Biography Vasily Fedorovich Babushkin

The mighty of kilograms of a handsome and merryman, awarded with these virtues by nature, Vasily from childhood surprised the fellow villagers with Hercules force. Playing, he rolled heavy cars with the ground onto the embankment, he harnessed himself in the plow, since there was no horses in the farm, and plowed the garden. And, being an adult and coming to their native village to rest, as the villagers said, "he was engaged in pampering." He raised a railway car around the corner, brought a horse tied on his feet on a barn.

Once, angry at the officer, he put his cartules between the crowns of the hut. Another time, regretting a horse stuck in a deep potholes, he harnessed and brought from meadows of raw hay. From fifteen years, Vasily walked with a ragon along Vyatka, Kama and Volga. Probably then he fell in love with the water scope. Therefore, when he was taken to serve on the Baltic Fleet, he was very delighted.

But he was immediately transferred from Kronstadt to Vladivostok, and from there with the team the same recruits were sent to the French shipyard to the city of Tunon. There, the Bayan cruiser was built for Russia. Returning on this cruiser to Russia, Vasily Fedorovich and hit the Russian-Japanese "meat grinder". Participated in the defense of Port Arthur. Many Russian ships then remained at the bottom of the Yellow Sea, including the Bayan cruiser.

In the war, showing selfless courage, he was an adamant defender of Port Arthur and a participant in the Tsushima battle. The fighting exploits of our fellow countryman are described in the trilogy A. An excerpt from the novel by A. Novikov-Proboy “Tsushima”. Who is he, this hero, who played such a prominent role in the Russian-Japanese war? During the Russo-Japanese War, many exploits were committed.

Defenders of Port Arthur probably still remember his last name. He was even more known among the team of the 1st rank cruiser, Bayan, on which he served for several years, having achieved the title of machine apartment of the 1st article. Vasily Fedorovich Babushkin appeared in the fleet from the peasant gushchi, from the deaf province of the Vyatka province. High growth, broad -shouldered, busty, he possessed an athletic physique.

With his extraordinary physical strength, he once surprised the French. It was in Toulon when the Bayan cruiser was built there. At the local city theater there was a performance. Among different other numbers, some athlete showed his strength to the public: he put 12 people on the table, crawled under him and lifted it on his back with people. Babushkin, being at this time among the audience, could not stand it - he went on stage and asked for two more people.

The thunder of applause filled the entire hall when he raised such a severity. The defeated rival immediately disappeared behind the scenes, and the Russian strongman, when he got out of the table, was completely confused. He was embarrassed by the stormy enthusiasm of the public and flowers flying to his feet. He did not know what to do, and for several minutes he stood motionless on stage, looking at the auditorium brown eyes, young and naive, with a reddened face.

Then he admitted to his comrades: - Well, how awkward it was! I don’t even remember how I left the theater. I hobble right on the cruiser, and in my head, as if they were buzzing. After this evening, he received dozens of letters from French women daily. They achieved a date with him in every way. But from this he managed to extract only the benefit that he more likely learned to talk in French.

From the very beginning of the war, Babushkin was on the cruiser Bayan and was always distinguished by exceptional courage. He participated in many most risky enterprises. Was it necessary to track and catch Japanese agents who signal the lights at night at night, he always walked ahead of everyone. It did not do without it in cases where the guard steam boats went to take on the boarding of enemy firewalls.

For the 1st squadron blocked in Port Arthur, a cruel time has come. The Japanese, having occupied a high mountain, began to bombard a harbor and ships. In the port and on the courts, fires arose every now and then.

The teams and officers of the Bayana were hidden under armored protection or in coastal dugouts. Only a few people remained on the upper deck. Among them, Babushkin was always located and was the first to rush to the place of fire on the ship. When our entire squadron was sunk, it was on land, protecting the fortress, showed miracles of courage. All combat missions were carried out by them skillfully, because nature awarded it not only by extreme force, but also by rare smartness.

Possessing an excess of energy, he belonged to the type of people who themselves do everything without waiting for the disposal of the authorities. In addition, by nature he was an adventurer. Therefore, the more dangerous the adventures had to, the more Grandmother was eager for them. This continued until the trouble was not shaking over him. And the hero fell dead. He lay in the hospital for a long time before he became on his feet.

After the fall of Port Arthur, the Japanese doctors recognized him with a disabled person and released him to Russia. He went on a foreign steamer and hit Singapore. Here he met with consul Rudanovsky and accidentally learned from him that in the next 3 days the 3rd squadron should go nearby.The consul added:-It is necessary to deliver secret papers to Admiral Nebogatov and warn him that somewhere in the Sunda Islands a Japanese squadron is hiding.

But the British prevent me from doing this. He has not yet recovered from the wounds, but the former daring caught fire in him again. I wanted to fight again with the Japanese. Babushkin asked for the assignment of the consul and, by the way, to stay on some ship of the approaching squadron. Now an action plan was developed. Police officers were assigned to the hotel where Babushkin lived to observe him.

To deceive their vigilance, he dressed up in a white tunic early in the morning, put a tropical cork helmet on his head and, getting out into the street with another exit, headed for the sea, to the assigned place. There was already a steam boat. There were 2 people on it - a Frenchman, thick and low, years old and, with a beard on a blush face, and an Hindu in a yellow crankshaft, a young dried guy.

The first was an agent from the Russian consulate, and the second acted as a driver. He was considered the commander of the vessel. He was strictly punished, in the event of some danger, to burn the bag handed to him in a furnace or drown in the sea. The boat, not noticed by the British, started off and, expanding the French flag, swept into the sea. A few hours later, when Singapore disappeared from sight, he was already behind the indicated islands.

Somewhere here, near these islands, it will have to go, if not today, then tomorrow the squadron of Nebogetov, but no one knew a certain course. Grandmain never experienced such painful anxiety as this time. As soon as the haze showed on the horizon, he directed his boat at them. It came on April 22, we went 3 days since they left Singapore. The firewood was running out.

They began to be protected by the case when, perhaps, it will be necessary to approach the squadron if it really appears in these waters. Babushkin saw how one and his companions too often began to lick his cracked lips with his tongue. Without a tunic, in one underwear, he rose at the stern, huge and gloomy, like a stopuda anchor falling to the bottom. Despite the disease, it still has enough strength to scatter their subordinates.

Babushkin, sitting at the stern, with the former perseverance put binoculars to his eyes. Suddenly he got up and saw in the distance how the haze popped up. Every one and a half minutes, their number increased. He thought that Japanese and English ships were probably going. They will hang us like spies ... The boat rushed and rushed to the rapprochement with the squadron.

Some more time passed, and there was no longer any doubt that the Russian squadron was going on. Andreevsky flags were identified. They began to scream on the boat, approaching the head ship. Soon they saw that black balls were rising on it, letting the cars be transferred to the “stop”. The boat was attached to the battleship "Nicholas I". He, rising to the deck, handed the secret package to Rear Admiral Nebogatov.

I fought with the enemies of the Fatherland in the 1st squadron. The admiral replied that he was not objecting to take the hero aboard his flagship, but for a start, the hero needs to treat the opened wounds, and sent a hero to his ship's infirmary. The boat, equipped with fuel, went further to the South China Sea. The tropical rain hit.