100 years ago, on January 2 (15), 1913, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko (Marinescu) was born in Odessa.
The famous submariner, whose name is associated with the "attack of the century." Commander of the Red Banner submarine S-13 of the Red Banner submarine brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, captain of the 3rd rank, known for the “Attack of the Century”. Hero of the Soviet Union. For some he is a hero, for others he is a child killer...
Who exactly was Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko?
I have already written in detail about Marinesco and the “attack of the century” here:
Here I will say this...
Yes, in the USSR, for propaganda reasons, they created the “cult of Marinesko”: monuments were erected to him in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt and Odessa, streets and a naval school were named in his honor, the feature films “Forget About Returning” (1985) and “First After God” were dedicated to Marinesko "(2005)...
At the same time, Marinesko was accused of the mass murder of civilians, including small children, who were evacuated on the ship he sunk...
Was the “attack of the century” a feat or a crime?
I have already written in detail about this famous episode of the war (see links above), so draw your own conclusions.
Now I want to talk about something else. When I read about Marinesko, it seems to me that I understood his character - he never wanted to be a military man, but dreamed exclusively of serving in the merchant navy. But in November 1933 he was sent to special courses for RKKF command personnel, after which he was appointed navigator on the submarine Shch-306 ("Haddock") of the Baltic Fleet, in March 1936, in connection with the introduction of personal military ranks, Marinesko received the rank of lieutenant, in November 1938 - senior lieutenant. Having completed retraining courses at the Red Banner Submarine Training Detachment named after S. M. Kirov, he served as assistant commander on the L-1, then as commander of the submarine M-96, whose crew, based on the results of the combat and political training 1940 took first place, and the commander was awarded a gold watch and promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander...
Everything seemed to be great, but there were some unpleasant moments in his biography: in October 1941, Marinesko was expelled from the candidates for membership of the CPSU (b) for drunkenness and organizing gambling card games in the submarine division, and on New Year's Eve from 1944 to 1945 for two days left the ship, whose crew during this time “distinguished itself” by sorting out relations with the local population.
Marinesko and his friend were released to the city (Turku, neutral Finland). In an empty hotel restaurant, with Slavic latitude, they asked to set a table for six. As he himself recalled: “We drank moderately, ate a snack, and began to slowly sing Ukrainian songs.” Marinesko charmed the young beautiful hotel owner - a Swede - and stayed with her.
In the morning the maid knocked and said that the hostess’s fiance was waiting downstairs with flowers. “Drive away,” he said. - “You won’t marry me, will you?” “I won’t marry,” said Marinesko, “but drive me away anyway.”
Soon there was a knock on the door again, this time from an officer from the boat: “Trouble, there’s a commotion at the base, they’re looking for you. They’ve already told the Finnish authorities...”. “Drive away,” she said. “How come, I can’t.” - “I drove away my groom for your sake. What kind of winners you are, you’re afraid to sleep with a woman.”
And the commander said to the officer: “You didn’t see me.”
Came back in the evening.
There was a rumor that he had been recruited by enemy intelligence. Marinesko had to appear before a military tribunal.
The crew refused to go to sea with another commander.
The commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral V.F. Tributs, decided to put Marinesko on trial before a military tribunal for unauthorized abandonment of the ship in a combat situation, but gave him the opportunity to atone for his guilt in a military campaign.
Alexander Evstafievich Orel, division commander (later - admiral, commander of the Baltic Fleet):
- I allowed them to go to sea, let him atone for his guilt there. They told me: “How did you let such an Arkharovite go?” And I believed him, he did not return from the campaign empty.
It was on this campaign that Marinesko sank two large enemy transports - the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Steuben...
Soviet historians wrote pathetically:
In a severe storm, the submarine S-13 under the command of A. Marinesko sank the miracle ship Wilhelm Gustlov, on board of which the flower of the fascist submarine fleet was leaving Konigsberg: 3,700 officers, crews for 70-80 submarines, high-ranking officials, generals and high command , as well as auxiliary women's battalion(guards in camps, SS) - 400 people. The feat of the submariners was called the “attack of the century.” Three days of mourning were declared in Germany. The convoy commander was shot on Hitler's personal orders. Captain Marinesko was declared his personal enemy.
However, later in the article “The Legend of Marinesko” this legend was refuted:
This is not just a lie. This is a criminal lie. Because the sinking of Gustlov can be considered the attack of the century only on one hand - never before has such a small unit destroyed so many people at one time. Even the famous bombing of Dresden (25,000 dead) involved several thousand pilots... Not counting women and men, 3,000 children died in the icy water. Hitler received the news of the tragedy with surprising indifference. Marinesko was not included in any lists of enemies. Mourning was not declared, and could not be declared - the death of the ship was not officially reported. Both Captain Peterson and the commander of the security forces lived until May 9, 1945... And Marinesko was removed from the boat soon after the war for drunkenness.
Yes. there was such a thing. On September 14, 1945, order No. 01979 was issued by the People's Commissar of the Navy N. G. Kuznetsov, which stated:
“For neglect of official duties, systematic drunkenness and everyday promiscuity of the commander of the Red Banner submarine S-13 of the Red Banner Submarine Brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, captain 3rd rank Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, is removed from his position, demoted in military rank to senior lieutenant and placed at the disposal of the military council of the same fleet."
In 1960, the order to demote him was canceled, which made it possible for Marinesko, by that time already very ill, to receive a full pension.
From October 18, 1945 to November 20, 1945, Marinesko was the commander of the T-34 minesweeper of the 2nd minesweeper division of the 1st Red Banner minesweeping brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (Tallinn sea defensive region). On November 20, 1945, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy No. 02521, senior lieutenant Marinesko A.I. was transferred to the reserve.
After the war, in 1946-1949, Marinesko worked as a senior mate on the ships of the Baltic State Merchant Shipping Company, and in 1949 - deputy director of the Leningrad Research Institute of Blood Transfusion.
In 1949, he was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of squandering socialist property; he served his sentence in 1949-1951 in Vanino.
They say that the squandering consisted of the fact that he distributed “state coal” to the families of the dead Red Navy men, so that they would have something to keep warm during the harsh post-war winter...
Since 1948, Marinesko worked at the Institute of Blood Transfusion as deputy director. The grabber director was building a dacha and wanted to get rid of his principled deputy. With the consent of the director, Alexander Ivanovich delivered the discarded peat briquettes lying in the yard to the homes of low-paid workers. The director, Vikenty Kukharchik, called the OBKhSS himself.
The first composition of the court disintegrated. The prosecutor, a front-line soldier, seeing the linden, refused to charge, both people's assessors expressed a dissenting opinion. Only judge Praskovya Vasilyevna Varkhoeva did not give up.
Marinesko was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
They don’t send you far for such a period. But Marinesko was driven to Kolyma. They pushed me into the same carriage with the recent police officers.
From Marinesko's story to writer Kron: " The distribution of food is in their hands... I feel like we won’t get there. I began to take a closer look at people - not all of them are bastards. I see: mostly the swamp, it is always on the side of the strong! Luckily, several sailors were nearby. We agreed... During the next distribution of food, a fight broke out. I confess to you: I kicked in the ribs and was happy." The head of the train appeared, sorted it out, and “power” was transferred to the sailors.
These letters are more than half a century old. Alexander Ivanovich wrote them to Valentina Ivanovna Gromova, his second wife.
"Hello, dear, dear Valyushka!
The city of Vanino is a large village, there is no running water, no sewage system.
A strong snowstorm covered our house up to the roof, and in order to get out, we had to crawl through a hole in the ceiling (for a makeshift stove) and clear the snow from the door.
I have not lost hope and am firmly convinced that I will live out my life happily with you (until 80-90 years old), I have already started preparations, on this payday I gave 50 rubles to a tailor, whom I ordered to sew a “Muscovite” - a short coat from an overcoat, and In total, you need to pay 200 rubles for the work.
With that, he who loves you immensely, is your servant and husband. 4/1-1951"
These are censored letters.
And this real life. A book was stolen from Marinesko - a gift from his wife. Having learned about this, the owner of the cell, the “godfather,” said: “In a minute you will have the book.” But it turned out that the young thief had already cut the book into cards. By order of the “bokhan”, four men killed the guy: they swung him around and hit the floor.
In his own, animal way, he was “taken care of” in the cell. What is the attraction of a person even for a lesson? After all, they did not know about Marinesko’s exploits.
Alexander Ivanovich found a way to correspond not through the camp mailbox.
“Hello, dear Valyusha! The authorities came to check on us and, having learned that I was not writing letters through mailbox 261/191, they took all your letters that I kept and punished me by removing me from the team leader and transferring me to loader.
Goodbye, my invisible happiness! 29/1-1951"
Marinesko's mother, old woman Tatyana Mikhailovna, got a job to help her son. She wrote a letter to Stalin.
“Our dear and beloved Joseph Vissarionovich!
The mother of war hero Alexandra Marinesko, who has suffered in agony, writes to you.
A lie hangs over my son!
Our dear Joseph Vissarionovich! I kneel before you, I beg you - help... Comfort the mother’s heart. Become a father to my son.
We know that you are the fairest person on earth."
Anxiety is brewing: “Dear Valyusha! I’m writing a third letter, but there’s still no answer from myself. You’re probably already tired of waiting for me.”
She answered from some northern Zateyka, where she worked on a geological exploration expedition. She called to her.
“There was no limit to my joy. But are there any ships in Zateyka where I could get a job as a foreman of a ship? And will they take me?
Now I have a good “Muscovite”, but there’s nothing else, it’s not even quite decent to go straight to you in Zateika, which means I need to go to Leningrad for documents and other small things - at least for a razor. If you only knew how much I want to be with you! I don't want to linger even for a moment. But now it has become much more difficult to earn credits. Today I received my mother’s letter... She is going to send a parcel to me. I won’t write about my feelings, because it’s all my fault. Write to her that when I am free and we save some money, we will definitely come to her in Odessa..."
"I'M BEGINNING TO LOSE FAITH IN THE SOVIET AUTHORITY"
On October 10, 1951, he was released early. I stayed there for almost two years. By this time, the director of the institute had already been imprisoned for embezzlement.
In 1951-1953 he worked as a loader and topographer for the Onega-Ladoga expedition, and from 1953 he headed the supply department group at the Leningrad Mezon plant, where he earned many thanks, his portrait hung on the Board of Honor.
Until 1960, when Alexander Kron spoke in the newspaper, no one around knew about the military merits of Alexander Ivanovich. The owner of the apartment once saw the Order of Lenin and asked about it. “There was a war,” he answered briefly, “many received it.”
In the late fifties, having lived together for 15 years, Alexander Ivanovich broke up with Valentina. We remained on good terms.
He received a small pension, so his earnings were limited. And also child support. The factory managers agreed and allowed us to earn above the ceiling. An audit came, according to the court (court again!) Marinesko began to return the surplus. When I became mortally ill - two cancers, of the throat and the esophagus, the excess began to be deducted from the pension.
About two hundred officers, among them 20 admirals and generals, 6 Heroes of the Soviet Union, 45 commanders and commissars of submarines, appealed to the CPSU Central Committee:
“Taking into account the exceptional services of A.I. Marinesko to our Motherland, we earnestly ask and petition for Marinesko to be granted a personal pension. It cannot be considered fair that such a distinguished submariner commander found himself in an immeasurably worse pension situation than officers who did not participate in the war.” .
The request was refused.
Marinesko wrote to Kron: "Lately“At the 51st year of my life, I am beginning to lose faith in Soviet power.”
There was also joy at the end of life. A small corner has appeared. The woman who shared the last torment.
Valentina Aleksandrovna Filimonova:
- We met at a friend's house. The trousers are patched, the jacket is patched at the elbows. The only thing was a shirt, the collar of the shirt was falling off, it was only held on by the tie. Clean, very tidy, but already so poor. He went to see me off and stayed with me. He had some kind of attractive force, like hypnosis, both children and adults felt it. His gait was extraordinary: his head was slightly raised - he walked proudly, majestically. Especially when we went out to the embankment, to the Neva - it merged with the granite. I brought 25 rubles as a paycheck, and a little more as an advance payment. And I, in order to show my mother that there really was a man in the house, began to add my money to his and gave it to my mother.
A year later, we went with him to a meeting of veteran submariners, I didn’t understand anything: they called Sasha’s name and there was such a thunderous ovation, they didn’t allow me to talk further. It was only then, a year later, that I found out WHO he was.
That's all they had to live - a year. The other two, Alexander Ivanovich, were painfully, mortally ill.
M. Weinstein, former division mechanic, friend:
- Marinesko was in a very bad hospital. He did not have enough experience for the hospital. We, veterans, went to the commander of the Leningrad naval base, Baikov. The admiral was furious: “In our hospital, the devil knows who is being treated, but there is no place for Marinesko?” He immediately gave orders and gave me his car.
Valentina Alexandrovna:
“It was then, and not later, as many people write, on the way from hospital to hospital that we saw ships in the roadstead, and Sasha cried for the only time: “I’ll never see them again.”
The last person to see Marinesko was Mikhail Weinstein:
“He was in a gloomy mood: “That’s it, this is the end.” It's time for dinner, and my wife is hesitating. He says: “Nothing, let him look, he can do it.” She unbandaged his stomach, and I saw a tube coming from the stomach. Valentina Aleksandrovna inserted a funnel and began pouring something liquid. He and I drank a glass of cognac, it didn’t matter. - the doctors allowed it. He said: “We just won’t clink glasses,” and they poured the cognac into the funnel. His throat was black, apparently they had been irradiated. And the second time I came, there was already a tube in my throat. It quickly became clogged, Sasha was choking, and Valentina Alexandrovna cleaned it every 20-30 minutes. Now that death was near, his fighting spirit, as always in the most difficult moments of the war, leapt up. Apparently, when I entered, he was confused, he could no longer speak, he took a sheet of paper and wrote: “Misha, you have frightened eyes. Give it up. Now I believe in life. They will put in an artificial esophagus for me."
On November 25, 1963, Alexander Ivanovich died. At the age of 50.
He was buried at the Bogoslovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg.
The money that was overpaid to him at the factory did not have time to deduct everything from his small pension. And the dead man remained in debt to Soviet power.
Fate, as if testing him, subjected him to double tests. Two dismissals from the fleet (the first was due to a “questionnaire”). Two ships. Two cancers with two tubes.
And the hat was also thrown around the circle twice - on the monument and during life. On October 4, 1963, writer Sergei Smirnov said in a television program that the legendary submariner lived in virtual poverty.
Money poured into Leningrad from all over the country, including from students and pensioners - often three or five rubles.
Valentina Aleksandrovna was now able to quit her job; a bed was placed next to her in the room.
He died, but the translations were still going on...
After Marinesko's death, his name was removed from circulation.
The shipbuilders turned to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Gorshkov, with a request to name one of the ships after Alexander Marinesko. The admiral put a resolution on the collective letter - “Unworthy.”
Sergei Georgievich Gorshkov received both of his Gold Hero Stars many years after the war - as a gift. It was with his participation that the epic of Malaya Zemlya with Colonel Brezhnev was inflated. He commanded the fleet for 30 years.
- Marinesko? “He was just lucky with this sinking,” he answered with irritation. - Yes, and in 1945 this no longer played a role, the end of the war...
This means that those who stormed Berlin three months later have no price at all.
He, Sergei Georgievich, refused to support the petition for a personal pension for Marinesko’s mother. Tatyana Mikhailovna outlived her son by 12 years. She lived in Odessa in a communal apartment, in her ninth decade she went to the yard for firewood and water and received a pension of 21 rubles.
It's her own fault, mother, it's her own fault: she gave birth to the wrong son...
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously to Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko on May 5, 1990.
I think that Marinesko was not initially eager to become a sailor, and felt out of place; service in the Navy was too strict for him. Yes, he fought bravely, although not always successfully: of the six military campaigns carried out by Marinesko during the Great Patriotic War, three were unsuccessful, but he is the first “heavyweight” among Soviet submariners: he has two sunk transports with a displacement of 42,557 gross to his credit - registered tons.
It was believed that this was the largest ship sunk as a result of a submarine attack, but in fact, submariners from other countries sank much larger ships, including combat ones, for example, the American submarine Archerfish destroyed the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano with a displacement of 71 890 GRT, and a German boat U-47 14 October 1939 sank an English battleship "Royal Oak" with a displacement of 29,150 GRT directly in the Scapa Flow harbour).
According to modern data, 406 sailors and officers of the 2nd training division of the submarine force, 90 members of its own crew, 250 female soldiers of the German fleet and 4,600 refugees and wounded died with the Gustloff. Of the German submariners, 16 officers died (including 8 medical service), the rest were poorly trained cadets who still needed at least a six-month training course.
Among the dead are almost 3 thousand children.
There are other estimates of the number of victims, up to 9,343 people.
Contrary to the statements of a number of military men and historians, a three-day mourning for the sunken ship was not declared in Germany (during the entire war it was declared only for the 6th Wehrmacht Army destroyed in Stalingrad) and Hitler did not declare Marinesko his personal enemy. Hitler, apparently, was not very worried about the death of the cadets and children sailing on the Gustloff...
Be that as it may, the Wilhelm Gustloff was the largest ship in terms of tonnage sunk by Soviet submariners, and the second in number of victims.
Did Marinesko know that there were children on the ship?
Surely not. He also mistakenly identified Steuben as Emden. A winter night, bad weather, the harsh Baltic Sea... in such conditions he completed his combat mission, not knowing what he was doing. It's just war, unfortunately.
Marinesko was not at all a bronze monument to himself during his lifetime. A living person, with his own advantages and disadvantages. Apparently, Marinesko was a kind slob, fond of gambling, drinking, women... Apparently, he was a gambling, enthusiastic person, capable of exploits, recklessness, and good deeds. I don’t think that the sailor was a cannibal who dreamed of the blood of German children. Perhaps Alexander Ivanovich never found out about the dead children at all.
Years after the war, a meeting took place between a Soviet submarine torpedo operator and one of the survivors of the torpedoed ship:
The assistant purser on the Wilhelm Gustloff was only eighteen years old on the day of the disaster. Not too much gratitude was expressed to him, who collected and studied almost all the materials related to the death of the liner. The memorial meeting opened with his report “The Death of Wilhelm Gustloff - Through the Eyes of the Russians”; during the course of the report, he made it clear that for his research he had repeatedly visited the Soviet Union and even met with the boatswain of the C-13 submarine, moreover, he maintained friendly relations with the same Vladimir Kurochkin, who, on the orders of the commander, sent three torpedoes to the target; there is even a photograph showing him shaking hands with this elderly man who, as Heinz Schön later remarked discreetly, “also lost comrades.”
After the report they avoided him. Many listeners considered him a Russophile. For them, the war never ended. For them, the Russians remained Ivans, and three torpedoes were a murder weapon. And for Vladimir Kurochkin, the nameless sunken ship was filled to capacity with the Nazis who attacked his homeland and left scorched earth behind them during their retreat.
Only from the story of Heinz Schön did he learn that after torpedo attack More than four thousand children died who drowned, froze, or were carried away by the whirlpool from the ship that sank. These children are still for a long time dreamed of the boatswain in nightmares.
Meanwhile, US Air Force pilot Paul Tibbetts understood that after atomic bombing random civilians would also die, but until the end of his days he considered himself a soldier who had fulfilled his duty and contributed to a speedy end to the war...
Why then make a claim to Marinesko?
It's not for us to judge him.
And by what measure the life and deeds of Alexander Marinesko are weighed - only God can judge...
Everlasting memory.
By glorifying Marinesko and his “feat,” we first of all demonstrate ignorance of history, disregard for facts and blatant violation of universal human values. We are once again proving to the “world” that leavened patriotism mixed with imaginary victories is dearer to us than the true heroes of the war, whose real exploits are perhaps less impressive. For some reason, in order to feel complete, we always need “lefties who can shoe a flea.” Perhaps so that behind their loud fame it would be easier to hide from society the unpleasant facts of numerous defeats or the numbers of scanty military successes due to a flawed military organization, poor training and backward technical equipment. After all, it would be high time to understand that the feat of our sailors was not that they sank as many or more ships than the British, but that, despite a lot of unfavorable factors and circumstances, they honestly fulfilled their duty to the Motherland and caused such damage to the enemy as far as possible for them.
After completing six classes of a labor school, he became a sailor's student, then was sent to a cabin school. After graduating from school, the young man became a sailor on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company.
In 1930 he entered the Odessa Naval College, from which he graduated in 1933.
He sailed as third and second mate on the ships “Ilyich” and “Red Fleet”. In November 1933, Alexander Marinesko was mobilized and sent to the highest command courses of the RKKF, after which in November 1934 he was assigned to the submarine “Shch-306” of the Baltic Fleet. In March 1936, A. Marinesko was already in the rank of lieutenant. In 1937 he was sent to the Underwater Diving Training Unit. Upon completion of his studies, Alexander Marinesko became the commander of the M-96 Malyutka submarine. During the siege of Leningrad, the M-96 remained in the Baltic theater of operations.
Sasha Marinesko is 3 years old
Ion and Tatiana Marinesko with their children - Alexander and Valentina
During the Great Patriotic War, the submarine, commanded by Alexander Marinesko, sank more than one fascist transport, and successfully carried out complex command assignments to land reconnaissance and sabotage groups behind enemy lines. If you compile a list of Soviet submarine commanders depending on the total tonnage of enemy ships and vessels sunk by each, then it will be opened by Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko.
On September 9, 1943, when A. Marinesko commanded the submarine “C-13,” he sank a transport with a displacement of 5 thousand tons.
On the night of January 31, 1945, the crew of the submarine “C-13”, at the exit from Danzig Bay, sank the German liner “Wilhelm Gustlow”, with a displacement of more than 25 thousand tons, which had 7 thousand Nazis on board, including 3,700 submariners.
In total, Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko sank 4 enemy ships with a total displacement of over 52 thousand tons during combat operations.
For courage and courage, decisive actions and military successes in campaigns, he was awarded twice with the Order of the Red Banner, previously awarded the Order of Lenin, the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” and for long-term service - the medal “For Military Merit”.
In the complex and restless nature of the S-13 commander, high heroism and desperate courage coexisted with many shortcomings and weaknesses. Today he could commit heroic feat, and tomorrow - be late for your ship, which is preparing to leave for a combat mission, or in some other way grossly violate military discipline.
Back in October 1941, A. Marinesko, after a series of penalties, was expelled from the candidate membership of the CPSU (b) “for systematic drunkenness, for the collapse of discipline, for the lack of educational work among personnel, for insincere admissions of their mistakes.”
In January 1945, the commander of the Baltic Fleet decided to put A. Marinesko on trial before a military tribunal for unauthorized abandonment of the ship in a combat situation, but he delayed the execution of this decision and gave him the opportunity to atone for his guilt in a military campaign.
At the very end of the war, on the basis of an order from the People's Commissar of the Navy, Fleet Admiral Kuznetsov, A. Marinesko was removed from his post, demoted in military rank to senior lieutenant and placed at the disposal of the military council of the same fleet.
After the war, Marinesko sailed as a captain's mate on ships of the Leningrad Shipping Company (1946-1948), then worked at the Leningrad Institute of Blood Transfusion.
Marinesko's merits, as it happens, were not adequately appreciated during his lifetime. He died in oblivion and poverty.
At the insistence of comrades in arms and the creative intelligentsia, by Decree of the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev, captain 3rd rank Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) on May 5, 1990.
Nowadays Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko is one of the most famous residents of Odessa.
The Odessa hero is revered not only in his homeland, books have been written about him and films have been made. Monuments were erected to him in Kaliningrad and Kronstadt; in Sevastopol, Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg there are streets named after Marinesko, and in St. Petersburg there is a museum named after A.I. Marinesko.
The monument to the Odessa hero by sculptor Alexey Kopyev, architect Vasily Mironenko and artist Vadim Kucher was erected in 1998 at the beginning of the street descending to the port, named in 1987 Marinesko Descent.
The Odessa Maritime School (8 Kanatnaya St.) bears his name, where in 1930-1933. studied by A.I. Marinesko, as written on the memorial plaque installed by sculptor A. Kopyev.
There is also a memorial plaque installed on the facade of the house at 11 Sofievskaya Street, where the submariner lived from 1921 to 1935.
Leonid Rukman, deputy
Director of the World Club of Odessa residents.
Based on media materials
* * *
Studying your pedigree related to the history of the Odessa Naval School named after. Marinesko, came across archival material concerning a graduate of the Odessa Maritime College in 1933, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko. I think that this will be an interesting addition to the biography of our outstanding fellow countryman in the project “They left a mark on the history of Odessa.”
Kolenko Tamara Anatolyevna, researcher
history of Odessa educational institutions
From the minutes of the Meeting of the Qualification Commission of the Odessa Maritime College named after. Janson dated May 28, 1933
No. 10 MARINESKO ALEXANDER IVANOVYCH
January 15, 1913, married, KSM since 1932. Water worker* since 1929, blue-collar worker, education up to technical school for 7 years and Jung School. Party and trade union penalties - no, work before entering the technical school: Jung School - sailor for 2 years.
CHARACTERISTIC
Politically developed satisfactorily. Ideologically consistent. Drummer. Disciplined. He took part in social and political work. Academic performance is satisfactory. Can be used as a junior assistant. captain on a short voyage.
From the minutes of the Meeting of the Government Qualification Commission for the rank of navigator dated June 3, 1933.
No. 9 MARINESKO ALEXANDER IVANOVICH was recognized as having passed the test satisfactorily** and was awarded the title of long-distance navigator.
A.I. Marinesko had swimming experience - 12 months of organized*** swimming, 4 months of unorganized swimming.
Notes
* Member of the union (trade union) of water workers.
** During this period, there were only two grades - “satisfactory” (passed) and “unsatisfactory” (failed).
*** “Organized sailing” – in a group with cadets of the Odessa Maritime College, “unorganized” – independently on ships of various shipping companies of the country.
Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko (January 2 (15) ( 19130115 ) , Odessa - November 25, Leningrad) - commander of the Red Banner submarine S-13 of the Red Banner Submarine Brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, captain of the 3rd rank, known for the “Attack of the Century”.
Biography
Battle path
"Attack of the Century"
A. I. Marinesko in the list of heroes of the USSR
Contrary to the statements of a number of military men and historians, a three-day mourning for the sunken ship was not declared in Germany (during the entire war it was declared only for the 6th Wehrmacht Army destroyed in Stalingrad) and Hitler did not declare Marinesko his personal enemy (at that time Germany was suffering heavy losses in fronts, and Hitler received the message about the death of “Wilhelm Gustloff” rather indifferently).
"Wilhelm Gustloff" was the largest ship in terms of tonnage sunk by Soviet submariners, and the second in number of victims (the leader is the ship "Goya", sunk on April 16, 1945 by the submarine "L-3"; about 7,000 people died on it).
In some German publications during the Cold War, the sinking of the Gustloff was called a crime against civilians, the same as the Allied bombing of Dresden. However, disaster researcher Heinz Schön concludes that the liner was a military target and its sinking was not a war crime, since: ships intended for transporting refugees, hospital ships had to be marked with the appropriate signs - a red cross, could not wear camouflage colors, could travel in the same convoy with military ships. They could not carry any military cargo, stationary or temporarily placed air defense guns, artillery pieces or other similar equipment on board.
In legal terms, the Wilhelm Gustloff was a warship on which six thousand refugees were allowed to board. All responsibility for their lives, from the moment they boarded the warship, lay with their respective officials German navy. Thus, the Gustloff was a legitimate military target of Soviet submariners, due to the following facts:
End of the war
Monument to A. I. Marinesko in Kaliningrad
Labor path
An embankment in Kaliningrad and the central street of one of the city districts in Sevastopol are named after A.I. Marinesko. Stroiteley Street (Leningrad), where Marinesko lived before the war, was also renamed Marinesko Street in his honor, as well as a street in Odessa (Marinesko Descent). The flag of the C-13 submarine is on display at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces. In St. Petersburg there is a museum of Russian submarine forces named after. A. I. Marinesko (St. Petersburg, Kondratievsky Prospect, 83/1). The Odessa Naval School, Ukraine, bears the name of A.I. Marinesko.
Awards
- Hero of the Soviet Union with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and a sign of special distinction - the Gold Star medal (posthumously)
see also
Sources
- E. A. Kovalev Kings of the submarine in the sea of jacks of hearts. - M., St. Petersburg: Tsentrpoligraf, 2006. - P. 308. - 428 p. - ISBN 5-9524-23224-8
- Marinesko, Alexander Ivanovich on the website “Heroes of the Country”
- M. Morozov. The death of “Wilhelm Gustlov”: truth and speculation. - Military Historical Collection “Myths of the Great Patriotic War”, M.: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008 ISBN 978-5-699-28293-7
- R. Gorchakov. Who did Marinesco sink? "Sowing", 2001, No. 8-9
- Schön, Heinz; Die Gustloff Katastrophe (Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, 2002)
- Excerpt from “History of the Great Patriotic War”: In a severe storm, the submarine S-13 under the command of A. Marinesko sank the miracle ship Wilhelm Gustlov, on board of which the flower of the fascist submarine fleet was leaving Konigsberg: 3,700 officers, crews for 70-80 submarines, high-ranking officials, generals and high command , as well as an auxiliary women's battalion (guards in camps, SS troops) - 400 people. The feat of the submariners was called the “attack of the century.” Three days of mourning were declared in Germany. The convoy commander was shot on Hitler's personal orders. Captain Marinesko was declared his personal enemy.
- Ogonyok (2001, No. 39), article “The Legend of Marinesko”, commentary on the above quote: This is not just a lie. This is a criminal lie. Because the sinking of Gustlov can be considered the attack of the century only on one hand - never before has such a small unit destroyed so many people at one time. Even the famous bombing of Dresden (25,000 dead) involved several thousand pilots... Not counting women and men, 3,000 children died in the icy water. Hitler received the news of the tragedy with surprising indifference. Marinesko was not included in any lists of enemies. Mourning was not declared, and could not be declared - the death of the ship was not officially reported. Both Captain Peterson and the commander of the security forces lived until May 9, 1945... And Marinesko was removed from the boat soon after the war for drunkenness.
- (German) Heinz Schön, "SOS Wilhelm Gustloff", Motorbuch Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3613019000;
- (German) Interview with Schön on the website jungefreiheit.de [http://www.jf-archiv.de/archiv02/082yy09.htm "Eine nationale Tragödie"]: Auch wenn es schwer fällt, man muß anerkennen, daß die Versenkung kein Kriegsverbrechen darstellt. Denn die Gustloff war mit einem Tarnanstrich versehen, fuhr mit abgeblendetem Licht und hatte nicht nur zwei Flak-Geschütze sondern auch 1.000 U-Boot-Soldaten an Bord.
Translation: No matter how difficult it was, we still have to admit that the sinking was not a war crime. After all, Gustloff wore camouflage paint, walked with the lights turned off, and had on board not only two anti-aircraft guns, but also 1000 submarine soldiers.
Name: Alexander Marinesko
Age: 50 years
Place of Birth: Odessa
A place of death: Leningrad
Activity: Submarine commander
Family status: was not married
Biography
In the early 1960s, in Leningrad pubs you could see an elderly man with the Order of Lenin on his jacket. Visitors knew him as Sashka the Submariner and did not even suspect that they were drinking ruff with Hitler’s personal enemy.
Wine, desperate fights and women - this is the lot of a real pirate. This is what captain III rank Alexander Marinesko was like. Only he commanded not a pirate frigate, but a submarine of the Soviet fleet.
Alexander can be called a hereditary sailor. His father, a sailor in the Romanian navy, fled to Odessa from a sentence to be hanged for beating an officer. On Odessa soil, Ion settled down, settled down, and by the age of forty he married a peasant girl, Tatyana Koval. On January 15, 1913, a boy was born into the family, who was named Sasha.
Already at the age of 13, Sasha was accepted as a sailor apprentice at the Black Sea Shipping Company, and from there he was sent to cabin boy school. He graduated with honors, having received the qualification of a 1st class sailor, which gave him the right to sail on ships of the merchant fleet.
Alexander wanted more - to become a captain. At the age of 17, the young man entered the Odessa Marine College, and after graduating, he was accepted as an assistant captain of the merchant ship “Red Fleet”. But the governing bodies, noticing the guy, sent him to the Red Fleet command courses. Soon, Marinesko was already listed as a navigator of the submarine Shch-306 (“Haddock”) of the Baltic Fleet.
He performed his duty regularly, but even then the authorities began to notice what an “inconvenient” specialist they got. Marinesko said what he thought, and besides, he was partial to alcohol and women.
His first character reference from 1935 stated: “Insufficiently disciplined. He knows his specialty well. Can manage personnel under constant supervision. Conclusions: pay attention to increasing discipline.”
After entering the ranks in the navy in 1936, Alexander received the shoulder straps of a lieutenant, and 2 years later, a senior lieutenant and the post of commander of the M-96 “Malyutka” submarine. Despite the fact that Marinesko gained fame as a drinker and troublemaker, his M-96 broke the Baltic Fleet record, diving in 19.5 seconds against the standard of 35 seconds. Therefore, the authorities turned a blind eye to the captain’s shortcomings.
The war found Marinesko at the naval base in Paldiski, from where he was sent to Tallinn to guard the Gulf of Riga. However, Marinesko did not participate in naval battles in those days. In August 1941, news arrived that the Malyutka was being sent by rail to the Caspian Sea, where it was to become a training boat. But when the Germans closed the ring around Leningrad, these plans had to be abandoned. In agonizing anticipation, and also because of the depressing reports, Marinesko began to drink again. He was expelled from the party candidates and penalties were regularly announced, but these measures were also powerless.
Marinesko went on his first military campaign in August 1942. His “Malyutka” attacked 3 German transport ships, but the results of the attack remained unknown. Returning to the base, Marinesko forgot to warn his superiors. The patrol boats, seeing the submarine floating up without a flag, mistook it for a German submarine and began shelling. Marinesko gave the command to dive and surfaced for the second time clearly between the boats. So much so that they could not shoot at the boat without damaging each other. Finally, the captain’s face appeared from the hatch, and his colorful Odessa speech made it clear whose ship it was.
In November of the same year, for the successful landing of the troops, Marinesko was awarded the Order of Lenin, and in December he was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank and again enrolled as a candidate for the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). True, in his description the division commander wrote: “On the shore he is prone to frequent drinking.” The following spring, Marinesko received a new submarine, the S-13. However, entering it into fighting was postponed due to the captain's old "illness" - drunkenness.
Thus, a captain once refused to go to sea because he could not find his hat. It turned out that the sailor threw the greasy item into the trash. The hat was found, but for disrupting the exit, Marinesko went to the punishment cell. The captain who made a mistake could have ended up in the Gulag, so he gladly accepted the order to go on a campaign in October 1944. On the very first day, Marinesko met the huge ship Siegfried. The torpedo salvo was unsuccessful. Then the submarine surfaced and fired at the enemy from its gun mounts. In his report, the submariner indicated that the ship sank. In reality, the Germans towed the battered ship to Danzig and put it back into service by the spring of 1945.
When Marinesko returned to base, he saw that, contrary to tradition, he was greeted without an orchestra. Stung by this, he ordered the crew to batten down the hatches and celebrate their return home with alcohol. Only a day later the team left the boat. However, for this campaign Marinesko received not a punishment, but the Order of the Red Banner.
On the night of January 1, 1945 in Helsinki, Marinesko and his deputy, contrary to the regulations, left the boat and went to meet New Year to the owner of a local hotel. After many toasts, the captain took the Finnish woman to bed, where he indulged in pleasures with her all night. And in the morning her fiance came to the hotel. Getting into a fight with Russian sailors was fraught with unpleasant consequences, so the Finn complained to the Soviet commandant's office. The headquarters immediately realized who it could be, and Marinesko himself did not deny the fact of abandoning the ship. The commander of the Baltic Fleet ordered the officers to be put on trial, but, having cooled down, decided to give them the opportunity to make amends in battle. And on its fifth voyage, the submarine Marinesko left in the status of a floating penal battalion - the only one in the Soviet fleet.
But it was this campaign that immortalized the name of Marinesko. On January 30, off the Bay of Danzig, submariners spotted the ship Wilhelm Gustloff. The ship carried 70 crews of German submariners, a women's division, a thousand wounded and 9 thousand civilians - women and children. Three torpedo salvoes turned the Gustloff into the largest casualty of the Soviet Navy. Historians estimate the death toll to be 9,000, including 5,000 children. It was rumored that Hitler even declared Marinesko a personal enemy. But attempts to present the captain as an executioner turned out to be untenable, because the Gustloff had weapons and military markings.
After 2 weeks, the Marinesco submarine sent the General Steubelen ship to the bottom along with 3,700 people on board. After this, the captain was awarded the star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. However, because of the tribunal, he received only the second Order of the Red Banner.
With the end of the war, Marinesko, accustomed to making amends in battles, was deprived of this opportunity. In September he was demoted to senior lieutenant and transferred to the commander of a minesweeper, and in November he was written off to the reserve. After working for 3 years at the Baltic Shipping Company, he was fired for drunkenness, and in 1949 he was sentenced to 3 years for squandering social property.
Returning to Leningrad, Marinesko got a job as a supplier at a plant, and in 1962 he was diagnosed with cancer. Friends got Alexander Ivanovich to return his previous rank, which gave him the right to a good pension, and also admitted him to a clinic Military Medical Academy. But it was no longer possible to defeat the disease, and on November 25, 1963, Marinesko died. The Hero's Star found him only posthumously.
The torpedoing of the motor ship Wilhelm Gustloff, carried out on January 30, 1945 by the crew of the Soviet submarine S-13, was first called the “attack of the century” not in its homeland - in the USSR, but in the West. Moreover, just a few days after the Gustloff, this “floating symbol” of Nazi Germany, once “sanctified” by Hitler personally, sank to the bottom, taking with it several thousand passengers. Until recently, it was believed that the entire flower of the German submarine fleet was on board the huge ship. 1,300 submariners, or 70–80 complete crews, most of whom died. The Fuhrer declared the commander of the Soviet submarine his personal enemy and ordered him to be retrieved and destroyed. After this, captain 3rd rank Alexander Marinesko, who commanded the S-13, began to be called Submariner No. 1. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) for that feat was awarded to him 45 years later - in May 1990...
DON'T COME BACK WITHOUT VICTORY, OTHERWISE...
However, in last years a number of researchers and journalists, based on an analysis of the newly discovered circumstances of that legendary attack (previously unknown documents, including German ones, were declassified), argue that all this, with the exception of the very fact of the sinking of the liner, is, to put it mildly, a myth. The truth, in their opinion, is the following.
Marinesko de had no alternative: on January 11, 1945, he went on a campaign, having received such a fine that, if he had been a land officer, he would have been sentenced, at best, to a penal battalion, and at worst, he would have received 10 years without the right to correspondence ( execution).
The Soviet submarine base was stationed at the end of 1944 in Turku, a city in Finland that emerged from the war. Marinesko, having left the ship to celebrate the New Year, was absent for two days. I went to the hotel restaurant, drank, charmed the Swedish hostess there and stayed in her alcoves. He sent a messenger to three cheerful letters, who came for him with a call to headquarters. At the same time, a certain trio from the crew, while they were looking for the commander, managed to distinguish themselves by sorting out relations with the local population. Smersh intervened. It reached the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral Vladimir Tributs, who decided, according to the laws of harsh times, to put Marinesko on trial before a military tribunal. However, based on the fact that a change of commander on a large boat (and even one in which the crew doted on!) threatened to withdraw the submarine during the organizational period for an indefinite period, despite the fact that the number of operating submarines in the fleet was reduced to 15, they prompted the commander to “adjust " solution. He provided an opportunity for the commander and crew of the C-13 to atone for their guilt in the upcoming campaign.
In turn, the commander of the 1st submarine division of the Baltic Fleet, Captain 1st Rank Alexander Orel (he would later become an admiral and command the Baltic Fleet), sending Marinesko on a mission, meaningfully told him not to return without victory, otherwise...
According to military historian Miroslav Morozov, “thus, to the number of other records related to the campaign of the heroic submarine, we must also add the fact that it became the only “penalty submarine” of the Soviet Navy during all the years of the war.”... Gross violations of military discipline (drunkenness, women, cards, attributing to himself non-existent sinkings of enemy ships) Marinesko admitted this before, for which already in October 1941 he was expelled from candidates for membership in the CPSU (b). True, later they were accepted into the party for their differences in the campaigns of 1942–1943...
How the Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk has been written in detail many times; we will not repeat it. Let us only recall that the S-13 reached the target in a storm, at night, not from the sea, but from the shore, under the guise of a boat, with all the stern lights lit and from a minimum distance, it hit the ship with three torpedoes. Many wrote that Marinesko used tactics here that had never been seen before. Now this is also subject to “serious doubts”: they say that the commanders of other Soviet submarines often practiced this.
In the same campaign, the S-13 also sank the Steuben military transport with a displacement of about 15 thousand tons. Here he was great! Because the storm was much stronger, and the escort of destroyers was nearby, and it was not torpedoed at point-blank range. But this, according to Marinesco’s critics, does not in any way overshadow his dubious and fictitious victories...
…And 8537 DROWNED REFUGEES
Today, Marinesko is blamed for the newly discovered fact that it was not Hitler’s submarine aces who sailed on the Gustloff, but mainly refugees fleeing the rapidly advancing Soviet troops. Of the 10,582 people who were on the ship at the time of the “attack of the century,” there were 8,956 of them—mostly women with children and old people from East and West Prussia. Yes, 162 seriously wounded soldiers from hospitals in Danzig and Gotenhafen. Yes, 373 women auxiliary personnel of the Navy. Yes 173 civilian crew members (merchant seamen). As for the Kriegsmarine sailors, there were only 918 of them: officers, non-commissioned officers and cadets of the 2nd battalion of the 2nd submarine training division. What is the “whole color” of the German submarine fleet?!
It is estimated that the downed C-13 liner took with it 390 submariners and 8,537 refugees (civilians) to the bottom. It is emphasized that, since it was ordered to take on board only mothers with at least three children (although this instruction was no longer carried out before sailing), there is every reason to believe that among the dead refugees there were at least 4,000, and possibly , and 5000 children. And in this light, Marinesko seems to be some kind of more than ruthless monster, they say, and you can’t find a definition for such cruel!
The data presented were published in Heinz Schön’s 1998 book “SOS Wilhelm Gustloff.” The largest ship disaster in history." Heinz Schön himself (he died not so long ago, in 2013) is a man who survived the sinking of the Gustloff, on which he was one of Captain Peterson’s assistants. Shen subsequently became a historian and devoted his entire life to researching the circumstances of the lost ship and the fate of its passengers.
We must pay tribute to the researcher: he studied the “Gustloff case” impartially, untendentiously, confirming his research and conclusions with documents and eyewitness accounts. He visited Russia several times, visited the Marinesko Museum and his grave at the Bogoslovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Shen believes that the death of the giant steamship was not only the largest maritime disaster of the Second World War, but also in the entire world history, since never before had so many people died at the same time.
"GUSTLOFF" WAS A LEGITIMATE TARGET
Where did the figure “3,700 trained submarine specialists” come from, which for several decades appeared in all descriptions of his unprecedented feat? And it was taken from foreign media reports that appeared on February 19–20, 1945 - first Swiss publications wrote about it, then the Times and Reuters confirmed it. It is quite possible that “3,700 submariners” arose from the understanding that the attacked steamer was a mother ship for the German fleet, the number of personnel of which the British might have known. In addition, in the context of many days of concealment by the injured party of the fact of the sinking of the ship and information about the number of victims, many rumors appeared about a terrible tragedy. The survivors hastened to destroy them. And journalists could well have had “their own vision” of the circumstances of the disaster.
The newly discovered data is grist for the mill of those who are now once again trying to overthrow Marinesko from the pedestal of Submariner No. 1 (both in the West and in our country). This information allows them to boldly assert that “the maniac Marinesko bloodthirstyly dealt with innocent people.”
However, the same Shen (and many other unbiased experts from different countries) is by no means convinced that Marinesco should be posthumously condemned for his “barbaric act.” According to the researcher, the Gustloff was still a completely legitimate military target of Soviet submariners: the ship was not unarmed (it carried machine guns and cannons), it was a training base for the German submarine fleet and was accompanied by a warship (the destroyer Leve).
By the way, Soviet transports with refugees and wounded during the war repeatedly became targets for German submarines and aircraft. Thus, the motor ship "Armenia", sunk in 1941 in the Black Sea, transported more than 5,000 refugees and wounded. Only eight people survived! The Armenia also violated the status of a medical ship and was a legitimate military target. Another example. On May 3, 1945, British fighter-bombers sank the Cap Arcona liner in the Lübeck Bay, on board which were thousands of unarmed concentration camp prisoners, clearly visible from the air in their striped camp uniform. 5,594 people were burned alive and drowned. And these are not isolated examples.
FURER'S PERSONAL ENEMY No. 26
Today it is also known that no mourning was declared in Germany for the death of Gustloff. Moreover, all survivors were forbidden to talk to anyone about the drowning. This was done because in Gotenhafen and Danzig, over 100 thousand refugees, most of them women and children, were awaiting evacuation by sea, and panic could well have arisen among them after such news.
The Fuhrer took the news of the death of “Wilhelm Gustloff” very calmly. Evidence of this is the transcript of the meeting at which the commander of the Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral Karl Dennitz, reported to him about the sinking of the ship. Hitler did not fall into any hysterics, and certainly did not declare the unknown S-13 commander his personal enemy.
The beautiful legend about how the Fuhrer recorded Marinesko as such an enemy could have arisen in this way. Nine years earlier, mourning was declared in Germany for the real Wilhelm Gustloff, an associate of the Fuhrer in the National Socialist movement and his viceroy in Switzerland, who was shot dead on February 6, 1936 in Davos by a Jewish student of Serbian origin, David Frankfurter. At this funeral in Gustloff's homeland in Schwerin, 35 thousand people were present, led by Hitler, and it was the largest mourning since the death of Bismarck. In his funeral speech, the fascist leader declared Frankfurter his personal enemy.
In addition, it is known that “Wilhelm Gustloff” received its name on Hitler’s personal initiative. The Fuhrer not only attended the ceremonial launching of the ship on May 5, 1937, but also visited it on May 24, 1938, when the liner set off on its first cruise. The Wilhelm Gustloff was conceived, built and operated at sea as a symbol of Nazism. This symbol was buried in the waves of the Baltic by the submarine S-13 under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Alexander Marinesko.
Apparently, these two circumstances were projected by someone from the writing fraternity onto the S-13 commander. And to this day, some researchers (not to mention journalists and ordinary people) are seriously convinced that allegedly after the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, a classified (“secret”) folder entitled “Personal Enemies of the Fuhrer and Germany” was found in Hitler’s office. And it supposedly contains lists of those who “are subject to search, arrest and immediate trial for crimes committed against the Fuhrer and the Reich.” In this folder in gray calico, Marinesko was listed as enemy of the Reich number 26 - after Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Zhukov, Montgomery, Eisenhower, de Gaulle...
It is also known that back in 1988, Soviet researchers asked the Potsdam archive of the GDR whether there had been a declaration of mourning for those killed from the Gustloff? The official response read: “The declaration of mourning seems doubtful due to the lack of reports about the very fact of the loss of the ship.” During the entire war, the Germans declared mourning (three days) only once - when the 230,000-strong 6th Army of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus was surrounded and defeated at Stalingrad.
HERO WITHOUT THE SMALLEST RESERVATIONS
In 2002, Nobel laureate Günter Grass’s novel “The Trajectory of the Crab” was published, dedicated to the events of January 30, 1945. It portrays Marinesco as almost a barbarian who drowned thousands of mothers and children. The writer paints a picture of the tragedy, former member"Hitler Youth", based on Shen's data, recreates it very realistically. “Our Answer to Chamberlain” is a very mediocre feature film “First After God”, released on domestic screens in 2005. However, all the events in it take place mainly on the shore. And there’s not much of the real Marinesco there - except maybe a party and a femme fatale.
How to treat the “attack of the century” and the truly popular title of Marinesko “Submariner No. 1” based on all the above facts? Was this attack really that old and does the late Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko have the right to remain Submariner No. 1?
Yes - he is definitely (without the slightest reservation!) Submariner No. 1! Likewise, there is no reason to doubt that on January 30, 1945, he carried out the “attack of the century.”
Let us emphasize once again that the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was first called the “attack of the century” abroad. In Swiss newspapers - in 1945, and later in English, when the relevant documents seized by the British from the Germans and taken out of Germany were declassified. This definition was repeated many times both in periodicals and in scientific and journalistic literature until the early 1980s. Until, finally, it was picked up by the domestic media, which suddenly began the fight for restoration good name Alexandra Marinesko. The same applies to the “honorary title” “Submariner No. 1”.
All this is especially significant in light of the fact that in the West, to put it mildly, it is unfashionable to exalt in the slightest degree any achievements related to Russia (among the “great Russians” they know mostly only Yuri Gagarin). And our former allies are generally inclined to rewrite the history of World War II in favor of significantly underestimating the role of the Soviet Union in the victory over Hitler’s Reich. But, despite such approaches, not in years cold war, nor after, few in the West doubted the outstanding achievement of Alexander Marinesko and the legality of his actions in relation to “Wilhelm Gustloff” and “Steuben”.
Let us also note this point. None of the famous attacks by submariners from other countries received the title “attack of the century.” For example, the American submarine SS-311 Archerfish, commanded by Commander Joseph Inright, on November 29, 1944, with four torpedoes (the fifth missed) sank the newest Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano, which was launched on its first cruise (was launched on October 5, 1944). » with a displacement of 71,890 brt. 1080 people were saved, 1435 were declared missing. It remained the largest aircraft carrier in the world even at the bottom, until in 1960 the Americans launched their famous nuclear-powered Enterprise (89,600 GRT). For comparison, the Wilhelm Gustloff sunk by Marinesko had “only” 25,484 GRT.
Some subverters of Marinesko believe that the same British, calling the sinking of the Gustloff “the attack of the century,” mean primarily the number of civilian casualties that resulted from the torpedoing of the steamer by a Soviet submarine. But who knew about this in January 1945?! On the contrary, it was well known that since the end of 1940, by decision of the leadership of the Nazi German Navy, the lost steamer was assigned to the submariner school in Gotenhafen...
All these epithets were paid to the then unknown Soviet submariner, we note, at a time when in the Soviet Union Marinesko was hushed up in every possible way, persecuted, spread rot and put in prison.
Finally, thirdly, the ship - we emphasize this again - taking into account its pre-war history, from the moment it was launched, it was to a large extent a symbol of Nazi Germany at sea. As noted above, Adolf Hitler set foot on its deck more than once. German propaganda called it the “ship of dreams.” If you like, it really was a kind of “Reichstag at sea.” Thus, defining Marinesko’s actions in relation to Gustloff as the “attack of the century,” in the West (and then in our country) they laid (and still do) in this concept, so to speak, moral, political, psychological significance (both for the Germany, and for the countries that were its opponents in World War II). And then – the tonnage of the ship and the number of deaths.
“This was a strategic success for the Soviet Navy, and for Germany it was the largest naval disaster,” says the deputy director of the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces named after A.I. Marinesko Yuri Lebedev. – With its actions, the submarine S-13 brought the end of the war closer. Marinesko's feat is that he destroyed the seemingly unsinkable symbol of Nazism, a dream ship promoting the Third Reich. And the civilians on the ship became hostages of the German military machine. Therefore, the tragedy of the death of Gustloff is not an indictment of Marinesco, but of Hitler’s Germany.”
ON THE QUESTION OF MARINESCO’S IMMORALITY
As for the fact that Marinesko as a hero is more than “not an uncharismatic person”... Well... Both drunkenness and immorality cannot be taken away from him - that’s a fact. It is also known that in 1948, Marinesko, working at the Institute of Blood Transfusion as deputy director, was imprisoned for three years for embezzlement of socialist property. He was also married twice (in those days this was considered “incompatible with membership in the Communist Party”). All this is true.
But the fact is that during the 1418 days and nights of the Great Patriotic War, Victory for the country was achieved for the most part by yesterday’s collective farmers, workers and intellectuals, who were by no means ideal in all respects, who suddenly became, at the call of the Motherland, Stalin and the party, soldiers without fear and reproach, but people who continued to remain at the front with their weaknesses and shortcomings. Professional soldiers are no exception.
Suffice it to remember that “Marshal of Victory” Georgy Zhukov was an incorrigible rude person in his relations with his subordinates. And Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky - this is also a well-known fact - at the front, from the novice military doctor Galina Talanova, who was a quarter of a century younger than him, he fathered a daughter, Nadezhda (to his credit, he gave her his last name and patronymic). And in general, PPZH - field marching wives - were a common occurrence during the war. The same Zhukov lived with his personal nurse Lydia Zakharova. The medal “For Military Merit,” which commanders often presented to their trench lovers, was popularly called “For Sexual Services.” Already on September 22, 1941 (heavy battles were going on, Soviet troops fled!), again Zhukov, as commander of the Leningrad Front, issued characteristic order No. 0055: “In the headquarters and command posts of division and regiment commanders there are many women under the guise of serving, seconded, etc. .P. A number of commanders, having lost the face of the communists, are simply cohabiting... I order: under the responsibility of the Military Councils of armies, commanders and commissars of individual units, remove all women from headquarters and command posts by September 23, 1941. A limited number of typists will be retained only in agreement with the Special Department. Deliver execution on September 24, 1941.” A day later - another similar order No. 0066 dated September 24. It's about about the 8th Army of the Leningrad Front: “At the army headquarters, among the commanders of units and formations, drunkenness and debauchery are widespread...” (The texts of these two orders were first published in the magazine “History of St. Petersburg”, No. 2, 2001.)
So why is Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko worse in this sense? Or why should he, a son of his time, be better?
Why did he drink? And from months of idleness without combat work. Due to the death of comrades - the same submarine commanders who did not surface, having been blown up one after another by mines in 1942-1943. Upon receiving the news of his father’s death from wounds in 1944... And who said that you can’t drown grief with vodka?.. And, in the end, he was not going to become the author of the “attack of the century” and Submariner No. 1! He just fought. As best I could.
Is it possible to blame Marinesko for the fact that during the war years he repeatedly deliberately (as historian Miroslav Morozov and others claim) incorrectly identified targets? Yes and no. On the one hand, it was necessary to “look more clearly.” But that's easy to say. So he mistook the Steuben transport for a cruiser. But at what point? The target was struck from the surface with stern torpedo tubes in the most difficult winter conditions of the stormy night Baltic, at a time when high-speed destroyers were scurrying around the transport. Why should we deny Marinesko a mistake? In the end, the main thing is the very fact of destroying an armed enemy. By the way, Marinesko paid for this mistake by the fact that he, who was then presented for that unprecedented campaign to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, was never decorated with a Golden Star on his chest - it was considered that for a “liar” the Order of the Red Banner was a luxurious reward.
The same applies to the floating battery sunk in 1942 according to his report, which in 1946 the Navy miraculously received for its use through reparations. Even if Marinesko was “mad”... But who investigated whether he was the only such liar in the navy or whether others, no, no, were also engaged in postscripts? If one is one thing, if he “took an example from his comrades” - that’s also bad, of course, but it’s more justifiable, or something... Let’s say, many Soviet aces, having accumulated many planes, “gave” their next victories to their less fortunate comrades. How should we approach this?
However, that's not the point. In this context, it would be appropriate to cite an observation that the author of this article read from the French philosopher Claude Adrian Helvetius (1715–1771) in his wonderful treatise “On the Mind”: “A man can become useful and valuable to his people only thanks to his talents. Posterity does not ask whether Juvenal was evil, Ovid dissolute, Hannibal cruel, Lucretius impious, Horace depraved, Augustus hypocritical, and Caesar the wife of all husbands; it judges only their talents.”
Perhaps, based on a similar understanding of things, the People's Commissar and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy during the war, Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, who in November 1945 signed an order to demote him to senior lieutenant and to transfer Marinesko to the reserve, many years later, having himself by that time experienced demotion from the admirals of the fleet to rear admirals and persecution, wrote: “I, as an admiral, have a very definitely negative attitude towards the numerous serious misconduct of A. Marinesko in the service and in everyday life. But knowing his courage, determination and ability to achieve major military successes, I am ready to forgive him a lot and pay tribute for his services to the Motherland.”
By the way, in the Baltic during the war there were 13 “esoks” similar to the one on which Marinesko fought. Only one survived until Victory Day - “his” S-13. And it’s unlikely that just “luck” is the reason for this!
In general, it is strange that modern evaluators of Marinesko’s deeds, be it a professional historian or a participant in another Internet forum advanced in matters of military history, do not think about whether it is immoral for them, “representatives of post-war generations,” to talk about the “immorality of the feat “the commander of the famous “eska” in principle?! Obviously, every trip to sea on a submarine during war was fraught with considerable risk and because of this alone, in a certain sense, was a feat. This feat was performed daily by everyone who defended Moscow in 1941, carried out a “radical turning point in the course of the war” at Kursk in 1943, and took Berlin in 1945... And then the author of one of the books “debunking” Marinesko , went on to say that, from a military point of view, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff liner “had absolutely no significance”: the war was over! Well, yes, according to his logic, there was no need to storm the Reichstag - Berlin had already fallen! And in Prague on May 8 there was no need to finish off the enemy - he himself would have surrendered after the 9th...
