“Her Alyosha”
On April 5, 1942, during the Demyansk offensive operation, the plane of fighter pilot Alexei Maresyev was shot down. The pilot, injured in his legs, made an emergency landing on German-occupied territory. It took Maresyev 18 days to reach the front line, after which he was sent to the hospital. Doctors managed to save his life, but they were forced to amputate both feet of the pilot.
At the Central Aviation Hospital, where Maresyev was treated, Efrosinya Gaevskaya served as head nurse during the war. She later recalled:
“When you don’t come to the room, he lies and is silent. My heart aches with pity: I would have given him my legs just like that. I’ll come up and ask: “Alyosha, maybe you’d like to eat something?” Silent. One morning I entered the ward. I saw that my Alyosha came to life, became cheerful, and asked for more for lunch. Where does this change come from? Then I found out: the commissar from the surgical department sent him a magazine, and there was an article about a pilot who flew without legs. Since then, Alexey seemed to have been replaced. I started doing gymnastics three times a day. All the wounded left the room at this time so as not to disturb their comrade.
Winter has passed, and as I remember now: the morning is blue, sunny, the windows are wide open. An old man with a bundle entered the room. And in that bundle there were prosthetics for Alexei. Alyosha even turned pale with excitement. There was no one in the room except the three of us. As soon as the master fitted his prosthetics – I didn’t even have time to run up – Alyosha jumped to his feet and… fell on his face. We picked him up. I ran to the pantry and brought light crutches. Alexey took the crutches and, stubbornly, leaning on them with anger, began to move his legs.
At first, my sister Masha and I drove it. But soon he began to walk along the corridor on crutches. Then without crutches, holding onto the wall. In the evenings I often stayed late in the department. Sometimes I heard his stubborn steps, and pride grew in my heart for this strong man. Alyosha’s step became more and more firm. And finally the day came when the professor gave him his stick. I took the crutches to the storeroom.
One day, a man in civilian clothes came to the room where Alexey was lying and talked to him for a long, long time. It will torture a person, I think to myself. Later I found out: Pravdist Boris Polevoy came. This was the writer’s first meeting with a Real Man” (“Soviet Russia”, November 1, 1974)
After undergoing rehabilitation, Alexey Maresyev returned to duty and continued to fly. During the war he shot down 10 enemy aircraft. After the Victory (especially when “The Tale of a Real Man” by Boris Polevoy was published), Maresyev became very popular in the USSR, was engaged in public work, and was the executive secretary of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans.
Efrosinya Gaevskaya worked at the hospital until 1958. In the post-war years, Maresyev and Gaevskaya did not lose touch, corresponded and met:
“In two hours they managed to remember a lot. We took a photo together as a souvenir. In the photograph, the elder sister of the Central Aviation Hospital and the world-famous Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Maresyev, her then Alyoshenka, who has become a man of legend, are smiling joyfully and warmly at each other.”
(“Soviet Russia”, November 1, 1974)
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
