Airborne General Margelov biography. Vasily Margelov: biography, awards and titles

Vasily Filippovich Margelov(Ukrainian Vasil Pilipovich Margelov, Belarusian Vasil Pilipovich Margelav, December 27, 1908 (January 9, 1909 according to the new style), Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire - March 4, 1990, Moscow) - Soviet military leader, commander of the airborne troops in 1954- 1959 and 1961-1979, Hero of the Soviet Union (1944), laureate of the USSR State Prize.
Author and initiator of the creation of technical means of the Airborne Forces and methods of using units and formations of airborne troops, many of which personify the image of the Airborne Forces of the USSR Armed Forces and the Russian Armed Forces that currently exists. Among the people associated with these troops, he is considered Trooper No. 1.

Biography

The legendary commander of the Airborne Forces, “paratrooper number 1” was born on December 27 (January 9), 1908 in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). Father Philip Ivanovich Markelov is a metallurgist. He “received” the surname Margelov because of an error made by an official on his party card - his surname was written with a “g”. Mother Agafya Stepanovna.

In 1913, the Margelov family returned to the homeland of Philip Ivanovich - to the town of Kostyukovichi, Klimovichi district (Mogilev province). V.F. Margelov’s mother, Agafya Stepanovna, was from the neighboring Bobruisk district. According to some information, V.F. Margelov graduated from the parochial school (CPS) in 1921. As a teenager he worked as a loader and carpenter. In the same year he entered the leather workshop as an apprentice and soon became an assistant master. In 1923, he became a laborer at the local Khleboproduct. There is information that he graduated from a rural youth school and worked as a forwarder delivering mail on the Kostyukovichi - Khotimsk line.

Since 1924 he worked in Yekaterinoslav at the mine named after. M.I. Kalinin as a laborer, then as a horse-driver.
In 1925, he was sent again to Belarus, as a forester at a timber industry enterprise. He worked in Kostyukovichi, in 1927 he became the chairman of the working committee of the timber industry enterprise, and was elected to the local Council.

Service

In September 1928, Margelov was drafted into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and, on a Komsomol voucher, was sent to study as a red commander at the United Belarusian Military School (UBVSh) named after the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR in Minsk.
From the first months of his studies, cadet Margelov was among the excellent students in fire, tactical and physical training. He was assigned to a sniper group. He enjoyed well-deserved authority among his schoolmates and was distinguished by his zeal in his studies. From the second year he was appointed foreman of a machine gun company. After some time, his company became one of the foremost in both combat and physical training.

At the beginning of 1931, the school command supported the initiative of the country's military schools to organize a ski crossing from their places of deployment to Moscow. One of the best skiers, Sergeant Major Margelov, was tasked with forming a team. And the February transition from Minsk to Moscow took place. True, the skis turned into smooth boards, but the cadets, led by the course commander and sergeant major, survived. They arrived at their destination on time, without any sick or frostbitten people, about which the foreman reported to the People's Commissar of Defense and received from his hands a valuable gift - a “commander's” watch.

In April 1931, he graduated from the Minsk Military School (the former United Belarusian Military School (UBVSH) named after the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR) “first class” (“with honors”). Appointed commander of a machine gun platoon of the regimental school of the 99th Infantry Regiment of the 33rd Infantry Division (Mogilev). From the first days of commanding a platoon, he established himself as a competent, strong-willed and demanding commander. After some time, he became a platoon commander at a regimental school where junior commanders of the Red Army were trained.

In May 1936 - appointed commander of a machine gun company. Within the walls of the school he developed as a military teacher, teaching classes in fire, physical training and tactics.

From October 25, 1938 - Captain Margelov commanded the 2nd battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantry Division named after. F.E. Dzerzhinsky of the Belarusian Special Military District. He headed the reconnaissance of the 8th Infantry Division, being the head of the 2nd division of the division headquarters.

From October 1939 - battalion commander.

During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1940, Major Margelov was the commander of the Separate Reconnaissance Ski Battalion of the 596th Infantry Regiment of the 122nd Division. His battalion made daring raids on enemy rear lines, set up ambushes, inflicting great damage on the enemy. In one of the raids, they even managed to capture a group of officers of the Swedish General Staff, which gave grounds for the Soviet Government to make a diplomatic demarche regarding the actual participation of the supposedly neutral Scandinavian state in hostilities on the side of the Finns. This step had a sobering effect on the Swedish king and his cabinet: Stockholm did not dare to send its soldiers into the snows of Karelia.

The experience of ski raids behind enemy lines was remembered in the late autumn of 1941 in besieged Leningrad. Major V. Margelov was assigned to lead the First Special Ski Regiment of sailors of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, formed from volunteers.

1941st. Wehrmacht soldiers march through the cities and villages of the Soviet Union. The enemy is on the approaches to Moscow and Leningrad. Vasily Filippovich is fighting on the Volkhov front near the “northern capital”. Margelov was appointed to command a battalion of “penalties,” most of whom had a criminal past.

At the beginning they didn’t understand normally, but after cuffs and slaps they began to listen to the commander. And when they felt his care, saw how he sheds blood just like them, they respected him and loved him with all their hearts. It happened that during an artillery shelling several people covered their commander at once. God forbid you get caught by a piece of shrapnel!

Later, he received command of a regiment formed from sailors of the Baltic Fleet. The Marines received the news of the appointment of an “infantry” officer to the post of regimental commander with caution and surprise. Already in battles, joint work and sweat, they learned what kind of person he was. They recognized each other and were forever attached in their souls.

Seeing with what trepidation the sailors treated their traditions and uniform, Vasily Filippovich allowed his subordinates to keep their naval uniform. On the march, drill reviews, and preparing defensive positions, the Red Navy men wore field uniforms, but before the attack...

Throwing off their field uniforms onto the snow and remaining in only vests and naval trousers - bell-bottoms, dashingly twisting their caps, they silently advanced in deployed chains on the German firing positions. Having broken through the wall of fire, tearing his vest against the “thorn” of the barriers, shouting “Polundra!” They threw grenades at machine gun nests, with a bayonet and butt, with a knife and their hands they sowed death in fascist positions. “Black Death”, “sea devils”, whatever the Nazis called them.

And under the command of Margelov, the Marines inflicted twice as much damage on the invaders and had a strong moral and psychological impact on the personnel of the German units. Panic began when the Nazis learned that Margelov’s sailors had been transferred to their area. It is in memory of the unparalleled heroism and courage of his marines, in tribute to their respect for their military symbols, that Vasily Filippovich will later introduce a new element of uniform, the “vest,” for fighters of another fleet – the air force.

With great regret and displeasure, the Baltic people learned that their commander was being assigned to another regiment, a rifle regiment, near Stalingrad. But an order is an order. And after some time, Vasily Filippovich already commands a division, which with great success defeats the Nazi units.

Crossing a water barrier, especially such as the Dnieper River, is not an easy task. And if we add to this the strengthened defense of the enemy with a well-established fire system, then it is almost impossible. But we need to force it: an order. Vasily Filippovich could not thoughtlessly throw his subordinates forward to complete the task. He was not such a man; he did not command a fool. He always gave proper orders and kept people firmly in subjection. Success in military affairs depends on freedom; the mind only suggests the best path to success.

Only after the enemy’s fire system on the opposite bank was identified, transport means were prepared, combat missions were clarified and worked out with division commanders, and training was conducted with personnel, did Margelov give the order to his formation to force the crossing.

He himself, among the division's reconnaissance officers, was the first to cross the river, made clarifications on the newly discovered firing points and, together with the soldiers, held the captured bridgehead, covering the crossing of his units. Subsequently, building on the success, on the shoulders of the fascists, mad with fear, the Margelov division entered and liberated the city of Kherson, for which it received the name “Kherson” as a reward. For a successful operation, Vasily Filippovich is awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Fights in Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria. The Nazis have less and less territory under their control. Strength and resources are melting away. Berlin has fallen. The remnants of the defeated German army retreat to the west. In the offensive sector of Margelov’s formation, three selected SS divisions were withdrawing. The Americans were advancing from the west.

Vasily Filippovich receives an order to prevent the SS men from being captured by the Americans. It was May, Germany and its allies had capitulated, everyone had a joyful feeling of accomplishment, Victory and an imminent return home. He didn’t want to throw his subordinates into hell, but the SS men knew how to fight, so he decided on a risky act.

Having given the necessary orders, he drives a car to the location of the German units and straight to the headquarters. He entered the building, introduced himself, and through an interpreter, in the form of an ultimatum, offered the commanders of the SS divisions to surrender. The German officers looked with undisguised amazement at the desperate Russian general, but realizing that resistance would only lead to unnecessary casualties, they decided to surrender.

After the war in command positions. Since 1948, after graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR named after K. E. Voroshilov, he was the commander of the 76th Guards Chernigov Red Banner Airborne Division.

In 1950-1954 - commander of the 37th Guards Airborne Svir Red Banner Corps (Far East).

From 1954 to 1959 - Commander of the Airborne Forces. In 1959-1961 - appointed with demotion, First Deputy Commander of the Airborne Forces. From 1961 to January 1979 - returned to the post of Commander of the Airborne Forces.
On October 28, 1967, he was awarded the military rank of Army General. He led the actions of the Airborne Forces during the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Since January 1979 - in the group of inspectors general of the USSR Ministry of Defense. He went on business trips to the Airborne Forces and was the chairman of the State Examination Commission at the Ryazan Airborne School.

During his service in the Airborne Forces he made more than 60 jumps. The last of them is at the age of 65.

“Anyone who has never in his life left an airplane, from where cities and villages seem like toys, who has never experienced the joy and fear of a free fall, a whistle in his ears, a stream of wind hitting his chest, will never understand the honor and pride of a paratrooper...”

Svyatoslav Knyazev

110 years ago, the legendary military leader - Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Margelov was born. The commander, who distinguished himself during the Great Patriotic War, subsequently headed the USSR Airborne Forces and developed tactics for using winged infantry. The role of this type of troops, of which Margelov can rightly be called the founding father, increased sharply during the Cold War. Experts note that the recognition of paratroopers as the elite of the armed forces was largely thanks to Vasily Margelov. According to historians, the wide popular recognition of the army general is also evidenced by the unofficial decoding of the abbreviation Airborne Forces - “Uncle Vasya’s troops.”

• Vasily Margelov with USSR military personnel
• mil.ru

Vasily Markelov was born on December 27, 1908 in Yekaterinoslav (nowadays the city of Dnieper in Ukraine), where his family moved from Belarus. His last name was originally written with the letter “k”. However, later, due to a spelling error in Vasily Filippovich’s party card, it acquired its now familiar sound. Margelov's father was a metallurgist. When Vasily was four years old, the family returned to Belarus and settled in the city of Kostyukovichi.

The Commander's Path

According to historians, Vasily Margelov attended a parochial school, and then a school for rural youth. He was a student and assistant foreman in a tannery workshop, worked at the local Khleboprodukt and at the post office. At the age of 15, having moved again to Yekaterinoslav, Vasily got a job as a laborer at the mine named after. M.I. Kalinina. However, he soon returned to Belarus and worked for three years at the timber industry enterprise, where he worked his way up from a forester to the chairman of the working committee.

Margelov found his calling in 1928, when his military service began. He ended up in the United Belarusian Military School named after the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR, a secondary educational institution that trained commanders for infantry, artillery and cavalry. Vasily Margelov first found himself in a group of snipers, but later became the foreman of a machine gun company. At the same time he joined the CPSU(b).

Also on topic

Having completed his studies in 1931, Vasily Margelov was assigned to a machine gun platoon of the 33rd Belarusian Rifle Division, but soon returned to serve at his alma mater and in 1936 became commander of a machine gun company.

Since 1938, Margelov served in the 8th Minsk Rifle Division named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky, where he was first a battalion commander and then the head of divisional intelligence. As part of the 8th Infantry Division, he participated in the annexation of Western Ukraine and Belarus to the USSR. Then he was transferred to the position of commander of the Separate Reconnaissance Ski Battalion in the 122nd Infantry Division, with which he went to Karelia. Margelov's scouts performed well during the Soviet-Finnish war. In particular, according to information from individual sources, they were able to capture several military personnel from formally neutral Sweden, who were listed as volunteers in Finland.

In 1940, Margelov was appointed first as deputy regiment commander in the 122nd division, and then as commander of the 15th separate disciplinary battalion of the Leningrad Military District.

On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War

After the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union, Vasily Margelov was promoted, becoming at the age of 32 the commander of a regiment created as part of the 1st division of the people's militia of the Leningrad Front on the basis of the same 15th disbat.

And already in November 1941, the young commander received a new assignment - he headed the 1st Special Ski Regiment of sailors of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. The unit's 1.2 thousand personnel were recruited from among volunteers. At the end of November 1941, the regiment suffered significant losses on Ladoga, Margelov was seriously wounded. As it turned out later, Nazi officers in their reports called the Margelovites the military elite, and also noted their tenacity and reluctance to surrender. Historians write that in memory of the exploits of the sailors he commanded in 1941, Margelov achieved the right to wear vests for airborne troops.

• Vasily Margelov with Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War
• Wikimedia commons

In 1942, Margelov, having recovered from his wound, became the commander of the 13th Rifle Regiment, and then the chief of staff of the 3rd Guards Rifle Division. Due to the injury of Divisional Commander Kantemir Tsalikov, leadership of the formation passed to Margelov. In the summer of 1942, the 34-year-old commander led the division in an attack on well-fortified Nazi positions on the Mius Front. Margelov’s subordinates were able to break through two enemy defense lines and liberate the village of Stepanovka from the Nazis, thus forming positions for an assault on one of the key heights of Donbass - Saur-Mogila.

“In December 1943, Vasily Margelov led the 49th Guards Rifle Division, which participated in the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of Kherson in March 1944. For the leadership skills and courage shown in these battles, Guard Colonel Margelov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the head of the 49th Division, he liberated the south of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary from the Nazis. In May 1945, his soldiers captured two SS divisions, fanatically loyal to Hitler,” Alexander Mikhailov, a specialist historian at the Victory Museum, said in an interview with RT.

At the Victory Parade in Moscow, Major General Margelov was the battalion commander of the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

At the head of the Airborne Forces

Back in the 1930s, the Soviet Union was at the forefront of creating parachute units. The ideas of the American command to conduct an airborne assault in Europe during the First World War were never realized. Experimental landing of military personnel individually and in small groups was carried out in the USA, Italy and Latin American countries, but all this never received widespread practical application.

At the same time, in the USSR, back in 1929, the first landing was carried out with further combat use of Red Army soldiers delivered by air against a Basmachi detachment in Tajikistan. On August 2, 1930, a parachute landing was landed near Voronezh, and in 1935, near Kiev, during mass exercises, 1,188 paratroopers were dropped at once. The Red Army first formed airborne detachments, and then battalions and brigades.

• Vasily Margelov with Soviet paratroopers
• Wikimedia commons

In the West, there was an ambivalent reaction to the USSR's landing initiatives. In Britain, Soviet military leaders were ironically called “dreamers,” but Germany took into account the experience of the Red Army, beginning the formation of parachute units, which were very effectively used by Hitler’s command at the initial stage of World War II.

In 1941, five airborne corps were deployed in the USSR and the position of commander of the Airborne Forces was introduced, effectively separating them into a separate branch of the military. In the winter and spring of 1942, the paratroopers performed well during the Rzhev-Vyazemsk offensive operation. Several airborne brigades, together with units of the 1st Cavalry Guards Corps, operating behind enemy lines, pinned down seven Nazi divisions.

Mass landings were used during the crossing of the Dnieper, as well as in the Far East during the war with Japan. However, the Soviet command could not decide on a unified strategy and tactics for the use of new airborne troops for a long time. Airborne units were constantly reorganizing and changing their structure. They turned out to be either a separate army, closed to Headquarters, or a department subordinate to the Air Force. In 1946, they were removed from the Air Force and included in the Ground Forces, subordinate directly to the minister and declared a reserve of the Supreme High Command.

In 1948, Margelov joined the Airborne Forces. After graduating from the Higher Military Academy named after K.E. Voroshilov, a hero of the Great Patriotic War, who had extensive experience in operations behind enemy lines, headed the 76th Guards Airborne Division (today it is known under the unofficial name “Pskov”). Two years later, he became the commander of the 37th Guards Airborne Svir Red Banner Corps, and in 1954 he took command of all the USSR Airborne Forces.

Vasily Margelov headed the USSR Airborne Forces for a record 23 years - until 1979 (with the exception of a two-year break in 1959-1961, when he served as first deputy commander). In 1967, he was awarded the military rank of army general.

Margelov's paratroopers performed particularly difficult tasks in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

According to experts, Margelov did a tremendous amount of work in the Airborne Forces.

“The commander focused on increasing the mobility and controllability of units. He established cooperation with representatives of the military-industrial complex and thanks to this achieved the development of special aviation equipment, airborne combat vehicles, new types of parachute and special rifle systems,” Mikhailov noted in an interview with RT.

• Sons of Vasily Margelov
• Wikimedia commons

In 1973, near Tula, for the first time in history, a BMD-1 with military personnel on board landed from an AN-12 aircraft on parachute-platform vehicles at the Centaur complex. The crew operator was a gunner. Vasily Filippovich, according to eyewitnesses, arrived at the command center and was ready to answer with his own head if something went wrong. But everything went according to plan. Already in 1976, Alexander Margelov took part in the first test of the new Reaktavr complex, which allowed the vehicle to make a soft landing.

According to experts, the landing of combat vehicles with crews made it possible to introduce airborne units into battle in just 22 minutes. In the conditions of the Cold War, when paratroopers could be tasked with destroying enemy nuclear weapons launchers, such efficiency was extremely important. Taking into account the fact that the Soviet airborne troops became the most massive in the world, their mobility created ample opportunities for maneuver against any potential enemy.

"Uncle Vasya's Troops"

Under Margelov, a new uniform was introduced into the Airborne Forces, distinguishing paratroopers from all other branches of the military: sky-blue vests and berets - first crimson, and then blue.

At the age of 65, the commander jumped with a parachute for the last time - in total there were more than 60 such jumps in his life. At the age of 70, Vasily Margelov became one of the general inspectors of the USSR Ministry of Defense. In addition, he headed the state examination commission at the Ryazan Airborne School.

Vasily Margelov passed away in 1990. Five sons of the legendary general linked their fate with the army - service in the Airborne Forces and intelligence, as well as work at defense enterprises.

• One of the monuments to Vasily Margelov
• RIA News
• Lyubov Chilikova

Installed in different cities of the former USSR. Streets and educational institutions bear his name, the most famous of which is the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School.

“Vasily Margelov is a unique personality. It was necessary to have real talent to make the Airborne Forces in demand not only from a military, but also from a social point of view. And he succeeded: the airborne troops became extremely popular among the people, young people dreamed of serving in them.

At the same time, everyone understood perfectly well, thanks to whom the paratroopers acquired such a reputation - it was not for nothing that the abbreviation Airborne Forces was unofficially deciphered as “Uncle Vasya’s troops.” He took care of his soldiers and enjoyed immense respect from them,” said Andrei Koshkin, an academician of the Academy of Military Sciences and reserve colonel, in a conversation with RT.

In his opinion, Vasily Margelov is still an inspiring example for all Russian paratroopers.

“He is honored both in Russia and in other former Soviet republics, where troops created on the basis of the Soviet Airborne Forces remain. . There they try not to remember him again - on the one hand, it is inconvenient to disown such a fellow countryman, and on the other, Margelov is a person who symbolizes the brotherhood of the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and other Soviet peoples,” Koshkin emphasized.

According to the editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko, the activities of Vasily Margelov became one of the foundations of Russia’s modern military power.

“The formation and development of the Airborne Forces is associated with the name of Margelov; he actually developed the tactics of the airborne troops, which are still used today. Having written entire sections on military affairs, he became a classic of military art. Margelov is a legend,” concluded Korotchenko.

The Airborne Forces are absolutely deservedly considered the main brainchild of Vasily Margelov. However, the general also distinguished himself on the family front. Few people know, but Margelov was a father of many children: he raised five sons. All of them followed in the footsteps of their parents and dedicated their lives to the Russian army.

Gennady

As you know, at the end of the 1920s, Vasily Filippovich Margelov was drafted into the Red Army. The recruit was sent to study at the United Belarusian Military School. It was then that Margelov first acquired the status of a married man. In the early autumn of 1931, the young couple had a son. The boy was named Gennady. However, the happiness did not last long. Maria Margelova could not stand the nomadic life that her husband led due to his profession. The child remained in the care of his grandparents, Vasily Filippovich’s parents.

Nevertheless, the father apparently had a huge influence on his son, because, while still a 13-year-old teenager, Gennady Vasilyevich fled to the front. Margelov Sr. did not drive his son away: for some time Gennady fought in the division commanded by his parent. Later, according to Oleg Smyslov, author of the book “General Margelov,” Gennady Margelov graduated from the Suvorov Military School. He subsequently received the rank of major general. His last place of service was the Leningrad Military Physical Education Institute named after Lesgaft.

Anatoly and Vitaly

Vasily Margelov met his second wife, Feodosia Efremovna Selitskaya, in Belarus. In this marriage, “paratrooper No. 1” had sons Anatoly and Vitaly. Despite the presence of children, this union did not turn out to be very durable. The divorce of their parents did not affect the professional orientation of Anatoly and Vitaly in any way: they both decided to follow in their father’s footsteps. Vitaly, according to Eric Ford, author of the publication “Behind the Scenes of the FSB,” rose to the rank of colonel general. He devoted most of his life to foreign intelligence and even served as deputy head of the SVR.

But Anatoly Margelov, as his brother Alexander Margelov writes in his book “Paratrooper No. 1. Army General Margelov,” graduated from a radio engineering university in Taganrog. Since 1959, Anatoly Margelov has been creating new types of weapons. He has more than 200 different inventions to his credit. Thanks to such efficiency and, of course, talent, Anatoly Vasilyevich became a Doctor of Technical Sciences at just over 30 years old. Almost until the end of his days he worked at the Taganrog Research Institute of Communications.

Vasily and Alexander

Vasily Margelov met his third wife at the end of 1941. At that time, the battles near Leningrad were just going on. Anna Aleksandrovna Kurakina also took part in the Great Patriotic War and at one time operated on a wounded military leader. Margelov and Kurakina became legal husband and wife only in 1947, and the twins Vasily and Alexander were born 2 years earlier. Margelov's younger sons were influenced not only by the general himself, but also by their older brothers. Vasily and Alexander developed excellent relationships with Gennady, Anatoly and Vitaly. Therefore, it is not surprising that their destinies were also connected with the army.

According to Oleg Krivopalov, author of the book “Notes of a Soviet Officer: at the Turn of Epochs,” Alexander Vasilyevich Margelov graduated from the rocket department of the capital’s aviation institute, and then from the airborne school and armored academy. He rose to the rank of colonel and even became a Hero of the Russian Federation. After his resignation, Alexander Margelov worked as an expert at Rosvooruzhenie. And Vasily Vasilyevich Margelov retired with the rank of major. But in the last years of his life, he worked as deputy director of the Directorate of International Relations of the Voice of Russia broadcasting company.

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Margelov Vasily Filippovich

Vasily Filippovich Markelov was born on December 27, 1908 in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine), into a family of immigrants from Belarus. Father - Philip Ivanovich Markelov, metallurgist.

Vasily Filippovich’s surname “Markelov” was subsequently written down as “Margelov” due to an error in the party card.

In 1913, the Margelov family returned to the homeland of Philip Ivanovich - to the town of Kostyukovichi, Klimovichi district (Mogilev province). V.F. Margelov’s mother, Agafya Stepanovna, was from the neighboring Bobruisk district. According to some information, V.F. Margelov graduated from a parochial school in 1921. As a teenager he worked as a loader and carpenter. In the same year he entered the leather workshop as an apprentice and soon became an assistant master. In 1923, he became a laborer at the local Khleboproduct. There is information that he graduated from a rural youth school and worked as a forwarder delivering mail on the Kostyukovichi-Khotimsk line.

Since 1924, he worked in Yekaterinoslav at the mine named after. M.I. Kalinin as a laborer, then a horse driver, a driver of horses pulling trolleys.

In 1925, Margelov was sent again to the BSSR, as a forester at a timber industry enterprise. He worked in Kostyukovichi, in 1927 he became the chairman of the working committee of the timber industry enterprise and was elected to the local Council.

In 1928, Margelov was drafted into the Red Army. Sent to study at the United Belarusian Military School (UBVSH) named after. Central Election Commission of the BSSR in Minsk, enrolled in a group of snipers. From the 2nd year - foreman of a machine gun company.

In April 1931, he graduated with honors from the Order of the Red Banner of Labor from the United Belarusian Military School named after. Central Executive Committee of the BSSR, appointed commander of a machine gun platoon of the regimental school of the 99th Infantry Regiment of the 33rd Territorial Rifle Division in the city of Mogilev, Belarus. Since 1933, he was a platoon commander in the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the General Military School named after. Central Executive Committee of the BSSR (from 11/6/1933 - named after M.I. Kalinin, from 1937 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor Minsk Military Infantry School named after M.I. Kalinin). In February 1934, Margelov was appointed assistant company commander, and in May 1936, commander of a machine gun company.

From October 25, 1938, he commanded the 2nd battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantry Division. Dzerzhinsky Belarusian Special Military District. He headed the reconnaissance of the 8th Infantry Division, being the head of the 2nd department of the division headquarters. In this position he participated in the Polish campaign of the Red Army in 1939.

Vasily Filippovich Margelov with paratroopers

During the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940), Margelov commanded the Separate Reconnaissance Ski Battalion of the 596th Infantry Regiment of the 122nd Division. During one of the operations he captured officers of the Swedish General Staff.

After the end of the Soviet-Finnish War, he was appointed to the position of assistant commander of the 596th regiment for combat units. Since October 1940 - commander of the 15th separate disciplinary battalion of the Leningrad Military District.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in July 1941, he was appointed commander of the 3rd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 1st Guards Militia Division of the Leningrad Front. Later - commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Regiment, chief of staff and deputy commander of the 3rd Guards Rifle Division. After division commander P.G. Chanchibadze was wounded, command passed to Chief of Staff Vasily Margelov for the duration of his treatment. Under the leadership of Margelov, on July 17, 1943, soldiers of the 3rd Guards Division broke through 2 lines of Nazi defense on the Mius Front, captured the village of Stepanovka and provided a springboard for the assault on Saur-Mogila.

Since 1944, Margelov commanded the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 28th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. He led the division's actions during the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of Kherson, for which in March 1944 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Under his command, the 49th Guards Rifle Division took part in the liberation of the peoples of South-Eastern Europe.

At the Victory Parade in Moscow, Guard Major General Margelov commanded the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

In the Airborne Forces

After the war he held command positions.

Since 1948, after graduating from the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, from the Higher Military Academy named after K. E. Voroshilov, he was the commander of the 76th Guards Chernigov Red Banner Airborne Division.

In 1950-1954 - commander of the 37th Guards Airborne Svirsky Red Banner Corps in the Far East.

From 1954 to 1959 - commander of the Airborne Forces. In 1959-1961, he was appointed (with demotion) first deputy commander of the Airborne Forces. From 1961 to January 1979 he served as commander of the Airborne Forces.

On October 28, 1967, he was awarded the military rank of Army General. He led the actions of the Airborne Forces during the entry of troops into Czechoslovakia (Operation Danube).

Since January 1979, he was on the group of inspectors general of the USSR Ministry of Defense. He went on business trips to the Airborne Forces and was the chairman of the State Examination Commission at the Ryazan Airborne School.

During his service in the Airborne Forces he made more than 60 jumps. The last of them was at the age of 65.

Lived and worked in Moscow. Died March 4, 1990. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Vasily Filippovich Margelov

Contribution to the formation and development of the Airborne Forces

In the history of the Airborne Forces, and in the Armed Forces of Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, his name will remain forever. He personified an entire era in the development and formation of the Airborne Forces; their authority and popularity are associated with his name not only in our country, but also abroad, recalls General Pavel Fedoseevich Pavlenko about Vasily Filippovich.

Under Margelov’s leadership for more than twenty years, the airborne troops became one of the most mobile in the combat structure of the Armed Forces and prestigious in terms of service in them. “A photograph of Vasily Filippovich for demobilization albums was sold to soldiers at the highest price - for a set of badges. The competition for the Ryazan Airborne School exceeded the numbers of VGIK and GITIS, and applicants who missed out on exams lived in the forests near Ryazan for two or three months, until the snow and frosts, in the hope that someone would not withstand the load and it would be possible to take his place . The spirit of the troops was so high that the rest of the Soviet Army was included in the category of “solars” and “screws,” says Colonel Nikolai Fedorovich Ivanov.

Margelov’s contribution to the formation of the Airborne Forces in their current form was reflected in the comic decoding of the abbreviation Airborne Forces - “Uncle Vasya’s Troops.”

August 2, 1930 became the birthday of the country's Airborne Forces. Then, for the first time in world history, parachute landings were used in exercises of the Moscow Military District, which were attended by diplomats from Western countries.

72 years have passed since then. During this time, the “winged infantry” covered itself with unfading glory on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War, showed excellent training and courage in a number of large-scale exercises, local conflicts, in the mountains of Afghanistan, during the first and second campaigns in Chechnya, in Yugoslavia... In the ranks of the airborne forces troops, a whole galaxy of wonderful military leaders grew up. Among them, the first of the first to be named is the name of the legendary commander of the Airborne Forces, Hero of the Soviet Union, Army General Vasily Filippovich Margelov, who created the modern Airborne Forces.

"Commander of large caliber"

On its pages on September 28, 1967, Izvestia reported: “It must be said that the paratroopers are warriors of boundless courage and bravery. They never get lost, they always find a way out of a critical situation. The paratroopers are fluent in various modern weapons, wielding them with artistic skill; every fighter of the “winged infantry” knows how to fight one against a hundred.

During the days spent at the exercise (we are talking about the large autumn exercise of the Soviet Armed Forces “Dnepr” in 1968. Then the landing of an airborne force of many thousands took only a few minutes. - Author), we had to see many skillful actions not only of individual soldiers and officers, but also formations, units and their headquarters. But, perhaps, the strongest impression remained from the Airborne Forces, led by Colonel General V. Margelov (after the completion of successful exercises, he was awarded the rank of Army General. - Author), and the pilots of the Military Transport Aviation, Air Marshal N. Skripko . Their soldiers showed exquisite landing techniques, high training and such courage and initiative that one can say about them: they worthily continue and increase the military glory of their fathers and older brothers - the paratroopers of the Great Patriotic War. The relay of courage and valor is in good hands.”

...Recently in one of the magazines I read that scientists studying man studied the biographies of about 500 graduates of one of the Russian military institutes and established a direct dependence of the choice of military specialty on the date of birth. Using it, pundits are ready to predict whether a given person will be a military man or a civilian. In a word, human destiny is predetermined from the day of birth. I don't know if I can believe this?

In any case, the future successor to the glorious dynasty of defenders of the Fatherland Margelovs, Vasily Filippovich, was born at the beginning of the last century, on December 27, 1908 (old style), in the city of Yekaterinoslavl (now Dnepropetrovsk). He took after his father, Philip Ivanovich, who was distinguished by his enviable strength and stature, a participant in the German war of 1914, a Knight of St. George. Margelov Sr. fought skillfully and bravely. In one of the bayonet battles, for example, he personally destroyed up to a dozen enemy soldiers. After the end of the first imperialist war, he served first in the Red Guard, then in the Red Army.

- Why not in your place?!



- Well, well... How are you?

Patriarch of the Elite Troops

And Vasily was, like his father, tall and strong beyond his years. Before the army, he worked in a tannery, as a miner, and as a forester. In 1928, on a Komsomol ticket, he was sent to the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. So he became a cadet at the United Belarusian Military School in Minsk. Just one stroke. At the beginning of 1931, the school’s command supported the initiative of the country’s military schools to organize a ski crossing from their places of deployment to Moscow. One of the best skiers, Sergeant Major Margelov, was tasked with forming a team. And the February transition from Minsk to Moscow took place. True, the skis turned into smooth boards, but the cadets, led by the course commander and sergeant major, survived. We arrived at our destination on time, without any sick or frostbitten people, about which the foreman reported to the People's Commissar of Defense and received from his hands a valuable gift - a “commander's” watch.

How useful later a thorough sports training was to Captain Margelov, the commander of a separate reconnaissance ski battalion of a rifle regiment, who took part in the winter war with the Finns! His scouts, together with the battalion commander, made daring raids on enemy rear lines, set up ambushes, inflicting significant damage on the enemy.

He met the Great Patriotic War with the rank of major. At first I had the opportunity to lead a separate disciplinary battalion. The penalty soldiers doted on their commander. They loved him for his courage and justice. During the bombings they covered him with their bodies.

On the approaches to Leningrad, Vasily Margelov commanded the 1st special ski regiment of sailors of the Baltic Fleet, then the 218th regiment of the 80th rifle division...

Having become a commander, in all subsequent years and decades, Vasily Filippovich never changed his rule - always and in everything to be an example for his subordinates. Somehow, at the end of the front-line spring of 1942, about two hundred experienced enemy warriors, having infiltrated through the defense sector of a neighboring regiment, went to the rear of the Margelovites. The regiment commander quickly gave the necessary orders to block and liquidate the fascists who had broken through. Without waiting for the reserves to arrive, he himself lay down behind the heavy machine gun, which he wielded masterfully. He mowed down about 80 people with well-aimed bursts. The rest were destroyed and captured by a company of machine gunners, a reconnaissance platoon and a commandant platoon that arrived in time.

It was not for nothing that in the mornings, when his unit was on the defensive, Vasily Filippovich, after physical exercises, invariably fired from a machine gun, could trim the tops of trees, and stamp his name on the target. After this - the foot in the stirrup and exercises in the wheelhouse. Tireless strength played in his iron muscles. In offensive battles, he personally raised battalions to attack more than once. He loved hand-to-hand combat to the point of self-forgetfulness and, if necessary, without knowing the feeling of fear, he desperately fought with the adversary in the front ranks of his fighters, like his father in the first German war. Margelov did not like it if one of his subordinates, when asked about a particular soldier, took up the list of personnel. He said:

- Comrade commander! Alexander Suvorov knew all the soldiers of his regiment not only by last name, but also by first name. After many years, he recognized and named the names of the soldiers who served with him. With paper knowledge of subordinates, it is impossible to predict how they will behave during battle!
In those years the commander wore a mustache and a small beard. At the age of less than 33 they called him Batya.

“Our Dad is a commander of large caliber,” the soldiers said about him with respect and love.
And then there was Stalingrad. Here Vasily Filippovich commanded the 13th Guards Rifle Regiment. When, during brutal, bloody battles in the regiment, the battalions became companies, and the companies became incomplete platoons, the regiment was withdrawn for replenishment to the Ryazan region. Regimental commander Margelov and his officers thoroughly took up the combat training of the unit's personnel. We prepared conscientiously for the upcoming battles.
And for good reason. “Myshkova, a river in the Volgograd region, the left tributary of the Don, at the turn of which during the Battle of Stalingrad from December 19 to 24 during the Kotelnikovsky operation of 1942, troops of the 51st and 2nd Guards armies repelled the blow of a strong group of Nazi troops and disrupted plans of the fascist German command to relieve the blockade of enemy troops surrounded at Stalingrad.” This is from the 1983 edition of the Military Encyclopedic Dictionary. “It would not be an exaggeration to say that the battle on the banks of this unknown river (Myshkova) led to the crisis of the Third Reich, put an end to Hitler’s hopes of creating an empire and was a decisive link in the chain of events that predetermined the defeat of Germany.” And this quote is from the book of the German military historian General F. Mellenthin “Tank battles of 1939-1945.”
Do you remember the book by front-line writer Yuri Bondarev “Hot Snow”? Front-line soldiers, participants in those battles, believe that the author truthfully reflected the heroic and at the same time dramatic picture of those brutal battles on a tributary of the Don.
So, Margelov’s regiment was part of the 3rd Guards Rifle Division under Major General K. Tsalikov, the 13th Guards Rifle Corps under Major General P. Chanchibadze,
2nd Guards Army, Lieutenant General R. Malinovsky. And as you know, the guard may die, but never surrender to the enemy!
Before the battle of the guard, Lieutenant Colonel Margelov told his subordinates:
— Manstein has a lot of tanks. His calculation on the force of a tank strike. The main thing is to knock out the tanks. Each of us must knock out one tank. Cut off the infantry, force them to the ground and destroy them.
...And it began. Predatory arrows on German headquarters maps materialized into endless waves of enemy armor and fire, methodically rolling into the positions of our troops, shell explosions, the whistle of thousands of fragments looking for their prey. Armadas of German bombers fell howling from the soot-black sky, striving with exemplary German pedantry and precision to deliver a multi-ton deadly cargo to the guards' location. The Germans understood that if their monstrous armored fist got stuck in defense, the consequences would be irreversible. More and more forces were thrown into battle. They tried to take our defending units and formations into a tank pincer.
Margelov was there where a threatening situation was created, where his battalion commanders could not hold back the enemy’s onslaught on their own.

Guard Major General Chanchibadze:

— Margelov, how long do we need to look for you? Where are you sitting now?
- I am not sitting. I command from the command post of battalion commander-2!
- Why not in your place?!
- My place is here now, comrade first!
- I ask again, where is your place?!
- I command the regiment. My place is where my regiment needs me!
- Well, well... How are you?
— The regiment stands on its lines. He is not going to give them up.

Embittered by the failures, enraged by the tenacity, skill and courage of the Soviet soldiers, the enemy furiously dug the ground with steel tracks, breaking through. But all the efforts of the combined army group “Goth” were in vain; it was defeated and was forced to retreat.

The further military path of Vasily Filippovich Margelov and his units ran to the west. In the direction of Rostov-on-Don, the breakthrough of the impregnable “Mius Front”, the liberation of Donbass, the crossing of the Dnieper, for which the division commander, Colonel Vasily Margelov, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Having pushed off the Stalingrad soil with their feet, the Margelov fighters, as Vladimir Vysotsky sang, “moved the earth’s axis... without a lever, changing the direction of the blow!”
The soldiers of his 49th division brought freedom to the residents of Nikolaev and Odessa, distinguished themselves during the Iasi-Kishinev operation, entered Romania and Bulgaria on the shoulders of the enemy, successfully fought in Yugoslavia, took Budapest and Vienna. The war was completed by the guard unit of Major General Vasily Margelov on May 12, 1945 with the brilliant bloodless capture of selected German SS divisions “Totenkopf”, “Great Germany”, “1st SS Police Division”. Why not a plot for a full-length feature film?
During the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow on June 24, 1945, the combat general led one of the battalions of the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Patriarch of the Elite Troops

During the Great Patriotic War, the Airborne Forces fought heroically at all stages. True, the war found the Airborne Forces at the stage of reorganizing brigades into corps. The formations and units of the winged infantry were equipped with personnel, but did not have time to fully receive military equipment. From the very first days of the war, paratroopers bravely fought at the front along with soldiers of other branches of the military and offered heroic resistance to Hitler’s well-oiled machine. In the initial period, they showed examples of courage and perseverance in the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine, near Moscow. Soviet paratroopers took part in fierce battles for the Caucasus, in the Battle of Stalingrad (remember the House of the paratrooper Sergeant Pavlov), smashed the enemy on the Kursk Bulge... They were a formidable force at the final stage of the war.

Where to use perfectly trained, united and fearless commanders and fighters of airborne formations and units during the war was decided at the very top, at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. Sometimes they were the lifesaver of the high command that saved the situation at the most decisive or tragic moment. The paratroopers, not accustomed to waiting for weather by the sea, always showed initiative, ingenuity, and pressure.
Therefore, taking into account the rich front-line experience and prospects for the development of this type of troops, the Airborne Forces were withdrawn from the Air Force in 1946. They began to report directly to the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the post of commander of the Airborne Forces was reintroduced. In April of the same year, Colonel General V. Glagolev was appointed to him. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, General Margelov was sent to study. For two intense years, under the guidance of experienced teachers, he studied the intricacies of operational art at the Academy of the General Staff (in those years - the Higher Military Academy named after K.E. Voroshilov). After graduation, I received an unexpected offer from the Minister of the USSR Armed Forces and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers N. Bulganin - to take command of the Pskov Airborne Division. They claim that this could not have happened without the recommendation of Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, at that time the commander-in-chief of the Far East troops, commander of the Far East troops. He knew Margelov well from his front-line affairs. And at that time, the Airborne Forces needed young generals with combat experience. Vasily Filippovich always made decisions promptly. And this time I didn’t force myself to persuade myself. A military man to the core, he understood the importance of the mobile Airborne Forces in the future. And the fearless officers and parachutist soldiers - he admitted this to his loved ones more than once - reminded him of the front-line years when he commanded a naval regiment in the Baltic Fleet. It was not for nothing that later, when General Margelov became commander of the Airborne Forces, he introduced uniform blue berets and vests with stripes the color of the sky and tireless sea waves.

Working in his usual mode - day and night - a day away, General Margelov quickly ensured that his formation became one of the best in the airborne forces. In 1950, he was appointed commander of the airborne corps in the Far East, and in 1954, Lieutenant General Vasily Filippovich Margelov became commander of the Airborne Forces.
From Margelov’s brochure “Airborne Troops,” published by the publishing house of the “Znanie” society a quarter of a century ago: “...I have more than once had to accompany the paratroopers on their first flight, and receive their reports after landing. And I still never cease to be amazed at how a warrior transforms after the first jump. And he walks along the ground proudly, and his shoulders are wide open, and there is something extraordinary in his eyes... Of course: he made a parachute jump!
To understand this feeling, you must stand by the open hatch of an airplane over a hundred-meter abyss, feel the chill under your heart in front of this incomprehensible height and decisively step into the abyss as soon as the command is heard: “Go!”
Then there will be many more difficult jumps - with weapons, day and night, from high-speed military transport aircraft. But the first jump will never be forgotten. A paratrooper, a strong-willed and courageous person, begins with him.”
When Vasily Filippovich retrained from an infantry division commander to an airborne division commander, he was not even forty. Where did Margelov start? From skydiving. He was not advised to jump, after all, he had nine wounds, his age... During his service in the Airborne Forces, he made more than 60 jumps. The last of them is at the age of 65. In the year of the 90th anniversary of the birth of Army General Margelov, “Red Star” in the article “The Legend and Glory of the Landing” wrote about him: “Being the eighth commander of the Airborne Forces, he nevertheless earned himself a respectful reputation among these troops as the patriarch of the airborne business. During his command of the Airborne Forces, the country changed five defense ministers, and Margelov remained irreplaceable and irreplaceable. Almost all of his predecessors have been forgotten, but Margelov’s name is still on everyone’s lips today.
“Oh, how difficult it is to cross the Rubicon so that a first name becomes a last name,” the poet remarked. Margelov has crossed such a Rubicon. (He made his branch of the military elite.) Having quickly and energetically studied airborne warfare, military air technology and military transport aviation, demonstrating extraordinary organizational skills, he became an outstanding military leader who did an extraordinary amount for the development and improvement of the Airborne Forces, for their growth prestige and popularity in the country, to instill love for this elite branch of the military among conscript youth. Despite the enormous physical and psychological stress of the airborne service, young guys dream of the Airborne Forces; as they say, they sleep and see themselves as paratroopers. And in the country’s only forge of airborne officer cadres - the Ryazan Higher Command Twice Red Banner School named after Army General V.F. Margelov, recently transformed into the Airborne Forces Institute, the competition is 14 people per place. How many military and civilian universities can envy such popularity! And all this was laid down under Margelov ... "
Hero of Russia, reserve lieutenant general Leonid Shcherbakov recalls:
— In the seventies of the last century, Army General Vasily Filippovich Margelov set himself a difficult task - to create highly mobile, modern Airborne Forces in the country's Armed Forces. Rapid re-equipment began in the Airborne Forces, airborne combat vehicles (BMDs) were received, based on them, reconnaissance, communications and control equipment, self-propelled artillery, anti-tank systems, engineering equipment... Margelov and his deputies, heads of services and departments were frequent guests at factories, training grounds, in training centers. Paratroopers daily “disturbed” the Ministry of Defense and the defense industry. Ultimately, this culminated in the creation of the world's best airborne means.
After graduating from the Academy of Armored Forces in 1968, I was assigned to test work at the Research Institute of Armored Vehicles in Kubinka. I had a chance to test many samples at testing grounds in Transbaikalia, Central Asia, Belarus and in the middle of nowhere. Once we were assigned to test new airborne equipment. I worked with colleagues day and night, in various modes, sometimes beyond the limits of technology and people.
The final stage is military testing in the Baltic states. And here the division commander, perceiving my white envy of the paratroopers, offered to jump with a parachute after the combat vehicle.
Completed pre-jump training. Early in the morning - take off. Climb. Everything went fine: the BMD came out of the plane and fell into the abyss. The crew followed her. Suddenly a strong wind blew us onto the boulders. The joyful feeling of flying under the canopy ended with pain in my left leg - a fracture in two places.
Plaster, paratroopers' autographs on it, crutches. In this form he appeared before the commander of the Airborne Forces.
- Well, did you jump? - Margelov asked me.
“I got it, comrade commander.”
- I’m taking you to the landing party. “I need these,” Vasily Filippovich decided.
At that time, there was an urgent issue about reducing the time required to bring airborne units into combat readiness after landing. The old method of landing - military equipment was thrown from one plane, crews from another - is pretty outdated.
After all, the spread on the landing area was large, sometimes reaching five kilometers. While the crews were looking for their equipment, time passed like water into sand.
Therefore, the commander of the Airborne Forces decided that the crew needed to be parachuted along with the combat vehicle. This has never happened in any army in the world! But this was not an argument for Vasily Filippovich, who believed that there were no impossible tasks for the landing force.
In August 1975, after the landing of equipment with dummies, I, as a driver, together with the son of the commander, Alexander Margelov, was entrusted with testing the joint landing complex. They called him "Centaur". The combat vehicle was installed on a platform, and an open vehicle for crew members with their own parachutes was attached behind it. Without means of rescue, testers were seated inside the BMD on special, simplified space chairs for cosmonauts. We completed the task. And this was a major step towards a more complex experiment. Together with the commander’s son, Alexander Margelov, we tested a parachute-rocket system, which was already called “Reactavr”. The system was placed on the stern of the BMD and went out to the take-off airfield along with it. It had only one dome instead of five. At the same time, the height and speed of landing decreased, but the accuracy of landing increased. There are many advantages, but the main disadvantage is the huge overloads.
In January 1976, near Pskov, for the first time in world and domestic practice, this “reactive” landing was carried out at a huge risk to life, without individual means of rescue.
“And what happened then?” - the meticulous reader will ask. And then in each airborne regiment, in winter and summer, crews landed inside combat vehicles using parachute and parachute-jet systems, which became perfect and reliable. In 1998, again near Pskov, a crew of seven people in standard seats descended from the skies inside the then-new BMD-3.
For the feat of the seventies, twenty years later Alexander Margelov and I were awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
I will add that it was under Army General Margelov that it became common practice: to launch an airborne assault, say, in Pskov, make a long flight and land near Fergana, Kirovabad or in Mongolia. It is not without reason that one of the most popular decodings of the abbreviation Airborne Forces is “Uncle Vasya’s Troops.”

Sons and grandsons in service

Retired Major General Gennady Margelov recalls:
— During the war, until 1944, I lived with my grandparents, the parents of my father Vasily Filippovich Margelov. During the evacuation, a junior sergeant came to us one day. I still remember the last name - Ivanov. Well, he won me over with his stories about his service in his father’s division. I wasn’t even thirteen then. He was about to return to his unit. He left the house in the morning, and I was with him, as if going to school. He himself went in the other direction... and to the station. We boarded the train and went. So, at the age of 12, he ran away from fifth grade to the front. We arrived at the division. My father didn't know that I had arrived. We met nose to nose and did not recognize each other. It’s not surprising, since we had seen each other before the Finnish War, when he wore one “sleeper” in his buttonhole. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War he was at the front. There was no time for vacation.

And so I ended up in my father’s division near Kherson in the Kopanei region. It was then the end of February, and there was still snow in some places. Dirt. I ran away from home wearing felt boots with holes. So I caught a cold, my whole face was covered in boils, I couldn’t even see well. I ended up in the medical battalion and received treatment.
And then the dad calls: “Well, did you rest in the medical battalion?” Me: “That’s right!” - “Then go study in the training battalion.”
I arrived as expected and reported to the battalion commander. The battalion had three companies: two rifle companies and a heavy weapons company. So they sent me to a platoon of anti-tank rifles.
Well, PTR is PTR. We had guns of two systems: Degtyarev and Simonov. I got Simonov's. I wasn’t as afraid of the Germans as I was of the gun: the soldiers were healthy, and I was very small, I thought that the recoil after the shot would throw me somewhere. Later, when they had already put me in combat formation and the foreman first gave me a rifle, it turned out that she was longer than me. Replaced with a short cavalry carbine.
During the fighting in Odessa, two comrades and I (one was a year older, the other a year younger, the sons of the division chief of staff, Colonel V.F. Shubin) left with battalion scouts to beat the Germans on the streets of the city. What is a fight in the city? Sometimes you don’t understand where your friends are and where your enemies are. In general, I found myself alone... In one of the houses I came across a wine cellar. And suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge German with a machine gun! Of course, he would have “cut me down” with a burst at the moment, yes, apparently, the Fritz had filled up on wine from the barrels, and that’s why he hesitated. I shot him with my carbine. But for my sortie I received from my father three days in the guardhouse, because it was forbidden for me to go to the front line without permission. True, he only served a day. The Shubin brothers each received a combat medal. In our family, there has always been strict demand from the Margelovs.
When the division was already behind the old Romanian border, in the town of Ciobruci, the commander called me and showed me the magazine “Red Army Man” (which later became “Soviet Warrior”). And there, on the cover, is a photo of Suvorov soldiers from the Novocherkassk SVU on the stairs at the front entrance. So beautiful!..
- Well, are you going to study? - asked the battalion commander.
“I’ll go,” I answered, fascinated by the photo, not knowing that the battalion commander was carrying out the order of the division commander.
This is how the Great Patriotic War ended for me, Guard Private Gennady Margelov, and so did the service in the training battalion of the 144th Guards Rifle Regiment of Colonel A.G. Lubenchenko, a service that was considered the most honorable even for adult soldiers, since the training battalion trained sergeants and was the last reserve of the division commander. Where it was difficult, the training battalion entered into battle.
I celebrated Victory Day already in the Tambov SVU. Being a Suvorov veteran, he made several parachute jumps in Pskov in the 76th Airborne Division, commanded by his father, Guard Major General V.F. Margelov. Moreover, the first two jumps were done without the knowledge of the father. The third was performed in the presence of his father and the deputy corps commander for airborne training. After landing, I reported to the deputy corps commander: “Suvorov soldier Margelov made another, third jump. The equipment worked perfectly, I feel good!” My father, who was preparing to present me with the badge of a first-class parachutist, was extremely surprised and even said a couple of “warm” words. However, he soon came to terms with this “misdemeanor” and proudly said that his son was growing up to be a real paratrooper.
After graduating from the SVU in 1950, I became a cadet at the Ryazan Infantry School, upon graduation from which I was sent to the Airborne Forces of the Far Eastern District.
In the airborne forces he rose from platoon commander to chief of staff of the 44th training airborne division. I jumped with a parachute, as I reported at the interview when entering the Academy of the General Staff, “from Berlin to Sakhalin.” There were no more questions.
After graduating from the academy, he was appointed commander of the 26th motorized rifle division, which was located in the city of Gusev. Since 1976, he served in Transbaikalia as first deputy commander of the 29th Combined Arms Army. He celebrated his fiftieth birthday as head of the Twice Red Banner Military Institute of Physical Culture in Leningrad. He completed his service as a senior lecturer in the department of operational art at the Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
Vasily Filippovich's second son, Anatoly, also devoted his entire life to defending the Motherland. A graduate of the Taganrog Radio Engineering Institute, he worked in the defense industry for decades. A doctor of technical sciences in his early thirties did a lot to develop new types of weapons. The scientist has more than two hundred inventions to his name. When meeting people, he likes to emphasize:
- Reserve private, Professor Margelov.
Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Colonel General Vitaly Margelov, recalls:
— After the evacuation, together with my mother and brother Anatoly, we lived in Taganrog. I still remember well how in 1945 Tolik and I went to the Oktyabr cinema, which was next to our house. And there in the documentary chronicle they show the Victory Parade. For us boys, the spectacle is exciting. Marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky are on white horses. Stalin himself is on the podium of the Lenin Mausoleum. Front-line generals, officers, and soldiers walk in parade stride, military orders and medals sparkle on their uniforms... You can’t take your eyes off. And suddenly I see my father in the front columns. With delight I will scream to the whole hall:
- Dad, dad...
The hushed spectators perked up. Everyone began to look with great curiosity to see who was making the noise. Since then, ticket collectors began to let my brother and I into the cinema for free.
For the first time in a general's uniform, my father saw me at his birthday. Of course, I was happy about my career growth, but I tried not to show it. When we were left alone, he asked me about the service and gave me a number of “diplomatic” pieces of advice from his extensive practice.
There is a tradition in our Margelov family, inherited from our father: not to spoil our sons, not to patronize them and to respect their life choices.
...The younger Margelov twin brothers, Alexander and Vasily, were born on October 21 in the victorious year of 1945. Our newspaper wrote many times about Hero of Russia, reserve colonel Alexander Margelov, who served in the airborne forces. About his courage and fearlessness shown during the test of the Reactaurus. After completing his service, he remained faithful to the Airborne Forces and the memory of his legendary father. In his apartment with his brother Vasily, he opened the home office-museum of Army General Vasily Filippovich Margelov.
“I would like to note that the gift of the current owner of the Arbat apartment (Alexander Vasilyevich lives in his father’s apartment with his family) is not only military-technical, but also artistic. It’s not for nothing that the house is full of books on various fields of knowledge. He called the first descent system inside the BMD on a multi-dome parachute “Centaur” - because he noticed that when the car moves in a marching manner, the driver is visible from the waist up, resembling a mythical creature, only in a modern version,” he wrote in his article “Military -home museum" by Petr Palamarchuk, published in 1995 in the magazine "Rodina". Since then, over a thousand people have visited the museum, among whom were prominent statesmen, politicians of our country, near and far abroad. Admired by the exhibits they saw, they left their entries in the visitors' book.
During his life, Alexander Margelov committed many acts worthy of respect. Among them is the creation of the documentary book “Army General Margelov,” which was published in Moscow in 1998. He prepared the next edition of the book, which should be published this fall, in collaboration with his brother Vasily, a major in the reserve, an international journalist, who now works as the first deputy director of the Directorate of International Relations of the Voice of Russia RGC. By the way, Vasily’s son, reserve junior sergeant Vasily Margelov, named after his grandfather, served his military service in the Airborne Forces.
It should be noted that all the sons of Vasily Filippovich jumped with a parachute and proudly wear airborne vests.
Army General Margelov has many grandchildren, and there are already great-grandchildren who continue and are preparing to continue the traditions of the family - to serve the Motherland with dignity. The eldest of them, Mikhail, is the son of Colonel General Vitaly Vasilyevich Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, deputy head of the delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Mikhail graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. Fluent in English and Arabic, he was the head of the Russian Presidential Office for Public Relations.

His uncle, Vasily Vasilyevich, also successfully graduated from the same faculty in 1970.
Mikhail's brother, Vladimir, served in the border troops...
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For almost a quarter of a century, Vasily Filippovich Margelov commanded the Airborne Forces. Many generations of winged guards grew up following his example of selfless service to the Fatherland. The Ryazan Institute of Airborne Forces, the streets of Omsk, Pskov and Tula bear his name. Monuments were erected to him in Ryazan, Omsk, Dnepropetrovsk, and Tula. Officers and paratroopers, veterans of the Airborne Forces every year come to the monument to their commander at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow to pay tribute to his memory.
During the Great Patriotic War, a song was composed in the division of General Margelov. Here is one of her verses:
The song praises the Falcon
Brave and courageous...
Is it close, is it far
Margelov's regiments were marching.
They are still going through life, his regiments, in the ranks of which are his sons, grandsons, great-grandsons and tens, hundreds of thousands of people who cherish in their hearts the memory of him - the creator of the modern Airborne Forces.