Biography
Evgenia Zhigulenko - the commander of the "night witches" (so the Germans called the female bombarding aviation regiment). Front Life did not cut the soul of the pilots. And on the memoirs of the fighting girlfriends, she always took the flowers with them to the departures.Childhood and youth
Eugene was born in the Caucasus, in Krasnodar, December 1, 1920. But childhood passed in Tikhoretsk. Her parents are ordinary workers. Vera Fedorovna diligently tried to dissuade the daughter from a dream associated with the sky. But from the small years, it demonstrated persistence and uncompromising and thanks to persistence and the desire to fly reached conceived.
Andrei Ilyich Zhigulenko's father actually Mikhail Afanasyevich Azarov. He himself, like his wife, came out of the orphanage. I didn't know anyone about the ancestors. And during the Civil War, I decided to use someone else's passport. This allowed him to avoid mobilization. Subsequently, Mikhail returned the real name and surname, but the daughter decided to stay by Zhigulenko.
School years The future flyer spent in Tikhoretsk. At the local stadium, she often saw the parachutists, but, sharing his plans for jumping, got a sharp refusal. Then the seventh grader accumulated money and came to the group to train.
The student decided to go to the 9th grade. All summer from early morning until late evening, she read books and studied the school curriculum. In the fall, Zhenya passed the exams ahead of time and then came to the director, exploring the desire to enroll in the aircall.
And again received a refusal. Management considered that a young girl would not cope, but a hard schoolgirl was difficult to convince. In secret, she sent a statement of admission to the Military Academy. From there, a negative answer came soon - women were not accepted. Eugene did not despair. A high school student wrote a letter to the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov, Efremovich's customer.
The applicant's secretariat explained: if she wishes to study at the Air Force Academy, then she should receive aviation-technical education.
Zhenya found out about the Moscow Airshow-Building Institute, but Vera Fedorovna again refused to let go of the daughter in the capital. Mother did not hide that he did not want a young girl to have a life with aviation. Zhigulenko again arrived in his own way and, saving money, went to Moscow, without even warning his relatives. Thanks to estimates at school, she was accepted without exams.
In the student years, Zhenya began his friends with Ekaterina Timchenko. Together they conquered the sky in the Central Aeroclub. V. P. Chkalova. The first half of the day was lectured and seminars, the second - jumping already from the aircraft. Evgenia went skiing, participated in artistic reviews, rode a motorcycle.
On June 22, 1941, the student learned about the beginning of the war. But in the AeroClub, and in the district of Komsomol, they refused to send young pilots to the front. In the desire to defend the motherland, the girl reached the colonel of the control of the air force of the Red Army.
He also told activists that under the command of Marina, the female aviation part is formed. On October 16, 1941, Zhenya and Katya went to the Engel military aviation school for retraining. And from there - to the front.
Personal life
The pilot, who committed 968 night combat departures and received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, was unhappy in his personal life. It so happened that the only son (born in 1948) was a mentally ill person. As it often happens, the husband failed to make this burden, throwing his wife with a child.And after a while the woman buried the son of Viktor Gorkovtseva. She had no more children. Left alone, more and more watched back and wanted to perpetuate the memory of the exploits of his shelf.
For Evgeny Cinema has become a beloved child. On the screen she was able to show the audience of militant women and ordinary girls. Those who flew without fear to fight the Germans and never ceased to dream of a family and a quiet life.
Memories of War at Zhigulenko are stories about combat girlfriends. About her itself - the brave flyer, who took the aircraft in the cockpit of Snowdrops. Entering the cinema already in adulthood, the director without stamps and stereotypes gave a tribute to the memory of the real heroes of war.
Red Army Service
Eugene fell to the front in May 1942. Pulling on the service as a navigator, she soon became the commander of the 558th night bombarding aviation regiment.
The geography of the exploits of Zhigulenko is extensive - she bombed enemies in the southern, the North Caucasus composition of the troops of the Transcaucasian Front. Since November 1943, he was listed in a separate seaside army. And by the end of the war flew on the 2nd Belarusian front.
Having entered into the ranks of the Red Army, immediately began to beat records on combat departures. And the benefit of it was in long legs: the pilot is faster than the rest of the others before Biplan. I never took with my machine gun, nor parachute. The plane could raise a very limited weight, and Zhigulenko preferred to take an excess bomb.
However, sometimes the pilot took the ammunition and food - she dropped them into the surroundings of Soviet soldiers. And necessarily shouting something encouraging from the sky.
On February 23, 1945, Eugene, being in the rank of Guard Lieutenant, received the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She was given the "Golden Star" and Order of Lenin.
After the war
The victory over the fascist invaders did not force the pilot to leave the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. For a while she served as an assault in the Far East. And only in 1955 he went to the stock and left to live in Sochi. There made politics as the head of culture management.When a proposal was received from power to enter the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, Zhigulenko refused: the cinema attracted it. Therefore, she entered VGIK. Soon the newly new director released the short filing "one day from a thousand hundred."
In 1981, a full-length film "In the sky" Night Witches "," where Eugene Andreevna told the history of the women's bombardment regiment, whose prototype was her own.
And in 1984, the filmography was replenished with another picture "without the right to fail." In it, the director even tried herself as actress - in an episodic role as a mother of the main character.
Death
In the old age, the pilot was beyond poverty. Her directorial ideas did not find incarnation. Lidi 90s coincided with the attempts of a new government to erase past feats. For a real patriot, this attitude towards the merits of combat girlfriends and its own turned out to be a real blow. Perhaps this was the cause of the death of the great participant of the war.
Evgenia Andreevna died on February 27, 1994. She was buried on the Trocerovsky cemetery.
Memory
- Monument Bust E.A. Zhigulenko in Sochi
- Evgenia Zhigulenko street in Krasnodar, Tikhoretsk and Gelendzhik
Awards
- Medal "Golden Star"
- The order of Lenin
- 2 Red Banner Order
- 2 Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree
- 2 Red Star Orders
Filmography
- 1976 - "One day from a thousand hundred"
- 1981 - "In the sky" Night Witches "
- 1984 - "No right to failure"