Where Poplavsky Ziganshin Kryukovsky served. "Ziganshin boogie, Ziganshin rock, Ziganshin ate the second boot!"

IN night of January 17, 1960 in the Iturup Bay self-propelled barge, standing on unloading, during a storm, it was torn off the anchor and swept into the Pacific Ocean. On board were four servicemen of the Soviet Army: junior sergeant Askhat Ziganshin and privates Philip Poplavsky, Anatoly Kryuchkovsky and Ivan Fedotov. Leather belts and even several pairs of tarpaulin boots that were on board went into food. They were only saved 49th day of forced barge drift - exhausted and delirious soldiers were discovered by an American pilot, who transmitted the message to his superiors on the aircraft carrier "Kirse RJ". ,
For 49 days, the T-36 self-propelled barge was carried across the ocean. Day turned into night, night into day, and before the eyes of four exhausted soldiers there was one and the same immense water element. Sometimes a wave completely covered the barge, and for a few moments it turned into a submarine. Then it was thought that she would not float up, and they would no longer see low black clouds, torn into shreds by lightning. But that was before, but now, when they were carried to the southern latitudes, the weather improved, and the ocean calmed down. However, the guys had almost no strength left, and they got out on deck only when necessary. They even stopped being on duty in the wheelhouse, preferring to spend all their hours in a cramped cockpit. - Oh, what a hunt to eat, - Poplavsky groaned from his bunk. True, rather, out of habit - now I didn’t feel like eating as much as in the first days of the drift of their barge. The feeling of hunger has dulled, replaced by aching pain in the stomach. - Oh, how to eat something hunting - repeated Poplavsky. Nobody answered him. Only Fedotov touched the butt of the ax under his pillow - this calmed him. The fact is that recently it began to seem to him that his comrades could eat him as the weakest member of their team. Of course, this did not at all correspond to the moral character of the Soviet soldier, about whom the deputy politician endlessly talked about in political classes. But they hadn't eaten normally for a month and a half - they had only a loaf of bread, a little cereal, a can of stew and three buckets of potatoes stained with fuel oil. Yes, and those meager products ended last week. Here anyone can demolish a tower - even a Soviet soldier. Therefore, Fedotov, just in case, kept an ax under his pillow. In turn, everyone else was afraid of him for this - he would foolishly take them and chop them into cutlets! - Why are you silent? asked Poplavsky, rising on his elbow. - Be patient, soldier! - strictly spoke the foreman of the barge, junior sergeant Ziganshin, and, realizing that it was necessary to distract his subordinates from unpleasant thoughts, he said: - I propose to hold a Komsomol meeting with an agenda on the unworthy behavior of the Komsomol member Poplavsky. We vote. Who agrees? Everyone raised their hands, except, of course, Poplavsky. “Well, how long can you hold a meeting on the same occasion,” he muttered. - Yesterday, the day before yesterday ... - And how do you order us to regard your misbehavior? Ziganshin was indignant. - Wow, eat in secret from comrades, knowing that they suffer from hunger. - Yes, but I ate a letter from my beloved girl! - This does not justify your unworthy act! You were obliged to share with your comrades! - What more? Then, it hurt me to eat her letter. It was so gentle and kind. "I'd give it to us," Kryuchkovsky called from his bunk and took a sip from a mug of rusty water. from the engine cooling system. - How! Get yourself girls, and eat their letters. “Oh, if they knew, they would definitely have brought it,” Fedotov scratched his head. - They would bring a few so that there would be more letters. - Oh, how you want to eat, - Poplavsky said again. - Shut up, everyone wants! - Ziganshin cut him off. - Let's sing, shall we? Kryuchkovsky, get the harmonica. “Excuse me, comrade junior sergeant, but we got her down on the third day,” reminded Kryuchkovsky. - Shall we try to fish? Sharks? Fedotov suggested. - Look how many of them swim overboard. And the sea seems to have calmed down. - Try not try - we have no bait. They are not stupid sharks - they don’t peck on an empty hook, ”Ziganshin answered. - Unless you use it as bait ... - Kryuchkovsky chuckled, without finishing. - Who, curiously, are you hinting at? - soared Fedotov. “He’s not hinting at anyone, he’s just joking,” Ziganshin hastened to notice. - Okay, let's have a bite to eat. What else do we have left? - Yes, consider, nothing. Watch straps, waist belts and our boots have already been credited, - Poplavsky waved his hand. “Well, that’s clear,” Ziganshin drawled, sighed and began to pull off the last tarpaulin boot from his foot - his first one had long since gone into the common cauldron. Everyone understood that this was a courageous act on the part of the sergeant, because this step dropped his authority in the eyes of his subordinates - after all, what kind of commander are you to jesters if you go completely barefoot ?! But it was at this moment that the famous song was born, eclipsing in popularity all the songs of the Liverpool Four - "Ziganshin, boogie! Ziganshin, rock! Ziganshin ate the second boot!". Well, the famous children's rhyme "Yuri Gagarin. Ziganshin Tatar" appeared a little later, when the whole Soviet country found out about these wonderful guys. - Private Poplavsky, blow up for sea water! Let's soak my boot from shoe polish! ordered the sergeant. - I obey, - he answered and wandered onto the deck. But he returned unexpectedly quickly and said in a breaking voice: - There! .. There is a ship! On the captain's bridge of the schooner "Hispaniola" stood John Silver and surveyed the horizon through a telescope. For more than one century, a pirate ship has plied the seas and oceans in the hope of finding Treasure Island. During this time, Silver's leg, cut off in battle, managed to grow, and his parrot lost all feathers. In addition, the entire crew, out of boredom, learned the Russian language from the dictionary and now spoke exclusively in it - they really liked his profanity. Even a parrot and that one instead of "piastres, piastres! ", began to shout" loot, loot! I don't understand anything. For some reason it's drifting in the direction of Hawaii. The name means te thirty-six. - Maybe te thirty-four, sir? - Jim, you have brains like a dead jellyfish. Te thirty-four is a tank, and they they don’t go by sea, - Silver grinned with a sense of his own superiority and took a sip of rum from a bottle. - What are we going to do, sir? - Of course, we will board it! - Maybe you shouldn’t mess with these Russians? - How is it not worth it ?! And if they know where this damned Treasure Island is located? - But what if they are still on the tank? - What, you think I'm not able to distinguish a tank from a barge? Hey, boatswain! Where the hell are you?! From grey-haired Israel Hands, bare-chested and in trousers, leisurely climbed out of the hold. he talked and crawled on all fours to the captain's bridge. - All hands on deck! - Yes, sir! At the whistle of the boatswain, the entire, as usual, half-drunk crew climbed onto the deck, immediately beginning to swing their sabers and shoot into the air with pistols. The pirate schooner came close to the barge and cats flew from it to the neighboring side. But the pirates did not have time to use them. Sergeant Ziganshin instantly assessed the situation, realizing who he was dealing with - over which ship the Jolly Roger was flying. - Go ahead, guys! Aboard! There's food, drink and women! - he gave the order, and the valiant fighters of the construction battalion, having gathered their last strength, rushed to capture the Hispaniola. Ziganshin himself, with a hook taken from the fire shield, was in front. The fight was fierce, but fleeting. Our guys won. Could aged literary heroes resist the hungry Soviet soldiers? After only a few minutes, they surrendered to the mercy of the winner. True, there were no women on the schooner, except for cabin boy Jim. But this is not important - the main thing is that there was food in abundance on it ... Although, it is possible that they only dreamed of capturing a pirate schooner. But be that as it may, they soon received high government awards - the Order of the Red Star. In addition, the Minister of Defense, Marshal Malinovsky, presented the saved navigational watches "so that they no longer wander." And Askhat Ziganshin was awarded the extraordinary rank of senior sergeant.

"Ziganshin boogie, Ziganshin rock, Ziganshin ate the second boot!"

After 55 years, Askhat Ziganshin, an order-bearing soldier and idol of Soviet rock and roll, revealed the uncombed truth about the drift of the T-36 barge across the Pacific Ocean.

Fifty-five years ago, these four were more popular than the Liverpool quartet. The guys from the Far East were written and talked about all over the world. But the music of the legendary Beatles is still alive, and the glory of Askhat Ziganshin, Anatoly Kryuchkovsky, Philip Poplavsky and Ivan Fedotov has remained in the past.

Their names are remembered today only by the older generation. Young people need to be told from scratch how on January 17, 1960, the T-36 barge with a team of four conscripts was carried away from the Kuril island of Iturup into the open ocean, to the epicenter of a powerful cyclone. Designed for coastal navigation, and not for ocean voyages, the ship dangled for 49 days at the behest of the waves, overcoming about one and a half thousand nautical miles in a drift. From the very beginning there was almost no food and water on board, but the guys resisted without losing their human form.

Half a century later, two participants in an unprecedented raid survived. Ziganshin lives in Strelna near St. Petersburg, Kryuchkovsky lives in independent Kyiv ...

It seems, Askhat Rakhimzyanovich, those forty-nine days - the main thing that happened in your life?

Maybe I would like to forget about the campaign, because they remind me all the time! Although now the attention is far from what it used to be. In 1960, not a day passed that we did not perform somewhere - at factories, at schools, institutes. They bypassed almost all the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, the Baltic, the Northern ...

Over time, I got used to speaking from the stage, everywhere I told about the same thing, I didn’t even think about it. Like reading a poem.

Will you read to me too?

I can prose for you. Previously, one still had to embellish a little, round off the details, let in pathos. Reality is not so romantic and beautiful, in life everything is more boring and banal. While drifting, there was no fear, no panic. We had no doubt that we would be saved. Although we did not think that we would spend almost two months in the ocean. If a bad thought had wandered into the head, the day would not have lived. He perfectly understood this, he did not become limp and did not give the guys, he stopped any defeatist moods. At some point, Fedotov lost heart, began to break into a cry, they say, Khan, no one is looking for and will not find us, but I quickly changed the record, transferred the conversation to another, distracted.

There were two Ukrainians in our team, a Russian and a Tatar. Everyone has their own character, demeanor, but, believe me, it never came to quarrels. I served with minders Poplavsky and Kryuchkovsky for the second year, I knew Fedotov worse, he came from training and almost immediately got to us instead of the sailor Volodya Duzhkin, who thundered into the infirmary: he swallowed carbon monoxide from a potbelly stove. At the beginning of the drift, Fedotov kept the ax under his pillow. Just in case. Maybe he feared for his life...

There were no equipped berths on Iturup. In Kasatka Bay, ships were tied to raid barrels or the mast of a sunken Japanese ship. We did not live in the village of Burevestnik, where our detachment was based, but right on the barge. It was more convenient, although you can’t really turn around on board: in the cockpit there were only four beds, a stove and a portable RBM radio station.

In December 1959, all the barges were already pulled ashore by tractors: a period of severe storms began - there was no hiding from them in the bay. And yes, there was some refurbishment. But then came the order to urgently unload the refrigerator with meat. "T-36" together with "T-97" was launched again. Our service also consisted in transferring cargoes from large ships standing on the roadstead to land. Usually there was a supply of food on the barge - biscuits, sugar, tea, stew, condensed milk, a bag of potatoes, but we were preparing for the winter and moved everything to the barracks. Although, according to the rules, it was supposed to keep NZ on board for ten days ...

Around nine in the morning, the storm intensified, the cable broke, we were carried to the rocks, but we managed to inform the command that, together with the T-97 crew, we would try to hide on the eastern side of the bay, where the wind was calmer. After that, the radio was flooded, and communication with the shore was lost. We tried to keep the second barge in sight, but in the snowfall visibility dropped to almost zero. At seven o'clock in the evening the wind suddenly changed, and we were dragged into the open ocean. Another three hours later, the minders reported that the fuel reserves in diesel engines were running out. I made the decision to throw myself ashore. It was a risky move, but there was no choice. The first attempt was unsuccessful: they collided with a rock called Devil's Hill. Miraculously, they didn’t crash, they managed to slip between the stones, although they got a hole, the water began to flood the engine room. Behind the rock, a sandy shore began, and I sent a barge to it.

We almost reached the bottom, we were already touching the bottom of the ground, but then the diesel fuel ran out, the engines died out, and we were carried into the ocean.

And if you swim?

Suicide! The water is icy, high waves, sub-zero temperatures... And they wouldn't have survived on the surface for a couple of minutes. Yes, it never crossed our minds to abandon the barge. Is it possible to squander state property?!

Anchoring with such a wind would not have been possible, and the depth did not allow. In addition, everything on the barge was iced over, the chains were frozen. In a word, there was nothing left but to look at the shore disappearing in the distance. The snow continued to fall, but in the open ocean the wave dropped a little, not so ruffled.

We didn't feel fear, no. All forces were thrown at pumping water from the engine room. With the help of a jack, they patched the hole, eliminated the leak. In the morning, when it dawned, the first thing we did was check what we had with food. A loaf of bread, some peas and millet, a bucket of potatoes smeared with fuel oil, a jar of fat. Plus a couple packs of Belomor and three boxes of matches. That's all wealth. A five-liter tank of drinking water crashed in a storm, they drank technical water, designed to cool diesel engines. She was rusty, but most importantly - fresh!

At first, we hoped that they would quickly find us. Or the wind will change, drive the barge to the shore. Nevertheless, I immediately introduced severe restrictions on food and water. Just in case. And he turned out to be right.

Under normal conditions, the commander should not stand in the galley, this is the duty of the privates, but on the second or third day Fedotov began to shout that we would die of hunger, so the guys asked me to take everything into my own hands, control the situation.

Were you more trusted than yourself?

Probably, they were calmer that way ... They ate once a day. Each got a mug of soup, which I cooked from a couple of potatoes and a spoonful of fat. I added more grits until it ran out. They drank water three times a day - a tiny glass from a shaving kit. But soon this rate had to be cut in half.

I decided on such cost-saving measures when I accidentally discovered in the cabin a piece of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, which reported that the Soviet Union would conduct missile launches in the specified region of the Pacific Ocean, therefore, for security reasons, any ships - civil and military - were forbidden to appear there until early March. . A schematic map of the region was attached to the note. The guys and I figured out by the stars and the direction of the wind and realized that ... we were drifting exactly to the epicenter of missile tests. So, there was a possibility that they would not look for us.

Is that how it happened?

Yes, as it turned out later. But we hoped for the best, we did not know that on the second day a lifebuoy from our barge and a broken coal box with tail number "T-36" were thrown onto the coast of Iturup. The wreckage was found and it was decided that we died, having flown into the rocks. The command sent telegrams to the relatives: so, they say, and so, your sons were missing.

Although, perhaps, no one thought to strain, organizing large-scale searches. Because of the unfortunate barge to cancel the launch of missiles? Successful tests for the country were much more important than the four disappeared soldiers ...

And we continued to drift. My thoughts revolved around food all the time. I began to cook soup every two days, using one potato. True, on January 27, on his birthday, Kryuchkovsky received an increased ration. But Tolya refused to eat an additional portion and drink water alone. They say that the birthday cake is shared among all the guests, so help yourself!

No matter how they tried to stretch the supplies, on February 23 the last ones ended. Such a festive dinner in honor of the Day of the Soviet Army turned out ...

You know, for all the time no one tried to steal something from the common table, snatch an extra piece. It wouldn't work, to be honest. Everything was out of the blue. Tried to eat soap, toothpaste. With hunger, everything will fit! In order not to think endlessly about grub and not go crazy, I tried to load the guys with work. At the beginning of the raid two weeks - day after day! - tried to scoop water from the hold. Fuel tanks were located under it, hope was glimmering: suddenly there was diesel fuel there and we could start the engines. In the daytime, they rattled buckets as much as they could, in the dark they did not dare to open the hatch in order to prevent depressurization of the compartment, and during the night the sea water again accumulated - the draft of the barge was a little over a meter. Sisyphean work! As a result, we got to the necks of the tanks, looked inside. Alas, no fuel was found, only a thin film on the surface. They closed everything tightly and did not meddle there anymore ...

Did you count the days?

I had a clock with a calendar. At first, even the boat log filled in: the mood of the crew, what who was doing. Then he began to write less often, because nothing new happened, they hung out somewhere in the ocean, and that's all. They saved us on March 7, and not on March 8, as we decided: they miscalculated for a day, forgetting that it is a leap year and February has 29 days.

Only on the last segment of the drift, the "roof" slowly began to move off, hallucinations began. We almost did not go out on deck, we lay in the cockpit. There is no strength left. You try to get up, and it’s like you get a blow on the forehead with a butt, blackness in your eyes. This is from physical exhaustion and weakness. Some voices were heard, extraneous sounds, the horns of ships that did not really exist.

While they could move, they tried to fish. They sharpened hooks, made primitive gear ... But the ocean raged almost without interruption, for all the time it never pecked. What fool would climb a rusty nail? And we would have eaten the jellyfish if we had pulled it out. True, then flocks of sharks began to circle around the barge. A meter and a half long. We stood and looked at them. And they are on us. Maybe they were waiting for someone to fall overboard unconscious?

By that time, we had already eaten a watch strap, a leather belt from trousers, and took up tarpaulin boots. They cut the top into pieces, boiled for a long time in ocean water, instead of firewood using fenders, car tires chained to the sides. When the kirza softened a little, they began to chew it in order to fill their stomach with at least something. Sometimes they were fried in a frying pan with technical oil. It turned out something like chips.

In a Russian folk tale, a soldier boiled porridge from an ax, and you, then, from a boot?

And where to go? Found skin under the accordion keys, small circles of chrome. Also ate. I suggested: "Let's, guys, consider this meat of the highest grade ..."

Amazingly, even indigestion did not toil. Young organisms digested everything!

There was no panic or depression until the very end. Later, the mechanic of the Queen Mary passenger ship, on which we sailed from America to Europe after the rescue, said that he found himself in a similar situation: his ship was left without communication for two weeks in a severe storm. Of the thirty crew members, several were killed. Not from hunger, but because of fear and constant fights for food and water... Are there really few cases when sailors, finding themselves in a critical situation, went crazy, threw themselves overboard, ate each other?

How did the Americans find you?

We noticed the first ship only on the fortieth day. Far away, almost on the horizon. They waved their hands, shouted - to no avail. That evening they saw a light in the distance. While a fire was being made on deck, the ship disappeared into the distance. A week later, two ships passed by - also to no avail. The last days of the drift were very unsettling. We had half a teapot of fresh water left, one shoe, and three matches. With such stocks, they would have lasted a couple of days, hardly more.

March 7 heard some noise outside. At first they decided: again hallucinations. But they couldn't start at the same time for four? With difficulty they climbed onto the deck. We look - planes are circling overhead. They threw flares on the water, marked the area. Then two helicopters appeared instead of planes. We went down low, low, it seems that you can reach it with your hand. Here we finally believed that the torment was over, help had come. We stand, hugging, supporting each other.

Pilots leaned out of the hatches, threw down rope ladders, showed signs how to climb, shouted something to us, and we were waiting for someone to go down to the barge, and I, as commander, would set my conditions: "Give food, fuel, maps, and We'll get home on our own." So they looked at each other: they - from above, we - from below. Helicopters hung, hung, ran out of fuel, they flew away. They were replaced by others. The picture is the same: the Americans are not going down, we are not going up. We look, the aircraft carrier, from which the helicopters took off, turns around and begins to move away. And helicopters follow. Maybe the Americans thought that the Russians liked to hang out in the middle of the ocean?

At this point, we really freaked out. Understood: now they will make us a pen and - bye-bye. Although even then there was no thought to abandon the barge. Let them at least take them on board! With the last of their strength, they began to give signs to the Americans, they say, they dumped the fool, don’t throw them to death, take them away. Fortunately, the aircraft carrier returned, came closer, from the captain's bridge in broken Russian they shouted to us: "Рomosh vam! Pomosh!" And again the helicopters took to the skies. This time we did not force ourselves to be persuaded. I climbed into the cradle lowered onto the deck and was the first to board the helicopter. They immediately put a cigarette in my teeth, I lit it with pleasure, which I had not done for many days. Then the guys were picked up from the barge.

On the aircraft carrier they immediately took us to feed. They poured a bowl of broth, gave bread. We took a small piece. They show: take more, do not be shy. But I immediately warned the guys: good - a little, because I knew that you can’t overeat from hunger, it ends badly. Still, he grew up in the Volga region in the post-war period ...

Probably, you still don’t leave an uneaten piece on your plate, do you choose to crumbs?

On the contrary, I am picky in tastes: I don’t eat it, I don’t want it. Let's say, I didn't like boiled vegetables - carrots, cabbage, beets... I didn't have any fear of hunger.

But I will continue the story about the first hours on an aircraft carrier. The Americans gave out clean linen, razors, and took me to the shower. As soon as I started to wash and ... collapsed unconscious. Apparently, the body worked at its limit for 49 days, and then the tension subsided, and immediately such a reaction.

I woke up three days later. The first thing I asked was what happened to the barge. The orderly who looked after us in the ship's infirmary just shrugged his shoulders. This is where my mood dropped. Yes, it's great that they are alive, but who do we have to thank for salvation? Americans! If not bitter enemies, certainly not friends. Relations between the USSR and the USA at that moment were not so hot. Cold War! In a word, for the first time ever, I frankly dreyfil. I was not so afraid on the barge as on the American aircraft carrier. I was afraid of provocations, I was afraid that they would leave us in the States, they would not be allowed to return home. And if they let him go, what will happen in Russia? Will they be accused of treason? I am a Soviet soldier, a member of the Komsomol, and suddenly fell into the jaws of the sharks of world imperialism...

To be honest, the Americans treated us exceptionally well, they even cooked dumplings with cottage cheese on purpose, which we dreamed about on the barge. A descendant of emigrants from western Ukraine served as a cook on an aircraft carrier, he knew a lot about national cuisine ... And yet, in the first days after the rescue, I seriously thought about suicide, tried on the porthole, wanted to throw myself out. Or hanging on a pipe.

Is it true that your parents were searched while you drifted?

I learned about this after 40 years! In 2000, they were invited to their native lands, to the Samara region, they arranged something like celebrations on the occasion of the anniversary of swimming. In the regional center of Shentala, after all, there is a street named after me ...

After the end of the official part, a woman came up to me and, very embarrassed, asked for forgiveness for her husband, a policeman, who, together with the special officers, roamed the attics and basements in our house in 1960. They probably thought that the guys and I deserted, sailed on a barge to Japan. And I didn’t even know about the search, my parents didn’t say anything then. All their lives they were modest people, quiet. I am the youngest in the family, I still have two sisters, they live in Tatarstan. The elder brother died long ago.

In March 1960, my relatives heard on the Voice of America that I was found, did not die and did not go missing. More precisely, not they themselves, but the neighbors came running and said, they say, they are broadcasting about your Vitka on the radio. Only my family called me Askhat, and the rest called me Victor. And on the street, and at school, and then in the army.

Newsreel filmed on the aircraft carrier "Kearsarge" in 1960.

The Americans immediately reported that they had caught four Russian soldiers in the ocean, and for a week our authorities were deciding how to react to the news, what to do with us. What if we are traitors or defectors? Only on the ninth day, March 16, in Izvestia did the article "Stronger than death" appear on the front page...

By this time we managed to give a press conference. Right on board the aircraft carrier. An interpreter who knew Russian well flew in from the Hawaiian Islands, with several dozen journalists with him. With television cameras, cameras, spotlights... And we are village guys, for us it's all wild. Maybe that's why the conversation turned out to be short. They put us in the presidium, brought ice cream to everyone. A correspondent asked if we spoke English. Poplavsky jumped up: "Thank you!" Everyone laughed. Then they asked where we come from, from what places. The guys answered, I also said, and suddenly blood gushed from my nose in a stream. Probably from excitement or overexertion. The press conference ended on that, without really starting. They took me back to the cabin, put sentries at the door so that no one would break in without asking.

True, in San Francisco, where we arrived on the ninth day, the press made up for it, accompanied me at every step. They also talked about us on American television. I had only heard about this miracle of technology before, but now I turn it on - there is a story about our salvation. We are overgrown, emaciated ... I lost almost 30 kilograms, and the guys are about the same. I remember that later they showed a "trick": three of them stood together and clasped themselves with one soldier's belt.

One year later. Gagarin's flight

They received us in the States at the highest level! The mayor of San Francisco presented the symbolic keys to the city, made him an honorary citizen. Later, in the Union, the girls pestered me for a long time with questions: "Is it true that the key is golden?" After all, you won’t begin to explain: no, wooden, covered with golden paint ... At the embassy they gave us one hundred dollars for pocket expenses. I collected gifts for my mother, father, sisters. He didn't take anything. They took them to a fashion store and dressed them up: they bought everyone a coat, a suit, a hat, a tie. True, I didn’t dare to walk at home in tight trousers and pointed shoes, I didn’t like that they began to call me a dude. I gave the trousers to my brother Misha, and the boots to Kryuchkovsky. He sent it to his family. They also gave us bright underpants with cowboys. Now I would easily wear it, but then I was wildly shy. Slowly shoved it behind the radiator so that no one would see.

On the way from San Francisco to New York, everyone was given a scale of whiskey on the plane. I didn’t drink, I brought it home, I gave it to my brother. By the way, there was a funny episode on the aircraft carrier when the translator brought us two bottles of Russian vodka. Says: at your request. We were very surprised, and then laughed. Apparently, the owners mixed up water and vodka...

Did you offer to stay overseas?

We asked carefully if we were afraid to return. They say, if you want, we will provide asylum, we will create conditions. We categorically refused. God forbid! Soviet patriotic education. Until now, I do not regret that I was not tempted by any proposals. There is only one motherland, I do not need another. Then they said about us: these four became famous not because they ate an accordion, but because they did not stay in the States.

In Moscow, in the early days, I was afraid that they would be taken to the Lubyanka, hidden in Butyrka, and tortured. But they didn't call us to the KGB, they didn't arrange interrogations, on the contrary, they met us at the gangway of the plane with flowers. It seems that they even wanted to give the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union, but everything was limited to the Orders of the Red Star. We were happy with that too.

Have you been abroad then?

In Bulgaria. Twice. I went to Varna to visit a friend, he lived with his wife. But this is much later. And then, in the 60s, we started a fun life. When we arrived in Moscow, we were given a program: at nine in the morning to be at the Radio House, at eleven in the morning - on television in Shabolovka, at two o'clock - a meeting with the pioneers on the Lenin Hills ... I remember driving around the city, and along the streets - posters: "Glory to the brave sons of our Motherland!" In the morning at the CDSA hotel they got into the sent car, in the evening they returned to their rooms. No instruction on what to talk about. Everyone said what they wanted.

We were received by Defense Minister Marshal Malinovsky. He gave everyone a navigator's watch ("So that they don't get lost again"), awarded me the rank of senior sergeant, gave everyone a two-week vacation home. We stayed at home, met in Moscow and went to the Crimea, to a military sanatorium in Gurzuf. Everything is first class again! There, generals and admirals rested - and suddenly we, soldiers! Rooms with a view of the Black Sea, enhanced meals ... True, it did not work out to sunbathe. As soon as you undress, tourists from all sides run with cameras. They ask for a picture and an autograph. Already hiding from people began ...

In Gurzuf, we were offered to enter the Navy School in Lomonosov near Leningrad. Everyone except Fedotov agreed.

Fear of the sea did not arise after a month and a half drift?

Absolutely none! Another worried: we had 7-8 classes of education, we ourselves would not have passed the entrance exams. For a month we studied the Russian language and mathematics with the attached teachers, filled in some gaps in knowledge, and yet the enrollment took place in a preferential mode. The political department got busy... And then, frankly speaking, we studied so-so. "Tails" happened, tests were not passed the first time. After all, we went to classes in between performances. I even managed to be a delegate to the congress of the Komsomol.

How long did round dances take place around you?

Consider, before the flight of Yuri Gagarin, we made noise, and then the country and the whole world had a new hero. Of course, we could not come close to his glory. They didn't even try.

Have you met astronaut number one?

Once we had lunch together. But this cannot be considered an acquaintance. True, in the then fashionable children's counting rhyme, our names stood side by side:

"Yuri Gagarin.
Ziganshin is a Tatar.
German Titov.
Nikita Khrushchev".

A feature film was made about our four, Vladimir Vysotsky wrote a song for it.

There was a moment when he began to drink heavily. Taught. How are we? Every meeting ends with a feast. And called often. First my performance, then the banquet. And you can’t refuse people, they are offended ... But in the last 20 years I haven’t taken a drop of alcohol in my mouth. I don't even drink beer. Thank you medicine for helping me.

55 years later. Honorable Sir

You say: those 49 days are the main event of life. Yes, the episode is bright, you can not argue with that. But some people don't have that. People die, as they say, without being born. And they themselves have nothing to remember, and no one knows them.

And our four, whatever one may say, even after that drift lived with dignity. Fate, of course, abandoned, but did not break. From March 1964 to May 2005 I plied the waters of the Gulf of Finland. Forty-one years he served in one place. In the rescue division of the Leningrad naval base. As they say, in thirty-minute readiness. The court, however, changed. First he worked with firefighters, then with divers. There were many different stories. I went to Moscow for the parade in honor of the Navy Day four times. Eleven days we walked along the rivers and canals, we rehearsed for a month to give a stream of water a hundred meters high in front of the VIP spectators. From the Northern Fleet, a combat submarine was specially dragged to the parade! However, that's for another story...

Fedotov served in the river fleet, sailed along the Amur. By the way, Ivan found out that his son was born when an American aircraft carrier picked us up. Returning to Moscow and having received a vacation, he immediately rushed to the Far East to his family ...

Poplavsky, after graduating from college in Lomonosov, did not go anywhere, and settled there forever. Participated in expeditions in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic, conducted surveillance of spacecraft. He, like Fedotov, unfortunately, has already died. We remained with Kryuchkovsky. Tolya, after studying, asked to join the Northern Fleet, but did not stay there for long - his wife fell ill and he moved to his native Ukraine, to Kyiv. He worked all his life at the Leninskaya Kuznitsa shipyard. The last time we saw each other was in 2007. We flew to Sakhalin. They gave us such a gift - they invited us. Stayed for a week.

Was it stormy again?

Not that word! According to the program, a flight to the Kuriles was planned, but the Iturup airfield did not receive it for three days. The pilots were almost persuaded, but at the last moment they refused, they say, we are not suicidal. The Japanese built a strip on Iturup for kamikaze: it was important for them to take off, they did not think about landing ...

So I never had a chance to visit the places where we served. Now let's not get out. There is no health, and there is no one to pay for the road. Kryuchkovsky suffered a stroke at the end of last year, was in the hospital for a long time, I also work for a pharmacy, chronic sores divorced without count. Although he survived until the age of 70, he almost did not get sick. There is not enough pension, I am a watchman at the boat station, I guard private yachts and boats. I live with my daughter and grandson Dima. He buried his wife Raya seven years ago. We sometimes call Kryuchkovsky on the phone, we exchange old man's news.

Are you talking about politics?

I don't like this. Yes, and what to discuss? There was one country that was destroyed. Now there is a war in Ukraine... Someday it will end, but I'm afraid we won't live to see it.

Are you an honorary citizen of the city?

Yes, not only San Francisco... In 2010 they were elected. First Vladimir Putin, then me. Certificate No. 2 was issued. True, the title is literally honorary, it does not imply any benefits. Even to pay utility bills. But I'm not complaining. For the fiftieth anniversary of the drift, they gave me a refrigerator. Imported big...

P.S. I keep thinking about your question about the main event of life. Honestly, it would be better if they were not there, those forty-nine days. In every way, it's better. If we hadn’t been swept out to sea then, after the service I would have returned to my native Shentala and continued to work as a tractor driver. It was that storm that made a sailor out of me, turned my whole life upside down ...

On the other hand, what would we talk about today? Yes, and you would not come to me. No, it's stupid to be sorry.

Where it went, there, as they say, it went...

In 1960, the song "About Four Heroes" appeared. Music: A. Pakhmutova Lyrics: S. Grebennikov, N. Dobronravov. This song, performed by Konstantin Ryabinov, Yegor Letov and Oleg Sudakov, was included in the album "At Soviet Speed" - the first magnetic album of the Soviet underground project "Communism".

Ziganshin boogie, Ziganshin rock,

Ziganshin ate the second boot,

And Poplavsky gnaws at the boards,

Kryuchkovsky helped him ...

In the early 60s, in Irkutsk, and probably throughout the country, all schoolchildren and students sang this song ...

On the morning of January 17, 1960, during a hurricane, a self-propelled barge was torn off the cables, anchored off one of the islands of the Kuril ridge. The barge was swept away by a storm into one of the most turbulent areas of the Pacific Ocean. There were four Soviet soldiers on the barge: junior sergeant Askhat Rakhimzyanovich Ziganshin, privates Filipp Grigorievich Poplavsky, Anatoly Fedorovich Kryuchkovsky and Ivan Efimovich Fedotov.

The radio station went bad, the motors stopped. Of the food supplies on the barge, there was only an emergency ration for two days and two buckets of potatoes. On the sixteenth day, canned food ran out, and at the end of February all food supplies ran out. And then the soldiers began to cook leather belts and soles from boots, which they then cut into thin strips and ate ... Only on March 7, 1960, at 4 pm, all four were picked up by the crew of an American aircraft carrier. During the 49-day drift, each lost 20-25 kilograms of weight. It was a unique drift in the ocean in terms of duration and such difficult conditions.

Askhat Ziganshin

Anatoly Kryuchkovsky

Philip Poplavsky

Ivan Fedotov

Everyone knew about this feat of the four Soviet soldiers in those years. Later, Andrei Orlov wrote the book "Barge T-36. Fifty Days of Deadly Drift", a film was made, and Vladimir Vysotsky made a song ...

The T-36 barge was anchored near Iturup Island and served as a staging post for unloading ships that could not land on the shore due to shallow water and pitfalls. It was a small vessel, flat-bottomed, river type, with a displacement of one hundred tons, the length of which along the waterline was 17 meters, a width of three and a half meters, and a draft of just over a meter. The maximum barge speed was 9 knots, and the T-36 could move away from the coast without being at risk by no more than 300 meters.

No one warned the crew of the impending typhoon. At nine o'clock in the morningbarge"T-36" hit by a hurricane. The wind reached 60 meters per second. A blow to the cabin of one of the multi-meter waves, the radio station was torn down and broken. Soon the cables holding it in place snapped. The guys tried to taxi ashore, but because of the huge waves it did not succeed. The fight against the hurricane continued until the evening and by 20 o'clock, having received a small hole, the barge was carried out into the open ocean.

The next day, soldiers from the frontier post combed the nearby area, except for a barrel of drinking water and a piece of plating with the inscription T-36, nothing could be found. There were no searches, four of the crew were declared dead, about which letters were sent to relatives. The reason for such a hasty decision was a highly classified operation, behind a quite ordinary test of ballistic missiles in this region of the Pacific Ocean, there was a test launch of an M-7 combat missile capable of carrying a nuclear charge.

Rocket M-7

In the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda", found in the cabin of the barge, the guys read that the area in which they were declared closed for navigation until the second half of February. They realized that there was nowhere to wait for help. But this bad news mobilized them and after checking all the meager supplies they found, they began to save everything from the very beginning.

The agonizing weeks of drifting dragged on. For the whole of February, four people had about five kilograms of potatoes with machine oil. Saved water, or rather rusty slurry, which they guessed to pump out of the cooling system. A month laterdriftvesselcaptured by a warm ocean current.Bargemelted and leaked. She was followed relentlessly by sharks, as if they felt that those in distress were doomed, but the people on board were fighting for their lives. The team ate the last potato on February 24th. People still had belts that had to be put on noodles, cut into thin strips. Tarpaulin boots were also used, of which only the leather parts were edible. "Food" was cooked in ocean water. Later, an accordion, toothpaste and even soap were used. They slept on one wide bed, which they themselves had built - cuddling up to each other, taking care of the warmth.

On March 2, 1960, on the forty-fifth day of the drift, the ship's crew saw the ship passing by for the first time. But it passed at a very great distance and did not notice the wandering barge. On March 6, the crew of the drifting ship again saw the ship, but they did not provide any help, since again they did not see the barge. People are already very weak.

On the 49th day of drifting on a small boat, nothing but skin and soap had been eaten for the twelfth day. Forces were running out. The soldiers decided to write a suicide note with names, but suddenly they heard the sound of a helicopter. The prisoners on the barge had gotten used to the hallucinations, but the sound was growing. With the last of their strength, the "captives" crawled out of the hold onto the deck.

US Navy aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge en route from Japan to California. At four o'clock in the evening a helicopter took off from its deck. Soon the pilot reported to the captain that at 115 miles he noticed an unmanned vessel on which there were four people in Soviet military uniforms. By all indications, they are in distress. The captain turned the ship towards the barge. The exhausted sailors were taken aboard the aircraft carrier and fed immediately, but in small portions. The rescued were so exhausted that they could not even move on their own.

The ship's medics found that all four had only a day to live on the barge. They have practically no stomachs left. American sailors wondered where the guys found strength, and how they guessed to immediately refuse food supplements. Under the supervision of doctors, the rescued quickly went on the mend. The ship's commander came to them every morning to find out how they were feeling.

Philip Poplavsky (left) and Askhat Ziganshin (center) talk to an American sailor (right) on the aircraft carrier Kearsarge, who took them on board after a long drift on a barge.

A week later, when the barge crew could already move independently, a press conference was organized on board the aircraft carrier. Soviet journalists were not allowed to see it. The US government offered political asylum, but commander Askhat Ziganshin replied that he was not afraid to return to his homeland. After the conference, each of the reporters wanted to be photographed with Soviet heroes. The next day, the four rescued were received by the Soviet consulate in San Francisco. The soldiers were read a greeting telegram from N. S. Khrushchev. He thanked the crew of the T-36 barge for their heroic behavior during the 49-day drift in the Pacific Ocean. In the Soviet Union, the Pravda newspaper casually reported on the feat of Soviet soldiers in the ocean, and America honored them as heroes. TV news commentators reported that in similar situations, other unprepared wanderers fought over a piece of bread and died.

The funny thing is that my grandfather once told me this bike. But I was too small, and therefore stupidly did not remember anything plainly. And here, on a completely different request, an interview with one of the Robinsons pops up. Fairy tale, right? :-) That's why I'm sharing that it's a fairy tale. Good things need to be shared. :-)
Well, here it is:

Askhat Ziganshin, Ivan Fedotov, Anton Kryuchkovsky, Philip Poplavsky. Tatar, Russian and two Ukrainians. Now these names are remembered only by those who are over forty, and in the sixties in the USSR they thundered no less than Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starr in England. March 12, 1960\"Izvestia \" marked the beginning of the brightest Soviet myth-the myth of 49 days, which alone with the elements spent four Soviet soldiers carried on a barge into the raging Pacific Ocean. The myth of the resilience of the Soviet character and the eaten boots of Ziganshin. Within a couple of weeks after the rescue of the crew by American pilots from the aircraft carrier\"Kearsarge\", the entire Country of Soviets hummed to the tune of\"Rock and roll around the clock\" by Bill Haley:\"Ziganshin boogie! Ziganshin rock! Ziganshin ate someone else's boot "Poplavsky-rock! Poplavsky-boogie! Poplavsky ate a letter from his girlfriend!\"

Poplavsky, Fedotov, Kryuchkovsky and Ziganshin Askhat Rakhimzyanovich - this magnificent four in the sixtieth year was more popular in the USSR than the Beatles. In archival photographs, they even somewhat resemble their Liverpool peers. But they had only one hit, and everyone sang it, except for themselves. "Ziganshin boogie! Ziganshin rock! Ziganshin ate the second boot. Poplavsky rock! Poplavsky-boogie! Poplavsky ate a letter from a friend. They are also somewhat reminiscent of the heroes of the show "Behind the Glass". Four ordinary guys were at the right time in the right place. The only difference is that this place was a ship carried away from the Kuril pier into the stormy Pacific Ocean, and this time - 49 days on rainwater and boots fried with technical petroleum jelly. And if it weren’t for the American aircraft carrier, instead of Ziganshin-boogie, the whole world would have been at best “Up you, comrades! Everything is in place!” Having such a monstrous gastronomic experience behind him, 62-year-old Petersburger Askhat Ziganshin travels every day to work from Strelna to Lomonosov, does not have a disability, and most importantly, he did not realize how serious a mark he left on Soviet history and culture and what opportunities missed. Everything happened by itself. For some reason. Maybe Ziganshin is the Soviet Forrest Gump?

And sometimes it seems to me that there was nothing, - Askhat smiles. “I don't feel any side effects. Neither in health, nor in material terms - none. And thank God. But sometimes they do remind me. Here in the winter they invited me to my homeland, I myself am from the Samara region of the Shentalinsky district. There they prepared for three months, met with the orchestra, showed the street named after me, read poems. These, it seems.

Days float, weeks float, / The ship carries on the waves. / The boots have already been eaten in the soup / And with an accordion in half, - I read on a newspaper sheet.

That's how long I've been living, I can't understand - who first invented this harmonica? Everywhere she is mentioned. Allegedly, at first we played on it, dispersed sad thoughts, and then we had to eat it. They ate the music. Write that there was no harmonica. And we didn't sing anything. They talked.

About food, of course. About ours on the shore. We tried to follow their schedule.

Dinner is in jail now. Pasta.

Yes sir. In order not to lose a sense of reality and so that stupid thoughts do not go into my head.

About cannibalism?

Well, why necessarily about cannibalism? Still, at the time of the rescue, we still had half a teapot of fresh water and one boot. On my leg. Just insured against a nervous breakdown. They were afraid to go crazy. At some point, Fedotov lost heart for a while, but he can be forgiven, he only came back from school two weeks ago. And the rest kept their cool.

Why did you even climb on the barge in this weather? The rising generation of postmodern cynics suspects that they hid from the commander in order to grab a hundred grams, and then you were covered by a cyclone.

Yes, we lived on this barge! Although I still don't understand why. After all, we served in the construction battalion. But it was like this: for some reason, the sailors lived in barracks on the shore and rode horses in vests, and we were on a barge. When the ship approached, we unloaded it through this barge. And tore us from the shore constantly. Therefore, at that time, at first we were not even afraid. The situation has been worked out: we turn on the diesel engine and come back. But that day the wind was too much - up to 80 meters per second. There was enough fuel for an hour, but during this hour we did not manage to land on the shore. On the last liters, we tried to throw ourselves on the sand - it's dangerous, but there was no other way out. Together with us, another barge was torn off, so they managed to jump out. But we don't. They hit the rocks. They got a hole, a barrel of fresh water turned over, and a chest with coal flew overboard. Its wreckage was later found on the shore and it was decided that we had sunk. That's why they didn't look for us.

What about the hole

The hole was patched up, the mattresses on the still hot diesel engines were dried. We counted the food supplies - a loaf of bread, a can of fat, cereals in jars and a bucket of three potatoes. We were supposed to be given another ration that day. The potatoes, by the way, as luck would have it, during the chatter scattered around the engine room. Of course, we collected it, but it was soaked with fuel oil. At first they thought - it is impossible to eat, but hunger is not an aunt. And rain water was used, but if there was no rain, it was drained from the diesel cooling system. She, of course, was rusty, but fresh. For 49 days we drank 120 liters of it.

And how many of these stocks were enough?

For 37 days. Then we tried the watch strap. Then a trouser belt. We were just the last appeal to whom we gave out genuine leather belts. Then they switched to artificial ones. And when they ate the belts, they took up the boots.

Who cooked?

I cooked. You take your boots. Rip out the sole. The rest is boiled in water. We heated the stove with tires that hung on the sides. Boil several times until the water stops turning black. And then you cut the boot into small slices, like pasta, and fry it in a pan with industrial oil, and instead of salt, ocean water. It turns out something like chips. If eaten on an empty stomach, it won't pass.

How did you navigate? Did you even know where you were going?

There was no management. Carried downstream. In the first days, we found the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper in the cabin, where there was a conditional map of this area. As on a pack of "Belomor". It was an illustration for a note that in the coming days a Soviet rocket would be fired somewhere here. We immediately realized that in the near future they would not look for us. But just in case, round-the-clock duty was organized in the wheelhouse. On the 39th day in the dark we saw the ship - such a fire was lit on the deck, but we were not noticed. On the 48th day, two ships passed by us - also to no avail. This last day was the most disturbing. We only have three matches left. I unscrewed the glass from the radio so that they could make fire. But, thank God, it didn't work. I hear some noise in the morning. I go out on deck, and the planes are circling above us. They began to throw orange rockets for some reason. Then there were helicopters. I immediately wrote it down in the ship's log. It's a pity, I forgot it there, in the wheelhouse. Then the helicopter pilots dropped ropes with carbines for us: we would not have climbed the ladders ourselves. And what do you think? They hang, waiting for us to grab them with tears in our eyes, and we stand and look at them.

Russians don't give up?

Something like that. They shout: “Help you! Help you!” We had a distress flag hanging on the flagpole, with three red stripes - it was only later that a red banner was painted on all the pictures. They scream, and we are waiting for one of them to come down to the deck, and we will set our own conditions: “Give us food, fuel, and we will get to the house ourselves.” Some helicopters hovered, the fuel ran out - they flew away. Others have arrived. We look - a huge ship appeared on the horizon, an aircraft carrier. When these helicopters also ran out of fuel, they disappeared along with the ship. And this is where we got really scared. So, when a couple of hours later the ship came close to us, we no longer drove the fool. I was the first to climb in, although later all the newspapers wrote that the foreman of the barge, Ziganshin, left the ship last. We were immediately changed, and our rags were instantly torn into souvenirs - the buttons were torn off, without even waiting for us to undress. Then they gave me food. The Americans were very surprised when I ate just a little bit. They never went hungry, so they didn't know that in such situations you can't do too much at once. This happened to me as a child during the war. Then into the shower. In the shower, I only smeared my face to shave, and lost consciousness. I woke up in the infirmary. And here, after 49 days of this suffering, such a reprieve began. There was some kind of bell next to me, I pressed it - everyone around me ran. The beauty. The translator flew in specially from the Hawaiian Islands. Movies or concerts were shown every evening, every morning the commander of the aircraft carrier visited. I ask him: “Why didn’t you immediately come close to us?” “And we,” he says, “were afraid of you.” Their boatswain, an emigrant from Hohland, treated us to dumplings. Kryuchkovsky became especially friendly with him. For three days I just couldn’t think about anything, I just got high.

And when I came to my senses, it hit me in the head: “Honest mother! How did I forget? We're on an American aircraft carrier. On the enemy! How will the Motherland take it? What if we are already traitors? Such fear attacked us - horror. And then Boris Strelnikov from Pravda called: "The entire Soviet people is waiting for your return to their homeland." And slightly lowering his voice: “They are there, on the aircraft carrier, they are going to arrange your press conference, so you look, don’t blurt out too much.” This is where we panicked even more. On the day when the press conference was to be held, planes with journalists landed one by one. 50 people arrived. From all sides - click-click, click-click. But in the hall, the reporters managed to ask us only one question: “Do you speak English?” Poplavsky suddenly jumps up: “Funk yu!” Then my nose bled from overexertion, and the press conference ended.

Did they try to recruit you?

Spies, no. It was even kind of weird. And they offered money. When my nose stopped bleeding, a journalist from Life magazine came: “We are buying your story. As you want?" “Not at all,” I say, “we don’t want to. We don't sell anything, I say. He barely had time to ask: “Maybe you do not want to return to your homeland. America can grant you political asylum." “God forbid,” I say. “We want to go home, to the Land of the Soviets.” And the military did not ask any questions at all. We were probably not interested in them. They probably already knew everything. And then I had no problems with the KGB either. Except for the fact that while we were sailing on the sea, my parents in Shental were searched. But then the opera themselves apologized to my father: “Forgive me, Rakhimzyan-babai, this is such a job.”

So how did America meet you?

Met nothing. I saw TV there for the first time in my life. True, we were in America for a short time and more and more on the territory of the Soviet embassy. There we were given $100 each, I bought a flashlight, a set of perfumes and a set of fountain pens with them. But on the way they were stolen from me in one of the luggage compartments. The Americans presented the key to San Francisco - they only gave it to Ulanova, Khrushchev, and here we are. Another bottle of whiskey was given, I don’t remember who and where. But we brought them to Moscow. Abroad, we did not drink anything at all. They were afraid to do something wrong, to disgrace the Motherland. We were taken to France by ship - the doctor forbade us to fly by plane. In Paris, for some reason, the French handed over a red railway banner. I held it, then it disappeared somewhere. Like everything else. And in Moscow, General of the Army Golikov met us. He gave everyone the Order of the Red Star and a huge list of visits - from the House of Pioneers to Defense Minister Malinovsky.

They gave 12 performances a day. Then there was a month-long vacation in Gurzuf. There, the military prosecutor became friends with us, I don’t remember our last names. Maybe he was specially assigned to us, but a good man, we were friends with him later. It was he who advised me to enter the naval school and wrote a letter. And then we went to the Far East, to visit our unit. There we finally managed to thump like a human being.

Teachers were assigned to us in order to prepare for admission, and they drank with them. Especially after they read in Komsomolskaya Pravda that we were actually already enrolled in the first year.

And what didn’t thump in the south?

Yes, there were also journalists everywhere. And the people were staring. There I first heard "Ziganshin-boogie". “Ziganshin-rock, Ziganshin-boogie. Ziganshin third day in the south. And after the Kuriles, we still rested in some sanatorium, it seems, near Kuibyshev. And there the head of the sanatorium began to embarrass me: “Why do you need this school, do you want to work as a mechanic all your life? Stay here. All doors will be open to you." I told him: "Yes," Komsomolskaya Pravda "has already written, somehow uncomfortable to back down." He then took me to some professors, they - bam, a certificate: "Not fit to study." “Go there,” this boss tells me, “show this certificate and come back.” I’m going, and I myself think: “Is this why I’m not fit to study?” I come, I go to the rector, and he is talking on the phone with someone: “He just drove up,” he says into the phone and calls me. And at the other end again journalists: “Well, how did you arrive? Everything is fine?" “It's all right,” I say. - I promise to study for five. Well, it was too late to retreat after that. And then this boss wrote for a long time, calling to him. And when I got married, I stopped writing. I understand that he had views of me for his daughter.

And what, it would be very good of you to make a decent game.

There were opportunities. Three bags of letters came in a day, two of them from young ladies. But I decided - but in spite of fate I will marry one who has not a penny for her soul. And he got married.

Well, at least the housing issue was resolved for you?

Decided. In 1991. For the first 7 years we lived in a room. Then my ex-commander got in touch - they gave me a corner kopeck piece. When my daughter got married, seven of us lived in her. And 10 years ago we were given this apartment, and that one was left to our daughters.

How did the rest of the crew get along?

Of these, only Kryuchkovsky is now alive. Lives in Kyiv. Fedotov died a year ago in Khabarovsk, and Poplavsky - here, in Lomonosov, he worked with me in the rescue squad. Kryuchkovsky married the daughter of a general. At first, many thought that by calculation, but now no one has any doubts that it was out of love. Because at the very first birth she was stricken with paralysis, and he has been suffering with her for forty years, but does not leave her.

What do you do in this squad?

All the equipment there is based on me. Across the fence from us is the same expeditionary and rescue detachment that was engaged in the Kursk. And we are more and more along the Gulf of Finland. Our work is basically the same. In winter, when all the ships are frozen in the ice, whips from them screw everything that is sold. And kingstones are especially well sold. In the spring, these ships, of course, go under water. The owners contact us. Our divers find these vessels at the bottom, plug all the holes with anything, pump out the water, and the vessels float up. But most often, the owners do not repair them in time, and they sink again.

That is, everything is in order, Askhat Rakhimzyanovich?!

Could not be better!

1960s (well, this text had a lot of variations, so the sound and letters will not partially match):

Like the Pacific
Sinking barge with dudes
Dudes don't get discouraged
Rock on the deck they throw

Ziganshin rock, Ziganshin boogie
Ziganshin - a guy from Kaluga
Ziganshin boogie, Ziganshin rock
Ziganshin ate someone else's boot

Poplavsky-rock, Poplavsky-boogie
Poplavsky ate a letter from a friend
While Poplavsky brushed his teeth
Ziganshin ate the second boot

While Ziganshin rock was throwing
Accordion Fedotov finished eating
While Poplavsky bared his teeth
Ziganshin ate his sandals...

Moscow, Kaluga, Los Angeles
Merged into one collective farm.
Ziganshin boogie, Ziganshin rock
Ziganshin ate his boot.

“Back in 1960, on the distant island of Iturup, one of the disputed islands of the Kuril chain, four boys served: Askhat Ziganshin, Ivan Fedotov, Anatoly Kryuchkovsky and Philip Poplavsky. Four soldiers met the morning of January 17 on board the T-36 self-propelled barge.

At 9 o'clock in the morning local time, the ship was torn off the mooring by a hurricane wind reaching a speed of 60 m/s. The crew struggled with the elements for ten hours; at about 7 pm the minders reported that the barge was running out of fuel. Ziganshin offered to throw himself ashore, but none of the three attempts gave any result; one of these attempts led to the fact that the barge received a hole.

The waves reached a height of 15 meters; one of these waves, which hit the wheelhouse of the barge, disabled the radio station. At about 22:00, the barge, deprived of its course, was washed out into the open ocean.

It so happened that the guys were not particularly looking for, believing that they had died. For 49 days they drifted in the absence of food and water. People lost up to 800 grams per day in weight - Ziganshin, who previously weighed 70 kg, lost up to 40.

In the most difficult conditions, the soldiers were able not only to survive, but also to preserve human dignity.

On March 7, emaciated and exhausted people were picked up by the American aircraft carrier Kirserge, 1930 km from Wake Atoll. The aircraft carrier delivered troops to San Francisco. The Governor of San Francisco presented the heroes with a symbolic key to the city. Then the servicemen were sent to New York, where they met with representatives of the Soviet embassy and rested at their dacha for a week. From New York they sailed on the Queen Mary to Europe. From Europe, the participants of the drift, already in military uniform, were taken to Moscow, and then, after a medical examination, they were returned to their unit. Thus, the heroes made a round-the-world trip.

An early song by V. S. Vysotsky “Forty-nine Days” (1960) is dedicated to the crew of the barge.

In 1962, the feature film "49 Days" was shot. Directed by Heinrich Gabay.

In 2005, a documentary film “They might not have been saved. Prisoners of the Kuril Square "".

In the 60s, a folkloric reworking of boogie-woogie appeared: “Ziganshin boogie, Ziganshin rock, Ziganshin ate a raw boot ...” (there are several options)”.

P.S. And in the photo (which is small, on the main page) -