Alexander Golovanov: biography and photos

Alexander Golovanov is a well-known Russian military commander who served in the Soviet army. During the Second World War, he directed Soviet long-range aviation, as well as the 18th Air Army. After the war, he was appointed to direct all long-range aviation of the USSR. In 1944 he received the title of Chief Marshal of Aviation. In the history of the workers 'and peasants' Red Army, he became the youngest marshal.

Childhood and youth of the future pilot

Alexander Golovanov was born in 1904. He was born on the territory of the Russian Empire in a large city - Nizhny Novgorod. His parents were famous residents of the city. Mother is an opera singer, and her father is a captain of a towboat. 8-year-old Alexander Golovanov was sent to study at the Aleksandrovsky Cadet Corps. So, as a child, it was decided that in the future it would become a military one.

The hero of our article joined the Red Guard when he was still a teenager. In October 1917 he turned 13 years old. True, according to external signs, he was given much more. He looked at all 16, and the height was under two meters.

After the success of the October Revolution, he spoke for the power of the Soviets. Already in 1918 he began to make a living. Alexander Golovanov in Moldovan years went to work as a courier in the office "Profsohleb", organized at the food commissariat.

Participation in the Civil War

Alexander Golovanov took part in the Civil War. He was identified as a scout in the 59th Infantry Regiment, which carried out combat missions on the Southern Front. In one of the battles he received a concussion.

Demobilized only in 1920. Already then Golovanov Alexander decided that civil service was not for him. Therefore, I entered the so-called CHON. These are Special Purpose Units. So at the dawn of the Soviet Union called the communist squads, which existed with various party cells. Their duties included guard duty at particularly important facilities, in every way helping the Soviet government in the fight against the counter-revolution.

Initially, the ChON ranks were formed only from party members and candidates for the party. However, by 1920, when Alexander Golovanov joined the ChON, active Komsomols and even non-Party people began to take part in it.

At the same time, what is known about the hero of our article on official documents is somewhat at odds with his autobiography written autographically. In the latter there is no mention of service in CHON. Alexander Golovanov, whose photo is in this article, claims that in those years he worked in the management of the supply of the Red Army and Navy as a courier.

The next stage in his career is an agent in Centropechat, and then a handyman on a raft of timber at Volgosudstroy. Later he was an agent and an electrician at the fifth Volga regiment of the GPU, which was based in his native city - Nizhny Novgorod.

Service in the OGPU

In 1924 he joined the OGPU Golovanov Alexander Evgenievich. The biography of the hero of our article was connected with this body for the next 9 years.

The OGPU was deciphered as "unified state political management", which operated under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. It was formed in 1923 on the basis of the NKVD.

In the first years the OGPU was headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, and from 1926 to 1934 - Vyacheslav Menzhinsky. Golovanov was engaged in operational work and worked in special departments. He went from authorized to the head of the department.

Twice took part in distant business trips to China. In particular, in the province of Xinjiang. In the early 30's. Shortly before that, he became a member of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks.

The arrest of Savinkov

The brightest page of his work in the OGPU was the participation in the arrest of Boris Savinkov. This is one of the leaders of the domestic Socialist-Revolutionaries, a White Guard. Terrorist and revolutionary.

After the bourgeois February Revolution of 1917, he received the post of Commissioner of the Provisional Government. In August, when Kornilov attacked Petrograd, he became the military governor of the city. He offered the general to submit to the Provisional Government, but as a result he admitted his failure.

The October Revolution did not support. Participated in the confrontation with the Bolsheviks, formed a volunteer army on the Don, supported Denikin. As a result, he emigrated from the country, tried to establish contact with the nationalists, but eventually fell into complete political isolation.

Despite this, the OGPU designed Operation Syndicate-2 to eliminate the Savinkov anti-Soviet underground. In it, and took part Golovanov. In August 1924, Savinkov secretly arrived in the Soviet Union, enticed by operational personnel.

His arrest took place in Minsk. At the trial, Savinkov acknowledged his defeat in the fight against Soviet power and the collapse of his own ideals. He was sentenced to death, soon the punishment was mitigated, replacing him for 10 years of imprisonment.

According to the official version, in 1925 he committed suicide by throwing himself out of the fifth-floor window. In the room where he was brought for interrogation, there were no bars on the windows. There is an alternative version, according to which he was killed by OGPU officers. In particular, it is set forth by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his novel The Gulag Archipelago.

Golovanov is a civilian pilot

In 1931 Golovanov Alexander Evgenievich was seconded to the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry, where he was the executive secretary. The following year he began to actively develop the profession of the pilot of civil aviation. He graduated from the school OSOAVIAHIM (analogue of the modern DOSAAF).

In 1933 he was hired by Aeroflot. So began his air career. Until the very beginning of confrontation with the Nazi invaders, he flew on civilian flights. He went from a private pilot to the head of the department and, finally, the chief pilot.

An important milestone in his career was in 1935, when Golovanov was appointed to head the East Siberian Department of the Civil Air Fleet. It was based in Irkutsk. Alexander Golovanov built a career in civil aviation.

In 1937, during the purges among the Communists, Golovanov was expelled from the party. However, he managed to avoid arrest. Moreover, he went to Moscow, as he himself said, "to seek the truth." And he succeeded. The Metropolitan Party Control Commission ruled that his exclusion was erroneous. True, he did not return to Irkutsk. He was left in Moscow as a pilot. He showed himself well in the capital. After a short time Golovanov was already considered one of the best pilots of the country's civil aviation, became a chief pilot of a special-purpose squadron.

In 1938, the hero of our article set an enviable record. His total flight experience was one million kilometers. In the Soviet newspapers, they began to write about him as a "millionaire pilot." For this, he was awarded the badge "Excellent Aeroflot." And all his flights were accident-free, that in those days when a man was just beginning to conquer airspace, it was a great achievement. He becomes truly popular in the country by man. His photo is even published on the cover of the magazine Ogonyok.

During the Great Patriotic War

Golovanov received experience of participating in combat operations even before the German fascist invaders attacked the Soviet Union. In 1939, he took part in the battles of Khalkhin-Gol. This was an undeclared local armed conflict, which lasted several months in Mongolia. In it, on the one hand, Soviet troops and Mongols participated, and on the other hand, the Japanese Empire.

The conflict ended with the complete defeat of the Japanese division. And the USSR and Japan differently assess these events. If in domestic historiography they are called a local military conflict, then the Japanese speak of them as a second Russian-Japanese war.

A little later Golovanov went to the front of the Soviet-Finnish war. This war lasted a little less than six months. It all started with the fact that the Soviet Union accused Finland of artillery shelling. Thus, the Soviets laid the whole responsibility for the fighting on the Scandinavian country. The result was the conclusion of a peace treaty, according to which the USSR withdrew 11% of the territory of Finland. Then, by the way, the Soviet Union was considered an aggressor and expelled from the League of Nations.

Taking part in both these conflicts, Golovanov met the Great Patriotic War already an experienced military pilot. As early as the beginning of 1941, before the attack of Hitler, he wrote a letter to Stalin, in which he justified the need to specially train the pilots for the operations of long-range bomber aviation. Especially, in adverse weather, in addition, and at prohibitive altitude.

In February, his personal meeting with the Generalissimo took place, as a result of which he was appointed commander of a separate regiment of long-range bomber aviation. In August, he already received the post of commander of a long-range aviation division. And in October the next rank was granted. The major-general of aviation was Alexander Golovanov. The Great Patriotic War allowed him to prove himself on the air fronts. On the eve of the new 1942, he began to direct the long-range aviation division at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Air Marshal

In 1942, the hero of our article began to lead long-range aviation. In May, he was awarded the rank of Lieutenant-General. Since then, and until the very end of the war was the main in all Soviet long-range aviation. At the same time, he enjoyed sympathy, respect and trust from Stalin's commander-in-chief. So getting regular military ranks did not take long.

Since March 1943 - Colonel-General. And on August 3, Alexander Golovanov - Air Marshal. During the war, he was appointed commander of the 18th Air Army, in which all the country's long-range bomber aviation was directly concentrated at that time. Despite the high rank, Golovanov himself regularly participated in combat sorties. In particular, he went to distant bomber raids at the very beginning of the war. When in the summer of 1941, within one month, Soviet pilots carried out a series of air bombardments of Berlin.

This was preceded by a massive bombing of Moscow, which began almost immediately after the outbreak of the war. At that time Goebbels even had time to say that Soviet aviation had been completely destroyed, and no bomb would ever fall on Berlin. Golovanov brilliantly refuted this bold statement.

The first flight to Berlin was made on August 7. Soviet aircraft flew at an altitude of 7 thousand meters. The pilots did not have to remove the oxygen masks, and the radio broadcast was banned. When flying over German territory, Soviet bombers were repeatedly discovered, but the Germans could not imagine the possibility of an attack so much that they were sure that they were their planes. Over Stettin, they even turned on searchlights for them, assuming the lost planes of the Luftwaffe. As a result, as many as five aircraft were able to drop bombs into a well-lit Berlin and returned to the base without loss.

Golovanov was appointed commander of these sorties after the second attempt, which took place on August 10. It was no longer so successful. Of the 10 cars, only 6 were able to drop bombs on Berlin, and only two returned. After this hero of the Soviet Union Vodopyanov was removed from the post of division commander, and Golovanov took his place.

The hero of our article has repeatedly flown over the enemy capital. German intelligence at that time noted that he among the few has a unique right to personal access to Stalin. The latter refers to him solely by name as a sign of special trust.

The events of those years also involved the flight of Stalin to the Tehran conference, which was personally organized by Golovanov. In the way went on two planes. Behind the wheel of the second, covering, was Golovanov. And Stalin, Voroshilov and Molotov were entrusted to carry Lieutenant-General of Aviation Viktor Grachev.

In 1944, Golovanov's health got seriously shaken. He began to worry about spasms, interruptions in the work of the heart, stopping breathing. According to doctors, the reason for this was regular lack of sleep, which actually led to the destruction of the central nervous system. It should be noted that during the years of the war with Nazi Germany Golovanov set a record for the Soviet armed forces, having risen from the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel to the Chief Marshal of Aviation.

The fate after the war

After the war, in 1946, Golovanov was appointed commander of long-range aviation of the Soviet Union. However, two years later he was removed from his post. According to the majority, the cause was the state of health, which was greatly shaken after the war.

Golovanov graduated from the Academy of the General Staff. But even after that he could not return to the troops. There was no appointment. Nothing shy Alexander Evgenievich again addressed a letter to Stalin. And in 1952 he commanded one of the airborne corps. It was a very strange decision. Never before in the history of aviation the corps was commanded by a marshal of the clan of armies. It was too small for him. Golovanov was even asked in this connection to write a petition to lower the rank to the colonel-general, but he refused.

In 1953, after the death of Joseph Stalin, the hero of our article was finally sent to the reserve. After 5 years, he settled in the post of deputy chief in the Civil Aviation Research Institute for Flight Operations. He retired in 1966.

Book of memories

After retiring, the hero of our article showed himself as a memoir writer. Golovanov Alexander wrote a whole book of memories. "Long-range bomber" - so it is called. In many respects this biography is devoted to personal meetings and communication with Stalin. Because of this during the life of the author came out with significant bills. The publication without censorship readers could see only in the late 80's.

In 2007 the last edition of these memoirs of Alexander Golovanov took place. By the way, the author's bibliography includes only one book. But because of this, it does not become less valuable.

Golovanov himself died in 1974. He was 71 years old. The funeral took place at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Personal life

Alexander Golovanov, whose family has always supported, married in his youth to the daughter of a merchant of the first guild. Her name was Tamara Vasilyevna. She was from Vologda province. Survived her husband more than 20 years. It was not only in 1996.

They had five children. Four daughters - Svetlana, Tamara, Veronica and Olga, and one son - Svyatoslav. He was the youngest.