Nestor Argunia
Callsign “Maestro”
Vitaly Ivanovich Popkov, the future Maestro and future Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, went to the front in early May 1942 after several reports.
From the very beginning, the young pilot’s service did not work out. He was almost immediately appointed “eternal orderly”. Vitaly Ivanovich appreciated humor and jokes, and he himself was not a blunder, to laugh. Pilots in one liberated village picked up a puppy, and the future twice hero taught him to carry out combat commands. Continue reading
Gulaev, Nikolai Dmitrievich
Born on February 26, 1918 in the village of Aksaiskaya (now the city of Aksai, Rostov Region) in a working class family. Russian.
He graduated from the 7th grade of an incomplete secondary school and the FZU school. For some time he worked as a mechanic at one of the Rostov factories. In the evenings I studied at the flying club. Continue reading
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
