Ordinary soldiers of construction battalions Anatoly Kryuchkovsky, Philip Poplavsky, Ivan Fedotov and their commander Askhat Ziganshin, junior sergeant, in the 1960s were more popular than the Liverpool four.
But the glory of The Beatles is still alive, but the feat of this four is forgotten. Or does it just seem to us?
The emergency that made the four Russian guys famous all over the world took place in January 1960 on the island of Iturup. The approach from the sea to the island was extremely difficult due to the rocky shallow water. Therefore, the delivery of goods went through a floating berth, the function of which was performed by the T-36 self-propelled tank landing barge.
Missing
The T-36 self-propelled tank landing barge is a small boat with a displacement of 100 tons. That is, this rather fragile boat could not move more than 300 meters from the coast. If not for the element that played out in earnest on January 17, 1960. A hurricane wind in one second tore the barge from its mooring and began to carry it into the open sea.
The four guys sincerely believed that help from the shore was about to come. At worst, they hoped that they would be nailed to some island.
Naturally, they were looking for … But somehow sluggishly. After all, after the storm subsided, the soldiers combed the shore and found some things from the barge. The military command came to the conclusion that the barge, along with the people who were on it, died. It immediately notified their relatives of this unfortunate event.
In fact, the barge did not sink. Four soldiers, who by the will of fate found themselves on it, fought unequally against the storm for 10 hours. After all, they were not even sailors. The guys served in the engineering and construction troops, which are called the construction battalion in slang. They could not cope with 15-meter waves. The element ruffled the boat like a walnut shell. Having hit the bottom of the stone ridge, the ship received a hole. All the meager supplies of fuel were spent on the struggle for survival, the uncontrollable barge was inexorably carried into the open ocean.
The first thing the team did was to fight for the ship's buoyancy. During the night, they managed to patch the hole and repair the leak with a jack. But the situation in which the young guys found themselves looked almost hopeless. There was no fuel on the barge, as well as communication with the shore … From food - a loaf of bread, two cans of stew, a can of fat and a few spoons of cereal. There were two more buckets of potatoes, which were scattered around the engine room during the storm, making it soaked in fuel oil. A tank of drinking water was also overturned, which was partially mixed with sea water. There was also a potbelly stove on the ship, matches and a couple of packs of Belomor. That's all the wealth.
Ax soup
Askhat Ziganshin immediately imposed severe restrictions on food and water. They ate once a day. Each got a mug of soup, which was cooked from a couple of potatoes and a spoonful of fat. They drank water three times a day in a tiny glass from a shaving kit. But soon this rate had to be cut in half.
Fresh water was taken from the engine cooling system - rusty, but usable. Rainwater was also collected. But this ration also had to fight for the survivability of the barge: chipping off the ice from the sides in order to prevent it from overturning, pumping out the water collected in the hold.
The supplies soon ran out. The guys ate their last dinner of potatoes and a spoonful of fat on February 23rd. With such a "feast" they celebrated the Day of the Soviet Army.
Then leather belts and tarpaulin boots were used. The guys cut the bootleg into pieces, boiled it for a long time in ocean water, instead of firewood using fenders - car tires chained to the sides. When the tarpaulin had softened a little, they began to chew it in order to fill the stomach with at least something. Sometimes they were fried in a skillet with technical oil. It turned out something like chips.
When the skin ran out, they began to taste toothpaste and even soap.
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Stars and Stripes Helping Hand
Meanwhile, the ship continued to drift. The team had no strength left. At the end of the 49th day, completely exhausted, the guys basked in the sun. And suddenly they heard a rumble. Hallucinations? And then we saw helicopters in the sky above us. Not far off is a ship. Help came!
But it was too early to rejoice. The ship was American. And this meant that they were being saved by their enemies. The time was like this: the height of the Cold War, the guys were Soviet servicemen. Even dying of exhaustion, they did not want to accept help from foreigners. But then the ship and helicopters disappeared. It was very difficult to see how the path to salvation that was just nearby was gone. But it seems that the foreign sailors also understood something. After a short time, the exhausted people lying on the barge heard in Russian: “Help you! Help you! Ziganshin was the first to climb the rope ladder.
On March 7, helicopters transported them to the American aircraft carrier Kearsarge, where the soldiers were given a bowl of broth each. The Americans offered all kinds of food, but Askhat, who well remembered the Volga Holodomor, warned the guys that they could not eat anymore. But even more Americans were amazed by the way they took the food - each first carefully passed the plate to the other. Nobody pulled to him. It was for this that the barge crew was appreciated. Those who watched the people emaciated from hunger realized that they were real heroes. The rescued were given a smoke and taken to the shower.
But when, through an interpreter, they were told: "If you are afraid to return to your homeland, then we can keep you with us," the guys replied: "We want to return home, no matter what happens to us later …"
The most enthusiastic reception awaited them in America. Meetings, press conferences, the kindness and admiration of strangers. In San Francisco, Ziganshin saw television for the first time in his life, and just at the moment when it was shown how they were being lifted aboard a helicopter in a semi-conscious state. Voice of America spoke about the incident on the same day. But Moscow was silent. And then Askhat, who by that moment had eaten a little, warmed up and came to himself, was really scared. He, a Soviet soldier, surrendered to his enemies. What awaits him at home? Torture, camp, prison?
The US State Department notified the Soviet embassy in Washington of the happy salvation of the entire four a few hours after the guys were aboard the Kearsarge aircraft carrier. And all that week, while the aircraft carrier was sailing to San Francisco, Moscow doubted: who are they - traitors or heroes? By the time the aircraft carrier arrived in San Francisco, after weighing all the pros and cons, Moscow finally decided: heroes! And the article "Stronger than Death", which appeared in Izvestia on March 16, 1960, launched a grandiose propaganda campaign in the Soviet mass media. The brave four were now destined for truly world fame.
In Moscow, they were also expected to receive a solemn welcome, crowds of people at the airport, flowers, congratulations. Defense Minister Malinovsky gave the rescued a navigator's watch "so that they would no longer wander." Askhat Ziganshin was immediately promoted to the rank of senior sergeant. Posters hung everywhere: "Glory to the brave sons of our Motherland!" There were broadcasts about them on the radio, films were made about them, newspapers wrote, and then the most popular song at that time about the crew of a barge on the rock'n'roll tune Rock Around the Clock appeared: “Ziganshin-boogie, Ziganshin-rock, Ziganshin ate his boot."
The popularity of the four from the T-36 barge began to pass only towards the end of the 1960s. But they will remain heroes forever.
Olga Arkhipova