Rubtsov Ivan Fedorovich. Last landing

R Ubtsov Ivan Fedorovich - former commander of the fighter aviation squadron of the 979th fighter aviation regiment of the 4th Air Army, retired colonel.
Born on September 7, 1923 at Uzlovaya station (now the city of Uzlovsky district, Tula region). Russian. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1945.
In the army since 1940. He graduated from the Stalingrad, and in 1943, the Rustavi military aviation pilot school.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War since July 1943. He fought on the North Caucasus and 2nd Belorussian fronts as part of the 4th Air Army. Participated in the Novorossiysk-Taman, Kerch-Eltingen, Crimean, Belarusian, East Prussian, East Pomeranian and Berlin offensive operations. He was a pilot, flight commander, deputy commander and commander of a fighter squadron.
During the war years, he made 397 combat missions, including 331 combat missions to cover our attack aircraft and bombers, and was the commander of cover groups in 273 missions. He was considered an unsurpassed master of cover in his regiment; the planes he covered suffered the least losses from enemy fighter fire. He carried out 75 air battles, in which he shot down 12 enemy aircraft personally and 1 in a group. Another 4 enemy aircraft were burned by assault strikes at their own airfields.
In 1945, the regiment commander was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, precisely for his outstanding results in covering attack and bomber aircraft, although at that time fighters were nominated for this title for 15 personal victories or more. Apparently, due to the formal approach, this idea was not implemented, although there were positive resolutions from all front-line commanders.
After the end of the war, he continued to serve in the USSR Air Force. In 1950 he graduated from the Air Force Academy. He served as a senior inspector-pilot in the front-line aviation and combat training departments of the Air Force General Staff. Since 1966 - head of department in the Air Force Flight Safety Service. Since 1973, Colonel I.F. Rubtsov has been in reserve.
Until 1988, he worked as the executive secretary for aircraft safety issues at the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Science and Technology.
U Order of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1086 of September 11, 1998 for courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, retired colonel Rubtsov Ivan Fedorovich awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with a special distinction - the Gold Star medal (No. 465).
Lived in the city of Odintsovo, Moscow region. He conducted active social activities, as well as patriotic work among young people and the population. He was the head of the press service of the Moscow Club of Heroes of the Soviet Union, a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia, and president of the tennis club in the city of Odintsovo. Author of several poetry collections. Died on March 7, 2013.
Awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner (09/20/1944, 05/24/1945), Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree (02/22/1945), 2 Orders of the Patriotic War 2nd degree (12/7/1943, 03/11/1985), 2 Orders of the Red Star (including 09/18/1943), medals.

Born on September 7, 1923 in the city of Uzlovaya, Tula region. Since 1940 in the ranks of the Red Army. He graduated from the Stalingrad and Rustavi military aviation pilot schools. Since July 1943, junior lieutenant I.F. Rubtsov served on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War as part of the 979th Fighter Aviation Regiment. He was a pilot, flight commander, deputy commander and squadron commander. Flew on LaGG-3 and La-5.

By the end of the war, the squadron commander of the 979th Fighter Volkovysk Red Banner Order of Suvorov Aviation Regiment (229th Fighter Taman Red Banner Aviation Division, 4th Air Army, 2nd Belorussian Front) Lieutenant I. F. Rubtsov made 378 combat missions, conducted 60 air battles, in which he personally shot down 10 enemy aircraft (according to the flight log, he had 397 combat missions, 75 air battles, 12 shot down personally and 1 in a group). In 1945, he nominated himself for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but the proposal was not realized.

Rubtsov Ivan Fedorovich, retired colonel. Awards: Gold Star of the Hero of the Russian Federation, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, 3 Orders of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War 1st class, 2 Orders of the Patriotic War 2nd class, Order of the Grunwald Cross of the Polish People's Republic, 22 medals. People like Ivan Fedorovich Rubtsov are popularly called truth-tellers. Their life is not a bed of roses. So Ivan Fedorovich was awarded orders and medals for courage and fearlessness, twice nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and for his love of truth and integrity, he was twice expelled from the party and twice put on trial by a military tribunal.

After the war he continued to serve in the USSR Air Force. In 1950 he graduated from the Air Force Academy. He served as a senior inspector-pilot in the Front-line Aviation and Combat Training Directorates of the Air Force General Staff. Since 1966 - head of department in the Air Force Flight Safety Service. Since 1973, Lieutenant Colonel I.F. Rubtsov has been in reserve. He worked as the executive secretary for aircraft safety issues in the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Science and Technology. He has been retired since 1988. Lived in the city of Odintsovo, Moscow region, is engaged in public work. Died March 7, 2013. He was buried in Moscow at the Kuntsevo cemetery.

By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1086 of September 11, 1998, for courage and heroism shown during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the Golden Star medal. Awarded the orders of the Red Banner (09/20/1944, 05/24/1945), Patriotic War 1st degree (02/22/1945, 03/11/1985), Patriotic War 2nd degree (12/07/1943), Red Star (09/18/1943, ...); medals, Polish order.

* * *
List of famous air victories of I. F.

Date	Enemy	Plane crash site or air combat	Your own plane
16.09.1943	1 Me-109	northwest of Shkolny	LaGG-3
19.09.1943	1 Me-109	western outskirts of Anapa
07.05.1944	1 FV-190	Crimea region
26.06.1944	2 Me-109	west of Sidorovka	La-5
22.08.1944	1 FV-190	northwest of Zambry
24.10.1944	1 Me-109	north of Pułtusk
09.03.1945	1 Me-109	Hohenstein station
20.03.1945	1 FV-190	Port of Gdynia
Also, in the period from December 1943 to September 1944, he personally shot down 1 Me-109 (the exact date has not been established).
Total aircraft shot down - 10 + 0; combat sorties - 378; air battles - 60.

Memoirs of Rubtsov I.F.

I have been drawn to airplanes since early childhood. The fact is that I made my first “flight” at the age of five. This happened by chance: not far from our village Voeikovo, which is next to the station. Junction in the Tulshchina, a U-2 plane made an emergency landing. After fixing the problem, the pilot offered those who wanted to fly the plane. There were no takers. And then I came out from the crowd of boys and girls and said:

- Uncle pilot, fly me!

This flight decided my whole fate... I dreamed of becoming a pilot, which means strong, brave, and resilient. At school I was involved in all kinds of sports: skiing, skating, basketball, volleyball, and jumped from a parachute tower more than any other child. At school, I was the only one who had all four sports badges: Voroshilov shooter, GTO (ready for labor and defense), PVHO (ready for air defense and chemical defense) and GSO (ready for sanitary defense).

The guys at school, apparently, precisely for my sporting successes, elected me as the first secretary of the school’s Komsomol committee and chairman of the academic committee. I completed 10 classes with honors and had the right to enter any university without entrance exams. I chose the mechanical institute in Stalingrad because in this city there was a flying club where I could learn to fly, and a military flight school where I dreamed of finally going and becoming a pilot.

In 1940, I (without interruption from my studies) graduated from the Stalingrad Aero Club. One day, at the end of a flying day, my instructor told our group: “Guys, I have to be in the city today, so we won’t fly anymore. Let's roll the plane into the hangar." But after the instructor left, I couldn’t resist the temptation to fly on my own and invited my friend to fly to the aerobatics zone together. We calmly taxied to the start, took off, and ten minutes later we were in the zone. Everything was going great. But while performing a dead loop, the motor stopped. What to do?!

The altitude was about 1000 m. The airfield was far from us. There were no emergency landing sites nearby. I had to find a suitable place, and I decided to land the plane on a potato field. I managed the landing successfully: the plane had no damage. When the authorities arrived at the landing site, I clearly reported:

- Comrade deputy head of the flying club! The engine stopped due to running out of gasoline.

I made the flight on my own... without the instructor's permission! – And then I involuntarily pulled my head into my shoulders. – I really wanted to fly! I am ready to bear any punishment... I was afraid that this would end my flights forever. However, a day later I was called to a commission, which included a representative of the Stalingrad military school, and he invited me to join them.

I was happy! But when registering my conscription into the army, an obstacle arose: by November 7, 1940, at the time of conscription, I was only 17 years and two months old (I was born on September 7, 1923) and by law could not be drafted into the army. I had to make an unauthorized change in my date of birth and add one year to myself. I did not consider this act a great sin: it was a difficult pre-war time, and I wanted to quickly become a military pilot.

Studying at the aviation school was easy for me. In February 1941, I was the first to fly independently on a training aircraft (UT-2). By the end of March, he had completely completed the flight program on it and began a theoretical study of piloting techniques and flight operation of the I-16 aircraft, a fighter aircraft that was at that time in service with the Air Force as the main fighter aircraft.

We, the school cadets, lived a measured life: we studied in classes and flew in the training area. They were in love with their flight mentors. The school was considered exemplary. Therefore, the arrest of the military leaders of the school as “enemies of the people” was completely unexpected and very incomprehensible for us. All the cadets were especially shocked by the arrest of the commander of my 8th air squadron, Captain Bondaletov, who had previously fought in Spain together with the head of the school, Colonel Nechaev. Of course, the elimination of such personnel weakened the school, which was felt even by us, the green cadets.

But at the same time, we did not doubt the justice of the actions of the Soviet government. And they believed in the insidious machinations of secret “enemies of the people,” since the winds of war were already raging at our borders. They also believed that we would fight on enemy territory, and that the enemy would be defeated instantly. True, we already understood that our I-16 aircraft were significantly inferior to the German Messerschmitts in speed, climb rate and altitude. But we couldn’t talk about this out loud, and we didn’t talk about it.

On June 22, 1941, I, along with my comrades, was sent on leave to the city. It was Sunday, an ordinary peaceful morning. And suddenly at 12 o'clock we heard on the radio a government message about the invasion of German troops on our territory. The war has begun!.. But for some reason this government message did not alarm us, the youth, but rather the opposite. The beginning of the war caused a patriotic upsurge and a willingness to take part in repelling the enemy. And the first raids of German aviation on Stalingrad, on its main defense facilities: the tractor plant, the Red October plant, and our airfield, made a depressing impression on us. They even bombed the city center... German planes calmly approached the target, as if at their training ground, and, having dropped bombs, descended to low altitudes and also fired at buildings with machine guns. But our fighters were not in the air.

A month after the start of the war, Stalingrad was flooded with refugees from the West. In May-June 1942, the school was relocated to Kazakhstan, to the city of Kustanai, to the Fedorovka airfield. During the flight, some of the aircraft were lost, and therefore, in a new place, in Kustanai, out of eight air squadrons, only six were formed. Two reserve battalions were created from the cadets of the two “horseless” squadrons. I ended up in the 2nd battalion.

Serving in the reserve battalion did not suit me, as I wanted to get to the front as quickly as possible. As I learned much later, the reservists of this battalion graduated from the flight school only in 1947, that is, after the war! And I was in a hurry to go to war. The situation at the front was difficult. Half of the European part of the country was under the German boot, including my hometown of Uzlovaya. And we were Komsomol members of the 40s, for us the defense of the Motherland at such a moment became the main goal of life. In general, we, four cadets: me, Sergei Slobodin, Ivan Stromin and Semyon Lyulev, submitted a report to the school command about sending us to the front in any troops, including infantry. They did not answer our report, but called us to the head of the school, and he said:

- Wait your turn for training...

And then we decided to go to the front without permission. In August 1942, after the evening roll call, we climbed out through the windows onto the street and, bypassing the sentries, left the garrison. It was 12 km to the Kostanay station. We reached this distance on foot in two hours. A freight train stood at the station, ready to depart. We boarded a dark freight car and moved west towards the city of Chkalov. We had the intention of returning to Stalingrad and becoming defenders of this city, which had become our home. But when we got to the Krasny Kut station, the freight train driver who arrived from the Verkhny Baskunchak station told us:

- Guys, my partner and I were the last to get through! The road has been destroyed by German planes, and trains to the south no longer go.

Then we decided to return to Chkalov, and from there - through Tashkent, Kranovodsk and Baku - to get to Tbilisi and at any cost to become part of the Air Force of the North Caucasus Front, at least in part of the auxiliary aviation. This decision was not without logic: the Germans had advanced far to the east, which means our troops did not have enough strength to resist. Consequently – and aviators.

Our plan was realized. Only in Krasnovodsk the barrier detachment suddenly demanded documents from us, which we, naturally, did not have - except for cadet books. And so we were detained, and the city commandant put the four in the garrison guardhouse until their identities were clarified. The legend that we graduated from the Stalingrad Aviation School and were going to the front and that the senior man, who supposedly fell behind, had all the documents, did not make an impression, although it somewhat puzzled the commandant.

The fact is that from July 1942, Stalin’s order came into effect in the country: “Not a step back,” in accordance with which penal battalions were created for those who were guilty and barrage detachments that blocked the path of deserters fleeing from the front to the rear. But we did not fall under this order, since we were traveling from the distant rear to the front! But if the commandant contacts our school by telephone and is told about our “escape,” we may face a military tribunal and then a penal battalion, even execution. And I, as the senior in the group, turned to the commandant with a draft telegram to Moscow personally to Stalin, in which we complained about the commandant not allowing us to go to the front!

It was a desperate step, but it turned out to be the right one. The commandant refused to endorse this telegram (without his visa the telegraph office could not receive it). But he gave the command to send us across the Caspian Sea to Baku by any ship. Moreover, the commandant gave us an official document, which said that we were heading to the 361st air brigade. And since peaceful ships rarely went to Krasnovodsk, we agreed to sail on a self-propelled barge carrying shells to the Transcaucasian Front.

In short, a week later we were already in Tbilisi at the Air Force headquarters, where we told the colonel the same legend. The colonel called specialists, and in his presence they gave us an exam on the material part of the I-16 aircraft, which, fortunately, we knew by heart. And then we were invited to the commander of the ZakVO Air Force, who suggested that we urgently retrain for the new modern fighter LaGG-3 at the Rustavi aviation school (35 km from Tbilisi), since the I-16 aircraft in the air units were soon to be replaced by LaGG-3, which were produced in Sandary (Georgia). And we realized that the most difficult period of our movement to the front was over.

I graduated from the Rustavi aviation school in five months and already in May 1943 I found myself in the 979th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 4th Air Army. My comrades from the Stalingrad School graduated from this aviation school three or four months later. Of the three, only Semyon Lyulev ended up in the 979th IAP, with whom we began to fly on combat missions in pairs. I shot down my first plane in an air battle on September 16, 1943 in the Kuban, over the village of Krymskaya. The fight was short. The German himself somehow turned around unsuccessfully, escaping from the attack of my leader. The second plane was shot down by me the next day. At the end of October 1943, I already had two awards: the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree.

The regiment command even sent a letter of gratitude to my parents for raising their son, attaching to the letter a photo card on which I showed off with two awards. And then one day, at the end of October, two employees of the local NKVD came to my parents’ home and asked:

- Where is your son?

The father, slightly taken aback by surprise, replied:

- As where? He's fighting!

He immediately opened an old forged chest and took out a letter from the regiment wrapped in a scarf, on which there was a seal and the number of military unit 40476. It turns out that after our childish escape from school to the front, dubbed “desertion,” corresponding telegrams were sent to all ends, including in the NKVD of Uzlovaya...

I flew a lot at the front, making 6-8 sorties a day and often on very difficult missions. On October 23, 1943, four of our attack aircraft flew out to bomb and attack two railway trains with tanks at the Salesh station. The Germans intended to use these tanks to throw our ground troops from the Kerch Peninsula. The cover group was led by the squadron commander, Captain V.I. Istrashkin (later Hero of the Soviet Union). In this group I led the second couple. The weather was disgusting: completely cloudy at an altitude of 200-250 m, and it was still raining. Visibility 150-200 m. We arrived at the target unsuccessfully: German Ju-87 attack bombers returned from a mission to the airfield, located 10 km from Salesh, under the cover of 12 “Messers” and, standing in a circle, landed. The German command, after the appearance of Soviet attack aircraft over the railway trains, apparently redirected the “Messers” against our group.

The “thin” ones, as we called the Me-109, flashed before us as if in a kaleidoscope. And then, on top of everything, the anti-aircraft gun hit my wingman, Lieutenant Kuzmin, and I was left alone (I ordered the wingman to return to our airfield). Vladimir Istrashkin’s pair got into a battle with the Junkers, and our attack aircraft were left without cover, but the German trains with tanks were bombed.

It turned out that one of the four Me-109s attacked our attack aircraft from the rear hemisphere and was about to open fire on them. I noticed this, being under them, and attacked the leading four Me-109 from below, immediately setting it on fire. The Messers burned well! The rest of the Me-109 trio, apparently confused, withdrew from the attack... and then suddenly two of them took me into bell-bottoms. And the third one opened fire on my plane from the rear hemisphere. He didn't hit in the first turn. But the Germans from right and left came close to me. One of them even showed me a cross with his hands, and the second showed me a fist. In the mirror I saw that the third enemy pilot flying behind was approaching me closely, he was already 30-40 meters away. What to do? I didn't know how to fly in the clouds...

Many of our pilots told me that they found themselves in situations where a person felt a sense of imminent, inevitable death. It was probably the same with me then. I remember how I was sweating in anticipation of my execution. And at that second something triggered inside: I exploded with anger, turned back towards the attacking enemy, saw a rotating propeller (which means it was 30 meters before it) and, sharply reducing the speed of my engine, released the brake flaps. The plane seemed to stand rooted to the spot. The speed dropped from 400 km/h to 200 km/h. The German did not have time to press the triggers of the cannons and machine guns, and was forced to flee from a collision with my plane. He pulled the handle towards himself and flew over me, as if playing leapfrog. But at the same time I hit the vertical part of the tail of my plane. That is, it turned out to be an involuntary ram.

A moment later the German was in front of me. I pressed the triggers of the machine guns and cannons. The Messer was enveloped in flames and exploded. The blast wave sent my plane into a tailspin. Below me was the sea. Height 150 m. It seemed that at such a low altitude it was no longer possible to pull the car out of a tailspin. But I was lucky. Thanks to the released flaps, the plane left the dangerous point on its own as soon as I increased the engine speed. When I landed at my airfield, the technicians discovered a 30 cm cut off the upper part of the tail and rudder. In five places on the wings there were dents from the collision with the metal of the exploded Me-109.

After the report about the air battle and the two planes I had shot down, the regiment commander suddenly announced that I would only be credited with one plane shot down, since there was no confirmation for the second. And I had a “special” relationship with the regiment commander. Even in the first months of my combat work as part of the 979th IAP, which worked to cover the attacks of our attack aircraft, I realized: the reasons for the death of the attack pilots were the incorrect tactics of our fighters, flying while escorting them at altitudes exceeding the altitudes of the attack aircraft. And German fighters flew at low altitudes, below our attack aircraft, directly near the ground - and therefore could deftly hit them from below.

But I also shot down German planes at low altitudes! The command forbade us to fly at low altitudes and conduct air battles with German aircraft directly near the ground, citing two reasons. Firstly, the wooden structure of our LaGGs, pierced by ordinary rifle bullets (that’s why the pilots called the LaGG-3 “varnished guaranteed coffin”) Secondly, the inability of our fighter pilots to fly at low altitudes in air combat mode - using aerobatics. I saw a way out of this tragic situation in increasing training flights and tried to carry them out systematically, perhaps more often. But the command of the regiment and division did everything possible to reduce them to a minimum.

In addition, an order was issued to the regiment prohibiting attacking German planes if they did not touch our attack aircraft. True, at the next debriefing of a group attack aircraft flight, after my sharp statement against this order, the commander of the 4th VA, General Vershinin, immediately canceled it and appointed me, an ordinary pilot, as flight commander. In general, I had to fight not only with the Germans, but also with my superiors.

For example, for my “arbitrariness,” that is, for persistent training of young pilots, I received five reprimands during the war - two of them severe, and seventeen days of house arrest with a deduction of 25% of wages (without removal from combat work). And since such measures of “influence” did not help, on June 16, 1944, I was put on trial by a military tribunal “for air hooliganism.” Nobody called me to court. The court decision - 10 years in prison - was announced to me by a lieutenant from the military tribunal against a signature. But I refused to sign. True, the lieutenant tried to console me: you will serve these 10 years in the regiment. And if you shoot down five more planes and make another 100 sorties, then this criminal record will be removed from you...

On the same day, the party bureau met and I was expelled from the party. This means that the proposal to award me the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was immediately withdrawn. At the same time, I continued to fly on combat missions, and was obliged not only to fight well with the enemy, but also to thank the party in the person of the regimental commissar, Major Zhuravlev. It is significant: during this persecution, I was not even removed from my position as flight commander. And he led his comrades into battle. And when ten days later I was brought to the deputy commander of the 4th Air Army for political affairs, Lieutenant General F.F. Verov to approve the decision of the regiment party bureau, the general listened to the report of the strict regimental commissar Zhuravlev about all my “violations” and asked, turning to me:

- How many combat missions have you, Comrade Rubtsov, made? And how many planes were shot down? – Two hundred and eighty-one sorties to escort and cover attack aircraft. And in seventy-five air battles to cover our attack aircraft, he shot down eight German planes. – How many of our stormtroopers were lost due to your fault?

“None,” I answered.

Next, the general raised the same questions to the commissioner. But it was difficult to answer: he shot down only one fascist plane, and that was in a group, and he had five times fewer combat missions than me... After that, the general picked up the phone, reported everything to the commander and proposed to cancel the decision of the military tribunal, party bureau and meeting to expel me from the party. Moreover, I was assigned part-time duties as deputy regiment commander for the air rifle service. And also - responsibilities for training flight personnel in aerobatics at extremely low altitudes (order for the 979th IAP No. 7 dated July 18, 1944). There was no talk about the proposal to award me the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which was stuck in the division. It had not yet reached army headquarters, and the general knew nothing about it yet. And so he said to me, shaking hands in the presence of the commissar: “Fly, shoot down German planes. We will nominate you for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union."

Indeed, the second presentation was made, but after the end of the war - in June 1945. On June 4, 1945, I, along with other pilots, was sent to Moscow to participate in the Victory Parade, and as an envoy for communication with the aviation units of the commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky.

On June 24, 1945, the Victory Parade took place. It was a rainy day. I was third in the second rank in the ranks of the 2nd Belorussian Front. The mood was most festive. I felt proud of our country, of my people, who defeated a strong enemy armed to the teeth. And at the reception in the Kremlin there was an opportunity to see Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. up close, almost side by side. Stalin, who walked around the guests lined up in a square with a glass. I was then struck by his eyes - piercing and hard...

On September 20, 1945, on my birthday, I arrived at the Air Force Academy, in the village of Monino near Moscow. A day later, the credentials commission began to function. And a day later I was informed that I had not passed the credentials committee and that I needed to pick up my documents and return to the unit. This message hit me like a blow to the head. Something inside told me: don’t give up. I wrote a complaint to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, although I understood that my complaint to the credentials committee would not increase my chances of admission, rather the opposite. But here the character came into play: don’t give in in the fight!

While I was waiting for a response to the complaint, I became acquainted with the status of the academy student and identified blatant violations: the Air Force Academy was supposed to accept officers with positions no lower than squadron commander. But it turned out that several ordinary pilots who had not fought at all were enrolled in it; among them - the son of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Lieutenant Korotchenko, the son of the head of the border troops and security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant Bochkov; son of a member of the Military Council of the Moscow Military District, Lieutenant Rasskazov and a number of others. When I was called again on a complaint to the Credentials Committee, I introduced myself and said:

– I do not want to study at such an academy, but at the same time I reject your decision, which insults the dignity of a Russian officer.

- Comrade senior lieutenant! The head of the academy, Air Marshal Falaleev, asks you to return! I knew that the head of the credentials committee was not the head of the academy, but his deputy. And I returned, approached the marshal sitting at the table and introduced myself. He addressed not so much to me as to everyone present: “Let’s say thank you to the senior lieutenant for his science and accept him into the academy. Any objections? No? Congratulations, Comrade Senior Lieutenant!”

I graduated from the Air Force Academy in May 1950 with the first category, for which I received a bonus: two monthly salaries. After graduating from the Academy, I was appointed commander of a training and test fighter squadron in the 630th ouiap (separate training and test aviation regiment) at the VVIA named after. NOT. Zhukovsky. It seemed like a good appointment! But a year passed, followed by a second and a third, and we were still flying old piston aircraft, while almost the entire Air Force had already retrained to fly jets. My patience ran out, and I sharply criticized the commander, commissar and academy management. The reaction was immediate. Deputy The regiment commander, Major Smirnov, took my personal file, quickly found inconsistencies there and by telegram asked the Stalingrad Aviation School about me. From there they told him that cadet Rubtsov I.F. in August 1942 he deserted from the school.

This was enough to accuse me of concealing this fact from the party. The assembled party bureau of the regiment urgently considered this issue and expelled me from the party. Officially, the regiment sent a paper to the Moscow military tribunal. A week later I already testified at the tribunal. The major who interrogated me did not stand on ceremony with me; my participation in the war did not make an impression on him. He told me straight out that I would face at least five years in prison for escaping from the aviation school. When I repeatedly told him that I had fled to the front, he repeatedly told me that it didn’t matter.

The presence of General F.F. in Moscow saved me. Verova. Through Glavpur, he achieved the termination of the case brought against me in the military tribunal. Now, when I visit the Vagankovskoye cemetery, I come to his grave and bow deeply. Fate would have it that the famous writer and documentarian Sergei Sergeevich Smirnov act as my defender, who spoke on the radio about my “desertion” from the deep rear to the front and added that such actions should not be imprisoned, but rewarded. Then everything repeated itself as it happened the first time: all party decisions were canceled and the criminal case was annulled...

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Russian Federation, retired colonel Ivan Fedorovich Rubtsov died at the age of 90. He passed away on March 7.

During the war years, he made 379 combat missions, including 331 combat missions to cover our attack aircraft and bombers. And in 273 missions he was the commander of cover groups. He was considered an unsurpassed master of cover in his regiment. The planes covered by Ivan Rubtsov suffered the least losses from enemy fighter fire.

He happened to live during global historical changes. Ivan Fedorovich was born on September 7, 1923 in the city of Uzlovaya, Tula region. In 1940 he went to serve in the Red Army. He graduated from Stalingrad, and in 1943 from Rustavi Military Aviation Pilot School. At the front - since July 1943. Ivan Rubtsov fought as part of the 4th Air Army on the North Caucasus and 2nd Belorussian fronts. Participated in the Novorossiysk-Taman, Kerch-Eltingen, Crimean, Belarusian, East Prussian, East Pomeranian and Berlin offensive operations. He was a pilot, flight commander, and commander of an aviation squadron of the 979th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 4th Air Army.

For valor and heroism in the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Fedorovich was awarded three Orders of the Patriotic War, two Orders of the Red Banner, three Orders of the Red Star, and medals. In 1945, he, then already a regiment commander, was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for outstanding results in covering attack and bomber aircraft. However, he received this well-deserved title only at the end of the twentieth century. By decree of the President of Russia of September 11, 1998, for the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War, retired Colonel Ivan Fedorovich Rubtsov was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the Golden Star medal.

After the war, the brave pilot continued to serve in the country's Air Force. He graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1950. He served as a senior inspector-pilot in the department of front-line aviation and combat training of the main headquarters of the Air Force. Since 1966, he served as a department chief in the Air Force flight service. In 1973, Ivan Fedorovich retired to the reserve, but did not part with aviation and until 1988 he worked at the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Science and Technology as the responsible secretary for aircraft safety issues.

Ivan Fedorovich lived in the city of Odintsovo, Moscow region, was a social activist, successfully fought against illegal construction, headed the press service of the Moscow Club of Heroes of the Soviet Union, was a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia, president of the tennis club in the city of Odintsovo, published several books and collections of his poems.

Eternal memory to the hero, an honest and talented person, an unusually energetic public figure. Farewell to Ivan Fedorovich will take place on March 12 at 11 a.m. in the Funeral Hall of the Military Hospital named after. N.N. Burdenko, Branch No. 2, at the address: Moscow region, Odintsovo, st. Marshal Biryuzov, 1. The funeral service will take place from 12 to 13 hours on March 12 in the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious at the address: Odintsovo, Odintsovo district, Mozhaiskoe highway, 57.

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Russian Federation, retired colonel Ivan Fedorovich Rubtsov died at the age of 90. He passed away on March 7.