The personal enemy of the Fuhrer: how Alexander Marinesko destroyed the color of the Nazi submarine fleet with three torpedoes. Attack of the century. How Alexander Marinesko buried Hitler's last hope

25.09.2019

One of major events in the history of Russia in the 20th century, for national self-consciousness is the Great Patriotic War - sacred for all Russians. Actions to destroy its generalized image and symbols associated with it is one of the information operations cold war against Soviet Union.

The USSR collapsed, but the information war of the West against Russia in this area continues into the 21st century. These actions are aimed at belittling the greatness of the Soviet Union and its successor Russia as a victorious country and destroying the bonds within the victorious people.

FALSIFIERS OF VICTORY

It is significant that back in August 1943, Jan Christian Smuts (Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa in 1939-1948 and Field Marshal of the British Army), one of Winston Churchill's closest associates, speaking about the course of the war, expressed his fears regarding its conduct: “We can certainly fight better, and the comparison with Russia may become less disadvantageous for us. It must seem to the average person that Russia is winning the war. If this impression continues, what will be our position in the international arena after, compared with the position of Russia? Our position in the international arena may change dramatically, and Russia may become the diplomatic master of the world. This is undesirable and unnecessary and would have very bad consequences for British Commonwealth Nations. If we do not leave this war on equal terms, our position will be uncomfortable and dangerous ... "

One of the latest proofs of the information war is the declaration of solidarity of the parliaments of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania. On October 20, 2016, at the same time, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Sejm of Poland adopted a declaration on the events of the Second World War, where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are responsible for its start. And if so, then the events that interpret the history of the war following the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal should be revised, and the symbols and monuments reminiscent of the exploits of the Soviet people in the fight against Nazism should be destroyed.

Unfortunately, part of our opposition liberal intelligentsia has also become saturated with this poison, denying the exploits of the 28 Panfilovites, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and other symbols of the selfless struggle against the German invaders. The well-known Kyrgyz and Russian writer Chingiz Aitmatov in his book "The Brand of Cassandra" (1994) so figuratively described the war: "two heads of a physiologically single monster grappled in a confrontation not for life, but for death." The USSR for them is “the era of Stalin-Hitler or, on the contrary, Hitler-Stalin,” and this is “their internecine war.”

Meanwhile, the Russian scientist Sergey Kara-Murza in his book “Soviet Civilization” emphasizes that in a review of German literature on Stalingrad, the German historian Hettling writes: “In (German) historiography and in public opinion, a unity of views has been established on two points: deliberately conceived and waged as a war of conquest of annihilation along racial lines; secondly, it was not only Hitler and the Nazi leadership who initiated it - the tops of the Wehrmacht and representatives of private business also played a significant role in unleashing the war.

The German writer Heinrich Bell, the Nobel laureate in literature, expressed his view of the war best of all in his last work, in fact, a testament, “Letter to my sons”: “... I have not the slightest reason to complain about the Soviet Union. The fact that I was ill there several times, was wounded there, is inherent in the “nature of things”, which in this case is called war, and I always understood: we were not invited there.”

FAMOUS BATTLE EPISODE

The destruction of the image of the Great Patriotic War, of course, cannot occur without discretization of its symbols. Under the guise of a search for truth, both the events of the war and the exploits of its participants are interpreted differently. One of these heroic events, which is reflected in our and Western literature, is the sinking on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine "S-13" under the command of Captain 3rd Rank Alexander Marinesko of the liner "Wilhelm Gustloff" in the Danzig Bay. We call this famous combat episode the "Attack of the Century", while the Germans consider it the largest maritime disaster, perhaps even more terrible than the death of the Titanic. In Germany, the Gustloff is a symbol of disaster, and in Russia it is a symbol of our military victories.

Alexander Marinesko is one of the figures of the period of the Great Patriotic War, which still causes controversy, since it is fanned by many myths and legends. Undeservedly forgotten, and then returned from oblivion - May 5, 1990 A.I. Marinesko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Monuments to Marinesko and his crew were erected in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt, St. Petersburg and Odessa. His name is included in the Golden Book of St. Petersburg.

Here is how he explained such an underestimation of the actions of A.I. Marinesko in his article “Attacking the S-13” (Neva magazine No. 7 for 1968), Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, Commissar and Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy from 1939 to 1947: “History knows many cases when heroic deeds committed on the battlefield for a long time remain in the shadows and only the descendants evaluate them according to their merits. It also happens that during the war years, large-scale events are not given due importance, reports about them are questioned and lead people to surprise and admiration much later. Such a fate befell the Baltic ace - submariner Marinesko A.I. Alexander Ivanovich is no longer alive. But his feat will forever remain in the memory of Soviet sailors.

Further, he notes that “I personally learned about the sinking of a large German ship in the Danzig Bay only a month after the Crimean Conference. Against the backdrop of everyday victories, this event, apparently, was not given much importance. But even then, when it became known that the Gustlav was sunk by the S-13 submarine, the command did not dare to present A. Marinesko to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the complex and restless nature of the C-13 commander, high heroism, desperate courage coexisted with many shortcomings and weaknesses. Today he could accomplish a heroic feat, and tomorrow he could be late for his ship, preparing to leave for a combat mission, or in any other way violate military discipline.

It can be said without exaggeration that his name is also widely known all over the world. Immediately after the war, a bust of A.I. Marinesko.

As N.G. Kuznetsov, a member of the Potsdam and Yalta conferences, in early February 1945, the governments of the allied powers gathered in the Crimea to discuss measures to ensure the final defeat of fascist Germany and outline the paths for the post-war world.

“At the very first meeting in the Livadia Palace in Yalta, Churchill asked Stalin: when Soviet troops capture Danzig, where a large number of under construction and finished German submarines? He asked to expedite the capture of this port.

The anxiety of the English premier was understandable. Britain's war effort and the supply of its population depended largely on maritime transport. However, the wolf packs continued to rampage on sea lanes. Danzig was one of the main nests of fascist submarine pirates. The German diving school was also located here, the floating barracks for which was the Wilhelm Gustlav liner.

BATTLE FOR THE ATLANTIC

For the British, allies of the USSR in the battle against Nazi Germany, the battle for the Atlantic was of decisive importance for the entire course of the war. Winston Churchill in The Second World War» gives the following estimate of the losses of the crew. In 1940, merchant ships with a total displacement of 4 million tons were lost, and in 1941 - more than 4 million tons. In 1942, after the United States became allies of Great Britain, almost 8 million tons of ships were sunk from the total increased tonnage of allied ships . Until the end of 1942, German submarines sank more ships than the Allies had time to build. By the end of 1943, tonnage gains finally surpassed total losses at sea, and in the second quarter German U-boat losses surpassed their construction for the first time. Subsequently, the moment came when in the Atlantic the losses of enemy submarines exceeded the losses in merchant ships. But this, Churchill emphasizes, came at the cost of a long and bitter struggle.

German submariners also smashed caravans of allied transports delivering Lend-Lease to Murmansk military equipment and materials. The infamous PQ-17 caravan lost 24 out of 36 ships from submarine and aircraft strikes, and together with them 430 tanks, 210 aircraft, 3350 vehicles and 99,316 tons of cargo.

In World War II, instead of using raiders - ships of the surface fleet - Germany switched to unrestricted submarine warfare (uneingeschränkter U-Boot-Krieg), when submarines began to sink civilian merchant ships without warning and at the same time did not try to save the crews of these ships. In fact, a pirate motto was adopted: "Sink them all." At the same time, the commander of the German submarine fleet, Vice Admiral Karl Dennits, developed the tactics " wolf packs”, when submarine attacks on convoys of ships were carried out by a group of submarines at the same time. Karl Doenitz also organized a supply system for submarines directly in the ocean, away from bases.

To avoid the pursuit of submarines by Allied anti-submarine forces, on September 17, 1942, Dönitz issued the Triton Zero order or “Laconia-Befehl order”, which forbade submarine commanders from making any attempt to save the crews and passengers of sunken ships and ships.

Until September 1942, after the attack, German submarines somehow provided assistance to sailors of sunken ships. In particular, on September 12, 1942, the submarine U-156 sank the British transport ship Laconia and assisted in the rescue of the crew and passengers. On September 16, four submarines (one Italian), carrying several hundred rescued, were attacked by American planes whose pilots knew that the Germans and Italians were rescuing the British.

The "wolf packs" of Doenitz's submarines inflicted great damage on the Allied convoys. At the beginning of the war, the German submarine fleet was the dominant force in the Atlantic. Great Britain, with great effort, defended its transport shipping, vital to the mother country. In the first half of 1942, the loss of Allied transports from "wolf packs" of submarines reached a maximum of 900 ships (with a displacement of 4 million tons). For the whole of 1942, 1,664 Allied ships (with a displacement of 7,790,697 tons) were sunk, of which 1,160 ships were submarines.

In 1943, a turning point came - for every Allied ship sunk, the German submarine fleet began to lose one submarine. In total, 1155 submarines were built in Germany, of which 644 units were lost in combat. (67%). Submarines At that time they could not stay under water for a long time, they were constantly attacked by planes and ships of the allied fleets on their way to the Atlantic. German submarines still managed to break through to heavily guarded convoys. But it was already much more difficult for them to do this, despite the technical equipment of their own radars, reinforced anti-aircraft artillery weapons, and when attacking ships, with homing acoustic torpedoes. However, in 1945, despite the agony of the Nazi regime, submarine war still continued.

In January 1945, the Soviet army was rapidly moving to the West, in the direction of Koenigsberg and Danzig. Hundreds of thousands of Germans, fearing retribution for the atrocities of the Nazis, became refugees and moved towards the port city of Gdynia - the Germans called it Gotenhafen. On January 21, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz gave the order: "All available German ships must save everything that can be saved from the Soviets." The officers were ordered to redeploy the submarine cadets and their military equipment, and in any free corner of their ships - to accommodate refugees, and especially women and children. Operation Hannibal was the largest evacuation of the population in the history of navigation: over two million people were transported by sea vessels to the west.

Built in 1937, the Wilhelm Gustloff, named after a slain associate of Hitler in Switzerland, was one of the finest German liners. The ten-deck liner with a displacement of 25,484 tons seemed to them, like the Titanic in its time, unsinkable. A magnificent cruise ship with a cinema and a swimming pool served as the pride of the Third Reich. It was intended to demonstrate to the whole world the achievements of Nazi Germany. Hitler himself participated in the descent of the ship, which was his personal cabin. For the Hitlerite cultural leisure organization “Strength through Joy”, the liner transported vacationers to Norway and Sweden for a year and a half, and with the outbreak of World War II it became a floating barracks for cadets of the 2nd diving training division.

January 30, 1945 "Gustloff" went on his last flight from Gotenhafen. About how many refugees and soldiers were on board, the data of German sources differ. With regard to refugees, until 1990 the figure was almost constant, since many of the survivors of that tragedy lived in the GDR. According to their testimonies, the number of refugees has grown to 10,000 people. With regard to the military on this flight, the latest sources speak of a figure within one and a half thousand people. Passenger assistants were engaged in counting, one of them was officer Heinz Schön, who after the war became the chronicler of the death of the Gustloff and the author of documentary books on this topic, including The Gustloff Catastrophe and SOS - Wilhelm Gustloff.

Shen describes in detail the story of the sinking of the liner. At the end of January, a snow storm raged over Danzing Bay. In Gotenhafen, day and night, work was in full swing. The advanced units of the Red Army, tirelessly advancing to the west, caused an unprecedented panic, the Nazis hastily took out the stolen property, dismantled the machines at the factories. And the rumble of Soviet guns was getting closer.

"Wilhelm Gustloff", standing at the quay wall, receives an order to take on board 4 thousand people to transfer them to Kiel. And the liner is designed to carry 1800 passengers. In the early morning of January 25, a stream of military and civilians poured onto the ship. People who have been waiting for transport for several days are storming places. Formally, everyone entering the ship must have a special pass, but in reality, Nazi dignitaries are randomly loaded onto the ship, saving their own skins, officers of the navy, SS and police - all those whose earth is burning under their feet.

January 29. In Gdynia, the roar of the Soviet Katyushas is heard more and more, but the Gustloff continues to stand by the shore. There are already about 6 thousand people on board, but hundreds of people continue to storm the gangway.

January 30, 1945 ... Despite all the efforts of the crew, the passages could not be freed. Only one room is not occupied - Hitler's apartments. But when the family of the burgomaster of Gdynia, consisting of 13 people, appears, she also takes care of it. At 10 o'clock an order comes - to leave the port ...

Midnight is approaching. The sky is covered with snow clouds. The moon hides behind them. Heinz Shen descends into the cabin, pours a glass of cognac. Suddenly the whole hull of the ship shudders, three torpedoes hit the side ...

The Wilhelm Gustloff slowly sinks into the water. To calm down, they say from the bridge that the liner has run aground ... The ship is gradually sinking to a depth of sixty meters. Finally, the last command is given: "Save yourself, who can!" Few were lucky: only about a thousand people were saved by the approaching ships.

Nine ships participated in their rescue. People tried to escape on life rafts and boats, but most survived only a few minutes in the icy water. In total, according to Shen, 1,239 people survived, of which half, 528 people, were the personnel of German submariners, 123 people of the female auxiliary of the Navy, 86 wounded, 83 crew members and only 419 refugees. Thus, about 50% of the submariners and only 5% of the rest of the passengers survived. It must be admitted that most of the dead were women and children, the most vulnerable in any war. That is why in some German circles they are trying to classify Marinesco's actions as "war crimes."

In this regard, the story of the native of Danzing, the Nobel laureate Günther Grass, The Trajectory of the Crab, published in 2002 in Germany and almost immediately became a bestseller, is interesting, based on the death of Wilhelm Gustloff. The essay is written witty, but it sounds, interrupting all the others, one leitmotif: an attempt to bring the actions of Hitler's Europe and their winner - the Soviet Union - onto the same plane, based on the tragedy of the war. The author describes the brutal death scene of the passengers of the Gustloff - dead children "floating upside down" because of the bulky life jackets they were wearing. The reader is led to the idea that the S-13 submarine under the command of A.I. Marinesko sank a liner with refugees on board, allegedly fleeing from the atrocities and rapes of the advancing Red Army soldiers, thirsting for revenge. And Marinesko is one of the representatives of this impending "horde of barbarians." The author also draws attention to the fact that all four torpedoes prepared for the attack had inscriptions - “For the Motherland”, “For the Soviet people”, “For Leningrad” and “For Stalin”. By the way, the latter just could not get out of the torpedo tube. The author describes in some detail the entire biography of Marinesko. It is emphasized that before the campaign, he was called for interrogation by the NKVD for misconduct, and only going to sea saved him from the tribunal. Grass's persistent characterization of him as a man with weaknesses, on an emotional level, instills in the reader the idea that the attack on the Gustloff very much looks like a "war crime", such a shadow is cast, although there is not the slightest reason for this. Yes, he drank not only narzan and liked to follow women - which of the men is not sinful in this?

What kind of ship did Marinesco sink to the bottom? The question here is much deeper - in the tragedy of war. Even the most just war is inhuman, because the civilian population suffers from it first of all. According to the inexorable laws of war, Marinesko sank a warship. "Wilhelm Gustloff" had the appropriate signs: anti-aircraft weapons and the flag of the German Navy, and also obeyed military discipline. Under the UN Maritime Convention, it falls under the definition of a warship. And it is not Marinesko's fault that he sank the ship, on which, in addition to the military, there were also refugees. A huge blame for the tragedy lies with the German command, which was guided by military interests and did not think about civilians. At a meeting at Hitler's naval headquarters on January 31, 1945, the commander-in-chief of the German Navy stated that “from the very beginning it was clear that with such active transportation there should be losses. Losses are always very heavy, but, fortunately, they did not increase.

Until now, we have used data, in contrast to Shen's figures, that 3,700 submariners died on the Gustloff, who could have equipped 70 crews of medium-tonnage submarines. This figure, taken from the report of the Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet" dated February 2, 1945, appeared in the award list of A.I. Marinesko for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in February 1945. But the VRID of the commander of the KBF submarine brigade, captain 1st rank L.A. Kournikov reduced the level of the award to the Order of the Red Banner. The legend, created in the 1960s with the light hand of the writer Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov, who at that time made public the unknown pages of the war, also lives on. But Marinesco was not personal enemy Hitler”, and the three-day mourning in Germany for the death of “Gustloff” was not announced. One argument is that thousands more people were waiting to be evacuated by sea, and the news of the disaster would have caused panic. Mourning was declared for Wilhelm Gustloff himself, the leader of the National Socialist Party in Switzerland, who was killed in 1936, and his killer, student David Frankfurter, a Jew by birth, was named the Fuhrer's personal enemy.

THE ACTIONS OF THE SUBMARINES, WHICH ARE STILL DISCUSSED

In 2015, to the 100th anniversary of the birth of A.I. Marinesko published a book by M.E. Morozova, A.G. Svisyuk, V.N. Ivashchenko "Submariner No. 1 Alexander Marinesko. Documentary portrait” from the series “On the front line. The truth about the war. We must pay tribute, the authors collected a large number of documents of that time and made detailed analysis this event of the Great Patriotic War.

However, reading their analysis, you experience conflicting feelings. The authors seem to recognize "it is quite justified to award the "Gold Star" to the commander with two major victories" in this campaign, "if not for one, but a huge but." “And the command of the KBF submarine brigade in 1945 managed to figure it out difficult question, accepting the right decision". By "but" they mean precisely those weaknesses that Günther Grass describes in the said publication and describes in his story.

Also, the authors, recognizing the great risk of actions and the activity of the S-13, question the heroic actions of the submarine crew, believing that “the general conditions of the then situation are perceived as quite simple, and the tactical situation at the time of the attack on the Gustloff is even unprecedentedly easy . That is, in terms of the displayed skill and dedication, this specific case it is very difficult to attribute it to the outstanding ones. ”

"Attack of the Century" is analyzed in detail by experts. Speaking about the S-13 attack, it is worth noting first of all that almost the entire operation was carried out mainly on the surface and in the coastal area. It was a big risk since the submarine was in this position. long time, and if discovered (and Danzing Bay is “home” for the Germans), it could most likely be destroyed. Here it is also worth mentioning the losses of the KBF. In the Baltic, the most complex theater of naval operations, different reasons 49 of the 65 Soviet submarines that were in the fleet at the beginning of the war were lost.

The analysis made at a meeting at Hitler's headquarters on January 31, 1945 is curious. In particular, it was pointed out that, due to the lack of escort forces, the fleet had to confine itself to the direct guarding of convoys. The only actual means of anti-submarine defense were aircraft with radar installations, the very weapon that made it possible to paralyze fighting their submarines. The Air Force reported that they lacked neither fuel nor sufficiently effective equipment for such operations. The Fuhrer ordered the Air Force command to deal with this issue.

The attack does not detract from the fact that the Gustloff left Gotenhafen without an appropriate escort ahead of schedule, without waiting for the escort ships, since it was necessary to urgently transfer German submariners from the already surrounded East Prussia. The only ship in the guard was only the destroyer Leve, which, moreover, with a 12-knot course, began to lag behind due to heavy seas and lateral northwest wind. A fatal role was played by the navigation lights turned on on the Gustloff after a message was received that a detachment of German minesweepers was moving towards it - it was through these lights that Marinesko discovered the transport. To go on the attack, it was decided to overtake the liner on a parallel course in the surface position, take a position on the forward heading angles and launch torpedoes. A long hour-long overtaking of the Gustloff began. During the last half hour, the boat developed its almost maximum speed to 18 knots, which it hardly did even during the sea trials in 1941. After that, the submarine lay down on a combat course, strictly perpendicular to the port side of the transport, and fired a three-torpedo salvo. About the subsequent maneuvers in the combat report of the commander of the S-13 submarine, Captain 3rd Rank Marinesko, it is written: “... Evaded by an urgent dive ... 2 TFR ( patrol ships) and 1 TSC (minesweeper) discovered the submarine and began to pursue it. During the pursuit, 12 depth charges were dropped. Break away from the pursuit of the ships. He had no damage from the explosions of depth charges.

Domestic submarines, unfortunately, by the beginning of the war did not have modern electronic detection equipment. In practice, the periscope remained the main source of information about the surface situation near the submarine. The Mars-type noise direction finders in service made it possible to determine by ear the direction to the noise source with an accuracy of plus or minus 2 degrees. The range of the equipment with good hydrology did not exceed 40 kb. The commanders of German, British and American submarines had sonar stations at their disposal. German submariners, with good hydrology, detected a single transport in the noise direction finding mode at a distance of up to 100 kb, and already from a distance of 20 kb they could get a range to it in the "Echo" mode. All this, of course, directly affected the effectiveness of the use of domestic submarines, required great training from the personnel. At the same time, among submariners, like no other, the crew is objectively dominated by one person, a kind of God in a single enclosed space. Thus, the personality of the commander and the fate of the submarine are something whole. During the war years, in the active fleets of the USSR, out of 229 commanders participating in military campaigns, 135 (59%) at least once launched a torpedo attack, but only 65 (28%) of them managed to hit targets with torpedoes.

The submarine "S-13" in one campaign sank the military transport "Wilhelm Gustloff" with a displacement of 25,484 tons with three torpedoes, and the military transport "General von Steuben", 14,660 tons, with two torpedoes. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 20, 1945 submarine "S-13" was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. With their heroic actions, the S-13 brought the end of the war closer.

Mikhailov Andrey 25.02.2019 at 17:00

It is not in vain that he is considered the most scandalous commander of a submarine of the Great Patriotic War. List of his "sins" before the iron military discipline nothing less than a list of his victories. Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, who made the famous "Attack of the Century" and sank the largest fascist transport "Wilhelm Gustlov", was by no means an angel.

Of the six military campaigns carried out by Marinesko during the Great Patriotic War, three were unsuccessful, but he was the first "heavyweight" among Soviet submariners: he accounted for two sunk transports with a total displacement of 42,557 gross register tons.

His origin was the most dubious from the point of view of the NKVD. Alexander Marinesko was born in 1913 in Odessa in the family of a Romanian worker, Ion Marinescu, his mother is a Ukrainian from a very wealthy family. In general, Romania was treated with suspicion in the Soviet Union, and given that the father of the future submarine hero had all his relatives living abroad, one can imagine how his fate could have turned out. But it passed - neither the father, nor the mother of the future hero, nor the repressions affected him. In any case, there is no mention of this in historical chronicles.

After graduating from a labor school, Alexander Marinesko became a sailor's apprentice. For diligence and patience, he was sent to a junior school, after which he went on the ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company as a first-class sailor. In 1930 he entered the Odessa Nautical College and, graduating from it in 1933, went to the third and second mate on the ships "Ilyich" and "Red Fleet".

He was an active social activist, published a ship's wall newspaper, spoke brightly at Komsomol meetings, and in November 1933, on a Komsomol ticket (according to other sources, on mobilization), he was sent to special courses for naval command staff, after which he was appointed navigator on the Shch-306 submarine ("Haddock") of the Baltic Fleet.

Then he successfully completed retraining courses and became an assistant commander, and then commander of a Malyutka-class submarine. In 1940, his boat took first place in the naval socialist competition and he was promoted to lieutenant commander and awarded a gold watch. On this boat, he met the Great Patriotic War.

I must say its quite successful career took place against the backdrop of an equally successful personal life, rather riotous. In October 1941, Marinesko was expelled from the candidates for membership of the CPSU (b) for drunkenness and organizing gambling in the submarine division. card games. But they left in the commanders: there were countless competent officers then, at the beginning of the war. Only on August 12, 1942, his M-96 boat went on a military campaign.

And almost immediately, on August 14, his boat attacked a German heavy floating battery. According to the observation of the commander Marinesko, as a result of the attack, the ship went to the bottom - so he reported to his superiors. However, in fact, the battery still remained afloat and slowly "docked" to its base without a tug, although with heavy damage - and did not participate in hostilities until the end of the war.

At the end of 1942, Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank, he was again accepted as a candidate member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, but in a generally good combat record for 1942, it was noted in a separate line that he was prone to frequent drinks on the shore ... In 1943 he new boat S-13 did not go on military campaigns, and the commander got into another "drunk" story. The submarine under his command went on a campaign only in October 1944.

On the very first day of the campaign, Alexander Marinesko discovered and attacked the German transport Siegfried. The attack failed, the torpedoes missed, and he fired on him with artillery pieces. The commander, who saw the transport slowly sink into the water, again reported its sinking. In fact, the damaged German transport was hastily towed by the enemy to Danzig and by the spring of 1945 had already been restored. For this campaign, Alexander Marinesko received the Order of the Red Banner.

And finally came" finest hour"submarine commander. From January 9 to February 15, 1945, the scandalous commander was on his fifth military campaign, during which two large enemy transports, the Wilhelm Gustloff and Steuben, were sunk.

Before this campaign, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral V.F. Tributs, decided to bring Marinesko to court-martial (which was usually followed by execution) for unauthorized abandonment of the ship in a combat situation (in new year's eve the commander left his boat for two days, the crew of which during this time "distinguished itself" by sorting out relations with the local population). But the admiral delayed the execution of this decision, giving the commander and crew the opportunity to atone for their guilt in a military campaign. Thus, S-13 became the only "penalty" submarine of the Soviet fleet.

"Wilhelm Gustloff" was the largest tonnage ship sunk by Soviet submariners, and the second in terms of the number of victims. "Official" historians describe this attack in this way, almost immediately called the "Attack of the Century". Late in the evening on January 30, 1945, S-13 took up a position on the parallel course of the convoy from the coast. An hour later, having penetrated the line of guard destroyers, Marinesko's submarine prepared for an attack.

A volley of four bow torpedo tubes put an end to the fate of the Nazi liner. One torpedo exploded in the bow of the ship, the second - in the middle, the third - in the stern. The fourth torpedo did not leave the apparatus due to a technical malfunction. 10 minutes after the torpedoing, the nine-deck colossus lay on board and sank another five minutes later. Only 988 people were saved.

Was irreparable damage inflicted on the German submarine forces, as the Soviet press wrote? Did Hitler declare Alexander Marinesko a personal enemy? Some primary sources cite the following data: on board the deceased from Soviet torpedoes"Wilhelm Gustlov" there were 10582 people: 918 cadets junior groups 2nd submarine training division, 173 crew members, 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded military personnel and 8956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children. That is, based on such data, we can assume that Marinesko attacked transport primarily with refugees? Horror…

According to some modern data based on German archives, 406 sailors and officers of the second training division of the German submarine forces, 90 members of their own crew, 250 female soldiers of the German fleet and 4,600 refugees and wounded (including almost three thousand children) died with the Gustloff. ). There are other estimates of the number of victims, up to 9343 people. Of the submariners, according to these estimates, 16 officers died (including eight of the medical service), the rest were poorly trained cadets who still needed at least a six-month training course. From the military on board the transport, it was allegedly impossible to form a single full-fledged trained crew of a combat submarine. That is, not such a strong damage was inflicted on the German submarine forces.

Sometimes in various publications (and a lot on the Internet) it is stated that, contrary to the assertions of a number of military men and historians, a three-day mourning for a sunken ship in Germany was not declared (during the entire war it was declared only for the 6th Wehrmacht Army destroyed in Stalingrad) and Adolf Hitler Alexandra Marinesko did not declare his personal enemy at all! As they say, we have the most unpredictable history in the world.

About 30 years ago, under the USSR, the name of Alexander Marinesko in the official press and historical books of that time, although reluctantly, was nevertheless called the name of a hero. Now, assessments of the actions of Marinesco and the C-13 crew vary greatly. And what did the real witnesses of military events say?

In the early 80s, while studying at the Sevastopol Higher Naval Engineering School, the author of these lines, as part of cadet groups, heard more than once the personal memories of wartime submariners - the patriotic educational process was then at its best. So, their opinions regarding the exploits of Marinesko differed as strikingly as the opinions of various historians!

Alexander Marinesko is one of the most controversial figures of the Great Patriotic War, around whom controversy still does not subside. A man covered in many myths and legends. Undeservedly forgotten, and then returned from oblivion.

Today in Russia they are proud of him, they perceive him as a national hero. Last year, a monument to Marinesko appeared in Kaliningrad, his name was entered in the Golden Book of St. Petersburg. Many books have been published dedicated to his feat, among them the recently published "Submariner No. 1" by Vladimir Borisov. And in Germany they still cannot forgive him for the death of the Wilhelm Gustloff ship. We call this famous combat episode the "Attack of the Century", while the Germans consider it the largest maritime disaster, perhaps even more terrible than the sinking of the Titanic.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the name of Marinesko in Germany is known to everyone, and the topic of "Gustloff" today, after many years, excites the press and public opinion. Especially in recent times, after the story "The Trajectory of the Crab" came out in Germany and almost immediately became a bestseller. Its author, the famous German writer, Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass, reveals the unknown pages of the flight of East Germans to the West, and in the center of events is the Gustloff disaster. For many Germans, the book was a real revelation...

The death of the Gustloff is not without reason called a "hidden tragedy", the truth about which both sides hid for a long time: we always said that the ship was the color of the German submarine fleet and never mentioned the thousands of dead refugees, and the post-war Germans, who grew up with a sense of repentance for crimes of the Nazis, hushed up this story, because they feared accusations of revanchism. Those who tried to talk about those killed on the Gustloff, about the horrors of the German flight from East Prussia, were immediately perceived as "extreme right." Only with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the entry into a united Europe did it become possible to look more calmly to the east and talk about many things that were not customary to remember for a long time ...

The price of the "attack of the century"

Whether we like it or not, we still cannot get around the question: what did Marinesko drown - a warship of the Nazi elite or a ship of refugees? What happened in the Baltic Sea on the night of January 30, 1945?

In those days Soviet army rapidly moved to the West, in the direction of Koenigsberg and Danzig. Hundreds of thousands of Germans, fearing retribution for the atrocities of the Nazis, became refugees and moved towards the port city of Gdynia - the Germans called it Gotenhafen. On January 21, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz gave the order: "All available German ships must save everything that can be saved from the Soviets." The officers were ordered to redeploy submarine cadets and their military equipment, and in any free corner of their ships - to accommodate refugees, and especially women and children. Operation Hannibal was the largest evacuation of the population in the history of navigation: over two million people were transported to the west.

Gotenhafen became the last hope for many refugees - there were not only large warships, but also large liners, each of which could take on board thousands of refugees. One of them was the Wilhelm Gustloff, which seemed unsinkable to the Germans. Built in 1937, the magnificent cruise ship with a cinema and a swimming pool served as the pride of the "Third Reich", it was intended to demonstrate to the whole world the achievements of Nazi Germany. Hitler himself participated in the descent of the ship, which was his personal cabin. For the Hitlerite cultural leisure organization "Strength through Joy", the liner delivered vacationers to Norway and Sweden for a year and a half, and with the outbreak of World War II it became a floating barracks for cadets of the 2nd diving training division.

January 30, 1945 "Gustloff" went on his last flight from Gotenhafen. About how many refugees and soldiers were on board, the data of German sources differ. As for refugees, until 1990 the figure was almost constant, since many of the survivors of that tragedy lived in the GDR - and there this topic was not subject to discussion. Now they began to testify, and the number of refugees grew to ten thousand people. In relation to the military, the figure almost did not change - it is within one and a half thousand people. The calculation was carried out by "passenger assistants", one of whom was Heinz Schön, who after the war became the chronicler of the death of the Gustloff and the author of several documentary books on this topic, including The Gustloff Catastrophe and SOS - Wilhelm Gustloff.

The submarine "S-13" under the command of Alexander Marinesko hit the liner with three torpedoes. The surviving passengers left terrible memories of the last minutes of the Gustloff. People tried to escape on life rafts, but most only lasted a few minutes in the icy water. Nine ships participated in the rescue of its passengers. The terrifying pictures are forever etched in my memory: children's heads are heavier than their legs, and therefore only their legs are visible on the surface. Lots of baby feet...

So, how many managed to survive this catastrophe? According to Shen, 1239 people survived, of which half, 528 people, were the personnel of German submariners, 123 women auxiliary personnel navy, 86 injured, 83 crew members and only 419 refugees. These figures are well known in Germany and today it makes no sense to hide them with us. Thus, 50% of the submariners and only 5% of the refugees survived. We have to admit that, basically, women and children died - they were completely unarmed before the war. Such was the price of the "attack of the century" and that is why in Germany today many Germans consider Marinesco's actions a war crime.

Refugees become hostages of a ruthless war machine

However, let's not rush to conclusions. The question here is much deeper - about the tragedy of war. Even the most just war is inhuman, because the civilian population suffers first of all from it. According to the inexorable laws of war, Marinesko sank a warship, and it is not his fault that he sank a ship with refugees. A huge blame for the tragedy lies with the German command, which was guided by military interests and did not think about civilians.

The fact is that the Gustloff left Gotenhafen without proper escort and ahead of schedule, without waiting for the escort ships, since it was necessary to urgently transfer German submariners from the already surrounded East Prussia. The Germans knew that this area was especially dangerous for ships. A fatal role was played by the side lights turned on on the Gustloff after a message was received that a detachment of German minesweepers was moving towards it - it was through these lights that Marinesko discovered the liner. And, finally, on her last voyage, the ship left not as a hospital ship, but as a military transport, painted in grey colour and equipped with anti-aircraft guns.

Until now, Shen's figures are practically unknown to us, and data continue to be used that the color of the German submarine fleet died on the Gustloff - 3,700 sailors, who could have equipped from 70 to 80 submarines. This figure, taken from the report of the Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet" dated February 2, 1945, was considered indisputable by us and was not questioned. Until now, the legends created back in the 1960s with the light hand of the writer Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov, who raised the then unknown pages of the war - the feat of Marinesko and the defense Brest Fortress. But no, Marinesco was never "Hitler's personal enemy", and a three-day mourning was not announced in Germany for the death of "Gustloff". This was not done for the simple reason that thousands more people were waiting to be evacuated by sea, and the news of the disaster would have caused panic. Mourning was declared for Wilhelm Gustloff himself, the leader of the National Socialist Party in Switzerland, who was killed in 1936, and his killer, student David Frankfurter, was named Hitler's personal enemy.

Why do we still hesitate to name the true extent of that tragedy? It is sad to admit it, but we are afraid that the feat of Marinesko will fade. However, today even many Germans understand that the German side provoked Marinesko. "It was brilliant military operation, thanks to which the initiative of dominance in the naval war in the Baltic was firmly intercepted by Soviet sailors, - says Yuri Lebedev, Deputy Director of the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces named after A.I. Marinesko. - By its actions, the S-13 submarine brought the end of the war closer. It was a strategic success for the Soviet navy, and for Germany, the biggest maritime disaster. Marinesko's feat is that he destroyed the seemingly unsinkable symbol of Nazism, a dream ship promoting the "Third Reich". And the civilians who were on the ship became hostages of the German military machine. Therefore, the tragedy of the death of "Gustloff" is not an accusation against Marinesco, but against Hitler's Germany."

Recognizing that not only German submariners, but also refugees were on the sunken Gustloff, we will take one more step towards recognizing a historical, albeit unpleasant for us, fact. But we need to get out of this situation, because in Germany "Gustloff" is a symbol of trouble, and in Russia it is a symbol of our military victories. The question of "Gustloff" and Marinesko is a very complex and delicate one, affecting the present and future of relations between Russia and Germany. It was not for nothing that Consul General of Germany Ulrich Schoening, who recently visited the Museum of the Submarine Forces of Russia named after A.I. This is called for by the sinking of the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945.

Today we have the opportunity to move towards reconciliation even in such a difficult issue - through historical authenticity. After all, there are no black and white colors in history. And the uniqueness of Marinesko is that his personality does not leave anyone indifferent. His legendary personality may be destined for immortality. He became a legend and will remain so...

Alexander Marinesko became "submariner No. 1" thanks to the "Attack of the Century", during which the liner "Wilhelm Gustloff" was sunk. He was very self-willed, drank a lot, was in prison, and his major feat committed against the orders of his superiors.

Baltic from Odessa

Marinesko was born in Odessa, from childhood he loved and knew the sea, he learned to dive and swim perfectly at the age of 7. According to the memoirs of Marinesco himself, every morning, together with friends, they went to the sea and spent time there swimming and catching gobies, mackerel, chirus and flounder.
Biographers argue about Marinesko's criminal youth. Odessa in those years was indeed a gangster city, exactly as Babel described it in his famous stories.
By inheritance from his father, a sailor and a Romanian by nationality, Marinesko inherited a violent temper and a craving for adventure. In 1893, Marinescu Sr. beat an officer, was put on trial, where he was threatened with the death penalty. He escaped from the punishment cell, swam across the Danube, married a Ukrainian woman, and went into hiding for a long time.
It would seem that everything in the character and biography of Marinesko Jr. led to the fact that he would become the captain of a Soviet merchant ship on the Black Sea, a smuggler and a merry fellow. But fate and Marinesko decided otherwise: not southern, but northern seas, not a merchant, but a navy, not a captain sea ship, and the commander of an underwater predator.
Of the 13 diesel-electric torpedo submarines of the Baltic Fleet of class "C" (medium), only one survived during the war, under the unlucky number 13. The one commanded by Marinesko from Odessa.

Alcoholism

The author of the Soviet apologetic book dedicated to Marinesko - "Sea Captain" - Alexander Kron recalls that his first acquaintance with the legendary submariner took place in 1942: Marinesko drank alcohol with colleagues.
"Drunk" stories happened to Marinesko regularly. In October 1941, the submariner was expelled from the candidates for membership of the CPSU (b) for organizing gambling card games and alcohol abuse. Exactly a year later, then still the commander of the M-96 boat, Marinesko successfully landed a Soviet landing force in Narva Bay, hunting for the German Enigma cipher machine.

The operation ended in failure - the car was never found - but the actions of the submariner were highly appreciated, Marinesko was presented for an award and reinstated as a candidate member of the party, but in the combat description they again mentioned an addiction to alcohol.
In April 1943, Marinesko was appointed commander of the S-13 boat, the very one on which he would accomplish his main military exploits. And his civil “exploits” never stopped: “During the summer and autumn of the forty-third, Marinesko visited the guardhouse twice, and received a warning through the party line, and then a reprimand. The reason for the penalties was not drinking in itself, Alexander Ivanovich drank no more than others at that time, but in one case, unauthorized absence, in the other - being late.

Women

The most scandalous incident, after which Marinesko was almost handed over to a military tribunal, happened to him in early 1945. It took place in Turku, on the territory of neutral Finland. In October 1944, during a military raid, the crew of Marinesko destroyed the German Siegfried transport: the torpedo attack on the Soviet submarine failed and the sailors entered into an artillery duel, in which the S-13 won, however, receiving damage.

Therefore, from November to December 1944, the S-13 was under repair in Finland. The team and the captain languished from idleness, the blues attacked. Throughout his life, Marinesko was married three times and at that time his next marriage was falling apart. On New Year's Eve, Marinesko, along with another Soviet officer, went on a spree ... and disappeared.
As it turned out later, Marinesko met the owner of one of the local hotels, a Swede, and stayed overnight with her. The commander of the Soviet submarine was wanted. Time is military, Finland has just left the war, in general, the fears were different. But Marinesko was just having fun - love for women turned out to be stronger feelings debt.

"Penalty" boat

After the Finnish scandal, Marinesko had one way - to the tribunal. But the team loved the commander, and the authorities appreciated him as an experienced sailor, although at that time there were no outstanding military successes for Marinesko. The commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vladimir Tributs, decided to postpone the punishment: this is how the S-13 became the only “penalty” boat, by analogy with penal battalions, in the Soviet fleet. In the January campaign of 1945, Marinesko, in fact, set off for a feat. Only a very large sea "booty" could save him from punishment.

"Attack of the Century"

For almost a month, the S-13 cruised unsuccessfully in a given area. The submariners failed to locate the target. Marinesko decides to break the order and change course. What drove them? Excitement, flair, the need to excel or the sailor waved his hand, they say, "seven troubles one answer" - we will never know.
On January 30, at 21:15, the S-13 discovered in the Baltic waters the German transport Wilhelm Gustlov, accompanied by an escort, carrying a modern estimates over 10 thousand people, most of whom were refugees from East Prussia: the elderly, children, women. But also on the Gustlov were German submarine cadets, crew members and other military personnel.
Marinesko began hunting. For almost three hours, the Soviet submarine followed the giant transporter (the displacement of the Gustlov was over 25 thousand tons. For comparison: the steamer Titanic and the battleship Bismarck had a displacement of about 50 thousand tons).
Having chosen the moment, Marinesko attacked the Gustlov with three torpedoes, each of which hit the target. The fourth torpedo with the inscription "For Stalin" got stuck. The sailors miraculously managed to avoid an explosion on the boat. Avoiding the pursuit of the German military escort, the S-13 was bombed by over 200 depth charges.
Ten days later, the S-13 sank another German giant liner, the General Steuben, with a displacement of almost 15,000 tons.
Thus, Marinesko's winter campaign became the most outstanding combat raid in the history of the Soviet submarine fleet, but the commander and crew were deprived of well-deserved awards and glory. Perhaps because Marinesko and his team were the least like textbook Soviet heroes.

Conviction and epileptic seizures

The sixth raid, which Marinesko made in the spring of 1945, was considered unsuccessful. According to people who knew Marinesko, he began to have epileptic seizures, and conflicts with superiors and drunken stories continued. The submariner allegedly independently turned to the leadership with a request to dismiss him from the fleet, but the order of the People's Commissar of the Navy N. G. Kuznetsov speaks of removal from office "due to negligent attitude to his duties, drunkenness and everyday promiscuity."
In the late forties, Marinesko finally abandoned the sea and became deputy director of the Leningrad Research Institute of Blood Transfusion. Strange choice! Soon Marinesko was accused of embezzlement and sentenced to three years: an obscure act and for those years a rather lenient sentence. However, the legendary submariner served part of the term in Kolyma.

Somersaults of memory

Disputes about the identity of Marinesko and the legendary "Attack of the Century" have not subsided for fifty years. What was it? Immediately after the Second World War in the Museum of the Royal naval forces Great Britain was erected a monument to Marinesko. In the USSR, the team was deprived of well-deserved awards, the feat was hushed up, and in 1967 an article was published in the Sovetsky Baltiets newspaper saying that Gustlov drowned Efremenkov, and Marinesko was "out of order".
In the mid-80s, Izvestia started a two-year newspaper war with the USSR Ministry of Defense and the leadership of the Navy, according to Marinesko's publication, undeservedly forgotten hero The military took a different view. Even the daughters of Marinesko from different marriages treated the father’s personality differently: one considered him a scoundrel, the other thanked the people who tried to restore good name Alexander Ivanovich.
Abroad, the attitude towards the personality of Marinesko is also ambiguous. Nobel Prize winner in Literature Günther Grass has published Trajectory of the Crab, a fictional study of Attack of the Century, where dark colors described the commander of the Soviet submarine. The American journalist John Miller twice came to the Soviet Union for information about Marinesko in order to write a book about a drunkard and a rebel, who gained fame as an "underwater ace" for his desperate courage.
Marinesko’s later military attestations are full of reprimands and other “service inconsistencies”, but in one of his early maritime teachers they wrote: “May neglect personal interests for the sake of service”, and even, supposedly, there is a very short characteristic: “Capable of a feat”.

Captain of the 3rd rank, known for the "Attack of the Century". Hero of the Soviet Union (1990).

Biography

Childhood and youth

Alexander Ivanovich was born in Odessa. From 1920 to 1926 he studied at a labor school. From 1930 to 1933, Marinesko studied at the Odessa Nautical College.

Alexander Ivanovich himself never wanted to be a military man, but only dreamed of serving in the merchant fleet. In March 1936, in connection with the introduction of personal military ranks Marinesko received the rank of lieutenant, and in November 1938 - senior lieutenant.

After graduating from retraining courses, he served as an assistant commander on the L-1, then as commander of the M-96 submarine, the crew of which, following the results of combat and political training in 1940, took first place, and the commander was awarded a gold watch and promoted to lieutenant commander.

War time

In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, the M-96 under the command of Alexander Ivanovich was relocated to Paldiski, then to Tallinn, stood in position in the Gulf of Riga, had no collisions with the enemy. In August 1941, they planned to transfer the submarine to the Caspian Sea as a training one, then this idea was abandoned.

On August 12, 1942, the M-96 went on another combat campaign. On August 14, 1942, the boat attacked a German convoy. According to Marinesko's report, he fired two torpedoes at German transport. According to German sources, the attack was unsuccessful - the ships of the convoy observed the trail of one torpedo, which they successfully evaded. Returning from the position, Marinesko did not warn the Soviet patrols, and when surfacing, he did not raise the naval flag, as a result of which his own boats almost sank the boat.

At the end of 1942, Marinesko was awarded the rank of captain of the 3rd rank. In April 1943, Marinesko was appointed commander of the S-13 submarine. The submarine under his command went on a campaign only in October 1944. On the very first day of the campaign, on October 9, Marinesko discovered and attacked the Siegfried transport. The attack with four torpedoes from a short distance failed, and artillery fire from the 45-mm and 100-mm guns of the submarine had to be fired at the transport.

From January 9 to February 15, 1945, Marinesko was on his fifth military campaign, during which two large enemy transports, Wilhelm Gustloff and Steuben, were sunk. Before this campaign, the commander of the Baltic Fleet V.F. Tributs decided to bring Marinesko to court-martial for unauthorized abandonment of the ship in a combat situation, but he delayed the execution of this decision, allowing the commander and crew to atone for their guilt in a military campaign.

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

On January 30, 1945, S-13 attacked and sent the Wilhelm Gustloff liner to the bottom, on which there were 10,582 people:

918 cadets of junior groups of the 2nd submarine training division
173 crew members
373 women from the Auxiliary Marine Corps
162 seriously wounded soldiers
8956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children

Transport, the former ocean liner "Wilhelm Gustloff", went without a convoy. Due to a lack of fuel, the liner was heading straight, without performing an anti-submarine zigzag, and the damage to the hull received earlier during the bombing did not allow it to reach high speed. It was previously believed that the German Navy was seriously damaged. So, according to the Marine magazine, 1,300 submariners died with the ship, among whom were fully formed submarine crews and their commanders. According to the commander of the division, captain 1st rank A. Orel, the dead German submariners would be enough to equip 70 submarines of medium tonnage. Subsequently, the Soviet press called the sinking of "Wilhelm Gustloff" "the attack of the century", and Marinesko - "submariner No. 1".

End of the war

On February 10, 1945, a new victory followed - on the approach to the Danzig Bay, S-13 sank the Steuben ambulance transport, on board which were 2680 wounded military personnel, 100 soldiers, about 900 refugees, 270 military medical personnel and 285 ship crew members. Of these, 659 people were saved, of which the wounded were about 350. It must be borne in mind that the ship was armed with anti-aircraft machine guns and guns, went on guard and transported healthy soldiers as well. In this regard, strictly speaking, it could not be attributed to hospital courts. It should also be noted that Marinesco identified the attacked ship as light cruiser"Emden". The S-13 commander was not only forgiven for his previous sins, but was also presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the higher command replaced the Golden Star with the Order of the Red Banner. The sixth military campaign from April 20 to May 13, 1945 was considered unsatisfactory. Then, according to the commander of the submarine brigade, Captain 1st Rank Kournikov, Marinesko:

On May 31, the commander of the submarine division submitted a report to the higher command, in which he indicated that the submarine commander was drinking all the time, was not engaged in official duties, and his continued stay in this position was inappropriate. On September 14, 1945, Order No. 01979 of the Commissar of the Navy N.G. was issued. Kuznetsov, where it was said:

From October 18, 1945 to November 20, 1945, Marinesko was the commander of the minesweeper T-34 of the 2nd division of minesweepers of the 1st Red Banner Mining Brigade of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. On November 20, 1945, by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy No. 02521, Senior Lieutenant Marinesko A.I. was retired. Submarines under the command of Alexander Marinesko made six military campaigns during the Great Patriotic War. Two transports sunk, one damaged. The M-96 attack in 1942 ended in a miss. Alexander Marinesko holds the record among Soviet submariners in terms of the total tonnage of enemy ships sunk: 42,557 gross register tons.

post-war period

After the war, in 1946-1949, Marinesko worked as a senior mate on the ships of the Baltic State Commercial Shipping Company, in 1949 - as deputy director of the Leningrad Research Institute of Blood Transfusion. In 1949 he was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of squandering socialist property, he served his sentence in 1949-1951 in Vanino. In 1951-1953 he worked as a topographer for the Onega-Ladoga expedition, since 1953 he was in charge of a group of the supply department at the Mezon plant in Leningrad. Marinesko died in Leningrad after a serious and prolonged illness on November 25, 1963. He was buried at the Theological Cemetery in St. Petersburg. Nearby is the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces. A.I. Marinesko. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was awarded posthumously on May 5, 1990.

Memory

Monuments of A.I. Marinesko are installed in Kaliningrad, Kronstadt, St. Petersburg and Odessa.
In Kronstadt, on house number 2 on Kommunisticheskaya Street, in which Marinesko lived, a memorial plaque was installed.
Marinesco dedicated art films"Forget about the return" and "The first after God."
The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is described in the Nobel laureate Günther Grass's novel Trajectory of the Crab.
In the name of A.I. Marinesko named the embankment in Kaliningrad and the street in Sevastopol.
Stroiteley Street in Leningrad, where Marinesko also lived, was renamed Marinesko Street in 1990. There is a memorial plaque on it.
The flag of the submarine "C-13" is exhibited at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces.
In St. Petersburg there is the Museum of Russian Submarine Forces. A.I. Marinesko.
A stone block with a memorial plaque was installed in Vanino.
In Odessa:
- On the building of Odessa nautical school, on Sofiyivska street, in house number 11, where Marinesko lived as a child, a memorial plaque was installed.
- Name A.I. Marinesko wears the Odessa Naval School.
- Also, a memorial plaque is installed on the building of the labor school where he studied.
- In 1983, the students of the Odessa school No. 105 created a museum named after A.I. Marinesko.