Leningrad
Meeting with Zhukov. “We shoot few scoundrels!”
Meeting with Zhukov. “We shoot few scoundrels!”
It was with Stalingrad and Marshal Zhukov that one of the most unpleasant and humiliating memories of the pilot Popkov about the war is connected – this episode, even sixty years later, evoked rage and bitterness in him.
“When signatures were being collected to rehabilitate Zhukov, I refused,” Vitaly Ivanovich sincerely and very childishly puckered up in his chair. – Not because I don’t consider him a great commander, but because of a personal … Continue reading
Tail and wings to the sides
In December 1941, after the sixth report with a request to send him to the front, Vitaly Popkov was enrolled in the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (5 GvIAP). In the very first battle, he shot down his first enemy aircraft – a heavy Do-217 (Dornier). True, this happened under very curious circumstances.
In one house of a village abandoned by the Germans during the retreat from Moscow, Popkov picked up a puppy. The puppy was not only quick-witted, but also trained. Continue reading
Last great ace
I want to tell about the life of a man with whom a journalistic fate once brought me together. About a man in whom self-esteem and absolute inner freedom were combined with responsibility and duty. About a man who had the courage to follow his destiny, and neither the totalitarian system, nor the war, nor insurmountable circumstances, nor fools, nor roads prevented him from doing this. Continue reading
