The true story of a "real man": the feat of pilot Alexei Maresyev

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Name Alexey Maresyev has long been a symbol of courage and courage. The story of how the pilot managed to survive after the plane crash, undergo amputation of his legs and soar into the sky again, sung in "A book about a real person" by Boris Polev, it seems, at first glance, simply incredible, but almost everything in it is true. 18 days spent in the forest, a meeting with a bear, a complicated operation and even a dance on prostheses in front of a medical examination - all this actually survived Soviet hero pilot … But in the book you can also find fictional episodes …

The fact that Alexey Maresyev became a pilot is almost unbelievable. As a child, Alyosha grew up as a sick child, suffered malaria and, as a "reward" for this, developed rheumatism. Physically weak, he was at the same time endowed with incredible willpower by nature. Alexey borrowed this character trait from his father, who went through the First World War.

The first attempts to get to study at the flight school were doomed to failure: chronic diagnoses, it seemed, dashed all Maresev's hopes to connect his life with the sky. However, luck still smiled at the guy: in 1937 he went to the army and served in the aviation, having completed a training course in Chita and Bataysk.

Alexey started the war on 23 August 1941 in Krivoy Rog. Almost a year later, on April 4, 1942, the same battle took place in the area of the Demyansk boiler, during which Maresyev's plane was destroyed by the Germans, but the pilot himself managed to survive. For 18 days the pilot made his way to the village, during which time he had to endure many tests. The hardest thing was to endure hunger, in search of food the exhausted pilot tried to catch a lizard and a hedgehog, both attempts were in vain.

Maresyev really had a fight with a bear, Polevoy very accurately described this episode in the book. To kill the clubfoot, the pilot had to use up all the cartridges, he shot almost at point-blank range.

Maresyev crawled to the village barely alive. At first, he was mistaken for a German, since he did not react in any way to the attempts of local residents to speak to him. When it became clear that he was "his", they began to nurture. Maresyev stayed in the village for a week, his condition worsened, but, fortunately, a plane from Moscow still flew in for him. In the hospital, the pilot was immediately "written off" among the hopeless, but by chance Professor Terebinsky saw his condition and immediately sent the hero to the operating table.

The passion to fly turned out to be stronger than a physical handicap. Not yet having served the due date in the hospital, Maresyev was already rushing to the front line. The characteristic episode with dancing in front of the commission is not a fiction. Maresyev actually danced, however, experiencing unbearable pain, his wounds were bleeding. By the way, the pilot learned to dance with one of the nurses, but a couple of times he crushed her legs with prostheses so that he decided to hone his skills on a bed neighbor.

Places came true: in 1943 Maresyev was recognized as "fit" and sent to the unit. For a long time he was not allowed to take part in combat missions, and he could only soar into the sky together with ace Alexander Chislov. Flying with prostheses, Maresyev shot down 7 enemy planes and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the front, Maresyev met a military journalist Boris Polev, told him about his fate, and after that this story became the basis of the book.

Maresyev flew for almost a year, and then began to work as an instructor to train fighters. New aircraft required overload, and the pilot correctly judged where he could be of more use.

The only story that was completely invented by Polev is a love line. He met his only hero after the war, their feelings were mutual, and the couple lived happily for 55 years!

Vladimir Kokkinaki - another fearless Soviet pilot, whose success is admired by the whole world!