Why they were deprived of the title "Hero of the Soviet Union": high-profile cases that went down in history. Heroes under the tribunal: why they were deprived of the most honorary title in Russia and the USSR (9 photos)

In history, it is often not the names of heroes that remain, but the names of traitors and defectors. These people cause great harm to one side, and benefit to the other. But still, they are despised by both. Naturally, one cannot do without confusing cases when a person's guilt is difficult to prove. However, history has preserved some of the most obvious and classic cases that are not in doubt. We will tell below about the most famous traitors in history.

Judas Iscariot. The name of this man has been a symbol of betrayal for about two thousand years. It does not play a role and nationalities of people. Everyone knows the biblical story when Judas Iscariot betrayed his teacher Christ for thirty pieces of silver, dooming him to torment. But then 1 slave cost twice as much! The kiss of Judas has become a classic image of duplicity, meanness and betrayal. This man was one of the twelve apostles who were present with Jesus at his last supper. There were thirteen people, and after that this number was considered unlucky. There was even a phobia, fear of this number. The story says that Judas was born on April 1, also on a rather unusual day. But the history of the traitor is rather obscure and full of pitfalls. The fact is that Judas was the custodian of the fund of the community of Jesus and his disciples. There was much more money than 30 pieces of silver. Thus, in need of money, Judas could simply steal it without committing a betrayal of his teacher. Not so long ago, the world learned about the existence of the "Gospel of Judas", where Iscariot is depicted as the only and faithful disciple of Christ. And the betrayal was committed precisely on the orders of Jesus, and Judas took responsibility for his action. According to legend, Iscariot committed suicide immediately after his act. The image of this traitor is repeatedly described in books, films, legends. Different versions of his betrayal and motivation are considered. Today, the name of this person is given to those who are suspected of treason. For example, Lenin called Trotsky Judas back in 1911. The same found in Iscariot his "plus" - the fight against Christianity. Trotsky even wanted to erect monuments to Judas in several cities of the country.

Mark Junius Brutus. Everyone knows the legendary phrase of Julius Caesar: "And you, Brutus?". This traitor is not as widely known as Judas, but is also legendary. Moreover, he committed his betrayal 77 years before the history of Iscariot. These two traitors are related by the fact that they both committed suicide. Mark Brutus was the best friend of Julius Caesar, according to some data it could even be his illegitimate son. However, it was he who led the conspiracy against the popular politician, taking a direct part in his murder. But Caesar showered his favorite with honors and titles, endowing him with power. But the entourage of Brutus forced him to participate in a conspiracy against the dictator. Mark was among several conspiring senators who pierced Caesar with swords. Seeing Brutus in their ranks, he bitterly exclaimed his famous phrase, which became his last. Wishing happiness for the people and power, Brutus made a mistake in his plans - Rome did not support him. After a series of civil wars and defeats, Mark realized that he was left without everything - without family, power, friend. The betrayal and murder took place in 44 BC, and after only two years Brutus threw himself on his sword.

Wang Jingwei. This traitor is not so well known in our country, but he has a bad reputation in China. It is often not clear how ordinary and normal people suddenly become traitors. Wang Jingwei was born in 1883, when he was 21, he entered a Japanese university. There he met Sun Yat Sen, a famous revolutionary from China. He influenced the young man so much that he became a real revolutionary fanatic. Together with Sen, Jingwei became a regular participant in anti-government revolutionary uprisings. Not surprisingly, he soon ended up in prison. Wang served several years there, releasing us in 1911. All this time, Sen kept in touch with him, morally supporting and patronizing. As a result of the revolutionary struggle, Sen and his associates won and came to power in 1920. But in 1925, Sun Yat died, and it was Jingwei who replaced him as leader of China. But soon the Japanese invaded the country. It was here that Jingway committed the real betrayal. In fact, he did not fight for the independence of China, giving it to the invaders. National interests were trampled in favor of the Japanese. As a result, when the crisis broke out in China, and the country most of all needed an experienced manager, Jingwei simply left it. Wang clearly joined the conquerors. However, he did not have time to feel the bitterness of defeat, since he died before the fall of Japan. But the name of Wang Jingwei got into all Chinese textbooks as a synonym for betrayal of his country.

Hetman Mazepa. This man in modern Russian history is considered the most important traitor, even the church anathematized him. But in recent Ukrainian history, the hetman, on the contrary, acts as a national hero. So what was his betrayal, or was it still a feat? The Hetman of the Zaporizhian Army for a long time acted as one of the most faithful allies of Peter I, helping him in the Azov campaigns. However, everything changed when the Swedish king Charles XII came out against the Russian Tsar. He, wanting to find an ally, promised Mazepa Ukrainian independence in case of victory in the Northern War. The hetman could not resist such a tasty piece of the pie. In 1708, he went over to the side of the Swedes, but just a year later their combined army was defeated near Poltava. For his betrayal (Mazepa swore allegiance to Peter), the Russian Empire deprived him of all awards and titles and subjected him to civil execution. Mazepa fled to Bender, which then belonged to the Ottoman Empire, and soon died there in 1709. According to legend, his death was terrible - he was eaten by lice.

Aldrich Ames. This high-ranking CIA officer had a brilliant career. Everyone predicted him a long and successful job, and then a well-paid pension. But his life turned upside down, thanks to love. Ames married a Russian beauty, it turned out that she was a KGB agent. The woman immediately began to demand from her husband to provide her with a beautiful life in order to fully comply with the American dream. Although the officers in the CIA make good money, this is not enough for the constantly required new decorations and cars. As a result, the unfortunate Ames began to drink too much. Under the influence of alcohol, he had no choice but to start selling secrets from his work. They quickly showed up a buyer - the USSR. As a result, during his betrayal, Ames gave the enemy of his country information about all the secret agents working in the Soviet Union. The USSR also learned about a hundred covert military operations conducted by the Americans. For this, the officer received about 4.6 million US dollars. However, all the secret someday becomes clear. Ames was exposed and sentenced to life in prison. The special services experienced a real shock and scandal, the traitor became their biggest failure in their entire existence. The CIA has long moved away from the harm that one single person did to it. But he just needed funds for an insatiable wife. That one, by the way, when everything turned out, was simply deported to South America.

Vidkun Quisling. The family of this man was one of the most ancient in Norway, his father served as a Lutheran priest. Vidkun himself studied very well and chose a military career. Having risen to the rank of major, Quisling was able to enter the government of his country, holding the post of Minister of Defense there from 1931 to 1933. In 1933, Vidkun founded his own political party "National Accord", where he received a membership card for the first number. He began to call himself Föhrer, which was very reminiscent of the Fuhrer. In 1936, the party collected quite a lot of votes in the elections, becoming very influential in the country. When the Nazis came to Norway in 1940, Quisling suggested that the locals submit to them and not resist. Although the politician himself was from an ancient respected family, he was immediately dubbed a traitor in the country. The Norwegians themselves began to wage a fierce struggle against the invaders. Then Quisling came up with a plan in response to the removal of Jews from Norway, sending them directly to the deadly Auschwitz. However, history has rewarded the politician who betrayed his people as he deserved. On May 9, 1945, Quisling was arrested. While in prison, he still managed to declare that he was a martyr and sought to create a great country. But justice decided otherwise, and on October 24, 1945, Quisling was shot for high treason.

Prince Andrei Mikhailovich Kurbsky. This boyar was one of the most faithful associates of Ivan the Terrible. It was Kurbsky who commanded the Russian army in the Livonian War. But with the beginning of the oprichnina of the eccentric tsar, many hitherto loyal boyars fell under disgrace. Among them was Kurbsky. Fearing for his fate, he abandoned his family and in 1563 defected to the service of the Polish king Sigismund. And already in September of the following year, he marched with the conquerors against Moscow. Kurbsky knew perfectly well how the Russian defense and army were organized. Thanks to the traitor, the Poles were able to win many important battles. They set up ambushes, drove people into captivity, bypassing the outposts. Kurbsky began to be considered the first Russian dissident. The Poles consider the boyar a great man, but in Russia he is a traitor. However, we should not talk about betraying the country, but about personally betraying Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Pavlik Morozov. This boy had a heroic image for a long time in Soviet history and culture. At the same time, he passed under the first number, among children-heroes. Pavlik Morozov even got into the book of honor of the All-Union Pioneer Organization. But this story is not entirely unambiguous. The boy's father, Trofim, was a partisan and fought on the side of the Bolsheviks. However, after returning from the war, the serviceman abandoned his family with four small children and began to live with another woman. Trofim was elected chairman of the village council, while he led a stormy everyday life - he drank and rowdy. It is quite possible that in the history of heroism and betrayal there are more domestic than political reasons. According to legend, Trofim's wife accused him of concealing bread, however, they say that the abandoned and humiliated woman demanded to stop issuing fictitious certificates to fellow villagers. During the investigation, 13-year-old Pavel simply confirmed everything that his mother had said. As a result, the unbelted Trofim ended up in prison, and in retaliation, the young pioneer was killed in 1932 by his drunken uncle and godfather. But Soviet propaganda created a colorful propaganda story out of everyday drama. Yes, and somehow the hero who betrayed his father did not inspire.

Heinrich Lushkov. In 1937, the NKVD was fierce, including in the Far East. It was Genrikh Lyushkov who headed this punitive body at that time. However, a year later, a purge began already in the "organs" themselves, many executioners themselves ended up in the place of their victims. Lyushkov was suddenly summoned to Moscow, allegedly to be appointed head of all the camps in the country. But Heinrich suspected that Stalin wanted to remove him. Frightened by reprisals, Lyushkov fled to Japan. In an interview with the local newspaper Yomiuri, the former executioner said that he really recognizes himself as a traitor. But only in relation to Stalin. But Lyushkov's subsequent behavior suggests just the opposite. The general told the Japanese about the entire structure of the NKVD and the residents of the USSR, about exactly where the Soviet troops were located, where and how defensive structures and fortresses were being built. Lyushkov gave the enemies military radio codes, actively urging the Japanese to oppose the USSR. Arrested on the territory of Japan, Soviet intelligence officers, the traitor tortured himself, resorting to cruel atrocities. The pinnacle of Lyushkov's activity was his development of a plan to assassinate Stalin. The general personally took up the implementation of his project. Today, historians believe that this was the only serious attempt to eliminate the Soviet leader. However, she was not successful. After the defeat of Japan in 1945, Lyushkov was killed by the Japanese themselves, who did not want their secrets to fall into the hands of the USSR.

Andrey Vlasov. This Soviet lieutenant general was known as the most important Soviet traitor during the Great Patriotic War. Back in the winter of 41-42, Vlasov commanded the 20th Army, making a significant contribution to the defeat of the Nazis near Moscow. Among the people, it was this general who was called the main savior of the capital. In the summer of 1942, Vlasov took over as deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. However, soon his troops were captured, and the general himself was captured by the Germans. Vlasov was sent to the Vinnitsa military camp for captured senior military officials. There, the general agreed to serve the Nazis and headed the "Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia" created by them. On the basis of KONR, even an entire "Russian Liberation Army" (ROA) was created. It included captured Soviet soldiers. The general showed cowardice, according to rumors, since then he began to drink a lot. On May 12, Vlasov was captured by Soviet troops in an attempt to escape. His trial was closed, as he could inspire people dissatisfied with the authorities with his own words. In August 1946, General Vlasov was stripped of his titles and awards, his property was confiscated, and he himself was hanged. At the trial, the accused admitted that he pleaded guilty, as he was cowardly in captivity. Already in our time, an attempt was made to justify Vlasov. But only a small part of the charges were dropped from him, the main ones remained in force.

Friedrich Paulus. There was a traitor on the part of the Nazis in that war. In the winter of 1943, the 6th German Army under the command of Field Marshal Paulus capitulated near Stalingrad. His subsequent history can be considered a mirror in relation to Vlasov. The captivity of the German officer was quite comfortable, because he joined the anti-fascist national committee "Free Germany". He ate meat, drank beer, received food and parcels. Paulus signed the appeal "To the prisoners of war of German soldiers and officers and to the entire German people." There, the field marshal announced that he was calling on all of Germany to eliminate Adolf Hitler. He believes that the country should have a new state leadership. It must stop the war and ensure the restoration of friendship with the current adversaries for the people. Paulus even made a revealing speech at the Nuremberg trials, which surprised his former associates a lot. In 1953, the Soviet authorities, grateful for their cooperation, released the traitor, especially since he was beginning to fall into depression. Paulus went to live in the GDR, where he died in 1957. Not all Germans accepted with understanding the act of the field marshal, even his son did not accept his father's choice, eventually shooting himself due to mental anguish.

Viktor Suvorov. This defector also made a name for himself as a writer. Once intelligence officer Vladimir Rezun was a GRU resident in Geneva. But in 1978 he fled to England, where he began to write very scandalous books. In them, the officer, who took the pseudonym Suvorov, quite convincingly argued that it was the USSR that was preparing to strike at Germany in the summer of 1941. The Germans simply preempted their enemy by a few weeks by delivering a preemptive strike. Rezun himself says that he was forced to cooperate with British intelligence. They allegedly wanted to make him last for the failure in the work of the Geneva department. Suvorov himself claims that in his homeland he was sentenced to death in absentia for his treason. However, the Russian side prefers not to comment on this fact. The former scout lives in Bristol and continues to write books on historical topics. Each of them causes a storm of discussion and personal condemnation of Suvorov.

Viktor Belenko. Few lieutenants manage to go down in history. But this military pilot was able to do it. True, at the cost of his betrayal. We can say that he acted as a kind of bad boy who just wants to steal something and sell it to his enemies at a higher price. On September 6, 1976, Belenko flew a top-secret MiG-25 interceptor. Suddenly, the senior lieutenant abruptly changed course and landed in Japan. There, the aircraft was dismantled in detail and subjected to a thorough study. Naturally, not without American specialists. The plane was, after careful study, returned to the USSR. And for his feat "for the glory of democracy" Belenko himself received political asylum in the United States. However, there is another version, according to which the traitor was not such. He just had to land in Japan. Eyewitnesses say that the lieutenant shot into the air with a pistol, not letting anyone near the car and demanding to cover it. However, the conducted investigation took into account both the behavior of the pilot in everyday life and the manner of his flight. The conclusion was unequivocal - landing on the territory of an enemy state was deliberate. Belenko himself turned out to be crazy about life in America, even canned cat food seemed to him tastier than those that were sold in his homeland. From official statements it is difficult to assess the consequences of that escape, the moral and political damage can be ignored, but the material damage was estimated at 2 billion rubles. Indeed, in the USSR it was necessary to hastily change the entire equipment of the "friend or foe" recognition system.

Otto Kuusinen. And again, a situation where a traitor for some is a hero for others. Otto was born in 1881 and in 1904 joined the Finnish Social Democratic Party. Soon and leading it. When it became clear that the communists in the new independent Finland did not shine, Kuusinen fled to the USSR. There he worked for a long time in the Comintern. When the USSR attacked Finland in 1939, it was Kuusinen who became the head of the puppet new government of the country. Only now his power extended to the few lands occupied by Soviet troops. It soon became clear that it would not be possible to capture all of Finland and the need for the Kuusinen regime was no longer needed. In the future, he continued to hold prominent government posts in the USSR, having died in 1964. His ashes are buried near the Kremlin wall.

Kim Philby. This scout lived a long and eventful life. He was born in 1912 in India, in the family of a British official. In 1929, Kim entered Cambridge, where he joined a socialist society. In 1934, Philby was recruited by Soviet intelligence, which, given his views, was not difficult to implement. In 1940, Kim joined the British secret service SIS, soon becoming the head of one of its departments. In the 50s, it was Philby who coordinated the actions of England and the United States in the fight against the communists. Naturally, the USSR received all the information about the work of its agent. Since 1956, Philby has been serving in MI6, until in 1963 he was illegally transferred to the USSR. Here, the traitor intelligence officer lived for the next 25 years on a personal pension, sometimes giving advice.

The Star of the Hero of the USSR is a special symbol of distinction, which was awarded for collective or personal services to the Fatherland, as well as for accomplishing a feat. In total, 12,776 people received the title of holder of the Golden Star, including those who had two, three and even four sets of awards.

But there were also those who, for various reasons, could not preserve the honor and dignity of the hero - the star was taken away from 72 people. Another 61 cavaliers were stripped of their titles, but were later reinstated in it.

List of persons deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

For betrayal

Having shown courage in battle, some heroes could not endure the hardships of captivity and entered into cooperation with the Germans. Soviet pilots Bronislav Antilevsky and Semyon Bychkov are masters of their craft, who showed extraordinary courage and fortitude during the Great Patriotic War. One is a gunner-radio operator who had 56 successful sorties, the other is the owner of two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Lenin and the Golden Star for 15 downed enemy aircraft.

In 1943, while on a mission, both pilots were shot down in action and taken prisoner. It is still not known for certain whether their transition to the Germans was forced or voluntary. At the trial, Bychkov explained that the commander of the ROA aviation, Viktor Maltsev, was recruiting Soviet pilots who were in the Moritzfeld camp. For refusing to join the ranks of the Vlasovites, Semyon was beaten half to death, after which he spent two weeks in the hospital. But even there, psychological pressure was exerted on Bychkov. Maltsev assured that when he returned to the USSR, he would be shot as a traitor, threatened him with an even worse life in concentration camps. In the end, the pilot lost his nerve, and he agreed to join the ranks of the ROA.

Bychkov's words were not believed at the trial. He, like Antilevsky, enjoyed great confidence among the Germans. Recordings with their calls to go over to the side of the enemy were broadcast on the lines of the Eastern Front. The pilots received German ranks, good positions, they were trusted with combat vehicles and personnel.

If for some defendants the presence of medals "For Courage" and the title of Hero of the USSR was a mitigating circumstance, in the case of defectors and traitors this factor played a fatal role. Both "Vlasov falcons" were stripped of all ranks and sentenced to death.

“There were only 28 of them, and Moscow was behind us”

Everyone who is interested in the history of the Second World War knows about the feat of the Panfilov soldiers who stopped the Nazis on the outskirts of Moscow. The biography of one of them - Ivan Dobrobabin (Dobrobaby according to the metric) - could become the basis for an action-packed film. In November 1941, Ivan, at the head of the legendary 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment of the 8th division, took an unequal battle with the enemy. For the feat before the Fatherland in July 1942 he was awarded posthumously.

Meanwhile, Dobrobabin remained alive. Heavily shell-shocked, he was taken prisoner, where he began to cooperate with the Germans, joining the police. In 1943 he crossed the front line and fled to Odessa. He was again enrolled in the ranks of the Soviet soldiers. Only in 1947 did someone recognize him as a former Nazi policeman.

In court, it turned out that Ivan Dobrobabin was one of the Panfilovites, a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was stripped of all titles and awards and found guilty of collaborating with the invaders, given 15 years in prison.

This story could have ended if in 1955 new circumstances had not been discovered confirming the fact that the Red Army soldier went to the police on the orders of the commander of the partisan detachment. In the same year, Dobrobabin was amnestied, and only in 1993, by decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, was he completely released from all charges. The title of Hero of the USSR was never returned to him. Dobrobabin died three years later, fully rehabilitated in the eyes of society, but never managed to restore historical justice.

Pay for love

The life of Georgy Antonov is a story of great success and rapid decline. The officer met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War as part of the 660th artillery regiment of the 220th rifle division. An experienced commander by that time had already proved himself in the liberation battles in Western Ukraine and the Karelian Isthmus.

During the clash near Orsha, Antonov replaced the killed chief of artillery, taking command of the regiment, and ensured the fulfillment of the assigned combat missions, for which he was awarded the highest award for the rank of captain - the Order of the Red Banner.

Then there were battles on the banks of the Berezina River, where, under the command of Antonov, the artillery of the rifle regiment covered the advancing infantry. For heroism and courage shown in battles, the commander was presented with the Gold Star.

By the end of the war, Georgy Antonov, Hero of the Soviet Union, had already served as commander of an artillery battalion at the Allensteig training ground in Austria. After the capitulation of Germany, this large facility was taken over by the Soviet occupying forces.

The military command in every possible way prevented the contacts of the servicemen with the local population, especially with women. Violation of the order threatened with immediate expulsion to the USSR under escort. At home, regardless of rank and position, an officer was expelled from the party and dismissed from the army.

Georgy Antonov, despite his military bearing, turned out to be a very down to earth person. Outside of the service, he could “take on his chest”, relax and go in search of adventure, for which he was repeatedly subjected to disciplinary sanctions. However, the title of Hero of the USSR kept the authorities from taking serious measures.

The last straw was the intimate relationship of the major, who was waiting for his wife in Moscow, with the Austrian Francisca Nesterval. Due to the “moral corruption of the personality”, it was decided to send Antonov to the Transcaucasian Military District. The fact of friendship with the former doctor of the regiment Lazarev, convicted of treason in 1947, public laudatory reviews of the major about American military equipment and attachment to alcohol were also “attached” to the case.

Upon learning of the impending departure, the soldier began to plan an escape. As follows from the materials of the criminal case, “On May 26, 1949, Antonov, having packed his personal belongings into three suitcases, took them by truck to the city of Allensteig and handed them over to a storage room, sold his personal car to a taxi driver, an Austrian citizen, for 5,000 shillings, and I also agreed with him that he would take him to Vienna for 450 shillings, along with his cohabitant.

The lovers even managed to move to that part of Vienna, which was under the control of the Americans. Antonov, by order of the chief of artillery of the Soviet army, was recognized as a "traitor to the Motherland and a deserter" and expelled from the Armed Forces. Due to the inaccessibility of the accused, he was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in labor camps with complete confiscation of personal property. The titles and numerous medals that he deservedly received for his heroism during the Great Patriotic War were taken away from him. Antonov was also stripped of all military regalia.

GOING TOGETHER

Not all heroes were able to adapt to peaceful life. Often soldiers who got to the front at the age of 18 after the war could not find an application for their abilities and with great difficulty got along "in civilian life".

Nikolai Artamonov was drafted in 1941 at the age of 18 and went through the entire war to the end. But he didn’t fit into peaceful life, in the three post-war years he received three convictions, and the last crime overwhelmed the patience of the Soviet court, and Artamonov was sentenced to 18 years for participating in gang rape. He was also stripped of all his awards and titles.

Vasily Vanin also went through the entire war and could not return to normal life. After demobilization, Vanin, who had many awards, tried to work in a Stalingrad bakery, but soon quit his job, began to lead an asocial lifestyle, committed several thefts and robberies, as well as rape, for which he was deprived of all awards and sent to prison for 10 years.

The gallant one-eyed tanker of the guard, senior lieutenant Anatoly Motsny, who had many awards and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, did not find himself after his dismissal from the army for health reasons.

After the war, he married, but soon drove his pregnant wife out of the house and remarried. He was able to avoid punishment for bigamy thanks to numerous awards. He drank heavily, wandered around the country, hid from paying alimony, and eventually brutally killed his own five-year-old son for an unknown reason. He received 10 years in prison, but was deprived of awards after his release, after numerous complaints from neighbors, whom he "terrorized every day." He died shortly after being stripped of all awards and titles.

Senior Sergeant Alexander Postolyuk, after demobilization, worked on a collective farm, from where he began his journey along the criminal road. Postolyuk was imprisoned four times for petty theft, each time getting off with a term of about a year. But he lost all awards after the first crime.

Fake hero

On May 22, 1940, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper published an essay on the "exploits" of Hero of the Soviet Union Valentin Purgin. Their list is so long that it would be enough for several lifetimes. This is the performance of a special task in the Far East in 1939, and a wound received in battles with Japanese militarists, and heroic battles with the White Finns in 1940. As a result of the war with Finland, Valentin Purgin, holder of the Order of the Red Banner and two Orders of Lenin, received the title of Hero of the USSR.

However, according to the photograph published in the newspaper, the employees of the competent authorities recognized Valentina Golubenko as a criminal who is wanted after escaping from prison. During the investigation, it turned out that the fraudster, who already had several prison terms behind him, with the help of his mother, who worked as a cleaner in the building of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, stole orders and award books, put seals on his own letters of recommendation and orders.

Golubenko-Purgin, who skillfully gained people's trust and used personal connections, traveled all over the country on forged documents as a journalist for Pravda and Komsomolskaya Pravda. And during the Finnish campaign, he sat out with a friend in Moscow, spending business trips for his own pleasure. And even his stay in the Irkutsk hospital with a serious wound was skillfully fabricated.

The innate charm and fame of the "living Ostap Bender" did not help the criminal. In August 1940, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR stripped him of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all the awards he had illegally received. In November 1940, by decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, at the age of 26, Valentin Purgin was shot.

7. Gitman Lev Aleksandrovich (Abramovich) - reconnaissance officer of the 496th separate reconnaissance company of the 236th rifle division of the 46th army of the Steppe Front, private.
Born in 1922 in Ukraine - in the Dnepropetrovsk region. Jew. Graduated from high school. Received the specialty of a locksmith.
In the Red Army and at the front since 1941.
The reconnaissance officer of the 496th separate reconnaissance company (236th rifle division, 46th army, Steppe Front), Komsomol member of the Red Army Lev Gitman, on the night of September 26, 1943, as part of a group of 18 reconnaissance divisions, crossed the Dnieper River near the village of Soshinovka of Verkhnedneprovsky district of the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine. Having removed the enemy forward post without a single shot, the scouts went deep into enemy territory, and 50 meters west of the Dnieper occupied a bridgehead.
At dawn on September 26, 1943, the enemy discovered a Soviet reconnaissance group. The ensuing unequal battle lasted more than 4 hours. Fascist attacks followed one after another. The courageous Soviet soldiers had to engage in hand-to-hand combat, in which the Red Army soldier Gitman L.A. destroyed several Nazis. He was seriously wounded, but to the end he fulfilled his military duty.
Seven of the eighteen scouts who survived held the captured bridgehead until reinforcements arrived.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 1, 1943, for the exemplary performance of the combat mission of the command in the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, the Red Army soldier Gitman Lev Alexandrovich was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal ( No. 3694).
Three months after being seriously wounded, the brave warrior was discharged from the hospital, where the medical board recognized him as an invalid of the Great Patriotic War of the 1st group. But the Hero, who was only 22 years old, did not become a slave to his illness, and after saying goodbye first to crutches, and then to a stick, he went to work as a master of industrial training in the workshops of a children's boarding school, where he taught children to be a locksmith and to do something from waste sheet metal waste. either helpful...
In the late 50s, the teacher of labor education L.A. Gitman was accused of embezzlement of state property (sheet metal scraps) for a total of 86 rubles 70 kopecks, and was sentenced by the court to 10 years in labor camps.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 5, 1960, for misconduct discrediting the title of an order bearer, Gitman Lev Aleksandrovich was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all awards: the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star medal (No. 3694), the Order of the Red Star, medals, including number - "For courage" ...
After numerous appeals against the verdict of L.A. Gitman was released after 5 years of imprisonment, but the well-deserved military awards were not returned to him, despite repeated petitions...
Disabled veteran of the Great Patriotic War Gitman L.A. lived in the regional center of the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine - the city of Dnepropetrovsk. He died in 1979 at the age of 57. He was buried in Dnepropetrovsk at the International Cemetery.

EXTRACT FROM THE FRONT NEWSPAPER ABOUT THE FEAT OF LEV GITMAN:
“A hefty fascist rushed to Gitman, who opened fire from a machine gun. He fired almost point-blank, seriously wounded. But Lev Gitman, an experienced soldier, for a moment managed to get ahead of the German - he discharged a rocket launcher in the face of the enemy. Therefore, the fiery route did not go straight, but down - riddled Gitman's legs. The attack was repulsed.
And fifteen minutes later the Fritz again went on the assault. This time they pulled up their guns and fired at direct fire. Gitman was again seriously wounded - now in the chest, by shrapnel. And yet, when the Germans went on the attack, he pressed the trigger of the machine gun.
At this time, a powerful “Hurrah!” was heard on the bridgehead. - These are fighters from the Separate Engineer Battalion, having finished building the floating bridge, they were the first to come to the aid of the “capture group”.
8. Gladilin Viktor Petrovich - assistant platoon commander of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 385th rifle regiment of the 112th Rylskaya rifle division of the 24th rifle corps of the 60th Army of the Central Front, senior sergeant.
Born in 1921. Russian. Education incomplete secondary.
In the Red Army and in the battles of the Great Patriotic War since 1941.
Assistant platoon commander of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 385th rifle regiment (112th rifle division, 24th rifle corps, 60th army, Central Front), senior sergeant Viktor Gladilin, distinguished himself when crossing the Dnieper River on September 24, 1943 . He was one of the first in the battalion to cross the Dnieper using improvised means, and successfully acted in battle during the capture of the village of Yasnogorodka, Vyshgorod district, Kiev region of Ukraine.

Together with the platoon fighters, Senior Sergeant Gladilin V.P. participated in the reflection of eight enemy counterattacks.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 17, 1943, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Senior Sergeant Gladilin Viktor Petrovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "(No. 2792).

After the battles on the Dnieper and the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi invaders, Lieutenant Gladilin V.P. commanded an infantry platoon.
Demobilized from the army, reserve lieutenant Viktor Gladilin lived in Kursk.
Awarded the Order of Lenin, medals.
By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 16, 1962 No. 212-VI Gladilin Viktor Petrovich was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all awards in connection with the conviction under Article 103 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (“Deliberate murder” [without aggravating circumstances] - killed his wife) .
Former Hero of the Soviet Union Gladilin V.P. was sentenced by the Kursk City People's Court to 10 years in prison. His further fate is unknown...

9.
Grigin Vasily Filippovich - squad leader of the 32nd Infantry Regiment (19th Infantry Division, 57th Army, 3rd Ukrainian Front), Sergeant.
He was born on May 12, 1921 at the Ozerki station of the now Talmensky district of the Altai Territory into a peasant family. Russian. Primary education.
In the army since September 1940. Member of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. In June 1941-March 1943 he fought on the Western Front, in March-August 1943 - on the South-Western Front, in August 1943-February 1944 - on the Steppe (from October 1943 - 2nd Ukrainian) Front. From March 1944 he fought on the 3rd Ukrainian Front as a squad leader of the 32nd Infantry Regiment.
He distinguished himself in the battles during the crossing of the Danube. He was wounded several times and lost his left eye.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 24, 1945, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Sergeant Vasily Filippovich Grigin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 6370).

After the war, he was demobilized for health reasons. However, already two years after the war, the life of the Hero went, as they say, "on an inclined plane", as evidenced by the data of the Main Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and extracts from court verdicts:
On October 6, 1947, V.F. Grigin was convicted by the People's Court of the Krayushkinsky District under article 72, part 2 of the Criminal Code (CC) of the RSFSR (malicious hooliganism, consisting in riot or outrage, or committed repeatedly or stubbornly, does not stop or is distinguished by special audacity or exceptional cynicism) to 4 years in prison.
In 1949, he was convicted by the People's Court of the Krayushkinsky District under Part 2 of Article 74 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (malicious hooliganism, consisting in riot or outrage, or committed repeatedly or stubbornly, does not stop or is distinguished by special audacity or exceptional cynicism) to 1 year 8 months in prison.
On May 31, 1950, he was convicted by the People's Court of the Oktyabrsky District of the 2nd District of the city of Barnaul under Article 74 Part 2 (malicious hooliganism), by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 4, 1949 "On strengthening criminal liability for rape" to 10 years in prison. At the same time, the court considered it necessary to enter into a petition before the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to deprive V.F. Grigin the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was released on April 28, 1954 from places of deprivation of liberty in the Amur Region using offsets of working days and by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 27, 1953 "On Amnesty".
On March 5, 1958, he was convicted by the people's court of the 4th district of the Oktyabrsky district of the city of Barnaul under article 1 part 1 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 4, 1947 (on criminal liability for theft) to 5 years in prison. By a decision of the Presidium of the Altai Regional Court of September 1, 1959, the term was set at 1 year and 6 months in prison. He was released on September 17, 1959 after serving his term from places of deprivation of liberty in the Altai Territory.
On September 21, 1962, he was sentenced by the People's Court of the Central District of the city of Barnaul under article 206, part 3 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 1 year of corrective labor (especially malicious hooliganism). The court ruled: Taking into account the preliminary detention, the sentence should be considered served and released from the courtroom.
October 17, 1963 (according to other sources - October 10, 1963) V.F. Grigin was convicted by the People's Court of the Central District of the city of Barnaul under Article 109 Part 1, Art. 206 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (deliberate infliction of less serious bodily harm, malicious hooliganism) to 5 years in prison.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 17, 1964, he was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and all awards.

He was released on December 10, 1966 from places of deprivation of liberty in the Altai Territory on parole according to the decision of the Zmeinogorsk People's Court of December 6, 1966.

On June 8, 1971, he was sentenced by the People's Court of the Oktyabrsky District of the city of Barnaul under article 206, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (malicious hooliganism) to 5 years in prison. He was released on May 13, 1975 from places of deprivation of liberty in the Altai Territory on parole according to the decision of the People's Court of the Leninsky District of the city of Barnaul dated May 6, 1975.
On August 26, 1975, the people's court of the Talmensky district of the Altai Territory was convicted under article 191-1 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (resistance to a police officer or people's combatant with aggravating circumstances) to 1 year in prison. On the basis of article 41 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, 6 months were added according to the sentence of June 8, 1971, in total to serve - 1 year 6 months in prison. Released on December 14, 1976 from places of deprivation of liberty in the Altai Territory.
On September 7, 1979, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of the city of Barnaul was sentenced under article 15-144, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (attempted theft of personal property) to 4 years in prison. He was released on August 31, 1982 from places of deprivation of liberty in the Altai Territory on parole according to the decision of the People's Court of the city of Rubtsovsk on August 12, 1982.
On August 9, 1983, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of the city of Barnaul sentenced him under article 144, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (qualified theft of personal property of citizens) to 3 years and 6 months in prison. On the basis of Article 41 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, 1 month of imprisonment was added according to the sentence of September 7, 1979, in total, 7 months of imprisonment for 3 years. On the basis of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 26, 1985 "On amnesty for the 40th anniversary of the Victory", the unserved term was reduced by 1/3. He was released on March 28, 1986 from places of deprivation of liberty in the Altai Territory after serving his term.
The tenth conviction of a front-line soldier, former Hero of the Soviet Union VF Grigin was the last. Injuries received in battles in the defense of the Motherland, as well as undermined health in places of deprivation of liberty, in the end, laid the veteran of the Great Patriotic War in a hospital bed in one of the hospitals in the administrative center of the Altai Territory - the city of Barnaul, where he died in 1991. He was buried in Barnaul at the Mikhailovsky cemetery in an unmarked grave.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin (1945), medals (including the medal "For Courage" (1943)) (deprived of all awards in 1964).
"REVOKE HERO TITLE..."
Interest in the fate of the person we want to talk about has a personal background for one of the authors and refers to events more than twenty years ago.
While working as an investigator of the transport police, at one of the planning meetings with the boss, he heard an unusual question from the boss to his colleague: “Barinov, when will you send the case of your Hero of the Soviet Union to court? That crime is trifling." Having become interested in the unusual accused, even then I wanted to find out the details. Indeed, a no longer young man was detained for the banal theft of things from passengers, who claimed that he was a Hero of the Soviet Union.
However, all the evidence suggests that the detainee is more of a recidivist than a Hero. But it was impossible not to believe him. Among the documents confiscated from the detainee, a photograph was found showing him in a civilian suit with an eye patch. The Order of Lenin and the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union really shone on the lapel of his jacket. A neatly folded copy of the seizure report, dated 1964, was kept along with the photograph, in which it was reported that a certain prosecutor's office investigator, in pursuance of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on depriving him of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, had seized the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal from him.

The hero himself could not be seen, he was already in the pre-trial detention center, but from the protocol of interrogation it became known that during one of the battles of the Great Patriotic War, the current defendant allegedly destroyed several tanks, for which he was awarded the highest award. After the war, his life did not work out: several convictions, deprivation of his rank and again a prison. The case of this theft was really trifling, but it was also impossible to finish it without waiting for confirmation of information from Moscow about conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on the accused and depriving him of this award. I remember that the investigators then still speculated whether it was worth depriving him of the Stars, after all, tanks are tanks, and thefts are thefts.
And this year, we came across a list of all the "disenfranchised" of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, among which in 1964 only one Grigin Vasily Filippovich, born in 1921, who received a star in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 24 March 1945. The police archives confirmed that Grigin had indeed been tried in the Altai Territory. It became clear that this was exactly the person that was discussed at the meeting of the investigators of the Barnaul transport police.
Interested in the fate of Vasily Grigin, we tried to find out about him from official sources. However, in addition to the dates of the official Decrees on awarding and depriving the title of Hero, it was only possible to get acquainted with some sentences “on the charge of Grigin Vasily Filippovich, born in 1921, a native of the village. Krayushkino of the Pervomaisky district of the Altai Territory, illiterate, from the peasants, Hero of the Soviet Union in the crimes provided for in the articles ... ”and further from hooliganism, to robbery, theft and infliction of bodily harm.

Communication with relatives who still live in Altai turned out to be much more fruitful. All of them claim that the reason for his troublesome nature is Grigin's injury and concussion. Before the war, he was a normal person, quite calm and accommodating, he did not even allow swear words. However, a severe bullet wound to the head greatly changed the character of their relative. He became short-tempered, cocky, began to drink heavily, and was often offended by those around him.
According to his niece, Vasily Grigin was a scout in a cavalry regiment. His courage reached the point of recklessness. They were afraid to go on a mission with him. Intelligence was already a deadly affair. Only a few returned from the mission from the Nazis. Grigin always cited "language".
According to relatives (state archives have not yet answered us), Vasily Grigin received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for participating in the crossing of the Dnieper (this is the richest battle of the Great Patriotic War for Heroes, every fifth Hero of the Soviet Union distinguished himself in the battle for the Dnieper). Relatives claim that Grigin was in a group whose task was to blow up a bridge with retreating enemy tanks. The explosion not only destroyed the bridge, but also destroyed several tanks.
Heroes of the Soviet Union after the war were surrounded by honor and respect. Vasily Grigin was also famous, he got an apartment, got a job, got married. However, the difficulties of character, as well as the heightened sense of justice noted by everyone, became fatal in his life.
Arriving to the sisters in his native village, he learned from them about the bribery of the local paramedic, who would never write out a sick leave without a gift, despite the severity of the disease. Grigin reacted very violently to this and, promising to drown the paramedic, dragged him to the nearest lake. The doctor was beaten off from the enraged hero, but the victim's heart could not stand it and, the next day, he died of a heart attack.

So Grigin got his first conviction for malicious hooliganism and a term of four years. Then there was a brawl on Victory Day in the Territorial Union and another term. In the zone, he received the nickname "Hero", and gradually the colony became a frequent haven for him. Recent convictions (such as, for example, the attempted theft of a suitcase with things worth 37 rubles) indicate that Grigin simply wanted to return to his usual environment. Even being deprived of the heroic title, Grigin had indulgences as a participant in the war, falling under amnesties and receiving reduced terms.
But the stigma of the judge was already weighing on him and his relatives. Once in the hospital and undergoing a serious operation, Grigin did not tell the doctors about his relatives, so as not to be a burden for them. And Grigin himself was distinguished by kindness and Siberian generosity. Characteristic of his nature is a simple and somewhere naive story told to us by his relatives. After the war, Vasily Grigin was invited to Poland and honored there as a Hero of the Soviet Union, who participated in its liberation. Knowing about Grigin's injury, the Poles provided him with an eye prosthesis for free, a rarity in those days. However, Grigin did not use it for long. Having met on the train with a disabled girl who lost her eye, Grigin, without hesitation, gave her a Polish gift.
V.F. died. Grigin in one of the Barnaul hospitals in 1991, and was buried at the Mikhailovsky cemetery at public expense. We still don't know where his grave is.
Authors: Mikhailov M.A., Candidate of Law, Associate Professor, retired Police Colonel (Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine); Zhdanov V.A. Lieutenant Colonel of the Reserve Medical Service (Novoaltaisk, Altai Territory)

10. Dobrobabin (Dobrobaba) Ivan Evstafievich - squad leader of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment of the 316th rifle division of the 16th army of the Western Front, sergeant.
Born on June 8 (21), 1913 in the village of Perekop, now the Valkovsky district of the Kharkov region of Ukraine, into a peasant family. Ukrainian. Graduated from 4 classes. He worked in Kyrgyzstan on the construction of the Great Chui Canal. Lived in the working settlement of Kant.
He was drafted into the Red Army in July 1941 by the Tokmak district military commissariat of the Frunze (now Chui) region of the Kirghiz SSR. At the front in the Great Patriotic War since September 1941.

The commander of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment (316th rifle division, 16th army, Western Front) Sergeant Ivan Dobrobabin in battle at the Dubosekovo junction of the Volokolamsk district of the Moscow region on November 16, 1941 as part of a group of fighters tanks led by political instructor V.G. Klochkov participated in repelling numerous enemy attacks. The group destroyed eighteen enemy tanks.

In this battle, Sergeant Dobrobabin turned out to be the oldest and most experienced fighter. When the political instructor Klochkov died a heroic death, I.E. took command. Dobrobabin...
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 21, 1942, Sergeant Dobrobabin Ivan Evstafievich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time.
But Sergeant Dobrobabin did not die in that legendary battle near Moscow (since 1965 - a hero city). It was covered in earth in a trench. And since the Panfilovites failed to defend the frontier, I.E. Dobrobabin woke up already on the territory captured by the Nazis. He was taken prisoner and placed in a prisoner of war camp in the city of Mozhaisk, Moscow Region.
At the beginning of 1942, Sergeant Dobrobabin I.E. escaped from the camp, and managed to get to his homeland - to the village of Perekop. And in June 1942, he voluntarily entered the service of the German police and until August 1943 worked for the invaders as a policeman, head of the guard shift, deputy and head of the cluster police in the village of Perekop.
According to the materials of the criminal case initiated by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office on October 5, 1988, due to newly discovered circumstances, Ivan Dobrobabin was directly involved in sending Soviet people to forced labor in Nazi Germany, made arrests and detentions of citizens who violated the occupation regime, confiscated property from the villagers in favor of the occupation authorities...
In August 1943, when the advancing Red Army began to push the Nazi troops, Dobrobabin I.E., afraid of responsibility, left his native places for the Odessa region of Ukraine, where in March 1944 he was again called up to the ranks of the Red Army by the field military registration and enlistment office. He happened to fight until Victory Day over Nazi Germany, and end the war in Austria - in the city of Innsbruck. The awards he received clearly testify to how the former Panfilov warrior fought: the medals “For the Capture of Budapest”, “For the Capture of Vienna” ...

After the war, I.E. Dobrobabin served in the Red Army until November 1945, after which he was demobilized and returned to Kyrgyzstan, to the working settlement of Kant, from which he left for the front, and where a bronze monument was erected to him, on which was the date of his death - November 16, 1941 ... And at the end of 1947, Dobrobabin was arrested and transferred to Kharkov.

On June 8-9, 1948, the military tribunal of the Kiev Military District Dobrobabin I.E. sentenced under article 54-1 "b" of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR to fifteen years in prison in a forced labor camp, with the defeat of rights for a period of five years and confiscation of property.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 11, 1949, Dobrobabin (Dobrobaba) Ivan Evsafievich was deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, with deprivation of the right to state awards: medals “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. ”, “For the capture of Budapest”, “For the capture of Vienna”.
By the definition of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR of March 30, 1955, the sentence against I.E. Dobrobabin was changed: his sentence was reduced to seven years in prison in a forced labor camp, without losing his rights.
On August 17, 1989, on the basis of the conclusion of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, Dobrobabinu I.E. rehabilitation denied.
By the decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine dated March 26, 1993, the criminal case against Dobrobabin I.E. terminated due to the absence of corpus delicti in his actions ...
A war veteran with a difficult fate lived in the city of Tsimlyansk, Rostov Region. Died December 19, 1996. Buried in Tsimlyansk.
In the village of Nelidovo, Volokolamsk district, Moscow region, a museum dedicated to the Panfilov Heroes has been opened. A memorial was erected on the site of the feat.
Soviet pilot - the leader of the Iroquois.

A simple Poltava guy Ivan Datsenko from the Dikanshchina became not only a Hero of the Soviet Union, a pilot, but also ... the leader of the Iroquois tribe in Canada.
During WWII, he was a flight commander of the Guards Aviation Regiment. Repeatedly participated in the bombing of the deep rear of Germany. Distinguished himself in the Battle of Stalingrad. And for the exemplary performance of combat missions, courage and heroism, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Datsenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

And then life took a sharp turn. In 1944, his plane was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft guns near Lvov. He managed to parachute out of a burning car and land in the occupied territory. Where he was wounded and taken prisoner. He was admitted to the hospital. From there, Ivan successfully fled and, having crossed the front line, contacted his unit.

But, according to Stalin's order, for being in captivity, he was declared a traitor and arrested by his own. The hero was deprived of all awards and titles, and sent to Siberia. On the way, he escaped, and his relatives were informed that he had died. All this happened in a matter of days.

By hook or by crook, Ivan crossed the border and got to Canada. While still in German captivity, Ivan met a wounded Canadian red-skinned soldier from the Iroquois tribe. The brave pilot persuaded him to run away together, but the Indian refused. He only asked if Ivan ever ends up in Canada to inform his relatives about his fate. And left an address.

Having reached Canada, Ivan hurried to fulfill his promise and came to the tribe. Over time, he married the daughter of the leader. He learned their language, adopted their customs and became the "right hand" of the leader of the tribe. For courage and bravery, he earned honor and respect among his fellow tribesmen. And after the death of the leader, he headed the Iroquois tribe.

Soviet pilot - the leader of the Iroquois.
This case in the former USSR became known thanks to the famous dancer Makhmud Esambaev, who was in Canada with concerts. At his request, he visited the reservation of local Indians in order to watch their dances.
And there, in the most unexpected way, I heard from a tall, stately, powerful-looking leader, dressed in national clothes, decorated with bear fangs and falcon feathers - a Ukrainian conversation. He was also distinguished by the color of his skin, which betrayed a Slav in him.
Mahmud respectfully greeted the leader, and in response he heard - “Healthy bools! I kindly ask you to have a wigwam before me. What surprised the dancer even more was the “Ukrainian dumplings”.
And so they sat in the wigwam on mats - the Russian dancer and the Ukrainian leader of the Iroquois, and drank "horilka". And children ran into the wigwam and chirped in Ukrainian. Well, after drinking, the men fell asleep - "Unharness the boys of the horses ...".
The tribe was about 200 people, they fished, raised cattle, plowed the land. Therefore, at parting, the leader lamented: “Having thrown a bi mustache, she would have succumbed to Batkivshchina. But I can’t.” Only then did the leader of the Iroquois confess that he had come to Canada as an emigrant, and how he had become the leader of the tribe. And that he comes from the Poltava region. And his name is Ivan Datsenko. And that he is the same pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, who was buried long ago in his homeland.

Heroes without Gold Stars. Cursed and forgotten. – Konev V.N. – M.: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008. – 352 p. (Series "War and Us"). Circulation 5100 copies. Add. circulation 3100 copies.

ANTILEVSKY Bronislav Romanovich
(07.1916–29.11.1946)
Senior Lieutenant

Born in the village of Markovtsy, Ozersky district, now Dzerzhinsky district (Minsk region - Author) of the Republic of Belarus. Belarus. He graduated from the Minsk Technical School of National Economic Accounting with a degree in economics - an economist in 1937. In the Red Army from October 3, 1937. From November 1937 to July 1938 - a cadet of the Monino Special Purpose Aviation School. Since July 1938 - junior commander, gunner-radio operator of the 1st squadron of the 21st dbap (long-range bomber aviation regiment. - Auth.).

Member of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. Hero of the Soviet Union (04/07/1940).

He graduated from the Kachinsky Red Banner Military Aviation School in 1942. On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since April 1942. Fighter pilot, flight commander, deputy squadron commander of the 20th IAP 303rd IAD (fighter air division. - Auth.) 1st VA (air army. - Auth.), Then in the 203rd Iap. Lieutenant (09/17/1942). Senior lieutenant (07/25/1943). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (08/3/1943).

In August 1943, he was shot down over enemy territory and was captured. He tarnished his name by collaborating with the enemy.

In 1946, he was sentenced to capital punishment by the military tribunal of the Moscow District. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union and orders was deprived by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 12, 1950.

This is the first of 27 brief “introductory” biographies of military pilots, which opens the book by Vladimir Konev “Heroes without Golden Stars. Cursed and forgotten." Each such reference is followed by a more or less detailed essay deciphering a laconic biography. So, about the same Antilevsky it is known that, as a gunner-radio operator of a long-range DB-3 bomber, he was the only one from the 21st dbap who was presented to the highest distinction. The Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union No. 304 was awarded to him in the Kremlin on April 28, 1940.

In the same year, Antilevsky began to retrain as a fighter, and from April 1942, having received his first officer rank, he fought on the Western Front. In the summer of 1943 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Soon after that, the Hero again acted bravely in an air battle against 12 Nazi Fokkers (FV-190) while escorting Pe-2 bombers. Of the two downed enemy planes, one was "stuck" into the ground by Antilevsky, the Pe-2 group did not lose a single car. “In total, in the August battles, Antilevsky shot down three enemy planes personally and in a group in three days,” Konev notes.

August 28 Antilevsky is shot down. In the regiment he is considered missing, but in fact he is a prisoner and gives in detail the information known to him. “The motives that pushed the hero-pilot onto the path of betrayal are still not clear,” the author writes. - One can only assume that one of his relatives was repressed. On this, as well as on the fact that for surrendering he will inevitably be shot in the Soviet Union, apparently, the former Colonel of the Red Army V.I. Maltsev, who recruited him, played.

Hero of the Soviet Union Bronislav Antilevsky took the oath of the Vlasov ROA - the Russian Liberation Army and, with the rank of lieutenant, took part in military operations against partisans in the Dvinsk region. He also ferried planes from German aircraft factories to the Eastern Front and led a Yu-87 squadron on bombing raids. In 1944, General Vlasov awarded him an order and promoted him to captain.

Surprisingly, in June 1945, Antilevsky, with the documents of a member of the anti-fascist movement B. Berezovsky (a symbolic coincidence!) Is trying to get into the territory of the USSR. Detained by the NKVD, he easily passed the first check. But at the second time, they found a Gold Star in his heel. By the number immediately found out whose it is. The fate of the traitor hero was sealed.

In 2001, the Antilevsky case was reviewed by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office in order to implement the Law of the Russian Federation of October 18, 1991 "On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression." “In the conclusion, it was noted that Antilevsky was legally convicted and was not subject to rehabilitation,” this is how this first biography in the book ends.

Konev delicately, without focusing on the "dirty" or "mean" sides of the fate of one or another "former Hero", fully showed the drama of each of them. He did this on the basis of fragmentary and little known information, as well as with the involvement of archival sources. Narrating, he does not condemn or justify the characters in his book.

It presents both little-known surnames (yes, at least the same Antilevsky), and quite well-known ones. For example, aviation lieutenant generals arrested in the first week of the war and shot on October 28, 1941 as enemies of the people: Ivan Proskurov, a professional pilot who in 1939-1940 headed the GRU of the Red Army; Pavel Rychagov - he, at a meeting of the Politburo on April 9, 1941, when discussing the issue of numerous crashes of military aircraft, told Stalin: "The accident rate will be high, because you make us fly on coffins." On the same October day of the 41st, a pilot from God, a hero of Spain and Khalkhin Gol (he was very highly valued by Marshal G.K. Zhukov), twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1937, 1939), Lieutenant General of Aviation Yakov Smushkevich, arrested a week and a half before the start of the war ... However, these three were later rehabilitated. The first marshal of aviation Alexander Novikov was also rehabilitated, whom, fortunately, Stalin's executioners could not put up against the wall, he, under torture, slandering himself and others, including Marshal G.K. Zhukov, survived.

In general, according to the statistics available on the Heroes of the Country Internet resource, out of 12,874 Heroes of the Soviet Union (the title was awarded in 1934-1991), 86 people were deprived of it (all front-line soldiers). Why did the author select only aviators for his book? As he explains, the pilots became the first Heroes in 1934 (Chelyuskin rescuers), and the first to lose their Gold Stars (in 1941 - the generals mentioned above). “From that time on, the practice of depriving this high rank began,” Konev notes.

Each of the 27 stories of those who, for one reason or another, was deprived of the heroic title is amazing in its own way. A participant in the legendary Victory Parade, Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Kossa (he received the title of Hero in 1946), on September 22, 1950, having quarreled once again with his wife, having drunk heavily, put on a new uniform, went to the airfield and stole a combat La-9t to Romania. Arrested, sentenced, shot, rehabilitated in 1966. Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Poloz (awarded the Gold Star in 1942) in 1963, in his Kiev apartment, shot the head of the personal guard of the head of state N.S. Khrushchev, General Fomichev, and his wife, whom he himself invited to visit (bloody everyday life). Captain Nikolai Rykhlin (became a hero in 1943) in 1950 in Grozny "thanks" to his Chechen wife was sentenced to 15 years "for embezzlement of socialist property", in 1977 he sat down again - for 12 years.

Squadron commander Hero of the Soviet Union (1944), Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Sinkov in Korea (his regiment was stationed there after the defeat of imperialist Japan), being in a state of intoxication, threatening with a weapon, raped a 19-year-old Korean girl in front of her parents, after which he robbed the apartment of a Korean citizen. (“From the point of view of a normal person, his actions were simply inexplicable,” the author of the book “Heroes without Golden Stars” commented on Sinkov’s act in one sentence.) By the way, does this example remind you of anything? And the modern Colonel Yuri Budanov, demoted to the rank and file (a holder of two Orders of Courage, deprived of them), who, according to the investigation, while drunk, raped (this was initially charged to him, but then the court did not recognize), and then strangled 18-year-old Chechen Elsa Kungaeva ?..

The main benefit of this book is that it unwittingly forces one to ask a number of the most serious questions. If with people like Antilevsky, as they say, “everything is clear”, then with the wounded aces-Heroes who were captured (there are several essays in the book about such people), far from everything is “clear”. They refused to cooperate with the Nazis, went through concentration camps, but did not become traitors. So, Konev notes, “hero-pilots behaved with dignity in captivity: V.D. Lavrinenkov, A.N. Karasev and others. Heroes of the Soviet Union pilot ADD (long-range aviation. - Auth.) V.E. Sitnov and attack pilot N.V. Pysin, even in the most severe conditions of captivity, managed to keep the Golden Stars.

So, Nikolai Pysin, whose plane crashed in the Liepaja region in February 1945, before being captured, he managed to tear the Golden Star from his tunic and put it in his mouth, and then hid it so that the Gestapo did not find it; being in concentration camps for two months, according to the Heroes of the Country website, he kept his award in his mouth almost all the time. With her, he made a successful escape from captivity. Sitnov, who was shot down by an anti-aircraft shell in June 1943, went through several concentration camps, including such an ominous one as Buchenwald (here the Soviet pilot was one of the organizers of the armed uprising), hid the Star of the Hero from the enemy for a year and a half. He died in December 1945 at the hands of a Polish nationalist; buried in Brest. The Gold Star of Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Vlasov also returned to his homeland from captivity, which he handed over to General M.F. Lukin, who was in captivity there, before the next escape from the concentration camp. The fighter pilot himself, betrayed by a traitor as one of the organizers of the impending uprising, after severe torture was burned alive by the Nazis in the Mauthausen concentration camp, in Austria.

Other captured Heroes later, in the second half of the 1940s, already released and continuing to serve in aviation or working in civilian industries, were arrested and convicted, deprived of their Stars. Some of them were even shot. The author of the book himself reasonably asks: “How justified was the practice of depriving the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which was always an additional measure of punishment?”

Every ninetieth Hero of the Soviet Union was subsequently stripped of their high rank

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union is the highest distinction in a huge state that existed from 1922 to 1991. The first to receive this title were polar pilots who participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites - passengers and crew members of a steamer stuck in the ice in 1934.

The very first Hero in the USSR was Anatoly Lyapidevsky, the most recent - captain of the second rank Leonid Solodkov for "successful completion of a special task of the command and the courage and heroism shown at the same time": the order to award Solodkov was signed on December 24, 1991, and the next day the USSR ceased to exist.

In total, 12,862 people were awarded the title of Hero (another 26 awards were “doubles” - when a person was accidentally included in two award lists for the same feat). But not everyone managed to remain Heroes to the end: 148 people were deprived of this title (all men). Let's talk about how this could happen.

Not at all military "cases"

According to Soviet law, there were two ways to deprive the title of Hero. Either the authorities recognized that the person was worthy of the award, but later, by his behavior, showed himself not deserving such a high honor - or they canceled the very fact of conferring the title. 133 people ceased to be Heroes according to the first scenario, 15 - according to the second one. Often, however, there was a double cancellation: 63 "disenfranchised" the title was subsequently returned. Most often - posthumously.

With the abolition of the fact of appropriation, everything is clear - the exploits were recognized as failed (we will discuss the most striking of these cases below). Twice, however, the commission later came to the conclusion that the cancellation of the Decrees was unreasonable; partisan Alexander Krivets even lived to see justice restored in 1991 (in 1980 he was accused of exaggerating his own merits).

As for the deprivation of a legally appropriated title, its main and only reason is the crimes committed by a person after receiving an award. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this is a common “criminal”: theft, robbery, rape, murder. Much less often - political affairs: being in captivity, participating in the Russian Liberation Army ("Vlasovites"), or simply falling under the roller of Beria's repressions.

Here are examples of genuine criminal cases:

• Sentenced to 12 years in prison for murder...
• Committed a criminal offense (murder or complicity in the murder of his 12-year-old son) ...
• Convicted under article 119 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (sexual intercourse with a person who has not reached puberty) ...
• Being in a state of alcoholic intoxication, together with his colleagues, he organized an illegal check of the passengers of the electric train, took away their money ...
• Committed a criminal offense (robbed a store and killed a watchman)...
• Accumulated ten convictions, including malicious hooliganism, theft, intentional infliction of bodily harm. State awards were taken away when the sixth sentence was passed ...
• He committed the theft of weapons from a police officer, several robberies of passers-by, rape ...

But cooperation with the invaders and political articles:

• Together with his wife, he fled from the area of ​​deployment of his unit to the American sector of Vienna (Austria). Convicted in absentia on September 7, 1949 for treason...
• Voluntarily joined and participated in the activities of the Russian Liberation Army. Shot…
• He was taken prisoner and volunteered to serve in the police. He served as chief of the rural police ...
• In 1982, he emigrated to permanent residence in the United States (the most ridiculous reason for such harsh measures; after 17 years Mikhail Grabsky returned the title of Hero) ...
• Arrested on charges of anti-communist propaganda, convicted "for treason" ...
• Condemned by the Special Meeting at the Ministry of State Security of the USSR under Art. 58-10, part I (espionage)…
• Condemned by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR under article 58-10 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) ...
• Sentenced to death by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR of August 24, 1950 under articles 58-11 (creation of a counter-revolutionary organization), 58-1b (attempt to commit treason against the Motherland), 58-8 (attempt to commit a terrorist act against the leaders of the USSR) ...

On most of the political charges, those convicted were subsequently rehabilitated; while the title of Hero, as a rule, returned automatically. As for criminals, an individual approach was used here: rapists and murderers, as a rule, did not receive a title back (only two such cases, one of them - when a convicted rapist Ivan Chernets after his release he became a Soviet writer Ivan Arsentiev), but embezzlers and hooligans had a good chance of returning the lost award.

wandering stars

There were also more difficult cases. For example, the chief marshal of artillery (the highest possible rank in the USSR, not counting the "generalissimo" Joseph Stalin) Sergey Varentsov in 1963 he was deprived of the title of Hero and demoted with the wording "for dulling political vigilance and unworthy deeds": the fact is that his adjutant during the war, and then a relative, was Oleg Penkovsky, subsequently exposed as the most effective American spy in history. The title of Hero of Varentsov was not returned even in those years when Penkovsky himself began to be perceived almost as a hero.

The theme of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, it would seem, should already be closed. After the awarding of Leonid Solodkov, the Heroes of the USSR were replaced by the Heroes of Independent States, and the revision of old awards and their deprivation seems to have been stopped long ago.

The last at the moment was deprived of the title of Hero of the USSR Alexey Kulak: In 1990, six years after his death, it became known that he worked for foreign intelligence.

Ten years later, the last return of the title seemed to take place - in the aforementioned case with the emigrant Mikhail Grabsky.

But more recently, in 2013, the title of Hero was returned to another person - who died forty years before. Nikolai Kudryashov, the hero of the liberation of Kyiv. He was stripped of all awards back in 1953, when he was convicted of "hooliganism, intentional infliction of minor bodily injury and illegal possession of a firearm." And sixty years later, justice was restored by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation. Kudryashov's platoon destroyed several hundred Nazis in the battles on Pushcha-Voditsa and Khreshchatyk - it is unlikely that one drunken fight can cross out this contribution to the Victory.

pen shark

Let's talk in detail about the most unique "disenfranchised" - the only person who became a Hero thanks to outright fraud, and not, say, appropriation of other people's exploits, which sometimes happened during the Great Patriotic War (remember, for example, the song Vladimir Vysotsky"About Seryozhka Fomin").

Ural boy from a poor family, Volodya Golubenko started stealing very early. Caught in 1933 (he was 19 years old) pickpocketing, received five years, but was released early. Convicted again in 1937 - theft and forgery. He managed to escape from Dmitrovlag, stole documents from a random fellow traveler - and began a new life under the name Valentina Purgina, who, by the way, was five years older, which made the thief more impressive.

The fate of pickpockets in the USSR in those years was difficult - the police "for some reason" caught, and did not protect them, so Golubenko-Purgin decided to rely on his second talent - the master of fakes. Having forged the recommendations of the "old Bolsheviks", he got a job in Sverdlovsk as a correspondent for the railway newspaper Putevka, and then managed to transfer to Moscow, to Gudok.

A caring son, he moved his mother with him and managed to get her a job, even if only as a cleaning lady, but in the building of the Presidium of the Supreme Council! Getting out of the office Mikhail Kalinin, mother pulled off several orders and award books there, and Vova-Valya began to appear in public with the Order of the Red Star.

Having got acquainted with the journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the swindler ingratiated themselves with them and quickly became the deputy head of the military department of the newspaper. Having gone on a business trip to Khalkhin Gol, he awarded himself the Order of Lenin there, however, he messed up a little with the documents - for some reason, the presentation for the award was “formalized” by the command of the 39th division, located in the west of the country. When Purgin was pointed out this discrepancy, he stated that he had two Orders of Lenin - for the Finnish war and for battles with the Japanese.

They preferred not to argue with him, since the swindler hinted at his connections with the NKVD.

Insolent from impunity, Purgin decided to become a Hero of the Soviet Union as well. The 25-year-old (according to the documents - 30-year-old) journalist arranged for himself a business trip to the protracted war with the "White Finns", while he himself remained to drink travel allowances in Moscow and "work with documents."

He did not drink away his talent: on the letterhead of the special 39th division, he built an award sheet for himself for "heroism and courage shown in battles with the White Finns." They did not check in detail the performance of a journalist from a good newspaper - on April 21, 1940, Valentin Petrovich Purgin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

The swindler's favorite newspaper let him down: they published an extremely pretentious article about the Hero - and they became interested in him at the places of the mentioned exploits: how, they didn’t notice such an employee! The NKVD began checking ... And on November 5, 1940, Vladimir Golubenko was shot.

However, there is a version that the talented rogue managed to achieve imprisonment instead of execution, but one way or another, his traces are lost in the darkness of time...

* * *

The Russian Federation is much less generous with the title of Hero - over the 26 years of the existence of the state, this title has been awarded, according to experts, a little more than a thousand people, almost half - posthumously.

Decrees on awarding the title of Hero of the Russian Federation are sometimes classified, so the exact number of those awarded is known only in the Kremlin. There is no information about a single fact of cancellation of the Decree or deprivation of the title.