Malinkin E.M. "Fadeev Vadim Ivanovich"

(25.12.1917 – 05.05.1943)

Vadim Fadeev was born on December 25, 1917 in the village of Fedkino, Sengeleevsky district, Simbirsk region, now Terengulsky district, Ulyanovsk region, in the family of engineer Ivan Vasilyevich Fadeev. He grew up in Kuibyshev, where he studied at school number 6, entered the Kuibyshev Civil Engineering Institute and the local flying club, where he was left as an instructor, continuing his studies in an aviation training squad. The Fadeev family lived at the address: Frunzensky District, House of Specialists - st. Galaktionovskaya, 38, apt. 95. My father insisted on studying at the institute, but Vadim survived only three years of study. In early January 1940, with excellent performance, he entered the Chkalovsk (Orenbursk) military flight school.

Fadeev began his service on Far East. Immediately after the outbreak of the war, he asked to be sent to the front. He began to carry out his first combat missions in August 1941 as part of the 131st Fighter Aviation Regiment. The I-16 became the first combat vehicle of the young pilot. And soon he received his first order, but in battle on the ground. This happened near Taganrog, where the Soviet infantry unit tried for the second day to recapture the small mound "Five Brothers" from the Nazis. According to the story of one of the soldiers, during the next battle, an airplane unexpectedly flew over the German trenches, and, despite heavy fire, calmly sat down on the earth pitted with craters, 300 m from the front line. A pilot jumped out of the plane, quickly found the commander and showed enemy firing points on the map. On a tip, artillery immediately began to hit, and then the pilot led the fighters to attack. As a result of a fierce attack, the mound was taken, German mortar batteries were destroyed, several armored cars were destroyed, and 2 were captured, a lot of enemy manpower was destroyed, and also taken prisoner.

For taking the height, Vadim Fadeev, sergeant of the 446th mixed aviation regiment, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and also received the extraordinary rank of lieutenant.

Since May 1942, Fadeev has been serving in the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, which was part of the 216th mixed air division of the 4th air army of the North Caucasian Front, performing combat missions on Yak-1 and Airacobra aircraft. He served with famous pilots A. Pokryshkin, B. Glinka, G. Rechkalov, N. Iskrin. Fadeev was a real hero - blue-eyed, with lush hair and a neat beard, almost 2 m tall, weighing more than 100 kg, he wore boots of size 49.

Lieutenant Fadeev, thanks to his strength and endurance, made 5-6 sorties a day, sometimes shooting down several enemy aircraft per flight. He quickly mastered new equipment (for example, the American Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter received under Lend-Lease), by 1943 he became the leader of the pair, and then the squadron commander. Vadim Ivanovich carefully kept the document issued by the army commander - an order to issue him a double food ration and a permit for individual tailoring of clothes and shoes - nothing from the finished uniform suited him, everything was not enough.

Fadeev's brilliant abilities as a pilot manifested themselves during the battles for the airspace over the Kuban in the spring of 1943. In just one week, he destroyed 10 enemy aircraft personally and 1 in the group! In just three weeks of fighting, Fadim Ivanovich shot down 20 enemy aircraft. The victory here predetermined the dominance of Soviet aviation on the entire Soviet-German front. The first pilot of the 4th Air Army, presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the battles over the Kuban, was Guards Captain Fadeev. Here he received the second Order of the Red Banner.

While still a senior lieutenant of the guards, on April 17, 1943, Vadim Fadeev, together with the eight fighters and four covering planes led by him, went out to patrol the spurs of the Main Caucasian Range. Flying already over the sea, he noticed that from the side of the city of Anapa there was a group of 12 Ju-87 bombers, accompanied by Me-109, marching to bomb the Soviet paratroopers dug in at Cape Myskhako near Novorossiysk. Later another fifteen enemy fighters arrived, including the latest FW-190s. Thanks to the well-coordinated interaction of groups, precise and bold maneuvers, Fadeev and his comrades managed to neutralize the quantitative superiority of the enemy and the technical capabilities of the new enemy aircraft. In total, 10 enemy planes were shot down, thanks to the determination of Fadeev and his group, the enemy raid failed.

By May 1943, Vadim Fadeev made 394 sorties, conducted 51 air battles, shot down 17 enemy aircraft, destroyed 80 vehicles, 15 guns, and up to 200 enemy soldiers and officers. Paired with his wingman Andrei Trud, who also later became a Hero of the Soviet Union, he shot down another 44 enemy aircraft. One of the traits of Fadeev's character was a dismissive attitude to danger and even an underestimation of the enemy's forces. According to the memoirs of the former commander of the 4th Air Army, Chief Marshal of Aviation K. A. Vershinin, sometimes Fadeev behaved simply recklessly - he could, having abandoned control of the group, chase a single fighter, turn on the transmitter in flight and perform arias from operas, make figures over the airfield aerobatics at low altitude.

On May 5, 1943, while performing a combat mission and breaking away from the main group of fighters led by A.I. Pokryshkin, Fadeev, together with his wingman, met a group of 12 Messerschmidt fighters in the sky over the Black Sea coast. Vadim Ivanovich shot down two opponents, but was seriously wounded. Having managed to land the plane in the marshes, he lost consciousness and died from loss of blood. Only a few days later, the search party found the place of emergency landing.

Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev was buried in the Plavnensky farm of the Kyiv village council of the Crimean district of the Krasnodar Territory, now the village of Fadeevka. The Fadeev air regiment was based here, which on May 24, 1943 was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). At home, in the city of Kuibyshev, a family remained - a sick father who worked for many years in the 17th colony and died shortly after the end of the war, his mother, Varvara Fedorovna, after the war, spoke about her son at a rally dedicated to the assignment of the Kuibyshev Aviation Club of DOSAAF named after V. I. Fadeeva, sister Yulia (in 1945 a student at the Medical Institute) and sister Rufima (in 1945 a doctor, married). In addition, through the database of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (www.obd-memorial.ru) it was possible to find out that, according to the data from the list of irretrievable losses personnel units of the 216th mixed air division from May 1 to May 10, 1943, V. I. Fadeev left a widow - Fadeeva Lyudmila Nikolaevna, who lived in the village of Popovichnaya (now Kalininskaya) of the Krasnodar Territory.

The name of Fadeev is given to a working village at the Gorny state farm in the Crimean region, a school in this village, a street in the village of Kalininskaya in the Krasnodar Territory. And in the village of Fadeevo, and in the village of Kalinin, monuments to the Hero were erected. In the city of Kuibyshev, for many years, All-Union sports competitions in motorcycle racing on ice were held for the prize. Vadim Fadeev, who was a good motorcycle racer. The name of Vadim Fadeev was given on August 20, 1964 to a public garden in the Oktyabrsky district of Kuibyshev at the intersection of Lenin Ave. and st. Pervomaiskaya. In the Industrial District of the city is located st. Fadeev, so on May 6, 1965 the former 7th Longitudinal Street became known.

November 15, 2011 on the wall of the house number 38 on the street. Galaktionovskaya, in which the legendary pilot Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev, Hero of the Soviet Union, lived before the war, the grand opening of the memorial plaque took place.

Used sources and literature:

SOGASPI. F. 1683. Op. 21. D. 27. L. 1, 7, 33.

SOGASPI, F. 656. Op. 101. D. 20. L. 1.

Lipatova A. M. Names of Samara streets. Samara, 200, pp. 208-209.

Mikhailov A. I. Heroes of the land of Samara. Samara, 2002. S. 258.

Memory book. Samara Region. T. 8. S. 111.

Vadim Fadeev was born on December 25, 1917 in the village of Fedkino, today Terengulsky district of the former Ulyanovsk region, in a family of teachers. He lived in Kuibyshev, graduated from the 3 courses of the Construction Institute and the local flying club, in which he was left as an instructor. Vadim was educated, well-read, sang superbly, very handsome - almost two meters tall, blond with blue eyes. In 1940 he was drafted into the Red Army, graduated from the Chkalovsky military aviation school for pilots.

On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since August 1941. At first he fought as part of the 131st Fighter Aviation Regiment, flying an I-16 aircraft. Once, in the region of Kodyma (Moldova), V.I. Fadeev attacked a column of Romanian cavalrymen with a group of fighters. Having shot all the cartridges, he went down to the very ground and chopped the riders with the propeller of the aircraft.

In 1943, Lieutenant Fadeev arrived in the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, quickly mastered new equipment, became an excellent leader of the pair, and then the squadron commander. Vadim carefully kept the protocol issued by the commander of the Air Army - an instruction on issuing him a double food ration and a permit for individual tailoring of clothes and shoes. Of the ready-made uniforms, nothing suited him - everything was a bit.

His brilliant abilities as a fighter pilot were fully revealed in the battles in the Kuban. With a huge physical force and endurance, he made 5 - 6 sorties a day. He often shot down several aircraft per flight, and once in one week he destroyed 10 aircraft personally and 1 in the group. By the end of April 1943, Captain V.I. Fadeev made 394 sorties, conducted 43 air battles and personally shot down 17 enemy aircraft.

One of the demons of his character was a disdainful attitude to danger and an underestimation of the enemy's forces. Sometimes he behaved easily recklessly - he could, having abandoned the management of the group, chase after a single "Messer"; connect a transmitter in flight and perform arias from operas; perform "circus" tricks at low altitude over the airfield. For mischief, he grew a beard for himself with a "shovel" - "for fear of enemies," as he said. His broad Volga nature and confidence in his extraordinary abilities often manifested themselves in an overestimation of his capabilities.

Vadim Fadeev died in an unequal air battle on May 5, 1943. In the last sortie, he, having shown his often inherent self-confidence, decided to do it independently, and this was his fatal oversight. Breaking away from the center group of our fighters, led by A.I. Pokryshkin, he and his wingman Andrey Trud met a group of 12 Me-109 fighters. In this battle, Fadeev shot down 2 planes, but was not easily wounded and died returning to his airport terminal.

By that time, he had made more than 400 sorties and conducted 51 air flights. He had 21 personal and 1 group victories on his account (other figures are given in some sources, in particular - 17 personal and 3 group victories). Assault strikes destroyed up to 90 vehicles, 15 guns, 25 wagons and a lot of active enemy forces.

On May 24, 1943, for courage and military prowess shown in battles with enemies, Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the period of the war, he was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (twice), and medals. He was buried in the central park of the village of Kievskoye, Krasnodar Territory. Streets in Kuibyshev and Kievskaya bear his name.

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My next stopping point on the route Krasnodar - Anapa unexpectedly became the village of Fadeevo, which is located a few kilometers from the village of Varenikovskaya in the Krasnodar Territory. Everyone driving a car along the highway past the village can see the erected bust of the Hero of the Soviet Union, fighter pilot Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev, after whom this small village is named.
1.

Here is his short biography:
IN AND. Fadeev was born on December 25, 1917 in the village of Fedkino, the former Ulyanovsk region, into a family of teachers. He lived in Kuibyshev, graduated from the 3 courses of the Construction Institute and the local flying club, where he was left as an instructor. Since 1940, in the ranks of the Red Army, he graduated from the Chkalovsky military aviation school for pilots.

With the outbreak of war on August 19, 1941, Lieutenant V.I. Fadeev ended up on the front of the Great Patriotic War.
In 1943, Lieutenant V.I. Fadeev arrived in the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, commanded by A.I. Pokryshkin. He quickly mastered a new technique - the P-39 Airacobra aircraft, became an excellent leader of the pair, and then a squadron commander.

By the end of April 1943, the squadron commander of the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Guard, Captain V.I. Fadeev, made 394 sorties. After 43 air battles, he shot down 17 enemy aircraft.

2. For the sake of a joke, he grew a long beard, for which he received his call sign "Beard".

3. It was in the Kuban that Fadeev most fully revealed his talent as a fighter pilot. Possessing great physical strength and endurance, he made 5-6 sorties a day. Sometimes he shot down several planes per flight. Most often he flew with his wingman Andrey Trud

4. Plane V.I. Fadeev carried tail number 37, recognizable for German pilots operating in the Kuban.

May 5, 1943 V.I. Fadeev died in an air battle. Here is how the military chronicle describes this event:
Vadim Fadeev died in an unequal air battle on May 5, 1943. In the last sortie, he, having shown his often inherent self-confidence, decided to act independently, and this was his fatal mistake. Breaking away from the main group of our fighters, led by A.I. Pokryshkin, he and his wingman Andrey Trud met a group of 12 Me-109 fighters. In this battle, Fadeev shot down 2 aircraft, but was seriously wounded and died returning to his airfield.
Only on July 11, Soviet intelligence officers accidentally discovered him in the Adagum floodplains. Vadim lay on the wing of the plane, leaning his back against the fuselage. His heroic chest was pierced right through by a shell.
On May 24, 1943, for courage and military prowess shown in battles with enemies, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Later I learned that V.I. Fadeev was buried in the central park of the village of Kievskoye (the very one where the MiG-21 monument was erected, which was discussed in the previous entry).

5. In the village of Fadeevo, on a hill, there is a well-groomed monument to V.I. Fadeev and the same one was installed in front of the entrance to the local school ... so that they remember ...

Instead of an epilogue
Vadim, when approaching the Messers, saw German pilots. One flew very close. On board the Me-109, a red dragon caught my eye. And as soon as they dispersed, through the hubbub of shouts and commands, Vadim heard a burr:
- "Beard", "Beard"! Let's fight!

Based on resources.

After the war, friends from the front, who loved this house so much, gathered, a moment came, and, looking into her husband’s eyes, Maria asked him: “Sasha, imagine that now… Vadim would appear?”

He would have appeared with a bang, filling the rooms with his magnificent Chaliapin-style roaring bass. He breathed joyful animation into the guests, riveted everyone's attention to himself with a well-aimed joke on the topic of the day, an artistic recitation of poetry or Prince Igor's opera aria: “Oh, give me freedom ...”. He would have guessed the mood of everyone at once, only briefly looking at him with a cheerful penetrating look of large gray-blue eyes ...

And for each he would find a sincere word. Vadim! The pilots smiled only when they heard his approach. Only Vadim Fadeev, with his jokes, could at dawn and five languishing tension before a sortie into the Cuban sky.

A constellation of aces fought next to Pokryshkin, some of them had a larger number of downed aircraft in 1945 than Vadim Fadeev, but Alexander Ivanovich said only about the latter: “He could become a Hero three times.”

Probably, nowhere and never has there been such a fighter pilot: almost two meters tall and weighing about a hundred kilograms, but at the same time a slender, athletic build. When asked how he fits on the plane, Vadim, laughing, compared himself to a folding wooden ruler:

“True, during the battle, sometimes you have to look for an additional point of support, resting your head on the cabin ceiling.” At first, he was sent to bombers, where there is room for a giant at the helm, but Fadeev won the right to be a fighter. He had a sharp reaction, the ability to maneuver with an overload inaccessible to others. According to his warehouse, Vadim was a fighter - a lone swift warrior.

Each of his appearances on the roads of war, or later, on the pages of memories, is unique, imbued with a special meaning. This property is only for outstanding people.

Pokryshkin and Fadeev knew about each other even before the first meeting at the division headquarters, where Alexander Ivanovich received his first order. Correspondents wrote about the best fighters, the rumor about them was passed from mouth to mouth in the regiments, in contrast to the dryish newspaper lines, gaining a lively brilliance and charm.

They started talking about Fadeev shortly after his arrival at the front on August 10, 1941. Here are two nines of I-16s successfully storming a convoy. Vadim dives six times, setting cars on fire. Then, in parting, it goes up vertically, triumphantly showing the immaculate Immelman to the defeated enemy. Returning to the airfield, the fighters see a column of refugees cut down by the Romanian cavalry in the steppe in the Kodyma region. Having caught up with the cavalrymen, they shoot them with the remaining shells and cartridges. Having used up the ammunition load, Fadeev, in righteous anger at low level flight, cuts down an officer with a propeller. On the I-16 propeller blade, after it landed, the mechanics found a piece of the occupier's cranial bone. It was not possible to hear or read about the second such example during the war years ...

On November 27, 1941, Vadim landed an aircraft damaged during an attack on a neutral zone near the Five Brothers mound, northwest of Rostov-on-Don. Having managed to evaluate the German defense during planning, Fadeev ran to the infantry trench under fire. After a conversation with the commander, the giant with a machine gun in his hand left the dugout and with his powerful bass raised the battalion to the attack: “Forward! For the Motherland! The plane was saved, the altitude was taken. Taken by surprise, the Germans were unable to resist. The commander of the infantry division reported to the 446th air regiment about the feat of Sergeant Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev.

In the winter of 1942, Fadeev, who did not have enough fuel when returning from reconnaissance, landed at the airfield of the Pokryshkin squadron. Already a lieutenant with the Order of the Red Banner on his chest, he struck the young pilots with a face disfigured by repeated frostbites. Fadeev did not spare himself, he flew with an open canopy in any frost. In the dining room, the guest stunned the commander of the BAO with a paper signed by General S. A. Krasovsky himself, with an order to issue a double portion to the owner of this document. After lunch, Vadim completed the impression he had made by taking off with his usual aerobatics chic.

At the very first meeting with Pokryshkin, Fadeev said:

"Ready to be a friend!" Alexander Ivanovich recalled that day with the words: “Fate connected our path ...” Having met again already in the Caucasus, near the Caspian Sea, in August 1942, two pilots hugged, clapped each other on the shoulders for a long time ... Having learned that Fadeev was sent to the reserve regiment , Pokryshkin first of all calls him to his 16th Guards. "I agree! Let's fight together!" Vadim answers. Isaev gives the go-ahead for the translation, overwhelmed by the power of Fadeev’s handshake: “Well, what a power!” To Figichev’s question: “Why did you grow a beard?” followed by words that caused general laughter: "For the fear of enemies!"

Thus began the military friendship of the two Ivanovichs - Alexander Pokryshkin and Vadim Fadeev. Ever since the epic times in Russia, leading a circular defense against enemy raids, twinning, the brotherhood of the cross, appears. Two warriors, Cossacks, exchanged pectoral crosses as a sign of fraternal devotion and fidelity to the coffin. On the chest of the Soviet pilots were in 1942 the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner, but the essence of their friendship remained the same ...

Vadim is the first to fully comprehend Pokryshkin's "science of winning" in the air, becomes a like-minded friend, instantly grasps his ideas and developments even before they are triumphantly tested in practice.

Probably, it was Vadim, with his sensitivity and irresistible love of life, who saved his friend in the darkest hour of his life, when Pokryshkin, without waiting for the tribunal, wanted to end his own life. “What are you thinking, Sasha! Stop fooling around! More than once we will fight together against the Nazis!”

On the boat, Pokryshkin and Fadeev went to the Caspian Sea, conducted their conversations, as Alexander and Stepan Suprun once spoke in the stormy Black Sea. Vadim was the first to whom Pokryshkin told about his relationship with Maria, about his desire to start a family. “Vadim,” Alexander Ivanovich recalled, “was able to quickly eliminate the misunderstandings that arose in our relationship with Maria with a joke, a challenge to a frank conversation.” In Makhachkala, Fadeev sat a friend and his beloved in front of a photographer and presciently said: “Now take a picture of them together! You do not see that the girl is embarrassed. I assure you that they will keep the photograph you take until the end of their lives ... ”M.K. Pokryshkina wrote in her book:

“Vadim's prediction came true. This photo is now in Sasha's office in a place of honor, and every time I look at it, I mentally thank Vadim ... "

Yes, this man could leave an indelible mark on his soul ... The political officer of the regiment, M.A. Pogrebnoy, wore a beard for five years as a sign of his memory. Hero of the Soviet Union Arkady Fedorov, who became friends with Vadim at the end of 1941, recalled 20 years later: “I still often consult with him mentally when I need to take some important decision". Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Iskrin, his fellow countryman from Kuibyshev (Samara), said: “From the whole appearance of Vadim Fadeev, the mighty power of a real Volga hero blew. About people like him, poems, legends and songs were composed, artists dedicated their canvases to them. In our regiment, Vadim was everyone's favorite. His image will never be erased from my memory.

Yes, he was a Volgar, grew up on the banks of this sacred Russian river, mother and nurse. Many talents and a number of famous pilots gave Russia the world of the great Volga full of originality. Nesterov and Chkalov have already been mentioned. The coryphaeus of long-range aviation, the son of the captain of the Volga steamer Alexander Golovanov, was also born here, also unusually handsome, two meters tall, generously endowed with intelligence and iron strength.

... Vadim knew the nature of his native river well. As a high school student, he got the right to drive a motorboat, loved the open space, fighting a strong wave, spray flying over his head. Working as a mail carrier, he once persuaded the postman to cross, despite the approach of a thunderstorm. The storm caught the boat on the rapids of the river, it was already impossible to turn. The postman survived the stress, Vadim bawled out songs with delight ...

At the age of 11, Vadim, as indicated in the description, "according to the pedagogical survey in mental development gives you a year and a half promotion. And then he studies well, reads a lot, is fond of Mayakovsky's poetry, music, and opera. Father Ivan Vasilievich, a major civil engineer, wanted to direct his son in his footsteps, and Vadim entered the construction institute, but in his second year he stopped attending classes. In the 1930s, aviation had no rivals among young talents with excellent health ... In the flying club, a new set of pilots was planned only a year later. In a month, Vadim masters the six-month-long courses of drivers at Osoaviakhim, works on a bread van, and then on an ambulance more suitable for his character. The father does not give up, he agrees with the dean on the admission of his son to the session. That one, having not attended a single lecture in the semester, passes the session with “excellent”! And still leaves the third year. All evenings he studies aviation-technical literature. On his birthday, friends wrote to Vadim: “You, born on the great days of our era; you - great person in form, structure and complexion; you, whose foot has no equal; you, who are doomed to great torment in search of size 49 boots and are deprived of the opportunity to visit the ice rink; you, who to this day have lived in the world for exactly two dozen years, in the days of grandiose victories on the entire socialist front, accept our sincere congratulations ... ".

In 1938, Fadeev, again, excellently graduated from the Kuibyshev flying club, was left there as an instructor, and only in January 1940 was released to Ulyanovsk flight school. From there he was sent to the Chkalovsk (Orenburg) school. The uniform, which the new cadet called "armor", he had to sew - the right size was not found. When was the double ration approved. Old photo she retained one of the jokes of the young strongman - Fadeev proudly, with a grin, holds on his hands and shoulders three classmates of the usual build with militantly mischievous faces.

In the school, the foreman “knocks the crap out” of an unbridled cadet for two months. But the nature of the Volga rebel, as Pokryshkin later identified his friend, no, no, but made itself felt ...

Having mastered and looked around, Fadeev externally passes the theory exams with excellent marks, overtaking everyone; without "export" makes an independent flight. In the newspaper of the school, an article is printed about him with a portrait called "Steel Will". After taking off on the I-16, Vadim writes to his parents:

“Oh, and good! When you fly and make various “slanders”, when it seems that the car is me myself ... The car is tense to the extreme, the engine roars so that it becomes scary for those standing on the ground - no matter how it falls apart. But the main goal is to test yourself during overloads in order to take everything that it is capable of from the car. Surprising in these lines is the similarity with the way of thinking of Pokryshkin, who at the same time called his figures in the sky of Moldova not “slander”, but “hooks”. The phrase "take everything from the car ..." coincides literally with two aces!

The year 1941 finds Fadeev in the Far East, where he is awarded the rank of sergeant of military service ... He did not have to serve here for long, after the start of the war, part of the train along the Trans-Siberian Railway was sent to the west. On the back of the picture, where Fadeev is standing at the “donkey” next to twelve aviators, it is written in his hand: “5.7.41. Shanks. Friends who are going to beat everyone who climbs on the USSR. In Balashov, missing flying, Vadim demonstrates such figures at low altitude with a dive over the city center that the Air Force commander, who turned out to be a witness, sends the pilot to the guardhouse: “Recklessness! Take action immediately! There will be more imitators, then accidents, disasters.

“Bastards are fascist pilots. When they bombard, then, if there are no our fighters, they go down and shoot civilians from low ground. Recently, their fighters, having flown into one village, from fifty meters began to fire at children swimming in the river ... I myself am a fighter, but I will never shoot German children, although my hand will not waver to destroy any number of fascists in battle.

By August 1942, Fadeev accounted for six downed German aircraft. But even of those pilots with whom he arrived at the front, few survived. Lieutenant Georgy Plotnikov died, with whom Vadim became friends in the Far East.

…Hold on, German! Fully armed with new technology and Pokryshkin's tactics, Vadim Fadeev took to the skies of the Kuban. “Let noble rage boil up like a wave”… From V. I. Fadeev’s award list: “11.4.43, covering his troops in the area of ​​Ukrainian, Shiptalskaya, Stavropolskaya, Krasny Tabakovod, fought an air battle with 4 Me-109. As a result of decisive attacks, Comrade Fadeev shoots down one Me-109 ... An informing radio station - the call sign "squirrel" said: "air cobra", stop fire, "mass" is on fire. But comrade Fadeev accompanied the vulture to the very ground with machine-gun and cannon fire ... Comrade Fadeev had a lot of combat episodes and all sorties occurred with a meeting of enemy fighters.

"Hey, let's go!" - Violating discipline on the air, Vadim sang "Dubinushka" in flight. Hey, let's go! “The first person to whom during the fighting in the Kuban I signed a submission for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was V.I. Fadeev. And he fully deserved it ... - recalled General N. F. Naumenko. - During one of the weeks he destroyed ten enemy aircraft personally and one in the group. This is a very big victory." The general also noted that upon personal acquaintance, “I immediately liked the pilot with the depth and liveliness of his mind, a clear understanding of the tasks facing fighter aviation. Later, it became a kind of need for me to see our hero and talk to him.

Ivan Babak wrote: “Vadim Fadeev was a common favorite, even in our neighboring forty-fifth regiment he was considered some kind of special pilot. After all, in each battle he would definitely shoot down 2-3 aircraft!

Vadim continued to amuse his comrades. At first, as already mentioned, the pilots of the 16th and 45th regiments were placed in Krasnodar, in a dilapidated warehouse, on bunk beds. At night, the racks could not withstand the weight of Fadeev, who collapsed on Dmitry Glinka. The pilots sleeping nearby woke up from the roar, deciding that another bombing had begun. And the dream of two tired Hercules, to everyone's amazement and laughter, was not disturbed!

By April 28, as indicated in the submission for the title of Hero, Fadeev already had 394 sorties, of which 118 were for attack, 155 for reconnaissance, 106 for escorting bombers, 55 for patrol and cover. In 43 air battles, he personally shot down 17 aircraft (15 Me-109, but one Yu-87 and Yu-88) and one in a group (Me-109). These are official figures, they are probably underestimated. After all, the planes shot down behind the front line, left without confirmation by the ground forces, as already mentioned, were not counted by Soviet pilots then.

The Germans began hunting for the best Russian aces. Highlighting his "Akhtung, akhtung!" Pokryshkin, they, according to N. I. Umansky, also started talking about Glinka, Fadeev and Rechkalov. "Khadeev, Khadeev..." - the voices of German observers came from the radio. They also knew his call sign "Beard".

"To be or not to be. That's the question…” - another favorite number performed by Vadim - Prince Hamlet's monologue from act 111 of Shakespeare's tragedy…

Alexander Ivanovich, together with political officer M. A. Pogrebny, worried about a friend. Vadim's young wife came to Popovicheskaya. They met shortly before that in the reserve regiment. Lyudmila was married to Nikolai Lavitsky, one of the best pilots of the 45th regiment. Spectacular in appearance, she played the accordion beautifully, loved communication, feasts. Vadim fell in love with her without memory and “recaptured” her from her husband, who had a hard time surviving the betrayal ...

Once Vadim, returning from a sortie, over the house where he lived with Lyudmila in the village, began to show his virtuoso aerobatics. From an ambush in the clouds, a pair of Messerschmitts dived on Fadeev. He was saved from death only by a warning from the ground on the radio of Arkady Fedorov, who managed to jump into the cab of the Cobra.

Pokryshkin boiled: “What are you doing, Vadim?! Foolishly decided to die?!… You behave like a vagrant merchant. In combat flight, turning on the transmitter, you perform arias from operas. Recklessly sometimes chasing individual "messers", leaving to manage the group. Who needs this circus?! You are the commander, you must set an example.” Vadim agreed, but could not overcome himself ...

On May 5, 1943, the regiment commander N.V. Isaev determined the composition of the group that flew out on patrol. A pair of Fadeev was connected to the Pokryshkin link. Andrey Trud most often flew as Vadim's wingman. Only such an experienced tenacious pilot could hold on to him. In flight, Fadeev began to move away from the group.

- “Beard”, I am Pokryshkin, come closer, why are you coming off?

Now I'll come!

These were last words Vadim, which his friend heard. Soon, Pokryshkin's link entered into battle with the Junkers and Messerschmitts. A couple of Fadeevs, far away from their own, were attacked by twelve Messerschmitts. As Andrei Trud later said, he was bound by battle. Vadim was hit and went home... He did not return to the airfield.

On that day, the German “expert” aces, using intelligence and radio interception data, made a decisive attempt to crack down on the best pilots of the 16th regiment. Pokryshkin in this sortie escaped with the help of Ivan Stepanov from the “pincers”, into which he was rigidly taken by two pairs of Me-109s. And then it was Pokryshkin who was shot by the Yak-"werewolf".

Knowing the strength of the "Beard", the Germans lured him under the blow of a group that had an overwhelming numerical superiority.

His friends did not learn about the place of Vadim's death. N. I. Umansky, in a letter to the author of these lines, recalled:

“I visually observed this pirate air battle from the army command post due to a cloud ambush. You should have seen with what cruelty they attacked him! This fight lasted five or six minutes. Three German aircraft burned, but Fadeev's plane rolled off to the side with a decrease, all this happened in the Abinskaya-Krymskaya area. Fadeev was seriously wounded and still headed towards the village of Popovichnaya, towards his airfield ...

Fadeev landed his "Aircobra", without releasing the landing gear, near the lake, forty kilometers from the village of Slavyanskaya, in the reeds. When I was at the site of his forced landing and death, he had already been buried. It was around May 10-11, I arrived with two senior officers of the army headquarters, it was really difficult to get there, everything was still mined, trenches, ditches, various defense structures, lakes and swamps were all around.

On the spot, we were told by anti-aircraft defense gunners that the pilot was still alive for some time after landing, about an hour and a half, but was unconscious and soon died. His body was tortured by mosquitoes, the likes of which I have never seen anywhere in my life - in size, like wasps. Anti-aircraft gunners found Fadeev and buried him. I personally inspected the plane, the cockpit was smashed, covered in blood. The blow fell on the front of the aircraft, the instruments and sight were mutilated. The grave was very small, on the board there was an inscription “Pilot V. I. Fadeev died on May 5, 1943” and an asterisk, that’s all.

Those officers with whom I went to this place asked everyone, wrote everything down, talked with the officers who buried Fadeev, took a photo of the plane and the grave.

I. M. Dzusov, who was on duty at the army command post, reported to the regiment about our plane that had exploded. Can you imagine what is left of the plane and the pilot after hitting the ground and exploding? But Fadeev's follower Andrey Trud did not confirm this. In fact, the Yak-3 plane from Savitsky’s corps exploded, exactly at the place where Dzusov spoke, this was established by a later check, and Fadeev landed his “aircobra”, being seriously wounded with a broken head and chest ... Why didn’t the regiment find out about this , I don't know."

* * *

There is a statement that the war ends only when the last dead soldier is buried. If this is so, then it is clear why we lost many fruits of the Victory of 1945... According to the Krasnodar Regional Center for Search Works, 86-87 thousand dead were buried in official graves in the Krasnodar Territory. And 200-300 thousand soldiers remained lying in the Kuban fields and forests. As well as in the places of other battles and battles ...

In the region, for the first time in the country in the 1990s, the laws “On search work”, “On security (memorial) zones of the Krasnodar Territory” and “On ensuring the safety and maintenance of Russian and foreign military graves and military graves on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory” were adopted . Funds have been allocated from the budget, there is opposition to "businessmen" - marauders who are looking for orders, weapons, gold.

Until now, detachments of disinterested ascetics-searchers have been walking around Russia at their own peril and risk, finding the remains of the dead. Many, many of them still lie in the forests and swamps. Only sometimes it is possible to establish their names ...

... On May 10, 1943, when there was some calm in the air, the results were summed up in the regiment. The death of Vadim shocked everyone. For Pokryshkin, this was the heaviest loss since the beginning of the war.

Having received permission to speak, Alexander Ivanovich again named the main reason for the death of the pilots - patrolling in small groups, while the Germans were operating in large forces. In response to Isaev’s remark: “We must reckon with the quantitative composition of the regiment,” Pokryshkin proposed increasing the number of sorties for each pilot, with which they agree.

Pokryshkin also said: “You can’t make groups of bosses. This leads to different decisions in the conduct of combat, to a violation of the idea of ​​​​the group commander and to unjustified losses. The appointment of Fadeev as the leader of the couple in my six was wrong and led to his death.

After that, "Isaev, without listening to me, closed the meeting so as not to listen to comments about the shortcomings in the combat work of the regiment, which he himself was to blame."

Let's say a few words about Vadim's girlfriend ... Friends persuaded Fadeev to send her to Kuibyshev to her parents, but Lyudmila remained in Popovichnaya. Upon learning of Vadim's death, she did not allow his child to be born and, having got rid of the burden, began working as a waitress in the flight canteen. Her former husband, also a Hero of the Soviet Union, also died. The pilots began to avoid the society of the femme fatale...

Pokryshkin, who after meeting with Maria changed his mind about a woman in the life of a pilot, nevertheless superstitiously did not even allow his beloved to approach the plane. In combat conditions, Alexander Ivanovich believed, the wife should not be around. So, Vadim's wife kept him away from communication with the pilots of the regiment, he did not participate in the debriefing and actions of the enemy. “All this could not but affect the combat form of Vadim ... - Pokryshkin wrote. - And in his last battle, Vadim showed his inherent courage and skill, but his usual underestimation of the enemy's forces, the neglect of real danger, also made themselves felt. These reflections of mine... which I did not share with anyone... confirmed me even more strongly in certain unshakable norms of a pilot's behavior on the ground and in the air. If you break them, retribution will inevitably come ... "

Of course, it was difficult to compare with the Siberian endurance and will of Pokryshkin, who went through an exceptionally harsh life school. Vadim basil in response: “What are you, Sasha, are you worried, is there really some lousy Fritz who can bring me down ?!”.

Still, we must admit that Fadeev's underestimation of the enemy in battles with the "experts" of the Udet, Mölders and 52nd squadrons is also a kind of phenomenon ...

... Spring of 1943. Aircobras received in Tehran. The pilots of the 16th Guards Regiment, having spent the night in one of the hotels in the eastern capital, are walking along the airfield towards American planes lined up in dense rows, shining with fresh paint in the rays of the rising sun. For one day, Soviet officers found themselves in an unfamiliar, different in colors, sounds, rhythm world of palaces and minarets, fashionable avenues and narrow poor streets, abundant bazaars and advertising lights. The real war and grief were far from here ...

Suddenly stopping and, like a talented artist, immediately capturing his attention, Vadim, looking to the north, recited Yesenin's lines:

It's time for me to go back to Russia,
Persia! Am I leaving you?
Am I parting with you forever?
For the love of my native land
It's time for me to go back to Russia.

The pilots froze for a moment. As always, amazingly subtly, Vadim touched the innermost string in their souls ...

Fadeev, the maestro of amateur regimental activity, knew how to read poetry. In his love for Mayakovsky, named by Stalin the best poet Soviet era, and Yesenin, then semi-forbidden, reflected the time of the 1920s and 1930s. Soviet Russia and outgoing Russia, unbridled passion, the mystery of death, not fully solved ... Fadeev resembles Mayakovsky in growth, seething energy, loudness. Yesenin - with a strand falling on his forehead, when Vadim did not have time to cut his hair short, in a front-line manner ... And with a look in which a childish clarity is visible behind a daring or comic challenge or, as in one of the last pictures in the Kuban, sad and aching: “My life Or did you dream about me ... "

... In early June 1999, Maria Kuzminichna, during a trip to the Kuban, which she dreamed of, visited Fadeev, in the school museum, dedicated to the Hero. She also knew from the letters she received in Moscow that in the early 1990s it was decided to close the museum, at the same time Vadim's personal belongings, handed over by his father, also disappeared. But after a few years, people realized it ... How could it be without him ?! The museum has been restored, here again in the photographs Fadeev sits freely on the wing of the "aircobra" with Andrey Trud, holding, like an epic hero, three on his shoulders ... School teachers hold competitions among the children for the best knowledge of the biographies of A. I. Pokryshkin and V. I. Fadeev . The program of the "young Pokryshkins" from Fadeevo at the review in Krasnodar was distinguished by special enthusiasm. Yes, Vadim still knows how to lead and ignite!

A monument to the Hero of the Soviet Union Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev was erected near the road from Fadeevo to Krymskaya. Maria Kuzminichna, peering at photographs of the bust in Moscow, believed that the sculptor could not achieve similarities with Vadim. But here she changed her mind. The photograph failed. She approached the pedestal, raising her head, touched the stone with her palms... Silence reigned among those accompanying the guest of honor.

Behind the monument, standing on a steep slope, there was a stunningly beautiful view of the hilly expanses of the Kuban, shrouded in a June hot blue haze ...

* * *

Vadim Fadeev was born in Kuibyshev on January 7, 1917. After high school he entered the flying club. He graduated from it in 1938. Worked as an instructor. In January 1940 he was sent to military school pilots. In July 1941, at his request, he was seconded to the active army.

At first he fought in the 446th and 131st aviation regiments, flying on the I-16 aircraft. Once, in the region of Kodyma (Moldova), V.I. Fadeev attacked a column of Romanian cavalrymen with a group of fighters. Having shot all the cartridges, he went down to the very ground and chopped the riders with the propeller of the aircraft.

Such a fact is interesting. V. Fadeev received the first Order of the Red Banner in the harsh year of 1941 near Taganrog. Finding himself in a difficult moment among the foot soldiers, he raised them to the attack and, setting an example of courage and courage, together with them recaptured the dominant height from the enemy.

During the war years, the story of an old soldier, a participant in the liberation of Rostov-on-Don, cited in the book by V.I. Pogrebny - "The Man from the Legend" passed from mouth to mouth during the war years.

In the late autumn of 1941, on the 2nd day, our infantrymen fought for a small mound - "Five Brothers", of which there are many in the south, and could not dislodge the Nazis entrenched there. And suddenly our fighter flies over the German trenches, very low, silently, with a stopped propeller. The Nazis are shooting at him from rifles, from machine guns, they raised such a chatter, even plug your ears, but they don’t even take bullets. And he sits down on the frozen ground pitted with mines and shells, sits down 300 meters from the front line, calmly, as if out of the blue.

From small plane a huge pilot jumps out - as soon as he fits in it - and runs to his own, into the trenches. Around the bullets buzz with a whistle, pieces of 3 mines fell, sang in fragments, and nothing touched him. How can one not remember here: "The bullet is afraid of the brave ..." He jumps into the trench, covered the entire passage with a heroic figure, smiles.

I know your trouble, brothers, - says the pilot. - Where is the commander? Lead.

He showed the commander on the map where the mortars were coming from, where the armored vehicles were located, in which places there were more infantry. Our artillery has spoken. A pilot jumped out of the commander's dugout, holding a machine gun in his hands, shouted in his mighty voice:

Forward for the Motherland!

And he ran to the mound, covered with old legends and the glory of 5 brothers who died there many centuries ago, but did not allow the enemy to advance on the Russian land. The red infantry rose up and went on the attack. Everyone is trying to catch up with the giant, to break ahead. And on the move, he sends some around the heights, drags others with him ...

Hooray! - rolls over the mound.

We took the mound "Five Brothers", smashed mortar batteries, destroyed several armored cars, and captured 2 whole, many Nazis died there, many were taken prisoner, - the old soldier finished his story. “But I don’t know anything more about the giant.” They said he handed over the plane under guard and went his own way ...

Such is the story of the old soldier. And he turned out to be true. That giant was a fighter pilot of the 446th mixed air regiment, Sergeant Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev, a graduate of the Kuibyshev flying club. For the feat at the Five Brothers mound, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and was given the extraordinary military rank of Lieutenant.

Here is what the former commander of the 4th Air Army writes about Fadeev Chief Marshal of Aviation K. A. Vershinin:

“Shortly after this battle, Fadeev, already on another plane, flew out together with flight commander A. Ya. Novikov for reconnaissance. They had to go along the route Slavyansk - Kramatorsk - Konstantinovskaya - Artemovsk. anti-aircraft fire.However Soviet pilots, skillfully maneuvering, slipped through the fiery curtain. And then Novikov's follower noticed a galloping rider. Having descended, Fadeev established that this was a fascist, and most likely a messenger who was in a hurry to deliver an important report to the headquarters. Not wanting to waste the cartridges that were intended for combat, the pilot hacked the rider with an airplane propeller.

I knew Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev well. He was a tall, slender fellow, with lush hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Kind, sympathetic, he enjoyed respect and authority among fellow soldiers. He fought boldly, even risky ... "

He was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner for air battles over Myskhako.

In 1943, Lieutenant V. I. Fadeev arrived in the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, quickly mastered the new equipment, became an excellent leader of the pair, and then the squadron commander. Vadim carefully kept the document issued by the commander of the Air Army - an order to issue him a double food ration and a permit for individual tailoring of clothes and shoes. From the finished uniform, nothing suited him - everything was not enough.

His brilliant abilities as a fighter pilot were fully revealed in the battles in the Kuban. Possessing great physical strength and endurance, he made 5-6 sorties a day. Sometimes he shot down several planes per flight.

Kuban. Here, from April to June 1943, one of the largest in the Great Patriotic War air battles. As a result of continuous fierce fighting Soviet aviation wrested the initiative from the hands of the enemy and won air supremacy not only in this area, but later on on the entire Soviet-German front.

The first pilot of the 4th Air Army, presented to the high rank of Hero of the Soviet Union during the battles over the Kuban, was Guard Captain V. Fadeev. An ardent patriot, a skilled air fighter, Vadim smashed the enemy without a miss. Within only one week, he destroyed 10 enemy aircraft personally and 1 in the group!

I remember the air battle, which was then conducted by Senior Lieutenant V. Fadeev of the Guard on April 17, 1943. The eight fighters led by him - the strike group - for the 3rd time started from the airfield. A cover group of 4 aircraft was led by Senior Lieutenant G. Rechkalov of the Guard. It was necessary to pass over the spurs of the Main Caucasian Range, covered with clouds in places, then turn around over the sea.

And now the mountain range is behind. Vadim saw a blue expanse ahead. Sea! But there is no time to admire the beauties of nature. All attention to the airspace. The enemy may appear unexpectedly.

The pilot did not see, but rather intuitively felt that the enemy was somewhere close. I looked back. It is true: on the traverse of Anapa from the direction of the sun, heading for Novorossiysk, Ju-87 dive bombers were heavily floating in the air in several waves, with cover fighters above them. Vadim glanced up. There was a four of Grigory Rechkalov.

To the left, from the Anapa airfield, raising ribbons of yellowish dust behind them, enemy fighters took off. "Hurry to help their own. Be fighting over the sea!" - a thought flashed through Fadeev.

To the right, at some distance below, floated Novorossiysk shrouded in smoke. One could see frequent crimson flashes on a small spot - the Myskhako Peninsula. It was this area that was required to be covered from the attacks of enemy bombers. There, buried in the rocky ground, brave Soviet paratroopers stood to death, firmly holding the bridgehead.

12 Ju-87s, accompanied by a group of Me-109s, approached the Myskhako area.

Rechkalov, attack the "thin ones"! - Senior Lieutenant Fadeev told the Guards, and he himself rushed to attack the bombers.

Cheerful and cheerful, Vadim was bold and impetuous in battle, fought desperately, despising the danger. He burned with hatred for the enemy, searched for him, and when he found him, he never retreated, no matter how strong the enemy was. The pilot seemed to merge with his fighter, his fire from a cannon and machine guns was sizzling.

Fadeev always relied on his wingman Andrey Trud and other pilots of the group. It is not surprising that in just 3 weeks he managed to defeat about 20 enemy aircraft. The commander saw everyone and saw everything, in a difficult moment he was ready to cover his comrade. And this time, Fadeev did not hesitate and, despite the numerical superiority of the enemy, decided to impose his will on him.

In the meantime, Rechkalov's group had already shot down 2 Messers, which, like burning torches, fell almost vertically into the sea. The Nazi pilots, apparently, were waiting for reinforcements, hoping that the Me-109 and the FW-190 that had recently appeared in the Kuban sky would help repel the onslaught of Soviet fighters. Soon a dozen and a half enemy vehicles really came up.

However, this did not bother Fadeev. He countered the numerical superiority of the enemy with an accurate and bold maneuver, close interaction of the pairs of the group. On the vertical shot down one fighter, on the turn - the second, after them set fire to the Ju-87. Ivan Savin finished with 2 Messers. One plane was shot down by Vladimir Berezhnoy and Nikolai Iskrin. Mikhail Sutyrin was also lucky: he destroyed the latest German fighter with an air-cooled FW-190 engine.

This air battle showed that the enemy novelty - fighters with powerful weapons - can be beaten. These victories were the merit of the commander. His personal skill, courage, some special, Russian prowess inspired fighting friends.

This is how his brother-soldiers Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev remembered for the rest of his life. From August 1941 to May 1943, he made 434 sorties, participated in 51 air battles, shot down about 20 enemy aircraft, destroyed 80 vehicles, 15 guns, and up to 200 enemy soldiers and officers with assault actions. Paired with his slave A. Trud, who later became a Hero of the Soviet Union, he shot down 44 enemy aircraft.

One of the features of his character was a dismissive attitude to danger and an underestimation of the enemy's forces. Sometimes he behaved simply recklessly - he could, having abandoned the management of the group, chase after a single "Messer"; turn on the transmitter in flight and perform arias from operas; perform "circus" tricks at low altitude over the airfield. For the sake of mischief, he grew his beard with a "shovel" - "for the fear of enemies," as he said. His broad Volga nature and confidence in his outstanding abilities often manifested themselves in an overestimation of his capabilities.

Vadim Fadeev died in an unequal air battle on May 5, 1943. In the last sortie, he, having shown his often inherent self-confidence, decided to act independently, and this was his fatal mistake. Breaking away from the main group of our fighters, led by A.I. Pokryshkin, he and his wingman Andrey Trud met a group of 12 Me-109 fighters. In this battle, Fadeev shot down 2 aircraft, but was seriously wounded and died returning to his airfield.

By that time, he had 21 personal and 1 group victories to his credit. [ M. Yu. Bykov in his research indicates 17 personal and 3 group victories. ]

On May 24, 1943, for courage and military prowess shown in battles with enemies, Vadim Ivanovich Fadeev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The name of V. I. Fadeev by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR to the Kuibyshev Aviation Club DOSAAF. The sign on the building, the large portrait in the auditorium, and the full house above the gallery of masters of sports remind of this.

Vadim Fadeev returned to his native flying club in the stories of those who studied the art of flying with him, in short and, at the same time, comprehensive lines of the government decree on naming the club after him. A rally took place. With bated breath, the athletes listened to the excited words of the mother of the Hero, Varvara Feodorovna: improve your knowledge, study military affairs, be worthy successors to the work of your fathers and older brothers, sacredly honor those who died for the Fatherland, take care of the Motherland.

In the mouth of the mother, these words sounded like a call. And every word was remembered, sunk into the heart. They, these words, are in the thoughts of athletes, in their deeds ...

List of famous victories of the Guard Captain V.I. Fadeev:
(From the book by M. Yu. Bykov - "Victory of Stalin's falcons". Publishing house "YAUZA - EKSMO", 2008.)