Li Si-cyn - immortal fighter pilot

Autor: Marek Čech / Panzer 🕔︎︎ 👁︎ 8.438

Ninety years of the twentieth century, Moscow. The packed concert hall hums like a beehive and the Russian rock band Čiž & Co is just adding a popular song called Phantom. The song is about an American fighter pilot shot down in Vietnam and one of its services is:

"Who is the pilot who put me down?"
I asked one Vietnamese.
The reed answered me,
what he just heard from me:
"Our pilot Li Si-cyn sent you to the ground!"

The origin of the legend

Reklama

Who is the mysterious Li Si-cyn (李 西 青) that the Russian rock band sings about, and whose name is already mentioned in books published in the Soviet Union in 1939-1940? One of these books was called “The Wings of China. Notes of a military pilot. "And its authorship was attributed to Chinese Captain Van Si. The second book was published under the title " Notes of Chinese Pilots " and its author was supposed to be a certain Fyn Ju-ko. In reality, however, both works were written by Soviet authors - the first book by JA Žukov according to the story of the pilot A. Grisenko and the second by journalist JM Koroľkov. Although the books were written independently by two different authors, they have something in common. Namely, the names of pilots - internationalists ( understand Soviet pilots ) in Chinese names: Van Ju Shin ( Vanjushin ), Li Si-cyn ( Lisicyn ) or Chu Be-ncho ( Gubenko ). This is why we must look for the origin of the legend of a Soviet pilot with a fictitious Chinese name fighting the imperialists. First it was the Japanese who decided to conquer China, later the UN troops in Korea, and finally the Americans establishing democracy in Vietnam. But why was it necessary to rework the names of Soviet comrades into Chinese transcription? For a simple reason. From a diplomatic point of view, it has never been appropriate for the USSR to intervene openly in the conflict between China and Japan, or later between North Korea and the rest of the world, or in North Vietnam's war with the United States. Therefore, all directed support from the Soviet Union to these countries has always in strict secrecy mode and, even if someone has pointed out the presence Sovtov, came from Moscow always claiming a "volunteers." Anyone who knows the reality of socialist countries just has to smile at the idea of how a couple of volunteers from a socialist camp decide to take part in a conflict abroad and the communist government transports them there, equips them with weapons and allows them to fight.


Polikarpov I-16 Soviet volunteers in China, 1938

Was there a real pilot, Lisicyn?

But let's go back to pilot Li Si-cyn. We have already explained how this quasi-Chinese name came about. However, it is difficult to find out who a particular hero serves as a model for its creation. Tens of thousands of soldiers with the surname Lisicyn are registered in the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and it is very difficult to find out which of them fought in any of the conflicts abroad. Rather, it is more likely to assume that behind the birth of the legend are specific heroic deeds of tens, and perhaps a hundred, of Soviet pilots fighting beyond the borders of their homeland.

China, Korea, Vietnam

Soviet pilots, especially fighters, fought in the last century in groups of Soviet specialists in China in 1937-1940, but also in Korea in 1948-1953. Finally, a large group of Soviet instructors also helped in the fighting of the troops of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the years 1960-1975. However, in this North Vietnam war with the United States, unlike previous conflicts, the participation of specific Russian pilots in combat operations is not officially recorded, as the Soviets focused primarily on training Vietnamese pilots and operating anti-aircraft missile systems.However, this does not exclude that one of the instructors may have participated in the air combat.

This memory of the second most successful Soviet ace in the Korean War - Colonel Yevgeny Pepelyaev ( 22 shots ) - is also linked to the fighting in Korea.

" We flew our fifteen MiGs, but they were marked with Korean characters. We ourselves were dressed in Chinese uniforms and were issued documents with Chinese names and surnames: Si-Ni-Cyn or Li-Si-Cyn. All this in order not to condemn the Soviet intervention in the affairs of Korea by the United Nations and the world community. "


MiG-15bis "red 325" 351st Fighter Air Regiment , which flew in Korea Major AM Karelin

Reklama

And, although not formally thus into one of these conflicts Soviet Union interfered, in countries called public. Socialist block, but also to the Soviet Union, a little due to external radio listening and "šepkanej propaganda" approximate engaged about the Soviet "volunteers." These findings then formed the breeding ground for the emergence of a number of different anecdotes on the subject. Here are some of them:

An American plane was shot down in an air battle over Vietnam. After his release from captivity, the American pilot returns to the USA and explains how it happened:
- I see a fighter getting behind the tail of my plane and I hear the screams of Vietnamese pilots in the headphones: “Vasya, cover me! I'm fucking him! ”And this Jeb Nem shot him down ...

The Americans surrounded a ridge in the jungle, where Vietnamese partisans were hiding. Americans shout:
- Vietnamese, surrender!
From the height you will hear:
- Vietnamese don't give up! Konovalenko, bullets!

The Americans are attacking the heights. Two Korean soldiers sit in a trench on top and say to each other:
- You're Ni Cyn, the Americans are pushing again!
- To Ser Im, throw grenades!

Vietnam. A damaged US Marine Corps team returns from the attack. The commander was immediately called to the "rug" to his superior.
- What happened?
- Well ... as soon as we got off the helicopters, the Vietnamese ran at us from the jungle and beat us with our feet.
- And why with your feet?
- Because they used their fingers to stretch the corners of their eyes.

And the fact that even the American pilot was not " fallen on his head " in the introduction to the mentioned song is evidenced by another style in the introduction of the mentioned rock song Phantom:

Ej Vietnamese, don't lie to me!
I heard clearly in the headphones:
- Kolya, take it and I'll shake him!
- Van beat him, I'm covering for you!
That Russian ace Ivan got me.

Resources:
ru.wikipedia.org
aif.ru
lurkmore.to
www.sonar2050.org

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