The initiator and founder of the Airborne Forces, Vasily Margelov, personifies the image of the airborne troops of the USSR. Among the military personnel associated with these troops, he is paratrooper No. 1. He is a Hero of the USSR and a State Prize laureate.
Childhood and adolescence
Margelov Vasily Filippovich was born in the city of Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk) on December twenty-seventh, 1908 (January ninth according to the new style). His father, Philip Ivanovich, worked as a metallurgist, his mother, Agafya Stepanovna, took care of the house and garden.
The family of the future general comes from Belarus. In 1913 they returned to their homeland (Mogilev province). According to some information, Vasily graduated from church school in 1921. He started working as a loader, then tried his hand at carpentry. That same year I went to study leather craft in a workshop. In the twenty-third year, the future general got a job as an auxiliary worker at the Khlebproduct enterprise. At the same time, he studied at a school for rural youth. Then he worked as a freight forwarder, delivering mail and various cargoes along the Kostyukovichi - Khotimsk line.
In 1924, he got a job as a laborer, then as a horse driver in Yekaterinoslav at the Kalinin mine. Since 1927 - Chairman of the Timber Industry Committee and member of the local Kostyukovich Council. In 1925 he was sent to Belarus, to the timber industry enterprise.
Beginning of military service
Vasily Margelov, whose biography is presented in this article, was drafted into the army in 1928. There he was sent to study at the OBVSh (United Belarusian Military School), which was located in Minsk. He was assigned to a sniper group. In his second year he became the foreman of a machine gun company.
In the spring of 1931 he graduated from the General Military School with honors and the leadership appointed him commander of the machine gun crew of the 99th regiment of the 33rd Infantry Division. In 1933 he became a platoon commander, and the following year he was appointed assistant company commander. In 1936, the future general was already heading a machine gun company. Since the fall of 1938, he commanded the second battalion of the 23rd regiment of the eighth rifle division. He headed intelligence, being the head of the second section of the division headquarters. While in this position, he took part in the Polish campaign of the Red Army in 1939.
Margelov's feat
Vasily Margelov became a real legend during his lifetime. During the war with the Finns, he commanded a reconnaissance ski battalion (122nd Division), making several raids behind enemy lines. During one of them, the future general was able to capture several officers of the German General Staff, who were officially (at that time) allies of the Soviet Union.
In 1941, he was made commander of a marine regiment in the Baltic Fleet. There were opinions that the “land officer” would not be able to take root in the fleet. Margelov’s regiment was considered “the guard of Admiral Tributs”; he sent it in besieged Leningrad even to those places where it was difficult to send a penal battalion.
For example, when the Nazis stormed the Pulkovo Heights, Margelov’s regiment landed behind the Germans on the coast of Lake Ladoga. The Marines showed heroism and forced the Germans to stop the assault on Pulkovo in order to resist the Russian landing. Major Margelov was seriously wounded but survived.
Further exploits
In 1943, Vasily Filippovich Margelov was already a division commander, stormed Saur-Mogila, and took part in the liberation of Kherson. In 1945, the Nazis gave him the nickname “Soviet Skorzeny.” This happened after the famous German tank divisions “Gross Germany” and “Totenkopf” surrendered to him without a fight.
At the beginning of May 1945, the command set a task for Margelov: to destroy or capture the remnants of the famous SS units that wanted to break through to the Americans. Vasily Margelov dared to take a dangerous step. He, with a small group of officers armed with machine guns and grenades, with a battery of cannons, approached the enemy headquarters and ordered to open fire if he did not return in 10 minutes.
The brave man went to the German headquarters and presented an ultimatum: surrender and save your life or be destroyed. He gave me little time to think - until the lit cigarette ran out. The Nazis surrendered.
In the Airborne Forces
At the victory parade in Moscow, the founder of the Airborne Forces, Vasily Margelov, commanded a regiment of the Second Ukrainian Front. After the victory over the Nazis, Vasily Margelov, whose biography is outlined in this article, continued to serve.
From 1950 to 1954 was the commander of the 37th Svir Airborne Corps. From 1954 to 1959 commanded the airborne troops of the Soviet Union. In 1964, impressed by the film “Such is the Sporting Life,” he introduced rugby to the paratrooper training program.
On October 28, 1967, he received the rank of Army General. He commanded paratroopers during the entry of troops into Czechoslovakia. During his entire service, he made more than sixty parachute jumps, the last when he was sixty-five years old. Thus, he set a personal example for his subordinates.
Contribution to the development of the Airborne Forces
The name of Margelov will forever remain in the history of the Airborne Forces of Russia and other countries of the former Union. His person personifies the era of development and formation of the Airborne Forces. Their popularity and authority both in our country and abroad are forever associated with his name.
General Vasily Margelov realized that military operations behind enemy lines could be carried out by mobile and maneuverable paratroopers. He always rejected plans to hold areas captured by landing forces until the troops advancing from the front arrived. In this case, the paratroopers could be quickly destroyed.
Vasily Margelov led the USSR Airborne Forces for more than 20 years, and thanks to his merits, they became one of the most mobile troops in the structure of the country's Armed Forces. The general’s contribution to the formation of the Airborne Forces was reflected in the humorous decoding of this abbreviation - “Uncle Vasya’s Troops.”
The concept of the role of the Airborne Forces
In military theory, it was believed that in order to use nuclear strikes and maintain a high tempo during the offensive, the mandatory use of landing troops was necessary. In such conditions, airborne troops must correspond to the strategic goals of military conflicts and meet the political goals of the country.
Margelov believed that in order to fulfill their role in operations, it was necessary for Soviet formations to be maneuverable, protected by armor, excellently controllable, have fire efficiency, and be able to land behind enemy lines at any time of the day and begin combat operations immediately. One must strive for such an ideal, as the famous general believed.
Under his leadership, the concept of the place and role of the Airborne Forces in military operations was developed. He wrote many works on this topic and defended his dissertation.
Armament of the airborne troops
As time passed, the need increasingly arose to bridge the gap between the theory of using airborne troops and the layered structure of troops and the capabilities of military transport aviation. Having become commander, Vasily Margelov (Airborne Forces) received at his disposal troops that consisted of lightly armed infantry and aviation equipped with Il-14, Li-2, Tu-4 aircraft. Capabilities were seriously limited and military personnel were unable to solve serious problems.
The general began by initiating mass production of landing equipment, parachute systems and platforms, as well as cargo containers. For the Airborne Forces, modifications of weapons were developed that were easy to parachute - a folding stock, light weight.
Also, military equipment was modernized specifically for the Airborne Forces: amphibious self-propelled guns ASU-76, ASU-57, ASU-57P, ASU-85, tracked vehicle BMD-1 and others. Radio stations, anti-tank systems, and reconnaissance vehicles were also developed. Anti-aircraft systems were equipped with armored personnel carriers, and crews with ammunition and portable systems were placed on them.
Closer to the 60s, the AN-8 and An-12 aircraft, with a carrying capacity of up to twelve tons, entered service with the landing force and could fly long distances. A little later, the airborne troops received AN-22 and IL-76 aircraft.
Eternal memory
After his retirement, Vasily Margelov lived in Moscow. “Uncle Vasya” passed away on March 4, 1990. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. A monument to Vasily Margelov was erected in Tyumen. There are also monuments in his honor in Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Chisinau, Ryazan, Kostyukovichi, Omsk, Ulyanovsk, Tula, St. Petersburg.
In Taganrog there is a memorial plaque dedicated to the general. Officers and soldiers of the airborne troops annually visit the monument to “Uncle Vasya” at the Novodevichy cemetery and pay tribute to his memory.
On August 2, blue water will splash across Russian cities, as will water from park fountains. The most connected branch of the military will celebrate the holiday. “Defend Russia” remembers the legendary “Uncle Vasya” - the same one who created the Airborne Forces in their modern form.
There are as many myths and tales as there are about “Uncle Vasya’s troops” about any other unit of the Russian army. It seems that strategic aviation flies the farthest, the presidential regiment paces like robots, the space forces can look beyond the horizon, the GRU special forces are the most terrible, and underwater strategic missile carriers are capable of destroying entire cities. But “there are no impossible tasks - there are landing troops.”
There were many commanders of the Airborne Forces, but they had one most important commander.
Vasily Margelov was born in 1908. Until Ekaterinoslav became Dnepropetrovsk, Margelov worked at a mine, a stud farm, a forestry enterprise and a local deputy council. Only at the age of 20 did he join the army. Measuring career steps and kilometers on the march, he participated in the Polish campaign of the Red Army and the Soviet-Finnish War.
In July 1941, the future “Uncle Vasya” became a regiment commander in a people’s militia division, and 4 months later, from a very long distance—on skis—he began the creation of the Airborne Forces.
As the commander of a special ski regiment of the Marines of the Baltic Fleet, Margelov ensured that vests were transferred from the Marine Corps to the “winged” ones. Already division commander Margelov in 1944 became a hero of the Soviet Union for the liberation of Kherson. At the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, the major general printed a step as part of the columns of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
Margelov took charge of the Airborne Forces in the year following Stalin's death. He left office three years before Brezhnev's death - an amazing example of team longevity.
It was with his command that not only the main milestones in the formation of the airborne troops were associated, but also the creation of their image as the most combat-ready troops in the entire huge Soviet army.
Margelov was technically paratrooper number one not during his entire service. His history of relationships with the post of commander, and with the country and its regime, is similar to the career path of the commander-in-chief of the Soviet fleet Nikolai Kuznetsov. He also commanded with a short break: Kuznetsov had four years, Margelov two (1959-1961). True, unlike the admiral, who survived two disgraces, lost and received ranks again, Margelov did not lose, but only gained them, becoming an army general in 1967.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Airborne Forces were more tied to the land. The infantry became winged precisely under the command of Margelov.
Firstly, “Uncle Vasya” jumped himself. During his service, he made more than 60 jumps - the last time at 65 years old.
Margelov significantly increased the mobility of the Airborne Forces (in Ukraine, for example, they are called airmobile troops). Actively working with the military-industrial complex, the commander achieved the introduction of aircraft and the An-76 into service, which even today release parachute dandelions into the sky. New parachute and rifle systems were developed for paratroopers - the mass-produced AK-74 was “cut down” to .
They began to land not only people, but also military equipment - due to the enormous weight, parachute systems were developed from several domes with the placement of jet thrust engines, which worked for a short period of time when approaching the ground, thus extinguishing the landing speed.
In 1969, the first of the domestic airborne combat vehicles was put into service. The floating tracked BMD-1 was intended for landing - including using parachutes - from An-12 and Il-76. In 1973, the world's first landing using the BMD-1 parachute system took place near Tula. The crew commander was Margelov’s son Alexander, who in the 90s received the title of Hero of Russia for a similar landing in 1976.
In terms of influence on the perception of the subordinate structure by the mass consciousness, Vasily Margelov can be compared with Yuri Andropov.
If the term “public relations” existed in the Soviet Union, the commander of the Airborne Forces and the chairman of the KGB would probably be considered classy “signalmen.”
Andropov clearly understood the need to improve the image of the department, which inherited the people's memory of the Stalinist repressive machine. Margelov had no time for image, but it was under him that the people who created their positive image came out. It was the commander who insisted that “In the zone of special attention” the soldiers of Captain Tarasov’s group, as part of the exercises conducting reconnaissance behind the enemy lines, wear blue berets - a symbol of paratroopers, which obviously unmasks the scouts, but creates an image.
Vasily Margelov died at the age of 81, several months before the collapse of the USSR. Four of Margelov’s five sons connected their lives with the army.
- [born 12/14/27/1908, Ekaterinoslav, now Dnepropetrovsk], Soviet military leader, army general (1967), Hero of the Soviet Union (3/21/1944). Member of the CPSU since 1929. In the Soviet Army since 1928. Graduated from the United Belarusian Military School named after the Central Executive Committee... ...
December 27, 1908 (19081227) March 4, 1990 Commander of the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 28th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Guard Colonel V.F. Margelov ... Wikipedia
Vasily Filippovich Margelov December 27, 1908 (19081227) March 4, 1990 Commander of the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 28th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Guard Colonel V.F. Margelov ... Wikipedia
Vasily Filippovich Margelov December 27, 1908 (19081227) March 4, 1990 Commander of the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 28th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Guard Colonel V.F. Margelov ... Wikipedia
Vasily Filippovich Margelov December 27, 1908 (19081227) March 4, 1990 Commander of the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 28th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Guard Colonel V.F. Margelov ... Wikipedia
Vasily Filippovich Margelov December 27, 1908 (19081227) March 4, 1990 Commander of the 49th Guards Rifle Division of the 28th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Guard Colonel V.F. Margelov ... Wikipedia
Margelov, Mikhail- Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. Senator, representative of the administration of the Pskov region in the Federation Council of the Russian Federation since 2000, Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the upper house of parliament. Special... ... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers
Margelov surname. Famous bearers: Margelov, Alexander Vasilyevich (born 1945) son of Margelov V.F., Hero of the Russian Federation, retired colonel. Margelov, Vasily Filippovich (1908 1990) army general, Hero of the Soviet ... ... Wikipedia
Vasily Filippovich [born 12/14/27/1908, Ekaterinoslav, now Dnepropetrovsk], Soviet military leader, army general (1967), Hero of the Soviet Union (3/21/1944). Member of the CPSU since 1929. In the Soviet Army since 1928. Graduated from the United... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
General's extended family
In August 2002, in Pskov, the grandson of the famous General Margelov, Mikhail Margelov, politician, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, answered questions from the Pskov Province correspondent A. Mashkarin:
“- Vasily Filippovich Margelov is a legendary figure. And the attitude towards his name is appropriate. Doesn't the burden of responsibility for your grandfather's name weigh you down?
The load is indeed quite heavy. With his fame, my grandfather set a high bar, a bar for responsible behavior that must be met. Let me give you a few examples. The main reason that I did not choose a military career was my last name. It would probably be impossible to achieve what my grandfather did, but I don’t want to be in second or third roles. My cousin Vasily Margelov served in the Airborne Forces, but he served under his mother’s name - to avoid parallels and comparisons with his grandfather.
In our family, such a phenomenon as blat is not accepted. It didn’t exist in Soviet times, and it doesn’t exist now. My grandfather, who was then already the commander of the Airborne Forces, learned that my father had entered the law faculty of Moscow State University only from his son himself. My father, who was on a business trip abroad at that time, learned from his personnel officers that I became the head of Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s public relations department and at the age of 33 received the rank of minister. He was very surprised. I didn't ask him for help.
Such a strange family tradition for the general’s children and grandchildren. This is probably explained by the fact that my grandfather always made his way. This does not mean that there is no mutual assistance in our family, but it has always been human, and not career-related. No one in our country has ever been a “golden” youth and felt like they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
You didn't become a military man. Did anyone else in your family follow your grandfather's example?
We have an extremely large number of people in uniform. The eldest of his grandfather’s sons, Gennady Vasilyevich, is a Suvorov veteran, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, now a retired major general, his last place of service was the head of the Military Physical Education Institute. Lesgaft in Leningrad.
Anatoly Vasilyevich Margelov, next in age after Gennady, although he did not formally wear shoulder straps, spent his entire life working on missile guidance systems; he has two hundred and fifty inventions and discoveries. He is an Honored Inventor of the USSR.
My father, Vitaly Vasilyevich, is a colonel general, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Then come Alexander Vasilyevich - retired Airborne Colonel, Hero of Russia, tester of airborne equipment, and Vasily Vasilyevich - retired major, served in the Middle East for quite a long time, Arabist.
Many people know who your grandfather was. Who was your grandmother, the wife of General Margelov?
My grandfather’s life turned out to be such that he had three wives. The first wife, mother of Gennady Vasilyevich, the second Feodosia Efremovna, my grandmother, mother of Anatoly Vasilyevich and Vitaly Vasilyevich. The last wife is Anna Alexandrovna, mother of Alexander Vasilyevich and Vasily Vasilyevich.
My grandmother became my grandfather’s wife when she was a graduate student at Minsk State University. She worked as a school teacher all her life, teaching biology.
Do you have any childhood memories associated with your grandfather?
When my father and his family were on a business trip to Tunisia (I was four years old), we went on his first vacation. We came to my grandfather’s house, he lived on Smolenskaya Street in Moscow. And I was afraid of my grandfather - he had such a thunderous voice, rumbling, roaring. And suddenly I saw the magazine “Funny Pictures” in his house and asked in surprise: “Whose is this?” Then my grandfather came into the corridor where I was looking at the magazine and said: “So I wrote this out for you!”
Only many years later did I understand what it meant for this thunderous man, who with his paratroopers kept half of Europe and North America at bay, to think about a grandson who should be prescribed “Funny Pictures”!
There are a lot of memories of my grandfather, but this is perhaps the most emotionally powerful.
Did Vasily Filippovich have any life guidelines that he bequeathed to his sons and grandchildren?
Here is the formula: raise a son, build a house, plant a tree. My grandfather had his own specific phrase. He believed that in order for a man to become a real man, he must experience all the hardships of this life: to go hungry at least once, to be wounded at least once in his life, and to spend time in prison at least once (this did not mean for a criminal offense, but in a guardhouse). ).
After thirty-seven and a half years, I really believe that there are bumps that need to be filled in order to understand what is good and what is bad.
Is Margelov’s spirit still alive in the modern Airborne Forces?
Alive And not only in the Russian Airborne Forces, but also in the former republics of the Soviet Union.
It is also available abroad. When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez came to Moscow last winter and was in the Federation Council, I met with him. And when he compared the names - Margelov and Margelov - it turned out that Hugo was also a paratrooper colonel. Chavez said that the Venezuelan paratroopers know my grandfather, and a portrait of Vasily Filippovich Margelov hangs in the Military Museum of Venezuela. They consider him an airborne theorist.”
Vasily Filippovich married his first wife, Maria, two years before finishing his studies at military school. In September 1931, their son Gennady was born. However, due to the nomadic life of a commander, their happiness did not work out. Maria left.
Margelov met his second wife, Feodosia, in Minsk, where she worked as a teacher. They got married in 1935, when Feodosia Efremovna was already a student at the Belarusian State University. In this marriage Anatoly and Vitaly were born. But the family was not destined to survive. First, they were separated by the campaign in Western Belarus, then by the Finnish War, and then completely separated by the Great Patriotic War. In a word, war is war...
There, during the fighting near Leningrad, Margelov met his third wife, Anna Aleksandrovna Kurakina. This event took place at the end of 1941.
Their love went through all the trials and tribulations of life, ultimately leaving a large mark in the memory of their descendants.
Anna Alexandrovna was born on January 23, 1914 into a large peasant family in the village of Morskoye, Myshkinsky district, Yaroslavl region. She worked in a printing house, graduated from the workers' school and only then entered the medical institute, which she graduated from just before the war, in 1941. Then there were courses for surgeons at the Military Medical Academy and the front.
During the war, Anna Alexandrovna served as a company commander, a resident at the 1st Surgical Department of the Army Field Hospital for the Lightly Wounded of the 54th Army, the head of this department, and then in various positions in the 8th Separate Medical Battalion, next to her husband.
In the initial period of the war, she had the opportunity to operate on regimental commander Margelov, who was wounded in the leg, and who would have thought: in 1943 they would register their marriage at the front, and in 1947, already in peaceful life, as expected, in the registry office. In total, she operated on her husband twice in a combat situation.
The military doctor-surgeon of the Guard, captain of the medical service, Anna Aleksandrovna, ended the war with two orders (the Second Class of the Patriotic War and the Red Star) and many medals, among which was “For Military Merit.” In the regiment they called her “Mother” and were very grateful for her kind and skillful hands.
The eldest son Gennady (from his first marriage) lived in Kostyukovichi with Vasily Filippovich’s parents. At the age of twelve he ran away to his father at the front. First, Vasily Filippovich assigned his son to a reserve training battalion, and then, showing the cover of the magazine “Red Warrior”, which depicted a smiling Suvorov soldier, invited him to enter the Suvorov school.
Anna Alexandrovna prepared him, and he entered the Tambov School.
In 1959, already as a paratrooper officer, he entered the Academy. Frunze. During his service in the Airborne Forces he made more than three hundred parachute jumps. Graduate of the General Staff Academy. He commanded a motorized rifle division and was deputy army commander in Buryatia. Recent positions: head of the Military Institute of Physical Education in Leningrad and senior lecturer at the General Staff Academy. Knight of the Order of the Red Star and “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR”, third degree. Now Major General G.V. Margelov lives in St. Petersburg. He has two sons.
Son Anatoly (from his second marriage) graduated from the institute in Taganrog. He worked as a researcher at a defense research institute, where he defended both his master's and doctoral dissertations. He is the author of more than two hundred inventions, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor. Anatoly Vasilyevich has a daughter and a son.
Son Vitaly is Anatoly's brother. In 1958 he entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. Lomonosov. After graduation he worked in the KGB. Today he is a Colonel General, an Honorary Security Officer, and a holder of the Order of Military Merit. He has four sons.
Son Alexander (from his third marriage) graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1970. Ordzhonikidze. After graduation, he worked as an engineer at the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Mechanical Engineering in the city of Korolev. From 1971 to 1980 he served in the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Airborne Forces. During this period, he graduated from the Airborne School and the Military Academy of Armored Forces as an external student. He has 145 jumps. Made two flights inside the BMD and one together with the BMD. Hero of Russia, colonel, holder of the Order of the Red Banner and the Red Star.
Son Vasily is Alexander's brother. Successfully graduated from the Institute of Oriental Languages at Moscow State University. He mastered the Arabic language perfectly. He served as an officer in the GRU system for about eight years. Of these, six years in Arab countries. Major of the reserve. He has a son.
All of Margelov's sons gathered together only twice. The first time was at a service dacha in the Ministry of Defense village of Vnukovo, and the second time was at my father’s funeral. Nevertheless, they developed very friendly relations, because with such a person as Vasily Filippovich, it could not have been any other way!
In the summer of 1984, answering a correspondent’s question about his sons, General Margelov said literally:
The eldest, Gennady, the general, is said to be stepping on his father’s heels. Vitaly is a colonel, Alexander is a colonel, Vasily is a major. Only Anatoly did not become a military man. Everyone except him jumped with a parachute..."
Vasily Filippovich was very proud that they were all directly related to the army.
After the war, Anna Alexandrovna followed her husband, first working as an otolaryngologist, and then, due to an unsuccessful operation, she had to quit.
The war, endless travel, unrest and troubles completely undermined her health. Anna Alexandrovna left on January 30, 1993.
Shortly after her death, her younger sons found a bundle of yellowed letters. As they write, from them they “received stunning confirmation of what a faithful and loving heart beat under the combat commander’s tunic during the harsh years of the war, and even more so after the Victory. How young hearts, despite all the hardships, longed for love and a little peace for two, how they strove for each other, although their meetings were not so frequent, and sometimes they did not know whether there would be a next meeting... Death constantly hovered over them, tearing out their friends and loved ones, and perhaps that is why their love was so bright, which they were able to carry together until the end of their days. Any man, any woman can dream of such a strong support as mother was for his father, and such a strong support as father was for his mother...”
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