A Krasnoyarsk family wrote a book about the search for their deceased great-grandfather-pilot

Here, on almost 300 pages, is a story about the fate of long-range military pilot Andrei Aleshin and the life of his family during those terrible war years, the story of their descendants – Tatyana Protopopova and her sons Andrei and Dmitry. Those same descendants who, by the smallest grains, by scraps of memories and old photographs, were able to trace the path of a loved one who laid down their lives for their Motherland in the fire of the Great Patriotic War, find the place of his burial and thereby pay him their last debt.

The Rossiyskaya Gazeta correspondent asked the author, a lawyer, teacher at the Law Institute of the Siberian Federal University and experienced local historian Tatyana Protopopova, about how and why this book was published.

“The book lived inside me”

Tatyana Vitalievna, in our country it is difficult to find a family whose ancestors were not affected by the Great Patriotic War in one way or another. People remember them and are proud of them, but few people think of perpetuating their memory by writing a book. Why did you decide to do this?

Tatiana Protopopova: I was born in 1961, and from childhood I remember how many relatives gathered around the table, and they all spoke very warmly about my grandfather, Andrei Vasilyevich Aleshin, calling him a hero. He died in the most difficult months for the country in 1941, being the crew commander of the DB-3 long-range bomber. The family received a “funeral”, and my grandmother kept it like a relic until the end of her days. And also a letter that I received from my beloved husband shortly before he died. Several photographs have also survived. That’s practically all. I remember that my mother tried to find out at least the exact place of his death, but the military registration and enlistment office refused her: “This is classified information.”

At one time we started our search with approximately the same “baggage” of information: me and my sons Andrei and Dmitry. It was very hard, painstaking work that lasted more than ten years. I think I was still able to go this route, partly because, after working for many years in the legal profession, I became a candidate of legal sciences. After all, real scientists do not stop at difficulties in their searches. In general, to be honest, there was a feeling that this book had always lived inside me and always wanted to come out. She was knocking on my chest, and I’m glad I released her like a bird.

The traces were suggested by the “funeral”

What helped you most in your search?

Tatiana Protopopova: Surprisingly, not the Internet. Radio, newspapers, inquiries to veterans’ councils helped, because military registration and enlistment offices almost did not respond or got away with replies. My sons and I sent out dozens, hundreds of requests and letters, as a result of which the image of our grandfather and great-grandfather became increasingly clearer. It became known that he was born in 1910 in the Ryazan region, then moved to Moscow. On a Komsomol voucher I went to study at a flight school in the city of Engels, Saratov region. In the 30s, a young but already knowledgeable and experienced pilot, Andrei Aleshin, was sent to serve in Krasnoyarsk, where he met my grandmother, Maria. My grandfather received his baptism of fire on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939, since before the war he served in Transbaikalia. From there he flew to the front as part of the 4th Long-Range Bomber Regiment. Died on September 3, 1941. But how exactly? What happened to his plane? Nobody gave an answer to this…

Then we again turned to the family heirloom – the “funeral”. With great difficulty, we managed to read on the worn paper that Andrei Aleshin died in the Chernigov region, near the village of Udalovo. We wrote a request there, to the territory of neighboring Ukraine, but in response we received only a colorful guide in English and Ukrainian. A little later we managed to find out that a mistake had crept into the “funeral”: the village was called not Udalovo, but Uralovo, and it was located not in the Chernigov, but in the Sumy region. We wrote to the new address and – oh, miracle! – the answer came from the village council that indeed during the war two of our planes were shot down over Uralovo. One fell into the swamp. The second plane crashed right in the village, the crew members, whose names are unknown, died and local residents buried them, wrapped in a parachute.

Gradually, the countless requests we sent out began to bear fruit. One of them received a response from retired Colonel Anatoly Ivanovich Lebedev, Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the 6th (at the beginning of the war, the 4th Long-Range Bomber Regiment, after the war, the 158th) Guards Red Banner Bryansk-Berlin Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment, the author of several books on the history of the regiment. As it turned out, one of Aleshin’s crew members managed to survive and return to the regiment, which was based at that time near Orel. He said that during the bombing the plane was hit by enemy anti-aircraft artillery. To save the vehicle and crew, the pilot could, performing an anti-aircraft maneuver, leave the fire zone. But not all bombs were dropped. And Aleshin again sent the already shot down bomber to the target. And only after losing altitude, surrounded by attacking Messerschmitts, did he command the crew to leave the DB-3. Unfortunately, at the moment of the jump, pilot Aleshin’s parachute lines were cut off by the stabilizer, and he crashed to death. His colleagues also died. Having received this letter, I cried for a long time: “Grandfather, you have finally been found!”

No awards, but a hero

It’s surprising that this, without exaggeration, feat was not appreciated…

Tatiana Protopopova: Yes, my grandfather, almost like Captain Gastello, directed a burning plane towards the enemy. By the way, as a child, I pictured the image of my grandfather as at least a Hero of the Soviet Union. But, alas, Andrei Aleshin was and remains only the hero of my family, an ordinary lieutenant. He also had no awards. There were only courage, loyalty to the oath and determination in carrying out a combat mission, during which he gave his life for his Motherland. Aleshin, like many of his fellow soldiers who died, was not recognized as a hero, because it was the very beginning of the war, hell, confusion. Heroism was not noticed then, you understand? Although I am absolutely convinced that the long-range aviation pilots who died in 1941 accomplished a feat, and this feat was one of the expressions of mass heroism. But I’m not upset. The main thing is that we have preserved the memory of our ancestor; it now lives in us and in our book. The only thing we regret with our sons is that we cannot visit his grave, bow down, erect a monument…

And the local residents, although they answered your letters, were in no hurry to perpetuate the memory of the pilots?

Tatiana Protopopova: You know, long before SVO, I saw a note on one of the news Internet portals in the Sumy region about how residents of Uralovo, during excavations, discovered parts of a crashed plane and wanted to take them to the local museum. How much dirt was poured out under this news in the comments on the “sovereign language”! And “katsaps”, and “you’re all lying”, and “these bones need to be dug up and thrown away”… I couldn’t stop crying for half a day afterwards. So maybe it was for the best that the monument was not erected then. They would have demolished it anyway, and even along with the grave… Therefore, I think that Bandera’sites must be defeated first, and only then everything else. A monument to Lieutenant Andrei Aleshin will certainly appear someday. My children firmly promised me this.

As far as we know, your sons are now in the Zaporozhye region?

Tatiana Protopopova: Yes, from the first day of the SVO they could not stay away. Both Andrey and Dima are lawyers by training. Therefore, first, the elder brother, having received an invitation, went to work in his specialty in the legal department of the military-civil administration of the Zaporozhye region. And then the second one went there too. They are located very close to the combat zone, sometimes there is no connection with them, I worry terribly, but at the same time I am very proud of my children.

Key Question

Tatyana Vitalievna, now they talk a lot about patriotism, about the need to instill it in children. As a person who raised such wonderful sons, tell me: what should a parent do to make a child love his homeland?

Tatiana Protopopova: The recipe is actually not at all complicated, for this you don’t need to study pedagogical treatises, it’s enough just to remain human. Remember that there is no need to protect children from the difficulties of life, to blow away the specks of dust from them. You cannot put a child in a jar and cover it with cotton so that, God forbid, something happens to him. By the way, there are forgotten heroes in every family, not just ours. Restoring the memory of them can and should be done together with children; this greatly helps instilling patriotism. In general, develop your child’s soul, don’t be lazy, and everything will be fine.

Help “RG”

Long-Range Bomber Aviation (since 1942 – Long-Range Aviation) – designed to destroy military targets deep behind enemy lines and conduct operational and strategic aerial reconnaissance. The main method of application is the delivery of massive strikes aimed at destroying or destroying enemy objects in a short time.