"Suvorov of the twentieth century" - this is how General of the Army Vasily Filippovich Margelov (1908 - 1990) began to be called during his lifetime by Western historians (for a long time it was forbidden to call this name in the press for reasons of secrecy).

Having commanded the Airborne Forces for a total of almost a quarter of a century (1954 - 1959, 1961 - 1979), he turned this branch of the military into a formidable strike force that knew no equal.

But Vasily Filippovich was remembered not only as an outstanding organizer by his contemporaries. Love for the Motherland, remarkable military abilities, steadfastness and selfless courage were organically combined in him with the greatness of the soul, modesty and crystal honesty, kind-hearted, truly fatherly attitude towards the soldier.

We turn over some pages of the book of his fate, worthy of the pen and the master of the detective genre, and the creator of the heroic epic ...

How a paratrooper got a vest

In the Soviet-Finnish war of 1940, Major Margelov was the commander of the Separate reconnaissance ski battalion of the 596th rifle regiment of the 122nd division. His battalion made daring raids on enemy rear lines, set up ambushes, causing great damage to the enemy. In one of the raids, they even managed to capture a group of officers of the Swedish General Staff, which gave grounds for the Soviet Government to make a diplomatic demarche about the actual participation of the supposedly neutral Scandinavian state in the hostilities on the side of the Finns. This step had a sobering effect on the Swedish king and his cabinet: Stockholm did not dare to send its soldiers into the snows of Karelia ...

The experience of ski raids on enemy rear lines was remembered in the late autumn of 1941 in besieged Leningrad. Major V. Margelov was assigned to lead the First Special Ski Regiment of sailors of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet formed from volunteers.

The veteran of this part N. Shuvalov recalled:

- As you know, sailors are a peculiar people. In love with the sea, they do not particularly favor their land counterparts. When Margelov was appointed commander of a regiment of marines, some used to say that he would not take root there, his “brothers” would not accept him.

However, this prophecy did not come true. When the regiment of sailors was built to be presented to the new commander, Margelov, after the command "Attention!" seeing many gloomy faces looking at him not particularly friendly, instead of the words of greeting “Hello, comrades!”, which are customary in such cases, without hesitation, he shouted loudly:

- Hello, buggers!

A moment - and in the ranks not a single gloomy face ...

Many glorious feats were accomplished by sailors-skiers under the command of Major Margelov. The tasks were set personally by the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Tributs.

Deep daring raids by skiers across the German rear in the winter of 1941-42 were an ongoing headache for the command of Hitler's Army Group North. What was even worth the landing on the coast of Ladoga in the direction of Lipka - Shlisselburg, which alarmed Field Marshal von Leeb so much that he began to remove troops from Pulkovo to eliminate him, tightening the noose of the blockade of Leningrad.

Two decades later, the commander of the Airborne Forces, General of the Army Margelov, ensured that the paratroopers received the right to wear vests.

- The daring of the "brothers" sunk into my heart! he explained. - I want the paratroopers to adopt the glorious traditions of their older brother - the marines and continue them with honor. For this, I introduced the paratroopers vests. Only stripes on them to match the color of the sky - blue ...

When, at a military council chaired by the Minister of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union S. G. Gorshkov, began to blame that, they say, paratroopers were stealing vests from sailors, Vasily Filippovich sharply objected to him:

- I myself fought in the Marine Corps and I know what paratroopers deserve and what - sailors!

And Vasily Filippovich fought famously with his "marines". Here's another example. In May 1942, in the Vinyaglovo area near the Sinyavinsky Heights, about 200 enemy infantrymen broke through the defense sector of a neighboring regiment and entered the rear of the Margelovites. Vasily Filippovich quickly gave the necessary orders and himself lay down behind the Maxim machine gun. Then he personally destroyed 79 Nazis, the rest were finished off by reinforcements that came to the rescue.

By the way, during the defense of Leningrad, Margelov always had an easel machine gun at hand, from which in the morning he made a kind of shooting exercise: he “trimmed” the tops of trees in bursts. Then he mounted a horse and practiced cutting with a sword.

In offensive battles, the regiment commander more than once personally raised his battalions to attack, fought in the forefront of his fighters, dragging them to victory in hand-to-hand combat, where he had no equal. Because of such terrible fights, the Nazis nicknamed the marines "striped death."

Officer's ration - in a soldier's cauldron

Caring for a soldier has never been a secondary matter for Margelov, especially in a war. His former brother-soldier, senior lieutenant of the guard Nikolai Shevchenko, recalled that, having accepted the 13th Guards Rifle Regiment in 1942, Vasily Filippovich began to increase its combat effectiveness by improving the catering of all personnel.

At that time, the officers in the regiment ate separately from the soldiers and sergeants. The officers were entitled to increased rations: in addition to the combined arms norm, they received animal butter, canned fish, biscuits or cookies, Golden Fleece or Kazbek tobacco (non-smokers were given chocolate). But, besides this, some battalion commanders and company commanders brought personal chefs with a common catering department. It is not difficult to understand that some part of the soldier's cauldron went to the officer's desk. This was discovered by the regimental commander when bypassing the units. He always started it with an inspection of the battalion kitchens and a sample of soldiers' food.

On the second day of Lieutenant Colonel Margelov's stay in the unit, all of its officers had to eat from a common boiler along with the soldiers. The regiment commander ordered his additional ration to be transferred to a common boiler. Soon other officers began to do the same. “Batya set a good example for us!” - the veteran Shevchenko recalled. Surprisingly, Batey Vasily Filippovich was called in all the regiments and divisions that he happened to command ...

God forbid, if Margelov noticed that the fighter had leaky shoes or shabby clothes. Here the business executive received to the fullest. Once, noticing that the sergeant-machine-gunner at the forefront of the boot was “asking for porridge”, the regimental commander called the head of the clothing supply to him and ordered him to exchange shoes with this fighter. And he warned that if he saw this again, he would immediately transfer the officer to the front line.

Vasily Filippovich could not stand cowards, weak-willed, lazy people. Theft under him was simply impossible, because he punished him mercilessly ...

Hot Snow

Whoever read Yuri Bondarev's novel "Hot Snow" or saw the film of the same name based on this novel, let him know: the Margelovites were the prototype of the heroes that stood in the way of Manstein's tank armada, which was trying to break the encirclement around the 6th army of Paulus in Stalingrad. It was they who found themselves in the direction of the main attack of the fascist tank wedge and managed to prevent a breakthrough, holding out until reinforcements arrived.

In October 1942, Guard Lieutenant Colonel Margelov became the commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Regiment, which was part of the 2nd Guards Army, Lieutenant General R. Ya. Malinovsky, which was formed specifically to complete the defeat of the enemy, who had broken through into the Volga steppes. For two months, while the regiment was in reserve, Vasily Filippovich intensely prepared his fighters for fierce battles for the Volga stronghold.

Near Leningrad, he more than once had to engage in single combat with fascist tanks, he knew well their weak spots. And now he personally taught tank destroyers, showing armor-piercers how to dig a trench in full profile, where and from what distances to aim with an anti-tank rifle, how to throw grenades and Molotov cocktails.

When the Margelovites held the defense at the turn of the river. Myshkov, having taken on the blow of the Goth tank group, which was advancing from the Kotelnikovsky area to join the Paulus breakthrough group, they were not afraid of the newest heavy Tiger tanks, they did not flinch in front of the many times superior enemy. They did the impossible: in five days of fighting (from December 19 to 24, 1942), without sleep or rest, suffering heavy losses, they burned and knocked out almost all enemy tanks in their direction. At the same time, the regiment retained combat readiness!

In these battles, Vasily Filippovich was severely shell-shocked, but did not leave the line. He met the New Year of 1943 with his fighters, with a Mauser in his hand, dragging the attacking chains to storm the Kotelnikovsky farm. This swift throw of units of the 2nd Guards Army in the Stalingrad epic was put to a bold end: the last hopes of the Paulus army for the deblockade melted away like smoke. Then there was the liberation of Donbass, the forcing of the Dnieper, fierce battles for Kherson and the "Iasi-Chisinau Cannes" ... Thirteen thanks from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief were earned by the 49th Guards Kherson Red Banner Order of Suvorov Rifle Division - Margelov's division!

The final chord is the bloodless capture in May 1945 on the border of Austria and Czechoslovakia of the SS tank corps, which broke through to the West to surrender to the Americans. This included the elite armored forces of the Reich - the SS divisions "Grossdeutschland" and "Totenkopf".

As the best of the best guards, Major General Hero of the Soviet Union V.F. Margelov (1944), the leadership of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entrusted the honor of commanding a front-line composite regiment at the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, 1945.

After graduating from the Higher Military Academy in 1948 (since 1958 - the Military Academy of the General Staff), Vasily Filippovich accepted the Pskov Airborne Division.

This appointment was preceded by a meeting between Major General V. Margelov and Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal of the Soviet Union Nikolai Bulganin. There was another general in the office, also a Hero of the Soviet Union.

The Minister of Defense began the conversation with kind words about the Airborne Troops, their glorious combat past, and that a decision had been made to develop this relatively young branch of the military.

– We believe in them and consider it necessary to strengthen them with combat generals who distinguished themselves during the Great Patriotic War. What is your opinion, comrades?

He, the second general, began to complain about the wounds received at the front, said that the doctors did not recommend him to make parachute jumps. In general, he refused the proposal of the minister.

General Margelov, who had many wounds during three wars, including severe ones, and even in the legs, asked a single question in response:

- When can I go to the troops?

"Today," the Minister of Defense replied, and shook his hand warmly.

Margelov understood that he would have to start from scratch and how to comprehend the tricky landing science for a beginner. But he also knew something else: there is a special attraction in this kind of troops - audacity, a strong male adhesion.

Years later, he told the correspondent of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper:

Until the age of 40, I vaguely imagined what a parachute was, and I never dreamed of jumping in a dream. It turned out on its own, or rather, as it should be in the army, by order. I am a military man, if necessary, ready to go to hell. And so it was necessary, already being a general, to make the first parachute jump. The impression, I tell you, is incomparable. A dome opens above you, you soar in the air like a bird, - by God, I want to sing! I sang. But you won't go away on rapture alone. I was in a hurry, I didn’t follow the ground, as a result I had to walk for two weeks with a bandaged leg. Got a lesson. Parachuting is not only romantic, but also a lot of work and impeccable discipline...

Then there will be many jumps - with weapons, day and night, from high-speed military transport aircraft. During his service in the Airborne Forces, Vasily Filippovich made more than 60 of them. Extreme - at the age of 65.

Anyone who has never left an airplane in his life, from where cities and villages seem like toys, who has never experienced the joy and fear of a free fall, a whistle in his ears, a stream of wind beating in his chest, he will never understand the honor and pride of a paratrooper, - Margelov will say something.

What did Vasily Filippovich see when he accepted the 76th Guards Airborne Division Chernigov? The material and technical base of combat training is at zero. The simplicity of the sports equipment was discouraging: two jumping boards, a cradle for a balloon suspended between two pillars, and the skeleton of an aircraft that vaguely resembled an airplane or glider. Injuries and even deaths are common. If Margelov was a novice in the landing business, then in the organization of combat training, as they say, he ate the dog.

In parallel with combat training, no less important work was underway to equip the personnel and the families of officers. And here everyone was surprised by the persistence of Margelov.

“A soldier must be well-fed, clean in body and strong in spirit,” Vasily Filippovich liked to repeat Suvorov's saying. It was necessary - and the general became a real foreman, as he called himself without any irony, and on his desktop, mixed with plans for combat training, exercises, landing, there were calculations, estimates, projects ...

Working in his usual mode - day and night - day and night away, General Margelov quickly ensured that his unit became one of the best in the airborne troops.

In 1950, he was appointed commander of the airborne corps in the Far East, and in 1954, Lieutenant General V. Margelov led the Airborne Forces.

And soon he proved to everyone that he was not a rustic servant, as some perceived Margelov, but a man who saw the prospects of the Airborne Forces, who had a great desire to turn them into the elite of the Armed Forces. To do this, it was necessary to break stereotypes and inertia, win the trust of active, energetic people, and involve them in joint productive work. Over time, V. Margelov formed a circle of like-minded people carefully selected and nurtured by him. And the outstanding sense of the new, combat authority and the ability of the commander to work with people made it possible to achieve the set goals.

Year 1970, operational-strategic exercise "Dvina". Here is what the newspaper of the Belarusian Military District “For the Glory of the Motherland” wrote about them: “Belarus is a country of forests and lakes, and it is incredibly difficult to find a landing site. The weather wasn't good, but it didn't give us any reason to be discouraged either. Attack fighters ironed the ground, from the commentator's booth it sounded: "Attention!" - and the eyes of those present turned upward.

Here, large points separated from the first aircraft - these are military equipment, artillery, cargo, and then paratroopers fell like peas from the hatches of the An-12. But the crown of the throw was the appearance in the air of four "Anteys". A few minutes - and now there is a whole regiment on the ground!

When the last paratrooper touched the ground, V.F. Margelov stopped the stopwatch on the commander's watch and showed it to the Minister of Defense. It took a little over 22 minutes for eight thousand paratroopers and 150 units of military equipment to be delivered to the rear of the "enemy".

Brilliant results were also achieved at the major exercises Dnepr, Berezina, Yug… It has become common practice to raise airborne troops, say, in Pskov, make a long flight and land near Ferghana, Kirovabad or in Mongolia. Commenting on one of the exercises, Margelov told the Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent:

- The use of airborne assault has become practically unlimited. For example, we have this type of combat training: on the map of the country, a point is arbitrarily chosen where troops are dropped. Warrior parachutists jump into a completely unfamiliar area: into the taiga and deserts, lakes, swamps and mountains ...

It was after the Dvin exercises, declaring gratitude to the guardsmen for their courage and military prowess, that the commander casually asked:

Margelov could be understood: there was a need to reduce the time for preparing airborne units for combat after landing. The landing of military equipment from one aircraft, and the crews from another led to the fact that the spread sometimes amounted to five kilometers. While the crews were looking for equipment, it took a lot of time.

A little later, Margelov again returned to this idea:

- I understand that it is difficult, but no one but us will do this.

Moreover, when - it was rather difficult to make a fundamental decision to conduct the first such experiment - Vasily Filippovich proposed his candidacy to participate in the first test of this kind, the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff were categorically against it.

However, even without this, there were legends about the courage of the commander. It manifested itself not only in a combat situation. At one of the festive receptions, where they could not help but invite the disgraced Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, Vasily Filippovich, stretched out at attention, congratulated him on the holiday. Zhukov, being the Minister of Defense, repeatedly observed the actions of the paratroopers in the exercises and expressed satisfaction with their high skill, admired their courage and courage. General Margelov was proud of the respect of such military leaders for himself, and therefore did not change his attitude towards honored people in favor of temporary workers and high-ranking sycophants.

The troops of "Uncle Sam" and the troops of "Uncle Vasya"

At the end of the spring of 1991, an official visit to the United States was made by USSR Minister of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T. Yazov.

Returning to Moscow, the minister met with officers of the Information Department of the Ministry of Defense.

Subsequently, reflecting on this meeting that lasted more than two hours in the hall where meetings of the Collegium of the Ministry of Defense usually took place, I came to the conclusion that communication with us, ordinary employees of the department, was primarily aimed at conveying to the general public through officers who, on duty, maintain contacts with the press, his very skeptical opinion about the merits of the military equipment of the richest power in the world and about the level of preparedness of the American "pros", which were then excitedly admired by the Ogonyok magazine and related publications.

During a visit to the military base at Fort Bragg, the Soviet Minister of Defense was invited to a demonstration exercise of one of the parachute battalions of the famous "devils' regiment" - the US 82nd Airborne Division. This division became famous for participating in almost all post-war conflicts in which the United States intervened (Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, etc.). She was the first to land in the Middle East before the start of the anti-Iraq Desert Storm in 1990. In all operations, the "devils" were at the forefront of the attack as the most dexterous, courageous, invincible.

And it was these “understudies of Satan” who were instructed to surprise the Soviet minister with their class of training and fearlessness. They were parachuted in. Part of the battalion landed in combat vehicles. But the effect of the “show-off” turned out to be the opposite of what was expected, because Dmitry Timofeevich could not talk about what he saw in North Carolina without a bitter smile.

- What would I rate you for such a landing? - Asked, slyly narrowing his eyes, the Minister of Defense of the then Deputy Commander of the Airborne Forces for combat training, Lieutenant General E. N. Podkolzin, who was part of the Soviet military delegation.

“You should have torn off my head, Comrade Minister!” - Evgeny Nikolaevich minted.

It turns out that almost all American paratroopers thrown out of aircraft in combat vehicles received serious injuries and injuries. There were also those who died. After landing, more than half of the cars did not budge...

This is hard to believe, but even in the early 90s, the vaunted American professionals did not have the same equipment as ours and did not know the secrets of the safe landing of "winged infantry" units on equipment that were mastered in "Uncle Vasya's troops" (as fighters of the Airborne Forces called themselves, hinting at a special warmth of feelings for the commander) back in the 70s.

And it all began with the courageous decision of Margelov to put the responsibility of a pioneer on his shoulders. Then, in 1972, in the USSR, tests of the newly created Centaur system were in full swing - for landing people inside an airborne combat vehicle on parachute platforms. The experiments were risky, so they started on animals. Far from everything went smoothly: either the parachute canopy was torn, or the active deceleration engines did not work. One of the jumps even ended in the death of the dog Buran.

Something similar happened with Western testers of identical systems. True, they experimented on people there. A man sentenced to death was placed in a combat vehicle that was dropped from an airplane. It crashed, and for a long time the West considered it inexpedient to continue development work in this direction.

Despite the risk, Margelov believed in the possibility of creating safe systems for landing people on equipment and insisted on complicating tests. Since dog jumping went on normally in the future, he sought a transition to a new phase of R & D - with the participation of warriors. In early January 1973, he had a difficult conversation with the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union A. A. Grechko.

- Do you understand, Vasily Filippovich, what you are going to, what you are risking? - Andrey Antonovich urged Margelov to abandon his plan.

“I understand perfectly well, that’s why I stand my ground,” answered the general. – And those who are ready for the experiment also understand everything perfectly.
On January 5, 1973, the historic leap took place. For the first time in the world, the crew was parachuted inside the BMD-1 on parachute-platform means. It included Major L. Zuev and Lieutenant A. Margelov - in the car next to an experienced officer was the youngest son of the commander, Alexander, at that time a young engineer of the scientific and technical committee of the Airborne Forces.

Only a very courageous person would dare to send his son to such a complex, unpredictable experiment. It was an act akin to the feat of Lieutenant General Nikolai Raevsky, when Kutuzov's favorite in 1812 near Saltanovka fearlessly led his young sons in front of the front of the battalions faltering from the French buckshot and with this amazing example breathed stamina into the discouraged grenadiers, held the position, deciding the outcome of the battle. Sacrificial heroism of this kind in world military history is a unique phenomenon.

- A combat vehicle was dropped from the AN-12, five domes were opened, - Alexander Vasilyevich Margelov, now an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, recalled the details of the unprecedented jump. - Of course, it is dangerous, but one thing reassured me: the system has been successfully used for more than one year. True, no people. Landed normally. In the summer of 1975, on the basis of the parachute regiment, which was then commanded by Major V. Achalov, Lieutenant Colonel L. Shcherbakov and I inside the BMD and four officers outside, in the joint landing cabin, jumped again ...

Vasily Filippovich was awarded the USSR State Prize for this bold innovation.

The Centaur was replaced (not least thanks to the commander of the Airborne Forces, who stubbornly argued in the highest party and government authorities of the country that a new method of delivering fighters and equipment to the target, its early development to enhance the mobility of the "winged infantry") soon came a new, more perfect system "Reactavr". The rate of decline on it was four times higher than on the Centaur. In psychophysical terms, it is correspondingly more difficult for a paratrooper (a deafening roar and roar, a flame escaping from jet nozzles is very close). On the other hand, the vulnerability to enemy fire and the time from the moment of being thrown out of the aircraft to bringing the BMD into combat position were sharply reduced.

From 1976 to 1991, the Reaktavr system was used about 100 times, and always successfully. Year by year, from exercise to exercise, the "blue berets" gained experience in its application, polished their own skills at various stages of landing.

Since 1979, Vasily Filippovich was no longer with them, having surrendered the post of commander of the Airborne Forces and transferred to the Group of General Inspectors of the Ministry of Defense. Eleven years later, on March 4, 1990, he passed away. But the memory of Paratrooper number one, his precepts to the blue berets are imperishable.

The name of Army General V.F. Margelov is worn by the Ryazan Higher Command School of the Airborne Forces, the streets, squares and squares of St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Omsk, Pskov, Tula ... Monuments were erected to him in St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Pskov, Omsk, Tula, the Ukrainian cities of Dnepropetrovsk and Lvov, Belarusian Kostyukovichi.

Paratroopers, veterans of the Airborne Forces every year come to the monument of their commander at the Novodevichy cemetery to honor his memory.

But the main thing is that the spirit of Margelov is alive in the troops. The feat of the 6th Airborne Company of the 104th Guards Regiment of the 76th Pskov Division, in which Vasily Filippovich began his career in the Airborne Forces, is an eloquent confirmation of this. He is also in other achievements of the paratroopers of recent decades, in which the "winged infantry" covered itself with unfading glory.

It was in 1939, in Western Belarus, shortly before the parade in Brest of the troops of the allies - the Soviet Union and Germany. The Intelligence Directorate of the Belorussian Front was instructed by Moscow to obtain a secret gas mask from the Germans. The task was very responsible - the scouts were required to work cleanly, leaving no traces, and there was practically no time to prepare the operation.

After discussing the candidacy, the choice fell on the head of intelligence of the division, Captain Margelov. “The captain is a combat commander, savvy, daring, let him try, and suddenly his guys will succeed on the move. In the meantime, we will carefully prepare several more groups of scouts, for safety,” reasoned at the higher headquarters.

Since there was no time to prepare for the assignment, and knowing that the chief of staff and the head of the special department of the division were sent to the Germans, the father, after carefully considering everything, reported the decision to the division commander. “The task is delicate, it requires one person, but with good cover,” he said. “I have daring, well-trained scouts, but nevertheless I ask you to allow me to carry out the task personally. I will go with the commanders to the location of the German troops to divide the territory, and there I will act according to the situation. At the same time, in my battalion I set the task of subordinates to work out the operation. "

The division commander shook hands with the captain and ordered to get ready to go. "The car is in half an hour, the bosses will know about our task, but they will not be able to help. All responsibility is on you. Good luck, captain. I will wait for your return, but if you get caught by the Germans, count only on yourself."

Negotiations continued for more than a day. Things were going according to plan. Finally, snacks and drinks appeared on the tables. Toasts began, which the father later recalled with a bitter smile. All this time, he imperceptibly observed what was happening around him. Suddenly, he saw two German soldiers with the gas masks he needed pass by the door into the courtyard, opened due to the heat.

Pretending to be slightly drunk and showing an embarrassed smile, my father asked permission from the chief of staff to go out "before the wind." Those present smiled, making jokes about the weakling, and let him go.

With an unsteady gait, the captain headed towards the toilet, where he noticed "his" Germans. One of them just went inside, the other remained on the street. Father, swaying and smiling, approached him and, as if not keeping his balance, fell in his direction ... with a knife forward. Then, cutting off his gas mask and hiding behind the dead, he burst into his friend. He threw the corpses into a latrine and, making sure that they sank, went outside. Taking both gas masks, he quietly made his way to his car, where he hid them.

Returning to the "negotiating table", he drank a glass of vodka. The Germans buzzed approvingly and began to offer him a drink of schnapps. However, our commanders, realizing that the scout had completed the job, began to say goodbye. Soon they were rolling back.

"Well, captain, did you get it?" "As many as two," the father boasted. "But don't forget that we helped you... as best we could," the special officer said and burped. The chief of staff was silent. Outside the windows, trees quickly swept past, ahead - a stream. The car drives onto the bridge and ... suddenly an explosion.

When the father came to, he felt a sharp pain in the region of the bridge of his nose and left cheek. He held his hand - blood. I looked around: everyone was killed, the car was in the water, the bridge was destroyed. Clearly - they hit a mine. And then he saw horsemen galloping out of the forest towards the car.

Noticing the movement, they immediately began to shoot. Overcoming the pain, the father shot back. He shot down the lead rider, then the next one... The blood flooded his eyes, making it difficult to conduct aimed fire.

And then the Germans, having heard the shooting, came to the rescue. Having beaten off the attack, as it turned out later, of the Polish partisans, they took the Russian captain to the hospital, where a German surgeon operated on his bridge of the nose.

When he was brought, bloodied, in bandages, to the location of our division, he immediately fell into the hands of the NKVD. The questions were just for the occasion: "Why did one stay alive? Why did the Germans bring you? Why did they operate on you, captain?" After that, three days of tedious waiting in the basement, until the NKVD, according to the testimony of his father, removed the corpses of German soldiers from the latrine with a cut-off gas mask mount and made sure that the bullets in the bodies of the killed attacking horsemen were fired from his Mauser.

Freeing him, the senior opera officer with the rank of senior lieutenant, gritted his teeth, hissed: "Go, captain. This time, consider yourself lucky." My father did not receive any gratitude for completing the task, but my friends and I properly noted "freedom" in a local restaurant. The scar on the left cheek remained the memory of those days for life...

Sweden remained neutral

During the years of the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940), my father commanded a separate reconnaissance ski battalion of the 122nd division. The battalion made daring raids behind enemy lines, set up ambushes, causing great damage to the Finns. During one of them, he captured the officers of the Swedish General Staff.

“It was extremely difficult to penetrate behind enemy lines - the White Finns were excellent soldiers,” my father recalled. He always respected a worthy opponent, and he valued the single training of Finnish fighters especially highly.

The battalion included graduates of the Lesgaft and Stalin sports institutes, excellent skiers. Once, deepening into Finnish territory for ten kilometers, they found a fresh enemy ski track. "Let's set up an ambush. The first company - to the right, the second - to the left, the third company goes two hundred meters ahead and cuts off the enemy's retreat. Capture several people, preferably officers," the father gave the combat order.

Enemy skiers returning along their ski tracks did not notice our disguised fighters and fell under their fire. In the course of a short and fierce battle, my father managed to see that some of the soldiers and officers had a strange uniform, unlike the Finnish one. None of our fighters could even think that a meeting with the soldiers of a neutral country is possible here. “If not in our uniform and together with the Finns, then the enemy,” the commander decided, and ordered to capture first of all the enemies dressed in this strange uniform.

During the battle, six people were taken prisoner. But it turned out to be the Swedes. It was very difficult to deliver them across the front line to the location of our troops. Not only did the prisoners have to be dragged literally on their own, it was impossible at the same time to allow them to freeze. In the then severe frosts in conditions of immobility or even inactivity, for example, in the case of a severe injury, death occurred very quickly. It was not possible to endure in these conditions the bodies of their fallen comrades.

The front line was overcome without loss. When they got to their own, the battalion commander again

taught to the fullest. Again the NKVD, again interrogations.

It was then that he found out who he had captured - Swedish officers who were studying the possibility of participating in the war on the side of Finland of the Swedish Expeditionary Volunteer Corps, which had already arrived in late January - early February in the Kandalaksha direction. Then they attributed to the battalion commander something like political myopia, they say, he didn’t recognize the “neutrals”, he took the wrong prisoners, they remembered leaving their dead on the battlefield, in general, he would not have avoided a court-martial, and most likely - execution, Yes, the commander of the army took the commander under protection. Most of the soldiers and officers of the detachment were awarded orders and medals, only the commander was left without an award. "Nothing," he joked, "but Sweden remained neutral..."

The defeat and capture of the first military contingent sent to fight against the USSR caused such a depressing response in Sweden that until the very end of the military conflict, the Swedish government did not dare to send a single soldier to Finland. If only the Swedes knew to whom they owe the preservation of neutrality, and also the fact that Swedish mothers, wives and brides did not have to mourn their sons and loved ones ...

On the border of Austria and Czechoslovakia

On May 10, 1945, when our victorious soldiers were already talking about an imminent departure to their homeland, General Margelov received a combat order: on the border of Austria with Czechoslovakia, three SS divisions and the remnants of other units, including Vlasov, want to surrender to the Americans. It is necessary to capture them, in case of resistance - to destroy them. For the successful conduct of the operation, the second Star of the Hero was promised ...

Having given a combat order, the divisional commander with several officers on the "jeep" went straight to the enemy's location. He was accompanied by a battery of 57 mm guns. Soon the chief of staff joined him in another car. They had a machine gun and a box of grenades, not counting personal weapons.

Arriving at the place, the father ordered: "Install direct fire guns at the enemy's headquarters and after 10 minutes, if I do not come out, open fire." And he loudly ordered the nearby SS men: "Immediately take me to your commanders, I have authority from the higher command to negotiate."

At the enemy's headquarters, he demanded immediate unconditional surrender, promising life in return, as well as keeping the awards. "Otherwise - complete destruction using all fire weapons of the division," he finished his speech. Seeing the complete hopelessness of the situation, the SS generals were forced to surrender, emphasizing that they surrender only to such a brave fighting general.

The father did not receive any promised awards, but the consciousness that a major victory had been won without a single shot and without a single loss, military trophies had been captured, and at the same time, the lives of several thousand people were saved, only yesterday - enemies, gave him satisfaction of a higher order than any, even the highest reward.

Vasily Filippovich Margelov was born on December 27, 1908 (old style) in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) in Ukraine. From the age of 13, did you go to work at the mine as a horse-drawn horse driver? pushing carts loaded with coal. He dreamed of becoming a mining engineer, but on a Komsomol ticket he was sent to the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

In 1928 he entered the Joint Belarusian Military School named after the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR in Minsk. After its successful completion, he was appointed commander of a machine-gun platoon of the 99th Infantry Regiment of the 33rd Infantry Division.

From the very first days of service, the chiefs appreciated the abilities of the young commander, his ability to work with people, to transfer his knowledge to them. In 1931, he was appointed to the post of platoon commander of the regimental school, and in January 1932? platoon leader in his native school. He taught tactics, fire and physical training. He rose from platoon commander to company commander. Was Lmaximist| | 1 (shooter from a machine gun of the Maxim system), perfectly shot from other types of weapons, was a L-Voroshilov shooter.

In 1938, Margelov was already a captain (at that time the first rank of a senior officer), commander of a battalion of the 25th rifle regiment of the 8th rifle division of the Belarusian military district, then head of intelligence of the division. It is to this period that the first episode from his rich front-line biography belongs.

During the Soviet-Finnish campaign, as the commander of a ski reconnaissance and sabotage battalion, in the harsh conditions of the Arctic, he made dozens of raids on the rear of the White Finnish troops.

He began the Great Patriotic War in July 1941 and went through it to the end, from major to major general: he commanded Ldisciplinarians | who covered him with their bodies during shelling, a separate regiment of Baltic sailors on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, a rifle regiment near Stalingrad, at the turn of the Myshkov River broke the backbone of Manstein's tank army. As a division commander, he crossed the Dnieper, with a handful of fighters for three days without rest and food, he held his position, ensuring the crossing of his division. An unexpected maneuver from the flank forced the Nazis to flee from Kherson, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his formation received the honorary name L Kherson | Participated in the liberation of Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria. He ended the war with a brilliant bloodless capture of three selected German SS divisions: L Dead Head |, L Great Germany | and LSS Police Division|.

The brave division commander, who has 12 Stalinist thanks, was given a high honor? command a combined battalion of the 2nd Ukrainian Front at the Victory Parade on Red Square. His battalion went first, and in the first rank ten of the best soldiers and officers of his 49th Guards Kherson Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Rifle Division firmly minted the step. Eight wounds on the fronts, two of them? heavy. His wife Anna Alexandrovna, a military surgeon, captain of the medical service of the guard, also went through the whole war, operated on him on the battlefield. Many times, Margelov's life hung in the balance, not only during fights with enemies, but also during investigations in the NKVD. After the war? Academy of the General Staff, after which, at the age of almost 40, he did not hesitate to accept the offer to become the commander of the Chernihiv Guards Airborne Division. Shows an example of youth in skydiving. Since 1954, the commander of the airborne troops. Was your father not allowed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the troops as commander of the Airborne Forces? the Afghan epic began, and he had his own views on the use of airborne units, both tactically and strategically. Since January 1979, Army General V.F. Margelov continued to serve in the Group of General Inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense, supervising the airborne troops. On March 4, 1990, Vasily Filippovich passed away. But his memory lives on in the airborne troops, in the hearts of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, all those who knew and loved him. He is an honorary soldier of one of the units of the Chernihiv Guards Airborne Division. Streets in Omsk, Tula, the Union of Teenage Clubs of the Landing Profile are named after him. The Ryazan Airborne School also bears his name.

Vasily Filippovich Margelov was drafted into the Red Army in 1928. Even before the start of World War II, he showed himself during the Polish campaign, the Soviet-Finnish war. But, perhaps, it was during the Great Patriotic War that he revealed himself as an outstanding commander. What is one surrender without a fight to the "Soviet Skorzeny" (as the Germans called him) of the divisions of the SS Panzer Corps "Dead Head" and "Great Germany" on May 12, 1945, which were ordered not to be allowed into the zone of responsibility of the Americans. The enemy driven into a corner is capable of much - there is nothing to lose. For the SS men, retribution for the atrocities was inevitable, and new victims were inevitable. And the order was clear - to capture or destroy.

Margelov took a decisive step. With a group of officers armed with machine guns and grenades, the divisional commander, accompanied by a battery of 57-mm cannons on his "jeep" arrived at the group's headquarters. By ordering the battalion commander to set up direct fire guns at the enemy headquarters and shoot if he does not return in ten minutes.

Margelov presented an ultimatum to the Germans: Either they surrender and save their lives, or complete destruction using all the fire weapons of the division: “by 4.00 in the morning - the front to the east. Light weapons: machine guns, machine guns, rifles - in piles, ammunition - nearby. The second line - military equipment, guns and mortars - vents down. Soldiers and officers - we are building to the west. Time to think - just a few minutes: "until his cigarette burns out." The nerves of the Germans cracked first. The picture of the surrender of the SS was amazing. The exact count of trophies showed the following figures: 2 generals, 806 officers, 31,258 non-commissioned officers, 77 tanks and self-propelled guns, 5847 trucks, 493 trucks, 46 mortars, 120 guns, 16 locomotives, 397 wagons. For this military feat, at the Victory Parade, Margelov was entrusted with commanding the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Margelov Vasily Filippovich was born on December 27, 1908 in Dnepropetrovsk, died at the age of 82 on March 4, 1990 in Moscow. The legendary commando, who turned the USSR Airborne Forces from "penalty boxers" into the elite of the USSR Armed Forces, long-term commander of the airborne troops (1954-1979), army general, Hero of the Soviet Union.

The feat of Vasily Margelov.

Vasily Margelov became a legend during his lifetime

Years of the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940), commanding the Separate reconnaissance ski battalion of the 122nd division, made several daring raids on the rear of the enemy, during one of which he captured officers of the German General Staff - officially allies of the USSR at that time;

- in 1941, his "ground commander" was put at the head of the Marine Corps regiment of the Baltic Fleet. Contrary to the prejudices that "it will not take root", Margelov became "one of his own", and the Marines called him, a major, "captain of the 3rd rank", emphasizing their respect for the commander. The regiment was considered "the personal guard of the fleet commander of Admiral Tributs", which he sent in besieged Leningrad to where even the penal battalion could not send. For example, during the German assault on the Pulkovo Heights, Margelov's regiment was landed behind enemy lines on the coast of Ladoga in the direction of Lipka - Shlisselburg, and Field Marshal von Leeb, commander of the North group of troops, was forced to stop the assault on Pulkovo, transferring units to liquidate the landing. Margelov was seriously wounded and miraculously survived;

Since 1943, Margelov, a division commander, took the Saur-mogila by storm, liberated Kherson (awarded the Star of the Hero), and in 1945 the Germans called Margelov "Soviet Skorzeny" after the divisions of the SS tank corps "Dead Head" and "Grossdeutschland" personally surrendered to him without a fight;

On May 2, 1945, Margelov was given the task of capturing or destroying the remnants of the 2 most famous SS units that were rushing into the zone of responsibility of the Americans. Then Vasily Margelov dared to take a decisive step. He, along with a group of officers who were armed with grenades and machine guns, accompanied by a battery of 57-mm cannons, arrived at the headquarters of the group, after which he ordered the battalion commander to install guns for direct fire at the enemy headquarters and open fire if he did not return in ten minutes.

Margelov went to headquarters and presented the Germans with an ultimatum: either they surrender and save their lives, or they will be completely destroyed using all the means available to the division: “by 4:00 in the morning, the front to the east. Light weapons: machine guns, machine guns, rifles - in piles, ammunition - nearby. The second line - military equipment, guns and mortars - vents down. Soldiers and officers - we are building to the west, ”Vasily Margelov later wrote in his book. He gave little time for reflection: "while his cigarette burns out." And the Germans capitulated. The exact count of trophies showed the following figures: 2 generals, 806 officers, 31,258 non-commissioned officers, 77 tanks and self-propelled guns, 5847 trucks, 493 trucks, 46 mortars, 120 guns, 16 locomotives, 397 wagons.

Vasily Margelov - "Father of the Airborne Forces." In 1950, the airborne troops were considered something like a penal battalion, and were never appreciated. They were compared with fines, and the abbreviation itself was deciphered: "it is unlikely that you will return home." However, soon after the arrival of a new commander - Vasily Margelov - the Airborne Forces turned into truly elite troops.

Just a few years later, primitive equipment was replenished with a Kalashnikov assault rifle with a special folding butt so that it does not interfere with the opening of a parachute, lightweight aluminum armor, an RPG-16 anti-tank grenade launcher, and Centaur platforms for landing people in combat vehicles. The guardsmen of the Airborne Forces received official permission from the USSR Ministry of Defense to wear blue berets and vests, which were first shown during the 1969 military parade on Red Square. In 1973, the world's first landing on the BMD-1 parachute system took place near Tula. The crew commander was Alexander Margelov's son. The competition for the Ryazan Airborne School overlapped the numbers of MGIMO, Moscow State University and VGIK. The comically fatalistic name of the Airborne Forces was replaced in the 70s with "Uncle Vasya's Troops." This is exactly what the soldiers of the Airborne Forces themselves called themselves, thereby emphasizing the special warmth of feelings for their legendary commander.

During the training of the paratroopers, Margelov paid special attention to parachuting. He himself first appeared under the dome only in 1948, already in the rank of general: “Until the age of 40, I vaguely imagined what a parachute was, I never even dreamed of jumping. It turned out on its own, or rather, as it should be in the army, by order. I am a military man, if necessary, ready to go to hell. And so it was necessary, already being a general, to make the first parachute jump. The impression, I tell you, is incomparable.”

Vasily Margelov himself once said: “He who has never left an airplane in his life, from where cities and villages seem like toys, who has never experienced the joy and fear of free fall, a whistle in his ears, a stream of wind beating in his chest, he will never will understand the honor and pride of a paratrooper." Subsequently, despite his middle age, he himself made about 60 jumps, the last at the age of 65.

In 1968, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Margelov managed to convince the Minister of Defense Marshal Grechko that the winged guards should have vests and berets. Even before that, he emphasized that the airborne troops should adopt the traditions of their "big brother" - the marines, and continue them with honor. “For this, I introduced vests to the paratroopers. Only the stripes on them to match the color of the sky are blue.

Vasily Margelov and social networks.

A documentary film "Vasily Margelov and the Airborne Forces" has been posted on Youtube video hosting:

Vasily Margelov awards.

December 14, 1988 and April 30, 1975 - two Orders "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" of the second and third degrees, respectively.

Biography of Vasily Margelov.

1921 - graduated from a parochial school, entered a leather workshop as an apprentice, soon became an assistant master;

1923 - entered the local "Khleboprodukt" as a laborer;

Since 1924, he worked in Yekaterinoslavl (now Dnepropetrovsk) at the mine. M. I. Kalinin as a laborer, then as a horse-racer (driver of horses carrying trolleys);

1925 - sent to the BSSR as a forester in the timber industry;

1927 - Chairman of the working committee of the timber industry, elected to the local Council;

1928 - drafted into the Red Army;

April 1931 - graduated from the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the United Belarusian Military School. Central Executive Committee of the BSSR with honors. Appointed commander of a machine gun platoon of the regimental school of the 99th rifle regiment of the 33rd rifle division (Mogilev, Belarus);

Since 1933 - platoon commander in the Order of the Red Banner of Labor OBVSh them. CEC of the BSSR;

Since 1937 - platoon commander of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Minsk Military Infantry School. M. I. Kalinina;

February 1934 - appointed assistant company commander;

May 1936 - commander of a machine gun company;

October 25, 1938 - commanded the 2nd battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantry Division. Dzerzhinsky Belarusian Special Military District;

1939-1940 - commanded the Separate reconnaissance ski battalion of the 596th rifle regiment of the 122nd division;

From October 1940 - commander of the 15th separate disciplinary battalion of the Leningrad Military District;

July 1941 - commander of the 3rd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 1st Guards Division of the People's Militia of the Leningrad Front;

Since 1944 - commander of the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 28th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front;

At the Victory Parade in Moscow, Major General Margelov commanded a battalion in the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front;

1950-1954 - commander of the 37th Guards Airborne Svir Red Banner Corps;

1954-1959 - Commander of the Airborne Troops;

January 1979 - in the group of general inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense. He went on business trips to the Airborne Forces, was the chairman of the State Examination Commission at the Ryazan Airborne School;

March 4, 1990 - Vasily Filippovich Margelov died in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Perpetuation of the memory of Vasily Margelov.

On May 6, 2005, the departmental medal of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation "General of the Army Margelov" was established;

2005 - a memorial plaque was installed on a house in Moscow in Sivtsev Vrazhek lane, where Margelov lived for the last 20 years of his life.

Monuments to Vasily Margelov were erected in:

Taganrog;

Chisinau;

Dnepropetrovsk;

Yaroslavl;

as well as in many other towns.

Margelov is named after the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School, the Department of the Airborne Forces of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Nizhny Novgorod Cadet Corps (NKSHI);

A square in St. Petersburg, in the city of Belogorsk, the Amur Region, a square in Ryazan, streets in Moscow, Vitebsk (Belarus), Omsk, Pskov, Taganrog, Tula and Zapadnaya Litsa, in Buryatia: in Ulan-Ude and the border village Naushki, avenue and park in the Zavolzhsky district of Ulyanovsk.

How often do Yandex users from Ukraine search for information about Vasily Margelov in a search engine?

As can be seen from the photo, users of the Yandex search engine in October 2015 were interested in the query "Vasily Margelov" 241 times.

And according to this chart, you can see how the interest of Yandex users in the query "Vasily Margelov" has changed over the past two years:

The highest interest in this request was recorded in August 2015 (about 1.2 thousand requests);

How do Ukrainians evaluate the merits of Vasily Margelov?

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August 2, 1930 was the birthday of the Airborne Forces of the country. Then, for the first time in world history, paratroopers were used at the exercises of the Moscow Military District, which were attended by diplomats from Western countries.

Since then, 72 years have passed. During this time, the "winged infantry" covered itself with unfading glory on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War, showed excellent skill and courage in a number of large-scale exercises, local conflicts, in the mountains of Afghanistan, during the first and second campaigns in Chechnya, in Yugoslavia ... In the ranks of the landing troops grew up a whole galaxy of remarkable military leaders. Among them, the first of the first is the name of the legendary commander of the Airborne Forces, Hero of the Soviet Union, General of the Army Vasily Filippovich Margelov, who created the modern Airborne Forces.

"Commander of a large caliber"

On September 28, 1967, Izvestia reported on its pages: “It must be said that the paratroopers are warriors of boundless courage and courage. They never get lost, they always find a way out of a critical situation. The paratroopers are fluent in various modern weapons, they wield them with artistic skill, each fighter of the "winged infantry" knows how to fight one against a hundred.

During the days spent at the exercise (we are talking about the big autumn exercise of the Soviet Armed Forces "Dnepr" in 1968. Then the landing of thousands of airborne troops took only a few minutes. - Auth.), We had to see a lot of skillful actions not only of individual soldiers and officers, but also formations, units and their headquarters. But, perhaps, the strongest impression left on the Airborne Forces, which is headed by Colonel-General V. Margelov (after completing successful exercises, he was awarded the rank of General of the Army. - Auth.), And the pilots of the Military Transport Aviation of Air Marshal N. Skripko . Their soldiers showed filigree landing technique, high training and such courage and initiative that one can say about them: they worthily continue and increase the military glory of their fathers and older brothers - the paratroopers of the Great Patriotic War. The relay race of courage and valor is in good hands.”

...Recently, I read in one of the magazines that scientists who study people have studied the biographies of about 500 graduates of one of the Russian military institutes and have established a direct dependence of the choice of a military specialty on the date of birth. According to it, pundits are ready to predict whether a given person will be military or civilian. In a word, human destiny is predetermined from the day of birth. I don't know if you can believe it?

In any case, the future successor of the glorious dynasty of the defenders of the Fatherland Margelov, Vasily Filippovich, was born at the beginning of the last century, on December 27, 1908 (according to the old style), in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). All went to his father, Philip Ivanovich, who was distinguished by enviable strength and article, a participant in the German war of 1914, St. George's Cavalier. Margelov Sr. fought skillfully and bravely. In one of the bayonet battles, for example, he personally destroyed up to a dozen enemy soldiers. After the end of the first imperialist, he served first in the Red Guard, then in the Red Army.

Why not in your place?



- Well, well ... How are you doing?

Patriarch of the Elite Troops

And Vasily was, like a father, tall and strong beyond his years. Before the army, he managed to work in a leather workshop, as a miner, and a forester. In 1928, on a Komsomol ticket, he was sent to the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. So he became a cadet of the United Belarusian Military School in Minsk. Only one stroke. At the beginning of 1931, the school command supported the initiative of the country's military schools to organize a ski crossing from the places of deployment to Moscow. One of the best skiers, foreman Margelov, was assigned to form a team. And the February transition from Minsk to Moscow took place. True, the skis turned into smooth boards, but the cadets, led by the course commander and foreman, survived. They arrived at their destination on time, without sickness and frostbite, about which the foreman reported to the People's Commissar of Defense and received from him a valuable gift - a "commander's" watch.

How useful then a thorough sports hardening was already for Captain Margelov, the commander of a separate reconnaissance ski battalion of a rifle regiment, which took part in the winter war with the Finns! His scouts, together with the battalion commander, made daring raids on enemy rear lines, set up ambushes, inflicting sensitive damage on the enemy.

He met the Great Patriotic War with the rank of major. At first, I had a chance to lead a separate disciplinary battalion. The penitentiaries doted on their commander. They loved him for his courage and justice. During the bombings, they covered him with their bodies.

On the outskirts of Leningrad, Vasily Margelov commanded the 1st special ski regiment of sailors of the Baltic Fleet, then the 218th regiment of the 80th rifle division ...

Becoming a commander, for all subsequent years, decades, Vasily Filippovich never changed his rule - always and in everything to be an example for subordinates. Somehow, at the end of the front-line spring of 1942, about two hundred experienced enemy warriors, having infiltrated through the defense sector of a neighboring regiment, went to the rear of the Margelovites. The regiment commander quickly gave the necessary orders to block and liquidate the fascists who had broken through. Without waiting for the approach of the reserves, he himself lay down behind the easel machine gun, which he masterfully owned. Well-aimed bursts mowed down about 80 people. The rest were destroyed and captured by a company of submachine gunners, a reconnaissance platoon and a commandant's platoon that arrived in time.

It was not for nothing that in the mornings, when his unit was on the defensive, Vasily Filippovich, after physical exercises, invariably fired from a machine gun, could cut the tops of trees, knock out his name on the target. After that - a leg in the stirrup and exercises in the wheelhouse. Indefatigable strength played in his iron muscles. In offensive battles, he personally raised battalions on the attack more than once. Until self-forgetfulness, he loved hand-to-hand combat and, if necessary, not knowing a sense of fear, fought desperately with the adversary in the forefront of his fighters, like his father in the first German war. Margelov did not like it if one of his subordinates, when asked about this or that soldier, took up the list of personnel. He said:

— Comrade Commander! Alexander Suvorov knew all the soldiers of his regiment not only by name, but also by name. After many years, he recognized and named the names of the soldiers who served with him. With paper knowledge of subordinates, it is impossible to predict how they will behave during the battle!
In those years, the commander wore a mustache and a small beard. In incomplete 33 years, they called him Batya.

“Our Batya is a commander of a large caliber,” the fighters spoke with respect and love about him.
And then there was Stalingrad. Here Vasily Filippovich commanded the 13th Guards Rifle Regiment. When, during the fierce, bloody battles in the regiment, the battalions became companies, and the companies became incomplete platoons, the regiment was withdrawn to replenish the Ryazan region. The regiment commander Margelov, his officers thoroughly took up the combat training of the personnel of the unit. Prepare for the upcoming battles in good conscience.
And for good reason. “Myshkova, a river in the Volgograd region, the left tributary of the Don, at the turn of which, during the Battle of Stalingrad from December 19 to 24, during the Kotelnikov operation of 1942, the troops of the 51st and 2nd Guards armies repelled the blow of a strong grouping of Nazi troops and thwarted plans of the fascist German command for the deblockade of the enemy troops encircled near Stalingrad. This is from the Military Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1983 edition. “It would not be an exaggeration to say that the battle on the banks of this obscure river (Myshkov) led to the crisis of the Third Reich, put an end to Hitler’s hopes for an empire and was a decisive link in the chain of events that determined the defeat of Germany.” And this quote is from the book of the German military historian General F. Mellenthin "Tank Battles 1939-1945".
Do you remember the book of the front-line writer Yuri Bondarev "Hot Snow"? Front-line soldiers, participants in those battles, believe that the author truly reflected the heroic and at the same time dramatic picture of those fierce battles on the tributary of the Don.
So, the Margelov regiment was part of the 3rd Guards Rifle Division of Major General K. Tsalikov, the 13th Guards Rifle Corps of Major General P. Chanchibadze,
2nd Guards Army Lieutenant General R. Malinovsky. And as you know, the guard can die, but never surrender to the enemy!
Before the battle of the Guards, Lieutenant Colonel Margelov said to his subordinates:
— Manstein has a lot of tanks. His calculation on the strength of a tank strike. The main thing is to knock out the tanks. Each of us must knock out one tank. Cut off the infantry, force them to cling to the ground and destroy them.
... And it began. Predatory arrows on the German headquarters maps materialized into endless waves of enemy armor and fire, methodically rolling on the positions of our troops, shell explosions, the whistle of thousands of fragments looking for their prey. Armadas of German bombers were howling from the sky black with soot, trying with exemplary German pedantry and accuracy to deliver a multi-ton deadly load to the location of the guards. The Germans understood that if their monstrous armored fist got stuck in defense, then the consequences would be irreversible. More and more forces were thrown into battle. They tried to take our defending units, formations into tank pincers.
Margelov was where a threatening situation was created, where his battalion commanders, on their own, could not hold back the onslaught of the enemy.

Guards Major General Chanchibadze:

- Margelov, how many of you do you need to look for? Where are you sitting now?
- I am not sitting. I command from the command post of the battalion commander-2!
Why not in your place?
“My place is here now, comrade number one!”
- I ask again, where is your mesto ?!
I am in command of the regiment. My place is where my regiment needs me!
- Well, well ... How are you doing?
— The regiment stands on its lines. Not going to give them up.

Embittered by failures, enraged by the stubbornness, skill and courage of the Soviet soldiers, the enemy furiously dug the ground with steel tracks, breaking through. But all the efforts of the combined army group "Goth" were in vain, it was defeated and forced to retreat.

The further combat path of Vasily Filippovich Margelov and his units lay already to the west. In the direction of Rostov-on-Don, the breakthrough of the impregnable Mius Front, the liberation of the Donbass, the crossing of the Dnieper, for which the division commander, Colonel Vasily Margelov, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Pushing off with their foot from the Stalingrad land, the Margelovites, as Vladimir Vysotsky sang, "the axis of the earth ... moved without a lever, changing the direction of the blow!"
The soldiers of his 49th division brought freedom to the inhabitants of Nikolaev, Odessa, distinguished themselves during the Iasi-Kishinev operation, entered Romania, Bulgaria on the shoulders of the enemy, successfully fought in Yugoslavia, took Budapest and Vienna. The unit of the Guards, Major General Vasily Margelov, ended the war on May 12, 1945 with the brilliant bloodless capture of the selected German SS divisions "Dead Head", "Great Germany", "1st SS Police Division". What is not the plot for a full-length feature film?
During the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow on June 24, 1945, the combat general led one of the battalions of the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Patriarch of the Elite Troops

During the Great Patriotic War, the Airborne Troops fought heroically at all its stages. True, the war found the Airborne Forces at the stage of reorganizing brigades into corps. The formations and units of the winged infantry were manned, but did not have time to fully receive military equipment. From the very first days of the war, paratroopers fought bravely at the front along with soldiers of other branches of the armed forces, and offered heroic resistance to the well-oiled Nazi machine. In the initial period, they showed examples of courage and perseverance in the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine, near Moscow. Soviet paratroopers participated in fierce battles for the Caucasus, in the Battle of Stalingrad (remember the House of Paratrooper Sergeant Pavlov), smashed the enemy on the Kursk Bulge ... They were a formidable force at the final stage of the war.

Where to use well-trained, cohesive and fearless commanders and fighters of airborne formations and units in the war was decided at the very top, at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. Sometimes they were the lifesaver of the high command, which saved the situation at the most decisive or tragic moment. The paratroopers, who were not accustomed to waiting for the weather by the sea, always showed initiative, ingenuity, and onslaught.
Therefore, taking into account the rich front-line experience and the prospects for the development of this type of troops, the Airborne Forces were withdrawn from the Air Force in 1946. They began to report directly to the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the post of commander of the Airborne Forces was reintroduced. In April of the same year, he was appointed Colonel-General V. Glagolev. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, General Margelov was sent to study. For two intense years, under the supervision of experienced teachers, he studied the intricacies of operational art at the Academy of the General Staff (in those years - the Higher Military Academy named after K.E. Voroshilov). After graduation, he received an unexpected proposal from the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers N. Bulganin - to take command of the Pskov Airborne Division. They say that it was not without the recommendation of Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, at that time the commander-in-chief of the troops of the Far East, the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District. He knew Margelov well from his front-line affairs. And at that time, the Airborne Forces needed young generals with combat experience. Vasily Filippovich always made decisions promptly. And this time he did not force himself to be persuaded. A military man to the marrow of his bones, he understood the importance of the mobile Airborne Forces in the future. Yes, and fearless officers and paratroopers - he repeatedly admitted this to his relatives - reminded him of the front-line years when he commanded a naval regiment in the Baltic Fleet. Not without reason later, when General Margelov became commander of the Airborne Forces, he introduced uniform blue berets and vests with stripes of the color of the sky and tireless sea waves.

Working in his usual mode - day and night - a day away, General Margelov quickly ensured that his unit became one of the best in the landing troops. In 1950, he was appointed commander of the airborne corps in the Far East, and in 1954, Lieutenant General Vasily Filippovich Margelov became commander of the Airborne Forces.
From Margelov's brochure "Airborne Troops", published by the publishing house of the Znanie society a quarter of a century ago: And I still never cease to be amazed at how a warrior transforms after the first jump. And on the ground, he walks proudly, and his shoulders are widely deployed, and there is something unusual in his eyes ... Still: he made a parachute jump!
To understand this feeling, you must stand at the open hatch of the aircraft over a hundred-meter abyss, feel the chill under your heart in front of this incomprehensible height, and decisively step into the abyss as soon as the command: “Let's go!”
Then there will be many more difficult jumps - with weapons, day and night, from high-speed military transport aircraft. But the first jump will never be forgotten. A paratrooper, a strong-willed and courageous person, begins with him.
When Vasily Filippovich retrained from an infantry commander to an airborne division commander, he was not even forty. How did Margelov start? From skydiving. He was not advised to jump, after all, nine wounds, age ... During his service in the Airborne Forces, he made more than 60 jumps. The last of them at the age of 65. In the year of the 90th anniversary of the birth of General of the Army Margelov, “Red Star” in the article “Legend and Glory of the Landing Forces” wrote about him: “Being the eighth commander of the Airborne Forces, he nevertheless earned himself a respectful reputation in these troops as the patriarch of the landing business. During his command of the Airborne Forces, five ministers of defense were replaced in the country, and Margelov remained indispensable and irreplaceable. Almost all of his predecessors have been forgotten, and the name of Margelov is still on everyone's lips.
“Oh, how difficult it is to cross the Rubicon so that a surname becomes a name,” the poet remarked. Margelov crossed such a Rubicon. (He made his branch of the armed forces elite.) Having quickly and energetically studied airborne business, military air technology and military transport aviation, having shown outstanding organizational skills, he became an outstanding military leader who did an extraordinary amount for the development and improvement of the Airborne Forces, for the growth of their prestige and popularity in the country, in order to instill love for this elite branch of the military among the draft youth. Despite the enormous physical and psychological stress of the airborne service, young guys dream of the Airborne Forces, as they say, they sleep and see themselves as paratroopers. And in the country's only forge of officer landing personnel - the Ryazan Higher Command School twice Red Banner named after General of the Army V.F. Margelov, recently transformed into the Institute of the Airborne Forces, the competition is 14 people per place. How many military and civilian universities can envy such popularity! And all this was laid down under Margelov ... "
The Hero of Russia, Lieutenant-General of the Reserve Leonid Shcherbakov, recalls:
- In the seventies of the last century, Army General Vasily Filippovich Margelov set himself the difficult task of creating highly mobile, modern Airborne Troops in the Armed Forces of the country. A rapid rearmament began in the Airborne Forces, airborne combat vehicles (BMD) arrived, on their basis reconnaissance, communications and control equipment, self-propelled artillery, anti-tank systems, engineering equipment ... Margelov and his deputies, heads of services and departments were frequent guests at factories, training grounds, in training centers. The paratroopers daily "disturbed" the ministries of defense and the defense industry. Ultimately, this culminated in the creation of the best landing equipment in the world.
After graduating from the Academy of Armored Forces in 1968, I was assigned to a test job at the Research Institute of Armored Vehicles in Kubinka. I had a chance to test many samples at the test sites of Transbaikalia, Central Asia, Belarus and in the middle of nowhere. Somehow we were instructed to test the new equipment of the Airborne Forces. I worked with colleagues day and night, in various modes, sometimes prohibitive for technology and people.
The final stage is military trials in the Baltics. And here the divisional commander, catching my white envy of the paratroopers, offered to jump with a parachute after the combat vehicle.
Passed pre-jump training. Take off early in the morning. Climb. Everything was going well: the BMD got out of the plane and fell into the abyss. The crew followed. A sudden strong wind blew us to the boulders. The joyful feeling of flying under the dome ended with pain in the left leg - a fracture in two places.
Gypsum, autographs of paratroopers on it, crutches. In this form, he appeared before the commander of the Airborne Forces.
- Well, did you jump? Margelov asked me.
- Jumped, comrade commander.
- I'm taking you to the landing. I need such ones, - Vasily Filippovich made a decision.
At that time, there was an acute issue of reducing the time for bringing airborne units to combat readiness after landing. The old landing method - military equipment was thrown from one aircraft, crews from another - is pretty outdated.
After all, the spread on the landing area was large, sometimes reaching five kilometers. While the crews were looking for their equipment, time was running out like water in the sand.
Therefore, the commander of the Airborne Forces decided that the crew should be parachuted along with the combat vehicle. This was not the case in any army in the world! But this was not an argument for Vasily Filippovich, who believed that there were no impossible tasks for the landing force.
In August 1975, after landing equipment with dummies, I, as a driver, together with the son of the commander, Alexander Margelov, were entrusted with testing the joint landing complex. They named him "Centaur". The combat vehicle was mounted on a platform, behind it was attached an open vehicle for crew members with their own parachutes. Without means of rescue inside the BMD, testers were located on special, simplified space chairs for astronauts. We have completed the task. And this was a major step towards a more complex experiment. Together with the son of the commander, Alexander Margelov, we tested a parachute-reactive system, which was already called "Reaktavr". The system was located at the stern of the BMD and went to the take-off airfield with it. She had only one dome instead of five. At the same time, the height and speed of landing decreased, but the landing accuracy increased. There are many advantages, but the main disadvantage is huge overloads.
In January 1976, near Pskov, for the first time in world and domestic practice, this “reactive” landing was carried out with a huge risk to life, without personal means of rescue.
"And what happened next?" the discerning reader will ask. And then in each airborne regiment, in winter and summer, crews landed inside combat vehicles on parachute and parachute-rocket systems, which became perfect and reliable. In 1998, again near Pskov, a crew of seven people in standard seats descended from the skies inside the then newest BMD-3.
For the feat of the seventies, twenty years later, Alexander Margelov and I were awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
I will add that it was under General of the Army Margelov that it became a common practice to raise an airborne assault, say, in Pskov, make a long flight and land near Fergana, Kirovabad or in Mongolia. It is not for nothing that one of the most popular decodings of the abbreviation of the Airborne Forces is “Uncle Vasya’s Troops”.

In the ranks - sons and grandchildren

Recalls retired Major General Gennady Margelov:
- During the war, until 1944, I lived with my grandparents - the parents of my father Vasily Filippovich Margelov. During the evacuation, a junior sergeant once came to us. I still remember the last name - Ivanov. Well, he won me over with his stories about serving in his father's division. I wasn't even thirteen then. He was going to return to the unit. He left the house in the morning, and I was with him, as if to school. Himself in the other direction ... and - to the station. We got on the train and went. And so he fled at the age of 12 from the fifth grade to the front. We arrived at the division. Father did not know that I had arrived. We met face to face and did not recognize each other. It is not surprising, because they had seen each other before the Finnish War, when he wore one "sleeper" in his buttonhole. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War he was at the front. There was no time for vacation.

And so I ended up in my father's division near Kherson in the Kopani region. It was then the end of February, in some places there was still snow. Mud. I ran away from home in holey felt boots. So he caught a cold, his whole face was in boils, he even saw poorly. I ended up in a medical battalion, treated myself.
And then the dad calls: “Well, did you rest in the medical battalion?” Me: "That's right!" - "Then go to study in the training battalion."
I arrived, as expected, reported to the battalion commander. There were three companies in the battalion: two rifle companies and a company of heavy weapons. So they sent me to a platoon of anti-tank rifles.
Well, PTR is PTR. We had guns of two systems: Degtyarev and Simonov. I got Simon's. The Germans were not as afraid as this gun: the soldiers were healthy, and I was very small, I thought that the recoil after the shot would throw me somewhere. Later, when they were already put into combat formation and the foreman first gave me a rifle, it turned out that it was longer than me. Replaced with a short cavalry carbine.
During the fighting in Odessa, two comrades and I (one was a year older, the other a year younger, the sons of the division chief of staff, Colonel V.F. Shubin) left with battalion scouts to beat the Germans on the streets of the city. What is a fight in the city? Sometimes you don’t understand where yours are and where your enemies are. In general, I was alone ... In one of the houses I came across a wine cellar. And suddenly, out of nowhere, a hefty German with a machine gun! Of course, he would have “mowed” me with a burst at the moment, yes, apparently, he got a Fritz of wine from the barrels, which is why he hesitated. I shot him with my carbine. But for my sortie I received from my father three days in a guardhouse, because it was forbidden for me to arbitrarily go to the front line. He served, however, only a day. The Shubin brothers received combat medals each. Always in our family, the demand from the Margelovs was strict.
When the division was already beyond the old Romanian border, in the town of Chobruchi, the commander called me and showed me the magazine "Red Army" (which later became the "Soviet Warrior"). And there, on the cover, there is a photo of the Suvorovites of the Novocherkassk SVU on the stairs at the main entrance. So beautiful!..
- Well, are you going to study? - asked the battalion commander.
“I’ll go,” I answered, fascinated looking at the photo, not knowing that the battalion commander was following the order of the division commander.
This is how the Great Patriotic War ended for me, the guards of Private Gennady Margelov, and the service in the training battalion of the 144th Guards Rifle Regiment, Colonel A.G. Lubenchenko, a service that was considered the most honorable even for adult soldiers, since the training battalion trained sergeants and was the last reserve of the division commander. Where it was difficult, the training battalion entered the battle.
I met Victory Day already in the Tambov SVU. Being a Suvorovite, he made several parachute jumps in Pskov in the 76th Airborne Division, commanded by his father, Major General V.F. Margelov. Moreover, the first two jumps - without the knowledge of the father. The third was performed in the presence of his father and the deputy commander of the corps for airborne training. After landing, I reported to the deputy commander: “Suvorovets Margelov made another, third jump. The materiel worked perfectly, I feel good!” My father, who was preparing to hand me the badge of a first-class parachutist, was extremely surprised and even said a couple of “warm” words. However, he soon came to terms with this “misconduct” and proudly said that his son was growing up as a real paratrooper.
After graduating from SVU in 1950, I became a cadet at the Ryazan Infantry School, after graduating from which I was sent to the Airborne Forces of the Far Eastern District.
In the airborne troops, he went from platoon commander to chief of staff of the 44th training airborne division. He jumped with a parachute, as I reported at the interview for admission to the Academy of the General Staff, "from Berlin to Sakhalin." There were no more questions.
After graduating from the academy, he was appointed commander of the 26th motorized rifle division, which was located in the city of Gusev. Since 1976, he served in Transbaikalia as First Deputy Commander of the 29th Combined Arms Army. He celebrated his fiftieth birthday in the position of head of the Military twice Red Banner Institute of Physical Culture in Leningrad. He graduated from the service as a senior lecturer in the Department of Operational Art of the Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
The second son of Vasily Filippovich, Anatoly, also devoted his whole life to protecting the Motherland. A graduate of the Taganrog Radio Engineering Institute, he worked in the defense industry for decades. A doctor of technical sciences in his thirties did a lot to develop new types of weapons. On account of the scientist more than two hundred inventions. When meeting, he likes to emphasize:
- Private reserve, Professor Margelov.
The deputy director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Colonel-General Vitaly Margelov, recalls:
- After the evacuation, together with my mother and brother Anatoly, we lived in Taganrog. I still remember well how in 1945 we went with Tolik to the Oktyabr cinema, which was next to our house. And there, in the documentary chronicle, they show the Victory Parade. For us boys, it's a breathtaking sight. Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky on white horses. On the podium of the Lenin Mausoleum, Stalin himself. The front-line generals, officers, soldiers are marching in front, military orders and medals sparkle on their uniforms ... You can’t take your eyes off. And suddenly I see my father in the front columns. From delight as I will shout to the whole hall:
- Dad, dad...
The hushed spectators perked up. Everyone began to look with great curiosity who was making noise. Since then, the ushers began to let my brother and me into the cinema for free.
For the first time in a general's uniform, my father saw me at his birthday party. I was delighted, of course, with my career growth, but I tried not to show it. When we were left alone, he asked me about the service, gave a number of "diplomatic" advice from his rich practice.
There is such a tradition in our Margelov family, inherited from our father: do not spoil your sons, do not patronize them and respect their life choice.
... The younger twin brothers Margelov, Alexander and Vasily, were born on October 21 in the victorious 1945. Our newspaper wrote many times about the Hero of Russia, reserve colonel Alexander Margelov, who served in the landing troops. About his courage and fearlessness, shown during the test of the Reaktavr. After completing his service, he remained faithful to the Airborne Forces and the memory of his legendary father. In his apartment with his brother Vasily, he opened a home office-museum of Army General Vasily Filippovich Margelov.
“I note that the gift of the current owner of the Arbat apartment (Alexander Vasilyevich lives with his family in his father’s apartment) is not only military-technical, but also artistic. No wonder the house is full of books on various fields of knowledge. He called the first descent system inside the BMD on a multi-dome parachute "Centaur" - for he noticed that when the car moves in a stowed position, the driver is visible to the waist, resembling a mythical creature, only in a modern version, ”wrote in his article“ Military -home museum" Petr Palamarchuk, published in 1995 in the magazine "Rodina". Since then, the museum has been visited by over a thousand people, among whom were prominent statesmen, politicians of our country, near and far abroad. Delighted by the exhibits they saw, they left their entries in the visitor's book.
During his life, Alexander Margelov performed many deeds worthy of respect. Among them is the creation of the documentary book "General of the Army Margelov", which was published in Moscow in 1998. He prepared the next edition of the book, which is due to be published this fall, in collaboration with his brother Vasily, a reserve major, an international journalist who currently works as the first deputy director of the Directorate of International Relations of the Voice of Russia RGC. By the way, Vasily's son, reserve junior sergeant Vasily Margelov, named after his grandfather, served urgently in the Airborne Forces.
It should be noted that all the sons of Vasily Filippovich jumped with a parachute and proudly wear landing vests.
Army General Margelov has many grandchildren, there are already great-grandchildren who continue and are preparing to continue the family traditions - to serve the Motherland with dignity. The eldest of them, Mikhail, son of Colonel General Vitaly Vasilievich Margelov, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Deputy Head of the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Mikhail graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. He is fluent in English and Arabic, was the head of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Public Relations.

The same faculty was successfully graduated in 1970 by his uncle, Vasily Vasilyevich.
Mikhail's brother, Vladimir, served in the border troops ...
* * *
For almost a quarter of a century, Vasily Filippovich Margelov commanded the Airborne Forces. Many generations of winged guards grew up on his example of selfless service to the Fatherland. The Ryazan Institute of the Airborne Forces, the streets of Omsk, Pskov and Tula bear his name. Monuments were erected to him in Ryazan, Omsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Tula. Officers and paratroopers, veterans of the Airborne Forces every year come to the monument to their commander at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow to pay tribute to his memory.
During the Great Patriotic War, a song was composed in the division of General Margelov. Here is one of her verses:
The song praises the Falcon
Brave and daring...
Is it close, is it far
Margelov's regiments marched.
They are still going through life, his regiments, in the ranks of which are his sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and tens, hundreds of thousands of people who cherish in their hearts the memory of him, the creator of the modern Airborne Forces.