Soviet pilot Pavel Rychagov: biography

Pavel Rychagov, whose biography is described in this article, is a fighter pilot, captain. He was the commander of an air squadron in the republican troops of Spain. Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded many orders and medals. The pilot of the highest class.

His life is full of glory, victories and rewards. But at the same time, the fate of Paul and his wife is tragic and sad enough. Well, now about everything in order.

Childhood of the future ace

Pavel Vasilievich Rychagov was born on November 2, 1911 in a peasant family, in a small village of Nizhnie Likhobory, located in the suburbs. As a child, he was the same as all the boys, and none of them stood out. He played lapta, was fond of sports, he ran with comrades a kite.

Education

Rychagov Pavel Vasilievich graduated from an incomplete secondary school. And immediately went to work at the factory as a packer. Then he went to serve in the army and entered the Leningrad Military Theoretical School of the Air Force of the Soviet Union. He graduated in 1930. Then he studied at the Borisoglebsk Military Flight School. Osoaviakhima. He graduated in 1931. In 1937 he entered the Military Air Academy. Zhukovsky.

Military service

Pavel Vasilievich began his service in the army from the twenty-eighth. After becoming one of the best graduates of the Borisoglebsk military school, he was sent to the 109th fighter squadron of the fifth Zhitomir brigade in the Kiev Military District. First served in the position of junior pilot, then was transferred commander of the link and soon was already in charge of the detachment.

Aerobatics

For his service, Pavel Vasilyevich made a total of more than three thousand flights. Five hundred of them are night. He flew more than one hundred and seventy thousand kilometers. Few people, like Levers, can withstand crazy loads. For one flight, never landing an airplane, he performs in the air up to two hundred and fifty aerobatics. Of these, forty - at an altitude of five thousand meters. Then, as much as a thousandth of a meter high and higher.

Pavel Rychagov is a pilot who flew without an oxygen mask. After a bit of rest, he again performed loops, coups, bends and military turns. Only then did the figures in reverse order at an altitude of five thousand meters. At the very ground added twenty five more aerobatics and then sat down. Such flights could not be sustained by anybody, except for him.

Service in Aviation

Rychagov quickly became a top-flight pilot. In the thirty-third he began to command the unit of the one-hundred-and-ninth squadron of fighters of the fifth brigade of Zhitomir. A few months later - an air squad, which quickly became the best in the whole army. Pilots, trained under the leadership of Pavel Vasilyevich, became snipers and aces of air combat.

It was incredibly difficult to fly at that time, because in airplanes there were only gauges and dials that showed altitude, fuel and oil. The rest of the equipment was missing. The pilots could rely only on their eyesight.

Pablo Palencar

In the autumn of 1936 a detachment of Pavel Vasilyevich was sent to serve in Spain. There he took himself the pseudonym "Pablo Palencar", under which he fought. His group repeatedly took off for assignments and coped with everything with brilliance. Rychagov Pavel Vasilievich was wounded, but quickly recovered and again continued the battles. Several times he was knocked down, but he managed to escape through parachutes. He became a record holder in the number of personally shot down aircraft. After returning to his homeland he received the rank of major.

"General Batalin"

In the thirty-seventh already in the rank of Major-General commanded the air force in China against the Japanese invaders under the pseudonym "General Batalin." Spanish experience is very useful. Rychagov formed groups of fighter pilots independently. Was in the post of senior military adviser to the Chinese government.

The Soviet pilot Pavel Rychagov, whose photo is in this article, participated in the development of an attack plan for a Japanese air base on the island of Taiwan. Thanks to his skilful leadership, the Japanese destroyed about fifty aircraft and a three-year supply of fuel. After this defeat from the Japanese airfield, the planes did not take off for a whole month.

Political activity

In the thirty-seventh year, Rychagov was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of the first convocation. He prepared a report containing critical remarks and suggestions for improving aviation. He offered to modernize - to make the chassis automatically retractable, to increase the speed of the aircraft, to replace the "chaika" with the center wing and to install large-caliber ones instead of weak machine guns.

Unusual Landings

During the training flight was in an emergency. After take-off unexpectedly, first the engine refused, and then the plane caught fire. At that time we flew without parachutes. Only the lake and the forest were ahead. Landing seemed almost impossible. But Rychagov was able to deploy the aircraft at ninety degrees and, accurately planning, put him on the edge of the forest.

Once Pavel Vasilievich Rychagov and his partner flew out to fulfill the assignment for the U-2. Everything went well, but before boarding it was discovered that one ski of the plane is in an upright position. Because of this, it was not possible to sink to the ground. Rychagov handed over the steering wheel to his partner, got out and on the fly, holding onto the plane, straightened the landing skis.

Once, during the winter tests, one of the pilots could not land properly. He blamed the landing skis for this, saying that it is simply impossible to calculate the exact landing. Pavel Vassilievich silently threw his glove on the runway, climbed into the plane and took off. He made a circle and landed so precisely that the ski imprinted his glove in the snow.

Character

The character of Pavel Vasilievich was revealed in daily intense flights. He was demanding not only to himself, but also to others. But he always made fair decisions. He was not a diplomat, and often motivated his decisions somewhat tactlessly. He lived and fought without looking back, as sometimes he treated people. I could throw a sharp word or make a reprimand.

Personal life of Pavel Vasilyevich

Paul has long wanted to create a family and have a generation. Finally, there was a woman, whom Pavel Rychagov decided to marry. His wife, Maria Nesterenko, was also a military pilot. They met when the frail dark-haired dark-haired man was sent to Rychagov's detachment. It's impossible to say with certainty that she was a beauty, but there was a certain charm in her that did not leave Pavel Vasilevich indifferent.

Arrest and execution

Pavel Rychagov, whose photo is in this article, received a secret task to conduct an inspection of the Soviet-German border, after which he was arrested in 1941. There are several points that could play a fateful role in his fate. Or add to the imaginary fault of the appendage before the execution.

Perhaps, not the least role was played by the case when Pavel Vasilyevich was the only one on Stalin's "carpet" who could not stand false accusations and was indignant. Iosif Vissarionovich chastised the leadership for the "bad" flights. And Pavel Rychagov indignantly and fervently objected to everyone that this is what makes Stalin fly on "coffins." Iosif Vissarionovich did not take his head off his shoulders for such criticism at once, but twice said that Pavel Vassilyevich had said nothing.

Stalin and a German airplane, who flew unhindered in the Soviet airspace and even landed in Moscow, were outraged. Although there is information that they did not shoot him down on orders from "above" - not to touch German aircraft, since a document on non-aggression of the parties was signed. But the military turned out to be extreme. This only brought the arrests in preparation.

When the war began, on the very first day many Soviet aircraft were killed. And this despite the fact that the posts of surveillance and warning services reacted to the sudden approach of the Germans without slowing down. Nevertheless, the "Stalin Falcons" did not even have time to fly.

After this incident, many higher military officials, including Pavel Rychagov, were arrested. Torture in those years was applied practically to all without exception. Someone broke down at once, and someone held to the last, but withstood the bullying and terrible beatings were not. Rychagov gave confessions under physical influence. But later refused them.

They arrested not only Pavel Vasilievich, but his wife, Maria Nesterenko, deputy commander of the aviation regiment of special purpose. She was accused of knowing about the "treasonous" activities of her husband and was silent. At first they were tortured for a long time, trying to knock out the confession that they were saboteurs and allegedly involved in a conspiracy.

The Germans were already approaching the capital, and therefore Beria gave the order to kill Paul and Maria without trial and investigation. But while the executioners delivered this order, the investigators continued to diligently "beat out" the testimony. Their suffering was interrupted by a dispatch from Beria. Pavel Rychagov and his wife were shot together, at a special section of the NKVD, near Kuibyshev, in the village of Barbish.

The top leadership of the Soviet Union needed the guilty at any cost. The victims were chosen by Beria from people who became objectionable to Stalin or unexpectedly felt his cooling to his personalities.

As a result, under the instruction No. 2756 / B, the best military pilots, the pride of the country, possessing priceless military experience, were shot at the same time as the Rychagovs. All of them were rehabilitated after many years, but, unfortunately, already posthumously.

ACA Awards

In the thirty-sixth year, Pavel Vasilyevich Rychagov was awarded the Order of Lenin. For the battles near Lake Khasan - the Order of the Red Banner. Then he received two more such awards and a medal. In honor of Rychagov in Moscow was named the street on which he lived, in the Northern District.

Ranks and appointments

In the thirty-sixth he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1938 he became a brigade commander. In a short time - the commander of the Air Force. He joined the council of the Primorsky Military Group of the Far Eastern Front and the first Red Banner Army. In 1939 he became Division Commander and Commander of the Air Force of the Ninth Army (during the Soviet-Finnish war).

In 1940, at the age of twenty-nine, he was already in the rank of Lieutenant-General. He was appointed head of the Main Directorate of the Air Force, from 1941 - Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the Soviet Union.