The story of the Soviet pilot Ivan Datsenko, at first glance, may seem fantastic, there are too many mysteries in it. The hero of the Soviet aviation did not return back to one of the combat missions and was declared missing, and, many years later, the Soviet delegation met him in Canada on the reservation of local Indians. Ivan had by that time received a new name "Piercing Fire" and became the leader of the Aboriginal tribe.
Let's find out the details of this story or legend …
The story of the rescue of Ivan Datsenko is usually referred to as a legend, since there is no direct evidence that the Hero of the Soviet Union lived the rest of his life overseas. During the war, Ivan proved himself to be a brave pilot, commanded an aviation squadron. A native of the Poltava region began the war on June 22, 1941, the official date of his death is the day of the last combat flight - April 10, 1944. Despite this, there is an opinion that everything turned out quite differently.
The official death report states that Ivan Datsenko died in the bombing of the Lviv-2 railway / station, occupied by the Germans. According to an unconfirmed version, the pilot managed to jump out of the burning plane, after which, having landed, he was taken prisoner by Germany. Apparently, the Ukrainian escaped, was detained by Smersh employees, convicted and went to the escort. On the way, he escaped and somehow miraculously made his way to Canada. There is another version: Ivan was a Soviet spy and was on duty in the country of the maple leaf.
Datsenko's fellow soldier, Hero of the Soviet Union Aleksey Kot testified that he personally witnessed the death of the bomber crew, piloted by the flight commander Datsenko, in the night sky over the Lvov-2 railway station. “We repeated the raid,” the Cat wrote in his post-war memoirs. - On the railway tracks, wagons were burning, warehouses with fuel exploded. In this raid, among others, the target was covered by the crew of Ivan Datsenko. When the plane that dropped the SABs [luminous air bombs] was caught by several searchlights, my heart sank. The fireworks of explosions painted the sky crimson, but the pilot kept the plane on a combat course through the fiery whirlwind. And suddenly there was an explosion. Apparently, the shell, or maybe more than one, hit the gas tank. Flaming debris flew in all directions. Many of those who were in the target area at that time saw this terrible picture. None of the crew members had time to use a parachute … "(Kot A. N. On long routes. Kiev, 1983, p. 47).
Ivan Datsenko: Soviet pilot who became the leader of an Indian tribe.
At the same time, the deputy navigator of the 10th Red Banner Stalingrad-Katowitsky Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Gunbin in his memoirs claimed that no one knew the details of the death of the crew and the regiment was waiting for his return until the very end of the war (Gunbin N. A. In a stormy sky, Yaroslavl, Verkhne-Volzhsky book publishing house, 1984, p. 187). Another colleague of the Hero, the former head of the regiment's medical service, Vladimir Tverdenko, in 1967 wrote a letter to the political department of the Orenburg Higher Military Aviation School, where Datsenko studied before the war. He asked for information if there was any information about the fate of a fellow soldier after he did not return from a combat mission.
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Thus, he indirectly confirmed Gunbin's words that many of those who served and fought side by side with Datsenko did not manage to come to terms with the idea of his death and continued to hope for a miracle. Indeed, in the summer of 1942, Datsenko and the crew members, in a similar situation, managed to jump with parachutes from a destroyed bomber engulfed in fire, and then reach their own. Political departments could not please the doctor in any way: the testimonies of several former pilots and navigators of the long-range bomber aviation regiment, collected by them, invariably ended with the fact that on April 18, 1944, Datsenko died a heroic death.
However, in the same 1967, information appeared that made one doubt this.
Fire Piercing with his tribe.
Be that as it may, Ivan was first discovered by pop dancer Mahmud Esambaev.
In 1967, an official Soviet delegation headed by First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers Dmitry Polyansky, which included a group of artists from Moscow theaters, including the famous dancer Makhmud Esambaev, arrived in Canada for the Expo-67 exhibition. At his request, the program of the visit included a trip of the delegation to the reservation of the Mohawk Indian tribe to get acquainted with their ritual dances. After returning to Moscow, Esambaev released sensational details of his visit to the Indian village. According to the dancer, the tribal leader named Fire Piercing greeted him with the words “Healthy Buly!”, And then invited him to the wigwam, where they drank “vodka” and sang Ukrainian songs.
The leader introduced himself to the artist Ivan Ivanovich Datsenko from the Poltava region. After returning to the USSR, Esambaev sent the leader a set of postcards with views of Ukraine and received a letter in response. Esambaev told about the “leader of the Redskins” with Poltava roots, in particular, in an interview with the magazine “Soviet Screen”, and while on tour in Poltava he told about his meeting with a man named Datsenko in the regional party committee.
Among the Indians, Ivan Datsenko received the name Piercing Fire.
Over the years, the testimonies of several more members of the then delegation were also published. Hero of Socialist Labor from Belarus Zinaida Goryachko, for example, noticed that the leader did not take his eyes off her Golden Star for a long time and suddenly silently pointed his finger at his chest. Garachko decided that he was asking to give him his Star. “No, no,” she replied. And it seemed to her that he, moving away from her, quietly said in Russian: "It's a pity …" (S. Litskevich. "Ray" of fate. "Newspaper" Sovetskaya Belorussia ". No. 14, January 24, 2006).
In 1997, Izvestia journalist Eduard Polyanovsky undertook an investigation into this unusual story. He came to the conclusion that Piercing Fire and pilot Datsenko are different people.
At the same time, the newspaperman referred to Esambaev, who told him that the leader, who called himself Datsenko, really had Poltava roots, but never lived in the USSR, and in 1967 he was only about 30 years old. Meanwhile, these data contradict the statement of NF Chugunova, a participant in a visit to the Mohawk reservation, who emphasized that "he [the leader] looks about 50 years old, but he retained a proud young posture, officer bearing and become". She also managed to be photographed with him, and later this photo became the subject for a comparative study, which was undertaken by the editors of the TV show "Wait for me" at the request of the pilot's niece Olga Ruban. The well-known forensic expert of the Moscow Institute of Forensic Medicine Sergei Nikitin, comparing it with a photograph of the pilot, stated thatthat “a large-scale overlay of two photos made it possible to establish a complete application of the main parameters of the face that remained unchanged throughout life: the back of the nose, the line of closing the lips and the contour of the chin,” that is, the same face is depicted in both pictures.
The retired military judge, Retired Justice Colonel Vyacheslav Zvyagintsev also became interested in the history of the "second life" of the aviator. In his opinion, the disappearance of the name of the Hero of the Soviet Union Datsenko from the Book of Memory and the cancellation of the perpetuation of his name in the name of the village could be associated with the results of the identification of the unusual leader by the KGB in 1967. The representative of this department, according to the custom in the USSR, accompanied the Soviet delegation abroad and could not help reporting on the command about the contacts of the members of the delegation with the leader of the tribe from Ukraine. In the course of further checks, the "competent authority" identified the leader named Fire Piercing with the Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Datsenko. Zvyagintsev also noted that at about the same period, Esambaev suddenly began to evade journalists' questions regarding the circumstances of his visit to the Indian reservation.
Many years later, his niece tried to find Ivan, having enlisted the support of the "Wait for Me" program for this. Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve clear results: Esambaev had already passed away by that time, John McComber (Ivan's Canadian name) also died, and the two children who remained after him could not be found. Now the reservation in Canada has been disbanded, the Indians have left for different parts of the country.
This picture of the leader of the Indian tribe was taken in 1967 by members of the Soviet delegation who came to the world exhibition "Expo-67" (photo gazeta.ua)
“I read that Esambaev met my uncle in Canada only a few years after his interview was published,” Datsenko's niece Olga Ruban, 66, from Poltava, tells FACTS. - I rushed to look for Mahmud Alisultanovich. But by that time he had already died. Then I called the journalist Chekalin, who was preparing an interview with him. The correspondent assured that in the article everything is as the famous dancer told, the cassette with a dictaphone has been preserved.
According to the journalist, it followed that he had gone to a "military" trick: he took a bottle of good brandy and asked for a visit to Esambaev in the evening when he came to Kharkov. After a couple of glasses, Chekalin turned on the recorder. Here it must be said that the famous dancer had previously told reporters about the Ukrainian leader, but he never gave his name. And over a bottle of cognac - he said. There are people who consider Esambaev's testimony to be fiction. How could he know about the Hero of the Soviet Union pilot Ivan Datsenko? I was finally convinced of the veracity of his story when Igor Kvasha and Maria Shukshina's TV show “Wait for Me” showed a story about my uncle, after which several members of the Soviet delegation at the “Expo-67” exhibition responded, who went with Makhmud Alisultanovich to the reservation saw the leader who spoke Ukrainian and Russian.
They brought photographs of my uncle in Indian clothes to the shooting of the program. They said that the leader personally conducted an excursion to the museum of the Indians' life for the Soviet group. But he did not elaborate on the details of his amazing life. Photographs of the leader and the guard, Captain Ivan Datsenko, were handed over by the TV crew to the Institute of Forensic Medical Examination. Conclusion of experts: the photographs show the same person. Mom also recognized her brother as the leader.
Journalists managed to find a diplomat from Moscow Vladimir Semyonov, who in 1967 was an adviser to the USSR ambassador to Canada. He said that the excursion to the Indian reservation was personally accompanied by Ambassador Ivan Shpedko. He took with him a bottle of Ukrainian vodka to give the Indians as a souvenir. Returning, Shpedko said: “When I handed the leader of the tribe vodka, he changed his face, and he spoke to me
in Ukrainian. I was amazed: the Ukrainian had to get into the Indian tribe, and even become a leader! According to Semenov, the ambassador did not try to continue contacts with this person, because in those days such an initiative could cost the diplomat a career.
* Olga Ruban gave her mother her word to find Uncle Ivan's grave in Canada and pour a handful of Ukrainian soil on it
“A transcript of the All-Union meeting of cultural workers, which took place in March 1991 in Zhitomir, was sent to the editorial office of“Wait for me”from Ukraine,” continues Olga Ruban. - This document contains the story of Esambaev about his trip to the reservation.
Ivan Datsenko: Soviet pilot who became the leader of an Indian tribe.
“During Expo 67, Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson saw my performance in Ottawa,” recalled dancer Makhmud Esambaev. - After the concert he came up with a question: "Mister Esambaev, what would you like to take away from our country as a keepsake?" “I am interested in the dances of the peoples of the world. Therefore, I would like to see how the Indians dance. " - "You are welcome". We arrived at the reservation on a weekend. I saw 800-900 people dancing at the same time: men, women, children. I ask: "Where is the leader?" And then I see: a strong-build man is walking. It turned out that this was the leader of the tribe. He's as tall as me, maybe a little taller. On the head is a festive feather headdress. Next to him was a beautiful Indian wife.
He bowed to me and said: “Healthy bules. Happy to welcome you. Be a weasel to my hut."
- “Do you speak Ukrainian ?!” - “So I'm Ukrainian. Our daddy (the previous leader of the tribe. - Author) died 12 years ago. My Zhinka is his daughter. " And I went to his house. The leader has four sons. His wife could speak Ukrainian, and so did the children. They ate, and the leader sang, "Harness, boys, horses." His wife and children sang - as in a Ukrainian hut. Tears welled up in the owner's eyes. I ask: "Where are you from?" - "Z-pid Poltava". His name was Ivan Datsenko. But in the tribe he bore an Indian name. When I arrived in Poltava, I went to the first secretary, told about this meeting. He suggested: "Mahmud, tell the whole regional committee."
On account of Datsenko 283 sorties, of which 265 - night
- Just at this time, on the initiative of the retired military pilot, Lazutkin, and other front-line soldiers who fought with my uncle, they wanted to rename our village Chernechiy Yar, Dikankovsky district, to Datsenkovskoye, continues Olga Vasilyevna. - They even brought a huge stone for the obelisk. But suddenly the case was released on the brakes, the stone was taken away. Perhaps the reason for this was the meeting in Canada of Soviet citizens with Ivan Datsenko. It is no secret that in those days, a KGB officer was necessarily included in the composition of delegations sent abroad. So the competent authorities could not have been unaware of the Ukrainian leader.
How did it happen that Ivan Datsenko ended up in Canada?
- It's still a mystery. His plane was shot down during a night bombardment of the Lvov-2 railway station in April 1944. There were three more people on board - two crew members Svetlov and Bezobrazov, as well as the head of the political department, Zavirukhin, who decided to fly on a combat mission. They dropped special bombs on parachutes that did not explode, but illuminated the target for the rest of the bombers. German anti-aircraft gunners managed to catch the beams of searchlights and bring down Datsenko's car. It exploded in the air. The pilot Nikolai Zhugan who was flying after him allegedly saw that Ivan managed to jump out with a parachute. Zhugan wrote to my mother about this (the letter has been preserved). Be that as it may, the body of Uncle Vanya was not found. It was believed that he went missing while performing a combat mission. Probably, Datsenko was taken prisoner, and after the war he decided not to return to his homeland,where he could easily be in the camp.
The Soviet authorities wanted to rename his native village Chernechiy Yar in honor of the Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Datsenko, but abandoned this idea after it became known that he survived and moved to Canada
The niece is holding a photo of Ivan Datsenko.
“Ivan Datsenko studied at our school, so we cherish the memory of him,” says the head teacher of the school in the village of Bolshie Budischa Yaroslava Gorodnitskaya. - Among the collected materials there are memoirs of a British officer of Ukrainian origin Viktor Roenko. While in Canada, he got lost in a forest in Ontario. I went out to a forest stream, near which children were playing. The officer was amazed to hear that they were speaking Ukrainian. The children brought him to their father, the leader of the tribe. Sunflowers and black-shaved flowers grew near the wigwam. The leader spoke with Roenko in Ukrainian. But he didn't tell much about himself.
Ivan Datsenko was 11 years old when his mother died. The father married a second time. The stepmother turned out to be a woman of heart. Old-timers say that she loved Vanya. He had a brother Vasily and a sister Daria. The family survived collectivization and the horror of the Holodomor: they baked shortbreads from acorns ground into flour, they caught sparrows … It helped them that their father was not only a grain grower, but also a tailor. After graduating from school, Ivan studied to be a veterinarian. By distribution he got to the Urals. Soon he was drafted into the Red Army. Everyone who knew says that he grew up to be a strong, slender guy with a leadership character. Then the profession of a pilot was very popular among young people, and Vanya wrote an application to the flying school.
- Although all his relatives in letters dissuaded him from this step, - adds Olga Ruban. - In 1939 his father, my grandfather, died. The relatives decided not to inform Ivan about this. The fact is that he was just passing the next exams. The family decided: if the guy now finds out about the death of his dad, he can get bad grades, and God forbid, he will be expelled from the school. So he didn't come to the funeral. He graduated from college before the war, got into a regiment of long-range bombers. On account of his 283 sorties, of which 265 - night. The front-line soldiers say that this is a lot. Uncle was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the liberation of our village, in the fall of 1943, he was released on a short vacation. I got to the village in the evening, reported on my arrival to the chairman of the village council and went to my sister Daria, my mother. In the morning I met with the youth - I was agitating the guys to go beat the fascists. Ivan himself vowed to avenge the death of his brother Vasily. The guys were inspired, many, having assigned themselves a year, or even two, went to enroll in the soldiers. Ivan sent his officer's salary - 500 rubles a month - to my mother.
Did Datsenko have a bride?
- Yes. Her name was Maria Antimonova. They met in Russia. She wrote letters to our family about how good Ivan is. But in his native village he had a girlfriend. Old-timers said that when the pilot went to the front after a short vacation in 1943, a young teacher Maria Minyailo accompanied him to the outskirts. They had a romantic relationship before Ivan was drafted into the army. Then they corresponded.
Ivan Datsenko sent news about himself from Canada?
- Mom told about a mysterious story that happened in the 1970s, - Olga Ruban answers. - Two unfamiliar men came to our village. First, they visited the regional center Dikanka, inquired about the village in which my mother lives. Then everyone knew about the sister of the Hero of the Soviet Union in the regional center. The strangers reached our village. They ask grandfather, who was sitting on a bench near the outer hut, where one can find Daria Ivanovna Korol. "So there she is," the grandfather replies, "near her tyn." The guests came up and asked for water. They asked her mother in detail about her life, family, relatives, including about Ivan. At parting, they gave me several bills with the number one hundred. The money was foreign. Mom did not want to take, she said: "Why do I need them?" “To remember how we were treated to some water,” one of the strangers replied. In those years, if a person had currency,he could easily end up in jail. Therefore, my mother decided to hide the money and not tell anyone about it. Many years later, our daughter-in-law found out about the banknotes and persuaded to give them to her. Who knows, perhaps it was Canadian dollars - veiled news from Uncle Vanya. For some reason, the thought that he asked Esambaev to visit my mother does not leave me. After all, he and Mahmud Alisultanovich found a common language. If you believe the dancer, then he even corresponded with Datsenko for some time. The artist allegedly sent Uncle Vanya photographs of Ukrainian landscapes, huts with tyns and sunflowers … Unfortunately, the house in Grozny, where Esambaev's apartment was located and his archive was kept, burned down during the Chechen war. Perhaps there were letters from Uncle Vanya. Many years later, our daughter-in-law found out about the banknotes and persuaded to give them to her. Who knows, perhaps it was Canadian dollars - veiled news from Uncle Vanya. For some reason, the thought that he asked Esambaev to visit my mother does not leave me. After all, he and Mahmud Alisultanovich found a common language. If you believe the dancer, then he even corresponded with Datsenko for some time. The artist allegedly sent Uncle Vanya photographs of Ukrainian landscapes, huts with tyns and sunflowers … Unfortunately, the house in Grozny, where Esambaev's apartment was located and his archive was kept, burned down during the Chechen war. Perhaps there were letters from Uncle Vanya. Many years later, our daughter-in-law found out about the banknotes and persuaded to give them to her. Who knows, perhaps it was Canadian dollars - veiled news from Uncle Vanya. For some reason, the thought that he asked Esambaev to visit my mother does not leave me. After all, he and Mahmud Alisultanovich found a common language. If you believe the dancer, then he even corresponded with Datsenko for some time. The artist allegedly sent Uncle Vanya photographs of Ukrainian landscapes, huts with tyns and sunflowers … Unfortunately, the house in Grozny, where Esambaev's apartment was located and his archive was kept, burned down during the Chechen war. Perhaps there were letters from Uncle Vanya. If you believe the dancer, then he even corresponded with Datsenko for some time. The artist allegedly sent Uncle Vanya photographs of Ukrainian landscapes, huts with tyns and sunflowers … Unfortunately, the house in Grozny, where Esambaev's apartment was located and his archive was kept, burned down during the Chechen war. Perhaps there were letters from Uncle Vanya. If you believe the dancer, then he even corresponded with Datsenko for some time. The artist allegedly sent Uncle Vanya photographs of Ukrainian landscapes, huts with tyns and sunflowers … Unfortunately, the house in Grozny, where Esambaev's apartment was located and his archive was kept, burned down during the Chechen war. Perhaps there were letters from Uncle Vanya.
Have you tried to find a relative or his children in Canada?
- Sure. Repeatedly appealed to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. I got the same answer: not enough data to conduct a search. But the members of the creative team of the "Wait for Me" program informed me that my uncle had already died. According to them, he was named John McComber. The Indians called it in their own way - Piercing Fire. The TV people even showed a video of his grave. Allegedly, they managed to find two grandchildren of the leader - the journalist Nina and John, who serves in the police. The host Igor Kvasha assured me: “Olga Vasilievna, we are already at the finish line. You will definitely meet your relatives. " That was ten years ago. Then the enthusiasm of the creative team suddenly dried up. They told me neither addresses nor phone numbers of John and Nina.
“I think that the special services intervened - they“asked”not to develop this topic anymore,” says Grigory Titarenko, a researcher of the biography of Ivan Datsenko.
- I belong to Ivan Ivanovich as a second cousin - our grandfathers were brothers. Why did I have a version about special services? Our family has a friend who holds a high position in one of the state bodies of Russia. We asked him to assist in our search. At first, the official was very interested and eager to help. But he ended up saying, "You'd better leave this venture." And there was also such a case: a suspicious woman came to us, posing as a journalist. Here you are recording our conversation on a dictaphone. And she had no voice recorder, no notepad, no camera. She said that she would remember everything anyway. She was interested in one thing - whether Datsenko's niece Olga Vasilievna would go to Canada.
- I, of course, will not go overseas alone, - says Olga Ruban. - But, for example, I would go with the filmmakers who made a film about my uncle. At the presentation of this film last fall, the Minister of Culture of Ukraine promised to help me with a trip to Canada. I gave my mother my word to find Uncle Ivan's grave and leave on it a handful of my native Ukrainian land and a bouquet of flowers. First, I need to find his grandchildren. I would not spare the money to call them. I'm even ready to starve for this - my income is small. I get a pension and work as a security guard in a parking lot.
* Much in the biography of Ivan Datsenko is still unknown, so the film reflects one of the versions of his story
The already mentioned diplomat Vladimir Semyonov told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper that he turned to his friend, the Canadian diplomat Blyar Simborn, for help in finding Datsenko's grandchildren. Simborne asked for the assistance of a member of the Senate of Canada, an ethnic Indian. Tom managed to find out that there really was a foreigner on one of the reservations. One of his grandchildren, John, serves in the police, and his granddaughter, Nina, is allegedly in the tourism business.