Biography of Vasiliy Filippovich Margelov. Paratrooper # 1. Hero of the Soviet Union

Most of the bright pages of the history of the airborne troops are closely related to the name of Vasily Filippovich Margelov, who was a talented military commander and army general. For a quarter of a century he headed the "winged guard" of Russia. His selfless service to the Motherland and personal courage became an excellent example for many generations of blue berets.

Even during his lifetime, he was already called the legendary man and paratrooper # 1. His biography is delightful.

Birth and youth

The birthplace of the hero is Dnepropetrovsk, the city where Vasily Filippovich Margelov was born on December 27, 1908. His family was big enough, and consisted of three sons and a daughter. My father was a simple worker of a hot foundry, so I had to be badly hurt from time to time, and the future famous military leader, Margelov Vasily Filippovich. Sons actively helped my mother to farm.

Vasiliy began his labor career in his early youth, first he studied leatherworking, and then began working in a coal mine. Here he was engaged in pushing trolleys with coal.

The biography of Vasily Filippovich Margelov continues with the fact that in 1928 he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to study in Minsk. It was the United Belarusian School, which in time was renamed the Minsk Military-Infantry School named after. MI Kalinina. There the cadet Margelov was an excellent student in many subjects, taking into account fire, tactical and physical training. Upon completion of his studies, he began to command a machine-gun platoon.

From commander to captain

Did not go unnoticed for the chiefs of the ability of the young commander, which he showed from the very beginning of the service. Even with an unaided eye it was clear that he works well with people and passes on his knowledge to them.

In 1931 he was appointed commander of a regimental school platoon, which specialized in training commanders of the Red Army. And in early 1933 Vasily began to command in his native school. His military career in his native walls began with the platoon commander and ended with the title of captain.

When the Soviet-Finnish campaign was conducted, he commanded a ski reconnaissance-sabotage battalion, the location of which was a severe Polar region. The number of raids on the rear of the Finnish army is estimated in dozens.

During one of the similar operations, he was taken prisoner by officers of the General Staff of Sweden. This caused discontent of the Soviet government, since the supposedly neutral Scandinavian state actually took part in the fighting and supported the Finns. A diplomatic demarche of the Soviet government took place, which influenced the King of Sweden and his cabinet. As a result, he did not send his army to Karelia.

The appearance of vests from paratroopers

The experience that Major Vasily Margelov (a nationality testified to the presence of Belarusian roots) received at that time, brought great benefits in the fall of 1941, when Leningrad was besieged. He was then appointed to be dominated by the First Special Ski Regiment of the sailors of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, formed from volunteers. At the same time, rumors spread that he will not be able to settle down there, since seamen are a kind of people and do not take any of their land brothers into their ranks. But this prophecy was not destined to come true. Thanks to his intelligence and ingenuity, he won the favor of his wards from the very first days. As a result, a lot of glorious feats were made by sailors-skiers, commanded by Major Margelov. They fulfilled the tasks and tasks of the Commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice-Admiral Tributs.

Skiers with their deep bold raids that were committed to the German rear in the winter of 1941-1942, were for the German command as a continuing headache. One of the most striking examples of their history is the landing on the coast of Ladoga in the Lipki and Shlisselburg directions, which so much alarmed the Hitlerite command that Field Marshal von Leeb removed troops from Pulkovo to carry out its liquidation. The main purpose of these German troops at that time was the tightening of the noose of the blockade of Leningrad.

Approximately 20 years after that, the commander of the Airborne Forces , Army General Margelov, won the right to wear vests for paratroopers. He wanted them to adopt the tradition of their older brothers - marines. Only the stripes on their clothes were of a slightly different color - blue as the sky.

Striped Death

The biography of Vasiliy Filippovich Margelov and his subordinates has many facts, which testify that the "Marines" under his command fought very dashingly. This is evidenced by numerous examples. Here's one of them. It so happened that enemy infantrymen consisting of 200 people broke through the defense of the neighboring regiment and settled in the rear of the "Margelites". It was May 1942, when the Marines were not far from Vinyaglovo, near which Sinyavsky Heights were located. Vasily Filippovich quickly gave the necessary instructions. He himself armed himself with the machine gun "Maxim". Then 79 Nazi soldiers died from his hands, and the rest were destroyed by reinforcements.

Very interesting is the fact that the biography of Vasiliy Filippovich Margelov has, that during the defense of Leningrad he constantly kept a heavy machine gun near him. In the morning a special shooting charge was made from him: the captain "cut" the trees. After that, he spent the cabin with a sword, while sitting on his horse.

At the offensive, he repeatedly personally raised his regiment in the attack and was among the first rows of his subordinates. And in hand-to-hand combat he was not equal. In connection with such terrible struggles, the Marines were nicknamed the German military "striped death."

Officer's ration - in the soldier's cauldron

Biography of Vasily Filippovich Margelov and the history of those long-standing events say that he always and everywhere cared about the nutrition of his soldiers. This was for him almost the first thing in the war. After in 1942 he began to command the 13th Guards Regiment, he began to increase the fighting efficiency of his combat staff. For this, Vasily Filippovich improved the organization of food for his fighters.

Then the food was divided: the soldiers and sergeants ate separately from the officers of the regiment. At the same time, the second received a strengthened ration, in which the dietary norm was supplemented with animal oil, canned fish, biscuits, tobacco, and, for non-smokers, chocolate. And, of course, some of the food for the soldiers also went to the officers' table. The commander of the regiment learned about this, bypassing the units. At first he checked battalion kitchens and tried soldier's food.

Literally immediately after the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Margelov, absolutely all officers began to eat the same as soldiers. He also ordered his food to be given to the general mass. Over time, such actions began to occur and from other officers.

In addition, he very carefully monitored the condition of the footwear and clothes of the soldiers. The farmer of the regiment was very afraid of his boss, since in case of improper performance of his duties, he promised to transfer him to the front line.

Also very strictly Vasily Filippovich treated cowards, weak-willed and lazy. And for theft he punished very cruelly, so during his command it was completely absent.

"Hot snow" - a film about Vasily Marvilov

In the autumn of 1942, Colonel Margelov's guard was appointed commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Regiment. This regiment was part of the 2nd Guards Army, which was commanded by Lieutenant-General R. Ya. Malinovsky. It was specially formed in order to complete the defeat of the enemy that broke through in the Volga steppe. At a time when the regiment was in reserve for two months, there were serious preparations for the fighters to fight. Was led by Vasily Filippovich himself.

Since the time of the defense of Leningrad, Vasily Filippovich has become well acquainted with the weaknesses of fascist tanks. So now he independently conducted the training of tank destroyers. He personally tore the trench into a full profile, used an anti-tank rifle and metal grenades. All this he did in order to teach his fighters the correct conduct of the battle.

When his army defended the boundary of the river Myshkovka, he was hit by a grouping of tanks "Got". But the Margelites were not scared either by the newest Tiger tanks, or by their number. For five days, a battle took place, during which many of our soldiers died. But the regiment survived and retained its fighting efficiency. In addition, his fighters destroyed virtually all enemy tanks, although at the cost of this were numerous victims. Not everyone knows that it was these events that became the basis for the scenario of the film "Hot Snow".

Despite the concussion received during this fight, Vasily Filippovich did not quit the battle. The new 1943 Margelov met with his subordinates, carrying out the storming of the farm Kotelnikovsky. This was the end of the Leningrad epic. The division of Margelov owned thirteen thanks from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The final chord was the capture in 1945 of the SS tank corps.

On June 24, 1945, during the Victory Day parade, General Margelov commanded the frontline regiment.

Early career in Airborne Forces

In 1948, Margelov graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. After that, the 76th Guards Chernigov Red Banner Airborne Division arrives at his disposal, which was in the city of Pskov. He was well aware that, despite his already quite considerable age, he had to start all over again. He, as a beginner, must from scratch understand the entire landing science.

The first jump with a parachute took place when the general was already 40 years old.

As part of the Airborne Division of Marvelov, which he received, there was basically infantry, which has light weapons and limited amphibious capabilities. At that time, they could not be taken to solve major tasks in military operations. They did a great job: Russian airborne forces received modern equipment, weapons, and landing equipment. He was able to bring to everyone that only high-mobility troops, who can at any moment land in any place and quickly begin active combat operations immediately after their landing, can be assigned tasks in the enemy's rear.

This is also the main theme of many of Margelov's scientific works. He also defended her candidate's thesis. Quotations of Vasily Filippovich Margelov, taken from these works, still enjoy great popularity among military scientists.

It is thanks to VF Margelov that every modern employee of the Airborne Forces can proudly wear the main attributes of a kind of troops: a blue beret and a blue and white vest.

Brilliant work results

In 1950, he became commander of the airborne corps in the Far East. And four years later began to lead the airborne troops.

Vasiliy Margelov is the "paratrooper # 1", who did not need a lot of time to get everyone started to perceive him not as a mere servant, but as a man who sees all the prospects of the Airborne Forces, and who wants to make them the elite of all the Armed Forces. To achieve this goal, he broke the stereotypes and inertia, won the trust of active people and involved them in joint work. After a while he was already surrounded by carefully fostered like-minded people.

In 1970, an operational and strategic exercise called the Dvina took place, during which, in 22 minutes, about 8,000 paratroopers and 150 pieces of military equipment landed in the rear of the imaginary enemy. After that, the airborne troops of Russia were raised and thrown out in a completely unfamiliar terrain.

Over time, Margelov realized that it was necessary to somehow improve the work of the landing forces after landing. Because at times the paratroopers separated from the landed combat vehicle several kilometers not always flat ground. Therefore, it was necessary to develop a scheme in which it would be possible to avoid significant time losses in the search for soldiers of their vehicles. Subsequently, Vasily Filippovich put forward his candidacy for the first test of this kind.

Foreign experience

This is very difficult to believe, but in the late 80's all the famous professionals from America did not own equipment that would be similar to the Soviet one. They did not know all the secrets of how you can accomplish the landing of military vehicles with the soldiers inside them. Although in the Soviet Union this practice was carried out back in the 70's.

This became known only after the failure of one of the demonstration drills of the parachute battalion "regiment of the devil" ended. In the course of his conduct, a large number of soldiers inside the equipment were injured. And there were those who died. In addition, most of the machines remained standing where they landed. They could not move.

Tests of the Centaur

In the Soviet Union, it all began with the fact that General Margelov took a courageous decision to lay the responsibility of the pioneer on his shoulders. In 1972, the tests of a completely new Centaur system were in full swing, the main purpose of which was to carry out the landing of people inside their combat vehicles using parachute platforms. Not everything was smooth - there were also breaks of the dome of the parachute, and failures in the activation of active braking motors. Given the high degree of riskiness of such experiments, dogs were used for their carrying out. In the course of one of them the Buran dog died.

Western countries have also tested such systems. Only there, for this purpose, live people sentenced to death were put into cars. When the first prisoner died, such development work was considered inexpedient.

Magerlov was aware of the entire degree of riskiness of these operations, but he continued to insist on carrying them out. Since over time, jumping with dogs began to pass well, he tried to ensure that the fighters began to participate in it.

January 5, 1973 took place the legendary jump Airborne Margelova. For the first time in the history of mankind, with the use of parachute-platform facilities, BMD-1 was dropped, inside of which were soldiers. They were Major L. Zuev and Lieutenant A. Margelov, who was the eldest son of the commander-in-chief. Only a very courageous person would be able to send to carry out such a complex and unpredictable experiment of his own son.

Vasili Filippovich for this heroic innovation awarded the State Prize of the USSR.

"Centaur" was soon changed to "Reactavr". Its main feature was four times the rate of decline, which significantly reduced the vulnerability to shelling the enemy. All the time, work was under way to improve this system.

Margelov Vasily Filippovich, whose statements are passed from mouth to mouth, treated the soldiers with great love and respect. He believed that it was these simple workers who forged victory with their own hands. He often came to them in the barracks, the dining room, visited the training ground and in the hospital. He felt boundless faith in his paratroopers, and they answered him with love and devotion.

March 4, 1990 stopped the heart of the hero. The place where Vasily Filippovich Margelov is buried - Novodevichye cemetery in Moscow. But the memory of him and his heroic life is still alive today. This is evidenced not only by the monument to Margelov. It is kept by airborne troops and veterans of the Great Patriotic War.