Biography of Alexander Marinesko

Hero Soviet Union, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was born on January 15, 1913 in Odessa into a working-class family. Growing up near the sea, Alexander dreamed of becoming a sailor since childhood. After six years of labor school, he manages to become a sailor's apprentice. Having managed to prove himself well, young Marinesko receives a referral to a cabin school, after which he continues his studies at the Odessa Naval College. At the age of twenty, his dream of working in the navy comes true, and Alexander Marinesko, as a third and then second mate, makes voyages on steamships.

In 1933, Marinesko was sent to special navigator classes for the Red Fleet command staff course. After graduation, he becomes the head of the navigational combat unit on the Shch-306 submarine in the Baltic Fleet. In 1936 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant. In 1938, like a bolt from the blue, Marinesko’s dismissal followed with a ban on holding positions even in the merchant navy. The reason was the origin of Alexander Ivanovich (his father is a Romanian, who fled to Odessa from Romania from arrest in 1893) and the presence of relatives abroad. Marinesko, being a proud and proud man, did not write requests for restoration, despite the fact that his whole life and dreams were connected with the sea. Fortunately, for a still unknown reason, within a month Lieutenant Marinesko was reinstated and after another two months he became a senior lieutenant.

After completing his studies in the diving detachment, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko served as assistant commander, then commander of the M-96 submarine. Under his leadership, the submarine's crew in 1940 became the best in combat and political training. The commander himself receives a promotion - he becomes a lieutenant commander, and is awarded a personalized gold watch.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Marinesko, together with the crew of his submarine, were transported to the Gulf of Riga and did not take part in combat operations for a long time. Forced idleness affected the discipline of the sailors. At the end of 1941, Alexander Ivanovich was even deprived of his candidate status as a party member for drunkenness and gambling at cards. Finally, in August 1942, the M-96 submarine under the command of Marinesko took on a German floating battery. Information about whether the release of two torpedoes succeeded in damaging enemy ships varies. Despite the fact that not all the actions of the commander in this campaign corresponded to the need (the submarine left its position and did not raise the flag in time, which is why it was almost sunk by its own), nevertheless, Marinesko was awarded the Order of Lenin. By the end of the same year, he was reinstated as a candidate for the CPSU (b) and a few months later became a party member and captain of the 3rd rank.

In 1942 and early 1943, while continuing to serve on the M-96, the crew led by Marinesko made three more combat missions, but were not noted for victories. From April 1943 to September 1945, the fate of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was connected with another submarine “S-13”. As a commander, Marinesko made three S-13 combat missions. October 1944 was marked by an attack on the German trawler "Siegfried" with significant damage to the vessel. Marinesko received the Order of the Red Banner.

Underwater "Attack of the Century" by Alexander Marinesko

At the end of 1944, the commander had another problem with discipline: he left the ship without permission for two days in a Finnish port, being drunk. The commander of the Baltic Fleet was even going to hand over Marinesko to a military tribunal. Having given a chance to justify himself in a combat situation, Admiral V.F. At the beginning of 1945, Tributs sent the S-13 submarine on a combat mission. During this fifth military campaign, Marinesko became submariner No. 1 for all Soviet people, having sunk two large enemy ships at once.

On January 30, 1945, after an attack led by A.I. Marinesko, the Wilhelm Gustlow, a huge liner carrying more than 2 thousand German military personnel, sank, including 406 submarine specialists, many Gauleiters and Nazi leaders, Gestapo and SS officers and several thousand civilians. In essence, this once former tourist liner became a training base for German submariners. Military experts called the operation the naval attack of the century.

Ten days after this feat, the S-13 crew performs the second. The German ship General von Steuben, carrying more than 3 thousand German officers and soldiers trying to evacuate through the Bay of Danzig, was sunk by an attack by a Soviet submarine that broke through the outpost. For this campaign, Marinesko was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, however, perhaps due to past sins, instead of the Golden Star he was given the Order of the Red Banner.

The military campaign of April-May 1945 did not add any glory to Marinesko. Complaints began to be received about his neglect of official duties and drunkenness. After the end of the war, there were attempts to demote him from rank. He was repeatedly subject to disciplinary sanctions.

Having worked in the merchant fleet until 1949, Marinesko was written off for health reasons. While working as deputy director of the Blood Transfusion Research Institute in Leningrad, he received a 3-year sentence for theft and absenteeism. In 1953, the conviction was cleared through an amnesty. He continued to work in Leningrad at the Mezon plant as the head of a supply group. Marinesko died in 1963 from a serious cancer. His name was erased for a long time Soviet history, but justice triumphed - in 1990, posthumously, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, the leader among USSR submariners in terms of the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On January 30, 1945, the submarine "S-13" under the command of Alexander Marinesko sank the German ship "Wilhelm Gustlov". According to various sources, from 4 to 8 thousand people died then. This is the worst maritime disaster to date. Why was Marinesko not given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and was the feat of his crew really a feat or were there civilian German citizens on the ship?

Let us first turn to official Soviet sources:

“The submarine “S-13” under the command of captain 3rd rank A.I. Marinesko on January 30, 1945 sank the German liner “Wilhelm Gustlow” with a displacement of 25,484 tons, on board of which there were more than 6 thousand . people. The cruiser "Admiral Hipper", destroyers and minesweepers that approached the sinking area could no longer provide any assistance to the transport. Fearing attacks by Soviet boats, they hastily retreated to the west. On February 9, the same submarine "S-13" sank the steamer "General" Steuben" with a displacement of 14,660 tons. For military successes in this campaign, the submarine "S-13" was awarded the Order of the Red Banner."

That's all that is said about Marinesco's achievements in the "Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945". You should pay attention to the words “6 thousand people” and “ship”.
And here is what political instructor A. Kron wrote in his opus “The Sea Captain” (Soviet Writer Publishing House, 1984):

“On January 30, 1945, the submarine “S-13” under the command of captain 3rd rank A. I. Marinesko sank in the Stolpmünde area the giant liner of the fascist fleet “Wilhelm Gustlov” with a displacement of 25,484 tons, on board which were over seven thousand evacuees from Danzig under the blows of the advancing Soviet fascist troops: soldiers, officers and high-ranking representatives of the Nazi elite, executioners and punitive forces. On the Gustlov, which served as a floating base for a diving school before going to sea, there were over three thousand trained submariners - approximately seventy crews for the new submarines Hitler's fleet. In the same campaign, Marinesko torpedoed the large military transport "General Steuben", which was transporting 3,600 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers from Konigsberg."

And now "Big" Encyclopedic Dictionary", 1997:

"MARINESKO Al-dr. Iv. (1913-63), submariner, captain of the 3rd rank (1942), Hero of the Soviet Union (1990, see). In the Great Patriotic War, commanding the submarine "S- 13" (1943-45), sank in the Danzig Bay area on January 30, 1945 the German superliner "Wilhelm Gustlow" (which had over 5 thousand soldiers and officers on board, including about 1300 submariners) and February 10 - auxiliary cruiser "General Steuben" (over 3 thousand soldiers and officers). After the war, he worked at the Leningrad Shipping Company, then at a factory."

There is a tendency - first, according to official historiography, there were 6 thousand PEOPLE on the Gustlov, then Kron had 7 thousand FASCISTS, among whom were over 3 thousand submariners, and finally again in the official source - 5 thousand soldiers and officers, among whom only 1300 submariners. As for the Steuben, sometimes called a steamship, sometimes a large military transport, sometimes an auxiliary cruiser (and Krohn in his opus calls it simply a cruiser), the Germans called civilian ships armed with 5-7 guns auxiliary cruisers.

It is not known who first started the story about declaring Marinesko a personal enemy of Hitler and about the mourning after the sinking of the Gustlov. According to Soviet sources there was mourning, but according to German sources there was no. However, there is no doubt that indeed no other such small unit has destroyed so much in one go. big number German citizens. Even during the famous bombing of Dresden, when 250 thousand inhabitants were killed, several thousand pilots took part in this. However, neither then nor after the sinking of the Gustlov was mourning declared - the Germans did not advertise these losses so as not to give cause for panic among the German population.

So who and how many did Marinesko drown? Several thousand people or fascist executioners or military? IN various sources The composition of Gustlov's passengers varies greatly. The number of drowned people ranges from 4 to 8 thousand. In terms of composition, it says either simply “refugees”, sometimes “refugees and military”, sometimes “refugees, military, wounded and prisoners”.

The most detailed figures about Gustlov passengers are as follows:

918 naval sailors, 373 from the Women's Auxiliary Fleet, 162 wounded servicemen, 173 crew members (civilian sailors) and 4,424 refugees. A total of 6050. In addition to those included in the lists, up to 2 thousand more refugees managed to get on board the Gustlov. A total of 876 people were rescued. 16 submarine force training division officers, 390 cadets, 250 female soldiers, 90 crew members, and wounded military personnel were killed. Such is the military damage caused by the sinking of the Gustlov.

As for those who drowned on the Steuben, there really were (as written in Soviet sources) more than 3 thousand soldiers and officers - 2680 wounded and 100 healthy military personnel, 270 medical personnel, as well as 285 crew members and about 900 refugees. A total of 659 people were rescued. Some sources include the sinking of the Steuben at the top of the list of the largest maritime disasters in terms of the number of victims. By the way, the sinking of the Gustlov is always present in such lists - either in first or second place in terms of the number of deaths in the entire world history navigation. If in second place they call "Gustlov", then in first place they call either the sinking of the Goya (by the Soviet submarine L-3 on April 17, 1945) - from 5 to 7 thousand refugees, or the sinking of the Cap Arcona liner (by British aviation May 3, 1945), which resulted in the drowning of 5 thousand prisoners.

Now let’s imagine how this event looked against the historical background.

Germany is heading uncontrollably towards the abyss. This is understood even by those who just recently shouted at the top of their lungs “Heil Hitler!” The flames of war rage on the land of the Third Reich. Soviet tanks rumble on the roads leading to Berlin, flying fortresses terrify the organized retreat German soldiers.

At the beginning of February 1945, the heads of government of the Allied powers gathered in Crimea to discuss measures to ensure the final defeat of Nazi Germany and to outline the path for the post-war world order.

At the very first meeting in the Livadia Palace in Yalta, Churchill asked Stalin: when Soviet troops will they capture Danzig, where a number of German submarines under construction and ready are concentrated? He asked to speed up the capture of this port.

The British Prime Minister's concern was understandable. Great Britain's war effort and the supply of its population depended heavily on shipping. However, wolf packs of fascist submarines continued to rampage along sea lanes. Although, of course, their effectiveness was no longer the same as in the first years of the war, when it turned out that the British ships were simply powerless against the threat of German U-ships. Danzig was one of the main nests of fascist underwater pirates. The German army was also located here. graduate School diving, for which the liner "Wilhelm Gustlow" served as a floating barracks.

But the English prime minister was late with his question. In Danzig, volleys of Soviet guns and Katyusha rockets were already heard. The enemy's hasty flight began. “Thousands of soldiers, sailors and civilian officials boarded the Wilhelm Gustlow. Half of the liner's passengers were highly qualified specialists - the color of the fascist submarine fleet. Strong security at sea was to ensure the safety of their passage from Danzig to Kiel. The convoy included the cruiser Admiral Hipper, destroyers and minesweepers.” This follows from Soviet post-war sources. In fact, among the 9,000 refugees, the overwhelming majority were civilians, otherwise they would have been detained as deserters, or, on the contrary, brought into some kind of teams. In general, it is strange to assume that among the 9,000 refugees there is an absolute absence of any military personnel, for example, one-legged veterans of the Franco-Prussian War. The entire underwater German elite died in 42-44. And the entire convoy consisted of one (!) minesweeper.

At the end of January 1945, the Soviet submarine S-13, under the command of Alexander Marinesko, entered Danzig Bay.

On January 30, a fierce storm broke out at sea. The boat's deckhouse, antennas and periscopes quickly become covered with a thick layer of ice. The commander and commissar peer into the darkness until their eyes hurt. And then the silhouette of a huge ship appeared.

“S-13” and at about twenty-three hours on January 30, an enemy ship is attacked: several torpedoes rush towards the target one after another. There is a huge explosion - and the Wilhelm Gustlov goes to the bottom.

The surviving Nazi officer Heinz Schön, who was on board the liner and survived, in his book “The Death of Wilhelm Gustlav”, published in West Germany, confirms that on January 30, 1945, near Danzig, the Wilhelm Gustlav was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, as a result which killed more than five thousand people. “If this incident can be considered a disaster,” writes the author, “then it was undoubtedly the biggest disaster in the history of navigation, compared to which even the death of the Titanic, which collided with an iceberg in 1913, is nothing "

1,517 people died on the Titanic. This tragedy shocked all of humanity at that time. Nobody regretted “Wilhelm Gustlov”.

Heinz Schep describes in detail the story of the death of the liner:

"Wilhelm Gustloff was under dual command - as a ship, the liner was headed by merchant navy captain Friedrich Petersen, and as a floating barracks of the 2nd submarine training division, the liner was led by naval officer Wilhelm Zahn.

By the evening of January 22, 1945, the liner was prepared for the flight and loading of passengers - thousands of exhausted, frostbitten and wounded refugees. The thermometer showed 14 degrees below zero, chaos and collapse reigned all around.

There were about 60 thousand refugees in the Gotenhafn harbor itself, and as soon as the gangplanks were installed, thousands of people rushed to storm. During the landing, many children were separated from their parents in the resulting crush.

About 400 girls, employees of the Navy Women's Auxiliary Organization, aged from 17 to 25, boarded the ship. They were placed in the swimming pool on deck E. Of course, the girls were more than happy to leave Gotenhafn in view of the looming Soviet occupation of East Prussia. On the morning of January 29, another hospital train arrived in Gotenhafn, and the wounded were placed on the sun deck.

Now there were about 7-8 thousand people on board, but how many there were exactly has not been established to this day. The liner was literally packed, and the cabins, corridors and passages were overcrowded.

As an air defense, a pair of anti-aircraft guns were installed on the upper deck. About 60% of passengers were provided with life-saving equipment.

On Tuesday, January 30, 12.30 local time, 4 tugboats approached the liner and took it away from the pier. Weather were bad - wind force up to 7 points, temperature 10 degrees below zero, slush (fine loose ice - approx. M. Volchenkov).

I was appointed foreman of the anti-aircraft crew. Upon leaving, icing began to form on the decks, and we had to constantly clear the ice from the guns. A minesweeper followed ahead of the liner to search for and destroy mines. It got dark and became even colder. Below, feelings of joy and relief were replaced by depression, because... many refugees began to suffer from seasickness. But most considered themselves completely safe, firmly believing that in a couple of days they would reach Stettin or Denmark.

My watch started at 21.00. Everything was quiet and calm. And suddenly, around 21.10, explosions were heard. At first I thought we had run into mines. But later I learned that we were hit by torpedoes fired by the Soviet submarine S-13, commanded by Alexander Marinesko. Thousands of people panicked. Many began to jump overboard into the icy waters of the Baltic. At first the ship tilted to starboard, but then straightened out, and at that time another torpedo hit the liner, in the forecastle area. We were located near the coast of Stolpmünde, Pomerania. They immediately gave an SOS signal and started firing flares.

The second torpedo hit the area of ​​the ship where the swimming pool was located. Almost all the girls died, they were literally torn to pieces. I wanted to go back to my cabin and grab a few personal items, but that was no longer possible. Thousands of people rushed from the lower decks to the top, driven by the flow of water from below.

Climbing up, people constantly and terribly screamed and pushed; those who fell were doomed, they were trampled to death. No one could help the helpless - pregnant women and wounded soldiers. Crowds of people stormed the lifeboats, and there was no talk of fulfilling the famous commandment “Women and children first!” No one obeyed anyone, those who were physically stronger took over. Many boats, covered with ice, could not be lowered at all, and I watched as one of the painters broke off on a number of boats being lowered, and the boat dumped all the people in it down into the icy hell. The liner continued to plunge into the water with its nose, the forecastle rails were already under water, and lowering the boats became even more difficult.

I stood on the sun deck for some time, watching this nightmare. Some families and individuals who had personal matters chose to shoot themselves rather than die a much more painful death in ice water and darkness. And thousands of others continued to cling to the liner as it continued to sink.

I thought I wouldn't get out. I jumped into the water and began to quickly swim to the side so that I would not be sucked into the funnel. At first I didn’t feel the cold at all, and soon I was able to cling to the bridge of an overcrowded lifeboat (special lifelines are stretched along the sides of lifeboats precisely for this purpose - author). The picture that appeared to me was truly terrible. The children, who were wearing life jackets, turned upside down, and only their helplessly kicking legs protruded above the water. The dead were already floating around. The air was filled with the cries of the dying and calls for help. Two children clung to me, they screamed and called for their parents. I managed to get them on board the boat, but whether they were saved or not, I never knew.

Then I felt weak - hypothermia set in. I was able to cling to a metal life raft - about 50 yards from the sinking liner. The bow was almost completely submerged, the stern rose into the air, and hundreds of people were still there, screaming wildly. The rate of descent increased. Then, suddenly, there was dead silence. Wilhelm Gustloff disappeared underwater, taking with him the lives of thousands of people. The worst disaster in the history of navigation lasted approximately 50 minutes.

Within approximately 20 minutes, most terrible moments in my life, I was just floating somewhere. From time to time I was covered in an icy slush. The screams around me became quieter and less frequent. Then something happened that I consider a miracle. I saw a shadow approaching me and screamed, gathering my last strength. They noticed me and brought me on board.

The T-36 torpedo boat saved me. The crew of the boat helped us, the rescued ones, with all available means - hot tea, massage. But many of those rescued died on board, from hypothermia and shock. Among those rescued were pregnant women, and it so happened that the crew members had to try themselves as midwives that night. Three children were born. The T-36 boat was part of a squadron commanded by Lieutenant Herring, whose task was to escort the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. The cruiser was also sailing from East Prussia, with refugees on board. Suddenly the boat abruptly changed course and the cars howled. As I later found out, they noticed the trail of two torpedoes, one passed along the starboard side, and the boat was able to evade the other with a sharp maneuver. The turn was so sharp that some of the rescued people on the upper deck fell overboard and drowned. But 550 people were saved. Due to the great danger of a repeated attack by the submarine, the boat moved away from the scene of the disaster and arrived in Saschnitz at 02.00 on January 31. Those rescued were transferred aboard the Danish hospital ship Prinz Olaf, which was anchored there. Many were sent ashore on stretchers. We, military sailors, were placed in barracks. Lieutenant Herring was on the bridge the entire time and saluted at the moment when the last rescued person left the boat. As I later learned, only 996 of the approximately 8,000 people on board were saved.

We, the surviving sailors, escaped death once again. As sailors in the German Navy, we were all comrades, we loved our homeland and believed that we were doing the right thing by defending it. We didn’t consider ourselves heroes or our death heroic, we were simply doing our duty.”

Ten days later, Marinesko's boat sank another ship, the liner General von Steuben, killing 3,500 people...

Why was Marinesko not given a Hero, but almost at the first opportunity was he dismissed from the fleet? None of the Soviet submariners did more than him. Is it because of drunkenness? Or was it just an excuse, and the motives were different?

Perhaps it was just ordinary politics here. Let's count - with a couple of salvos, in one campaign, Marinesko sent to the next world, according to the most conservative estimates, over 10 thousand people! The death of the Gustlov was the largest maritime disaster in the history of mankind; the Titanic, in comparison with the victorious volleys of Marinesko, looks like a boat capsized on a pond with drunken vacationers. Cooler than Marinesko were, perhaps, only the crews of those B-29s that tamed Japan - with atomic bombs. But in general, the numbers are comparable. Here and there - tens of thousands. Only, however, without Marinesko atomic bombs cost, only two at that time on the entire planet. Marinesko and a dozen torpedoes were enough.

It is likely that they were embarrassed to destroy the Gustlov, because they were preparing batches of bread for occupied Germany, they wanted to win over the Germans, and here - the death of such a large number of people, some of them civilians, from the torpedoes of one small submarine.

Finally, about Marinesko himself. His mother was Ukrainian, and his father served in his youth as a fireman on a warship of the Royal Romanian Navy. After some quarrel with his superiors, my father fled to Russia and settled in Odessa. The growing Alexander Marinesko graduated from the school of cabin boys, and then in the thirties - the Odessa Naval School. Sailed on ships in the Black Sea. As a long-distance navigator, Marinesko was drafted into the Navy and, after studying, asked to join a submarine.

Always calm, confident, he was very persistent and skillful in achieving his goals. While commanding the ship, he never raised his voice or shouted at his subordinates. All this created his unshakable authority, he earned the love and respect of the sailors.

In contrast to all this, it remains to add that Marinesko was kicked out of the fleet for drunkenness and poor discipline. Marinesko got a job as a warehouse manager. There he finally became an alcoholic and began to drink away the government property entrusted to him. He was caught and sentenced in 1949 to 3 years.

As you can see, Alexander Marinesko is a rather controversial figure. And his feat can be interpreted in different ways... Despite all the contradictions, the award still found the submariner: in 1990 he was posthumously awarded the gold star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Marinesko's feat and the tragedy of "Gustloff"

Alexander Marinesko is one of the most controversial figures of the Great Patriotic War, around whom controversy still does not subside. A man covered in many myths and legends. Undeservedly forgotten, and then returned from oblivion.

Today in Russia they are proud of him, they perceive him as national hero. Last year, a monument to Marinesko appeared in Kaliningrad, his name was included in the Golden Book of St. Petersburg. Many books have been published dedicated to his feat, among them the recently published “Submariner No. 1” by Vladimir Borisov. And in Germany they still cannot forgive him for the death of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff. We call this famous battle episode “the attack of the century,” while the Germans consider it the largest maritime disaster, perhaps even more terrible than the death of the Titanic.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the name Marinesco is known to everyone in Germany, and the theme of “Gustloff” today, many years later, excites the press and public opinion. Especially in Lately, after the story “The Trajectory of the Crab” was published in Germany and almost immediately became a bestseller. Its author is a famous German writer, laureate Nobel Prize Günter Grass opens the unknown pages of the flight of East Germans to the West, and in the center of events is the Gustlof disaster. For many Germans, the book became a real revelation...

It is not for nothing that the death of the Gustlof is called a “hidden tragedy”, the truth about which for a long time hid both sides: we always said that the ship was the flower of the German submarine fleet and never mentioned the thousands of dead refugees, and the post-war Germans, who grew up with a sense of repentance for the crimes of the Nazis, hushed up this story because they feared accusations of revanchism. Those who tried to talk about those killed at the Gustlof, about the horrors of the Germans fleeing East Prussia, were immediately perceived as “extreme right-wing”. Only with the fall of the Berlin Wall and entry into a united Europe did it become possible to look more calmly to the east and talk about many things that were not customary to remember for a long time...

The price of the "attack of the century"

Whether we like it or not, we still cannot avoid the question: what did Marinesco sink - a warship of the Hitlerite elite or a ship of refugees? What happened in the Baltic Sea on the night of January 30, 1945?

In those days Soviet army rapidly advanced to the West, in the direction of Königsberg and Danzig. Hundreds of thousands of Germans, fearing retribution for the atrocities of the Nazis, became refugees and moved towards the port city of Gdynia - the Germans called it Gotenhafen. On January 21, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz gave the order: “All available German ships must save everything that can be saved from the Soviets.” The officers received orders to redeploy submarine cadets and their military equipment, and to place refugees, and primarily women and children, in any free corner of their ships. Operation Hannibal was the largest evacuation in the history of navigation: over two million people were transported to the west.

Gotenhafen became the last hope for many refugees - not only large warships stood here, but also large liners, each of which could take thousands of refugees on board. One of them was the Wilhelm Gustloff, which seemed unsinkable to the Germans. Built in 1937, the magnificent cruise ship with a cinema and swimming pool served as the pride of the Third Reich and was intended to demonstrate to the world the achievements of Nazi Germany. Hitler himself participated in the launching of the ship, which contained his personal cabin. For Hitler’s cultural leisure organization “Strength through Joy,” the liner delivered vacationers to Norway and Sweden for a year and a half, and with the outbreak of World War II it became a floating barracks for cadets of the 2nd training division of submarines.

On January 30, 1945, the Gustlof set off on its last voyage from Gotenhafen. German sources differ on how many refugees and military personnel were on board. As for refugees, until 1990 the figure was almost constant, since many survivors of that tragedy lived in the GDR - and there this topic was not subject to discussion. Now they began to testify, and the number of refugees grew to ten thousand people. As for the military, the figure remained almost unchanged - it was within one and a half thousand people. The counting was carried out by “passenger assistants,” one of whom was Heinz Schön, who after the war became the chronicler of the death of the Gustloff and the author of several documentary books on this topic, including “The Gustloff Disaster” and “SOS - Wilhelm Gustloff.”

The submarine "S-13" under the command of Alexander Marinesko hit the liner with three torpedoes. The surviving passengers left terrible memories of the last minutes of the Gustlof. People tried to escape on life rafts, but most survived only a few minutes in the icy water. Nine ships participated in the rescue of its passengers. Horrifying pictures are forever etched in my memory: children's heads are heavier than their legs, and therefore only their legs are visible on the surface. Lots of children's feet...

So, how many managed to survive this disaster? According to Shen, 1239 people survived, half of them, 528 people, were German submarine personnel, 123 auxiliary personnel female composition navy, 86 wounded, 83 crew and only 419 refugees. These figures are well known in Germany and today there is no point in hiding them here. Thus, 50% of the submariners survived and only 5% of the refugees. We have to admit that mostly women and children died - they were completely unarmed before the war. This was the price of the “attack of the century”, and this is why in Germany today many Germans consider Marinesko’s actions a war crime.

Refugees have become hostages of a ruthless war machine

However, let's not rush to conclusions. The question here is much deeper - about the tragedy of war. Even the most just war is inhumane, because it primarily affects the civilian population. According to the inexorable laws of war, Marinesko sank a warship, and it is not his fault that he sank a ship with refugees. Huge blame for the tragedy lies with the German command, which was guided by military interests and did not think about civilians.

The fact is that the Gustlof left Gotenhafen without proper escort and earlier than planned, without waiting for the escort ships, since it was necessary to urgently transfer German submariners from the already surrounded East Prussia. The Germans knew that this area was especially dangerous for ships. The fatal role was played by the side lights turned on on the Gustlof after a message was received about a detachment of German minesweepers moving towards it - it was by these lights that Marinesko discovered the liner. And finally, the ship left on its last voyage not as a hospital ship, but as a military transport, painted in grey colour and equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

To this day, Schön’s figures are practically unknown to us, but data continue to be used that the flower of the German submarine fleet died on the Gustlof - 3,700 sailors, who could have manned 70 to 80 submarines. This figure, taken from a report in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet on February 2, 1945, was considered indisputable in our country and was not questioned. The legends created back in the 1960s with light hand writer Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov, who raised the then unknown pages of the war - the feat of Marinesko and the defense of the Brest Fortress. But no, Marinesko was never a “personal enemy of Hitler,” and three days of mourning were not declared in Germany for the death of the Gustlof. This was not done for the simple reason that thousands more people were awaiting evacuation by sea, and news of the disaster would have caused panic. Mourning was declared for Wilhelm Gustloff himself, the leader of the National Socialist Party in Switzerland, who was killed in 1936, and his killer, student David Frankfurter, was called Hitler's personal enemy.

Why do we still hesitate to name the true scale of that tragedy? As sad as it is to admit it, we are afraid that Marinesko’s feat will fade. However, today even many Germans understand: the German side provoked Marinesko. "It was brilliant military operation, thanks to which the initiative for dominance in the naval war in the Baltic was firmly seized by Soviet sailors,” says Yuri Lebedev, deputy director of the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces named after A.I. Marinesko. - With its actions, the submarine "S-13" brought the end of the war closer. This was a strategic success for the Soviet navy, but for Germany it was the largest naval disaster. 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 the Gustlof is not an accusation against Marinesko, but Hitler's Germany".

By recognizing that on the sunken Gustlof there were not only German submariners, but also refugees, we will take another step towards recognizing a historical, albeit unpleasant fact for us. But we need to get out of this situation, because in Germany “Gustlof” is a symbol of trouble, and in Russia it is a symbol of our military victories. The issue of Gustloff and Marinesco is a very complex and delicate one, affecting the present and future of relations between Russia and Germany. It is not for nothing that the German Consul General Ulrich Schöning, who recently visited the Museum of the Russian Submarine Forces named after A. I. Marinesko, left the following entry in the book of honorary visitors: “60 years after the tragic events of the Second World War, the time has finally come when Russians and Germans are building the future together. This is encouraged by the death of the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945.”

Today we have the opportunity, even in such a difficult issue, to move towards reconciliation - through historical authenticity. After all, history is not black and white. And the uniqueness of Marinesko is that his personality leaves no one indifferent. His legendary personality may be destined for immortality. He became a legend and will remain so...

In May 1990, by government decree, one of the most famous Soviet submariners, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, was posthumously awarded. short biography which formed the basis for this article. For many years his name was hushed up due to a number of circumstances that earned him scandalous fame and overshadowed his military exploits.

Young Black Sea sailor

The future legendary submariner was born on January 15, 1913 in one of the seaside towns. His father, Ion Marinesco, was a Romanian worker, and his mother, Tatyana Mikhailovna Koval, was a peasant woman from the Kherson province. Having completed 6 classes and barely reaching the age of 13, he got a job on one of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet as an apprentice sailor. Since then, the biography of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko has been inextricably linked with the sea. His diligence and patience were noticed, and soon the capable guy was assigned to cabin boy school, after which he was already listed in the ship’s crews not as a student, but as a full-fledged 1st class sailor.

Having continued his education at the Odessa Naval College and graduating in 1933, Alexander Ivanovich sailed for several years on the ships “Ilyich” and “Red Fleet” as a third and then second mate. Those who knew him subsequently said that in his youth Marinesko did not at all plan to become a military sailor, but gave preference to the merchant fleet. Perhaps his father played a role in this, who worked for several years as a sailor on various civilian ships, and, undoubtedly, told his son a lot about his travels.

Komsomol ticket to naval life

A sharp turn in the biography of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko occurred in 1933, after he, along with a group of other young sailors, received a Komsomol ticket to a special course for naval command personnel. In those years, this was tantamount to an order, and to refuse meant to cross out your entire future career, no matter where you tried to arrange it. So, the local Komsomol committee made the choice of his future life path for him. However, such examples were by no means uncommon in the pre-war years.

After completing the course, Marinesko took up the position of navigator on a submarine called Haddock, and then, after undergoing additional training, was first promoted to assistant commander of the L-1 submarine, and then took a command position in the M-96 submarine. By the beginning of the war, the shoulders of the young submariner Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko were already adorned with the shoulder straps of a lieutenant commander.

Addiction

In the first days of the war, the submarine commanded by Marinesko was relocated to Tallinn, from where it went on combat duty in the waters. Despite the absence of any serious achievements in those days, Alexander Ivanovich performed his combat duty conscientiously, but he had a sin, not so rare in Rus' ─ he loved to drink, and when he was drunk, everything happened to him. And Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko hopelessly spoiled his biography with this addiction.

The troubles began in August 1941, after the fact of drunkenness and gambling among the officers of the division to which his submarine was assigned became public. Marinesko, one of the first to appear on the list of participants in the spree, was deprived of the title of candidate party member, and the division commander was court-martialed and sentenced to 10 years in the camps, but with a deferment of the sentence and immediate dispatch to the front.

Alexander Ivanovich managed to partially restore his reputation only the next year, when, after a successfully carried out military operation, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and reinstated as a candidate party member. At the same time, Marinescu opened the account of sunk enemy ships by attacking in mid-August 1942 a ship that was part of a large German transport convoy.

Commander of the submarine "S-13"

At the end of December, for his heroism and high combat results, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank. However, the newly appointed division commander added a “fly in the ointment” to this “barrel of honey”, noting in his description that his subordinate was prone to frequent drinking. Nevertheless, the officer who distinguished himself and received a promotion was appointed commander of the submarine S-13, on which he was destined to serve until September 1945 and accomplish his main feat. Her photo is presented below.

Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko practically did not go to sea during 1943, as he performed a number of tasks related to the preparation of replenishment of personnel for the Baltic submarine fleet. However, life on the shore was fraught with many temptations, which he was unable to resist. Twice during this year, “drunk stories” ended in a guardhouse for him, followed by penalties along the party line.

At the end of October 1944, Marinesko again took part in combat operations, and in one of them he discovered and then pursued a German transport ship for a long time. It was not possible to sink it with torpedoes, but as a result of successful hits from the onboard guns, the ship suffered serious damage, and, towed to the port, stood for repairs until the end of the war. For this campaign, Alexander Ivanovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Unpleasant story

Marinesko met the victorious year of 1945 with another “adventure”, after which he managed to avoid the tribunal only with great difficulty. Shortly before this, the submarine he commanded was seriously damaged during an artillery duel with the German ship Siegfried and was undergoing repairs for a long time in the port of the Finnish city of Turku.

By the end of December, the commander went on another spree and disappeared from the submarine on a holiday night. The next day he did not return, after which he was put on the wanted list. As it turned out later, on the shore of Marinesko he met a Swedish woman who ran a restaurant in the city, and took advantage of the hospitality of the loving hostess.

Threat of being court-martialed

It should be noted that the commander’s personal life did not work out, and vodka was to blame. Shortly before the events described, the third marriage fell apart, and Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, whose wife and daughter did not want to tolerate his drunken antics, clearly felt a shortage of female affection.

For leaving without permission war time warship, he was threatened with a tribunal, but the high authorities decided to defer the punishment and give the offending submariner a chance to atone for his guilt. Therefore, the military campaign that Marinesko set off on in early January essentially decided the fate of his future life. Only extraordinary success in a military operation could save him from inevitable punishment. Everyone understood this, and, of course, first of all, the commander of the submarine himself, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko.

The attack of the century, which began with malfeasance

For almost three weeks, the Marinesko submarine was in its assigned water area, trying in vain to detect the enemy. Finally, he decided, contrary to the orders of the command, to change the course of the submarine and continue the “hunt” in a different square. It is difficult to say what made him commit such a blatant violation of the charter.

Whether this was a manifestation of intuition, passion, or whether the usual Russian “seven troubles ─ one answer” pushed him onto the path of malfeasance, no one can say with certainty. Most likely, the extreme need to rehabilitate oneself for previous sins, or, more simply put, to accomplish a feat played a role. Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, as they say, went all-in.

Sinking of the giant ship

One way or another, after leaving the given square, the submariners soon discovered a large enemy transport ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff (its photo is presented below). It was a pre-war cruise liner with a displacement of 25 thousand tons, used for the needs of the army and sailed to this moment almost without an escort. The difficult situation that developed towards the end of the war did not allow the Germans to provide adequate cover for their transport ships.

On board the Gustloff, as it later turned out, there were more than 10 thousand people, the vast majority of whom were refugees from the regions of East Prussia, that is, old people, women and children, which subsequently gave certain circles grounds to accuse Marinesko of exterminating civilians. One can only object to them that, firstly, looking through the periscope, the submariners could not determine the composition of the ship’s passengers, and secondly, in addition to refugees, there were quite a large number of military personnel on board, redeployed for combat operations.

Having quietly approached the enemy ship, the submariners fired 3 torpedoes at it, each of which successfully hit the target. Subsequently, Soviet propaganda organs called this strike the “attack of the century.” The enemy transport was sent to the bottom, and with it almost half of those on board. According to data collected by military historians, as a result of that attack, 4,855 people died, of which 405 were submarine cadets, 89 were crew members, 249 were women serving in the navy and 4,112 were refugees and wounded (including about 3 thousand .children).

Continuation of the combat operation

During all the years of the war, the motor ship Wilhelm Gustloff was the largest ship of its type destroyed by Soviet sailors, and the second in the number of victims, second only to the transport ship Goya, sent to the bottom by the submarine L-3. More than 7,000 people died on it.

Having safely disappeared from the place where the German motor ship was plunging into the sea, falling to the stern, the crew of the S-13 continued the hunt. In the same square, 10 days later, submariners discovered and sank another enemy ship, the General Steuben, which was also very impressive in size and had a displacement of 15 thousand tons. Thus, the combat campaign undertaken by the S-13 crew from January to February 1945 became the most effective raid by Soviet submariners in the entire history of this type of military.

"Floating Penal Battalion"

In those days, the biography and photo of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko appeared on the pages of many Soviet newspapers, but the fleet command was in no hurry to nominate either him or the rest of the team for awards. The commander gained too scandalous fame for his drunken antics. By the way, the crew of the submarine entrusted to him was staffed for the most part from those who had serious problems with disciplinary regulations. So the S-13 submarine was jokingly called a “floating penal battalion.”

At the very end of the war, Marinesko undertook another ─ the last military campaign in his life, this time unsuccessful and ineffective. Those who communicated with him at that time said that Alexander Ivanovich began to have epileptic attacks, provoked by his increasing drunkenness. On this basis, the conflict with the authorities escalated significantly. As a result, in September 1945, an order was issued to remove him from his post and demote him to the rank of senior lieutenant.

The vicissitudes of fate

The post-war biography of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko looks extremely sad and ridiculous. Having left soon after military service, he went to sea for some time on various merchant ships, and in 1949, to the complete surprise of everyone, he took the position of director of the Leningrad Institute of Blood Transfusion. How the former sailor was brought into the purely medical sphere is unknown, but only very soon he was convicted of major thefts and sentenced to 3 years in prison. So fate brought the hero-submariner to Kolyma.

Having been released from prison and having neither home nor family, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko worked for two years as a topographer as part of several geological expeditions, and then, returning to Leningrad in 1953, took a position as head of the supply department of the Mezon plant. He died on November 25, 1963 after a serious illness and was buried at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery.

Hero's memory

Already during the period of perestroika, the Izvestia newspaper initiated the process of rehabilitation of the hero-submariner, and on May 5, 1990, by personal decree of USSR President M.S. Gorbachev, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. From that time on, his military journey began to be widely covered in the media, and 7 years later, not far from the cemetery where the hero was buried, at 47 Kondratyevsky Ave., the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces, named after Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, was opened. Photos of the war years, models of submarines and original exhibits tell about the glorious battle path Soviet and Russian sailors.

Nowadays, monuments to the posthumously rehabilitated hero-submariner are erected in St. Petersburg, Kronstadt, Odessa and Kaliningrad. Several feature films and documentaries are dedicated to him, as well as literary works. In particular, the feat of Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko is briefly described in the novel “The Trajectory of the Crab,” authored by the German writer, Nobel Prize laureate Gunter Grass. In addition, streets in many Russian cities are named after the hero.

Recipient of the country's highest military awards and permanent headache for the naval command, Hitler's personal enemy and a penalty man, demoted from officer rank. All this is about one person - the legendary commander of the Baltic Fleet submarine, Hero of the Soviet Union. On January 15 he would have turned 105 years old. I won't tell you for all of Odessa Biographers of the hero are often confused about how to correctly write his last name. On his father's side, he is Marinescu (the future commander of the Red Fleet was born into the family of a Romanian worker, Ion Marinescu, and a Ukrainian peasant woman, who served as a governess for the Odessa rich). As a teenager, Alexander insisted that his last name be written in the Ukrainian manner, ending in “o,” and his patronymic written in the Russian analogy “Ivanovich.” And so it went. From an early age he became ill with the sea: they lived in Odessa, and his father at one time served on warships. After the 6th grade, he went to school as a cabin boy, then worked as a sailor on ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company, studied at the Odessa Naval College, and worked as an assistant captain. In the early 1930s, he was sent to a course for naval command personnel, after which he was assigned to the Baltic. Here - new turn in his destiny: instead of the usual surface ships - submarines. Already in 1938, he took command of the M-type submarine (“Malyutka”). This ship, with a displacement of just over 200 tons and a crew of 18 people, had modest weapons - only two torpedo tubes and one 45-mm gun in the wheelhouse fence. Nevertheless, these boats did their job, protecting the approaches to Soviet bases. By the way, it was on the Malyutka that Marinesko would receive his first award - a gold watch for first place in competitions among naval crews. This was three years before the war, but it was on this ship that Alexander Ivanovich would meet the Great Patriotic War. In his front-line track record- several successful military campaigns, attacks on enemy convoys, protection of our transports. There was even a unique operation - a landing on the coast occupied by the enemy to capture the Enigma encryption machine. The daring action was entrusted to an equally daring commander, because Marinesko by that time was already known in the navy for his desperate antics and obnoxious character. However, when it was necessary to accomplish the impossible, the task was assigned to this “inconvenient” officer. Unfortunately, the raid behind enemy lines was unsuccessful: the scouts miscalculated, and a valuable encryption device was not discovered at the headquarters of the German regiment. However, the campaign under the nose of the enemy was carried out without losses, for which the commander of the boat was awarded the highest order at that time - Lenin.
Attack of the Century In 1943, Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko received under his command the C-class diesel-electric torpedo submarine number 13. An unlucky number turned out to be extremely lucky for him. It is on this ship with a displacement of more than 800 tons, equipped with more advanced weapons systems, including six torpedo tubes and a set of artillery weapons, that he will make his most effective voyages. In 1944 he attacked large transport"Siegfried", which, although not sunk, received serious damage and was under repair almost until the end of the War. Marinesko's desperate character was manifested in the fact that he did not limit himself to a torpedo attack, but also opened fire on the transport on the surface from a 100-mm artillery gun and a 45-mm anti-aircraft installation. Only when danger loomed over the boat itself (the German ships accompanying the Siegfried rushed at the surfaced submarine) did the commander decide to go to depth, which did not allow him to finish off the transport. At the beginning of January 1945, the S-13 set out on its next voyage. No one thought that he would go down in the history of the most striking victories of the country's submarine fleet. On January thirtieth, in the Bay of Danzig, a boat attacked the largest liner of Nazi Germany, the Wilhelm Gustloff, with a displacement of more than 25 thousand tons. Military journalist, writer, historian Viktor Gemanov, in his book “Feat S-13,” recreated, based on the stories of the boat’s crew members, a picture of what happened on board it. “The plan of attack was born on the fly,” writes the author. - All thoughts, all the will of the commander focused on the numbers reported by the acoustician. Marinesko visually imagined the relative position of the target. With the tension of thought, he moved the “pieces” in the already established attack pattern. Like an experienced chess player, thinking several moves ahead, he analyzed probable options, justified, rejected, clarified. In the end, I settled on the most successful one.”
The submariners did the impossible: they not only caught up with a fairly high-speed transport, dodging detection attempts, not only precisely directed three of the four torpedoes, fatally hitting the target (the fourth ammunition got stuck in the device), but they were also able to exit the battle without losses. The Nazis furiously attacked the area where the submarine was supposed to be located with depth charges: in four seconds extra hours More than 240 bombing missions were carried out. But Marinesko used military stratagem here too - he hid... behind the wreckage of the “Wilhelm Gustloff” itself, which was slowly sinking into the depths of the sea! In Germany, the loss of transport was hidden for a long time, but the commander of the Soviet submarine received the stigma of “the Fuhrer’s personal enemy.” The fact is that on board the destroyed ship were not only the highest ranks of the Reich, including high-ranking officials and generals, but also the personnel of the submarine training division evacuated from East Prussia. Three decades later, the West German magazine Marine admitted that among the dead were 1,300 sailors from fully formed submarine crews. According to the chairman of the Association of Submariners, retired captain 1st rank Evgeniy Livshits, Marinesko’s attack put an end to Germany’s military plans in strategic terms. “In the second half of 1944, the Germans commissioned up to 100 new submarines, which hunted caravans of American and British ships,” notes the veteran. - An even more massive attack could lead to the closure of the Second Front, to the transfer of Wehrmacht formations to the Eastern direction. The feat accomplished by Marinesko and his crew essentially took away the Reich’s last hope in the war and, moreover, saved the English and American fleets from gigantic losses.” According to the laws of war In the same campaign, the S-13 distinguished itself in another operation, sinking the large transport Steuben, which carried up to four thousand people, including wounded Wehrmacht soldiers. It is worth noting that after the war, this episode, like the destruction of the Gustloff, was interpreted in the West as an attack on “defenseless people,” accusing Soviet submariners of almost a war crime. However, less engaged researchers, including Western ones, recognized the validity of Marinesko’s actions in that situation. Thus, the German amateur historian Heinz Schön, who worked on the Gustloff as an assistant paymaster and survived that attack, came to the conclusion that the liner was still a military target. As Shen noted, transport intended for transporting refugees, like hospital ships, had to be marked with appropriate signs, for example a red cross, which the Gustloff did not have. In addition, such ships could not travel in the same convoy with warships, and they could not carry any military cargo, stationary or temporarily stationed artillery pieces, air defense guns or other similar equipment on board.
It is worth noting that Soviet transport with refugees and wounded repeatedly became a target for German submarines and aircraft during the war. In particular, in 1941, the motor ship Armenia, carrying over five thousand refugees and wounded soldiers, was sunk in the Black Sea. Only eight people survived that tragedy... In November 1944, the fascist command declared the Baltic Sea a “zone of unlimited war”, setting the task of drowning literally everything, which was carried out with German pedantry. What should have been the response of the Soviet sailors in this situation? In the post-war years, the German Institute maritime law was forced to admit that "Wilhelm Gustloff" was still legitimate military purpose, since it carried hundreds of submarine specialists, as well as anti-aircraft guns. In addition, as analysts noted, last years Before her death, the Wilhelm Gustloff served as a floating school for the German Navy. The decision to take on board civilians and the wounded in the absence of the ship's sickbay status belonged to the command of the ship, and therefore responsibility should lie solely with it, maritime law experts summarized in their report.

“It was a brilliant military operation, thanks to which the initiative for dominance in the naval war in the Baltic was firmly seized by Soviet sailors,” says Yuri Lebedev, deputy director of the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces. - It was a strategic success for the Soviet fleet, but for Germany it was the largest naval disaster. 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 Reich. And the civilians on the ship became hostages of the German military machine. Therefore, the tragedy of Gustloff is not an indictment of Marinesco, but of Hitler’s Germany.”

“During that war, the Germans openly removed all moral restrictions from themselves and without a twinge of conscience violated all conceivable and inconceivable, written and unwritten rules of warfare,” notes fleet historian, member of the Union of Journalists, retired captain of the 2nd rank Igor Maksimov. - In my opinion, this decision allowed other countries to act in the same way in relation to any German ships. Of the 1,205 enemy warships and vessels destroyed in the Baltic Sea by all branches of the fleet, 124 were submariners. This is over 366 thousand tons of displacement. It is no coincidence that the exploits of the submariners did not go unnoticed, they were appreciated, many were awarded the highest awards of the Motherland.”

Not subject to oblivion Alexander Marinesko himself was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for that campaign. But... The well-deserved award did not take place. The reason for this was the opinion of the command that the holder of the Golden Star should not be a bearer of such negative qualities, which this officer had in abundance. Among the harshest charges was a New Year's spree with the owner of a restaurant in Hanko, Finland, where the Baltic Fleet's floating base was then located. The same writer Viktor Gemanov recalls one of his post-war meetings with the former commander of the fleet, retired admiral Vladimir Tributs. In a conversation about the exploits of Baltic submariners during the war, the conversation naturally turned to Marinesco. “And then I heard an unexpected and categorical statement from Vladimir Filippovich: “Under no circumstances write about him!” - the writer recalls. - "But why?" “He had shortcomings and omissions, serious ones at that. And the main thing was drunkenness!”” Viktor Gemanov himself, when preparing his book about the S-13 feat, held dozens of meetings with members of its crew, with brigade headquarters officers and commanders of other boats. “I was shown the face of the real Marinesko - direct, open, intolerant of falsehood, lies and duplicity in relationships, a friendly and sociable person,” the writer noted. - The short, whip-lash-like word “drunkenness” did not apply to him. Yes, he did not shy away from the “People’s Commissar” hundred grams. On the shore, especially after difficult but successful military campaigns, having received the so-called “prize money” for sunk enemy ships, he acquired a trail of “friends for an hour” and was not limited to “People’s Commissars”. But it’s not his fault, it’s his misfortune. He measured others by himself, but he himself was without a “double bottom”, all wide open. That’s why they deceived him and let him down. This greatly interfered with the service. Ruined life. It stuck a common label on the remaining days.”
In September 1945, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy, Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko "for neglect of official duties, systematic drunkenness and everyday promiscuity" was removed from the post of S-13 commander and demoted to military rank to senior lieutenant and placed at the disposal of the Baltic Fleet Military Council. He still managed to serve as the commander of a minesweeper, but in November of the same year he was transferred to the reserve. He worked as a senior mate on merchant ships and was deputy director of the Blood Transfusion Research Institute in Leningrad. In 1949, he made history: he delivered decommissioned peat briquettes for heating, which were lying unaccounted for in the institute’s yard, to the homes of employees. For this he received gratitude from his colleagues and... a court sentence - three years in prison for squandering socialist property. After his release (his sentence as a front-line soldier was cut in half), he worked as a topographer and then as a supply worker at one of the Leningrad enterprises. At the end of the 1950s, he became seriously ill (the legendary submariner was diagnosed with throat cancer) and died on November 25, 1963.

“My father was an extraordinary person with a cool, independent character, which was passed on to him with his genes,” recalled youngest daughter Marinesko Tatiana (last year, unfortunately, she passed away). - Our grandfather, Ion, served as a fireman in the Romanian fleet. The mechanic hated him and once punched him in the face. In response, my grandfather hit him on the back with a shovel... From my dad, I learned to never humiliate myself, to be above insults, not to give up and to defend my opinion. These qualities very often created difficulties in life, but they also did not allow us to fall.”

“My father was strong-willed, very independent, and did not give offense to himself or his subordinates,” recalls Marinesko’s other daughter, Leonora, who together with her husband Boris Leonov published the book “You are our pride, father.” - As a child, I remember he was very strict. But also kind. If he punished, it was according to the case. His boat S-13 is the only surviving one of all the "esoks". The team survived largely due to the fact that during military campaigns the father was bold in his choice of tactics, fearless and even adventurous. But it was precisely these qualities, his “disobedience,” which became the key to salvation and victories, that were not to the liking of individual commanders.”

History has put everything in its place. Fleet veterans, primarily those who fought in the same waters as Marinesco, achieved the cancellation of the order to reduce him in rank, restoring his legal veteran and pension rights. True, this happened at the end of his life, and yet he met death as a captain of the 3rd rank, albeit in the reserve. Then came the review of the court verdict in the theft case: it took years to make sure that there was no corpus delicti in that story. And finally, on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the Victory, under pressure from the general public, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a decree awarding Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko the title of Hero of the Soviet Union “for the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War.”

Alexander Marinesko is the record holder among Soviet submariners for the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk: 42,557 gross register tons. The memory of him became monuments in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt, St. Petersburg, Odessa, films made, books published. There are also Marinesko Streets in different parts of the former Union: in 1990, the famous Builders Street in Leningrad received this name, glorified in the folk comedy “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” The Museum of Russian Submarine Forces, the only one in the country, is also named after the officer. state museum the history of this branch of the Navy, storing priceless relics in memory of the exploits of the defenders of the Fatherland on its sea and ocean frontiers.

The Fuhrer mortally hated the Soviet military; it was no coincidence that no one in captivity was treated as cruelly as they were. But only one officer of the Soviet Navy received the honor of being declared an enemy of the Reich and his personal enemy... And for good reason.

Hitler hoped to prolong the war with the countries of the anti-Nazi coalition for an indefinitely long period, during which, according to the Fuhrer’s aspirations, the collapse of this not very organic bloc would inevitably occur, which would allow Germany to make peace with the Anglo-Saxons and the French in the West and continue the war in the East against the USSR .

In January 1945, Soviet troops, developing a powerful offensive deep into the Nazi Reich, besieged Danzig, the ancient Polish city of Gdansk. In this ancient citadel, turned by the Nazis into a stronghold of their dominance in the Vistula region and the Baltic, in addition to a powerful military group, the color of Hitler's official elite was cut off - all kinds of Fuhrers, Leiters, Commissars who led the plunder and Germanization of the Slavic lands.

The 2nd Reichsmarine submarine training division was also based here. In January 1945, within its walls, 3,700 “blond beasts” were preparing to lay down their lives on the altar of devotion to the Fuhrer and Fatherland. They dreamed of perpetuating their name with exploits similar to those performed by their predecessors, natives of the same alma mater Gunther Prien (in 1940 he sent the most powerful English battleship Royal Oak to the bottom, and in total destroyed 28 enemy ships) and Otto Kretschmer (broke the absolute performance record, sinking 44 merchant ships and 1 destroyer). The already formed crews, transported to Kiel and Flensburg, had to take places in the compartments of 123 of the newest submarines of the XXI series launched, equipped with a snorkel - a device for recharging batteries in an underwater position, which sharply increased the autonomy and secrecy of navigation.

Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz's submariners were Hitler's last hope. They had to implement a plan for total submarine warfare.

Suddenly releasing on sea communications between the Old and New Worlds (instead of those destroyed by the Anglo-American anti-submarine defense during the Battle of the Atlantic) more than three dozen fresh “wolf packs” of submarines, each of which had an ammunition capacity of 20 torpedoes and a navigation autonomy of up to 16,000 miles , the Fuhrer hoped to blockade England, disrupt the supply of troops landing in Europe and gain the time necessary for the collapse of the anti-Hitler coalition. Considering the brilliant technical data of the XXI series boats and the serious combat training of the German corsairs of the deep sea, this plan posed a serious threat to the lives of thousands of allies.

The issue of evacuating the Danzig submarine school, whose graduates were primarily entrusted with this fateful mission by Hitler, was specifically discussed at one of the January meetings in his bunker.

Since 1942, the school was located on the huge passenger liner Wilhelm Gustlow, which was stationed in the port of Danzig, originally built for cruise flights of the Nazi elite from the Reich to the Canary Islands, and with the outbreak of World War II, converted first into a hospital ship, and then into a floating barracks for Hitler’s favorites .

All of Germany was proud of the ship. It is no coincidence that he was given the name of a prominent figure of the NSDAP, who enjoyed the special trust of the leader and created assault troops like the SA from local Germans in Switzerland.

In 1936, Gustlov was shot and killed by a Yugoslav anti-fascist. The Fuhrer specially came to Hamburg in 1938 to celebrate the launch of the ship named after his comrade-in-arms. He himself chose the name of the tourist liner, which was supposed to personify the power and perfection of the “thousand-year Reich,” and in an hour-long “fiery” speech he expressed his genuine delight at the masterpiece of “Aryan” shipbuilding, created according to his plans.

Admittedly, there was something to admire. Almost two hundred meters long, a 9-deck giant, the height of a 15-story building, divided by bulkheads into countless compartments, in addition to hundreds of comfortable cabins, it had restaurants, a winter garden, a swimming pool, and a gym. Displacement 25 thousand tons! Few giants equal to the Gustlov still roam the oceans today.

And this superliner, having on board about 100 submarine crews, over 4,000 additional high-ranking officials, generals and officers of the SS and the Wehrmacht (in total more than 8,000 passengers), with all precautions at noon on January 30, 1945, took off from the berth walls and went out to sea...

On the same day, at 20:10, the Soviet submarine S-13, commanded by Captain 3rd Rank Alexander Marinesko, cruising in the Bay of Danzig awaiting targets for a torpedo attack, surfaced to recharge its batteries.

It belonged to the family of submarines of the C IX-bis series, built on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, and in its characteristics was significantly inferior to Hitler’s submarines of the XXI series, specially created for operations in the World Ocean. "Eska" had a displacement of 870 tons, a cruising range of 10,000 miles, an endurance of 30 days, and a diving depth of up to 100 meters. Its armament consisted of 6 torpedo tubes (4 bow and 2 stern), a 100 mm gun and a 45 mm semi-automatic machine. But the snorkel Soviet designers were not invented, and this created considerable difficulties in the “autonomy”.

The campaign had already lasted 17 days. The area allocated for cruising was enormous: from the island of Bornholm to the Brewsterort lighthouse 150 miles - the width of the area, and to the throat of the Bay of Danzig 40 miles deep. Try, inspect it quickly, and most importantly, carefully... As luck would have it, the storm did not subside throughout the entire trip.

With great difficulty, the boatswain managed to keep the boat in balance for a minute or two, while the commander hurriedly clung to the periscope. And at night there was an extremely dangerous recharging of the batteries on the bumpy roads.

So - day after day. Monotonous, boring. The Eski's logbook sparingly testified: “January 17. From the Sovinformburo report we learned about the beginning of the offensive of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front south of Warsaw. The crew was happy... The storm was about 9 points. During the night, several sailors fell out of their bunks. In the morning we immersed ourselves, then lay down on the ground. Although the depth is 50 meters, the boat rocks great...

January 18. We surfaced at 00.40. The storm continues. A huge wave almost washed midshipman Toropov overboard. Senior sailor Yurov held him back... From a radio message we learned about the liberation of Warsaw by our troops...

January 20th. Due to bad weather, we rarely surface under the periscope. No transports were found... Explosions of depth charges are heard..."

To an experienced submariner, these explosions spoke volumes. The ship's commander knew that the command of other submarines had not sent him to the area allocated for his search. This means that distant ruptures in the “outback” are not at all a sign that the Nazis are “chasing” one of his military friends around the Baltic, pursuing a discovered submarine. No, preventive bombing is underway. If so, big game will soon come - ships of large displacement, accompanied by destroyers and torpedo catchers, maybe a cruiser...

Get ready, friends! - the commander encouraged the sailors. - My heart senses that a convoy is about to leave. It's going to be a hot one!

But days give way to days, and still there is no serious goal...

“January 26-27. It rocks a lot, sometimes putting the boat on its side at 45 degrees. Storm over 8 points. Freezing. Antenna, railings, deck covered solid ice. When submerged, the air supply shaft to diesel engines allows water to pass through until the ice on its lid thaws. From the operational report we learned that our troops were reaching the coast of Danzig Bay,” the radio operator writes in the logbook.

The sea has calmed down. But in the souls of submariners there is no calm, no, a storm is raging. More than a half-moon at sea, and we still haven’t seen the enemy on the horizon, and we haven’t fired a single one of the 12 torpedoes! People are tired of things to do!

And a coded message from fleet headquarters fuels the excitement: “To submarine commanders at sea. In connection with the beginning of the offensive of our troops, the fascists are expected to flee from Konigsberg and Danzig. Attack the big ones first warships and enemy transports...” But where is he, this enemy?

Navigator Nikolai Redkoborodov constantly “casts magic” in his enclosure above the map, every now and then clicking the stopwatch and the slider. His job is to calculate rates that would allow short term completely explore the entire area. This is not an easy task - you need to take into account all the shoals, banks, and sunken ships that come along the way. You need to remember all the mistakes that arise from inaccurate steering of the given course, from loss of speed during ascents.

The S-13 was lucky to have a navigator. Captain-Lieutenant Redkoborodov - best specialist in the “esok” brigade, in 1943 he masterfully guided Yuri Russin’s M-90 submarine through the Gulf of Finland, which was stuffed with minefields and anti-submarine nets. But no matter what experience you have behind you, you never know in the turbulent sea of ​​interference that keeps you in constant tension?!

It wasn’t easy for the boat’s mechanical engineer, Yakov Kovalenko. For him, this was his first campaign as an independent commander of a combat unit (the previous warhead commander, Georgy Dubrovsky, was sent to study at the academy). From previous voyages with Dubrovsky, the young officer understood the main thing: it is necessary to strictly control the watchkeeping of electricians, the movement of the boat under water with the help of electric motors depends on them. But don’t forget the bilge ones either - they wouldn’t make mistakes, especially at the stages of immersion and ascent. The life of the ship is in the hands of the sailors...

But the hardest thing is for the boat commander. He is responsible for the success of the campaign, for the combat result. What worries him are the Baltic depths, which are stuffed with different levels mines - bottom and anchor. How to maneuver if you have to evade the depth charges of enemy patrol ships without accidentally touching a mine?

And then I’m still overcome by sad thoughts about my own life. After all, Alexander Ivanovich was sent on a campaign to wash away his sin with blood. On the night of New Year, 1945, “cap three” went on a “little” spree in the Finnish city of Turku. I went to a restaurant with a friend, drank a glass... In general, I returned to the base two days later than expected.

Disappearance Soviet officer in a foreign port, and even a love affair with a citizen of another state at that time was a matter under jurisdiction, they were sent to a penal battalion and not for that. Marinesko was also threatened with a tribunal. The only thing that saved him was his reputation as a classy professional in underwater warfare (in October 1944, in the Danzig Bay, his “eska” sank an enemy transport with a displacement of 5,000 tons, and having fired all the torpedoes, he dared to surface and destroy the enemy with fire from the bow gun), and the support of the entire crew, heartbroken looked for in the commander and stood up in his defense. The command decided not to wash dirty linen in public and while the investigation was going on, they quietly sent the boat with the offending officer on a voyage. But soon this silence echoed with a ringing resonance...

On the evening of January 30, having received another radiogram from fleet headquarters, which spoke of the beginning evacuation of the Nazis, Alexander Ivanovich made a desperately bold decision: to go straight to Danzig harbor and guard the enemy at the exit from it.

After a 40-minute rush to the target, we surfaced to recharge the power supply. The stormy winter Baltic greeted us with huge waves that fell heavily over the narrow hull of the boat and rained down myriads of prickly spray, snow charges that came suddenly and densely - you couldn’t see anything. And when this scorching cold whirlpool was momentarily broken, the signalman on duty Anatoly Vinogradov shouted excitedly:

Lights! Right on the nose!

The fireflies blinking in the distance could not belong to coastal lighthouses - they were far away, and besides, they were not lit during wartime. So that's the goal! And then it sounded:

Combat alert!

The howler monkeys howled loudly. "S-13" went into the "attack of the century."

Standing on the bridge under the gusts of a furious wind, Marinesko feverishly thought about a plan of action. It is clear that there is at least one vessel behind the lights detected by the signalman. Just what is it - a large warship, a transport, or some kind of small fry on which it would be a pity to waste even torpedoes? Until you get close, you can’t define it. But if you follow the rules and dive first, the boat will lose half its speed while submerged. What if it’s not a slow-moving cargo ship, but a fast liner? You can’t catch up... Besides, you won’t see anything from the periscope depth in such a storm, and the boatswain won’t be able to hold the boat during a torpedo salvo - look how it throws on the waves! So, there is only one thing left: to catch up and attack on the surface...

Rising from the very bottom of society (his father was a Romanian sailor, and his mother a Ukrainian peasant), growing up on the outskirts of Odessa in a family with very modest incomes and making his way into long-distance navigation navigators of the merchant fleet with remarkable will and enormous hard work, Marinesko was not afraid of responsible decisions.

Only a constant attitude to the maximum allowed him to become an ace of underwater warfare unsurpassed among the Baltic sailors, after in 1939 he became the commander of a “baby” submarine, and 4 years later he was given command of an “esku”.

Navigator, night sight! - Marinesko ordered. - We shoot from the surface, bow! Let's go under diesel engines! Develop full speed!

Soon the hydroacoustician reported that, judging by the noise of the propellers, the still invisible target was pulling towards the cruiser.

“What if we attack from the shore? - a crazy thought occurred to the boat commander. “They don’t expect an attack from there, from their own people!” They probably won't wait! There are coastal aviation, batteries of forts... They believe that the rear is covered! Hit from there!”

Alexander Ivanovich was aware of the risk he was taking by deciding to cross the course of the enemy convoy and choose a position for attack from the coastline. If they find it, neither turn it away nor dive in (the depths will not allow it). Certain death...

The cup of doubt was finally outweighed by the report of the most experienced helmsman and signalman, First Class Petty Officer Alexander Volkov, who was called to the bridge and had the rare ability to see at night as during the day. Looking through binoculars at the lights blinking in the snow haze, he confidently reported:

A destroyer is ahead! Behind him is the liner!

For a moment, the snow suddenly stopped falling, and Marinesko, with a sinking heart, convinced that they had overtaken a huge ship, exclaimed, referring to the tonnage of the target:

Twenty thousand, no less!

Now - away with doubts! Their patience is rewarded. A little more, and a torpedo salvo...

Suddenly the liner's bearing began to change. A red rocket star flashed above the destroyer that was walking in front of the ship. “Have they really discovered it? Is the destroyer signaling that it is going to attack? - shot through my brain.

Urgent dive! Boatswain, dive to 20 meters! - ordered the commander of the S-13.

The boat slid down, under the heavily breathing waves. The last sharp rocking from side to side, and now only the shallow trembling motion reminds of the storm raging above... The outboard noises intensified, even through the steel of the durable hull the roar of huge ship propellers, similar to the rumble of a locomotive, can be clearly heard.

The liner seems to pass directly overhead. I just want to bend down. But since the outbacks didn’t fly, it means the enemy didn’t detect them...
Ascent! The boat, picking up speed, again rose above the waves. In afterburner, having developed 18 knots impossible for the “eski” and risking disrupting the diesel engines, Marinesko overtook the retreating target. It was a desperate, almost doomed effort - the probability of a happy outcome was not even a hundredth of a percent. If the Germans find them, and even lost their speed, they will instantly smash them to pieces. But he believed in his star...

An hour, the second unprecedented chase. And now you can shout into the speaking tube:

First mate, calculate the number of torpedoes in the salvo!

This command had barely sounded when suddenly a signal spotlight from the liner danced across the deckhouse of the boat, marking out dots and dashes. The enemy asked him for his call signs! But we need to buy a few more minutes to have time to get ready!

Give him something! Anything! - Marinesko ordered.

The signalman Ivan Antipov calmly signaled a short, salty word to the enemy, and... Oh, miracle! The German has calmed down! It turned out that the Nazis mistook a Soviet boat going side by side for their torpedo gun assigned to the convoy. Psychologically understandable. If someone answers and doesn’t try to hide, it means they belong! Insolence, but how calculating...

At 23.08 Marinesko finally commanded:

Devices, please!

Three swift stripes from the stem of the "esque" rushed towards the high side of the liner. There were no more than 15 minutes left before he plunged into the abyss...

Alexander Ivanovich and his comrades all this time, without even fearing the approaching enemy escort ships and without hiding in sea ​​depths, from the bridge they eagerly watched the agony of the Gustlov. The naked eye could see how a dark mass was tossing along the tilted deck in the flashes of fire - the crew and passengers in panic hurried to the sides to throw themselves into the icy Baltic... Retribution was cruel, but fair: the abyss of the sea swallowed up its corsairs, failed prins and kretschmers ...

The convoy ships saved only 988 Nazis, among them there were less than one crew of submariners. The assistant captain of the liner, Heinz Schön, who survived swimming in the Baltic water, wrote many years later in his book “The Death of the Wilhelm Gustlov”: “This was undoubtedly the biggest disaster in navigation, compared to which even the death of the Titanic, which collided in 1912 with an iceberg - nothing."

After the sinking of the giant motor ship, Marinesko evaded pursuit of enemy destroyers for 4 hours, either climbing directly to the place of her death, where the drowning people were still floundering and it was dangerous to jam the water column with depth charges, or performing cunning maneuvers. Eventually he swam close to the German coast and laid the boat on the ground.

10 days later, acting just as boldly and thoughtfully, Alexander Ivanovich also sank the German auxiliary cruiser General von Steuben with a displacement of 15,000 tons, on board which 3,600 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were transferred from the Courland pocket.

Marinesko did not yet know that Hitler had shown him a rare honor by declaring him - the commander of the boat that sank the Wilhelm Gustlow - an enemy of the Reich and his personal enemy. Of course, a sea plan would have been buried on the Baltic seabed, giving a chance to delay the collapse of the “thousand-year-old” Aryan empire.

Three days of mourning were declared in Germany, all members of the NSDAP and other functionaries put on mourning armbands. In the history of the Reich, something similar happened only once - after the death of Paulus's 6th Army in Stalingrad.

On May 5, 1990, USSR President M. S. Gorbachev signed a Decree conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously on Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko. How did it happen that his merits were appreciated almost half a century later?

Upon returning to base, the S-13 commander was indeed nominated for the rank of Hero. But the vigilant personnel officers grabbed their heads: “Excuse me, is this the same Marinesko?..”. Envious people and ill-wishers, of which people of the type like Alexander Ivanovich - independent, courageous, going against the odds - always have in abundance, began to spread gossip about him, that he was arrogant, drinks heavily, etc.

In September of the same victorious year, the Fuhrer's personal enemy was demoted to senior lieutenant by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy "for lapses in personal behavior", written off the boat and sent with a demotion to the Tallinn defensive region, as the commander of a small minesweeper. A few months later he was dismissed from the Armed Forces.

Having become a civilian, Marinesko soon spent time in Kolyma on an absurd charge of allegedly committing the theft of socialist property. Having undermined his health in grueling sea voyages and in Kolyma penal servitude, upon his release Alexander Ivanovich was terribly poor.

The Soviet state paid the hero submariner a meager pension, and he lived out his life in a St. Petersburg communal apartment. Marinesko died in 1963. He was a little over 50 years old...

Fought long and hard for good name comrade Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N.G. Kuznetsov prophetically wrote: “History knows many cases when heroic deeds performed on the battlefield remain in the shadows for a long time, and only descendants appreciate them according to their merits. It also happens that during war years major events are not given due importance, reports about them are subject to doubt and people evaluate them much later. This fate befell the Baltic submariner A.I. Marinesko."

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