Victim of repression - military test pilot Alexander Filin

The country should know the faces of its heroes, but these same heroes were shot in Stalin's time without trial and investigation. In this list was and Alexander Ivanovich Filin - major general of aviation and test pilot, who made a huge contribution to the development of military aviation in his country and was repressed at the behest of the "father of the people."

Alexander Filin: biography

He was born in Moscow in 1903, on January 18, in an ordinary family of a railway conductor. In 1916 he graduated from Butyrskaya Primary School No. 4, where he successfully studied, and in 1918 continued his studies at the Moscow Electrotechnical College.

In 1921, Alexander Filin voluntarily enlarged the ranks of the Red Army. From 1922 to 1924 he studied at the Military Theoretical School of the Air Force in Petrograd, then began to increase his military education in Kachinsk and Borisoglebsk schools of pilots. At the end, he was sent to serve in the 17th air detachment in Chita. There he was elected a deputy of the Chita City Council and a member of the district committee.

In 1926, Alexander Filin began to study at the Air Force Academy. Zhukovsky. August 26, 1929 in a crew with A. F. Kovalkov on the aircraft AS Yakovlev - AIR-3 - he sets an international record for the range and average speed of this class of aircraft on the route Minvody - Moscow.

Job

Since 1930, Alexander Filin was a test pilot of the Air Force Research Institute. In 1934 he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the GAZ-M-1. In the same year he received the second Order of Lenin, and in November 1937 he was appointed to the post of Chief of the Air Force Research Institute. In 1939 he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

May 7, 1941 in the Kremlin at a meeting of representatives of the senior staff of the Air Force, where Stalin was present, Filin made a report in which he, in detail analyzing the work of the institute, openly showed the shortcomings in the work of the aircraft industry, which was confirmed by the submission to the state tests of the past In full factory inspections of aircraft, such as LaGG-1, Yak-1, Yak-4, Ar-2, Su-2, Er-2. As a result, the report turned into an acute polemic between Stalin and Filin.

Opal

During the test flights on the MiG-3 aircraft in the Air Force Research Institute, data were received about its shorter range than was shown in the specially organized flight Moscow-Leningrad. They were conducted in excellent conditions for the state tests and with an additional device that establishes the optimum mode of operation of the engine.

This was reported to Stalin, who immediately appointed a commission, which included the Secretary of the Central Committee Malenkov, People's Commissar for Defense Tishchenko and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Vatutin. These leaders were far from understanding the whole problem and the subtleties of the test work and accused Filin of having deliberately underestimated the data of the test equipment.

Soon there was a decree on the arrest of Major-General AI Filin. In the first paragraphs he was accused of understating the range of MiG-3, and, strangely enough, he was accused of what he accused engineer Yakovlev, - insufficient Yaka-1 tests, and also the fact that the aircraft were put into serial Production without testing, although Alexander Ivanovich insisted on insisting on their full-fledged verification. At the same time, they removed a group of engineers and test pilots who conducted all tests at the Air Force Research Institute.

Filin was arrested on May 23, 1941. His fate was decided by deputy. Beria Kobulov and investigator of the NKVD Wlodzimirsky. They did not resort to aeronautical technical details, but were immediately charged with anti-Soviet conspiracy. On February 23, 1942 the designer was shot. In the investigation file about Filin it was written that the accused did not plead guilty. March 26, 1955 Alexander Filin - test pilot with a capital letter - was rehabilitated posthumously.

Secret plans of the leaders

When, at last, all the plans of the fascists for the seizure of Moscow collapsed and the turning point in the Great Patriotic War came, the witnesses of preparations for it gradually began to "clean up". Filina was shot one of the first. For what? For the fact that he carried out government orders? Or because of defending his point of view? Here it was possible to dispense with the removal or deprivation of military rank, but not to let such a valuable worker into the "expense". The story of the MiG-3 was simply a convenient motive. The reasons, most likely, were others. General Filin probably knew the military intentions of the leader well, or possessed information that discredited him in terms of relations with Germany, which did not conform to the generally accepted version. After all, they shot other high-ranking officials who could testify Stalin's secret plans.

Wife and children of Alexander Filin

The full got and his wife, Filin - Androsova NA While he was in prison, she was not touched. The sentencing was delayed, then the evacuation of the Air Force Research Institute began. She also worked there and was evacuated with the institute, so her trail was lost for a short time. Then Natalia Alexandrovna lived with her son at the dacha of the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee and did not suspect anything. But on May 28, 1942, she was arrested as the wife of a traitor to the motherland, and she was exiled to the Krasnoyarsk Territory for five years. The fate of his son remained unknown. The wives of Filina were rehabilitated, but the classification of secrecy has not yet been removed from their affairs.

Epilogue

When in September 1942 the technical characteristics of a number of aircraft were completed, it turned out that the MiG-3 had a maximum range of 725 km, but the plane required a range of 1,000 km to implement joint warfare plans with Germany. And the Soviet leader Stalin did this, but could he decide to oppose England? The British were so cunning that, after calculating the benefits of the war with Germany, they first supported Russia and condemned Hitler's Germany. This war for them was promising because in this terrible "slaughter" of its opponents, she escaped with little blood and became the dictator of the future world order. And in this fight, one of the "extreme" was Alexander Filin - test pilot.