The memory of a real person: in heaven and on earth
The most important feature of the Russian spiritualhistorical tradition is a feat that is understood as an act committed in the name of the common good with risk to one’s life. The work of the farmer demanded constant protection of his land and his people from external threats, among which there were unfavorable climatic factors and raids of nomads. In the Orthodox consciousness, this was expressed primarily as a willingness to accept death "for one's own," since the sixth commandment says "do not kill." However, in the old Russian epic epic, the national ideal of a warrior hero embodies not so much the traits of self-sacrifice as overcoming. So, Ilya Muromets, the main guardian of the Russian land from the hells, was immobilized until he was 33: "I don’t have neither arms nor legs, I’ve been sitting on my seat for thirty years."
Both overcoming and self-sacrifice found the most complete expression in the consciousness of the Soviet person. “All this is paper heroism, brother! - We read in the novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky "How the steel was tempered" (1934). - Every fool will be able to slap himself always and at all times. This is the most cowardly and easy way out. It's hard to live - plop. Have you tried to win this life? Did you do everything to break the iron ring? Have you forgotten how, under Novograd-Volynsky, seventeen times a day went on the attack and took it in spite of everything? Hide the revolver and never tell anyone about it! Learn to live when life becomes unbearable. Make it useful. ”
Zakhar Sorokin. 1941 year
In 1946, Boris Polevoy’s book “A Tale of a Real Man” was published. From all over the world, they learned about the feat of overcoming accomplished by the Soviet pilot Alexei Maresyev, shot down by the Germans 5 on April 1942, in the Demyansk boiler area in the Novgorod region. Wounded in both legs, he made his way to his 18 for days, got to the hospital with blood and gangrene infection, lost both legs on his shin, but found the strength to return to 20 on July 1943 during the air battle on the Kursk Bulge saved two lives Soviet pilots and shot down two enemy Focke-Wulf Fw fighters at once. 190, for which he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (Gold Star number 1102).
At the same time, neither Boris Polevoy, who visited the 63rd Guards Fighter during the war aviation the regiment in which Aleksey Maresyev fought, neither he himself knew that on October 25, 1941, a pilot of the 72nd mixed air regiment of the Northern Air Force fleet Zakhar Sorokin wounded an air ram in wounded, landed in the tundra, destroyed two German pilots with a dog, and then made his way to his own for 6 days, breaking 70 km. Having frozen his legs and having lost both feet, he nevertheless returned to his regiment and continued to destroy the Germans. Zakhar Sorokin shot down his seventh plane in February 1943, already on prostheses (that is, six months before the similar success of Alexei Maresyev).
19 AUGUST 1944 OF THE YEAR OF THE GUARD TO CAPTAIN Sorokin Zakhar Artyomovich was assigned the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (GOLDEN STAR No. 4338).
At this point, he made 117 sorties and continued flying. During the war, Alexei Maresyev made 86 combat missions and shot down 11 aircraft of the enemy, of which 7, being on artificial limbs. Zakhar Sorokin shot down 18 airplanes, of which 12 - on prostheses.
These are fantastic achievements, given that there are very few such heroes. Among them is Leonid Belousov, who in 1941 – 1942 covered the Road of Life as part of the Baltic Fleet's 13 Fighter Aviation Regiment. He lost both legs (one above the knee) as a result of gangrene, which began due to the complication of burns received before the war. In 1944, he returned to his regiment and personally shot down the enemy's 3. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1957.
Zakhar Artyomovich Sorokin
It should be noted that Maresyev and Belousov immediately retired after the war. Sorokin in April 1945 was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet, where until 1955, he flew on the Tikhoretsky Komsomolets plane presented to him by his fellow countrymen. The address of the Komsomol members of the Tikhoretskaya railway station to the youth of the entire Tikhoretsk district said: “The heroic Red Army, under the ingenious leadership of the Supreme Commander Marshal of the Soviet Union, comrade Stalin, kicked the Nazi invaders from our sacred Soviet land and beats the fascist beast in his own den. We will never forget the crimes that were committed by the German fascist invaders and their dastardly minions in our Kuban. They poured on the blood and tears of our best people the fertile steppes of the Kuban. Wishing to strengthen the assistance of the Red Army in the complete defeat of the enemy, we decided to organize a collection of funds from our personal savings for the construction of the Tikhoretsky Komsomol fighter aircraft. We will hand this plane to our countryman, Hero of the Soviet Union, to guard captain Zakhar Artyomovich Sorokin - the glorious Stalin falcon. May our glorious compatriot even more firmly beat the damned Germans who brought so much grief and misfortune to the Soviet people on an airplane built with the money we collected. Let the banner of victory of our just cause shine faster! Death to the German fascist invaders! ”
Zakhar Artemovich finished his service in the 1955 year. His youngest daughter, Maria, with whom we are almost the same age, and we live next door, carefully preserves the memory of her father.
- Maria, judging by the photos, was your father well acquainted with the astronauts?
- I was small, and not all was saved in my memory. But, as they say, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin’s father was very respectful, and they were friends. Gagarin said: "We all learned from Sorokin." Here is a book presented to Pope Gagarin, with his autograph. My father took me with him to Star City.
- Have you met Gagarin yourself?
- There is no Gagarin, but we were received twice by Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy. I have a photo of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova with the inscription: “Masha Sorokina - be like your dad!”. And when I refused to eat fish oil at home, my parents said: “But you want to be an astronaut? Then eat! ” But on this photo, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov (he had the Gold Star number 6. - AV). He and his dad were friends, and his dad met exactly in the family of Mikhail Vasilyevich: his mom from 2 class studied together with his eldest daughter Vera Mikhailovna. But on this photo dad, along with Alexei Petrovich Maresyev. They met him at various events, but did not become friends.
Zakhar Sorokin and Yuri Gagarin (center)
Looking at the photos of Zakhar Artyomovich, I unmistakably define in him a Siberian, that is, his countryman. Siberians, compared with the inhabitants of European Russia, are brown-eyed, dark-skinned and dark-haired, they are shorter and stronger in stature, they are distinguished by unpretentiousness and great endurance. Although Zakhar Artyomovich was quite high - 1 and 80 cm.
- But what about Zakhar Artemovich turned out to be in the Kuban?
- Papa was born 17 March 1917, in the Karasuk district of the Novosibirsk region, at the station Glubokoe. Then it was the Barnaul district of Tomsk province. The station has not been preserved, but the village of Black Kurya is not far from here - this is already the Altai Territory. Dad went there, with his help there built a school, which now bears his name. When he turned 4, the family moved to the station Tikhoretskaya. His father had health problems, and the climate had to be changed. In Tikhoretsk Zakhar graduated from 7 classes of the railway school number 34 named after Lenin and the school of trade schools, worked as an assistant driver of a locomotive and at the same time studied in the flying club. In 1937, the Komsomol voucher was sent to the Yeysk Stalin Aviation School. The Great Patriotic War found him in the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.
Already on the first day of the war, Lieutenant Sorokin flew out for combat patrols. “Once they called me to headquarters,” he writes. - There I found five more pilots. Immediately drew attention to the fact that all caused - Siberians. It was not an accident. We were entrusted with a responsible mission: to master in the conditions of the North new combat equipment — the MiG-3 fighter. He was well known to us, because in the Crimea we had been flying these cars for about a year. ”
It’s not easy to fly in the Polar Region - not to fight. Difficult weather conditions, hurricane wind, and even over the sea, in a storm. No wonder one of the main characters of Soviet schoolchildren was the polar aviation pilot Sanya Grigoriev from the novel “Two Captains” by Benjamin Kaverin. During the war, Captain Grigoriev makes an emergency landing on the Arctic coast and finds the remains of an Antarctic expedition, which he had been looking for since childhood. The oath to them in childhood “To fight and search, to find and not to surrender” becomes the leitmotif of the novel.
- People are volitional, purposeful. The regiment was commanded by the legendary Boris Feoktistovich Safonov, the first twice Hero of the Soviet Union, the best Soviet fighter pilot 1941 – 1942. Among his students were 13 Heroes of the Soviet Union, including my father. The MiG-3 fighter is a high-speed fighter, the project of which was developed back in the Polikarp Design Bureau, and the construction began in 1940 in the newly organized Mikoyan Design Bureau. By the way, here in this photo, taken after the war, dad together with Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan. The speed of the serial MIG-3 near the ground exceeded 500 km / h, at an altitude of 7 thousand m reached 640 km / h. It was then the highest speed in the world, achieved on production aircraft.
After 4 destroyed Nazi planes 17 September 1941, Zakhar Sorokin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. And October 25 1941, the same battle took place, radically changing his fate. Here is how he describes it himself: “My plane took off at the alarm signal. Following Dmitri Sokolov's car soared up. We started fighting together and have been friends since. We fell into a thick layer of clouds. Aircraft began to make their way up. Four thousand meters, five thousand, six ... And then unexpectedly against the background of dark blue clouds appeared the contours of four enemy aircraft. These were the Messerschmitts-110, the Messers, as they were called. I took the plane to the fascist headquarters. "Messer" is rapidly approaching. His yellow camouflage and black cross on board became clearly visible. Second - and the plane fell into the frame of the optical sight. I gave a long machine-gun queue on the motor and the cockpit. The flaming bomber began to fall, and a plume of smoke reached for him. "There is one!" Sokolov fought with the second, I attacked the third. Fascist aircraft in the grid sight. I gave a short line. Not exactly! And the cartridges are all. While I was deciding what to do, the fourth Messerschmitt emerged from behind the clouds. He was hiding there, frightened by our rapid attack. Enemy bullets lashed at the plane and cockpit. At the same time, I felt a dull thrust to my right thigh. "Injured. No ammunition. What to do? .. ”Led the plane against the fascist machine. She is getting closer. Closer ... Blow! The fighter was thrown to the side, and the “messer” with the stone cut off by the tail began to fall down. But my plane was damaged by the ram ... It was necessary to sit down. But where? Below only the hills and the steep spurs of the rocks. In a long winding gorge I saw a small frozen lake. Sat on the ice, not releasing the chassis.
Heroes of the Soviet Union Pavel Popovich, Zakhar Sorokin, Alexey Maresyev, Sergey Kurzenkov and “grandfather of Russian aviation” Boris Rossinsky
“Trying to get out of the cabin,” Maria continues her father’s story, “he suddenly saw a huge dog rushing to the plane. Some German pilots took the dogs in flight. Obviously, somewhere near their plane landed. Having shot the dog, my father saw a messer lying nearby. Suddenly shots rang out - it was a German pilot. Father, crouching behind the wing of the aircraft, struck him with two bullets. Suddenly the polar blizzard began. No visibility. When his father brightened a little, he saw that, running across from a boulder to a boulder, a second German ran to him. The TT pistol misfired, a Finn flashed in the German's hand, with which he slashed his father across the face — a scar from his eyes to his chin remained for the rest of his life. After a short melee fight my father managed to reload the gun and shoot the German. He wrapped a scarf to stop the blood, and then found that his teeth were knocked out ... I had to throw away the whole ration, leaving only chocolate. A blizzard whined all around ... Wolves appeared, he shot one. When we subsequently asked to have a dog, he categorically objected. We never had dogs at home. The worst thing is that he fell into one of the streams flowing down from the hills and dunked high boots. Bonfire could not be ignited. As a result, when, after 6 days, the father came out to the coast of the sea and saw his own, his feet were frozen.
- And how did the decision come back to it? After all, no one committed such a feat before him ...
- In the hospital, he lay next to Boris Shcherbakov, with whom he studied at the school. Boris, who lost his leg, convinced his father that he would be able to fly. In addition, the father and the Germans had their own accounts. After all, at the front with him was his family - his wife and son. My mother is the second wife. But then a misfortune happened: the German bomb hit the dugout in which they lived, and his son Volodya was killed. And on May 30, Lieutenant Colonel Boris Safonov was killed, covering a caravan of PQ-16 ships heading for Murmansk. When my father found out about it, he is even more confirmed in their desire to take revenge on the Germans and, after lying 9 months in hospitals, that are accustomed to the dentures, which initially caused the hellish pain, went to the reception to the People's Commissar of the Navy of the USSR, member of the Supreme Command, Admiral Nikolai Gerasimovitch Kuznetsov and made a return to his regiment, which 14 of October 1942 of the year was renamed 2 th Guards Fighter Red Banner Fighter Regiment of the Air Force of the Federation Council named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union B.F. Safonov.
The regiment's tasks included the protection of maritime communications and Allied convoys from the actions of enemy aircraft, since ships arriving from England and the United States were unloaded in Murmansk. It was not easy to learn to control the fighter on prostheses. In addition, Zakhar Artemovich could not, like other pilots, run out in alarm to the aircraft. Therefore, he had to be in the cabin for a long time, waiting for an alarm. But already in February, 1943, Zakhar Sorokin, continued by shooting down enemy aircraft. The British military attache, who arrived in the Arctic, gave him the Order of the British Empire, V degree and the charter of King George VI on the assignment of a noble title, saying: "While there are such people in Russia, it is invincible."
According to the third volume of “History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people. 1941 – 1945 ”in the spring of 1943, the Germans threw the 6 th fighter squad, which was called the Pride of Germany, against the Northern Fleet aviation. The squad included a group of aces led by renowned German pilot Rudolf Müller, who accounted for 91 aerial victory. Having decided to strike at the Vaeng airfield, the Germans marched in three groups. One of them was 6 fighters piloted by aces. At the approaches to Murmansk, the enemy was intercepted by four Soviet fighters piloted by pilots Vasily Gorishny, Nikolai Bokim, Alexander Titov and Zakhar Sorokin. They were soon joined by regiment commander Hero of the Soviet Union Pyotr Sbignev, who took command of the battle. In a fierce air battle of six enemy fighters, four were shot down, and Mueller himself was forced to land on Soviet territory. “In this battle, the Communist Z.A. won the seventh victory Sorokin, whose courage the North Sea pilots were proud of. In October 1941, a wounded leg Lieutenant Sorokin rammed an enemy fighter and put his damaged car in a narrow gorge. Accidentally, a German plane landed at the beginning of the battle landed there. In the ensuing battle, Sorokin destroyed two fascist pilots ... Overcoming the pain, a brave pilot crawled among a raging snowstorm. Only on the sixth day did he reach the coastal post of the Northern Fleet. In the hospital, the feet of both legs were amputated. After persistent demands and requests, Lieutenant Sorokin was again among his comrades. It was difficult at first to fly with dentures, but the love of the motherland and the burning hatred of the enemy helped to overcome all difficulties. "
Zakhar Sorokin with his daughter Maria and mother. Tikhoretsk, 1962
In August, 1944, already being the commander of a squadron, guard Captain Sorokin, returning from the Rybachy Peninsula area to the base, heard in headphones: “First! You are hero! How did you understand? Reception. At his aerodrome near Murmansk, he landed as a Hero of the Soviet Union.
- And what was the fate of Zakhar Artemovich after the war?
- At first, the father’s family was huddled in some sort of shack in Evpatoria, since the high head occupied the pre-war apartment. In the 1953 year, after a long illness, his wife died, leaving a small daughter, and after all, dad also needed constant care. From despair hand stretched itself to the glass. However, the meeting with Vodopyanov who came to the sanatorium for treatment here helped. In the Vodopianov family, his father met Valentina, my mother. At first they lived in Evpatoria, and then moved to Moscow, to my grandfather and grandmother, who lived in a barrack on the Sofia Embankment, directly by the wall to the English embassy. Initially, everyone lived in the same room the size of 8 square. m, but then they were given an apartment in the area of the current square of the 60 anniversary of October, where the cinema "Ulan Bator" is now located. There still stand small four-story brick houses, where I was born. We had a small two-bedroom apartment. In 1966, our family moved to Leninsky Prospekt in a two-bedroom apartment with an area of 55 and Khrushchev planning. This is where Vorontsovsky Park is located.
- What did father do?
- Worked in the Soviet Committee of Veterans of the Great Patriotic War and in the All-Union Society "Knowledge", later joined the Union of Journalists. He wrote 15 books that were published by DOSAAF and Voenizdat in 1962 – 1978. Among them, such as "In the sky of the Arctic" (1963), "Fighters go to intercept" (1965), "We go on the attack" (1970), "On the turns of courage" (1978), and others. Constantly published in the newspaper of the Moscow Military District "Red Warrior". In 1972, the publishing house “Malysh” published a book for children “Duel in the snow desert”. Dad walked with a wand. Denture boots rubbed their feet heavily - then, after all, silicone did not exist. Almost every year he lay in hospitals, he underwent skin grafts because there were unhealed trophic ulcers. Nevertheless, he traveled and circled the whole country on passes to the Komsomol Central Committee, the Knowledge Society, the Soviet Committee of Veterans, spoke in schools, pioneer camps, rest houses, military units, Komsomol construction sites, and prisons. In general, on business trips, he felt in good shape. But only crossed the threshold of the house - fell exhausted.
- Did you have a car?
- It was a "Moskvich-408" with manual control. Then "Zaporozhets". Parents loved to travel. In the summer, we were sent to a pioneer camp, and if they received a pension or some fees for books, they took us out of the camp by car, and I, my sister and father, and my mother (my brother was already an adult) went either to the Baltic States, or to the Crimea, in Evpatoria. Dad and mom were very light on the rise.
- And how was Zakhar Artyomovich in everyday life?
- By the nature of the dad was very kind, sympathetic. People came to him from all over the country, he helped everyone: someone with an institute, someone with a treatment. When I came from business trips, I brought gifts: from Georgia or Moldova - fruit, from Kamchatka and from Murmansk - fish. Parents treated friends, the apartment doors did not close, neighbors came from all over the entrance. I, brother and sister, taught me to work hard, discipline, modesty, kindness, self-reliance and determination, for which I am very grateful to my father!
Zakhar Sorokin with his family
Zakhar Artyomovich Sorokin could step to fame before Alexei Petrovich Maresyev. But fate decreed otherwise. Not so long ago, a military journalist, Yuri Ivanovich Makunin, recalled how Zakhar Artyomovich, reviewing his essay that had just been published, remarked: “Maresyev brought Polevoy to the people, and I go to them myself ...”.
In 1972, the Pogranichnik newspaper of the Pacific Border District published a Boyarsky poem dedicated to Zakhar Sorokin:
He loves Blok and Bergholz,
In judgments, adamant, harsh.
And two clearance for epaulet
How to the stars starting rails.
But not in the constellations the path lay,
Face he met enemy dogs.
Blinding and calcined
Queues from the shoulder.
Trimmed tuft gray,
Stubborn folds the nape.
Put the visor palm -
Looks like Muromts from the picture ...
And not noticed by anyone
When sick, how tired.
All life, like a plane at the peak,
And only death to him halt.
In judgments, adamant, harsh.
And two clearance for epaulet
How to the stars starting rails.
But not in the constellations the path lay,
Face he met enemy dogs.
Blinding and calcined
Queues from the shoulder.
Trimmed tuft gray,
Stubborn folds the nape.
Put the visor palm -
Looks like Muromts from the picture ...
And not noticed by anyone
When sick, how tired.
All life, like a plane at the peak,
And only death to him halt.
Zakhar Sorokin
The poems were prophetic. “Going to the people” became more difficult. Prostheses rubbed the legs, the pains were hellish. Baths and procedures were constantly required. According to the recollections of his daughter, Zakhar Artyomovich could not sleep, clenched his teeth in a dream. Every year surgery, anesthesia. As a result, his heart could not stand it in 1978 ...
The story of this real man has not yet been written. But the memory of him will survive the century.
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