Pilot could not be confused with any other, on board her plane a beautiful flower was drawn, a flower of tenderness and love a white lily. The white lily became a black mark for the nazis. The luftwaf aces knew that the one who sits in the cockpit of this plane never misses. A woman who flew fighters in the 586th womens aviation regiment. She shot down the fascists with such courage that i can even envy some men, she was afraid of only one thing, missing, but in fortythree her plane entered the cloud zone and disappeared forever. The queen of the air was less than 22 years old, her name was on august 23 , 1942 , several hundred german planes took off into the sky over stalingrad and launched a massive attack on the city. Stalingrad is on fire. The soviet command decides to strengthen the citys defense. Eighth and sixteenth air. Armies are replenished with new aircraft and personnel. The commander of the eighth air army decided to create a regiment on the basis of this regiment, which defended odessa asov pilots. And to the same regiment, as having a personal victory, a group of four girls was sent, one of whom was Lydia Litvyak. September 42. A group of fighters flies to stalingrad to cover the crossing of the volga by the generals division. Among the mens hoarse voices on the front air , a melodic girls voice is heard. Ill attack, cover. A yak with a white lily on board rushes into a frontal attack. A machinegun burst and a german plane, smoking, falls to the ground. The rest of the junkers, throwing bombs where they hit, turn to their base, a few minutes later returns to. In the battles of stalingrad, Lydia Litvyak made 89 combat missions, beat up seven enemy aircraft. On february 23, 1943, she received her First Military award the order of the red star. From the memoirs of the commander of the 273rd Fighter Aviation regiment, boris eremin. She was a born pilot. She had a special gift and. The learning forests remind me of my native places near moscow, where i grew up, where i spent many happy days in the summer, i have long i was unaccustomed to the noise of the streets of moscow. From the roar of its trams, from the cars scurrying everywhere, combat life swallowed me up completely, its hard for me to grab a minute to write you a letter and tell you the most basic information about myself, that i am alive and well, that more than anything in the world i love my homeland and you, my dear mother, i am burning with the desire to expel the german reptiles from our land as quickly as possible in order to live again. To return to you, then i will tell you everything that i experienced, everything that i felt during those days that we were not together with you, but for now, goodbye, hello, your lilya, but lilia never had a quiet life, she was looking for adventure always and everywhere. Even as a future little girl, outwardly a gentle, touching young lady, inside she is a real imp, thats how she was born, perhaps this contradiction between her appearance and character made her special, mysterious and incredibly attractive to those around her. Lydia litvyak was born in moscow on august 18, 1921, in thirtythree this day was declared aviation day and she was very proud of it, she was. Im sure your birthday is destiny. Her father, vladimir leontievich, worked as a controller on the Northern Railway and traveled for a long time. Mother anna vasilievna, a former hatmaker, was involved in raising lilia and her younger brother yura. Lilias carefree life ended early. Her father left the family. He continued to support the children, but in 1936. Suddenly disappeared. According to some sources, vladimir leontievich was repressed; according to others , he simply disappeared, changing his last name. The family didnt have enough money, and after eighth grade lilia left school and entered the moscow Mechanical Engineering college named after ardzhinkidze, the faculty of geology. At the age of 14, she joined the flying club and a year later she made her first solo flight without an instructor. It was an action. A brave, decisive, active girl is noticed in the komsomol district committee, she is given a recommendation to the kiev flying club, then to the tagansky, and then to the kherson flying school. Here lilia undergoes training from january to may 1940 and finally becomes a professional. Pilot. Then lille heading to kalinin, the present city of tver. After completing instructor courses at the kalinin aero club, she remains to work there and in less than a year puts 45 guys on the wing. They were all in love with their miniature instructor. In her sly, slightly sideways glance, a mysterious halfsmile, but lilya was in no hurry to reciprocate anyone, as if she felt that she was big. Attention, says moscow, we are conveying an important government message, without any declaration of war, the German Armed Forces attacked the borders soviet union. When the war began, Lydia Litvyak immediately began to rush to the front. But she wanted to destroy the enemy from the air. In the first months of the war , there were no female flying units in the country; they appeared only in the fall of 1941, thanks to the legendary pilot marina roskova. On october 8, 1941 , an order was issued by the peoples commissar of defense on the formation of womens aviation regiments of the red army air force. The adventurous nature of Lydia Litvyak allowed her to easily credit herself with 100 hours of flight time to get into 586 and. Step forward, she breaks down and we all they gasped, she cut her ducklings into a collar overnight, and tore off the collar studs from the overalls and sewed on a beautiful fluffy one with curls, well, she says, when did you manage to do this, she says at night, she says, well, youll have to not sleep for another night, sew back the collar that was installed, thats when i noticed her, shes so beautiful and interesting. The girl looked at her and somehow thought could she really be a fighter, maybe she seemed too fragile in general, okay guys, ill tell you how yes, come on, its time, i had a fight with my boyfriend and he left to fight, i really want to see him, student of moscow state university, journalism department, minor, industrialist, we are working, minor fear, everyone has it, you dont understand that he is getting into the thick of things , today. For several days he has already been a hero twice, there are five civilian children at school, stop fire, they want to escape from mariupol and thereby cover the passage of their marines, guys, you are russians, russians do not abandon their own, yes 20 22 premiere, today tomorrow, after the program time, lesha, lets turn it on so that something happened now, well start to figure it out, so why figure it out, i want to show a movie to a person, there are people who make movies out of thin air, and i from myself, and you dont have to tell me anything, i know everything, i i know a lot of bandits, i go to the bathhouse , brother, you are my brother, seryozha, he is not an artist, he is a person, i think that strength lies in truth, and he ended up in the caucasus, in fact, because of me, maybe they were filming there, theres no need to relax, guys, theres a war going on. When seryozha left, something left my world, but just it became more difficult for me because my friend died, there is such a person, he forced me to carry a cross on easter, i almost fell, it is heavy, wooden, a huge cross, so i am waiting for someone to support me, because i could fall, and a crowd of people follows me, and i somehow went like this, to the sixtyfifth anniversary of alexeis birth. Balaban premieres on sunday on the first. In october 41, training flights began, which took place at a Training Base near engels. Lily had to relearn lowspeed u2 on the yak1 fighter. From a letter from lydia lidvyak, mother and brother. Dear mother, yura, i received your letter and telegram. This one letter made me so happy. That i immediately came to terms with my situation, i live very well, sometimes i dont even feel like eating lunch, because i think, how are you . I live in wonderful conditions, this is what torments me, that i live better than you, i kiss you very, very tightly, your lily. At first , the female fighter regiment was not sent to places of fierce battles; the pilots patrolled the skies over saratov. In that the city was evacuated, about 100 industrial enterprises, many government agencies, the best theaters in the country, the moscow conservatory, Leningrad University were located here, and the wounded were brought here from the front. Soratov was considered a security object of the first category. Protecting him was extremely important, but lilia was eager to go to the front. This girl always got what she wanted. At the beginning of september 42 , letvyak found herself in the thick of it near stalingrad. Official documents. Union such and such died a heroic death in fighting for the freedom and independence of our homeland. In the ninth guards regiment, lilya became friends with ekaterina budanova, whom she met back in engels. They were very different in character and appearance. Tall, broadshouldered, shorthaired katya in her flight uniform was not much different from a man, she was funny and lively. Lilla is petite, only 50 meters tall, thoughtful, dreamy and shy. But this was only on the ground; in the air she became impudent and very dangerous. February 11, 1943. Flight yakov covers the ground troops. Leading group, mikhail baranov, seeing a group of twelve enemy bombers, leads the group into the attack. Two fascist planes go into a tailspin, the rest drop bombs on their own and scatter in a weir to the sides. A couple of minutes later more people come up. From the most difficult situations, alexey, like many, fell madly in love with white lily , because it was impossible not to fall in love with her, well, i must say that lilya, in my opinion, was a very interesting girl, in our regiment there was no less interesting personality, man, this is lesh solomatin, commander of the first squadron, blonde with black eyebrows, sympathy. Exceptional , at first lilla kept a friendly distance from her commander, from lydia litvyas letter to her mother, i talked a lot about him, he used to be my squadron commander, he flew in tandem with me, he is a common favorite, and he loved me very much, but then he was not my ideal, because of this there was a lot of trouble, i was transferred to another squadron, maybe thats why. I was shot down near rostov then, after which i was attacked by terrible melancholy, and katka was not around, melancholy, lilys feelings were unfamiliar before, she realized that alexei had become a very important, necessary person for her, she reciprocated salomatins feelings, well, when they fell in love with each other, i dont know, but in rostov already, and it was the month of march. Conducted an aerial Training Exercise over an airfield right above our heads and. With this plane everyone was circling, buzzing, buzzing, circling, then suddenly one howled and went straight to the ground, then an explosion, a blow, everything, we everyone rushed there to the crash site, for some reason at first they thought that the young pilot had fallen and could not withstand slomatins attack, but it turned out that the plane was a lunatic, of course, for lily it was a terrible loss. Hello, dear mother, yura, i hug you tightly and send my heartfelt greetings. During this short period we flew very little, not a little, but we suffered incredible losses. Fate snatched my best friend, lyosha solomatin. Before his death, alyosha received the title of hero of the soviet union. He is a threetime order bearer, the invincible king of the air. He was threatened with death a hundred times, he won in air battles, died so ridiculously that day we were training, he was piloting and all of a sudden he crashed, right before our eyes, no one found a reason why. That night i had a dream, the river was very stormy, it was impossible to swim across. lilyok, well , you will come, and i tell him if they let me go, but i myself know that i still cant swim across this river, and i woke up, believe me, mommy, that i appreciated this friendship only at the moment of his death, if he remained alive, it seems that this friendship would become extremely beautiful and strong, the whole regiment, the village, in where he was buried was named solomatina, the former village of pavlovka. Mommy, i kiss you warmly, all of you, your lily. She wrote us letters every day, such triangular letters, to yuris mother. And the last letter, the last. The letter writes mom, im having a dream, im standing on the shore, a stormy river, and alyosha is calling me from the other side, waving that everything will perish. Lilia fought desperately, crawling into the thick of it, as if she quickly wanted to get to the shore where alexey was waiting for her. By this time, the litvyak, as an experienced pilot, was allowed the socalled free hunting. She did not fly out in a group, but looked for it herself. Enemy aircraft, relying on knowledge of the operational situation. In the air , she acted daringly, performing seemingly impossible tasks, such as shooting down an artillery fire spotting balloon. The pilots considered this to be almost impossible. Such balloons were always under strong antiaircraft cover. And then lydia turned to the regiment commander, and she was sent on a mission to destroy the etorostat. Of course, the regiment commander understood everything. The insanity that she may not return, at first he refused her, but she insisted on it, and he, knowing her character and persistence, agreed. Lily went behind the lines of the german enemy and from there , at maximum speed from the direction of the sun , she shot down this balloon and safely returned to her airfield, for this feat she received the order of the red banner, and the litvyak. They wrote in the newspapers, in fortythree a large article was published in komsomol pravda, and the girl clearly liked the attention of the press, from a letter from Lydia Litvyak, home on june 7, 1943. Hello, dear mom and yurochka, i am sending you this letter with the major, who is flying away from us today, so it will arrive before the rest of the letters. I feel great, im sending you my photo. They wanted to send it to moscow for an exhibition, but i dragged it away because it was very scary, or rather poorly processed, i was also filmed for a film magazine. Mommy, how is your Financial Support . I have no doubt that it doesnt matter, but it might be better than in winter, im very worried about you, but it still seems to me that theres very little time left, and were good again. kisses, yours lilya. More and more materials about the brave pilot appeared in the newspapers. July 8, 1943. The litvyak, pursuing the downed u87, unexpectedly met with the messers. In this battle, she destroyed another fascist plane. She returned to the airfield, wounded in the leg and shoulder, but categorically refused to go to the hospital. Lilia was a fighter, the highest caste among military pilots. Fellow soldiers knew that when returning from battle, she performed barrels and milmans and other aerobatic maneuvers over the airfield. That means everything is in order, victory, but it happened that litvyaks plane was landing in a straight line, then everyone ran towards her, they understood whether the plane was wounded or shot down, she never complained, she liked life full of risk, on the day of defender of the fatherland on the first, ogony was born, sometimes there were no names left, a nut , those who accepted mortal combat simply threw back the earth, grass, when we were driving, alyusha, only formidable valor, everyone settled, there was only one close person left, this eternal flame, blessed memory to everyone who. Officers, today on the first, and what kind of profession is this, to defend the homeland, a concert for the ninetieth anniversary vasily lonovoy in the kremlin, premiere, today on the first day. On july 17, 1943, the miusa offensive operation began on the southern front. After the defeat at stalingrad, the germans retreated here to mius. A fortified area, the socalled meusfront, was created here. Three lines of defense and fortifications. This means that the first is along the mius river itself, the second is along the river in the petrovskaya area. There were fierce battles in the skies over donbass. On july 19, liliyas friend, ekaterina budanova, was assigned to cover the il2 group. While im afraid with mr. Shmitami, katyas plane was shot down. The pilot managed to land him in a field, local residents ran up and pulled her out of the plane. But budanova died from her wounds without regaining consciousness. The death of her friend was another difficult loss for lily. In the month of may, her husband died, and then her friend, katya budanova, was shot down before her eyes, well, she no longer thought about death, she was not afraid of death. Lilya fought the nazis even more desperately, angrier and more mercilessly. It seemed that she did not know fatigue. August 1. The strike group was divided into a separate pair to the side, a covering pair were, we didnt see the enemy in the air during the entire flight, but in any case i didnt see, i saw only one mr. Shmita, who attacked her and saw how her wingman viktor tobunov tried to repel this attack, but. Apparently nothing worked out for viktor tobanov, it was messes schitts turn that hit lily vletvyaks plane. After that, the plane was descending without smoke and fire, i didnt see it , it went into the clouds, i went after this plane to look, but broke through when the clouds, under the clouds, noticed the plane crashing or the place i didnt succeed in falling on the ground, or the parachutist, i didnt see where she was. Lilia was very afraid of only one thing, the abyss of obscurity, thats what she told her mechanic and the nonpassport officer, most of all im afraid of the abyss of obscurity, anything, just isnt this how she felt like she felt what fate had in store for her . Lydia was represented by the command of the eighth air force. To the title of hero of the soviet union a week after her death, but due to the fact that the girls fate remained unknown, only on may 5, 1990, 47 years old later, a decree was signed awarding Lydia Vladimirovna litvyak the title of hero of the soviet union. Posthumously. The gold star medal, number 11616, was handed over to relatives for safekeeping. To make this happen, a huge amount of work was done both by lilys fellow soldiers and by Young Rangers from the city of krasny luch, participants in the Patriotic Movement , scouts of military glory. On the anniversary of the founding of the ninth guards fighter regiment , famous soviet pilots gathered in moscow. And absolutely suddenly a group arrived for command schoolchildren w