Already in the first days of the war, while defending Brest Fortress A pupil of the musical platoon, 14-year-old Petya Klypa, distinguished himself. Many pioneers participated in partisan detachments, where they were often used as scouts and saboteurs, as well as in carrying out underground activities; Among the young partisans, Marat Kazei, Volodya Dubinin, Lenya Golikov and Valya Kotik are especially famous (all of them died in battle, except for Volodya Dubinin, who was blown up by a mine; and all of them, except for the older Lenya Golikov, were 13-14 years old at the time of their death) .
There were often cases when school-age teenagers fought as part of military units (the so-called “sons and daughters of regiments” - it is known story of the same name Valentina Kataeva, whose hero was based on 11-year-old Isaac Rakov).
For military services, tens of thousands of children and pioneers were awarded orders and medals:
The Order of Lenin was awarded to Tolya Shumov, Vitya Korobkov, Volodya Kaznacheev; Order of the Red Banner - Volodya Dubinin, Yuliy Kantemirov, Andrey Makarikhin, Kostya Kravchuk;
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree - Petya Klypa, Valery Volkov, Sasha Kovalev; Order of the Red Star - Volodya Samorukha, Shura Efremov, Vanya Andrianov, Vitya Kovalenko, Lenya Ankinovich.
Hundreds of pioneers were awarded
medal “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War”,
medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" - over 15,000,
“For the Defense of Moscow” - over 20,000 medals
Four pioneer heroes were awarded the title
Hero of the Soviet Union:
Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova.
There was a war going on. Enemy bombers were buzzing hysterically over the village where Sasha lived. The native land was trampled by the enemy's boot. Sasha Borodulin, a pioneer with the warm heart of a young Leninist, could not put up with this. He decided to fight the fascists. Got a rifle. Having killed a fascist motorcyclist, he took his first battle trophy - a real German machine gun. Day after day he conducted reconnaissance. More than once he went on the most dangerous missions. He was responsible for many destroyed vehicles and soldiers. For carrying out dangerous tasks, for demonstrating courage, resourcefulness and courage, Sasha Borodulin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in the winter of 1941.
Punishers tracked down the partisans. The detachment spent three days escaping from them, twice breaking out of encirclement, but the enemy ring closed again. Then the commander called for volunteers to cover the detachment’s retreat. Sasha was the first to step forward. Five took the fight. One by one they died. Sasha was left alone. It was still possible to retreat - the forest was nearby, but the detachment valued every minute that would delay the enemy, and Sasha fought to the end. He, allowing the Nazis to close a ring around him, grabbed a grenade and blew them up and himself. Sasha Borodulin died, but his memory lives on. The memory of the heroes is eternal!
After the death of her mother, Marat and her older sister Ariadna went to the partisan detachment named after. 25th anniversary of October (November 1942).
When the partisan detachment was leaving the encirclement, Ariadne’s legs were frozen, and therefore she was flown to the mainland, where she had to have both legs amputated. Marat, as a minor, was also offered to evacuate along with his sister, but he refused and remained in the detachment.
Subsequently, Marat was a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade named after. K.K. Rokossovsky. In addition to reconnaissance, he participated in raids and sabotage. For courage and bravery in battles he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medals “For Courage” (wounded, raised partisans to attack) and “For Military Merit”. Returning from reconnaissance and surrounded by Germans, Marat Kazei blew himself up with a grenade.
When the war began, and the Nazis were approaching Leningrad, for underground work in the village of Tarnovichi - in the south Leningrad region- the counselor was left high school Anna Petrovna Semenova. To communicate with the partisans, she selected her most reliable pioneers, and the first among them was Galina Komleva. Cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl of six years old school years was awarded books six times with the signature: “For excellent studies”
The young messenger brought assignments from the partisans to her counselor, and forwarded her reports to the detachment along with bread, potatoes, and food, which were obtained with great difficulty. One day, when a messenger from a partisan detachment did not arrive on time at the meeting place, Galya, half-frozen, made her way into the detachment, handed over a report and, having warmed up a little, hurried back, carrying a new task to the underground fighters.
Together with Komsomol member Tasya Yakovleva, Galya wrote leaflets and scattered them around the village at night. The Nazis tracked down and captured the young underground fighters. They kept me in the Gestapo for two months. They beat me severely, threw me into a cell, and in the morning they took me out again for interrogation. Galya didn’t say anything to the enemy, didn’t betray anyone. The young patriot was shot.
The Motherland celebrated the feat of Galya Komleva with the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Chernihiv region. The front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy. On the outskirts, covering the withdrawal of our units, a company held the defense. A boy brought cartridges to the soldiers. His name was Vasya Korobko.
Night. Vasya creeps up to the school building occupied by the Nazis.
He makes his way into the pioneer room, takes out the pioneer banner and hides it securely.
The outskirts of the village. Under the bridge - Vasya. He pulls out iron brackets, saws down the piles, and at dawn, from a hiding place, watches the bridge collapse under the weight of a fascist armored personnel carrier. The partisans were convinced that Vasya could be trusted, and entrusted him with a serious task: to become a scout in the enemy’s lair. At the fascist headquarters, he lights the stoves, chops wood, and he takes a closer look, remembers, and passes on information to the partisans. The punishers, who planned to exterminate the partisans, forced the boy to lead them into the forest. But Vasya led the Nazis to a police ambush. The Nazis, mistaking them for partisans in the dark, opened furious fire, killed all the policemen and themselves suffered heavy losses.
Together with the partisans, Vasya destroyed nine echelons and hundreds of Nazis. In one of the battles he was hit by an enemy bullet. Your little hero, who lived a short, but such bright life, The Motherland awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st degree.
She was executed twice by the Nazis, and for many years her military friends considered Nadya dead. They even erected a monument to her.
It’s hard to believe, but when she became a scout in the partisan detachment of “Uncle Vanya” Dyachkov, she was not yet ten years old. Small, thin, she, pretending to be a beggar, wandered among the Nazis, noticing everything, remembering everything, and brought the most valuable information to the detachment. And then, together with partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, and mined objects.
The first time she was captured was when, together with Vanya Zvontsov, she hung out a red flag in enemy-occupied Vitebsk on November 7, 1941. They beat her with ramrods, tortured her, and when they brought her to the ditch to shoot her, she no longer had any strength left - she fell into the ditch, momentarily outstripping the bullet. Vanya died, and the partisans found Nadya alive in a ditch...
The second time she was captured at the end of 1943. And again torture: they poured ice water over her in the cold, and burned a five-pointed star on her back. Considering the scout dead, the Nazis abandoned her when the partisans attacked Karasevo. Local residents came out paralyzed and almost blind. After the war in Odessa, Academician V.P. Filatov restored Nadya’s sight.
15 years later, she heard on the radio how the intelligence chief of the 6th detachment, Slesarenko - her commander - said that the soldiers would never forget their dead comrades, and named among them Nadya Bogdanova, who saved his life, a wounded man...
Only then did she show up, only then did the people who worked with her find out about what amazing fate She is a person, Nadya Bogdanova, awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and medals.
For the operation of reconnaissance and explosion of the railway. bridge over the Drissa River, Leningrad schoolgirl Larisa Mikheenko was nominated for a government award. But the Motherland did not have time to present the award to her brave daughter...
The war cut the girl off from her hometown: in the summer she went on vacation to the Pustoshkinsky district, but was unable to return - the village was occupied by the Nazis. The pioneer dreamed of breaking out of Hitler's slavery and making her way to her own people. And one night she left the village with two older friends.
At the headquarters of the 6th Kalinin Brigade, the commander, Major P.V. Ryndin, initially found himself accepting “such little ones”: what kind of partisans are they? But how much even very young citizens can do for the Motherland! The girls were able to do what they couldn’t strong men. Dressed in rags, Lara walked through the villages, finding out where and how the guns were located, the sentries were posted, what German vehicles were moving along the highway, what kind of trains were coming to Pustoshka station and with what cargo.
She also took part in combat operations...
The young partisan, betrayed by a traitor in the village of Ignatovo, was shot by the Nazis. The Decree on awarding Larisa Mikheenko the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, contains the bitter word: “Posthumously.”
On June 11, 1944, units leaving for the front were lined up in the central square of Kyiv. And before this battle formation, they read out the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding the pioneer Kostya Kravchuk with the Order of the Red Banner for saving and preserving two battle flags of rifle regiments during the occupation of the city of Kyiv...
Retreating from Kyiv, two wounded soldiers entrusted Kostya with the banners. And Kostya promised to keep them.
At first I buried it in the garden under a pear tree: I thought our people would return soon. But the war dragged on, and, having dug up the banners, Kostya kept them in the barn until he remembered about an old, abandoned well outside the city, near the Dnieper. Having wrapped his priceless treasure in burlap and rolled it with straw, he got out of the house at dawn and, with a canvas bag over his shoulder, led a cow to a distant forest. And there, looking around, he hid the bundle in the well, covered it with branches, dry grass, turf...
And throughout the long occupation the pioneer carried out his difficult guard at the banner, although he was caught in a raid, and even fled from the train in which the Kievites were driven away to Germany.
When Kyiv was liberated, Kostya, in a white shirt with a red tie, came to the military commandant of the city and unfurled banners in front of the well-worn and yet amazed soldiers.
On June 11, 1944, the newly formed units leaving for the front were given the rescued Kostya replacements.
Leonid Golikov was born in the village of Lukino, now Parfinsky district, Novgorod region, into a working-class family.
Graduated from 7th grade. He worked at plywood factory No. 2 in the village of Parfino.
Brigade reconnaissance officer of the 67th detachment of the fourth Leningrad partisan brigade, operating in the Novgorod and Pskov regions. Participated in 27 combat operations. He especially distinguished himself during the defeat of German garrisons in the villages of Aprosovo, Sosnitsy, and Sever.
In total, he destroyed: 78 Germans, 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, 2 food and feed warehouses and 10 vehicles with ammunition. Accompanied a convoy with food (250 carts) to besieged Leningrad. For valor and courage he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, the medal “For Courage” and the Partisan of the Patriotic War medal, 2nd degree.
On August 13, 1942, returning from reconnaissance from the Luga-Pskov highway, not far from the village of Varnitsa, Strugokrasnensky district, a grenade blew up a car in which there was a German major general engineering troops Richard von Wirtz. The report from the detachment commander indicated that in a shootout Golikov shot the general, the officer accompanying him and the driver with a machine gun, but after that, in 1943-1944, General Wirtz commanded the 96th Infantry Division, and in 1945 he was captured by American troops . The intelligence officer delivered a briefcase with documents to the brigade headquarters. These included drawings and descriptions of new models of German mines, inspection reports to higher command and other important papers of a military nature. Nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
On January 24, 1943, in an unequal battle in the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov Region, Leonid Golikov died.
Valya Kotik Born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district. In the fall of 1941, together with his comrades, he killed the head of the field gendarmerie near the town of Shepetovka. In the battle for the city of Izyaslav in the Khmelnytsky region, on February 16, 1944, he was mortally wounded. In 1958, Valya was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Wherever the blue-eyed girl Yuta went, her red tie was always with her...
In the summer of 1941, she came from Leningrad on vacation to a village near Pskov. Here terrible news overtook Utah: war! Here she saw the enemy. Utah began to help the partisans. At first she was a messenger, then a scout. Dressed as a beggar boy, she collected information from the villages: where the fascist headquarters were, how they were guarded, how many machine guns there were.
Returning from a mission, I immediately tied a red tie. And it was as if the strength was increasing! Utah supported the tired soldiers with a sonorous pioneer song and a story about their native Leningrad...
And how happy everyone was, how the partisans congratulated Utah when the message came to the detachment: the blockade had been broken! Leningrad survived, Leningrad won! That day, both Yuta’s blue eyes and her red tie shone as it seems never before.
But the earth was still groaning under the enemy yoke, and the detachment, together with units of the Red Army, left to help the Estonian partisans. In one of the battles - near the Estonian farm of Rostov - Yuta Bondarovskaya, a little heroine great war, a pioneer who did not part with her red tie, died a heroic death. The Motherland awarded its heroic daughter posthumously with the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree.
An ordinary black bag would not attract the attention of visitors local history museum, if it weren’t for the red tie lying next to her. A boy or girl will involuntarily freeze, an adult will stop, and they will read the yellowed certificate issued by the commissioner
partisan detachment. The fact that the young owner of these relics, pioneer Lida Vashkevich, risking her life, helped fight the Nazis. There is another reason to stop near these exhibits: Lida was awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree.
...In the city of Grodno, occupied by the Nazis, a communist underground operated. One of the groups was led by Lida’s father. Contacts of underground fighters and partisans came to him, and each time the commander’s daughter was on duty at the house. From the outside looking in, she was playing. And she peered vigilantly, listened, to see if the policemen, the patrol, were approaching,
and, if necessary, gave a sign to her father. Dangerous? Very. But compared to other tasks, this was almost a game. Lida obtained paper for leaflets by buying a couple of sheets from different stores, often with the help of her friends. A pack will be collected, the girl will hide it at the bottom of a black bag and deliver it to the appointed place. And the next day the whole city reads
words of truth about the victories of the Red Army near Moscow and Stalingrad.
The girl warned the people's avengers about the raids while going around safe houses. She traveled from station to station by train to convey an important message to the partisans and underground fighters. She carried the explosives past the fascist posts in the same black bag, filled to the top with coal and trying not to bend so as not to arouse suspicion - coal is lighter explosives...
This is what kind of bag ended up in the Grodno Museum. And the tie that Lida was wearing in her bosom back then: she couldn’t, didn’t want to part with it.
Every summer, Nina and her younger brother and sister were taken from Leningrad to the village of Nechepert, where there is clean air, soft grass, honey and fresh milk... Roar, explosions, flames and smoke hit this quiet land in the fourteenth summer of pioneer Nina Kukoverova. War! From the first days of the arrival of the Nazis, Nina became a partisan intelligence officer. I remembered everything I saw around me and reported it to the detachment.
A punitive detachment is located in the village of the mountain, all approaches are blocked, even the most experienced scouts cannot get through. Nina volunteered to go. She walked for a dozen kilometers through a snow-covered plain and field. The Nazis did not pay attention to the chilled, tired girl with a bag, but nothing escaped her attention - neither the headquarters, nor the fuel depot, nor the location of the sentries. And when the partisan detachment set out on a campaign at night, Nina walked next to the commander as a scout, as a guide. That night, fascist warehouses flew into the air, the headquarters caught fire, and the punitive forces fell, struck down by fierce fire.
Nina, a pioneer, awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree, went on combat missions more than once.
The young heroine died. But the memory of Russia’s daughter is alive. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. Nina Kukoverova is forever included in her pioneer squad.
He dreamed of heaven when he was just a boy. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, a pilot, participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And my father’s friend, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov, is always nearby. There was something to make the boy's heart burn. But they didn’t let him fly, they told him to grow up.
When the war began, he went to work at an aircraft factory, then he used the airfield for any opportunity to take to the skies. Experienced pilots, even if only for a few minutes, sometimes trusted him to fly the plane. One day the cockpit glass was broken by an enemy bullet. The pilot was blinded. Losing consciousness, he managed to hand over control to Arkady, and the boy landed the plane at his airfield.
After this, Arkady was allowed to seriously study flying, and soon he began to fly on his own.
One day, from above, a young pilot saw our plane shot down by the Nazis. Under heavy mortar fire, Arkady landed, carried the pilot into his plane, took off and returned to his own. The Order of the Red Star shone on his chest. For participation in battles with the enemy, Arkady was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. By that time he had already become an experienced pilot, although he was fifteen years old.
Arkady Kamanin fought with the Nazis until the victory. The young hero dreamed of the sky and conquered the sky!
1941... In the spring, Volodya Kaznacheev graduated from fifth grade. In the fall he joined the partisan detachment.
When, together with his sister Anya, he came to the partisans in the Kletnyansky forests in the Bryansk region, the detachment said: “What a reinforcement!..” True, having learned that they were from Solovyanovka, the children of Elena Kondratyevna Kaznacheeva, the one who baked bread for the partisans , they stopped joking (Elena Kondratievna was killed by the Nazis).
The detachment had a “partisan school”. Future miners and demolition workers trained there. Volodya mastered this science perfectly and, together with his senior comrades, derailed eight echelons. He also had to cover the group’s retreat, stopping the pursuers with grenades...
He was a liaison; often went to Kletnya, delivering valuable information; After waiting until dark, he posted leaflets. From operation to operation he became more experienced and skillful.
The Nazis placed a reward on the head of partisan Kzanacheev, not even suspecting that their brave opponent was just a boy. He fought alongside the adults until the very day when his native land was liberated from the fascist evil spirits, and rightfully shared with the adults the glory of the hero - the liberator of his native land. Volodya Kaznacheev was awarded the Order of Lenin and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
The Brest Fortress was the first to take the enemy's blow. Bombs and shells exploded, walls collapsed, people died both in the fortress and in the city of Brest. From the first minutes, Valya’s father went into battle. He left and did not return, died a hero, like many defenders of the Brest Fortress.
And the Nazis forced Valya to make her way into the fortress under fire in order to convey to its defenders the demand to surrender. Valya made her way into the fortress, talked about the atrocities of the Nazis, explained what weapons they had, indicated their location and stayed to help our soldiers. She bandaged the wounded, collected cartridges and brought them to the soldiers.
There was not enough water in the fortress, it was divided by sip. The thirst was painful, but Valya again and again refused her sip: the wounded needed water. When the command of the Brest Fortress decided to take the children and women out from under fire and transport them to the other side of the Mukhavets River - there was no other way to save their lives - the little nurse Valya Zenkina asked to be left with the soldiers. But an order is an order, and then she vowed to continue the fight against the enemy until complete victory.
And Valya kept her vow. Various trials befell her. But she survived. She survived. And she continued her struggle in the partisan detachment. She fought bravely, along with adults. For courage and bravery, the Motherland awarded its young daughter the Order of the Red Star.
Pioneer Vitya Khomenko passed his heroic path of struggle against the fascists in the underground organization “Nikolaev Center”.
...Vitya’s German at school was “excellent”, and the underground workers instructed the pioneer to get a job in the officers’ mess. He washed dishes, sometimes served officers in the hall and listened to their conversations. In drunken arguments, the fascists blurted out information that was of great interest to the Nikolaev Center.
The officers began sending the fast, smart boy on errands, and soon he was made a messenger at headquarters. It could never have occurred to them that the most secret packages were the first to be read by underground workers at the turnout...
Together with Shura Kober, Vitya received the task of crossing the front line to establish contact with Moscow. In Moscow, at the headquarters of the partisan movement, they reported the situation and talked about what they observed on the way.
Returning to Nikolaev, the guys delivered a radio transmitter, explosives, and weapons to the underground fighters. And again fight without fear or hesitation. On December 5, 1942, ten underground members were captured by the Nazis and executed. Among them are two boys - Shura Kober and Vitya Khomenko. They lived as heroes and died as heroes.
The Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree - posthumously - was awarded by the Motherland to its fearless son. The school where he studied is named after Vitya Khomenko.
Zina Portnova was born on February 20, 1926 in the city of Leningrad into a working-class family. Belarusian by nationality. Graduated from 7th grade.
At the beginning of June 1941, she came for school holidays to the village of Zui, near the Obol station, Shumilinsky district, Vitebsk region. After the Nazi invasion of the USSR, Zina Portnova found herself in occupied territory. Since 1942, a member of the Obol underground organization “Young Avengers,” whose leader was the future Hero of the Soviet Union E. S. Zenkova, a member of the organization’s committee. While underground she was accepted into the Komsomol.
She participated in the distribution of leaflets among the population and sabotage against the invaders. While working in the canteen of a retraining course for German officers, at the direction of the underground, she poisoned the food (more than a hundred officers died). During the proceedings, wanting to prove to the Germans that she was not involved, she tried the poisoned soup. Miraculously, she survived.
Since August 1943, scout of the partisan detachment named after. K. E. Voroshilova. In December 1943, returning from a mission to find out the reasons for the failure of the Young Avengers organization, she was captured in the village of Mostishche and identified by a certain Anna Khrapovitskaya. During one of the interrogations at the Gestapo in the village of Goryany (Belarus), she grabbed the investigator’s pistol from the table, shot him and two other Nazis, tried to escape, and was captured. After torture, she was shot in a prison in Polotsk (according to another version, in the village of Goryany, now Polotsk district, Vitebsk region of Belarus).
Introduction
This short article contains only a drop of information about the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. In fact, heroes great amount and collecting all the information about these people and their exploits is a titanic work and it is already a little beyond the scope of our project. However, we decided to start with 5 heroes - many have heard about some of them, a little less information about others and few people know about them, especially the younger generation.
Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved Soviet people thanks to his incredible effort, dedication, ingenuity and self-sacrifice. This is especially clearly revealed in the war heroes who committed incredible feats on the battlefield and beyond. These great people should be known to everyone who is grateful to their fathers and grandfathers for the opportunity to live in peace and tranquility.
Viktor Vasilievich Talalikhin
The story of Viktor Vasilyevich begins with the small village of Teplovka, located in the Saratov province. Here he was born in the fall of 1918. His parents were simple workers. After graduating from college, which specialized in producing workers for factories and factories, he himself worked at a meat processing plant and at the same time attended a flying club. Afterwards he graduated from one of the few pilot schools in Borisoglebsk. He took part in the conflict between our country and Finland, where he received a baptism of fire. During the period of confrontation between the USSR and Finland, Talalikhin carried out about five dozen combat missions, while destroying several enemy aircraft, as a result of which he was awarded the honorary Order of the Red Star in the forties for special successes and the completion of assigned tasks.
Viktor Vasilyevich distinguished himself with heroic feats already during the battles in the great war for our people. Although he was credited with about sixty combat missions, the main battle took place on August 6, 1941 in the skies over Moscow. As part of a small air group, Victor flew out on an I-16 to repel an enemy air attack on the capital of the USSR. At an altitude of several kilometers, he met a German He-111 bomber. Talalikhin fired several machine-gun bursts at him, but the German plane skillfully dodged them. Then Viktor Vasilyevich, through a cunning maneuver and subsequent shots from a machine gun, hit one of the bomber’s engines, but this did not help stop the “German”. To the chagrin of the Russian pilot, after unsuccessful attempts to stop the bomber, there are no live cartridges left, and Talalikhin decides to go for a ram. For this ram he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
During the war there were many such cases, but as fate would have it, Talalikhin became the first who decided to ram, neglecting his own safety, in our skies. He died in October 1941 with the rank of squadron commander, while performing another combat mission.
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub
In the village of Obrazhievka, he was born into a family of simple peasants. future hero, Ivan Kozhedub. After graduating from school in 1934, he entered the Chemical Technology College. The Shostka Aero Club was the first place where Kozhedub acquired flying skills. Then in 1940 he enlisted in the army. In the same year, he successfully entered and graduated from the military aviation school in the city of Chuguev.
Ivan Nikitovich took direct part in the Great Patriotic War. He has more than a hundred air battles to his name, during which he shot down 62 aircraft. Of the large number of combat sorties, two main ones can be distinguished - a battle with an Me-262 fighter with a jet engine, and an attack on a group of FW-190 bombers.
The battle with the Me-262 jet fighter took place in mid-February 1945. On this day, Ivan Nikitovich, together with his partner Dmitry Tatarenko, flew out on La-7 planes to hunt. After a short search, they came across a low-flying plane. He flew along the river from Frankfurt an der Oder. As they got closer, the pilots discovered that it was a new generation Me-262 aircraft. But this did not discourage the pilots from attacking an enemy plane. Then Kozhedub decided to attack on a collision course, since this was the only opportunity to destroy the enemy. During the attack, the wingman fired a short burst from a machine gun ahead of schedule, which could have confused all the cards. But to the surprise of Ivan Nikitovich, such an outburst by Dmitry Tatarenko had a positive effect. The German pilot turned around in such a way that he ended up in Kozhedub’s sights. All he had to do was pull the trigger and destroy the enemy. Which is what he did.
Ivan Nikitovich performed his second heroic feat in mid-April 1945 in the area of the capital of Germany. Again, together with Titarenko, performing another combat mission, they discovered a group of FW-190 bombers with full combat kits. Kozhedub immediately reported this to the command post, but without waiting for reinforcements, he began an attack maneuver. German pilots saw two Soviet planes take off and disappear into the clouds, but they did not attach any importance to this. Then the Russian pilots decided to attack. Kozhedub descended to the Germans' flight altitude and began shooting them, and Titarenko from a higher altitude fired in short bursts in different directions, trying to create the impression on the enemy of the presence of a large number of Soviet fighters. The German pilots believed at first, but after several minutes of battle their doubts were dispelled, and they moved on to active action to destroy the enemy. Kozhedub was on the verge of death in this battle, but his friend saved him. When Ivan Nikitovich tried to get away from the German fighter that was pursuing him and was in the firing position of the Soviet fighter, Titarenko, with a short burst, got ahead of the German pilot and destroyed the enemy aircraft. Soon a backup group arrived and German group aircraft was destroyed.
During the war, Kozhedub was twice recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union and was elevated to the rank of marshal of Soviet aviation.
Dmitry Romanovich Ovcharenko
The soldier's homeland is a village with a telling name Ovcharovo, Kharkov province. He was born into the family of a carpenter in 1919. His father taught him all the intricacies of his craft, which later played an important role in the fate of the hero. Ovcharenko studied at school for only five years, then went to work on a collective farm. He was drafted into the army in 1939. I met the first days of the war, as befits a soldier, on the front line. After a short service, he received minor damage, which, unfortunately for the soldier, became the reason for his transfer from the main unit to service at an ammunition depot. It was this position that became key for Dmitry Romanovich, in which he accomplished his feat.
It all happened in the middle of the summer of 1941 in the area of the village of Pestsa. Ovcharenko was carrying out orders from his superiors to deliver ammunition and food to a military unit located several kilometers from the village. He came across two trucks with fifty German soldiers and three officers. They surrounded him, took away his rifle and began interrogating him. But the Soviet soldier was not taken aback and, taking the ax lying next to him, cut off the head of one of the officers. While the Germans were discouraged, he took three grenades from a dead officer and threw them towards the German vehicles. These throws were extremely successful: 21 soldiers were killed on the spot, and Ovcharenko finished off the remaining ones with an ax, including the second officer who was trying to escape. The third officer still managed to escape. But even here the Soviet soldier was not at a loss. He collected all the documents, maps, records and machine guns and took them to the General Staff, while bringing ammunition and food to exactly fixed time. At first they did not believe him that he alone had dealt with an entire platoon of the enemy, but after a detailed study of the battle site, all doubts were dispelled.
Thanks to the heroic deed of soldier Ovcharenko, he was recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union, and he also received one of the most significant orders - the Order of Lenin along with the Gold Star medal. He did not live to see victory for only three months. The wound received in the battles for Hungary in January was fatal for the fighter. At that time he was a machine gunner in the 389th Infantry Regiment. He went down in history as a soldier with an axe.
Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya
Zoya Anatolyevna’s homeland is the village of Osina-Gai, located in the Tambov region. She was born on September 8, 1923 in Christian family. As fate would have it, Zoya spent her childhood in dark wanderings around the country. So, in 1925, the family was forced to move to Siberia to avoid persecution by the state. A year later they moved to Moscow, where her father died in 1933. Orphaned Zoya begins to have health problems that prevent her from studying. In the fall of 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya joined the ranks of intelligence officers and saboteurs on the Western Front. In a short time, Zoya completed combat training and began to carry out her assigned tasks.
She accomplished her heroic feat in the village of Petrishchevo. By order, Zoya and a group of fighters were instructed to burn a dozen settlements, including the village of Petrishchevo. On the night of November twenty-eighth, Zoya and her comrades made their way to the village and came under fire, as a result of which the group broke up and Kosmodemyanskaya had to act alone. After spending the night in the forest, early in the morning she set out to complete the task. Zoya managed to set fire to three houses and escape unnoticed. But when she decided to return again and finish what she started, villagers were already waiting for her, who, seeing the saboteur, immediately informed the German soldiers. Kosmodemyanskaya was captured and tortured for a long time. They tried to extract information from her about the unit in which she served and her name. Zoya refused and didn’t say anything, and when asked what her name was, she called herself Tanya. The Germans felt that they could not get more information and hung it up in public. Zoya met her death with dignity, and her last words went down in history forever. Dying, she said that our people number one hundred and seventy million people, and they cannot be outweighed in all. So, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya died heroically.
Mentions of Zoya are associated primarily with the name “Tanya”, under which she went down in history. She is also a Hero of the Soviet Union. Her distinguishing feature- the first woman to receive this honorary title posthumously.
Alexey Tikhonovich Sevastyanov
This hero was the son of a simple cavalryman, a native of the Tver region, and was born in the winter of 1917 in the small village of Kholm. After graduating from technical school in Kalinin, he entered the military aviation school. Sevastyanov finished it successfully in 1939. In more than a hundred combat sorties, he destroyed four enemy aircraft, of which two each personally and in a group, as well as one balloon.
He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. The most important sorties for Alexei Tikhonovich were battles in the skies over the Leningrad region. So, on November 4, 1941, Sevastyanov patrolled the skies over the Northern capital in his IL-153 aircraft. And just while he was on duty, the Germans carried out a raid. The artillery could not cope with the onslaught and Alexei Tikhonovich had to join the battle. The German He-111 aircraft managed to keep away the Soviet fighter for a long time. After two unsuccessful attacks, Sevastyanov made a third attempt, but when the time came to pull the trigger and destroy the enemy with a short burst, the Soviet pilot discovered a lack of ammunition. Without thinking twice, he decides to go for the ram. A Soviet plane pierced the tail of an enemy bomber with its propeller. For Sevastyanov, this maneuver turned out well, but for the Germans it all ended in captivity.
The second significant flight and the last for the hero was an air battle in the skies over Ladoga. Alexey Tikhonovich died in an unequal battle with the enemy on April 23, 1942.
Conclusion
As we have already said in this article, not all the heroes of the war are collected; there are about eleven thousand of them in total (according to official data). Among them are Russians, and Kazakhs, and Ukrainians, and Belarusians, and all other nations of our multinational state. There are those who did not receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, having committed an equally important act, but due to a coincidence of circumstances, information about them was lost. There was a lot in the war: desertion of soldiers, betrayal, death, and much more, but the most great importance had exploits - these are the heroes. Thanks to them, victory was won in the Great Patriotic War.
To this day, the soldiers who defended our Motherland from enemies are remembered. Those caught up in these cruel times were children born in 1927 to 1941 and in the subsequent years of the war. These are the children of war. They survived everything: hunger, death of loved ones, backbreaking work, devastation, children did not know what it was scented soap, sugar, comfortable new clothes, shoes. All of them are old people for a long time and teach the younger generation to value everything they have. But often they are not given due attention, and for them it is so important to pass on their experience to others.
Training during the war
Despite the war, many children studied, went to school, whatever they needed.“Schools were open, but few people studied, everyone worked, education was up to 4th grade. There were textbooks, but no notebooks; the children wrote on newspapers, old receipts, on any piece of paper they found. The ink was soot from the furnace. It was diluted with water and poured into a jar - it was ink. We dressed for school in what we had; neither boys nor girls had a specific uniform. The school day was short because I had to go to work. Brother Petya was taken by my father’s sister to Zhigalovo; he was the only one in the family who finished 8th grade” (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“We had an incomplete secondary school (7 grades), I already graduated in 1941. I remember that there were few textbooks. If five people lived nearby, then they were given one textbook, and they all gathered together at one person’s place and read, cooked homework. They gave one notebook per person to do homework. We had a strict teacher in Russian and literature, he called us to the blackboard and asked us to recite a poem by heart. If you don’t tell, then they will definitely ask you at the next lesson. That's why I still know the poems of A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontov and many others" (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna).
“I went to school very late, I had nothing to wear. There was poverty and a shortage of textbooks even after the war” (Alexandra Egorovna Kadnikova)
“In 1941, I graduated from the 7th grade at the Konovalovskaya school with an award - a piece of calico. They gave me a ticket to Artek. Mom asked me to show me on the map where that Artek was and refused the ticket, saying: “It’s too far away. What if there’s a war?” And I was not mistaken. In 1944, I went to study at Malyshevskaya secondary school. We got to Balagansk by walks, and then by ferry to Malyshevka. There were no relatives in the village, but there was an acquaintance of my father’s – Sobigrai Stanislav, whom I saw once. I found a house from memory and asked for an apartment for the duration of my studies. I cleaned the house, did laundry, thereby earning money for the shelter. Before the New Year, food items included a bag of potatoes and a bottle of vegetable oil. This had to be stretched out until the holidays. I studied diligently, well, so I wanted to become a teacher. At school great attention devoted to the ideological and patriotic education of children. In the first lesson, the teacher spent the first 5 minutes talking about events at the front. Every day there was a line-up where the results of academic performance in grades 6-7 were summed up. The elders reported. That class received the red challenge banner; there were more good and excellent students. Teachers and students lived as one family, respecting each other.” (Fonareva Ekaterina Adamovna)
Nutrition, daily life
Most people during the war faced acute problem food shortages. They ate poorly, mostly from the garden, from the taiga. We caught fish from nearby bodies of water.
“We were mainly fed by the taiga. We collected berries and mushrooms and stored them for the winter. The most delicious and joyful thing was when my mother baked pies with cabbage, bird cherry, and potatoes. Mom planted a vegetable garden where the whole family worked. There wasn't a single weed. And they carried water for irrigation from the river and climbed high up the mountain. They kept livestock; if they had cows, then 10 kg of butter per year was given to the front. They dug up frozen potatoes and collected the remaining spikelets on the field. When dad was taken away, Vanya replaced him for us. He, like his father, was a hunter and fisherman. The Ilga River flowed in our village and was inhabited by good fish: grayling, hare, burbot. Vanya will wake us up early in the morning, and we will go pick different berries: currants, boyarka, rosehip, lingonberries, bird cherry, blueberry. We will collect, dry and sell them for money and for storage to the defense fund. They collected until the dew disappeared. As soon as it’s okay, run home - we need to go to the collective farm hayfield to rake hay. They gave out very little food, small pieces just to make sure there was enough for everyone. Brother Vanya sewed “Chirki” shoes for the whole family. Dad was a hunter, he caught a lot of fur and sold it. Therefore, when he left, there was a large amount of stock left. They grew wild hemp and made pants from it. The older sister was a needlewoman; she knitted socks, stockings and mittens” (Fartunatova Kapitalina Andreevna). 
“Baikal fed us. We lived in the village of Barguzin, we had a cannery. There were teams of fishermen, they caught various fish both from Lake Baikal and from the Barguzin River. Sturgeon, whitefish, and omul were caught from Baikal. There were fish in the river such as perch, sorog, crucian carp, and burbot. The canned goods were sent to Tyumen and then to the front. The frail old people, those who did not go to the front, had their own foreman. The foreman was a fisherman all his life, had his own boat and seine. They called all the residents and asked: “Who needs fish?” Everyone needed fish, since only 400 g were given out per year, and 800 g per worker. Everyone who needed fish pulled a net on the shore, the old people swam into the river on a boat, set the net, then brought the other end to the shore. A rope was evenly selected from both sides and the seine was pulled to the shore. It was important not to let go of the joint. Then the foreman divided the fish among everyone. That's how they fed themselves. At the factory, after the canned food was made, they sold fish heads; 1 kilogram cost 5 kopecks. We didn’t have potatoes, and we didn’t have any vegetable gardens either. Because there was only forest around. Parents went to neighboring village and exchanged fish for potatoes. We didn’t feel severe hunger” (Vorotkova Tomara Aleksandrovna).
“There was nothing to eat, we walked around the field collecting spikelets and frozen potatoes. They kept livestock and planted vegetable gardens” (Alexandra Egorovna Kadnikova).
“All spring, summer and autumn I walked barefoot - from snow to snow. It was especially bad when we were working in the field. The stubble made my legs bleed. The clothes were the same as everyone else’s - a canvas skirt, a jacket from someone else’s shoulder. Food - cabbage leaves, beet leaves, nettles, oatmeal mash and even the bones of horses who died of starvation. The bones steamed and then drank salted water. Potatoes and carrots were dried and sent to the front in parcels” (Ekaterina Adamovna Fonareva)
In the archive I studied the Book of Orders for the Balagansky District Health Department. (Fund No. 23, inventory No. 1, sheet No. 6 - Appendix 2) I discovered that there were no epidemics of infectious diseases among children during the war years, although by order of the District Health Department of September 27, 1941, rural medical obstetric centers were closed. (Fund No. 23, inventory No. 1, sheet No. 29-Appendix 3) Only in 1943, an epidemic was mentioned in the village of Molka (the disease was not specified). Health questions Sanitary doctor Volkova, local doctor Bobyleva, paramedic Yakovleva were sent to the site of the outbreak for 7 days . I conclude that preventing the spread of infection was a very important matter.
The report at the 2nd district party conference on the work of the district party committee on March 31, 1945 sums up the work of the Balagansky district during the war years. It is clear from the report that the years 1941,1942,1943 were very difficult for the region. Productivity declined catastrophically. Potato yield in 1941 – 50, in 1942 – 32, in 1943 – 18 c. (Appendix 4)
Gross grain harvest – 161627, 112717, 29077 c; grain received per workday: 1.3; 0.82; 0.276 kg. From these figures we can conclude that people really lived from hand to mouth. (Appendix 5)
Hard work
Everyone worked, young and old, the work was different, but difficult in its own way. We worked day after day from morning until late at night.
“Everyone worked. Both adults and children from 5 years old. The boys hauled hay and drove horses. No one left until the hay was removed from the field. Women took young cattle and raised them, and children helped them. They took the cattle to water and provided food. In the fall, during school, the children still continue to work, being at school in the morning, and at the first call they went to work. Basically, the children worked in the fields: digging potatoes, collecting ears of rye, etc. Most people worked on the collective farm. They worked in the calf barn, raised livestock, and worked in collective farm gardens. We tried to remove the bread quickly, without sparing ourselves. As soon as the grain is harvested and the snow falls, they are sent to logging. The saws were ordinary with two handles. They used them to cut down huge trees in the forest, cut off branches, saw them into logs and split firewood. A lineman came and measured the cubic capacity. It was necessary to prepare at least five cubes. I remember how my brothers and sisters and I were carrying firewood home from the forest. They were carried on a bull. He was big and had a temper. They began to slide down the hill, and he carried away and made a fool of himself. The cart rolled and firewood fell out onto the side of the road. The bull broke the harness and ran away to the stable. The herdsmen realized that this was our family and sent my grandfather on horseback to help. So they brought the firewood home already after dark. And in winter, the wolves came close to the village and howled. They often killed livestock, but did not harm people.
The calculation was carried out at the end of the year by workdays, some were praised, and some remained in debt, since the families were large, there were few workers and it was necessary to feed the family throughout the year. They borrowed flour and cereals. After the war, I went to work on a collective farm as a milkmaid, they gave me 15 cows, but in general they give 20, I asked that they give it like everyone else. They added cows, and I exceeded the plan and produced a lot of milk. For this they gave me 3 m of blue satin. This was my bonus. They made a dress from satin, which was very dear to me. On the collective farm there were both hard workers and lazy people. Our collective farm has always exceeded its plan. We collected parcels for the front. Knitted socks and mittens.
There weren't enough matches or salt. Instead of matches, at the beginning of the village, the old people set fire to a large log, it slowly burned, smoking. They took coal from her, brought it home and fanned the fire in the stove.” (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“The children worked mainly in collecting firewood. Pupils of 6-7 grades worked. All the adults fished and worked at the factory. We worked seven days a week.” (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna).
“The war began, the brothers went to the front, Stepan died. I worked on a collective farm for three years. First as a nanny in a nursery, then at an inn, where she cleaned the yard with her younger brother, carried and sawed wood. She worked as an accountant in a tractor brigade, then in a field crew, and in general, she went where she was sent. She made hay, harvested crops, cleared fields of weeds, planted vegetables in the collective farm garden.” (Fonareva Ekaterina Adamovna)
Valentin Rasputin's story “Live and Remember” describes similar work during the war. Same conditions (Ust-Uda and Balagansk are located nearby, stories about the common military past seem to be copied from the same source:
“And we got it,” Lisa picked up. - That's right, women, you got it? It's sickening to remember. On a collective farm, work is okay, it’s yours. As soon as we remove the bread, there will be snow and logging. To the end of my life I will remember these logging operations. There are no roads, the horses are torn, they can’t pull. But we cannot refuse: the labor front, help for our men. They left the little guys in the first years... But those without kids or those who were older, they didn’t leave them, they went and went. Nasten, however, did not miss more than one winter. I went there twice and left my kids here with my dad. You will pile up these forests, these cubic meters, and carry them with you in the sleigh. Not a step without a banner. Either it will carry you into a snowdrift, or something else - turn it out, little ladies, push. Where you will turn it out and where you won’t. He won’t let the wall be torn down: the winter before last, a praying little mare rolled downhill and at the turn couldn’t handle it - the sleigh landed on one side, almost knocking the little mare over. I fought and fought, but I can’t. I'm exhausted. I sat down on the road and cried. Wall approached from behind - I started to roar like a stream. — Tears welled up in Lisa’s eyes. - She helped me. She helped me, we went together, but I couldn’t calm down, I roared and roared. — Succumbing even more to the memories, Lisa sobbed. - I roar and roar, I can’t help myself. I can not.
I worked in the archive and looked through the Book of Accounting of Workdays of Collective Farmers of the “In Memory of Lenin” Collective Farm for 1943. It recorded the collective farmers and the work they did. In the book, entries are kept by family. The teenagers were recorded only by last name and first name - Nyuta Medvetskaya, Shura Lozovaya, Natasha Filistovich, Volodya Strashinsky, in total I counted 24 teenagers. The following types of work were listed: logging, grain harvesting, hay harvesting, road work, horse care and others. The main working months for children are August, September, October and November. I associate this time of work with making hay, harvesting and threshing grain. At this time, it was necessary to carry out cleaning before the snow, so everyone was involved. The number of full workdays for Shura is 347, for Natasha – 185, for Nyuta – 190, for Volodya – 247. Unfortunately, there is no more information about the children in the archive. [Foundation No. 19, inventory No. 1-l, sheets No. 1-3, 7,8, 10,22,23,35,50, 64,65]
The decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated September 5, 1941 “On the beginning of collecting warm clothes and linen for the Red Army” indicated a list of things to be collected. Schools in the Balagansky district also collected things. According to the list by the head of the school (last name and school not established), the parcel included: cigarettes, soap, handkerchiefs, cologne, gloves, hat, pillowcases, towels, shaving brushes, soap dish, underpants.
Celebrations
Despite the hunger and cold, as well as such a hard life, people in different villages tried to celebrate the holidays.
“There were holidays, for example: when all the grain was harvested and the threshing was finished, the “Threshing” holiday was held. During the holidays they sang songs, danced, played various games, for example: towns, jumped on a board, prepared a kochulya (swing) and rolled balls, made a ball from dried manure. They took a round stone and dried the manure in layers to the required size. That's what they played with. The older sister sewed and knitted beautiful outfits and dressed us up for the holiday. Everyone had fun at the festival, both children and old people. There were no drunks, everyone was sober. Most often on holidays they were invited home. We went from house to house, since no one had much food.” (Fartunatova Kapitalina Andreevna).
“We celebrated New Year, Constitution Day and May 1st. Since we were surrounded by forest, we chose the most beautiful Christmas tree and placed it in the club. Residents of our village brought toys to the Christmas tree that they could, most were homemade, but there were also rich families they could already bring beautiful toys. Everyone took turns going to this Christmas tree. First, first-graders and 4th-graders, then 4-5th graders, and then two graduating classes. After all the schoolchildren, workers from the factory, shops, post office and other organizations came there in the evening. During the holidays they danced: waltz, krakowiak. They gave gifts to each other. After festive concert, women arranged gatherings with alcohol and various conversations. On May 1, demonstrations take place, all organizations gather for it” (Tamara Aleksandrovna Vorotkova).
The beginning and end of the war
Childhood is the most best period in life, from which the best and brightest memories remain. What are the memories of the children who survived these four terrible, cruel and harsh years?
Early morning June 21, 1941. The people of our country sleep quietly and peacefully in their beds, and no one knows what awaits them ahead. What torment will they have to overcome and what will they have to come to terms with?
“As a collective farm, we removed stones from the arable land. An employee of the Village Council rode as a messenger on horseback and shouted “The War has begun.” They immediately began to gather all the men and boys. Those who worked directly from the fields were collected and taken to the front. They took all the horses. Dad was a foreman and he had a horse, Komsomolets, and he was also taken away. In 1942, dad’s funeral came.
On May 9, 1945, we were working in the field and again a Village Council worker was riding along with a flag in his hands and announced that the war was over. Some cried, some rejoiced!” (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“I worked as a postman and then they called me and announced that the war had begun. Everyone was crying in each other's arms. We lived at the mouth of the Barguzin River, there were many more villages further downstream from us. The Angara ship came to us from Irkutsk; it could accommodate 200 people, and when the war began, it collected all the future military personnel. It was deep-sea and therefore stopped 10 meters from the shore, the men sailed there on fishing boats. Many tears were shed!!! In 1941, everyone was drafted into the army at the front, the main thing was that their legs and arms were intact, and they had a head on their shoulders.”
“May 9, 1945. They called me and told me to sit and wait until everyone got in touch. They call “Everyone, Everyone, Everyone,” when everyone got in touch, I congratulated everyone, “Guys, the war is over.” Everyone was happy, hugging, some were crying!” (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna)
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War
Educational material for extracurricular activities literary reading or history for primary school on topic: WWII
Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped their elders, played, raised pigeons, and sometimes even took part in fights. These were ordinary children and teenagers, whom only family, classmates and friends knew about.
But the hour of difficult trials came and they proved how huge an ordinary little child’s heart can become when a sacred love for the Motherland, pain for the fate of one’s people and hatred for enemies flares up in it. Together with the adults, the weight of adversity, disaster, and grief of the war years fell on their fragile shoulders. And they did not bend under this weight, they began stronger in spirit, more courageous, more resilient. And no one expected that it was these boys and girls who were capable of accomplishing a great feat for the glory of the freedom and independence of their Motherland!
No! - we told the fascists, -
Our people will not tolerate
So that Russian bread is fragrant
Called by the word "brot"....
Where is the strength in the world?
So that she can break us,
Bent us under the yoke
In those regions where on the days of victory
Our great-grandparents
Have you feasted so many times?..
And from sea to sea
The Russian regiments stood up.
We stood up, united with the Russians,
Belarusians, Latvians,
People of free Ukraine,
Both Armenians and Georgians,
Moldovans, Chuvash...
Glory to our generals,
Glory to our admirals
And to the ordinary soldiers...
On foot, swimming, horseback,
Tempered in hot battles!
Glory to the fallen and the living,
Thank you to them from the bottom of my heart!
Let's not forget those heroes
What lies in the damp ground,
Giving my life on the battlefield
For the people - for you and me.
Excerpts from S. Mikhalkov’s poem “True for Children”
Kazei Marat Ivanovich(1929-1944), partisan of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1965, posthumously). Since 1942, scout for a partisan detachment (Minsk region).
The Nazis burst into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Alexandrovna. In the fall, Marat no longer had to go to school in the fifth grade. The Nazis turned the school building into their barracks. The enemy was fierce. Anna Aleksandrovna Kazei was captured for her connection with the partisans, and soon Marat learned that his mother had been hanged in Minsk. The boy's heart was filled with anger and hatred for the enemy. Together with his sister Hell Marat, Kazei went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest. He became a scout at the headquarters of a partisan brigade. He penetrated enemy garrisons and delivered valuable information to the command. Using this data, the partisans developed a daring operation and defeated the fascist garrison in the city of Dzerzhinsk. Marat took part in battles and invariably showed courage and fearlessness; together with experienced demolition men, he mined the railway. Marat died in battle. He fought to the last bullet, and when he had only one grenade left, he let his enemies get closer and blew them up... and himself. For courage and bravery, fifteen-year-old Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to the young hero was erected in the city of Minsk.
Portnova Zinaida Martynovna (Zina) (1926-1944), young partisan of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1958, posthumously). Scout of the partisan detachment “Young Avengers” (Vitebsk region).
The war found Leningrad resident Zina Portnova in the village of Zuya, where she came for vacation, not far from the Obol station in the Vitebsk region. An underground Komsomol-youth organization “Young Avengers” was created in Obol, and Zina was elected a member of its committee. She took part in daring operations against the enemy, distributed leaflets, and conducted reconnaissance on instructions from a partisan detachment. In December 1943, returning from a mission in the village of Mostishche, Zina was handed over as a traitor to the Nazis. The Nazis captured the young partisan and tortured her. The answer to the enemy was Zina’s silence, her contempt and hatred, her determination to fight to the end. During one of the interrogations, choosing the moment, Zina grabbed a pistol from the table and shot point-blank at the Gestapo man. The officer who ran in to hear the shot was also killed on the spot. Zina tried to escape, but the Nazis overtook her. The brave young partisan was brutally tortured, but until the last minute she remained persistent, courageous, and unbending. And the Motherland posthumously celebrated her feat with its highest title - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Kotik Valentin Alexandrovich(Valya) (1930-1944), young partisan of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1958, posthumously). Since 1942 - liaison officer for an underground organization in the city of Shepetivka, scout for a partisan detachment (Khmelnitsky region, Ukraine).
Valya was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Khmelnitsky region. Studied at school No. 4. When the Nazis burst into Shepetivka, Valya Kotik and his friends decided to fight the enemy. The guys collected weapons at the battle site, which the partisans then transported to the detachment on a cart of hay. Having taken a closer look at the boy, the leaders of the partisan detachment entrusted Valya to be a liaison and intelligence officer in their underground organization. He learned the location of enemy posts and the order of changing the guard. The Nazis planned a punitive operation against the partisans, and Valya, having tracked down the Nazi officer who led the punitive forces, killed him. When arrests began in the city, Valya, along with his mother and brother Victor, went to join the partisans. An ordinary boy, who had just turned fourteen years old, fought shoulder to shoulder with adults, freeing native land. He was responsible for six enemy trains that were blown up on the way to the front. Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree. Valya died as a hero in one of the unequal battles with the Nazis.
Golikov Leonid Alexandrovich(1926-1943). Young partisan hero. Brigade scout of the 67th detachment of the fourth Leningrad partisan brigade, operating in the Novgorod and Pskov regions. Participated in 27 combat operations.
In total, he destroyed 78 fascists, two railway and 12 highway bridges, two food and feed warehouses and 10 vehicles with ammunition. He distinguished himself in battles near the villages of Aprosovo, Sosnitsa, and Sever. Accompanied a convoy with food (250 carts) to besieged Leningrad. For valor and courage he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Battle and the medal "For Courage".
On August 13, 1942, returning from reconnaissance from the Luga-Pskov highway, near the village of Varnitsa, he blew up a passenger car in which there was a German Major General of the Engineering Troops, Richard von Wirtz. In a shootout, Golikov shot the general, the officer accompanying him, and the driver with a machine gun. The intelligence officer delivered a briefcase with documents to the brigade headquarters. These included drawings and descriptions of new models of German mines, inspection reports to higher command and other important papers of a military nature. Nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. On January 24, 1943, Leonid Golikov died in an unequal battle in the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov Region. By Decree of April 2, 1944, the Presidium of the Supreme Council awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Arkady Kamanin dreamed of heaven when I was just a boy. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, a pilot, participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And my father’s friend, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov, is always nearby. There was something to make the boy's heart burn. But they didn’t let him fly, they told him to grow up. When the war began, he went to work at an aircraft factory, then at an airfield. Experienced pilots, even if only for a few minutes, sometimes trusted him to fly the plane. One day the cockpit glass was broken by an enemy bullet. The pilot was blinded. Losing consciousness, he managed to hand over control to Arkady, and the boy landed the plane at his airfield. After this, Arkady was allowed to seriously study flying, and soon he began to fly on his own. One day, from above, a young pilot saw our plane shot down by the Nazis. Under heavy mortar fire, Arkady landed, carried the pilot into his plane, took off and returned to his own. The Order of the Red Star shone on his chest. For participation in battles with the enemy, Arkady was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. By that time he had already become an experienced pilot, although he was fifteen years old. Arkady Kamanin fought with the Nazis until the victory. The young hero dreamed of the sky and conquered the sky!
Utah Bondarovskaya in the summer of 1941 she came from Leningrad on vacation to a village near Pskov. Here a terrible war overtook her. Utah began to help the partisans. At first she was a messenger, then a scout. Dressed as a beggar boy, she collected information from the villages: where the fascist headquarters were, how they were guarded, how many machine guns there were. The partisan detachment, together with units of the Red Army, left to help the Estonian partisans. In one of the battles - near the Estonian farm of Rostov - Yuta Bondarovskaya, the little heroine of the big war, died a heroic death. The Motherland awarded its heroic daughter posthumously with the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree, and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
When the war began and the Nazis were approaching Leningrad, high school counselor Anna Petrovna Semenova was left for underground work in the village of Tarnovichi - in the south of the Leningrad region. To communicate with the partisans, she selected her most reliable guys, and the first among them was Galina Komleva. Over the course of her six school years, the cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl was awarded books six times with the signature: “For excellent studies.” The young messenger brought assignments from the partisans to her counselor, and forwarded her reports to the detachment along with bread, potatoes, and food, which were obtained with great difficulty. One day, when a messenger from a partisan detachment did not arrive on time at the meeting place, Galya, half-frozen, made her way into the detachment, handed over a report and, having warmed up a little, hurried back, carrying a new task to the underground fighters. Together with the young partisan Tasya Yakovleva, Galya wrote leaflets and scattered them around the village at night. The Nazis tracked down and captured the young underground fighters. They kept me in the Gestapo for two months. The young patriot was shot. The Motherland celebrated the feat of Galya Komleva with the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
For the operation of reconnaissance and explosion of the railway bridge across the Drissa River, Leningrad schoolgirl Larisa Mikheenko was nominated for a government award. But the young heroine did not have time to receive her award.
The war cut the girl off from her hometown: in the summer she went on vacation to the Pustoshkinsky district, but was unable to return - the village was occupied by the Nazis. And then one night Larisa and two older friends left the village. At the headquarters of the 6th Kalinin Brigade, commander Major P.V. Ryndin initially refused to accept “such little ones.” But young girls were able to do what strong men could not. Dressed in rags, Lara walked through the villages, finding out where and how the guns were located, the sentries were posted, what German vehicles were moving along the highway, what kind of trains were coming to Pustoshka station and with what cargo. She also took part in military operations. The young partisan, betrayed by a traitor in the village of Ignatovo, was shot by the Nazis. In the Decree on awarding Larisa Mikheenko the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, there is a bitter word: “Posthumously.”
Could not put up with the atrocities of the Nazis and Sasha Borodulin. Having obtained a rifle, Sasha destroyed the fascist motorcyclist and took his first battle trophy - a real German machine gun. This was a good reason for his admission to the partisan detachment. Day after day he conducted reconnaissance. More than once he went on the most dangerous missions. He was responsible for many destroyed vehicles and soldiers. For carrying out dangerous tasks, for demonstrating courage, resourcefulness and courage, Sasha Borodulin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in the winter of 1941. Punishers tracked down the partisans. The detachment left them for three days. In the group of volunteers, Sasha remained to cover the detachment’s retreat. When all his comrades died, the brave hero, allowing the fascists to close a ring around him, grabbed a grenade and blew them up and himself.
The feat of a young partisan
(Excerpts from M. Danilenko’s essay “Grishina’s Life” (translation by Yu. Bogushevich))
At night, punitive forces surrounded the village. Grisha woke up from some sound. He opened his eyes and looked out the window. A shadow flashed across the moonlit glass.
- Dad! - Grisha called quietly.
- Sleep, what do you want? - the father responded.
But the boy did not sleep anymore. Stepping barefoot on the cold floor, he quietly went out into the hallway. And then I heard someone tear open the doors and several pairs of boots thundered heavily into the hut.
The boy rushed into the garden, where there was a bathhouse with a small extension. Through the crack in the door Grisha saw his father, mother and sisters being taken out. Nadya was bleeding from her shoulder, and the girl was pressing the wound with her hand...
Until dawn, Grisha stood in the outbuilding and looked wide in front of him. with open eyes. Was sparingly expressed Moonlight. Somewhere an icicle fell from the roof and crashed on the rubble with a quiet ringing sound. The boy shuddered. He felt neither cold nor fear.
That night a small wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. Appeared never to disappear again. Grisha's family was shot by the Nazis.
A thirteen-year-old boy with an unchildishly stern look walked from village to village. I went to Sozh. He knew that somewhere across the river his brother Alexei was, there were partisans. A few days later Grisha came to the village of Yametsky.
A resident of this village, Feodosia Ivanova, was a liaison officer for a partisan detachment commanded by Pyotr Antonovich Balykov. She brought the boy to the detachment.
The detachment commissar Pavel Ivanovich Dedik and the chief of staff Alexey Podobedov listened to Grisha with stern faces. And he stood in a torn shirt, with his legs knocked against the roots, with an unquenchable fire of hatred in his eyes. The partisan life of Grisha Podobedov began. And no matter what mission the partisans were sent on, Grisha always asked to take him with them...
Grisha Podobedov became an excellent partisan intelligence officer. Somehow the messengers reported that the Nazis, together with policemen from Korma, robbed the population. They took 30 cows and everything they could get their hands on and were heading towards the Sixth Village. The detachment set off in pursuit of the enemy. The operation was led by Pyotr Antonovich Balykov.
“Well, Grisha,” said the commander. - You will go with Alena Konashkova on reconnaissance. Find out where the enemy is staying, what he is doing, what he is thinking of doing.
And so a tired woman with a hoe and a bag wanders into the Sixth Village, and with her a boy dressed in a large padded jacket that is too large for his size.
“They sowed millet, good people,” the woman complained, turning to the police. - Try to raise these fellings with little ones. It's not easy, oh, it's not easy!
And no one, of course, noticed how the boy’s keen eyes followed each soldier, how they noticed everything.
Grisha visited five houses where fascists and policemen stayed. And I found out about everything, then reported in detail to the commander. A red rocket soared into the sky. And a few minutes later it was all over: the partisans drove the enemy into a cleverly placed “bag” and destroyed him. The stolen goods were returned to the population.
Grisha also went on reconnaissance missions before the memorable battle near the Pokat River.
With a bridle, limping (a splinter had gotten into his heel), the little shepherd scurried among the Nazis. And such hatred burned in his eyes that it seemed that it alone could incinerate his enemies.
And then the scout reported how many guns he saw at the enemies, where there were machine guns and mortars. And from partisan bullets and mines they found their graves on Belarusian land invaders.
At the beginning of June 1943, Grisha Podobedov, together with partisan Yakov Kebikov, went on reconnaissance to the area of the village of Zalesye, where a punitive company from the so-called Dnepr volunteer detachment was stationed. Grisha snuck into the house where the drunken punishers were having a party.
The partisans silently entered the village and completely destroyed the company. Only the commander was saved; he hid in a well. In the morning, a local grandfather pulled him out of there, like a filthy cat, by the scruff of the neck...
This was the last operation in which Grisha Podobedov participated. On June 17, together with foreman Nikolai Borisenko, he went to the village of Ruduya Bartolomeevka to buy flour prepared for the partisans.
The sun shone brightly. A gray bird fluttered on the roof of the mill, watching people with its cunning little eyes. Broad-shouldered Nikolai Borisenko had just loaded a heavy sack onto the cart when the pale miller came running.
- Punishers! - he exhaled.
The foreman and Grisha grabbed their machine guns and rushed into the bushes growing near the mill. But they were noticed. Evil bullets whistled, cutting off the branches of the alder tree.
- Get down! - Borisenko gave the command and fired a long burst from the machine gun.
Grisha, aiming, fired short bursts. He saw how the punishers, as if they had stumbled upon an invisible barrier, fell, mowed down by his bullets.
- So for you, so for you!..
Suddenly the sergeant-major gasped loudly and grabbed his throat. Grisha turned around. Borisenko twitched all over and fell silent. His glassy eyes were now looking indifferently at the high sky, and his hand was stuck, as if stuck, in the stock of the machine gun.
The bush, where only Grisha Podobedov now remained, was surrounded by enemies. There were about sixty of them.
Grisha clenched his teeth and raised his hand. Several soldiers immediately rushed towards him.
- Oh, you Herods! What did you want?! - the partisan shouted and slashed at them point-blank with a machine gun.
Six Nazis fell at his feet. The rest lay down. More and more often bullets whistled over Grisha’s head. The partisan was silent and did not respond. Then the emboldened enemies rose again. And again, under well-aimed machine gun fire, they pressed into the ground. And the machine gun had already run out of cartridges. Grisha pulled out a pistol. - I give up! - he shouted.
A tall and thin as a pole policeman ran up to him at a trot. Grisha shot him straight in the face. For an elusive moment, the boy looked around at the sparse bushes and clouds in the sky and, putting the pistol to his temple, pulled the trigger...
You can read about the exploits of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War in the books:
Avramenko A.I. Messengers from Captivity: a story / Transl. from Ukrainian - M.: Young Guard, 1981. - 208 e.: ill. — (Young heroes).
Bolshak V.G. Guide to the Abyss: Document. story. - M.: Young Guard, 1979. - 160 p. — (Young heroes).
Vuravkin G.N. Three pages from a legend / Trans. from Belarusian - M.: Young Guard, 1983. - 64 p. — (Young heroes).
Valko I.V. Where are you flying, little crane?: Document. story. - M.: Young Guard, 1978. - 174 p. — (Young heroes).
Vygovsky B.S. Fire of a young heart / Transl. from Ukrainian — M.: Det. lit., 1968. - 144 p. - (School library).
Children of the wartime / Comp. E. Maksimova. 2nd ed., add. - M.: Politizdat, 1988. - 319 p.
Ershov Ya.A. Vitya Korobkov - pioneer, partisan: story - M.: Voenizdat, 1968 - 320 p. — (Library of a young patriot: About the Motherland, exploits, honor).
Zharikov A.D. Exploits of the Young: Stories and Essays. — M.: Young Guard, 1965. —- 144 e.: ill.
Zharikov A.D. Young partisans. - M.: Education, 1974. - 128 p.
Kassil L.A., Polyanovsky M.L. Street of the youngest son: a story. — M.: Det. lit., 1985. - 480 p. — (Student’s military library).
Kekkelev L.N. Countryman: The Tale of P. Shepelev. 3rd ed. - M.: Young Guard, 1981. - 143 p. — (Young heroes).
Korolkov Yu.M. Partisan Lenya Golikov: a story. - M.: Young Guard, 1985. - 215 p. — (Young heroes).
Lezinsky M.L., Eskin B.M. Live, Vilor!: a story. - M.: Young Guard, 1983. - 112 p. — (Young heroes).
Logvinenko I.M. Crimson Dawns: document. story / Transl. from Ukrainian — M.: Det. lit., 1972. - 160 p.
Lugovoy N.D. Scorched childhood. - M.: Young Guard, 1984. - 152 p. — (Young heroes).
Medvedev N.E. Eaglets of the Blagovsky forest: document. story. - M.: DOSAAF, 1969. - 96 p.
Morozov V.N. A boy went on reconnaissance: a story. - Minsk: State Publishing House of the BSSR, 1961. - 214 p.
Morozov V.N. Volodin front. - M.: Young Guard, 1975. - 96 p. — (Young heroes).
During Great Patriotic War A whole army of boys and girls acted against the Nazi occupiers. In occupied Belarus alone, at least 74,500 boys and girls, young men and women fought in partisan detachments. In big Soviet Encyclopedia it is written that during the Great Patriotic War, more than 35 thousand pioneers - young defenders of the Motherland - were awarded military orders and medals.
It was amazing" movement"! The boys and girls did not wait until they will be called“adults,” began to act from the first days of the occupation. They took a mortal risk!
Likewise, many others began to act at their own peril and risk. Someone found leaflets scattered from airplanes and distributed them in their regional center or village. Polotsk boy Lenya Kosach collected 45 rifles, 2 light machine guns, several baskets of cartridges and grenades from the battlefields and hid it all securely; an opportunity presented itself - he handed it over to the partisans. Hundreds of other guys created arsenals for the partisans in the same way. Twelve-year-old excellent student Lyuba Morozova, knowing a little German, studied “ special propaganda"among her enemies, telling them how well she lived before the war without " new order» occupiers. Soldiers often told her that she " red to the bone”, and advised her to hold her tongue until it ended badly for her. Later Lyuba became a partisan. Eleven-year-old Tolya Korneev stole a pistol with ammunition from a German officer and began looking for people who would help him reach the partisans. In the summer of 1942, the boy succeeded in this, meeting his classmate Olya Demesh, who by that time was already a member of one of the units. And when the older guys brought 9-year-old Zhora Yuzov to the detachment, the commander jokingly asked: “ And who will babysit this little one?", the boy, in addition to the pistol, laid out four grenades in front of him: " That's who will babysit me!».
Seryozha Roslenko For 13 years, in addition to collecting weapons, he conducted reconnaissance at his own risk: there would be someone to pass on the information to! And I found it. From somewhere the children got the idea of conspiracy. Sixth grader Vitya Pashkevich in the fall of 1941, he organized in Borisov, occupied by the Nazis, a similarity to the Krasnodon " Young Guard" He and his team carried weapons and ammunition from enemy warehouses, helped underground fighters to escape prisoners of war from concentration camps, and burned an enemy warehouse with uniforms with thermite incendiary grenades...
Experienced Scout
In January 1942, one of the partisan detachments operating in the Ponizovsky district of the Smolensk region was surrounded by the Nazis. The Germans, pretty battered during the counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow, did not risk immediately liquidating the detachment. They did not have accurate intelligence information about its strength, so they waited for reinforcements. However, the ring was held tightly. The partisans were racking their brains about how to get out of the encirclement. Food was running out. And the detachment commander requested help from the Red Army command. In response, an encrypted message came over the radio, in which it was reported that the troops would not be able to help with active actions, but an experienced intelligence officer would be sent to the detachment.
And indeed, at the appointed time, the noise of the engines of an air transport was heard above the forest, and a few minutes later a paratrooper landed in the location of the surrounded people. The partisans who received the heavenly messenger were quite surprised when they saw in front of them... a boy.
– Are you an experienced intelligence officer? – asked the commander.
- I am. What, you don’t look like him? “The boy was wearing a uniform army pea coat, cotton pants and a hat with earflaps with an asterisk. Red Army soldier!
- How old are you? – the commander still could not come to his senses from surprise.
- It's going to be eleven soon! – answered importantly “ experienced scout».
The boy's name was Yura Zhdanko . He was originally from Vitebsk. In July 1941, the ubiquitous shooter and expert on local territories showed the retreating Soviet unit a ford across the Western Dvina. He was no longer able to return home - while he was acting as a guide, Hitler’s armored vehicles entered his hometown. And the scouts, who were tasked with escorting the boy back, took him with them. So he was enrolled as a graduate of the motor reconnaissance company of the 332nd Ivanovo Rifle Division named after. M.F. Frunze.
At first he was not involved in business, but, naturally observant, sharp-eyed and memorative, he quickly learned the basics of front-line raid science and even dared to give advice to adults. And his abilities were appreciated. They began to send him behind the front line. In the villages, he, dressed in disguise, with a bag over his shoulders, begged for alms, collecting information about the location and number of enemy garrisons. I also managed to take part in the mining of a strategically important bridge. During the explosion, a Red Army miner was wounded, and Yura, after providing first aid, led him to the unit’s location. Why did I get my first one? Medal of Honor" .
...It seems that a better intelligence officer to help the partisans really could not be found.
“But you, boy, didn’t jump with a parachute...” the intelligence chief said sadly.
- Jumped twice! – Yura objected loudly. “I begged the sergeant... he quietly taught me...
Everyone knew that this sergeant and Yura were inseparable, and he could, of course, follow the lead of the regimental favorite. The Li-2 engines were already roaring, the plane was ready to take off, when the guy admitted that, of course, he had never jumped with a parachute:
“The sergeant didn’t allow me, I only helped lay the dome.” Show me how and what to pull!
– Why did you lie?! – the instructor shouted at him. - He was lying against the sergeant in vain.
- I thought you would check... But they wouldn’t: the sergeant was killed...
Having arrived safely at the detachment, ten-year-old Vitebsk resident Yura Zhdanko did what adults could not... He was dressed in all the village clothes, and soon the boy made his way to the hut where the German officer in charge of the encirclement lodged. The Nazi lived in the house of a certain grandfather Vlas. It was to him, under the guise of a grandson, that a young intelligence officer came to him from the regional center, who was given a rather difficult task- obtain from the enemy officer documents with plans for the destruction of the encircled detachment. Opportunity fell out only after a few days. The Nazi left the house lightly, leaving the key to the safe in his overcoat... So the documents ended up in the detachment. And at the same time, Jurai brought grandfather Vlas, convincing him that it was impossible to stay in the house in such a situation.
In 1943, Yura led a regular Red Army battalion out of encirclement. All the scouts sent to find " corridor"for comrades, died. The task was entrusted to Yura. Alone. And he found a weak spot in the enemy ring... He became the Order Bearer of the Red Star.
Yuri Ivanovich Zhdanko , recalling his military childhood, said that he “ I played in a real war, did what adults couldn’t, and there were a lot of situations when they couldn’t do something, but I could.».
Fourteen-year-old savior of prisoners of war
14-year-old Minsk underground fighter Volodya Shcherbatsevich was one of the first teenagers whom the Germans executed for participating in the underground. They captured his execution on film and then distributed these images throughout the city as a warning to others...
From the first days of the occupation of the Belarusian capital, mother and son Shcherbatsevichs hid Soviet commanders in their apartment, for whom underground fighters from time to time arranged escapes from a prisoner of war camp. Olga Feodorovna was a doctor and provided medical assistance to the liberated, dressing them in civilian clothes, which she and her son Volodya collected from relatives and friends. Several groups of rescued people have already been brought out of the city. But one day on the way, already outside the city blocks, one of the groups fell into the clutches of the Gestapo. Handed over by a traitor, the son and mother ended up in fascist dungeons. They withstood all the torture.
And on October 26, 1941, the first gallows appeared in Minsk. On this day, for the last time, surrounded by a pack of machine gunners, Volodya Shcherbatsevich walked through the streets of his native city... The pedantic punishers captured the report of his execution on photographic film. And perhaps we see on it the first young hero who gave his life for his Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.
Die, but take revenge
Here's another one amazing example young heroism from 1941...
Osintorf village. On one of the August days, the Nazis, together with their henchmen from local residents- burgomaster, clerk and chief police officer - raped and brutally killed the young teacher Anya Lyutova. By that time, a youth underground was already operating in the village under the leadership of Slava Shmuglevsky. The guys got together and decided: “ Death to traitors!“Slava himself volunteered to carry out the sentence, as did teenage brothers Misha and Zhenya Telenchenko, aged thirteen and fifteen.
By that time, they already had hidden a machine gun found in the battlefields. They acted simply and directly, like a boy. The brothers took advantage of the fact that their mother had gone to see relatives that day and was supposed to return only in the morning. They installed a machine gun on the balcony of the apartment and began to wait for the traitors, who often passed by. We didn't miscalculate. When they approached, Slava began shooting at them almost point-blank. But one of the criminals, the burgomaster, managed to escape. He reported by telephone to Orsha that the village was attacked by a large partisan detachment (a machine gun is a serious thing). Cars with punitive forces rushed in. With the help of bloodhounds, the weapon was quickly found: Misha and Zhenya, not having time to find a more reliable hiding place, hid the machine gun in the attic of their own house. Both were arrested. The boys were tortured most cruelly and for a long time, but not one of them betrayed Slava Shmuglevsky and other underground fighters to the enemy. The Telenchenko brothers were executed in October.
The Great Conspirator
Pavlik Titov for his eleven he was a great conspirator. He fought as a partisan for more than two years without even his parents knowing about it. Many episodes of his combat biography remained unknown. This is what is known. First, Pavlik and his comrades rescued a wounded Soviet commander who had been burned in a burnt tank - they found a reliable shelter for him, and at night they brought him food, water, and brewed some medicinal decoctions according to his grandmother’s recipes. Thanks to the boys, the tanker quickly recovered.
In July 1942, Pavlik and his friends handed over to the partisans several rifles and machine guns with cartridges they had found. Missions followed. The young intelligence officer penetrated the Nazis' location and kept count of manpower and equipment.
He was generally a cunning guy. One day he brought a bale of fascist uniforms to the partisans:
- I think it will be useful for you... Not to carry it yourself, of course...
- Where did you get it?
- Yes, the Krauts were swimming...
More than once, dressed in the uniform obtained by the boy, the partisans carried out daring raids and operations. The boy died in the fall of 1943. Not in battle. The Germans carried out another punitive operation. Pavlik and his parents were hiding in the dugout. The punishers shot the entire family - father, mother, Pavlik himself and even his little sister. He was buried in mass grave in Surazh, not far from Vitebsk.
Zina Portnova
Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova in June 1941, she came with her younger sister Galya for the summer holidays to her grandmother in the village of Zui (Shumilinsky district of the Vitebsk region). She was fifteen... First, she got a job as an auxiliary worker in a canteen for German officers. And soon, together with her friend, she carried out a daring operation - she poisoned more than a hundred Nazis. She could have been captured right away, but they began to follow her. By that time she was already connected with the Obol underground organization " Young Avengers" In order to avoid failure, Zina was transferred to a partisan detachment.
Once she was instructed to scout out the number and type of troops in the Oboli area. Another time - to clarify the reasons for the failure in the Obol underground and establish new connections... After completing the next task, she was captured by punitive forces. They tortured me for a long time. During one of the interrogations, the girl, as soon as the investigator turned away, grabbed the pistol from the table with which he had just threatened her and shot him. She jumped out the window, shot a sentry and rushed to the Dvina. Another sentry rushed after her. Zina, hiding behind a bush, wanted to destroy him too, but the weapon misfired...
Then they no longer interrogated her, but methodically tortured and mocked her. They gouged out their eyes and cut off their ears. They drove needles under her nails, twisted her arms and legs... On January 13, 1944, Zina Portnova was shot.
"Kid" and his sisters
From the report of the Vitebsk underground city party committee in 1942: “ Baby"(he is 12 years old), having learned that the partisans need gun oil, without instructions, according to own initiative, brought 2 liters of gun oil from the city. Then he was tasked with delivering sulfuric acid for sabotage purposes. He also brought it. And he carried it in a bag behind his back. The acid spilled, his shirt was burned, his back was burned, but he did not throw the acid.
« As a kid" was Alyosha Vyalov , who enjoyed special sympathy among the local partisans. And he acted as part of a family group. When the war began, he was 11, his older sisters Vasilisa and Anya were 16 and 14, the rest of the children were a little younger. Alyosha and his sisters were very inventive. They set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times, prepared an explosion at the labor exchange in order to confuse the population records and save young people and other residents from being hijacked in " German paradise", they blew up the passport office in the police premises... They have dozens of acts of sabotage. And this is in addition to the fact that they were messengers and distributed leaflets...
« Baby"and Vasilisa died soon after the war from tuberculosis... A rare case: on the Vyalovs’ house in Vitebsk a Memorial plaque. These children should have a monument made of gold!..
Meanwhile, we also know about another Vitebsk family - Lynchenko . 11-year-old Kolya, 9-year-old Dina and 7-year-old Emma were the messengers of their mother, Natalya Fedorovna, whose apartment served as a reporting area. In 1943, as a result of the failure, the Gestapo broke into the house. The mother was beaten in front of her children, they shot above her head, demanding to name the members of the group. They also mocked the children, asking them who came to their mother and where she herself went. They tried to bribe little Emma with chocolate. The children didn't say anything. Moreover, during the search in the apartment, seizing the moment, Dina took out encryption codes from under the board of the table, where one of the hiding places was, and hid them under her dress, and when the punishers left, taking her mother away, she burned them. The children were left in the house as bait, but they, knowing that the house was being watched, managed to warn the messengers with signs who were going to the failed appearance...
Prize for the head of a young saboteur
For the head of an Orsha schoolgirl Oli Demes The Nazis promised a round sum. About this in his memoirs “ From Dnieper to Bug» said Hero of the Soviet Union, former commander of the 8th Partisan Brigade, Colonel Sergey Zhunin. A 13-year-old girl at the Orsha-Tsentralnaya station blew up fuel tanks. Sometimes she acted with her twelve-year-old sister Lida. Zhunin recalled how Olya was instructed before the task: “ It is necessary to place a mine under a gasoline tank. Remember, only for a gasoline tank!» – « I know what kerosene smells like, I cooked with kerosene gas myself, but gasoline... let me at least smell it" Many trains and dozens of tanks accumulated at the junction, and you find “ the same one" Olya and Lida crawled under the trains, sniffing: is this one or not this one? Gasoline or not gasoline? Then they threw stones and determined by the sound: empty or full? And only then they hooked the magnetic mine. The fire destroyed a huge number of carriages with equipment, food, uniforms, fodder, and steam locomotives were also burned...
The Germans managed to capture Olya’s mother and sister and shot them; but Olya remained elusive. During the ten months of his participation in the brigade, " Chekist"(from June 7, 1942 to April 10, 1943) she showed herself not only to be a fearless intelligence officer, but also derailed seven enemy echelons, participated in the defeat of several military-police garrisons, and had 20 killed enemy soldiers and officers on her personal account . And then she was also a participant “ rail war».
Eleven-year-old saboteur
Vitya Sitnitsa . How he wanted to be a partisan! But for two years from the beginning of the war there remained " only"a conductor of partisan sabotage groups passing through his village of Curitichi. However, he learned something from the partisan guides during their short rests. In August 1943, he and his older brother were accepted into the partisan detachment. They were assigned to the economic platoon. Then he said that peeling potatoes and taking out slops with his ability to lay mines was unfair. Moreover, the “rail war” is in full swing. And they began to take him on combat missions. The boy personally derailed 9 echelons of enemy manpower and military equipment.
In the spring of 1944, Vitya fell ill with rheumatism and was sent to his relatives for medicine. In the village, he was captured by Nazis dressed as Red Army soldiers. The boy was brutally tortured.
Little Susanin
He began his war against the Nazi invaders at the age of 9. Already in the summer of 1941, in the house of his parents in the village of Bayki in the Brest region, the regional anti-fascist committee equipped a secret printing house. They issued leaflets with reports from the Sovinforburo. Tikhon Baran helped distribute them. For two years the young underground worker was engaged in this activity. The Nazis managed to get on the trail of the printers. The printing house was destroyed. Tikhon’s mother and sisters hid with relatives, and he himself went to the partisans. One day, when he was visiting his relatives, the Germans came to the village. The mother was taken to Germany, and the boy was beaten. He became very ill and remained in the village.
Local historians dated his feat to January 22, 1944. On this day, punitive forces appeared in the village again. All residents were shot for contacting the partisans. The village was burned. " And you, - they told Tikhon, - show us the way to the partisans" It is difficult to say whether the village boy heard anything about the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin, who more than three centuries earlier led the Polish interventionists into a swampy swamp; only Tikhon Baran showed the fascists the same road. They killed him, but not all of them got out of that quagmire.
Covering detachment
Vanya Kazachenko from the village of Zapolye, Orsha district, Vitebsk region, in April 1943 he became a machine gunner in a partisan detachment. He was thirteen. Anyone who served in the army and carried at least a Kalashnikov assault rifle (not a machine gun!) on their shoulders can imagine what it cost the boy. Guerrilla raids most often lasted many hours. And the machine guns of that time were heavier than the current ones... After one of the successful operations to defeat the enemy garrison, in which Vanya once again distinguished himself, the partisans, returning to the base, stopped to rest in a village not far from Bogushevsk. Vanya, assigned to guard duty, chose a place, disguised himself and covered the road leading to the settlement. Here the young machine gunner fought his last battle.
Noticing the carts with the Nazis suddenly appearing, he opened fire on them. By the time his comrades arrived, the Germans managed to surround the boy, seriously wound him, take him prisoner and retreat. The partisans did not have the opportunity to chase the carts to beat him up. Vanya, tied to a cart, was dragged along an icy road for about twenty kilometers by the Nazis. In the village of Mezhevo, Orsha region, where there was an enemy garrison, he was tortured and shot.
The hero was 14 years old
Marat Kazei born on October 10, 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk region of Belarus. In November 1942 he joined the partisan detachment named after. 25th anniversary of October, then became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade named after. K.K. Rokossovsky.
Marat's father Ivan Kazei was arrested in 1934 as " pest", and he was rehabilitated only in 1959. Later, his wife was also arrested, but later, however, she was released. So it turned out to be a family" enemy of the people”, which was shunned by the neighbors. Kazei’s sister, Ariadne, was not accepted into the Komsomol because of this.
It would seem that all this should have made the Kazei angry with the authorities - but no. In 1941, Anna Kazei, the wife of an “enemy of the people,” hid wounded partisans in her home - for which she was executed by the Germans. Ariadne and Marat went to the partisans. Ariadne remained alive, but became disabled - when the detachment left the encirclement, her legs froze, which had to be amputated. When she was taken to the hospital by plane, the detachment commander offered to fly with her and Marat so that he could continue his studies interrupted by the war. But Marat refused and remained in the partisan detachment.
Marat went on reconnaissance missions, both alone and with a group. Participated in raids. He blew up the echelons. For the battle in January 1943, when, wounded, he roused his comrades to attack and made his way through the enemy ring, Marat received Medal of Honor" . And in May 1944, Marat died. Returning from a mission together with the reconnaissance commander, they came across the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to leave in the open field, and there was no opportunity - Marat was seriously wounded. While there were cartridges, he held the defense, and when the magazine was empty, he picked up his last weapon - two grenades, which he did not remove from his belt. He threw one at the Germans, and left the second. When the Germans came very close, he blew himself up along with the enemies.
In Minsk, a monument to Kazei was erected using funds raised by Belarusian pioneers. In 1958, an obelisk was erected at the grave of the young Hero in the village of Stankovo, Dzerzhinsky district, Minsk region. The monument to Marat Kazei was erected in Moscow (on the territory of VDNH). The state farm, streets, schools, pioneer squads and detachments of many schools of the Soviet Union, the ship of the Caspian Shipping Company were named after the pioneer hero Marat Kazei.
The boy from the legend
Golikov Leonid Aleksandrovich, scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad Partisan Brigade, born in 1926, native of the village of Lukino, Parfinsky district. This is what is written on the award sheet. A boy from a legend - that’s what fame called Lenya Golikova.
When the war began, a schoolboy from the village of Lukino, near Staraya Russa, got a rifle and joined the partisans. Thin and short, at 14 he looked even younger. Under the guise of a beggar, he walked around the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of fascist troops and the amount of enemy military equipment.
Together with his peers, he once picked up several rifles at a battle site and stole two boxes of grenades from the Nazis. They then handed all this over to the partisans. " Comrade Golikov joined the partisan detachment in March 1942, the award sheet says. - Participated in 27 military operations... Exterminated 78 German soldiers and officers, blew up 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition... On August 15, in the new combat area of the brigade, Golikov crashed a passenger car in which the general was Major of the Engineering Troops Richard Wirtz, heading from Pskov to Luga. A brave partisan killed the general with a machine gun and delivered his jacket and captured documents to the brigade headquarters. The documents included: descriptions of new types of German mines, inspection reports to higher command and other valuable intelligence data».
Lake Radilovskoye was a gathering point during the brigade’s transition to a new area of operations. On the way there, the partisans had to engage in battles with the enemy. The punishers monitored the progress of the partisans, and as soon as the forces of the brigade united, they forced a battle on it. After the battle at Lake Radilovskoe, the main forces of the brigade continued their journey to the Lyadskie forests. The detachments of I. Grozny and B. Eren-Price remained in the lake area to distract the fascists. They never managed to connect with the brigade. In mid-November, the occupiers attacked the headquarters. Many soldiers died defending him. The rest managed to retreat to the Terp-Kamen swamp. On December 25, the swamp was surrounded by several hundred fascists. With considerable losses, the partisans broke out of the ring and entered the Strugokrasnensky region. Only 50 people remained in the ranks, the radio did not work. And the punishers scoured all the villages in search of partisans. We had to follow untrodden paths. The path was paved by scouts, and among them Lenya Golikov. Attempts to establish contact with other units and stock up on food ended tragically. There was only one way out - to make our way to the mainland.
After the transition railway Bottom - Novosokolniki late at night on January 24, 1943, 27 hungry, exhausted partisans came to the village of Ostray Luka. Ahead, the Partizansky region, burned by punitive forces, stretched 90 kilometers. The scouts did not find anything suspicious. The enemy garrison was located several kilometers away. The partisans' companion, a nurse, was dying from a serious wound and asked for at least a little warmth. They occupied the three outer huts. Brigade commander Glebov decided not to post patrols so as not to attract attention. They were on duty alternately at the windows and in the barn, from where both the village and the road to the forest were clearly visible.
About two hours later, my sleep was interrupted by the roar of an exploding grenade. And immediately the heavy machine gun began to rattle. Following the traitor's denunciation, punitive forces arrived. The partisans jumped out into the courtyard and through the vegetable gardens, firing back, and began to rush towards the forest. Glebov with a military escort covered the retreating forces with light machine gun and machine gun fire. Halfway there, the seriously wounded chief of staff fell. Lenya rushed to him. But Petrov ordered to return to the brigade commander, and he himself, covering the wound under his padded jacket with an individual bag, again stitched with a machine gun. In that unequal battle, the entire headquarters of the 4th partisan brigade was killed. Among the fallen was the young partisan Lenya Golikov. Six managed to reach the forest, two of them were seriously wounded and could not move without outside help... Only on January 31, near the village of Zhemchugovo, exhausted and frostbitten, they met with the scouts of the 8th Guards Panfilov Division.
For a long time, his mother Ekaterina Alekseevna knew nothing about Leni’s fate. The war had already moved far to the west when one Sunday afternoon a horseman in military uniform stopped near their hut. Mother went out onto the porch. The officer handed her a large package. The old woman accepted him with trembling hands and called her daughter Valya. The package contained a certificate bound in crimson leather. There was also an envelope, which Valya opened quietly and said: “This is for you, mom, from Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin himself.” With excitement, the mother took a bluish sheet of paper and read: “ Dear Ekaterina Alekseevna! According to the command, your son Leonid Aleksandrovich Golikov died a brave death for his homeland. For the heroic feat performed by your son in the fight against German invaders behind enemy lines, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by Decree of April 2, 1944, awarded him highest degree distinction - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. I am sending you a letter from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR conferring on your son the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to be kept as a memory of a heroic son whose feat will never be forgotten by our people. M. Kalinin». – « This is what he turned out to be, my Lenyushka!“- the mother said quietly. And in these words there was grief, pain, and pride for his son...
Lenya was buried in the village of Ostraya Luka. His name is inscribed on the obelisk installed on the mass grave. The monument in Novgorod was opened on January 20, 1964. The figure of a boy in a hat with earflaps and a machine gun in his hands is carved from light granite. The hero’s name is given to streets in St. Petersburg, Pskov, Staraya Russa, Okulovka, the village of Pola, the village of Parfino, a motor ship of the Riga Shipping Company, in Novgorod - a street, the House of Pioneers, a training ship for young sailors in Staraya Russa. In Moscow, at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR, a monument to the hero was also erected.
The youngest hero of the Soviet Union
Valya Kotik . Young partisan scout Great Patriotic War in the detachment named after Karmelyuk, operating in temporarily occupied territory; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk region of Ukraine, according to one information in the family of an employee, according to another - a peasant. Of education, there are only 5 classes of secondary school in the regional center.
During the Great Patriotic War, being in the temporarily occupied Nazi troops territory, Valya Kotik worked to collect weapons and ammunition, drew and posted caricatures of the Nazis. Valentin and his peers received their first combat mission in the fall of 1941. The guys lay down in the bushes near the Shepetovka-Slavuta highway. Hearing the noise of the engine, they froze. It was scary. But when the car with the fascist gendarmes caught up with them, Valya Kotik stood up and threw a grenade. The head of the field gendarmerie was killed.
In October 1943, a young partisan scouted the location of the underground telephone cable of Hitler's headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the bombing of six railway trains and a warehouse. On October 29, 1943, while at his post, Valya noticed that the punitive forces had staged a raid on the detachment. Having killed a fascist officer with a pistol, he raised the alarm, and thanks to his actions, the partisans managed to prepare for battle.
On February 16, 1944, in a battle for the city of Izyaslav, Khmelnitsky region, a 14-year-old partisan scout was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the center of a park in the Ukrainian city of Shepetivka. For heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 58, Kotik Valentin Aleksandrovich was posthumously awarded title of Hero of the Soviet Union . He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" 2nd degree . A motor ship and a number of secondary schools are named after him; there used to be pioneer squads and detachments named after Vali Kotik. In Moscow and its hometown in 60, monuments were erected to him. There is a street named after the young hero in Yekaterinburg, Kyiv and Kaliningrad.