Alexander Golovanov is a well-known Russian military leader who served in the Soviet army. During the Second World War, he led the Soviet long-range aviation, as well as the 18th Air Army. After the war he was appointed to lead the entire long-range aviation of the USSR. In 1944 he received the title of Chief Marshal of Aviation. In the history of the workers 'and peasants' Red Army, he became the youngest marshal.
Childhood and youth of the future pilot
Alexander Golovanov was born in 1904. He was born on the territory of the Russian Empire in a large city - Nizhny Novgorod. His parents were famous residents of the city. Mother is an opera singer, and father is the captain of a towing ship. 8-year-old Alexander Golovanov was sent to study in the Alexander Cadet Corps. So in childhood, it was decided that in the future he would become a military man.
The hero of our article joined the Red Guard when he was still a teenager. In October 1917 he was only 13 years old. True, by external signs they gave him much more. He looked at all 16, and had a height of two meters.
After the success of the October Revolution, he spoke for the power of the Soviets. Already in 1918 he began to earn a living. Alexander Golovanov in years went to work as a courier in the office "Profsohleb", organized by the Commissariat of Food.
Participation in the civil war
Alexander Golovanov took part in the Civil War. He was identified as a scout in the 59th Infantry Regiment, which performed combat missions on the Southern Front. In one of the battles he got a shell shock.
Demobilized only in 1920. Already then Golovanov Alexander decided that the civil service was not for him. Therefore, he entered the so-called CHON. These are Special Purpose Parts. So at the dawn of the USSR were called communist squads that existed under various party cells. Their duties included carrying out guard duty at especially important facilities, in every possible way to help the Soviet government in the fight against counter-revolution.
Initially, the ranks of the CHON were formed only from party members and party candidates. However, by 1920, when Alexander Golovanov joined the CHON, active Komsomol members and even non-partisans began to be accepted there.
At the same time, what is known about the hero of our article on official documents is somewhat at odds with his autobiography written by him. In the latter there is no mention of service in CHON. Alexander Golovanov, whose photo is in this article, claims that in those years he worked in the supply department of the Red Army and Navy as a courier.
The next stage in his career is an agent in the Center for Printing, and then a handyman on timber rafting at the Volgosudstroy enterprise. Later, he was an agent and electrician at the fifth Volga regiment of the GPU, which was based in his hometown of Nizhny Novgorod.
Service at the OGPU
In 1924 he entered the service at the OGPU Alexander Golovanov. The biography of the hero of our article was associated with this body over the next 9 years.
It was deciphered by the OGPU as a "united state political administration" that worked under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. It was founded in 1923 on the basis of the NKVD.
In the early years of the OGPU, Felix Dzerzhinsky led, and from 1926 to 1934, Vyacheslav Menzhinsky. Golovanov was engaged in operational work and worked in special departments. He went from being authorized to the head of the department.
Twice took part in distant business trips to China. In particular, in the province of Xinjiang. At the very beginning of the 30s. Shortly before that, he became a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
Savinkov's arrest
The most striking page of his work at the OGPU was the participation in the arrest of Boris Savinkov. This is one of the leaders of the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries, the White Guard. Terrorist and revolutionary.
After the bourgeois February Revolution of 1917, he received the post of commissioner of the Provisional Government. In August, during the offensive of Kornilov on Petrograd, he became the military governor of the city. He invited the general to submit to the Provisional Government, but as a result acknowledged his failure.
The October Revolution did not support. He participated in the confrontation with the Bolsheviks, formed a volunteer army on the Don, supported Denikin. As a result, he emigrated from the country, tried to establish contact with the nationalists, but ultimately fell into complete political isolation.
Despite this, the OGPU developed Operation Syndicate-2 to liquidate the Savinkov anti-Soviet underground. Golovanov took part in it. In August 1924, Savinkov secretly arrived in the Soviet Union, enticed by operational workers.
In Minsk, he was arrested. At the trial, Savinkov admitted defeat in the struggle against the Soviet regime and the collapse of his own ideals. He was sentenced to be shot, soon the sentence was softened, being replaced by 10 years in prison.
According to the official version, in 1925 he committed suicide by jumping out of a window on the fifth floor. The room where he was taken for interrogation did not have bars on the windows. There is an alternative version, according to which he was killed by the OGPU. In particular, it is stated by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his novel The Gulag Archipelago.
Golovanov - civilian pilot
In 1931, Golovanov, Alexander Evgenievich was seconded to the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry, where he was executive secretary. The following year, he began to actively develop the profession of civil aviation pilot. He graduated from the school of OSOAVIAHIM (an analogue of modern DOSAAF).
In 1933 he was hired by Aeroflot. Thus began his aerial career. Before the start of the confrontation with the Nazi invaders, he flew on civilian flights. He went from a private pilot to the head of the department and, finally, to the chief pilot.
An important milestone in his career was 1935, when Golovanov was appointed to head the East Siberian Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet. It was based in Irkutsk. Alexander Golovanov in civil aviation has built a career.
In 1937, during the purges among the Communists, Golovanov was expelled from the party. However, he managed to escape the arrest. Moreover, he went to Moscow, as he himself said, "to seek the truth." And he succeeded. The Metropolitan Party Control Commission ruled that his exclusion was erroneous. True, he did not begin to return to Irkutsk. He was left in Moscow as a pilot. He showed himself well in the capital. After a short time, Golovanov was already considered one of the best pilots of the country's civil aviation, became the chief pilot of the special squadron.
In 1938, the hero of our article set an enviable record. His total flying experience was one million kilometers. In the Soviet newspapers they began to write about him as a "millionaire pilot." For this, he was awarded the Aeroflot Excellence Award badge. Moreover, all his flights were trouble-free, which in those days when a person was just starting to conquer airspace was a great achievement. He is becoming a truly popular person in the country. His photograph is even published on the cover of the magazine "Twinkle".
During the Great Patriotic War
Golovanov gained experience of participating in hostilities even before the Nazi invaders attacked the Soviet Union. In 1939, he took part in the battles at Khalkhin-Gol. This was an undeclared local armed conflict that lasted several months on the territory of Mongolia. On the one hand, Soviet troops and Mongols participated in it, and on the other, the Japanese Empire.
The conflict ended in the complete defeat of the Japanese division. Moreover, the USSR and Japan evaluate these events differently. If in domestic historiography they are called a local military conflict, then the Japanese speak of them as a second Russo-Japanese war.
A little later, Golovanov went to the front of the Soviet-Finnish War. This war lasted a little less than six months. It all started with the fact that the USSR accused Finland of shelling. Thus, the Soviets wholly blamed the fighting on the Scandinavian country. The result was the conclusion of a peace treaty, according to which the USSR withdrew 11% of the territory of Finland. Then, by the way, the Soviet Union was considered an aggressor and expelled from the League of Nations.
Taking part in both of these conflicts, Golovanov met the Great Patriotic War already an experienced military pilot. At the beginning of the 41st, before Hitler’s attack, he wrote a letter to Stalin, in which he substantiated the need to specially prepare pilots for long-range bomber aviation. Especially, in adverse weather, besides and at an extraordinary height.
In February, he had a personal meeting with the Generalissimo, as a result of which he was appointed commander of a separate regiment of long-range bomber aircraft. In August, he already received the post of commander of a long-range aviation division. And in October, the next rank was granted. Major General Aviation received Alexander Golovanov. The Great Patriotic War allowed him to prove himself on the air fronts. On the eve of the new 1942, he began to lead the long-range aviation division at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander.
Air Marshal
In 1942, the hero of our article began to lead long-range aviation. In May, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. From then until the end of the war he was the main one in the entire Soviet long-range aviation. At the same time he enjoyed sympathy, respect and trust from the commander in chief Stalin. So getting the next military ranks did not take long.
Since March 1943 - Colonel General. And on August 3, Alexander Golovanov is an air marshal. During the war he was appointed commander of the 18th Air Army, all the long-range bomber aircraft of the country at that time were directly concentrated in it. Despite the high ranks, Golovanov himself regularly participated in sorties. In particular, he went on long-distance bombing raids at the very beginning of the war. When in the summer of 1941, for one month, the Soviet pilots made a series of bombing raids on Berlin.
This was preceded by massive bombing of Moscow, which began almost immediately after the outbreak of war. At that time, Goebbels even managed to declare that Soviet aviation was completely destroyed, and not a single bomb would ever fall on Berlin. Golovanov brilliantly denied this bold statement.
The first flight to Berlin was carried out on August 7. Soviet aircraft flew at an altitude of 7 thousand meters. Pilots had not to remove oxygen masks, and access to the radio was prohibited. When flying over German territory, Soviet bombers were repeatedly detected, but the Germans were so unable to imagine the possibility of an attack that they were sure that it was their planes. Searchlights were even turned on for them over Stettin, mistaking the Luftwaffe for stray planes. As a result, as many as five aircraft were able to drop bombs on well-lit Berlin and returned without loss to the base.
Golovanov was appointed commander of these sorties after the second attempt, which took place on August 10. She was not so successful anymore. Of the 10 vehicles, only 6 were able to drop bombs on Berlin, and only two returned. After this, the hero of the Soviet Union, Vodopyanov was removed from the post of division commander, and Golovanov took his place.
The hero of our article repeatedly flew over the enemy capital. German intelligence at that time noted that he was among the few who had a unique right to personal access to Stalin. The latter refers to him solely by name as a sign of special trust.
Stalin’s flight to the Tehran Conference, which Golovanov personally organized, was also connected with the events of those years. We set off on two planes. At the wheel of the second, covering, was Golovanov. And Stalin, Voroshilov and Molotov were entrusted with transporting Lieutenant General Aviation Viktor Grachev.
In 1944, Golovanov’s health was seriously shaken. He began to worry about cramps, interruptions in the work of the heart, respiratory arrest. According to doctors, the reason for this was regular lack of sleep, which actually led to the destruction of the central nervous system. It should be noted that during the years of the war with fascist Germany, Golovanov set a record for the Soviet armed forces, rising from the rank of lieutenant colonel to chief air marshal.
Fate after the war
After the war, in 1946, Golovanov was appointed commander of long-range aviation of the Soviet Union. However, two years later, removed from office. According to the majority, the reason was the state of health, which was greatly shaken after the war.
Golovanov graduated from the Academy of the General Staff. But even after that he could not return to the troops. There was no destination. Alexander Yevgenyevich, unashamed, again sent a letter to Stalin. And already in 1952 he commanded one of the airborne corps. It was a very strange decision. Never before in the history of aviation had the corps commanded a military marshal. It was too shallow for him. Golovanov was even asked in connection with this to write a petition to lower his rank to Colonel General, but he refused.
In 1953, after the death of Joseph Stalin, the hero of our article was finally sent to the reserve. After 5 years, he settled on the post of deputy chief at the research institute of civil aviation in flight service. He retired in 1966.
Book of memories
Upon retiring, the hero of our article proved to be a writer-memoirist. A whole book of memoirs was written by Alexander Golovanov. “Long-range bomber” is what it is called. In many ways, this biography is devoted to personal meetings and communication with Stalin. Because of this, during the life of the author, she came out with significant notes. Readers could not see the uncensored publication until the end of the 80s.
In 2007, the last edition of these memoirs by Alexander Golovanov took place. The bibliography of the author, by the way, has only one book. But because of this, it does not become less valuable.
Golovanov himself died in 1974. He was 71 years old. The funeral was held at the Novodevichy cemetery.
