The country should know in the face of its heroes, however, these same heroes in Stalin's time were shot without trial. Alexander Ivanovich Filin, a major general in aviation and a test pilot, who made a huge contribution to the development of the military aviation of his country and was repressed by the will of the “father of peoples,” also appeared on this list.
Alexander Filin: biography
He was born in Moscow in 1903, on January 18, in an ordinary family of a railroad conductor. In 1916 he graduated from the Butyr Primary School No. 4, where he studied quite successfully, and in 1918 he continued his studies at the Moscow Electrotechnical College.
In 1921, Alexander Filin, voluntarily convinced, joined the ranks of the Red Army. From 1922 to 1924, he studied at the Military Theoretical School of the Air Force in Petrograd, then began to improve his military education in the Kachinsky and Borisoglebsky schools of pilots. At the end, he was sent to serve in the 17th squadron in Chita. There he was elected a deputy of the Chita City Council and a member of the district committee.
In 1926, Alexander Filin began to study at the Air Force Academy. Zhukovsky. On August 26, 1929, in a carriage with A.F. Kovalkov on an airplane of A.S. Yakovlev - AIR-3 - he set an international record for the range and average speed of this class of aircraft on the route Minvody - Moscow.
Work
Since 1930, Alexander Filin was listed as a test pilot at the Air Force Research Institute. In 1934 he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the GAZ-M-1 car. In the same year he received the second Order of Lenin, and in November 1937 he was appointed to the post of chief of the Air Force Research Institute. In 1939 he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
On May 7, 1941, in the Kremlin, at a meeting of representatives of the senior staff of the Air Force command, where Stalin was also present, Filin made a report in which, having analyzed in detail the work of the institute, openly showed the existing shortcomings in the work of the aviation industry, which was confirmed by the presentation of state tests full factory inspections of aircraft, such as LaGG-1, Yak-1, Yak-4, Ar-2, Su-2, Er-2. As a result, the report turned into a heated debate between Stalin and Filin.
Opal
During test flights on a MiG-3 aircraft at the Air Force Research Institute, data were obtained on its shorter range than was shown on a specially organized flight Moscow - Leningrad. They were carried out in excellent conditions for state testing and with an additional device that establishes the optimal engine operation mode.
This was reported to Stalin, who immediately appointed a commission, which included the secretary of the Central Committee, Malenkov, people's commissar of defense Tishchenko and deputy chief of the General Staff Vatutin. These leaders were far from understanding the whole problem and the intricacies of the test work and accused Filin of deliberately underestimating the test equipment.
Soon a decree was issued on the arrest of Major General A.I. Filin. In the first paragraphs he was accused of underestimating the range of the MiG-3, and also, strangely enough, he was blamed for the fact that he accused engineer Yakovlev of insufficient tests of the Yak-1, as well as the fact that the aircraft were put in serial production without testing, although it was Alexander Ivanovich who previously insisted on their full verification. Then they suspended the group of engineers and test pilots who carried out all the tests at the Air Force Research Institute.
Owl was arrested on May 23, 1941. His fate was decided by the deputy. Beria Kobulov and the NKVD investigator Wlodzimirsky. They did not resort to aviation technical details, but immediately charged with an anti-Soviet conspiracy. On February 23, 1942, the designer was shot. In an investigation file about Filin, it was recorded that the accused did not plead guilty. March 26, 1955 Alexander Filin - a test pilot with a capital letter - was rehabilitated posthumously.
Secret plans of the leaders
When, finally, all the plans of the Nazis to capture Moscow collapsed and the turning point in the Great Patriotic War came, witnesses of preparations for it were gradually "cleaned up". Owl was shot one of the first. For what? Because he complied with government regulations? Or because of defending their point of view? Here it was possible to do with the removal or deprivation of military rank, but not to allow such a valuable worker into the "expense". The story of the MiG-3 was just a convenient excuse. The reasons, most likely, were different. General Filin probably knew the leader’s military plans well or possessed information that discredited him in terms of relations with Germany, which did not correspond to the generally accepted version. After all, they shot other dignitaries who could witness Stalin's secret plans.
Wife and children of Alexander Filin
The wife of Filin, Androsova N.A., got to the full extent. While he was in prison, she was not touched. The sentence was delayed, then the evacuation of the Air Force Research Institute began. She also worked there and was evacuated with the institute, so her trace was lost for a short time. Then Natalya Alexandrovna lived with her son at the dacha of the Sverdlovsk Regional Executive Committee and did not suspect anything. But on May 28, 1942, she was arrested as the wife of a traitor, and she was sent to the Krasnoyarsk Territory for five years. The fate of the son remained unknown. Spouses Owls were rehabilitated, but the stamp of secrecy has not yet been removed from their affairs.
Epilogue
When studies of the technical characteristics of a number of aircraft were completed in September 1942, it turned out that the MiG-3 had a maximum range of 725 km, but the aircraft needed a range of 1000 km to implement joint war plans with Germany. And the Soviet leader Stalin did this, but could he decide to oppose England? The British were so cunning that, calculating the benefits of the war with Germany, they were the first to support Russia and condemn Nazi Germany. This war was promising for them in that in this terrible "massacre" of its opponents, it escaped with little blood and became a dictator of the future world order. And in this fight, one of the "extreme" was Alexander Filin - a test pilot.