Nadezhda Kurchenko 19 year old stewardess of the funeral. The feat of the Soviet stewardess of hope Kurchenko. Nerves burn on such a job

The feat is a heroic deed,
committed in difficult conditions

On October 15, 1970, taking off from Batumi airport, the AN-24 (flight 244) with 46 passengers on board was supposed to land in Krasnodar. A few minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 800 meters, two passengers called flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko and handed a note to pilots demanding a change of route and fly to Turkey.

Shot from the film "Entrant"

Monument to Nadezhda Kurchenko in Sukhumi

It was clear visibility! The Ana flight was ordinary.
The stewardess was so bright and sweet
Because the flight was simple and familiar,
And Nadia did not think that trouble would break out!
The plane suddenly unexpectedly deviated from the course,
Communication with the Earth has been interrupted!
Not a single person on earth thought
That Nadia died, but the scoundrels did not give up!
... Nadia was summoned by a man in the first chair
And he ordered the commander to transmit the letter.
The stewardess glanced at him carefully,
And suddenly he realized: "She can get in the way!"
He rushed after her, Nadia said firmly:
"Citizen! You come back, you can’t come here!"
He pulled out a revolver and she screamed
Opening the cab door: "Assault, friends!"
A shot came. Nadia staggered, but stood up,
Cuddling the door, blocking friends.
But the bandit, brutalized, gave a second, you fell.
So died, Hope, at the hands of the executioners!
And the next morning the country found out all about Nadia.
And how our plane was hijacked to Turkey!
The crew, the stewardess saved the passengers!
And she was killed without completing the flight!
Although I didn’t fly on her plane,
But soul and heart you became dear to me.
Blocking the bandits the way to the cockpit,
You gave our life for your Motherland!
And the plane flies by her name,
And with a color photograph, where she died!
And people will see Hope are very different,
And the greatness of the feat will always be remembered!
Tatyana Smirnova

Since childhood, I really love the song "My Clear Star" performed by VIA Flowers !! Some time ago, I came across an article about this song. In which it was said that the poem, which was subsequently put on music, was dedicated to the Soviet stewardess Nadezhda Kurchenko.

I was very impressed with this story and I think that it deserves our attention.

It was the end of the "velvet season." From the city of Batumi, flight N244 to Batumi-Sukhumi-Krasnodar flew An-24 aircraft with 46 passengers on board. People who rested in the Caucasus did not yet know that in the next day they were to become witnesses and participants in the drama associated with the first successful hijacking of a passenger plane abroad in the history of the USSR.

A few minutes after taking off at an altitude of 800 meters, two passengers - Father and son Brazinskasa called the stewardess and, threatening an explosion, demanded a landing in Turkey. In those years, the door to the cockpit did not lock in airplanes, and there were no special staff in the cabin either. Nadia tried to block the bandits from entering the cockpit. She rushed into the cab and shouted: "Assault!"

The terrorists killed the flight attendant, who blocked their path, with the first shots and burst into the cabin. Terrorists fired in all directions. Later, 18 holes were counted in the skin. Several bullets were fired towards the saloon; none of the passengers were injured. The first pilot, George Chakhrakia, a bullet hit the spine, and his legs were taken away.

Overcoming the pain, he turned around and saw a terrible picture: Nadia lay motionless in the doors of the pilot's cabin and was bleeding. Navigator Fadeev was shot in the lungs of a navigator, and flight engineer Oganes Babayan was wounded in the chest. The co-pilot Suliko Shavidze was most lucky - the bullet stuck in a steel pipe in the back of his seat. Behind the pilots stood Brazinskas Sr. and, shaking a grenade, shouted: “Keep the seashore to the left. Heading south.

Do not enter the clouds! "The pilot tried to deceive the terrorists and land the An-24 at a military airfield in Kobuleti. But the hijacker warned again that he would blow up the car (it later turned out that Brazinskas was bluffing because the grenade was training). Soon the captured board crossed the Soviet Turkish border, and after another half an hour was over the airfield in Trabzon.

The plane made a circle over the runway and launched green rockets, asking to be released for emergency landing. Immediately after landing, the hijackers surrendered to the Turkish authorities. The next day, on a specially sent plane, all the people and the body of the deceased girl were taken to the USSR. A little later, the Turks returned and the stolen An-24. After major repairs, the board N46256 with a photograph of Nadia Kurchenko in the cabin for a long time flew in Uzbekistan.

The Brazilians in 1983 were issued with American passports. Back in 1976, Algirdas officially became Albert-Victor White, and Pranas became Frank White. They settled in the town of Santa Monica in California, where they worked as ordinary painters. In the USA, the Brasinsky wrote a book about their “exploits”, in which they tried to justify the seizure and hijacking of the aircraft by “the struggle for the liberation of Lithuania from Soviet occupation.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, in the Lithuanian community of America, the attitude towards the Brazilians was wary, they were frankly afraid. The attempt to organize fundraising for the self-help fund failed - almost none of the Lithuanian immigrants gave them a dollar. In his old age, Brasinskas Sr. became irritable and bile, and therefore quarrels often began to arise in the two-room apartment, which he shared with his son.

During one of these quarrels, a 45-year-old son killed his 77-year-old dad with a baseball bat and was convicted of murdering his father on household grounds. This tragedy received a very wide resonance at that time. In fact, it was not only the first successful act of air terrorism in the history of the USSR, but also the first case in the world when a crew member died during the hijacking of an aircraft. Much has been written about the tragedy in newspapers around the world.

The death of the very young Nadia Kurchenko, whose wedding was appointed three months later, shocked the country. One of them, the famous Vologda poetess Olga Fokina, wrote a poem in the early 70's entitled “People have different songs.” At one of the creative meetings, Fokina admitted that she was struck to the core by the tragic death of Nadezhda Kurchenko, which happened on the eve of Nadya’s wedding, that the verse was written with the thought of the dead flight attendant and, as if on behalf of her young man, mourning the death of her bride, her little star. ...

After some time, a poem by Olga Fokina caught the eye of the then-beginning composer, guitarist Vladimir Semenov. He then wrote in 1971 the song "My Little Star" with these verses. Especially for the performance of a song and recording a record with it, a musical group was created which was called the VIA "Flowers" (later the "Stas Namin Group").

And the singer of the Flowers, now the late Alexander Losev, sang an unusually lyrical and penetrating song. The song “My Clear Star”, which lifted VIA “Flowers” \u200b\u200bto the pop Olympus and made the ensemble super popular in the USSR, has not lost its popularity for almost 40 years and thanks to its extraordinary lyricism, sincerity and sincerity still lives in the hearts of so many people.


Lives in the memory of people and the name of the STAR - the young young flight attendant Nadia Kurchenko, who died at the cost of her own life trying to save people from armed bandits ... ETERNAL MEMORY! The name of Nadezhda Kurchenko was assigned to one of the peaks of the Gissar Range, a tanker of the Russian fleet and an asteroid.

She was awarded (posthumously) the Order of the Red Banner.
Today, October 15, marks the 48th anniversary of the death of 19-year-old stewardess Nadezhda Kurchenko, who at the cost of her own life tried to prevent the terrorists from seizing the Soviet passenger plane.

In modern Russia, the name of Nadezhda Kurchenko is almost forgotten. Probably, official propaganda is trying to make modern girls try to imitate not clean, bright people who are able to give their lives without hesitation, fulfilling their duty, but to girls from television shows and "glossy magazines".

She was born on December 29, 1950 in the village of Novo-Poltava, Klyuchevsky district, Altai Territory. She graduated from a boarding school in the village of Ponino, Glazovsky district of the Ukrainian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Since December 1968, she worked as a flight attendant of the Sukhumi squadron. She died on October 15, 1970, trying to prevent the theft of the AN-24 plane, flying on a Batumi-Sukhumi-Krasnodar flight, captured by terrorists by her father and son Brazinskas (45 and 13 years old). At an altitude of 800 meters, two passengers — father and son Brazinskasa, called a flight attendant and handed a note to the pilots demanding a change of route and flight to Turkey. The girl rushed into the cabin and shouted: "Attack!" The criminals rushed after her, firing. “Do not get up to anyone!” The youngest hijacker shouted. “Otherwise, we’ll blow up the plane!”

Shooting continued in the cockpit. One of the bullets hit commander Georgy Chakhraky in the spine: the navigator was shot in the lungs of a navigator, and the mechanic Oganes Babayan was wounded in the chest. The co-pilot Suliko Shavidze was most lucky - the bullet stuck in a steel pipe in the back of his seat. Brasinskas Sr. stood behind the pilots and, shaking a grenade, shouted: "Keep the sea shore on the left. Heading south. Do not enter the clouds!"

The pilot tried to trick the terrorists and land the An-24 at a military airfield in Kobuleti. Pilots still managed to turn on the SOS signal, but it was too close to the Turkish border. But the hijacker once again warned that he would blow up the car (later it turned out that Brazinskas was bluffing because the grenade was training). Soon, the hijacked board crossed the Soviet-Turkish border, and after another half an hour it turned out to be above the airfield in Trabzon. The plane made a circle over the runway and launched green rockets, asking to be released for emergency landing. Immediately after landing, the hijackers surrendered to the Turkish authorities. Representatives of Turkish and American special services left for the place. Passengers and crew were invited to stay in Turkey, but no one agreed. The next day, on a specially sent plane, all the people and the body of the deceased girl were taken to the USSR. A little later, the Turks returned and the stolen An-24. After major repairs, the board N46256 with a photograph of Nadia Kurchenko in the cabin for a long time flew in Uzbekistan.

According to the memoirs of friends and colleagues, Nadia was a clean and bright person, she had a wedding three months later. This drama then stirred up the whole country. The Soviet Union was shocked - a similar crime happened for the first time. The name of Hope one day flew around the world. And for many years it became a symbol of Komsomol heroism. This was the first such case in the USSR, there were no instructions on this subject and the 19-year-old Soviet girl acted as her heart and conscience told her.

Suliko Shavidze, Valery Fadeev and flight engineer Hovhannes Babayan recovered and then were able to fly, having worked until retirement. The commander of Chahraqia was confined to a wheelchair for two years, underwent several operations on the spine, could no longer fly, and remained an invalid of the second group.

Nadezhda Kurchenko is buried in the center of Sukhumi. After 20 years, her grave was transferred to the city cemetery of Glazov. In the village of Ponino, where she studied, a monument was erected to her. The name of Nadezhda Kurchenko was assigned to one of the peaks of the Gissar Range, a tanker of the Russian fleet and a small planet in the constellation Capricorn.

Pranas Brazinskas was born in 1924 in the Trakai region of Lithuania. In 1949, according to a biography written by Brazinskaosm, the head of one of the “forest brothers” detachments shot the chairman of the council through a window and mortally wounded his father P. Brazinskas who happened to be nearby. With the help of local authorities, P. Brazinskas acquired a house in Vievis and in 1952 became the head of the warehouse of household goods of the Vievis cooperative. In 1955, P. Brazinskas was sentenced to 1 year of corrective labor for embezzlement and speculation in building materials. In January 1965, by decision of the Supreme Court, he was again sentenced to 5 years, but already in June he was released ahead of schedule. Having divorced his first wife, he left for Central Asia.

Engaged in speculation (in Lithuania he bought car parts, carpets, silk and linen and sold in Central Asia, having a profit of 400-500 rubles for each parcel), he quickly saved up money. In 1968, he brought his thirteen-year-old son Algirdas to Kokand, and two years later left his second wife.

On October 7–13, 1970, when he last visited Vilnius, P. Brazinskas and his son took their luggage — it is not known where the acquired weapons, accumulated dollars (according to the KGB, more than $ 6,000) and flew to Transcaucasia.

The USSR demanded that Turkey immediately surrender criminals, but this requirement was not met. The Brazilians asked for political asylum. The Turks refused to extradite terrorists, they were given ridiculous terms, and after three years they were granted amnesty. After living for several years in a luxurious villa under house arrest, they went to the United States, where they dreamed of getting there.
The farce with the “flight” of criminals to America was arranged as follows: in 1976, father and son allegedly fled from house arrest and on June 23 turned to the American embassy in Turkey with a request to grant them political asylum in the United States. Having been refused, the Brasinsky again “surrendered” into the hands of the Turkish police, they were kept under guard for a couple of weeks in an Istanbul hospital and ... finally released. On July 11, they received a Venezuelan visa. Then, through Italy and Venezuela, they flew to Canada without any problems. On August 24, during an intermediate landing in New York, the Brasinsky got off the plane and were "detained" by the US Migration and Naturalization Service.

The Brazilians were given American passports with new names. Algirdas officially became Albert-Victor White, and Pranas became Frank White. Real life in the US was very different from what they expected. They settled in the town of Santa Monica in California, where they worked as ordinary painters, lived together in a studio apartment, both of them did not have a personal life. In the USA, the Brasinsky wrote a book about their “exploits”, in which they tried to justify the seizure and hijacking of the aircraft by “the struggle for the liberation of Lithuania from the Soviet occupation”. In order to whitewash himself, P. Brazinskas stated that he had accidentally hit the flight attendant in a “skirmish with the crew”. Later, A. Brazinskas claimed that the stewardess died during the “shootout with KGB agents” ... However, the Lithuanian television channel LNK shortly before his death interviewed Pranas Brazinskas, who directly stated that “he killed this bitch because she got up from him on a way".

In the Lithuanian community of America, the attitude towards the Brazilians was wary, they were frankly afraid. An attempt to organize a fundraiser in a self-help fund failed. With Lithuania gaining independence, the Patriots made no attempt to return to their homeland. However, the support of the Brazilians by Lithuanian organizations gradually came to naught, everyone forgot about them. The criminals lived wretchedly, under old age, Brasinskas Sr. became irritable and unbearable. During one of these quarrels, the 45-year-old “Lithuanian patriot” Albert Victor White beat his 77-year-old daddy with a death blow and was convicted of the murder of his father Frank.

In the Soviet Union, the status of a stewardess was only slightly lower than that of a film actress or pop singer. Young and beautiful girls in elegant uniforms with friendly smiles seemed real celestials. Plays were written about them, films were shot, songs were dedicated to them. One of these songs - "My Clear Star" - was a real hit of dance parties of the seventies. However, not all of the dancers knew that the piercingly sad words and the melody of this song were dedicated to the tragic death of the stewardess, or, speaking the official language, the flight attendant Nadezhda Vladimirovna Kurchenko.

Komsomol, sportswoman and beauty

Nadia Kurchenko was born on December 29, 1950 in the Altai Territory. Her childhood is dense forests near her native village of Novo-Poltava (Klyuchevsky district), excellent grades at school, a large and friendly company of peers. Later, the family of Nadi moved to the mother’s homeland, Henrietta Semenovna, in the village of Ponino in the Glazovsky district (Udmurtia). Establishing life in a new place was not easy - alcoholism of the father, two younger sisters and brother. Nadia had to study at the Glazov boarding school. However, she became one of the best students at school, loved poetry and recited them very well. The beautiful blue-eyed Nadia was a permanent Snow Maiden on New Year's matinees, and when she entered the Komsomol, she became a pioneer leader in elementary grades, organized campaigns, and issued a wall newspaper. For Nadezhda, the Komsomol ticket was not an empty formality, and the concepts of “conscience” and “duty” were not just words.

It is difficult to say why the girl from the Udmurt village decided to connect her fate with aviation. However, after graduating from school, Nadia left for the distant southern city of Sukhumi, where she first began working in the airport accounting department, and when she turned 18, she switched to a flight attendant. The girl quickly mastered the technical subtleties of her profession and was able to get along with the most hectic passengers. Her school hobby for tourism continued in a new place - she became responsible for sports work in the squadron, organized fascinating trips around the outskirts of Sukhumi and even passed the standards for the "Tourist of the USSR" badge. In the first year of operation, the first serious test came - a fire on board the aircraft and the need for its landing with one engine. For the flawless performance of their duties in an emergency, Nadezhda Kurchenko was awarded a nominal watch.

Nadezhda had many plans - entering a law institute, marriage with a school friend Vladimir Borisenko. In May 1970, Nadezhda came on vacation to her family. We agreed that the wedding will be played on November or New Year holidays. And on October 15, the girl went on her last flight.

Close by yourself

Flight 244 from Batumi to Krasnodar with landing in Sukhumi was considered short and uncomplicated, from Batumi to Sukhumi only half an hour of summer. 46 people boarded the AN-24. Among them were a middle-aged man with a fifteen-year-old son - Pranas and Algirdas Brasinsky. Ten minutes after take-off, Brazinskas Sr., who was sitting next to the service compartment, called Nadezhda Kurchenko and ordered her to take an envelope with a note into the cockpit. The typewritten text required a change of route and the threat of death in case of disobedience. Seeing the reaction of the stewardess, the man jumped out of his chair and rushed to the cockpit. "No way here, come back!" shouted Nadezhda, blocking his path. She managed to shout "Attack" and fell - the bandits began to shoot. Under the threat of a plane explosion, wounded pilots had to head to Trabzon Airport. The Turkish authorities were condescending to the hijackers - having served a short term and freed under an amnesty, they moved to the United States, but this is a completely different story.

Nadezhda Kurchenko was buried in Sukhumi - in the form of a stewardess and with a Komsomol badge; 20 years later, at the request of her mother, the ashes were reburied in Glazov. The tanker, the peak of the Hissar Range and the planet in the constellation Capricorn were named after Hope. In addition, after the death of the flight attendant Kurchenko, the rules for passenger safety during flights were radically changed and the norms of international laws against air terrorism were tightened.

This was the first case in the USSR of hijacking a passenger plane of this scale (hijacking). In fact, a long-term series of such tragedies began that sprinkled the blood of innocent people with the skies of the whole world.

And it all started like that.

An-24 took off from the Batumi airfield on October 15, 1970 at 12.30 a.m. The course is to Sukhumi. On board the aircraft were 46 passengers and 5 crew members. Scheduled flight time is 25-30 minutes.

But life broke both the schedule and the schedule.

At the 4th minute of the flight, the plane sharply deviated from the course. Radio operators requested a board - no response. Communication with the control tower was interrupted. The plane went towards Turkey.

Military and rescue boats went to sea. Their captains received an order: to go at full speed to the place of a possible disaster.

The board did not respond to any of the requests. A few more minutes - and the An-24 left the airspace of the USSR. And in the sky above the Turkish coastal airfield of Trabzon two rockets flashed - red, then - green. It was an emergency landing signal. The plane touched the concrete pier of someone else's air harbor. Telegraph agencies around the world immediately reported: a Soviet passenger plane was hijacked. The flight attendant is killed, there are wounded. All.

BLACK ENVELOPE

I flew to the place of emergency in a few hours. He flew, not knowing either the circumstances of the drama or the name of the murdered flight attendant. All had to find out on the spot.

Today, 45 years later, I intend to reiterate - at least briefly - the events of those days and again talk about Nadia Kurchenko, her courage and her heroism. To talk about the stunning reaction of millions of people of the so-called stagnant time to sacrifice, courage, courage. To tell about this, first of all, to people of a new generation, a new computer consciousness, to tell how it was, because my generation remembers and knows this story, and most importantly - Nadia Kurchenko - without reminders. And it would be useful for young people to know why many streets, schools, mountain peaks, and even an airplane bear her name.

After takeoff, greetings and instructions to passengers, the stewardess returned to her working room, a narrow compartment. She opened a bottle of Borjomi and, letting the water shoot at her with sparkling tiny cores, filled four plastic cups for the crew. Putting them on a tray, she entered the cabin.

The crew was always happy to have a beautiful, young, extremely friendly girl in the cockpit. Probably, she felt this attitude towards herself and, of course, she was happy too. Perhaps, at this dying hour, she thought with warmth and gratitude about each of these guys who easily accepted her into their professional and friendly circle. They treated her like a younger sister, with care and trust.

Of course, Nadia was in a wonderful mood - claimed everyone who saw her in the last minutes of her clean, happy life.

After watering the crew, she returned to her compartment. At that moment, the bell rang: one of the passengers called the stewardess. She came up. The passenger said:

Give it urgently to the commander, - and handed her some kind of envelope.

"ATTACK! HE IS ARMED!"

Nadia took the envelope. Their views must have met. She must have been surprised at the tone of these words. But she didn’t find out anything, but she stepped to the tailgate - then there was the pilot’s cabin door. Probably, Nadia's feelings were written on her face - most likely. And the sensitivity of the wolf, alas, is superior to any other. And, probably, thanks to this sensitivity, the terrorist saw in the eyes of Nadia hostility, subconscious suspicion, a shadow of danger. This turned out to be enough for the sick imagination to sound the alarm: failure, sentence, exposure. Self-control refused: he literally catapulted from the chair and rushed after Nadia.

She only managed to take a step to the pilot's cabin when he opened the door to her compartment, which she had just closed.

This is not allowed! she cried.

But he was approaching, like the shadow of a beast. She understood: the enemy is in front of her. The next second, he realized: she would break all plans.

Nadia screamed again:

Return to your place. This is not allowed!

But he took out a weapon - his nerves burned to the ground. Nadia did not know his intentions. But she understood: he is absolutely dangerous. Danger for the crew, dangerous for passengers.

She clearly saw the revolver.

Having opened the pilot's cockpit, she shouted to the crew with all her might:

Attack! He is armed!

And at the same moment, slamming the door of the cabin, turned to face the bandit furious in this course of affairs and prepared to attack. He, like the crew, heard her words — no doubt.

What was left to do? Nadia decided: not to let the attacker into the cockpit at all costs. Any!

LAST ABROAD GATHERING

He could be a maniac and shoot the crew. He could destroy the crew and passengers. He could ... She did not know his actions, his intentions. And he knew: jumping to her, he tried to knock her down. With her hands on the wall, Nadia resisted and continued to resist.

The first bullet hit her thigh. She snuggled closer to the pilot's door. The terrorist tried to squeeze her throat. Nadia - knock out a weapon from his right hand. The stray bullet went to the ceiling. Nadia fought back with her feet, hands, even her head.

The crew appreciated the situation instantly. The commander abruptly interrupted the right turn, in which they were at the moment of the attack, and immediately threw the roaring car to the left, and then to the right. The next second, the plane went up steeply: the pilots tried to knock down the attacker, believing that his experience in this matter was small, and Nadia would hold on.

Passengers were still with belts - the display was not blank, the plane was only gaining altitude.

The young man opened a gray cloak, and passengers saw grenades - they were tied to a belt. “This is for you!” He shouted. “If anyone else gets up, we’ll split the plane!”

In the cabin, seeing a passenger rushing to the cabin and hearing the first shot, several people instantly unfastened their seat belts and jumped from their seats. Two of them were closest to the place where the criminal was sitting, and the first to feel trouble. Galina Kiryak and Aslan Kaishanba did not have time, however, to take a step: they were ahead of the one who was sitting next to the one who had escaped into the cabin. The young thug - and he was much younger than the first, for they turned out to be a father and son - grabbed a sawn-off shotgun and shot along the cabin. A bullet whistled over the heads of the shocked passengers.

Don `t move! he yelled. - Do not move!

Pilots with even greater sharpness began to throw the plane from one position to another. Young shot again. A bullet pierced the fuselage skin and went right through. Depressurization of the aircraft was not yet threatened - the height was not significant.

The next moment after the second shot, the young man opened a gray cloak and people saw grenades - they were tied to a belt.

This is for you! he cried. “If anyone else gets up, we’ll split the plane!”

It was obvious that this was not an empty threat - in case of failure they had nothing to lose.

Meanwhile, despite the evolution of the aircraft, the elder remained on his feet and with bestial fury tried to tear Nadia from the door of the pilot's cabin. He needed a commander. He needed a crew. He needed a plane.

Struck by Nadia's incredible resistance, furious with his own powerlessness to cope with a wounded, bloodied fragile girl, he, without aiming, without thinking for a second, shot at point blank range and, throwing a desperate defender of the crew and passengers into the corner of a narrow passage, burst into the cabin. Behind him is his geek with a sawn-off shotgun.

To Turkey! To Turkey! Return to the Soviet coast - we will blow up the plane!

42 CREW BULBS

Another bullet pierced the back of the commander - Grigory Chakhrakiy. To preserve at least a little blood in the body, so as not to lose consciousness and not to drop the helm out of his hands, Gregory pressed against the back of the commander’s seat with all his might. The next shot - a bullet paralyzes the right hand of navigator Valery Fadeev and gets into the chest. There is a communication microphone in his hand, Fadeev is losing consciousness, no one can open his hand with a microphone - each of the crew members is already wounded, Nadya is dead.

There is no way out: the plane should not fall into the sea - there are 46 passengers in the cabin, there are children. The second pilot sees: the commander is still losing consciousness. Shavidze takes control - drives the car, as in a nightmare: in a blood-soaked cabin of friends, among screaming criminals, under the threat of a sawn-off shotgun and a revolver, under the threat of grenades.

When a coastal Turkish airfield appears in a gray dream of reality, it launches emergency rockets into the sky. And the plane, shot down by forty-two bullets, crashes into alien hard ground ...

LOOK THROUGH THE YEARS

WHILE HOPE IS ALIVE ...

For courage and heroism, Nadezhda Kurchenko was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the name of Nadia was a passenger plane, an asteroid, schools, streets and so on. But it should be said, apparently, about something else.

The scale of state and public actions connected with an unprecedented event was enormous. Members of the State Commission and the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiated with the Turkish authorities for several days in a row without a single break.

Following: to allocate an air corridor for return of the hijacked plane; an air corridor for transporting injured crew members and those passengers who needed urgent medical care from Trabzon hospitals; of course, and those who were not physically injured, but found themselves in a foreign land not of their own free will; an air corridor was required to fly a special flight from Trabzon to Sukhumi with Nadi’s body. Her mother was already flying to Sukhumi from Udmurtia.

There were a lot of worries. But all these dramatic actions could not alleviate the acute pain of the loss - Nadia remained at the center of any conversations of the vast country, television and radio programs, and newspapers.

Marshal of Aviation, Minister of Civil Aviation of the USSR Boris Pavlovich Bugaev personally participated in the discussion of the issue of Nadi's funeral. I twice, due to circumstances, spoke on the phone with the minister, who listened to wishes, advice, requests to meet Nadi’s mother in Sukhumi, to determine the place of the funeral, and other actions. Could there be something similar in our busy days - the concern of the superpower minister about the fate of the murdered flight attendant of a tiny state flight?

Not. It couldn’t. In any case, I do not believe in it.

In “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, where I worked then (and was the first and only journalist from Moscow at the scene of the tragedy), only in the first two weeks after even the reports distorted by censorship came over 12 thousand letters and telegrams from shocked readers who mourned Nadia and admired her courage !

There was such a country. And there were such people. Is it possible today?

On the day of Nadi’s funeral, over her coffin littered with flowers and over the heads of thousands of people following her coffin through the city streets, all the planes leaving for the flight shook their wings, showing respect to their defender, their young colleague, their heroine. In each of these aircraft, the stewardesses, with tears in their eyes, said to their passengers:

Look down while the city is visible. These are people saying goodbye to our girlfriend. With our Nadia.

Do you believe that we are all the same?

Nadia’s mother, Henrietta Ivanovna, with whom I stood at the tomb of Nadia and who repeated dryly and lifelessly, looking at her daughter’s strikingly beautiful face: “Now you don’t laugh at me, you are serious,” she passed me notes, notepads, Nadia’s papers. Among them, I found the phrase of a 9th grade student Nadezhda Kurchenko: “I want to be a worthy daughter of the Motherland and am ready to give my life for it, if necessary.”

Here in these words, habitual for hearing, but written by a hand and heart of Nadi, I absolutely believe.

PAY

The bandits punished themselves

The terrorists turned out to be the 46-year-old Lithuanian Pranas Brazinskas (pictured right), a former commissar from Vilnius, and his 13-year-old son Algirdas (left). The Turkish authorities refused to extradite the USSR criminals and condemned them themselves. The eldest received eight years, the youngest - two. After some time, both were released under an amnesty, and the bandits moved to Venezuela, and from there to the United States: they got off in New York from a plane bound for Canada. The Lithuanian diaspora has obtained permission to leave them in the country.

The Brazilian settled in California Santa Monica. In February 2002, 77-year-old Pranas quarreled with his son, for which he received several fatal blows with a bat. Algirdas was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

1973 year. The Soviet Union flew around the dove ballad "My clear star." No one was in doubt: the song is dedicated to a young stewardess, forever remaining in the sky. Killed three weeks before the wedding. And executed on behalf of her fiance. A sad story is still being circulated on the Internet. However, this is just a beautiful legend ...

Composer Vladimir Semenov: "Many people sang and sing this song. But it seems to me that Sasha Losev was and remains the best performer ..." The soloist of the student amateur ensemble, the winner of the district competition, where the main prize is the recording of their own record at the company "Melody" ...

The tragic halo that the song acquired, after 22 years, covered the first performer with a black cloud. Shortly before his departure, Losev admitted that he used to sing "My Clear Star" with one subtext, now - in memory of his early dead son. And he summed up the sad result: "Inexplicably, the main song in the program became the main song in life."

The main song "Zvezdochka" also became in the life of composer Vladimir Semenov. He was already 35 years old. Behind Astrakhan, a road technical school, a home-made electric guitar and hundreds of kilometers on a splattered bus traveling with concert bands of the Astrakhan Philharmonic ...

“Of course, I remember the story of the hijacking of an airplane, then they wrote a lot about Nadia’s exploit,” Semyonov says. 13 pages printed on thin newsprint paper. I started flipping through them and suddenly stumbled upon the words “People have different songs, and mine is forever.” Something caught me in these lines. ”

A song was born that Semenov showed to his friend, composer Sergei Dyachkov. He led Semenov to Stas Namin, who led the vocal and instrumental ensemble. We recorded a small disc, consisting of three compositions - Oscar Feltsman’s songs “Flowers Have Eyes”, Sergey Dyachkov’s song “No Need” and Vladimir Semenov’s ballad “My Clear Star”. It scattered across the country with a circulation of almost 7 million copies!

“After all the hassle - rehearsals, recordings - my wife and I went to rest in Sochi,” composer Vladimir Semenov recalls today. “I’m lying on the sand and suddenly I hear something familiar - somewhere in the distance a motor ship, huge, foreign, floats, and from there I hear voice of Sasha Losev: "People have different songs, and mine is one for centuries!"

The Vologda poetess Olga Fokina wrote these lines a few years before the tragedy aboard the An-24. Lines about your own, very personal. Her famous countryman, writer Fedor Abramov said that Olga "is very close to life, she always doesn’t have fiction in her poems, not letters, not words - poems are generated by life itself ... they captivate, fascinate you with sincerity, purity and spontaneity of feelings" .

All that I remember and forever remained in the folk memory of Nadia Kurchenko.