no black and white colors in history. And the uniqueness of Marinesko is that his personality does not leave anyone indifferent. His legendary personality may be destined for immortality. He became a legend and will remain so...