Valery Maresyev, the first son of the legendary Soviet pilot Alexei Maresyev, in an exclusive interview, RT shared his memories of his father and his life after the Great Patriotic War and spoke about a meeting with Yuri Gagarin. April 5, 1942 in the Demyansky boiler (Novgorod region) during the operation to cover the bombers in the war with the Germans The plane of Alexei Maresyev was shot down. The pilot managed to land the plane, but received the injuries of the legs and for 18 days through the forests and swamps crawled to his own. The benefits saved Maresyev’s life, but both the legs amputated. However, Alexei Petrovich returned to operation on prostheses and began to fly again. For military merits in mid -1943, he was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR. The feat of Maresyev gained all -Union, and then international fame after the book of Boris Polevoy “The Tale of a real man” was published in 1946. Maresyev was three sons. Valery Alekseevich Maresyev is the firstborn of the pilot, born in a civil marriage before the war. The second son of Victor-died in the fall of 2024 at the age of 79, and the third-Alexei-was disabled from childhood and did not live long. The Valery Maresyev was born in 1940 not far from Bataysk, the Rostov region. His mother Elizaveta Kramarchenko worked at the dining room of the aviation school, where Alexei Maresyev was sent to study. At its end, the pilot worked in Bataisk as an instructor, and in the same place he found a message about the beginning of the war. Valery Alekseevich adopted from his father not only appearance, but also a profession: he is the only son who also became a pilot. As a flight operator and instructor from 1963 to 1989, he flew on passenger and freight aircraft from Rostov-on-Don throughout the Soviet Union, was in the north, in Siberia and in the Far East. Now he lives in Semikarakorsk, Rostov region. About how the first -born of the legends of the USSR saw his father for the first time, he told in an interview with RT. – Tell us about your first meeting with his father. How was it? – it was in 1955. In Moscow, in the Committee of War Veterans. I then ended up in the capital as part of a delegation of students in the professional group of the Rostov region. And he worked as the responsible secretary of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans. I remember how much I was worried that day. We were talking with him for a long time. He knew all my relatives, he asked everyone: how they were alive there, like everyone else. Then, after the meeting, he wanted to pick me up to him, said: “Let’s go home?” But I refused. I was with the team, we stayed in Moscow at the trade union. There was a dormitory of the school. He brought me there. Victor and Valery Maresyevs © from the personal archive – how did it happen that you have not seen since your birth for 15 years? – I can only tell this from the words of the elders. They said that when I walked under the table, my father came to Rostov. But then I lived with my grandmother with my grandfather, in Rogozhkino. This is a farm in the Azov region. Mother took me there, because she herself worked in a dining room of a flying school. And when my father came, he wanted to pick me up, but during his arrival I was specifically sent to my grandmother. And so supposedly they drove back and forth so that my father would not find me. I don’t know why my mother behaved like that. Maybe the resentment was that they never signed. This is what I know from the conversations of relatives from childhood. – How did it happen that the parents did not form a relationship? – It will not work to answer this question reliably. Mother did not discuss it with me. I suppose that its hot character could influence this. Father was a very calm person. Their relationship and how did it work out – a secret covered with a blasphemer. “What other significant meetings did you have with him?” He came to him when he was lying in the hospital. He was repeatedly done, there were problems with prostheses. That day we talked with him about aviation and on various other topics. – called to visit? – called. Once I even came. I already were about 20 years old. On Gorky Street, they lived then, now she is Tver. I then saw Vitka for the first time for my brother. I called. The door opens, Galina came out, his wife. The door is double. One opens into the corridor, the other opens there to the apartment. I looked. Father drove in a stroller. And Baba Katya, Grandma, left her bedroom. I saw them well. I say: “I will see Alexei Petrovich.” She looked at me: “He is not at home.” Clapped in front of the nose of the door – and closed it, that’s it. I then stood with a feeling so stupid, why did I come. In general, I did not come home anymore. My father scolded me later, called me many times. – They didn’t come anymore? – No. Why? He also has Lyoshka there – my youngest brother – he was with problems. Here, the father was busy with him until the end of his life, but could not do anything. Lyoshka was the first to leave. And my middle brother, Vitya, then told me that their mother did not favor any guests or even relatives. Once she did not even let her sister into the house. Like this. And we called up with our father often, talked about things, about life. – with the second brother, how did the relationship work out? – Good. How it happened: at the beginning of the zero, a man called me who was going to write a book about his father. He said that the younger brother Leshka and his mother died. And the middle brother Victor wants to meet. They invited me to Moscow. I came to him at the cottage in the suburbs. As I remember now: he went out, so looked at me and cried. I was surprised then, said: “What are you? What’s happened?” And he to me: “You know, Valera, there were already two or three“ relatives ”. And I feel that you are relatives, my brother. Just a copy of the father. ” The table was set, sat, talked. A lot of father was remembered. After that, they always called up, every year they saw each other’s birthday. And then Vitka handed over heavily, he dangled everything around hospitals and hospitals. And he died last year. – He loved to remember about his father? Valery Maresyev in the Father Museum in Kamyshin © from the personal archive – yes, very much. He always said that dad was a simple person, never boasted awards. It was always the soul of any company, very companion. He worked a lot: he tried to help people, especially veterans. He danced only once in his life, when Gagarin came to visit them. And so everything worked, all in business. – The surname helped you in life? Do you know, I always treated this very simply. Father performed a feat, not me. Well, son. So what? I never boasted with this and did not ask anyone. But there was one story when the surname still played a role. I served in my youth in the army, and then I decided to go to the aviation plant: they repaired the An-10, An-12. And then an order came out that by flight attendants you can take men. And then my wife told me that they would not take me – the excitement began very large. Well, it hooked me: how so – they won’t take it? And now I’m coming from work, and I will meet the colonel general alone with the head of the department of all civil aviation. Stop, greet. And General Head says: “Do you know whose son is it? Maresyeva. ” And I add that I wanted to get to aviation on a new order, but they do not take me. Well, the question quickly resolved, although there seemed to be no places. Appeared. And this was the beginning of my aviation career. I eventually flew out for 27 years. – How will you celebrate Victory Day? I am going to go to my father’s hometown – Kamyshin. For the holiday, they are preparing a new book about it. Would live …
