Soviet universities of Viktor Belenko. Air deserter Soviet pilot Belenko

Victor Belenko was born in Nalchik in a working-class family, he graduated from school with a gold medal. He studied at a medical institute for two years, but then decided to enter the Armavir Higher Military School. After several years of service as an instructor pilot, he was assigned to one of the air defense aviation units stationed 200 kilometers from Vladivostok.

The deputy commander of the 513th squadron, senior lieutenant Belenko (he was about to be given captain's shoulder straps), was entrusted with flying the latest MiG-25P interceptor. His car with tail number"31" was released only in February 1976.

Monday, September 6, 1976 will forever remain "black" in the memory of the pilots of the air regiment in which our former senior lieutenant served. On that day, a flight of red-starred MiGs that took off from the Chuguevka airfield were practicing aerobatics and intercepting air targets. Suddenly, one of the cars soared up sharply and just as rapidly began to fall into the ocean, after which the luminous dot on the radar screens went out.

Victor's colleagues suggested that his plane had lost control and crashed, and therefore that same evening they remembered their friend and began to collect money for his wife and young son.

At that moment, when the ill-fated plane ceased to be fixed by radars, Belenko flew over the ocean at an altitude of only fifty meters! Having reached the island of Hokkaido, he stopped hiding from the radars, and then two Japanese fighters rose to intercept an unknown target. Soon the hijacked MiG ended up on the southern tip of the island and began to descend on its own over the civilian airport of Hakodate.

At the same time, Belenko barely managed to miss the take-off Boeing of Japanese Airlines, and therefore did not "fit" into the length of the runway. Having plowed about 250 meters through the grass, the MiG froze in front of a massive radio antenna, a collision with which would have killed both the car and its pilot. There was only 30 seconds of fuel left in the aircraft's tanks, which means that there could be no re-landing approach.

When the leadership of the USSR realized that Belenko's escape could not be hidden from the public, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the senior lieutenant had lost his course and, due to a lack of fuel, landed in Japan, where he was injected with some kind of psychotropic drug. Even after the traitor asked for political asylum in the United States, he was left with the opportunity to return to his homeland.

At the request of the Soviet side, a meeting was organized with the fugitive. Entering the room, an official from our embassy in Japan, Sadovnikov, said: "The Soviet government knows: you have gone astray, you have been forced to land and drugs have been used. I have come to help you return home to your beloved wife and son!"

Belenko interrupted his speech with the following words: "There is no need to agitate me. I flew to Japan voluntarily." And then the "diplomat" (actually it was an officer of the security service of the embassy), in front of witnesses, threatened the hijacker: "Traitor! Sooner or later we will find you. Wherever you are!"

It must be assumed that the story about Belenko's death in a car accident was invented on Lubyanka Square in order to keep potential hijackers from repeating such "feats".

Although our country failed to get the escaped pilot, the second participant in this drama - the MiG-25 - nevertheless returned to his homeland. However, before that, the latest Soviet interceptor was delivered to a US Air Force base 80 kilometers from Tokyo. There he was subjected to the most thorough research, as a result of which the Americans learned a lot of top secret information.

On the night of October 12, the hijacked aircraft was transported disassembled in thirteen containers to the port of Hitachi, where a Soviet ship had been waiting for it for a long time. The "MiG" returned by the Japanese as a teaching aid was sent to Daugavpils (Latvia), where one of the Soviet aviation schools was then located. At the end of the 80s, the aircraft, which was outdated by that time, was decommissioned and taken to a special landfill, and local children and cadets stole the remains of its fuselage for souvenirs.

Having received political asylum from the Americans (with the most active assistance of the then US President), Belenko got a good job overseas. For several years he taught air combat techniques at one of the military academies. He married an American and had three children. After the divorce, under the terms of the marriage contract, he left the house to his second wife.

In 1980, in collaboration with writer John Barron, he published the book "MiG Pilot" (John Barron, "MIG Pilot"), on which he managed to make good money. Already as a full-fledged citizen of the United States, he traveled all over the world, having visited 68 countries of the world.

He currently lives in California, doing business in trade, including with Russia. However, according to him, when negotiating with his former compatriots, he always uses a fictitious name and surname.

Of course, the former senior lieutenant does not consider himself a scoundrel at all, and explains his act solely by the rejection of Soviet ideology. Meanwhile, in his last interview with a popular American magazine, Belenko admitted that the supermarket made the strongest impression on him in the United States.

Here is how he himself describes the feelings that gripped him: “My first visit to the supermarket took place under the supervision of people from the CIA, and I thought it was a staging. I did not believe that this store could be real. It seemed to me that since I was unusual guest, then they could play a prank on me, because it was such a beautiful spacious building with incredible amount goods and without queues. In Russia, everyone is used to long lines. Subsequently, when I realized that the supermarket was real, I enjoyed getting to know new products.

In Russia of that time, however, and in the present - it is difficult to find good canned food. So I bought a variety of canned foods every day. Once I bought a jar with the inscription "Lunch" and fried its contents with potatoes, onions and garlic - it turned out delicious. The next morning, my friends told me that I had eaten canned chicken for cats. But they were delicious! They were better than those canned food for people that are still being made in Russia today!" ("Full Context", November 1996, my translation. - D.K.).

Such revelations well show what kind of FREEDOM the Soviet youth Vitya Belenko secretly dreamed of. In order to achieve his blue dream, he agreed to endure the totalitarian system, voluntarily entered the service of the system so hated by him (recall that he joined the army not at all by conscription, but by own will). Then he joined the party, pretended to be a communist, although membership in the CPSU was mandatory only for officers, starting with a major. And all because before us is a highly ideological and purposeful person, and not some kind of "scoop" who is ready to humbly stand in line for bad canned food until the end of his life.

Military counterintelligence and the KGB did a great job trying to find confirmation of the version that even during the years of study (or while relaxing in a sanatorium in the summer of 1976), Victor was recruited by the American CIA.

And since no such evidence was found, it is curious to speculate on the following topic: "Could our hero satisfy his gastronomic needs without causing two billion damage to the country that raised him and taught him to fly?" It would seem that the answer suggests itself in the negative, since at that time only Jewish repatriates had a chance to legally leave the USSR.

However, in reality, Belenko had a choice (whether or not to reveal the secrets of the latest MiG). He could well ram his plane into some deserted hill (there are a lot of such places in cold Hokkaido), and then land with a parachute without any hassle. At the same time, their actions could be explained by the lack of time to search for an airfield due to a shortage of fuel in the tanks.

If we do not take seriously the demagogy of our character about striving for "high democratic ideals", then the essence as simple as two pennies will fall into the sediment: even during the Vietnam War, the Americans scattered leaflets in Russian around the airfields of the "northerners" with a promise to pay 100 thousand dollars to a hijacker of a Soviet fighter of the latest design (hoping for an emergency landing of MiGs in southern Vietnam they could not, since our pilots were strictly forbidden to cross the front line).

For 10 years, thousands of Soviet pilots went through this war, and therefore Senior Lieutenant Belenko probably heard more than once from his colleagues about the fee promised by the Americans.

This is such a sad story. The story of a fake person...

P.S. Military Collegium Supreme Court USSR citizen Viktor Ivanovich Belenko, born in 1947, was convicted in absentia under article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for treason and sentenced to capital punishment (execution).

Viktor Ivanovich Belenko, born in 1947, native of Nalchik, Russian, member of the CPSU. Senior Lieutenant, Deputy Commander of the 513th Air Defense Fighter Squadron. On September 6, 1976, he hijacked a MiG-25P interceptor fighter to Japan, requesting political asylum in America. In 1980, he received American citizenship for "an enormous contribution to strengthening the national security of the United States."

VITYA

From childhood, Vitya Belenko got used to frequent changes of places. He was born in the North Caucasus, grew up in the Donbass, then in Altai and Kuban. At school, he studied for almost one "five", but he was constantly drawn to all sorts of tricks.

Once he put a living snake in the bag of a zoology teacher - she ran away from school in a panic for the whole day. During the choir lessons, Vitya deliberately confused the notes in order to be expelled from the class and play hockey in the wild. There was also such a trick - during the repair of the school, he switched the water supply so that the director's office had only hot water.

After graduating from school, our hero went to enter the Omsk Medical Institute. Immediately after the exams, the students were sent, as was customary then, to the collective farm for harvesting, where Viktor worked on a winnowing machine for 10-12 hours a day, for which he acquired the reputation of an "iron horse" among fellow students.

He is also remembered as a good cook, able to "cook soup from an ax." When the collective farm gave the students a live sheep, Viktor made a mixture of vodka with spices and poured it down the animal's throat. The ram died cheerful, and its meat, which became a barbecue, smelled good...

According to the memoirs of Olga, Viktor's classmate at the medical institute, "he was drawn to danger like a bee to honey and taught others to overcome fear." In addition to studying at the institute, Belenko worked in the morgue and took Olga there so that she would get used to calmly handling corpses. And Victor also dreamed of becoming a doctor-cosmonaut.

To achieve this dream, he enrolled in the Omsk flying club, where he began to fly a training plane and parachute jump. Probably, the young man became seriously ill with the sky, because a year later he left the medical institute and applied to the Armavir Air Defense Pilot School.

TORRERO

At the school, Viktor Belenko acquired a very eloquent nickname - Torrero. The flights were carried out in a training regiment in Khankala (Chechnya). When the cadets began to fly on their own, aerial hooliganism began, and Belenko was the champion in it. Once he flew low-flying over a chicken farm. The Chechens, of course, complained to their superiors that the chickens had stopped laying eggs.

But the command of the regiment did not pay attention to complaints until one cadet crashed. After that catastrophe, a commission from Moscow conducted an investigation, the hooligans were put in a guardhouse for 10 days and forced to dig a cesspool. Nevertheless, after graduating from college, the newly minted lieutenant Belenko was assigned to serve as an instructor pilot.

In the training regiment in Salsk, Viktor was highly respected by his colleagues. Somehow, in a night flight, one engine of his fighter failed, and the second caught fire (a turbine blade torn off from one engine pierced the second engine). Having shown amazing skill, Lieutenant Belenko saved the plane and himself with the cadet, for which he received gratitude from the Commander-in-Chief of Air Defense. This emergency landing Victor's colleagues still remember: "The night was dark, without a moon. The flame from the tail of his plane was like that from a launching rocket."

While serving in the same regiment, he once kept a fire inspector in a potato store all night. The reason was the following: that major inspector had the imprudence to pester one waitress from the officers' canteen. Belenko noticed this and asked her to invite the hapless firefighter on a date in the vault with a note. As a result, the next morning the major stank of rotten potatoes. And instead of the appointed inspection, he simply gave an "excellent" mark, while he himself washed and cleaned his uniform all day.

With all the severity to the purity of other people's morals, Lieutenant Belenko himself had a reputation as a real "macho". So, while still a cadet, our hero almost died from the knives of the bloodthirsty highlanders. And all because he chose a Chechen Layla as a friend. Viktor's roommate in a military sanatorium in Gelendzhik recalls another friend of our hero, Oksana.

And also about the fact that, despite the strict, almost barracks regime of the sanatorium (after the "light out" they checked the presence of vacationers!), Victor easily left for the whole night through the window, after laying out a "dummy" on his bed, imitating the owner sleeping facing the wall beds.

DISSIDENT

In the regiment where pilot-instructor Belenko served, alcohol literally flowed like a river (on fighters it was used in the brake cooling system and as an anti-icer). At one of the regimental meetings, Victor boldly criticized his superiors, while hurting one of the relatives of an important army rank.

The young lieutenant was immediately suspended from flying and began to drive through the outfits every other day. It was an open mockery of him, as well as an edification to his colleagues. And then Belenko wrote a report on the transfer to another part. But first he was sent for a psychiatric examination in Stavropol. After returning from there, Victor wandered around the outfits for another month until an order came to transfer him to a new duty station.

At retraining courses for flights on the latest fighter of that time - the MiG-25, Belenko passed all the tests with excellent marks. At the same time, the most compulsory academic subject of that era - scientific communism - he called "brain cancer".

In the same place, in the air defense combat training center in Sevastleyk, such an incident occurred. During lunch, Marshal Savitsky with a group of generals walked through the dining room to a separate VIP -hall. Belenko was the only one of the officers who did not get up at that moment.

Savitsky began to scold Victor, but he calmly objected to the marshal that there was no such requirement in the Charter. And the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Air Defense had no choice but to praise Belenko for his knowledge of the Charter ...

DEBRIEFING

Sitting down in the morning 0 On September 6, in the cockpit of the MiG-25 with tail number "31", Viktor asked the aircraft technician three times whether the aircraft's tanks were really 100 percent full, although only 80 percent refueling was supposed for its flight program. Such a favorable circumstance for escape arose due to the fact that the plane prepared for Belenko had technical problems and he was given a backup car from the duty link, where refueling tanks must always be full.

When the MiG-25 flying towards Japan stopped hiding from Soviet air defense locators (it would not have had enough fuel to fly to Hokkaido at low altitude), the Su-15 with combat missiles on board was sent from Sakhalin to destroy this target. Although the "drying" chased the MiG at supersonic speed, sparing no fuel (on the way back, the pilot ejected over the Sea of ​​Japan and was picked up by a ship of the Pacific Fleet), she ended up off the coast of Hokkaido three minutes later than necessary ...

By the time of landing at the Hakodate civil airport, the fuel gauge needle in Belenko's plane had long been at "zero". The pilot carefully listened to the sound of the engine, so that in the event of a shutdown, he could direct his MiG between the two buildings, and eject himself. Later, during the inspection of the hijacked aircraft, a very interesting detail was revealed: due to an oversight by aircraft technicians, the ejection seat near Belenko was blocked, that is, it was absolutely impossible to leave the fighter in this way ...

After Belenko's escape, a thorough investigation began, during which the KGB interrogated the entire flight crew of the air defense aviation. People who even had a hint of unreliability were suspended from flying. One pilot was written off only because he sang the songs of Vysotsky and Okudzhava.

In the process of searching for and punishing "switchmen", Brezhnev himself handed out cuffs without stint. So, General Golodnikov, who once sent Belenko for a psychiatric examination, lost the star of the Hero Soviet Union. And from Chuguevka (from where the ill-fated MiG was hijacked) almost all the pilots were transferred to other garrisons.

INCORRIGIBLE

Having moved to the USA, Belenko spoke in detail about the reasons for his escape many times in various audiences. According to him, even if he were not a pilot, he would still find a way to leave the USSR.

Belenko compared the Soviet Union to a camp surrounded on all sides by barbed wire. He also drew an analogy between his flight and the first emigrants to America, who left their native countries and their rulers to start new life on the new earth.

He was, of course, asked the question of betrayal. He replied that secrecy and lies are weapons for whipping up tension in the world. By showing the MiG-25 to the West, he tempered the paranoia of the Soviet leaders. Belenko expressed confidence that a direct military conflict between the USSR and the USA would never happen, but the indestructible Soviet Union would certainly collapse.

Therefore, he does not consider himself a traitor. True traitors, in his opinion, sit in the Kremlin and drink people's blood every day. The audience gave him a standing ovation as an outstanding fighter for Freedom.

Nevertheless, Belenko could not get rid of the habit of criticizing everything and everyone even in America, which he loved so dearly. So, during his speech at the US Air Force Academy, where more than three thousand people gathered in the audience, he shocked Americans accustomed to political correctness with these words: “Women belong in the kitchen, not in the cockpit. Homosexuals should be shot. Churches should be converted into nightclubs and put fat priests in prison, as they legally steal money from stupid people."

P.S

According to one of our readers - a former officer of the special department of the air defense corps in Vladivostok, most likely, the Belenko case was closed in November 2001 with the wording "Because of the limitation of time", when it was 25 years from the date of the sentencing in absentia.

And yet Belenko was not left without punishment. The retribution for his betrayal was that for more than a quarter of a century he had to live without relatives and without a Motherland, in constant expectation of the KGB traps. They may object to me, they say, but today he has a beautiful and comfortable life, and not the miserable existence of a Russian military pensioner.

But, in the first place, this man's fortune was bought at the price of a betrayal that forced millions of his former compatriots to tighten their belts even tighter.

And secondly, it was people like Belenko, brave and energetic people who in the early 90s were the first to legally leave Russia.

Examples? Several e-mails from former colleagues of Viktor Ivanovich came to us from very far abroad. So, whatever one may say, there is no crime without punishment...

In 1976, the Soviet Air Force was shocked by an unprecedented emergency. On September 6, in a fighter regiment of the air defense forces, during a training flight, a brand new MIG-25P interceptor with tail number 31 disappeared from the radar screens at that time. It was piloted by a young, but already experienced pilot, Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko. This incident happened in the Far Eastern Military District at the Chuguevka airbase. Distress signals were received from the interceptor for some time, the pilot of board 31 did not respond to requests.

Air Defense Aviation Commander, Air Marshal Yevgeny Savitsky, who was in Primorye with an inspection check, reacted to what happened outwardly calmly: "Aviation is aviation! Anything can happen. Look for it."

Training flights began that day in the morning. Belenko took off at 12.50. Ten minutes later, communication with the plane was interrupted. Helicopters were preparing to fly out to search for the crash site, but none of this was required. In a few hours the whole world knew that at the airport Japanese city A Soviet military aircraft landed in Hakodate.

During the landing, the fighter almost collided with passenger liner Boeing 727. The pilot was forced to land the car at high speed and at an acute angle. The runway was not enough, and the plane rolled out onto a dirt field, where it stopped.

News from Japan came as the ubiquitous reporters got it. The first thing we learned from official sources: the pilot lost his course, lost his orientation and was forced to land in Japan. Knowing that this is not entirely true, the special services are making an aggressive move: they will envelop the Japanese side in delaying the decision to extradite the aircraft and the pilot. And then, when it became clear that the pilot was not going to return to his homeland, his mother appeared on television, whom, as it turned out later, he had not seen for thirteen years, and his wife, with whom, as it turned out later, he was going to divorce. Both women cried, begged the Japanese to take pity on them and let go of their beloved son and husband.

MiG-25P

The MIG-25, NATO designation Foxbat (flying fox), was of interest to the American intelligence services from the very day they learned about its presence. The development of a fighter capable of three times (!!!) blocking the speed of sound and intercepting high-altitude and high-speed targets in the stratosphere began in 1962, and one of the reasons for the new development was the fact that in the 50s and early 60s years, flights of American reconnaissance aircraft over the territory of the USSR became commonplace. From those documents that were declassified, it became known that during this period more than 10 thousand spy flights were made along the borders of the USSR and China. The goal was one - to identify the air defense system of the USSR.

But reconnaissance planes flew not only along the borders. At great heights they crossed the territory of our country. We know of only one downed spy plane. In fact, about 30 reconnaissance aircraft shared the fate of Lockheed-V-2. 252 American pilots were shot down over Soviet territory. True, with the advent of the MIG-21, the number of reconnaissance flights has noticeably decreased. The high-altitude records of the new fighter were impressive. But it was decided to make the MIG-21 a front-line fighter and limit its ceiling. Another aircraft was intended for spies, which was hiding under the E-155 index for the time being.

On February 7, 1961, test pilot A.V. Fedotov sets a world speed record on it - 2401 km / h. A year later, he beats his own record and shows 3000 km / h. Pilot P. M. Ostapenko raises the E-155 to a height of 22,670 meters. This record-breaking aircraft became the base for the future MIG-25P interceptor.

Only in 1969 did the Gorky Aircraft Plant receive an order for serial product 84. For almost ten years, the aircraft went to serial development. The term is long, but this is not because there were troubles in the work. Those who remember the impulsive and very decisive ruler of the country, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, will not be surprised if they learn that he made global decisions without much thought about their consequences. He drastically reduced the army and knocked out of it many thousands of skilled and experienced officers. He destroyed the fleet, thereby trying to show how the country was decisively disarming. Relying on missiles, he sharply slowed down the development of aviation. But you can't bombard the whole country with missiles. Fortunately, the pause was not so long. US President Lyndon Johnson managed to notify the world that American aircraft designers have created an aircraft that can fly for a long time at speeds of 3000 km / h. That's when the head of our state realized...

The message of the American president was soon neutralized by a leak of information on the MIG-25. In addition, another cascade of records follows - now the plane takes a height of 36,240 meters. By 1976, no country in the world possessed an interceptor aircraft capable of competing with the MIG-25. Foreign residency reported that American intelligence agencies are actively interested in the new aircraft and are trying to get any information about it.

Belenko

Until now, disputes have not subsided about who Viktor Belenko really was: a recruited agent who was waiting in the wings, or a spontaneous hijacker driven by personal motives. He does not reveal his essence in the book, which he quickly concocted upon his arrival in the United States. "Chekists", of course, turned over his entire biography and stumbled upon a lot interesting facts, who still speak in favor of recruiting a pilot.

Firstly, there was not a single childhood photograph in the family archive that could identify his personality. Even though they were available.

Secondly, during the years of cadet studies, going on vacation, he preferred to travel to small northern cities. He never told his comrades what he was doing there, and generally did not say anything about vacation affairs.

Thirdly, as it turned out, Belenko did not visit his parents from the time of cadet studies until the treacherous flight, although he helped them financially.

And, finally, the most suspicious feature, according to which any excellent student can be considered a spy - he studied well at the flight school and was very interested in combat aircraft. He was the most active reader of the garrison library and often turned to the special unit for secret technical literature.

The last fact that speaks in favor of recruitment, although it is unsteady, is that while hijacking a plane, Belenko flew to the American military base Chitoze, but the cloudiness in the area forced him to land on a civilian airfield.

In order to comprehensively study his personality, one hundred and sixteen people from among relatives and colleagues were interviewed. Data were collected on the state of health, relationships with the command and in the family, moral and political qualities, and attitudes towards Soviet reality. At the same time, there were no data on treasonous intentions. It was not noted that he was interested in the standard of living in the West, in particular the American one.

According to his wife, he did not listen to foreign radio broadcasts himself and did not allow her to listen. Forbidden to correspond with a school friend who married a foreigner and lived in Italy.

At the same time, it became known that Belenko once expressed dissatisfaction with the living conditions of the flight crew, an unregulated working day, and the frequent cancellation of days off. At the same time, he said that American pilots were less busy in the service.

Various insinuations circulated in the West that Belenko had been recruited by American intelligence before his escape were not confirmed. Apparently, they were made for propaganda purposes.

The data obtained during the operational investigation, in their entirety, did not give grounds to believe that Belenko flew abroad, guided by selfish motives.

In parallel with the main version, issues related to the possibility of a forced landing of Belenko in Japan were subjected to an equally deep study. There were good reasons for this. He had a fairly high theoretical background and, as a pilot, a sufficient level of flight training on the MiG-25P aircraft. This is evidenced by the fact that the flight was carried out from the duty forces to intercept the control target, following the course in the coastline area (between Nakhodka and Vladivostok).

The possibility of a forced landing was also indicated by Belenko's unusual behavior at the Hakodate airport (he fired a pistol, did not allow photography, demanded that the plane be covered). Attention was drawn to the attitude of the Japanese police towards him, who, when taking him out of the airfield, put a bag over his head and roughly pushed him into the car.

This version is untenable, since during a search of his apartment after escaping, under the windowsill they found a map (made by V. Belenko) with calculations for a flight to China. According to Vladimir Tsarkov (Head of Aviation of the 10th Air Defense Army in 1976), this card was fake in order to “cover up the tracks” after the escape.

The weather conditions and the pilot's training also rejected the version of the forced landing of Belenko's plane in Japan. And a careful study of the SARPP (system for automatic recording of flight parameters), returned by the Japanese along with the aircraft, showed that Belenko practically kept a direct course to the island of Hokkaido and did not make any turns. The examination confirmed that the SARPP film belonged to his aircraft.

In addition, taking advantage of the sloppiness of a mechanic, Belenko refueled full tanks aircraft, instead of the permitted half, motivating that it will fly a little longer and not to refuel twice.

The lack of calculation on the coastline air defense system can be considered great luck, the only (!) Soldier of which left for lunch, and there was no changer at all due to shortages. In addition, the formation of a new line of subordination of the radar and anti-aircraft troops and the associated bureaucracy did not allow a prompt decision to be made to eliminate the aircraft during the flight. The plane, according to the head of the radar station, disappeared from the radar screen behind the hill. After 15 seconds, this was reported to the commanding staff. Further in seniority up to the Ministry of Defense.

The SARPP system also recorded that Belenko left the training area towards the sea, dropping sharply to a mark of less than 50 m. At this height, he flew over the sea surface from the coastline of the USSR for about 130 km. Such actions of the pilot, according to experts, could indicate his desire to get away from radar tracking.

Belenko’s personal documents (certificate of a 1st class instructor pilot, school-leaving certificate, diploma of graduation from a military school, birth certificate) were not found among his belongings and relatives, although according to his wife they were in their apartment. The report of the foreign press noted that Belenko was returned the documents confiscated from him during the police detention, among which is a birth certificate. It can be assumed that Belenko took all these documents with him.

A comprehensive study of Belenko's personality, his behavior in the service and at home showed that he repeatedly had acute conflict situations with the command. So, during his service at the Stavropol Aviation School, he expressed an insistent desire to leave instructor work and, in this regard, he sought various opportunities for transfer to a combat regiment. However, these attempts were not successful, since the command, as a rule, did not release instructor pilots from the school to the troops. For this reason, he began to show discontent and sharply aggravated relations with the commanders. In 1975, he submitted a report to the head of the school with a request to dismiss him from the Soviet Army, arguing that he did not want to serve with commanders who constantly abused alcohol.

During the first six months of service in a new place, Belenko has established himself with positive side, successfully completed a retraining course on a new type of MiG-25P aircraft for him, was appointed acting chief of staff of the squadron, and was elected deputy secretary of the party bureau of the squadron. He treated his duties in good faith. He did not express dissatisfaction with his position or disorder. Around July 1976, oddities in his behavior began to be noticed. He became nervous, agitated. Painfully experienced the delay in the assignment of the next military rank of captain and with the appointment to the post of chief of staff of the squadron promised during the transfer.

On September 6, despite the conflict situation, he was included in scheduled flights and arrived at the airfield. When he was heading for a combat aircraft to fly, one of the pilots noticed that Belenko was pale, red spots appeared on his face and neck. After landing in the cockpit, being in a state of nervous excitement, with trembling hands, he could not connect the radio station chip for a long time and was able to do this only with the help of a technician. The materials of the investigation testified that Belenko really had reason to be dissatisfied with his official position. His term of service in the military rank of senior lieutenant ended on January 10, 1976, but until September he did not receive the rank of captain due to the sluggishness of command. The promised post of chief of staff of the squadron gave him the right to enter the academy, where he was very eager.

The investigation concluded that the flight was made deliberately.

Not so long ago, the Tokyo television company Nexus decided to make a film about a former Soviet pilot. Director Akiro Mitsumori believes that there is still an ambivalent attitude towards Belenko in Japan. Some consider him a hero who told the truth about the USSR. For most, he is just a traitor. The film group working in America managed to meet with Belenko and interview him. By the way, in Russia Belenko was declared dead twice in 1978 and in 1997. But, unfortunately, the 69-year-old traitor is alive and well. Nothing was known about the personal life of the former pilot all these years, and the Japanese director managed to find out something. It seemed to him that Belenko was not very arranged in life. He lives in California, wandering around hotels and motels. At first he taught technique and tactics. air combat at one of the military academies. Over time, his knowledge became outdated and he switched to lecturing about events, customs and traditions in the USSR. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his lectures ceased to be relevant. The only thing America thanked him for was granting him citizenship. He has to earn his livelihood through business. At one time, Belenko married an American, with whom he has three children. However, then he divorced and left her, according to the marriage contract, the house.

Here is how Belenko described visiting a supermarket (material from Wikipedia):

My first visit to the supermarket was under the supervision of people from the CIA, and I thought it was staged. I did not believe that this store could be real. It seemed to me that since I was an unusual guest, they could play a prank on me. After all, it was such a beautiful spacious building with an incredible amount of goods and without queues. In Russia, everyone is used to long lines. Subsequently, when I realized that the supermarket was real, I enjoyed getting to know new products. In Russia of that time, however, and in the present - it is difficult to find good canned food. So I bought a variety of canned foods every day. Once I bought a jar with the inscription "Lunch" and fried its contents with potatoes, onions and garlic - it turned out delicious. The next morning, my friends told me that I had eaten canned chicken for cats. But they were delicious! They were better than those canned food for people that are still made in Russia today!

In the official propaganda statements of that time, the consequences were not assessed objectively, as they were custom-made. In particular, in addition to statements about "moral and political damage", Belenko's escape was attributed to material damage to the USSR in the amount of about 2 billion rubles, since it was necessary to urgently change the equipment of the "friend or foe" recognition system throughout the country. A button appeared in the fighter's missile launch system, which removed the lock on firing at friendly aircraft. She received the nickname "Belenkovskaya".

Excesses in the actions of the party-official elite, which by that time had become systematic and massive, were studied and revealed. For example, indifference to the life of officers honestly fulfilling their duty against the background of personal career motives, in particular, turning the days off of subordinates into working days in order to quickly stand out with visible results.

The military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, citizen Viktor Ivanovich Belenko, born in 1947, was convicted in absentia under article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for treason and sentenced to capital punishment - execution.

© Pavel Movchan (Colorad)

On September 6, 1976, the inhabitants of the Japanese city of Hakodate were alarmed by the roar of the engines of a military aircraft that circled over the local airport.

The pilot, assessing the situation, went to land. The plane did not have enough runway - it rolled out of it and, having knocked down two antennas, stopped.

The police officers and airport workers who approached him were shocked - red stars flaunted on the wings of the combat vehicle. The pilot, who jumped out of the cockpit, began to wave his gun and demand that everyone move away from the plane. After some time, he changed his anger to mercy and announced that he intended to seek political asylum.

Meanwhile, Japanese air defense services were looking for a Russian aircraft that had invaded the country's airspace, evaded interceptors and fled. The search was interrupted by a call from Hakodate: a Russian plane landed with us!

Never before had a Soviet pilot hijacked a combat aircraft abroad. In this case, it was not just about an airplane, but about a high-altitude fighter-interceptor MiG-25P, which bore the romantic name "Flying Fox" according to the NATO classification. In the West, unique characteristics were attributed to this aircraft, which, however, was not possible to verify, since the Soviet Union carefully guarded its secrets.

And this plane was presented to the Japanese on a silver platter, and even with a pilot who expresses his willingness to cooperate.

"I flew in voluntarily"

At the same time, tension reigned at the Far Eastern airfield Sokolovka. The MiG-25P with tail number 31, manned by Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko. The aircraft and the pilot belonged to the fighter regiment of the 11th Separate Air Defense Army.

Viktor Belenko's identity card. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

The incident was reported Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Air Defense Forces Air Marshal Yevgeny Savitsky. Warlord, hero of the Great Patriotic War, ordered: to search for the pilot until he was discovered. At the same time, Savitsky implied that the plane crashed or made an emergency landing.

There was no thought in the first hours that a betrayal had occurred. However, then news came from Japan - the MiG-25P landed there.

Soviet representatives who were in the country rising sun, was instructed to contact the pilot. The news that he had asked for political asylum was initially seen as a provocation.

But, when a representative of the USSR embassy managed to get a meeting with Belenko, he answered him directly to his face: "I flew to Japan voluntarily."

Traitor with positive characteristics

Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko was 29 years old at that time, and the vigilant state security agencies had no compromising evidence on him.

A native of Nalchik, he graduated from school with a silver medal, served in the army, then entered the Armavir Higher Military aviation school pilots, which he graduated in 1971. Then he served as an instructor pilot in Stavropol, was characterized positively, was a member of the party, was a member of the party bureau. In 1975, at his own request, he was transferred to serve in an air defense fighter regiment in the Far East.

While still studying in Armavir, Belenko got married and had a son. On Far East he came with his family. The pilot had no problems in relations with his wife, the son did not cherish his soul in his father, he always tried to accompany him to the service.

Colleagues did not believe that a fellow soldier could betray. Then an order came to the unit - to repeat Belenko's flight to airspace Japan, based on data recorded by radar.

When the experiment was carried out, it became obvious that the MiG-25 pilot deliberately used maneuvers, trying to avoid observation, flying at low altitude. There is no doubt that Belenko went to his act deliberately.

Offended careerist

The Soviet secret services raised the connections of the fugitive, checked acquaintances and friends, trying to understand what motives he was guided by.

Friends noted only that Belenko was an emotional, ambitious person and often scolded his superiors. He himself evidently thought himself worthy of borrowing more high position than what he had at the time.

In the summer of 1976, Belenko was in an agitated state. He was supposed to be given the rank of captain, but the documents still did not arrive. As it turned out later, no one plotted the pilot, it was all about the usual bureaucratic red tape. Belenko, on the other hand, dreamed of entering the academy, which promised a career take-off. He began to perceive the delay in conferring the title as an attempt by his superiors to interfere with him.

MiG-25 returned in boxes

After the pilot asked for political asylum, it became clear that he would not return to the USSR. The Soviet government demanded that the plane be handed over, but even here everything turned out to be difficult. The Japanese authorities announced that, since such a criminal act as a violation of the state border was committed on it, the MiG-25 can only be returned after a thorough examination by specialists, including those with "foreign participation."

On October 12, 1976, the transfer of the MiG-25 to the Soviet side took place in the port of Hitachi. The plane was brought in 13 carefully packed boxes. Japanese side I hoped that Soviet specialists would not be able to conduct an inspection promptly, which means they would not determine what details were missing. But this number did not pass - the experts who specially arrived for this coped with the task, after which the Japanese were sued for the damage caused. However, this was little consolation after what had happened. The unfortunate MiG was sent to the aviation school as a teaching aid.

The fugitive did not remember his wife and son

By the time the aircraft was handed over to the Soviet side, Viktor Belenko was already in the United States.

In subsequent years, he gave lengthy interviews in which he said that he had fled the USSR because of his rejection of Soviet ideology, admired American supermarkets and said that in the USA, canned food for cats tastes better than what people eat in the Soviet Union.

Belenko, however, was not very fond of answering questions about his family - about his wife and son, whom he abandoned in his homeland.

If some defectors tried to achieve family reunification, demanding the release of their relatives from the USSR, then Belenko never did this.

Belenko's wife, together with her son, after her husband's escape, went to her homeland, to the Kuban. According to her, the Soviet special services did not make any claims against her personally. They were left alone, but living with such a family history was still not easy. In his few interviews many years after the events of 1976 Ludmila Belenko admitted that she does not harbor any hatred for her husband, but simply wants to understand: why did he do this?

The military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Viktor Belenko in absentia under article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for treason, and he was sentenced to capital punishment (execution). In the Soviet period, this was a weighty reason not to seek contacts with relatives. But even after the collapse of the USSR, Belenko did not try to contact his wife and son.

Tales from America

Belenko's escape hit not only relatives. In the regiment where he served, "purge" began. All "morally unstable" from flight positions were transferred to airfield and sent to units based away from the border. They were punished for addiction to alcohol, for having relationships with women without registering a marriage, and for other things that usually did not entail severe sanctions. Having burned themselves on Belenko, the command was now trying to insure itself against any surprises.

As for the fate of Viktor Belenko himself, information about his life in the United States is extremely contradictory. The early years of the US intelligence agencies used him as an expert on Soviet aviation, in particular, to study materials related to the death of the South Korean Boeing in September 1983. Then he worked in one of the aviation firms in the United States. According to some reports, Belenko got married in the States, had two children in his family, but then the marriage broke up.

In the late 1990s, information appeared that the fugitive pilot died in a car accident. However, on the 25th anniversary of his escape, Belenko showed up unharmed, willingly giving interviews to the American and Japanese media. In them, he said that in the 1990s he allegedly even did business in Russia and met with Soviet pilots and cosmonauts. True, these stories of Belenko have no confirmation.

Exactly 35 years ago, one of the loudest emergencies in the history of the USSR occurred: an officer serving in the Far East hijacked the latest MiG-25 combat aircraft to Japan, causing damage to the Motherland in two billion Soviet rubles

On the morning of September 6, 1976, the deputy commander of the MiG-25 fighter-interceptor squadron, Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko, as usual, kissed his wife Lyudmila and four-year-old son Dima and went to work. That day was training flights. The pilots knew that Air Marshal Yevgeny Savitsky (by the way, he is the father of the second female cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya) arrived in the Far East from Moscow to check the combat readiness of the air defense forces. The inspection became an additional incentive for the pilots to complete the flight task perfectly.

*This photo was taken immediately after the MiG landed at a civilian airfield in Japan. During landing, he almost collided with a passenger plane.

“Marshal Savitsky that day was in the underground command post of the radio engineering brigade in which I served,” he recalled. retired colonel Goncharuk. - At about 2 p.m., the marshal and the commander of a separate air defense army left for lunch. A few minutes later, a report was received that the radars "lost" one of the fighters. As it turned out later, it was the MiG on which Belenko flew. Duty planes and helicopters immediately took to the air to search. Meanwhile, radars fixed a new target: it was gaining altitude and moving away in the direction Japanese island Hokkaido. I did the calculations and suggested to the chief of staff that it was the missing plane leaving. I don’t know who and how reported to Marshal Savitsky and the army commander about the disappearance of the MiG, but I know one thing: if they had stayed to dine with us in the underground bunker (tables were laid there, but the leadership preferred the summer canteen upstairs), events could have developed differently. After all, the army commander had the authority to quickly decide on the suppression of the target's flight.

Then we managed to find out how Belenko hid from the radar: he abruptly went down, simulating a plane crash, and disappeared behind a huge hill, which is why he disappeared from the radar screens. At an extremely low altitude between the hills, he headed towards the Sea of ​​Japan. The defector studied the air defense system of this area well, knew the zones through which one could escape unnoticed, and took into account the fact that the first persons on whom the decision depended in such cases would be occupied by a distinguished guest from Moscow.

“The MiG-25 was called the “flying grocery store” due to the fact that it was filled with 200 liters of alcohol”

“Belenko managed to go unnoticed by Japan’s air defense systems for some time,” Sergey Grachev, an employee of the State Polytechnic Museum at the National Technical University “KPI”, told FACTS. - The defector was heading for the Chitose military air base in Japan. His approach was detected and two fighters were raised to intercept. Apparently, fearing to be shot down, Belenko “dived” to a low altitude and went south. So he ended up over the small civilian airfield Hakodate. The fuel in the tanks of the MiG was running out, and the pilot sent the car to land. On his way was taking off passenger "Boeing". Belenko managed to react in time and avoided a collision. Runway strip there is too short for an aircraft like the MiG-25, so it swept along the entire length of the concrete road and rolled out 250 meters beyond it, slightly hitting the airfield antennas with its wings. And this despite the fact that the braking parachute helped the fighter to stop. By the way, Japan billed the Soviet Union for the crumpled antennas. As for the aircraft, the heavy-duty hull of the MiG practically did not suffer from a collision with these obstacles.

On the same day, television, radio and newspapers from dozens of countries reported on the landing of the Soviet fighter. Journalists, according to numerous eyewitnesses, said that allegedly the pilot with a pistol in his hands did not allow people who had fled to the plane, and with gestures demanded that airport employees cover the MiG. Thus, the KGB quickly found out what happened to the plane.

* Sergey Grachev: “Only after a thorough study of the MiG-25 by American specialists, Japan returned the aircraft to the Soviet Union. Due to the fact that the fighter was disassembled, the USSR received compensation - 7.7 million rubles (about $ 11 million) "

Belenko’s brother-soldier Viktor Podmoloda in his book “Flight without Return” told how the next day after the disappearance of the MiG, the pilots agreed to listen to the details of what happened from ... broadcasts from Western radio stations, having gathered in his apartment in the evening: “Turning on the VEF receiver and tuning it to Voice of America, holding our breath, we began to listen to the newscast, which began with a report about Belenko. From that moment on, none of us had any doubts that he was really “over the hill”. At first, we did not believe in betrayal, we sincerely believed that Victor was dead.

The next day, an order came to the regiment to identify all morally unstable pilots and remove them from flight work. As a result, several officers, accused of indifference to alcohol, suffered. During the day they were sent to other duty stations. By the way, about alcohol. The pilots of this regiment called the MiG-25 a “flying grocery store” due to the fact that about two hundred liters of an alcohol-water mixture (essentially vodka) were filled into it to ensure the operation of on-board equipment.

A whole landing force of KGB investigators was sent to the regiment, who were engaged in clarifying all the circumstances that preceded Belenko's escape. About 250 people were interrogated in this case (by the way, it has not yet been declassified). In particular, it was established that the defector had fled not at all on the plane on which he was supposed to fly. At first, a b 17 board was prepared for him. We had to complete a training task. In such cases, the fighters were only 80 percent fueled. But the pilot suddenly announced that this machine was out of order. There was no time to understand the reasons for the breakdown. They gave us another MiG, which was refueled to capacity in case of an urgent sortie. Therefore, Belenko had enough fuel to reach Japan. Technicians said that before the flight, he behaved unusually: he was nervous, as if he was playing for time.

At first Soviet side tried to present the case as if the pilot was forced to land at a foreign airfield, demanded the return of the pilot and the plane. Publications appeared in our press that the senior lieutenant was being held by force, drugs were being injected into his body. Belenko's wife and mother were brought to Moscow (by that time she had not seen her son for 13 years) and held a press conference with their participation. Women with tears in their eyes asked to send home their loved one. Japan replied that a criminal case had been opened on the fact of illegal border crossing by a Soviet officer, the MiG was material evidence, so it would have to wait. Clearly, it was just a political game. In continuation of it, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan publicly expressed surprise that the USSR did not apologize for the actions of its pilot.

Belenko asked for political asylum in the United States. Nevertheless, the Soviet representative Sadovnikov was allowed to meet with him. Sadovnikov served in the KGB, but in this case he acted under the guise of a diplomat. He recalled saying to the defector: “The government knows: you were blown off course, you were forced to land, and then drugs were used. I have come to help you return home to your beloved wife and son." The pilot interrupted him: “There is no need to agitate me. I flew to Japan voluntarily.” When Belenko was taken away, Sadovnikov said in a whisper: “We don’t like traitors. Sooner or later we will find you." After some time, information appeared in the Soviet press about the death of a defector in a car accident. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Japanese journalists tracked him down and made a film about him. Nevertheless, Belenko's wife Lyudmila in all her few interviews (as a rule, she avoids communicating with the press) repeats: “I still don’t know why I should put a candle in the church - for the health or for the repose of my husband.” According to her, they lived soul to soul with their spouse, he never complained about harassment in the service. From her son, she does not hide the truth about what happened in 1976, but tells him that his dad is the best in the world. Secondly, Lyudmila did not marry.

The American authorities made no secret of the fact that Viktor Belenko received political asylum with the personal assistance of US President Gerald Ford. And then the defector became a full citizen of the United States "for his contribution to public security."

“The MiG-25 was an advanced aircraft for its time, it is not surprising that the secret services of the West hunted for its secrets,” continues aviation historian Sergei Grachev. - These are now the latest fifth-generation fighters being demonstrated at exhibitions, and in the years cold war was even secret appearance cars. And now, thanks to Belenko, it falls entirely into the hands of American specialists.

around the landed civil airfield MiG, the Japanese quickly built a hangar. Under his cover, the winged car was dismantled, loaded into a US military transport aircraft and transported to one of the military airfields in Japan. Only two months later, the MiG was returned to the Soviet Union in several wooden boxes upholstered in metal sheet. The transmission took place on board a Soviet ship. A specially trained team with enviable speed unpacked tightly knocked down boxes. By the end of the day, the Soviet side billed the Japanese for 7.7 million foreign currency rubles ($11 million) for damage to the fighter.

“Belenko told reporters that he visited Russia in 1995, despite the death sentence that he received in the USSR”

“To create this machine, our scientists and engineers used Newest technologies: the case was all-welded, made of steel, - says Sergey Grachev. - Aluminum, traditional for aviation, was abandoned, because it would not withstand thermal loads, because the machine develops a speed that is three times the speed of sound! Because of this, the surfaces of the aircraft heat up to 300 degrees. By the way, the impetus for the creation of the MiG-25 was flights in the 1950s foreign aircraft over the territory of the USSR for a very high altitudes. Suffice it to recall the famous story of how over the Urals, with the help of a rocket, they managed to shoot down a reconnaissance U-2, at the helm of which was the American pilot Francis Powers. In 1976, the most advanced MiG-25 interceptor at that time fell into the hands of the Americans. They used a number of ideas from this car for one of their best F-15 fighters, for example, two keels on the tail of the aircraft. On the MiG, such a solution was used for the first time in the world.

- All publications about Belenko talk about the colossal - two billion Soviet rubles - damage caused by the hijacking of the MiG-25. Like, I had to change the identification system "friend or foe" on all aircraft. But one army veteran said that this system would have been replaced anyway, since it was already very outdated.

- Yes it's true. But it should be noted that because of Belenko's betrayal, the equipment had to be changed in an emergency. And you always have to pay more for urgency. Do not forget also that if, God forbid, an armed conflict broke out, the Soviet air defense could not make out where their planes were and where they were. In addition to replacing the recognition system, it was necessary to urgently modernize the fighter itself - to create a number of new components and assemblies for it. It is appropriate to say that there were other cases of hijackings of Soviet military aircraft, but the accident with the MiG-25 caused the most damage.

- Did you manage to find out the motives that pushed Belenko to hijack the plane?

- I have not seen official documents on the investigation of this incident. There is a version that he was recruited while still studying at a military school for pilots and "led", aiming at him trying to get into the unit, which is armed with the latest fighters. But it is possible that the escape was a spontaneous act, the impetus for this was some kind of resentment.

The KGB especially carefully looked for confirmation of the version of recruitment. But no clear evidence was found. We found out that as a child, Vitya Belenko lived for several years in the Donbass - his father brought him to his relatives from a village near Armavir. This happened after the boy's parents separated. After graduating from school, Vitya entered the medical institute, but left it after the second year - he wanted to become a military pilot. Studied diligently, flew well. No one could remember that he was very critical of the order in the country, so his escape was a complete surprise for his colleagues.

In the United States, Belenko first taught at a military academy, then went into business. Across the ocean, Belenko had another woman, they had three children. Now Viktor Ivanovich lives alone. He will turn 65 next year.

In an interview, he spoke about his first impressions of America: “My first visit to the supermarket was under the supervision of people from the CIA, and I thought it was a staging. I did not believe that this store could be real. It seemed to me that since I was an unusual guest, they could play a prank on me. After all, it was such a beautiful spacious building with an incredible amount of goods and without queues. In Russia, everyone is used to long lines. Subsequently, when I realized that the supermarket was real, I enjoyed getting to know new products.

It was difficult to find good canned food in Russia, so I bought a variety of canned foods every day. Once I bought a seemingly ordinary jar and fried its contents with potatoes, onions and garlic - it turned out delicious. The next morning, my friends told me that I had eaten canned chicken for cats. But they were delicious! They were better than those canned food for people that are still made in Russia today!” By the way, Belenko told reporters that he came to Russia in 1995. And this despite the fact that when he was in the Soviet Union he was sentenced to capital punishment.

Surely historians will learn a lot more about Belenko's escape and everything connected with it when his case is declassified.

In the early autumn of 1976, an international scandal erupted: Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko, who served in the Far East, on the latest MiG-25 fighter escaped to Japan, and then asked for political asylum in the United States. In the USSR, he left behind a wife and a 4-year-old child, whom he never saw again. Abroad, he was called a dissident, and at home he is still considered a traitor, deserter and spy.

Former Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko

In early September 1976, Marshal Savitsky arrived in the Far East to check the combat readiness of the air defense forces. On this day, the pilots had training flights, and they knew that they needed to be performed flawlessly. During a training session, Belenko's plane disappeared from radar. He suddenly gained altitude, and then began to dive into the sea. It looked like some technical malfunction had caused the plane to crash and the pilot died. Duty planes and helicopters immediately took to the air. Later it turned out that the pilot deceived the radar: he went down, simulating a fall, and then disappeared behind a huge hill.

This picture was taken immediately after the MiG landed at a civilian airfield in Japan.

On the island of Hokkaido, Japanese air defense aircraft were alerted. They barely managed to track unknown object as he immediately disappeared. As it turned out, he abruptly went down and landed at the nearest civilian airfield. The pilot got off the plane and immediately demanded to hide it from prying eyes. The fugitive then requested political asylum in the United States.

The hijacked plane was hidden from prying eyes

They did not believe in Belenko’s escape for a long time: they thought that the reason for such actions was some kind of breakdown or technical error, and the landing was forced, that the plane fell into a zone of poor visibility and strayed off course, that the pilot was taken hostage and held forcibly, and on psychotropic drugs are used during interrogations. Then an order came to the unit - to repeat Belenko's flight to Japanese airspace, based on the data recorded by the radars.

When the experiment was carried out, it became obvious that the MiG-25 pilot deliberately used maneuvers, trying to avoid observation, flying at low altitude. There is no doubt that Belenko went to his act deliberately.

In 1976, the news announced that a Soviet plane had made an emergency landing at an airfield in Japan, brought Belenko's mother and wife to Moscow, where they denied the version at a press conference that the pilot could have asked for asylum abroad and begged for his immediate return to the homeland. Senior Lieutenant Viktor Belenko was 29 years old at that time, and the vigilant state security agencies had no compromising evidence on him.
A native of Nalchik, he graduated from school with a silver medal, served in the army, then entered the Armavir Higher Military Aviation Pilot School, which he graduated in 1971. Then he served as an instructor pilot in Stavropol, was characterized positively, was a member of the party, was a member of the party bureau. In 1975, at his own request, he was transferred to serve in an air defense fighter regiment in the Far East.

Pilot-deserter Viktor Belenko

The MiG-25 would like to get the intelligence of the whole world, as it was an aircraft of a unique design, with a record speed and flight altitude, the most modern and most secret fighter of the USSR Air Force. All the bases on which the MiG-25 aircraft were located were guarded by special paratrooper units.

Fighter hijacked by pilot Viktor Belenko

The USSR demanded the immediate return of the pilot and aircraft. While international negotiations were underway, the fighter was dismantled and shipped in containers to the United States. There he was carefully studied, and the plane ceased to be a secret weapon of the USSR. The Japanese returned the fighter only two months later, disassembled. The damage caused was estimated at 2 billion rubles. I had to hastily change the "friend or foe" identification system on all aircraft. As a result, the USSR received compensation of 7.7 million rubles.

Belenko was an excellent student in combat training and a first-class pilot. But those who knew him said that the pilot was too ambitious and ambitious and believed that his merits were not appreciated. There were also versions about his recruitment. It was said that such actions looked more like a well-prepared action than an impulsive act of a dissident dissatisfied political system. He was supposed to land the plane at a US military base in Japan, but he was afraid that he might be shot down and landed at a nearby airfield.

Colleagues have noticed oddities in his behavior for a long time: he preferred to spend his holidays in a small Far Eastern town, while he did not talk about how he rested, taught English language, was eager to join the fighter squadron, although due to age restrictions, he could no longer count on a promotion there.

Victor Belenko's ID

After Belenko's escape, all military aircraft began to be refueled in order to complete only one task, so that there would not be enough fuel to fly abroad.
After moving to the United States, the pilot was in the spotlight of the press. He lectured at one of the military academies as an expert in the study of Soviet air defense systems, spoke at symposia, completing his reports with a story about the horrors of Soviet reality. For his contribution to strengthening the national security of America, Belenko received US citizenship. Soon he married an American woman and lived with her for 15 years. Belenko was soon fired from the military academy, because he was no longer of interest to the special services. About him future fate little is known. According to one source, he still lives in the US. Others claim that Viktor Belenko divorced his wife, began to abuse alcohol, last years spent alone and died in 2006 either in a car accident or from a heart attack. Whether he was a recruited spy or just a deserter is still a mystery.

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