A brilliant pilot and intelligence officer: why did the name of Ivan Kozic "disappear from sight" for a long time?

The legendary Soviet single-engine fighter La-5, created in 1942 by OKB-21 S.A. Lavochkin in Gorky. Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozich performed his feats on it. There are destinies that are heroic and tragic at the same time. For years they occupy our thoughts, forcing us to look for a solution, and they reveal to us something completely different from what we expected. This is how the fate of Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozich seemed to me. He had more than 400 combat sorties, dozens of air battles and shot down German planes, hundreds of photo tablets with priceless intelligence materials.
- In 1979, I was visiting my grandmother in the village of Starye Morgi in the Uzda district, - says MINSK entrepreneur Valery Kotlyanik. - It was during the holidays, the evenings are long, fresh MILK is delicious. But most of all I loved my grandmother's stories about old times, about the war, about the partisans. I was particularly shocked by the story of a Soviet pilot, a native of this village, who landed in a nearby field in July 1944 to visit his mother, but it turned out that she had been shot by the Germans.

For many years, Valery Georgievich tried to find information about this pilot, and only recently was it possible to find out that this was Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Semenovich Kozich, a native of Starye Morgi, an active participant in the Battle of Kursk and Operation Bagration.

Now you can’t even say when he fell ill with the sky. The village where Ivan was born on March 3, 1920, was famous for its gardeners and wheelwrights. Planes flew there only during the First World War, when the Germans bombed Berezino. In the days when the future military pilot was born, Uzda region suffered under the Poles. In the autumn of the same year, Soviet power was established in the village, and in April 1921, the state border ran twenty miles away: Yazviny on the Belarusian side - Kolasovskaya Nikolayevshchina on the Polish side.
"In July 1944, I landed in a neighboring field to visit my mother." Our hero finished primary school in Starye Morgi. Then he entered the factory and plant school at the Borisov match factory "Proletarian Victory". He mastered a working profession and simultaneously studied at the Minsk flying club. On the monument in Lipki, dedicated to outstanding graduates, his name is carved in gold letters.
Left: 1937, poster by Vladimir Govorkov "Let's give the Soviet country 150,000 pilots!" Right: 1944, Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozich

In December 1936, at the Menzhinsky Plant in Moscow, an elderly worker, Nikolai Krupchatnikov, said fateful words: "The German fascist general Goering, a well-known figure, said that Germany needs to train 70,000 pilots. I think that we need to respond to the statement of the fascist general in such a way that we will have 150,000 pilots in the country in a short time." This initiative was picked up by all the flying clubs of the USSR. The best graduates were sent to flight schools.

Thus, Komsomol member Ivan Kozich voluntarily found himself at the Polina Osipenko Odessa Aviation School of Pilots. On November 15, 1938, he took the military oath. The inquisitive, nimble young man quickly mastered the slow-moving U-2 "maize", but dreamed of high speeds, of new-generation aircraft. And when the Odessa school was disbanded in February 1941, he managed to get a referral to Chuguev, where Soviet aces were trained. Six months before Kozich, the future three-time Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozhedub graduated from the local pilot school. He taught the Belarusian pilot the skills of air combat.

Having successfully completed the course, the newly minted sergeant Ivan Kozich arrived in Gatchina on June 15, 1941, at the disposal of the Leningrad Military District. The war found him here. By order of the command, the young pilot was transferred to Armavir in the Gorky region, where, as part of the 721st fighter aviation regiment, he was to master a new aircraft that had not yet entered serial production - the LaGG-3.

In Chuguev, he was trained on a light single-engine I-16. The "Ishachok" - the world's first monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear - fought in Spain and at Khalkhin Gol, liberated Western Ukraine and Belarus . Even then, its effectiveness was questionable, and during the "winter war" with Finland it finally became clear that it was not able to withstand German fighters.

It was then that they began to seriously develop an all-wooden fighter, which was destined to play a decisive role in the Great Patriotic War. Design work began in 1939 in Gorky. By the summer of 1941, the aircraft was practically ready. The pilots helped to refine it, studied and, from October, based in Rybinsk, defended the capital from armadas of fascist aircraft rushing towards it.
1944. Ivan Kozich (in the first row, second from the right) with fighters of the 3rd squadron of the 721st fighter aviation Kastornoye regiment in the Belarusian forests.

"My first combat sorties were in the air defense of Moscow," Ivan Semenovich Kozich said in a video recording from 1997, where he, already seriously ill, narrated the vicissitudes of his difficult fate. "I don't remember the details anymore, and I won't tell you why I received my first Order of the Red Banner either."

But the award sheet for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union contains a fairly detailed entry on this matter. Taking part in the Kastornoye defensive operation near Voronezh in July 1942, the flight commander of the 721st fighter aviation regiment, Sergeant Major Kozich, shot down 9 fascist aircraft: 4 bombers and 5 fighters. For this, he was awarded not only an order, but also 5,000 rubles. This is half a year's salary of a major Soviet leader at the time.

In December 1942, the communist Kozic was appointed commander of the newly formed 3rd Squadron. From that moment on, the regimental command, every time, in every award sheet, noted his exceptional qualities not only as an air ace, but also as a commander. The 22-year-old sergeant major became a mentor for young pilots: he trained, inspired, united, and protected them like the APPLE of his eye. In more than two years, only one of his subordinates died; the rest honorably completed the combat path to Warsaw. Kozic was an authority for them not only in the sky, but also on the ground: he taught them how to properly service an airplane, develop photographs, and think sensibly and independently. Handsome, stately, witty, he involuntarily attracted both glances and hearts.

Legends circulated in the regiment about his incomparable courage. On the Bryansk Front alone, he had to fight the vaunted duralumin Messerschmitts alone, and each time he emerged victorious, shooting down enemy aircraft or forcing them to retreat in disgrace. He fought as part of a group nine times and was always successful. "In air battles as a fighter pilot, he demonstrated examples of combat performance, excellent training, bravery and courage. For trouble-free work, he was awarded 5,000 rubles," we read in the award sheet. This was already the second cash prize in six months.
1943. The command staff of the 721st IAP: Chief of Staff S.I. Skvortsov, squadron commanders A.S. Kabiskoy, A.I. Golubenkov, I.S. Kozich, regiment commander B.G. Kryukov.

In addition to his ingenuity and bravery, Kozich was distinguished by rare powers of observation. While covering the actions of the attack aircraft at the Kursk railway station, he noticed out of the corner of his eye how two Messerschmitts were taxiing for takeoff at a nearby fascist airfield. He immediately attacked. The enemy planes burst into flames and exploded. Literally the next day, while exiting the attack, the sergeant major noticed a Heinkel coming in for a landing. As a result of the rapid maneuver, the enemy bomber caught fire and crashed into the ground.
"I won't tell you why I received my first Order of the Red Banner." "In addition to the tasks of escorting bombers, attack aircraft and covering his troops, Comrade KOZICH is one of the best hunters and scouts of the unit," the command states. Ivan Semenovich was truly fond of "free hunting", looking for targets for a surprise attack both on the ground and in the air.

But his main job was reconnaissance. Armed with a camera, he conducted aerial photography of enemy positions, airfields and railway stations. During Operation Bagration, his duties also included monitoring the camouflage of troops, refining the line of combat contact and assessing the effectiveness of artillery strikes.

He was also awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for aerial photography. On the eve of the Voronezh-Kastornoye offensive operation in January 1943, on assignment from the command, he made a daring raid deep into the enemy rear and photographed enemy fortifications in the Droskovo area of ​​the Oryol region. This made it possible to encircle and destroy the main forces of the 2nd German Army and create the preconditions for a further offensive on Kursk.

On March 13, Kozich, again on assignment from the high command, photographed the Orel airfield, where at that time there were up to 100 enemy aircraft. His camera captured a railway junction and other military installations in the occupied city. After reviewing his photographs, Stalin ordered the commander of long-range aviation, General Golovanov, to focus on bombing Orel. In the three months preceding the Battle of Kursk, our pilots made 2,235 combat sorties to this area.
Late 1980s. Ivan Kozic and his granddaughter Marina

Kozic were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and were quickly promoted. Having jumped three steps, he became a senior lieutenant and headed a squadron. The award sheet meticulously classifies his combat missions: 10 escorting bombers, 19 escorting attack aircraft, 14 hunting, 8 attack missions (destroying targets on the ground - Author), 49 reconnaissance missions with photographing of objects, 86 covering friendly troops, 79 covering combat missions, 35 patrolling, and 18 intercepting the enemy.

Meanwhile, another reorganization was taking place on the Bryansk Front: the 286th Fighter Aviation Division, where Kozich served, was transferred to the 16th Air Army under the command of Lieutenant General of Aviation Sergei Rudenko.

At that time, Senior Lieutenant Kozich was resting after being wounded in the Vostryakovo sanatorium near Moscow. It was there that the pilot received the news of his being awarded the title of Hero. "It was not I, but my comrades who learned that the decree had been issued on April 22 or 23," the veteran later recalled. "On April 28, I was already in Moscow, processing the receipt. There were about seven of us there."

The next day, Kozich was already in the regiment and, by order of the command, was actively collecting information about enemy airfields in the Shostka and Konotop area. The purpose of these preparations became clear on May 6. Six air armies, including the 16th, in three days of surprise strikes against German airfields along a 1,200-kilometer front from May 6 to 8, 1943, disabled 429 aircraft on the ground and 77 in the air. With a powerful preventive attack, Soviet aviation crossed out the fascist plan for a counteroffensive on Kursk, liberated by our troops on February 8, 1943. Thousands of people lived in anticipation of a great battle. And finally, on July 5, the epochal battle on the Kursk Bulge unfolded.

By this time, Senior Lieutenant Kozich was flying the La-5, which incorporated the best developments of the LaGG-3. It was no coincidence that the legendary "Lavochkin" reliably served Ivan Kozhedub and Alexei Maresyev, who had returned to the front after being wounded.
In the late 1980s, the veteran was often invited to meetings with the Young Pioneers .

I had heard the opinion that the use of wooden planes during the war was a forced measure, and there were plenty of pines and birches in RUSSIA. However, Russian pine is not suitable for either a violin or an airplane. The wood had to be purchased abroad and then impregnated with formaldehyde resin. La-2 planes were assembled with glue, polished and varnished to reduce aerodynamic drag. The main advantage of these planes was their survivability. With its fuselage riddled with holes, the wooden Lavochkin would land safely at its airfield and, after the required 40 minutes of parking, would rush back into battle. The duralumin Messerschmitts were much more vulnerable.

According to experts, it was not easy to control the Lavochkin, but Ivan Kozich achieved virtuosity in this matter. "During the entire period of combat operations, he was the squadron and group leader," we read in one of his award sheets. They trusted him, they followed him. Especially in the difficult days of the Battle of Kursk, when the enemy attacked and it was necessary to turn the tide at any cost.

It was then that he received his Alexander Nevsky, which he was almost more proud of than the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. "I fought an air battle against 136 German planes in front of the division commander," Ivan Semenovich said in the aforementioned video. "I was escorted by eight fighters and eleven of our attack aircraft. I thought I would be punished. I was tasked with attacking the front line of the German defense near Kromy, and I got involved in this unpredictable battle."

Soon after Kozich's squadron landed at its airfield without losses, the division commander's plane appeared in the sky. "He said, get out of line! I decided that I had definitely been punished. But the commander removed the Order of Alexander Nevsky from my jacket and handed it to me," the veteran proudly recalled.

By that time, Kozich's 3rd air squadron had firmly occupied first place in the division. It was the one that was sent on the most difficult missions. The 23-year-old captain's ability to control attack aircraft by radio was especially valued. And not only his subordinates, but also those he accompanied to the front lines.
"In front of the division commander, he fought an air battle against 136 German planes." After Kursk, the 16th Air Army was transferred to the Central Front, and on October 15, 1943, to Belarus. Five days later, the front itself was renamed Belorussian. Rechitsa, Kalinkovichi and Mozyr were liberated.
Late 1980s. During meetings with veterans and workers of the Yurlinsky District Committee of the CPSU

"The operation was not large-scale, but very instructive for us," wrote Marshal Rudenko in his book "Wings of Victory." "Here we successfully used fighters to attack the railway and highway in the Kalinkovichi-Ptich section."

Kozich took an active part in this. He photographed railway junctions and crossings, and accompanied attack fighters to reconnoitered targets.

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Rokossovsky personally set the tasks for the aviation.

"The Nazi command assumed that we would strike at Kovel in order to try to cut off their Belarusian group of troops," Marshal Rudenko reveals the details. "With our actions, we tried in every way to show that we were preparing to attack in that direction. We created false airfields there, conducted misleading radio transmissions, and confused enemy reconnaissance maps."

Meanwhile, Captain Kozich was covertly photographing the area in his wooden fighter, penetrating tens or even hundreds of kilometers behind the front line.

"Once Rokossovsky invited us to talk about the capabilities of aviation in supporting the offensive on Bobruisk, Minsk , Baranovichi, Brest," writes Sergei Rudenko.

Thus, Ivan Kozich's route in the upcoming Operation Bagration became known as early as April 1944. In early May, he was awarded for shooting down five Focke-Wulf fighters and one Junkers. But the situation had changed radically by that time. "The dominance of Soviet aviation in the air deprived the enemy Air Force of the opportunity to disrupt traffic on our communications, the work of industry and the strategic rear," says Rudenko. December 2024.
DIRECTOR of the Uzda District History and Local History Museum Tamara Lukhverchik: we have a portrait of Ivan Kozich by the Belarusian artist Fyodor Baranovsky

In June-July 1944, Division Commander Ivanov set the following task: "In pairs of experienced crews, conduct reconnaissance of enemy troops, in the absence of enemy aviation in the air, attack enemy manpower and equipment."

At this time, Kozich "carries out combat missions on special assignments of the command", "conducts reconnaissance in the interests of the 16th Air Army and ground troops." From June 24 to July 1, 1944, the brave captain took 40 photo tablets, with several dozen photographs in each. He personally handed over the "loot". He was awarded another Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

During the photo shoots, he was insured by his partner Boris Yakushkin. Reconnaissance was almost always carried out in pairs of aircraft, and only the most experienced pilots were engaged in it.

What objects Kozich photographed is a military secret. However, we know that the combat operations of the 286th Fighter Aviation Division were aimed at the city of Bobruisk in those days. Along the way, they liberated Berezino, Pogost, Smilovichi, Dukora, Rudensk, Blon. On the evening of June 27, 1944, 523 aircraft of the 16th Air Army carried out a massive bombing attack on the targets that Kozich indicated through aerial photography. The enemy group of many thousands ceased to exist. Its remnants were captured by ground troops on the night of June 28.

It is not entirely clear at what point Kozich decided to visit his mother and whether he did it on his own or with the approval of the command. "When the village of Starye Morgi, his birthplace, was liberated, Ivan Kozich went to visit his mother," writes Sergei Rudenko in his book. As the HEAD of the Uzda Regional History and Local History Museum Tamara Lukhverchik explained to me, the village was liberated by partisans before our troops arrived, but my interlocutor is convinced that Kozich flew to Starye Morgi after the liberation of Baranovichi.
The hero's father died back in 1939, and his mother Anna Antonovna was alive and well before the war. The neighbors' story about her last minutes is conveyed in Rudenko's memoirs: "...Dead silence reigned in the village then. Not a song, not a living word. Life seemed to have died out. One day, the fascists came to the Kozich family's hut.

- Get ready! - they shouted at the mother, waving machine guns.

They took her out into the yard. Then they grabbed her by the legs and dragged her to a freshly dug hole.

- And how they didn't torture Anna Antonovna, - fellow villagers said with tears in their eyes. - First, the bastards pointed a machine gun at her and started to scare her, then they fired a burst at her legs. Bloodied, she fell to the ground and begged the enemy for death, but the vile executioners first made fun of her, and then killed her."

According to Tamara Lukhverchik, director of the Uzda District Museum of History and Local History, this happened in the winter of 1943. Perhaps someone reported that her son was a communist and served in the Red Army. Or she was killed for her connections with the partisans: Anna Antonovna's brother was a partisan commander. Her five-year-old son was shot along with her, and according to some sources, her daughter as well.

Shocked by this tragedy, Ivan Kozich returned to his airfield. His fellow soldiers learned of his grief; perhaps through Boris Yakushkin, who, according to Tamara Lukhverchik, flew to Starye Morgi with him.
"Belarus is a model of how to preserve the memory of our heroes." "On the second day, Kozich's squadron was in the air," Rudenko continues. "It spotted several Fokkers (a light German fighter - Auth.) right at the front line. They were flying at low altitude towards their own territory. The Lavochkins rushed to the attack:

"This is for Anna Antonovna Kozich!" said pilots Semenov and Gulyaev, shooting at the enemy vehicles."
On May 12, 2023, a monument to Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozich was unveiled with military honors in Starye Morgi, Uzda District

. Kozich himself was silent. Something in him must have broken. Although, of course, he heard the voices of his subordinates on the radio.

The subsequent fate of the combat pilot was dramatic. He was wounded near Warsaw, after which he was unable to return to duty, and Kozich was sent directly from the front to Leningrad to the military academy. With his abilities and charm, he would probably have become a general or a marshal. "I did not graduate from the academy due to my own stupidity," Ivan Semenovich laments on an old film. "I decided that they would not send me further than the front."

It is difficult to say what actually happened. It is only known that at about this time Kozich was traveling by train from Leningrad to Moscow. In the compartment he met an artilleryman, they celebrated the meeting in the dining car, and the next morning in the compartment there was neither a neighbor, nor a jacket with the Hero's Gold Star, awards and documents. Only in the late 1980s, thanks to the efforts of the Yurlinsky District Committee of the CPSU, were duplicates made, and the veteran was finally able to enjoy all the benefits, honor, and respect that were rightfully his.

How did he end up in the Komi-Permyak Okrug in 1950, in the godforsaken village of Syuzva, where there was only forest and former prisoners? He recruited himself to cut down trees. Why? Was he looking for the policeman who had reported on his mother, and possibly killed her? In 1976, when Rudenko wrote his memoirs, the crimes of collaborators were almost always blamed on the Germans.

In Syuzva, the former pilot married an ordinary rural woman with two children. They had two daughters who sacredly cherish the memory of him. The pilot lived his last years in the district center, in Yurla, but never visited Belarus.
May 2023. The guest of honor at the ceremony in Starye Morgi was a former minor prisoner of the fascist concentration camps Ivan Lyubyaenko

. Thanks to the efforts of Valery Kotlyanik and the leadership of the Uzda district, a memorial sign to the hero was installed in the village of Starye Morgi. Vitaly Georgievich dreams that someday a stele with an exact copy of the La-2 fighter will appear here.

A delegation of Yurlin residents came to the opening of the memorial sign in the Uzda district: relatives, officials, journalists.

- I did not expect aerobatics and guests from the Minsk flying club, parachutists in the sky, an orchestra and military songs performed by first-class artists. I did not expect such an incredible organization, when every word was on topic, every person in the right place, every emotion to the depths of the soul. This will remain in my memory forever. And Belarus as a standard, as an example of how to preserve the memory of our heroes, - said Marina Shteinikova, granddaughter of Ivan Kozich.

In memory of him, the Yurlin residents donated a copy of the banner of the 721st Kastornoye Fighter Aviation Regiment to the Uzda Museum, where the brave pilot served from 1941 to 1944.

The banner, portrait and stone from the Uzda fields, on which the hero's name is carved, are all that remains of Ivan Kozich on Belarusian soil. And also our eternal grateful memory!

The project was created using funds from a targeted collection for the production of national content.

| Yulia ANDREEVA, magazine "Belarusian Thought". Photo by Sergei SHARAY and from open sources.