Biography
Almost everyone in school years was read by one of the most famous books about the Great Patriotic War "Tale of the Real Man." But not everyone knows that it is written on the actual events and prototype of the brave pilot is the hero of the Soviet Union Alexey Petrovich Maresyev. After heavily injured, he lost both legs, but refused to leave the reserve and continued the fighting flights. Moreover, in the status of a disabled person knocked almost twice as much enemy aircraft than before.Childhood and youth
Alexey Maresiev was born in the town of Kamyshina, located in the Saratov region. His father Peter Avdeevich died when the boy was only three years old. Mom Ekaterina Nikitichna alone raised three sons - Alya and his senior brothers Peter and Nicholas. She worked with a simple cleaner at the woodworking factory.
After school, Maresyev became a turner and began labor activity at a logging plant. But already in those years, the young man dreamed of heaven. Twice he filed documents to the flight school, but both times failed on the medical commission, since since childhood suffered with rheumatism. In 1934, Alexey falls on the famous construction site in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. It was there that the future pilot made his first flight, as he was signed up in a local aero club.
The urgent service was held on Sakhalin and managed to make the direction of military pilots in the Chita school, and from there switched to the Batay aviation school. Becoming the younger lieutenant, Alexey Maresiev served in Bataysk instructor and taught the young generation of aviation equipment management.
War and feat
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Alexey Maresyev was translated into the operating army. The first combat departure he made in the area of the horns. By the spring of 1942, there were already four shot down enemy aircraft. But in April, an event has happened that has changed his whole life.
On April 4, 1942, Alexey Maresyev in battle under Novgorod covered bombers, but was bridged with a German pilot. Having received a difficult wound, the Soviet officer made a forced landing, as it turned out, on the enemy territory. Almost three weeks, the twisted pillar made his way to his own. As many as 18 days, it was fed only by berries, tree bark and bumps, which found on Earth.
Maresev exhausted by villagers near the village of Valdaya found. And he was first accepted for the Germans, which was not immediately assisted. Having understood, Selyan took the man into the house, but there was no one to do this medical intervention. Only after 10 days Alexey Petrovich got into the hospital, by that time he had blood infection and the scary gangrena of both legs. As a pilot recalled afterwards, he was sent in the hospital straightforward ... in the morgue! But on the way, Maresev intercepted Professor Terebinsky, who decided on an amputation operation of both legs.
When Alexey realized that he would live, he immediately began to prepare for returning to the front. He himself invented training, which allowed flying with prostheses. In the winter of 1943, Maresyev again spends a combat departure as part of the Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. In July, the pilot made a feat, hitting at once two German fighters and retaining the lives of two of his colleagues. For this, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and the glory about a guiltyly pilot scattered across the country.
She ended the war of Maresyev as an inspector, supervising the universities of the Air Force. Alexey Petrovich managed to take 86 departures in combat conditions, in which 11 units of enemy technicians shot down. Moreover, seven of them are already flying with prostheses.
Personal life
Despite the glory surrounding His, Alexei Maresyev always remained a modest man and tried not to use a service provision or the title of the hero. An exception is the only case associated with his personal life. In the main headquarters of the Air Force on the eve of the end of the war, he saw a beautiful girl, to which he was glad to approach, firstly, having a disability, and secondly, whether she was free.
So the only time Alexey Petrovich took advantage of the official position, there was an appeal to the personnel department about the marital status of Olga Viktorovna, which he had made an offer to marry in a month.
They lived a long happy life. Two sons were born in the family - Victor and Alexey. None of the boys in the footsteps of the Father did not go. The eldest son was dreaming by cars and became an engineer, and the youngest was a disabled childhood, so he could not dream about heaven too.
Maresyev always supported himself in excellent physical shape - she was engaged in the pool, rode a bike and skates, walked on skis. Moreover, he even twisted the Volga, setting a record for a while.
Death
In the post-war time, the life and feat of Alexei Maresev was widely covered in the press. Boris Polev, who personally knew the pilot, was written by the legendary "tale of the real man." But the hero himself belonged to the glory more than kept. Known such words:
"Everyone fought. How many people in the light of such people on which there were no field. "Two days before the 85th anniversary of the legendary hero in the theater of the Russian army, a concert dedicated to his anniversary was to take place. But in just one hour before the start of the celebration, Alexey Petrovich had a heart attack, which turned out to be fatal. As a result, the holiday was transformed in the evening of memory, which began with a minute of silence.
In memory of Alexei Maresiev installed many monuments, in many cities there are streets wearing his name. Also did not bypass it and cinema. In the USSR, the film "Tale of the Real Man" came out, the main role in which Paul Pavlovnikov played, although the director initially wanted to shoot the pilot himself. In 2005, a documentary picture "Fate of this man" was created.