Hero of the Soviet Union Rud' Nikolai Mikhailovich
Nikolai Mikhailovich Rud' was born in 1922 in the city of Iman, Ussuriysk region, in a family of civil servants. Russian. Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In childhood, he moved with his parents to the city of Frunze. In 1940, after graduating from high school and the Frunze Aero Club, he studied at the Chkalov Military Aviation School, which he graduated from in 1942.
Lieutenant, bomber pilot.
Participant in the Great Patriotic War since July 1942. He fought on the Southwestern, Central, and Belarusian fronts. He also participated in the war against militaristic Japan. Nikolai Mikhailovich was an experienced and brave pilot.
For the successful completion of combat missions and the collection of valuable data, I. M. Rud' was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner, the Patriotic War II degree, the Red Star, and medals. On October 26, 1944, for courage and bravery displayed in aerial battles on the fronts of the Patriotic War, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Until 1953, Nikolai Mikhailovich Rud' served in the ranks of the Soviet Army, then worked at a machine engineering plant in Moscow. He died in 1978.
IN THE ATTACK "LIGHTNING"
Before me is an archival photograph from forty years ago. On thick paper, yellowed at the edges, but well-preserved, is an image of a young man in a pilot's uniform. This is Lieutenant Rud' Nikolai Mikhailovich. But I want to call him simply Kolya, as his friends from the aviation squadron did, for he was so young; it was 1944, and he was not yet twenty-two.
I look at the photograph—an open and kind face looks back at me. And if it weren't for the military pilot's helmet on his head, I would never say this is a picture from harsh years. Perhaps it was even taken after another reconnaissance flight. The eyes, in which the fatigue of sleepless nights can be read upon closer inspection, radiate a smile and add warmth to the stern front-line photograph. No, no matter how hard he tried to look like a strict fighter, youth and a youthful soul prevailed!
But in battle, he was stern, unyielding, and brave. Everyone knew that. And not only in the 74th Bomber Aviation Regiment, where he served for two years after graduating from the Chkalov Military Aviation School—his opponents knew it too. In their reports and communications, the fascists referred to the crew of the plane, where Nikolai was the commander, as "lightning." Lightning, striking from the clouds and knocking down. This was true, and there will be more to say about it. But first, it is worth briefly telling how, at just under twenty years old, Kolya Rud' established himself as a person. How a simple boy, like hundreds and thousands of others, a student of the Frunze seventh school, was on his path to heroism, not a singular and random act performed in a surge of emotional excitement, but a weekly and hourly commitment throughout all the harsh years of war.
Sometimes today's youth lament that there is no place for heroism in everyday life. So, perhaps, did their pre-war peers think. But is that really the case? Let's turn to the fate of Kolya, the future Hero. And not just a future one?
Kolya's father, Mikhail Matveevich, was from a peasant background and a teacher. He actively participated in the partisan movement in the Far East. He died in 1925. His mother, Klavdiya Nikolaevna, also a teacher, was the principal of a secondary school and died in 1939 when Nikolai was not yet 17 years old. He was left with a younger sister and an elderly grandmother.
It became difficult to make ends meet, and Nikolai transferred to an evening school to work during the day.
The old sick woman wanted to help her grandson find some suitable work, but Nikolai firmly insisted: he was a man and would manage. And to finally calm her and not disturb the soul of his loved one, he began to study better.
In the most difficult times, he took responsibility upon himself, shouldered the burdens of the family, and did not abandon the "family crew" in distress. Yes, this is exactly where I am leading my thought. In three years, in the smoke-filled sky of war from rockets and shells, a similar harsh situation would arise. And he would not change himself, his human duty, conscience, and courage. In one battle, "Messerschmitts" attacked Nikolai's plane, riddling the fuselage, smoking the tank, and finally, both engines failed. The radio operator was killed. Rud' demanded that the navigator jump with a parachute, while he made a desperate but only possible decision for his conscience to land the aircraft on its fuselage, because on board was a severely wounded gunner who had lost consciousness and could not leave the plane.
He miraculously landed the aircraft, saved the life of a comrade, with whom he was still destined to meet Victory. This was an example of courage and spirit, a heroic act of high moral principle: not to abandon a person in trouble. This heroic deed was recognized by the command with a combat order.
There is no doubt that the record of the military pilot's feats began in his school years, in the everyday life of his personal life. And the war revealed his human essence even more vividly. The comrades-in-arms who fought alongside him, who found themselves in incredible situations with him and, presumably, were not devoid of bravery and courage either, speak of the pilot's courage, of his extraordinary ability to gather himself at the most critical moment.
— This moment in an air attack occurs when, despite everything, the plane must fly exactly on course, with the established speed and altitude regime,— recalls the seasoned navigator Zhuravlev, who flew in the same crew with Nikolai Rud' on the Stalingrad front,— and then the heaviest seconds arrive, equivalent to many hours. In these moments before the bomb drop, the crew participates in a deadly game of racing—who will succeed first?
The explosions of directed enemy shells come closer and closer to the plane. And the bombs cannot be dropped earlier than the calculated time; the flight regime cannot be changed—otherwise, the bombs will miss the target.
— The plane is in a tight spot. It is mercilessly battered by shock waves, and the pilot has to exert incredible effort to keep the machine in horizontal flight. If you are attacked not by one, but by several enemy fighters, then it becomes even more difficult.
— In such situations, the crew under the command of Nikolai Rud' often found themselves. And it was then that the courage and skill of our young commander were fully revealed.
So thought the entire crew, but not the commander himself. Reserved in his judgments, he tended to "ground" the "heavenly" feats attributed to him. He believed that courage in battle was the duty and obligation of every fighter, a natural state of soul in military everyday life. It should not be reckless, thoughtless bravery that possesses a fighter in the heat of battle, but a sober mind, precise calculation, and strong nerves—this was what Nikolai Rud' was convinced of. He expressed this vividly in a newspaper article after another battle. I would like to add that in this short publication, the character of the man is visible, his "folk ingenuity," which the legendary Chapay often liked to recall, his sense of humor (and therefore—sense of life) in seemingly hopeless situations. This is what makes the description of the "everyday" episode of the war on the yellowed pages of the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" so precious.
"The Mysterious Airfield"—this was the title of the article. I present it with minor omissions. "The end of May 1943. South of Bryansk, we were often attacked by enemy night fighters in a remote sparsely populated area. I was ordered to find the airfield from which the enemy was launching attacks. Several days of flying were fruitless. Then a decision was made to go on a reconnaissance mission at night. We took off at nightfall.
We approached the front line. I did not rush forward, moving along the front and looking around. Finally, I saw: two white rockets take off. Order. For the Germans, they signal: "I am one of ours." For us, it is a different signal. We cross the front line and begin to fool the enemy. I switch the propeller speed adjustment sector to various modes: one—1700, the other—220. A sound appears, resembling the howl of a German bomber. Even listening to it is nauseating. We enter the area of the presumed enemy night airfield. I order to launch a series of red rockets, which means a distress signal in the enemy's language.
Got it! In response, a searchlight beacon turns on. If the crew is not recognized, the searchlight team is obliged to direct the beam toward the nearest airfield. That is what I hoped for. I turned on the navigation lights and set course toward the searchlight beam. In three to four minutes, a night launch site lit up right in front of me. And just where I had been searching for the airfield for several days. Luck!
I approached the launch line, blinked the navigation lights, and requested landing. The landing searchlight turned on, and in its light, slightly to the left, I saw the parking area of the night fighters "Focke-Wulf 190."
The fascists felt so safe here that they did not even bother to disperse and camouflage their planes.
...I retract the landing gear, turn off the navigation lights, and give full throttle to the engines... We drop the bombs. Following the explosions, enemy anti-aircraft guns open hurricane fire. We barely make our escape. We returned to base without any major incidents...
...The job is done: aerial photographs clearly confirmed that significant damage was inflicted on the enemy..."
Thus, simply and unpretentiously, without grand phrases, Rud' recounts an act that is essentially heroic, for which he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner. And it seems as if he did not visit the enemy's lair: "...we returned to base without any major incidents." "Without any major," if we do not count a dozen bullet holes in the plane. And such "incident-free" flights were repeated almost every day throughout the war, except for the forced "downtimes" due to five wounds when he had to lie on the hospital beds of military hospitals. Rud' made 394 combat sorties, fought on the Southwestern, Central, and Belarusian fronts. He liberated Warsaw, all of Poland, and was under Berlin.
Nikolai flew many miles on the heavenly roads of war. All cannot be recalled. But this case is special. It is mentioned sparingly yet weightily in the award sheet.
July 21, 1944. While performing a mission in the areas of Krasnostav, Pyaski, Lublin, Wlodawa, he discovered an enemy convoy retreating with over 1000 vehicles... In this flight, Rud' was attacked by 8 "FW-190" fighters. Repelling attacks from superior enemy forces, he persistently continued to carry out the assigned task. Only after completing the mission, skillfully avoiding fire from the fighters, did he retreat into the clouds. The aircraft sustained serious damage from enemy fighters and still safely arrived at its airfield. The crew was saved (once again!) and the expensive equipment was preserved. "For excellent reconnaissance of enemy troops," concludes the petition of the squadron commander—"for courage and initiative shown, Rud' Nikolai Mikhailovich deserves a high state award—the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal." The petition was signed in August, supported by the commander of the 16th Air Army, Colonel-General Rudenko, and the commander of the troops of the 1st Belarusian Front, Marshal Rokossovsky. The decree awarding the title of Hero was issued on October 26, 1944.
...And ahead lie many more miles of battles. And the war for the Hero does not end with the Victory on May 9. It will continue in the east of the country, on another front. And he will receive his last combat award there. And there, thousands of kilometers from the German front, on the opposite side of Europe, when the crew under the command of Captain Rud' took to the skies, signals went out: "In the attack 'lightning!'" Signals from our radio operators and those of the enemy.
And on the eve of the revolutionary holiday of the country, all these war-scarred years, letters from his combat friends and commanders were sent to the seventh school in the city of Frunze, where Kolya had recently studied: "Your protégé, the fearless pilot-communist Nikolai Rud'—the favorite of our unit..."
This is how he remained in peacetime, having exchanged the "captain's cabin" of the plane for a factory workshop due to health reasons. And still, while working at the Moscow Machine Engineering Plant, he dreamed of the sky, living in Tushino, near the airfield.
K. OMURKULOV