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 teenagers school age fought as part of military units (the so-called “sons and daughters of regiments” - the story of the same name by Valentin Kataev, the prototype of which was 11-year-old Isaac Rakov, is known).
For military merits, 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 escaped them for three days, twice broke 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 the 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. During her six school years, the cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl was awarded books six times with the caption: “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. Once, when a messenger from a partisan detachment did not arrive at the meeting place on time, Galya, half-frozen, snuck into the detachment herself, 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 on her in the cold, burned her on her back five-pointed star. 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 learn about what an amazing destiny of a person she, Nadya Bogdanova, was awarded with 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 off the girl from 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! 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 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.”
June 11, 1944 on central square In Kyiv, units were lined up to go to the front. 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 fodder 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 passenger 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.
January 24, 1943 in an unequal battle in the village Spicy 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! On that day and blue eyes Yuta and her red tie shone as it seemed never before.
But the earth was still groaning under the enemy’s 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, and the 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; he 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 members 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 future hero Soviet Union E. S. Zenkova, member of the organization 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).
Twelve of several thousand examples of unparalleled childhood courage
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War - how many were there? If you count - how could it be otherwise?! - the hero of every boy and every girl whom fate brought to war and made soldiers, sailors or partisans, then tens, if not hundreds of thousands.
According to official data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) of Russia, during the war there were over 3,500 military personnel under the age of 16 in combat units. At the same time, it is clear that not every unit commander who risked raising a son of the regiment found the courage to declare his pupil on command. You can understand how their father-commanders, who actually served as fathers to many, tried to hide the age of the little fighters by looking at the confusion in the award documents. On the yellowed archival sheets, the majority of minor military personnel indicate a clearly inflated age. The real one became clear much later, after ten or even forty years.
But there were also children and teenagers who fought in partisan detachments and were members of underground organizations! And there were much more of them: sometimes whole families joined the partisans, and if not, then almost every teenager who found himself on the occupied land had someone to avenge.
So “tens of thousands” is far from an exaggeration, but rather an understatement. And, apparently, we will never know the exact number of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War. But this is no reason not to remember them.
The boys walked from Brest to Berlin
The youngest of all known little soldiers - at least according to documents stored in military archives - can be considered a graduate of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 47th Guards Rifle Division, Sergei Aleshkin. IN archival documents you can find two certificates of award for a boy who was born in 1936 and ended up in the army on September 8, 1942, shortly after the punitive forces shot his mother and older brother for connections with the partisans. The first document, dated April 26, 1943, is about awarding him the medal “For Military Merit” due to the fact that “Comrade. ALESHKIN, the favorite of the regiment,” “with his cheerfulness, love for his unit and those around him, in extremely difficult moments, inspired cheerfulness and confidence in victory.” The second, dated November 19, 1945, is about awarding students of the Tula Suvorov Military School with the medal “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”: in the list of 13 Suvorov students, Aleshkin’s name comes first.
But still, such a young soldier is an exception even for wartime and for a country where the entire people, young and old, rose up to defend the Motherland. Most of the young heroes who fought at the front and behind enemy lines were on average 13–14 years old. The very first of them were defenders of the Brest Fortress, and one of the sons of the regiment - holder of the Order of the Red Star, Order of Glory III degree and medal "For Courage" Vladimir Tarnovsky, who served in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th rifle division - left his autograph on the Reichstag wall in victorious May 1945...
The youngest Heroes of the Soviet Union
These four names - Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik - have been the most famous symbol of the heroism of the young defenders of our Motherland for over half a century. Having fought in different places and having accomplished feats of different circumstances, they were all partisans and all were posthumously awarded the country's highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Two - Lena Golikov and Zina Portnova - were 17 years old by the time they showed unprecedented courage, two more - Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei - were only 14.
Lenya Golikov was the first of the four to receive the highest rank: the decree on the assignment was signed on April 2, 1944. The text says that Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union “for exemplary execution of command assignments and demonstrated courage and heroism in battle.” And indeed, in less than a year - from March 1942 to January 1943 - Lenya Golikov managed to take part in the defeat of three enemy garrisons, in the blowing up of more than a dozen bridges, in the capture of a German major general with secret documents... And died heroically in battle near the village of Ostray Luka, without waiting for a high reward for the capture of a strategically important “tongue”.
Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik were awarded the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union 13 years after the Victory, in 1958. Zina was awarded for the courage with which she conducted underground work, then served as a liaison between the partisans and the underground, and ultimately endured inhuman torment, falling into the hands of the Nazis at the very beginning of 1944. Valya - based on the totality of his exploits in the ranks of the Shepetovka partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, where he came after a year of work in an underground organization in Shepetivka itself. And Marat Kazei received the highest award only in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory: the decree conferring on him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was promulgated on May 8, 1965. For almost two years - from November 1942 to May 1944 - Marat fought as part of the partisan formations of Belarus and died, blowing up both himself and the Nazis surrounding him with the last grenade.
Over the past half century, the circumstances of the exploits of the four heroes have become known throughout the country: more than one generation has grown up from their example. Soviet schoolchildren, and the current ones are certainly told about them. But even among those who did not receive the highest award, there were many real heroes - pilots, sailors, snipers, scouts and even musicians.
Sniper Vasily Kurka
The war found Vasya a sixteen-year-old teenager. In the very first days he was mobilized to the labor front, and in October he achieved enrollment in the 726th Infantry Regiment of the 395th Infantry Division. At first, the boy of non-conscription age, who also looked a couple of years younger than his age, was left in the wagon train: they say, there is nothing for teenagers to do on the front line. But soon the guy achieved his goal and was transferred to a combat unit - to a sniper team.
Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum
An amazing military fate: from the first to the last day, Vasya Kurka fought in the same regiment of the same division! He made a good military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant and taking command of a rifle platoon. He chalked up, according to various sources, from 179 to 200 Nazis killed. He fought from Donbass to Tuapse and back, and then further to the West, to the Sandomierz bridgehead. It was there that Lieutenant Kurka was mortally wounded in January 1945, less than six months before the Victory.
Pilot Arkady Kamanin
15-year-old Arkady Kamanin arrived at the location of the 5th Guards Attack Air Corps with his father, who had been appointed commander of this illustrious unit. The pilots were surprised to learn that the son of the legendary pilot, one of the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union, a participant in the Chelyuskin rescue expedition, would work as an aircraft mechanic in a communications squadron. But they soon became convinced that the “general’s son” did not live up to their negative expectations at all. The boy did not hide behind the back of his famous father, but simply did his job well - and strived towards the sky with all his might.
Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee
Soon Arkady achieved his goal: first he takes to the air as a flight attendant, then as a navigator on a U-2, and then goes on his first independent flight. And finally - the long-awaited appointment: the son of General Kamanin becomes a pilot of the 423rd separate communications squadron. Before the victory, Arkady, who had risen to the rank of sergeant major, managed to fly almost 300 hours and earn three orders: two of the Red Star and one of the Red Banner. And if it weren’t for meningitis, which literally killed an 18-year-old boy in the spring of 1947, perhaps Kamanin Jr. would have been included in the cosmonaut corps, the first commander of which was Kamanin Sr.: Arkady managed to enroll in the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy back in 1946.
Frontline intelligence officer Yuri Zhdanko
Ten-year-old Yura ended up in the army by accident. In July 1941, he went to show the retreating Red Army soldiers a little-known ford on the Western Dvina and did not have time to return to his native Vitebsk, where the Germans had already entered. So he left with his unit to the east, all the way to Moscow, from there to begin the return journey to the west.
Yuri Zhdanko. Photo: russia-reborn.ru
Yura accomplished a lot along this path. In January 1942, he, who had never jumped with a parachute before, went to the rescue of partisans who were surrounded and helped them break through the enemy ring. In the summer of 1942, together with a group of fellow reconnaissance officers, he blew up a strategically important bridge across the Berezina, sending not only the bridge deck, but also nine trucks driving along it to the bottom of the river, and less than a year later he turned out to be the only one of all the messengers who managed to break through to the encircled battalion and help it get out of the “ring”.
By February 1944, the chest of the 13-year-old intelligence officer was decorated with the medal “For Courage” and the Order of the Red Star. But a shell that exploded literally under his feet interrupted Yura’s front-line career. He ended up in the hospital, from where he was sent to the Suvorov Military School, but did not pass due to health reasons. Then the retired young intelligence officer retrained as a welder and on this “front” he also managed to become famous, having traveled almost half of Eurasia with his welding machine - building pipelines.
Infantryman Anatoly Komar
Among the 263 Soviet soldiers who covered enemy embrasures with their bodies, the youngest was 15-year-old private of the 332nd reconnaissance company of the 252nd rifle division of the 53rd army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Anatoly Komar. The teenager joined the active army in September 1943, when the front came close to his to my native Slavyansk. This happened to him in almost the same way as to Yura Zhdanko, with the only difference being that the boy served as a guide not to the retreating, but to the advancing Red Army soldiers. Anatoly helped them go deep into the German frontline, and then left with the advancing army to the west.
Young partisan. Photo: Imperial War Museum
But, unlike Yura Zhdanko, Tolya Komar’s front-line path was much shorter. For only two months he had the opportunity to wear the shoulder straps that had recently appeared in the Red Army and go on reconnaissance missions. In November of the same year, returning from a free search behind German lines, a group of scouts revealed themselves and was forced to break through to their own in battle. The last obstacle on the way back was a machine gun, pinning the reconnaissance unit to the ground. Anatoly Komar threw a grenade at him, and the fire died down, but as soon as the scouts got up, the machine gunner began shooting again. And then Tolya, who was closest to the enemy, stood up and fell on the machine gun barrel, at the cost of his life, buying his comrades precious minutes for a breakthrough.
Sailor Boris Kuleshin
In the cracked photograph, a boy of about ten stands against the backdrop of sailors in black uniforms with ammunition boxes on their backs and the superstructure of a Soviet cruiser. His hands tightly grip a PPSh assault rifle, and on his head he wears a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Tashkent.” This is a student of the crew of the leader of the Tashkent destroyers, Borya Kuleshin. The photo was taken in Poti, where, after repairs, the ship called for another load of ammunition for the besieged Sevastopol. It was here that twelve-year-old Borya Kuleshin appeared at the Tashkent gangplank. His father died at the front, his mother, as soon as Donetsk was occupied, was driven to Germany, and he himself managed to escape across the front line to his own people and, together with the retreating army, reach the Caucasus.
Boris Kuleshin. Photo: weralbum.ru
While they were persuading the ship’s commander, Vasily Eroshenko, while they were making a decision in which combat unit to enlist the cabin boy, the sailors managed to give him a belt, a cap and a machine gun and take a photograph of the new crew member. And then there was the transition to Sevastopol, the first raid on “Tashkent” in Bori’s life and the first clips in his life for an anti-aircraft artillery machine, which he, along with other anti-aircraft gunners, gave to the shooters. It was at his combat post that he was wounded on July 2, 1942, when German aircraft tried to sink a ship in the port of Novorossiysk. After the hospital, Borya followed Captain Eroshenko to a new ship - the guards cruiser "Red Caucasus". And already here he received a well-deserved reward: nominated for the medal “For Courage” for the battles on “Tashkent”, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the decision of the front commander, Marshal Budyonny and member of the Military Council, Admiral Isakov. And in the next front-line photo he is already showing off in the new uniform of a young sailor, on whose head is a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Red Caucasus”. It was in this uniform that in 1944 Borya went to the Tbilisi Nakhimov School, where in September 1945 he, along with other teachers, educators and students, was awarded the medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”
Musician Petr Klypa
Fifteen-year-old student of the musical platoon of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, Pyotr Klypa, like other minor inhabitants of the Brest Fortress, had to go to the rear with the beginning of the war. But Petya refused to leave the fighting citadel, which, among others, was defended by his only relative - his older brother, Lieutenant Nikolai. So he became one of the first teenage soldiers in the history of the Great Patriotic War and a full-fledged participant in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress.
Peter Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com
He fought there until the beginning of July, until he received an order, together with the remnants of the regiment, to break through to Brest. This is where Petya's ordeal began. Having crossed the tributary of the Bug, he, along with other colleagues, was captured, from which he soon managed to escape. I got to Brest, lived there for a month and moved east, behind the retreating Red Army, but did not reach it. During one of the overnight stays, he and a friend were discovered by police, and the teenagers were sent to forced labor in Germany. Petya was released only in 1945 by American troops, and after verification he even managed to serve for several months in Soviet army. And upon returning to his homeland, he again ended up in jail because he succumbed to the persuasion of an old friend and helped him speculate with the loot. Pyotr Klypa was released only seven years later. For this he had to thank the historian and writer Sergei Smirnov, who piece by piece recreated the history of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and, of course, did not miss the story of one of its youngest defenders, who, after his liberation, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
According to well-known statistics, the Great Patriotic War claimed about 27 million lives of citizens of the Soviet Union. Of these, about 10 million are soldiers, the rest are old people, women, and children. But statistics are silent about how many children died during the Great Patriotic War. There simply is no such data. The war crippled thousands of children's destinies and took away a bright and joyful childhood. The children of war, as best they could, brought Victory closer to the best of their, albeit small, albeit weak, strength. They drank a full cup of grief, perhaps too big for little man, because the beginning of the war coincided for them with the beginning of life... How many of them were driven to a foreign land... How many were killed by the unborn...
During the Great Patriotic War, hundreds of thousands of boys and girls went to military registration and enlistment offices, gained a year or two more, and went off to defend their Motherland; many died for it. Children of war often suffered no less from it than the soldiers at the front. War-torn childhood, suffering, hunger, death made the children adults early, instilling in them childlike fortitude, courage, the ability to self-sacrifice, to feat in the name of the Motherland, in the name of Victory. Children fought along with adults both in the active army and in partisan detachments. And these were not isolated cases. According to Soviet sources, there were tens of thousands of such guys during the Great Patriotic War.
Here are the names of some of them: Volodya Kazmin, Yura Zhdanko, Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Lara Mikheenko, Valya Kotik, Tanya Morozova, Vitya Korobkov, Zina Portnova. Many of them fought so hard that they earned military orders and medals, and four: Marat Kazei, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova, Lenya Golikov, became Heroes of the Soviet Union. From the first days of the occupation, boys and girls began to act at their own risk, which was truly fatal.
The guys collected rifles, cartridges, machine guns, grenades left over from the battles, and then handed it all over to the partisans; of course, they took a serious risk. Many schoolchildren, again at their own peril and risk, conducted reconnaissance and served as messengers in partisan detachments. We rescued wounded Red Army soldiers and helped underground fighters to escape our prisoners of war from German concentration camps. They set fire to German warehouses with food, equipment, uniforms, and fodder, and blew up railway cars and locomotives. Both boys and girls fought on the “children's front”. It was especially widespread in Belarus.
In units and subunits at the front, teenagers aged 13-15 often fought alongside soldiers and commanders. These were mainly children who had lost their parents, in most cases killed or driven away by the Germans to Germany. Children left in destroyed cities and villages became homeless, doomed to starvation. It was scary and difficult to stay in enemy-occupied territory. Children could be sent to a concentration camp, taken to work in Germany, turned into slaves, made donors for German soldiers, etc.
In addition, the Germans in the rear were not at all shy, and dealt with the children with all cruelty. "...Often, because of entertainment, a group of Germans on vacation arranged a release for themselves: they threw a piece of bread, the children ran to it, followed by machine-gun fire. How many children died because of such amusements of the Germans throughout the country! Children swollen from hunger could without meaning to take something edible from a German, and then there’s a burst of fire from the machine gun, and the child is forever full!” (Solokhina N.Ya., Kaluga region, Lyudinovo, from the article “We do not come from childhood”, “World of News”, No. 27, 2010, p. 26).
Therefore, the Red Army units passing through these places were sensitive to such guys and often took them with them. The sons of the regiments - children of the war years - fought against the German occupiers on an equal basis with adults. Marshal Bagramyan recalled that the courage, bravery of the teenagers, and their ingenuity in carrying out tasks amazed even old and experienced soldiers.
"Fedya Samodurov. Fedya is 14 years old, he is a student of a motorized rifle unit, commanded by Guard Captain A. Chernavin. Fedya was picked up in his homeland, in a destroyed village in the Voronezh region. Together with the unit, he participated in the battles for Ternopil, with a machine-gun crew he kicked the Germans out of the city When almost the entire crew was killed, the teenager, together with the surviving soldier, took up the machine gun, firing long and hard, and detained the enemy, Fedya was awarded the medal “For Courage.”
Vanya Kozlov. Vanya is 13 years old, he was left without family and has been in a motorized rifle unit for two years now. At the front, he delivers food, newspapers and letters to soldiers in the most difficult conditions.
Petya Zub. Petya Zub chose an equally difficult specialty. He decided long ago to become a scout. His parents were killed, and he knows how to settle accounts with the damned German. Together with experienced scouts, he gets to the enemy, reports his location by radio, and the artillery, at their direction, fires, crushing the fascists." ("Arguments and Facts", No. 25, 2010, p. 42).
A graduate of the 63rd Guards Tank Brigade, Anatoly Yakushin, received the Order of the Red Star for saving the life of the brigade commander. There are quite a lot of examples of heroic behavior of children and teenagers at the front...
A lot of these guys died and went missing during the war. In Vladimir Bogomolov’s story “Ivan” you can read about the fate of a young intelligence officer. Vanya was originally from Gomel. His father and sister died during the war. The boy had to go through a lot: he was in the partisans, and in Trostyanets - in the death camp. Mass shootings, cruel treatment of the population also caused a great desire for revenge in children. When they found themselves in the Gestapo, the teenagers showed amazing courage and resilience. This is how the author describes the death of the hero of the story: “...On December 21 of this year, at the location of the 23rd Army Corps, in a restricted area near the railway, auxiliary police officer Efim Titkov noticed and, after two hours of observation, detained a Russian student, 10-12 years old. , lying in the snow and watching the movement of trains on the Kalinkovichi - Klinsk section... During interrogations, he behaved defiantly: he did not hide his hostile attitude towards the German army and the German Empire. In accordance with the directive of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of November 11, 1942, he was shot on December 25. 43 at 6.55".
Girls also actively participated in the underground and partisan struggle in the occupied territory. Fifteen-year-old Zina Portnova came from Leningrad to visit her relatives in 1941 for the summer holidays in the village of Zuy, Vitebsk region. During the war, she became an active participant in the Obol anti-fascist underground youth organization “Young Avengers”. While working in the canteen of a retraining course for German officers, at the direction of the underground, she poisoned the food. She took part in other acts of sabotage, distributed leaflets among the population, and conducted reconnaissance on instructions from a partisan detachment. In December 1943, returning from a mission, she was arrested in the village of Mostishche and identified as a traitor. During one of the interrogations, she grabbed the investigator’s pistol from the table, shot him and two other Nazis, tried to escape, but was captured, brutally tortured and on January 13, 1944, shot in the Polotsk prison.
And sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Olya Demesh with her younger sister Lida at the Orsha station in Belarus, on instructions from the commander of the partisan brigade S. Zhulin, used magnetic mines to blow up fuel tanks. Of course, girls attracted much less attention from German guards and policemen than teenage boys or adult men. But the girls were just right to play with dolls, and they fought with Wehrmacht soldiers!
Thirteen-year-old Lida often took a basket or bag and went to the railway tracks to collect coal, obtaining intelligence about German military trains. If the guards stopped her, she explained that she was collecting coal to heat the room in which the Germans lived. Olya’s mother and little sister Lida were captured and shot by the Nazis, but Olya continued to fearlessly carry out the partisans’ tasks. The Nazis promised a generous reward for the head of the young partisan Olya Demesh - land, a cow and 10 thousand marks. Copies of her photograph were distributed and sent to all patrol officers, policemen, wardens and secret agents. Capture and deliver her alive - that was the order! But they failed to catch the girl. Olga destroyed 20 German soldiers and officers, derailed 7 enemy trains, conducted reconnaissance, participated in the “rail war”, and in the destruction of German punitive units.
From the first days of the war, the children had a great desire to help the front in some way. In the rear, children did their best to help adults in all matters: they participated in air defense - they were on duty on the roofs of houses during enemy raids, built defensive fortifications, collected ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal, medicinal plants, participated in collecting things for the Red Army, worked on Sundays .
The guys worked for days in factories, factories and factories, standing at the machines instead of brothers and fathers who had gone to the front. Children also worked at defense enterprises: they made fuses for mines, fuses for hand grenades, smoke bombs, colored flares, and assembled gas masks. Worked in agriculture, grew vegetables for hospitals. In school sewing workshops, pioneers sewed underwear and tunics for the army. The girls knitted warm clothes for the front: mittens, socks, scarves, and sewed tobacco pouches. The guys helped the wounded in hospitals, wrote letters to their relatives under their dictation, staged performances for the wounded, organized concerts, bringing a smile to war-weary adult men. E. Yevtushenko has a touching poem about one such concert:
"The radio was turned off in the room...
And someone stroked my cowlick.
In the Ziminsky hospital for the wounded
Our children's choir gave a concert..."
Meanwhile, hunger, cold, and disease quickly dealt with fragile little lives.
A number of objective reasons: the departure of teachers to the army, the evacuation of the population from the western regions to the eastern, the inclusion of students in labor activity due to the departure of family breadwinners for the war, the transfer of many schools to hospitals, etc., prevented the deployment of a universal seven-year compulsory school in the USSR during the war. training started in the 30s. In the remaining educational institutions training was carried out in two, three, and sometimes four shifts. At the same time, the children were forced to store firewood for the boiler houses themselves. There were no textbooks, and due to a shortage of paper, they wrote on old newspapers between the lines. Nevertheless, new schools were opened and additional classes were created. Boarding schools were created for evacuated children. For those youth who left school at the beginning of the war and were employed in industry or agriculture, schools for working and rural youth were organized in 1943.
There are still many little-known pages in the chronicles of the Great Patriotic War, for example, the fate of kindergartens. “It turns out that in December 1941, kindergartens were operating in bomb shelters in besieged Moscow. When the enemy was repulsed, they resumed their work faster than many universities. By the fall of 1942, 258 kindergartens had opened in Moscow!
More than five hundred teachers and nannies dug trenches on the outskirts of the capital in the fall of 1941. Hundreds worked in logging operations. The teachers, who just yesterday were dancing with the children in a round dance, fought in the Moscow militia. Natasha Yanovskaya, a kindergarten teacher in the Baumansky district, died heroically near Mozhaisk. The teachers who remained with the children did not perform any feats. They simply saved children whose fathers were fighting and whose mothers were at work. Most kindergartens became boarding schools during the war; children were there day and night. And in order to feed children in half-starvation, protect them from the cold, give them at least a modicum of comfort, occupy them with benefit for the mind and soul - such work required great love for children, deep decency and boundless patience." (D. Shevarov " World of News", No. 27, 2010, p. 27).
"Play now, children.
Grow in freedom!
That's why you need red
Childhood is given", wrote N.A. Nekrasov, but the war also deprived kindergarteners of their “red childhood.” These little children also grew up early, quickly forgetting how to be naughty and capricious. Recovering soldiers from hospitals came to children's matinees in kindergartens. The wounded soldiers applauded the little artists for a long time, smiling through their tears... The warmth of the children's holiday warmed the wounded souls of the front-line soldiers, reminded them of home, and helped them return from the war unharmed. Children from kindergartens and their teachers also wrote letters to soldiers at the front, sent drawings and gifts.
The children's games have changed, "... a new game has appeared - hospital. They played hospital before, but not like this. Now the wounded are for them real people. But they play war less often, because no one wants to be a fascist. Trees perform this role for them. They shoot snowballs at them. We learned to provide assistance to the injured - the fallen, the bruised." From a boy's letter to a front-line soldier: "We used to often play war, but now much less often - we're tired of the war, it would sooner end so that we could live well again..." (Ibid.).
Due to the death of their parents, many homeless children appeared in the country. The Soviet state, despite the difficult wartime, still fulfilled its obligations to children left without parents. To combat neglect, a network of children's reception centers and orphanages was organized and opened, and employment of teenagers was organized. Many families of Soviet citizens began to take in orphans, where they found new parents. Unfortunately, not all teachers and heads of children's institutions were distinguished by honesty and decency. Here are some examples.
"In the autumn of 1942, in the Pochinkovsky district of the Gorky region, children dressed in rags were caught stealing potatoes and grain from collective farm fields. It turned out that the pupils of the district orphanage. And they did this not at all out of a good life. Upon further investigation, local police discovered a criminal group, or, in fact, a gang, consisting of employees of this institution. In total, seven people were arrested in the case, including the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev, accountant Sdobnov, storekeeper Mukhina and other persons. During the searches, 14 children's coats, seven suits, 30 meters of cloth, 350 meters of textiles and other illegally appropriated property, allocated with great difficulty by the state during this harsh wartime, were confiscated from them.
The investigation established that by not delivering the required quota of bread and food, these criminals stole seven tons of bread, half a ton of meat, 380 kg of sugar, 180 kg of cookies, 106 kg of fish, 121 kg of honey, etc. during 1942 alone. The orphanage workers sold all these scarce products on the market or simply ate them themselves. Only one comrade Novoseltsev received fifteen portions of breakfast and lunch every day for himself and his family members. Thanks to the pupils, the rest of us ate well too. service staff. The children were fed “dishes” made from rotten vegetables, citing poor supplies. For the entire 1942, they were only given one candy for the 25th anniversary once. October revolution... And what is most surprising, the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev in the same 1942 received a certificate of honor from the People's Commissariat of Education for excellent educational work. All these fascists were deservedly sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
"Similar cases of crimes and failure to comply teaching staff their responsibilities were also revealed in other regions. Thus, in November 1942, a special message was sent to the Saratov City Defense Committee about the difficult financial and living situation of orphanage residents... Boarding schools are poorly heated or have no fuel at all, children are not provided with warm clothes and shoes, as a result of non-compliance with basic social and hygienic standards infectious diseases are observed. Educational work neglected... In the boarding school in the village of Nesterovo, on some days the children did not receive bread at all, as if they lived not in the rear Saratov region, but in besieged Leningrad. Education was abandoned long ago due to the lack of teachers and lack of premises. In boarding schools in the Rivne region, in the village of Volkovo and others, children also did not receive bread at all for several days." (Ibid. p. 391-392).
“Oh, war, what have you done, vile....” Over the long four years that the Great Patriotic War lasted, children, from toddlers to high school students, fully experienced all its horrors. War every day, every second, every dream, and so on for almost four years. But war is hundreds of times more terrible if you see it through a child’s eyes... And no amount of time can heal the wounds of war, especially children’s. “These years that once were, the bitterness of childhood does not allow me to forget...”
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Marat Kazei Pioneer hero Marat Kazei was born in 1929 into a family of ardent Bolsheviks. They named him such an unusual name in honor of the seagoing vessel of the same name, where his father served...
Marat Kazei
Pioneer hero Marat Kazei was born in 1929 into a family of ardent Bolsheviks. They named him with such an unusual name in honor of the seagoing vessel of the same name, where his father served for 10 years.
Soon after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Marat’s mother began to actively help the partisans in the capital of Belarus; she sheltered wounded soldiers and helped them recover for further battles. But the Nazis found out about this and hanged the woman.
Soon after the death of his mother, Marat Kazei and his sister joined a partisan detachment, where the boy began to be listed as a scout. Brave and flexible, Marat often easily made his way into Nazi military units and brought important information. In addition, the pioneer participated in organizing many acts of sabotage at German targets.
The boy also demonstrated his courage and heroism in direct combat with enemies - even after being wounded, he gathered his strength and continued to attack the Nazis.
At the very beginning of 1943, Marat was offered to go to a quiet area, far from the front, accompanying his sister Ariadne, who had significant health problems. The pioneer would have easily been released to the rear, since he had not yet reached the age of 18, but Kazei refused and remained to fight further.
A significant feat was accomplished by Marat Kazei in the spring of 1943, when the Nazis surrounded a partisan detachment near one of the Belarusian villages. The teenager got out of the ring of enemies and led the Red Army soldiers to help the partisans. The Nazis were dispersed, the Soviet soldiers were saved.
Recognizing the teenager’s considerable merits in military battles, open combat and as a saboteur, at the end of 1943 Marat Kazei was awarded three times: two medals and an order.
Marat Kazei met his heroic death on May 11, 1944. The pioneer and his friend were walking back from reconnaissance, and suddenly the Nazis surrounded them. Kazei’s partner was shot by the enemies, and the teenager blew himself up with the last grenade so that he could not be captured. There is an alternative opinion among historians that young hero He wanted to prevent him so much that if the Nazis recognized him, they would severely punish the inhabitants of the entire village where he lived. The third opinion is that the young man decided to deal with this and take with him several Nazis who came too close to him.
In 1965, Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to the young hero was erected in the capital of Belarus, depicting the scene of his heroic death. Many streets throughout the USSR were named after the young man. In addition, a children's camp was organized, where students were brought up by the example of the young hero, and they were instilled with the same ardent and selfless love to the Motherland. He also bore the name "Marat Kazei".
Valya Kotik
Pioneer hero Valentin Kotik was born in 1930 in Ukraine, into a peasant family. When the Great Patriotic War began, the boy had only completed five years of schooling. During his studies, Valya showed himself to be a sociable, intelligent student, a good organizer and a born leader.
When the Nazis captured Vali Kotik’s hometown, he was only 11 years old. Historians claim that the pioneer immediately began helping adults collect ammunition and weapons, which were sent to the line of fire. Valya and his comrades picked up pistols and machine guns from the sites of military clashes and secretly handed them over to the partisans in the forest. In addition, Kotik himself drew caricatures of the Nazis and hung them up in the city.
In 1942, Valentin was accepted into the underground organization of his hometown as an intelligence officer. There is information about his exploits committed as part of a partisan detachment in 1943. In the fall of 1943, Kotik obtained information about a communication cable buried deep underground, which was used by the Nazis; it was successfully destroyed.
Valya Kotik also blew up Nazi warehouses and trains and was ambushed many times. While still a young hero, he found out information about Nazi posts for the partisans.
In the fall of 1943, the boy again saved the lives of many partisans. While standing on duty, he was attacked. Valya Kotik killed one of the Nazis and reported the danger to his comrades.
For his many exploits, pioneer hero Valya Kotik was awarded two orders and a medal.
There are two versions of the death of Valentin Kotik. The first is that he died at the beginning of 1944 (February 16) in a battle for one of the Ukrainian cities. The second is that the relatively lightly wounded Valentin was sent on a convoy to the rear after the fighting, and this convoy was bombed by the Nazis.
During the Soviet era, all students knew the name of the brave teenager, as well as all his achievements. A monument to Valentin Kotik was erected in Moscow.
Volodya Dubinin
Pioneer hero Volodya Dubinin was born in 1927. His father was a sailor and a former Red partisan. Already with youth Volodya demonstrated a lively mind, quick wit and dexterity. He read a lot, took photographs, and made aircraft models. Father Nikifor Semenovich often told his children about his heroic partisan past and the formation of Soviet power.
At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, my father went to the front. Volodya’s mother, with him and his sister, went to visit relatives near Kerch, in the village of Stary Karantin.
Meanwhile, the enemy was approaching. Part of the population decided to join the partisans, taking refuge in nearby quarries. Volodya Dubinin and other pioneers asked to join them. The leader of the partisan detachment, Alexander Zyabrev, hesitated and agreed. IN underground catacombs there were many narrow places where only children could penetrate, and therefore, he reasoned, they could conduct reconnaissance. This was the beginning of the heroic activity of the pioneer hero Volodya Dubinin, who rescued the partisans many times.
Since the partisans did not sit silently in the quarries after the Nazis captured Old Quarantine, but organized all sorts of sabotage for them, the Nazis staged a blockade of the catacombs. They sealed all the exits from the quarries, filling them with cement, and it was at this moment that Volodya and his comrades did a lot for the partisans.
The boys penetrated narrow crevices and reconnoitered the situation in Old Quarantine captured by the Germans. Volodya Dubinin was the smallest in build and one day he was the only one left who could get to the surface. At this time, his comrades helped as best they could, diverting the attention of the fascists from those places where Volodya was getting out. Then they were active in another place so that Volodya could return back to the catacombs just as unnoticed in the evening.
The boys not only scouted out the situation - they brought ammunition and weapons, medicine for the wounded and did other useful things. Volodya Dubinin differed from everyone else in the effectiveness of his actions. He cleverly deceived Nazi patrols, making his way into the quarries, and, among other things, accurately memorized important figures, for example, the number of enemy troops in different villages.
In the winter of 1941, the Nazis decided to put an end to the partisans in the quarries near Old Karantin once and for all by flooding them with water. Volodya Dubinin, who went on reconnaissance duty, found out about this in time and promptly warned the underground fighters about the insidious plan of the fascists. In order to
In time, he returned to the catacombs in the middle of the day, risking being seen by the Nazis.
The partisans urgently set up a barrier by building a dam, and thanks to this they were saved. This is the most significant feat of Volodya Dubinin, which saved the lives of many partisans, their wives and children, because some went into the catacombs with their entire families.
At the time of his death, Volodya Dubinin was 14 years old. This happened after the New Year of 1942. On the orders of the partisan commander, he went to the Adzhimushkai quarries to establish contact with them. On the road, he met Soviet military units that liberated Kerch from the fascist invaders.
All that remained was to rescue the partisans from the quarries, defusing the minefield that the Nazis had left behind. Volodya became a guide for the sappers. But one of them made a fatal mistake and the boy, along with four soldiers, was blown up by a mine. They were buried in a common grave in the city of Kerch. And already posthumously, the pioneer hero Volodya Dubinin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Zina Portnova
Zina Portnova performed several feats and acts of sabotage against the Nazis, being a member of the underground organization in the city of Vitebsk. The inhuman torment that she had to endure from the Nazis is forever in the hearts of her descendants and, many years later, fills us with sorrow.
Zina Portnova was born in 1926 in Leningrad. Before the start of the war there was an ordinary girl. In the summer of 1941, she and her sister went to visit her grandmother in the Vitebsk region. After the start of the war, German invaders almost immediately came to this area. The girls were unable to return to their parents and stayed with their grandmother.
Almost immediately after the start of the war, many underground cells and partisan detachments were organized in the Vitebsk region to fight the fascists. Zina Portnova became a member of the Young Avengers group. Their leader Efrosinya Zenkova was seventeen years old. Zina turned 15.
Zina’s most significant feat is the case of poisoning more than a hundred fascists. The girl managed to do this while performing the duties of a kitchen worker. She was suspected of this sabotage, but she herself ate the poisoned soup and they abandoned her. She herself miraculously remained alive after this; her grandmother treated her with the help of medicinal herbs.
Upon completion of this matter, Zina went to the partisans. Here I became a Komsomol member. But in the summer of 1943, a traitor revealed the Vitebsk underground, 30 young people were executed. Only a few managed to escape. The partisans instructed Zina to contact the survivors. However, she failed, she was recognized and arrested.
The Nazis already knew that Zina was also part of the Young Avengers, they just didn’t know that it was she who poisoned the German officers. They tried to “split” her so that she would betray those members of the underground who managed to escape. But Zina stood her ground and actively resisted. During one of the interrogations, she snatched a Mauser from a German and shot three fascists. But she couldn’t escape - she was wounded in the leg. Zina Portnova could not kill herself - it was a misfire.
After this, the angry fascists began to brutally torture the girl. They poked Zina's eyes out, stuck needles under her nails, and burned her with hot irons. She just dreamed of dying. After another torture, she threw herself under a passing car, but the German monsters saved her to continue the torture.
In the winter of 1944, Zina Portnova, exhausted, crippled, blind and completely gray-haired, was finally shot in the square along with other Komsomol members. Only fifteen years later this story became known to the world and Soviet citizens.
In 1958, Zina Portnova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.
Alexander Chekalin
Sasha Chekalin accomplished several feats and died heroically at the age of sixteen. He was born in the spring of 1925 in the Tula region. Following the example of his father, a hunter, Alexander was able to shoot very accurately and navigate the terrain at his age.
At the age of fourteen, Sasha was accepted into the Komsomol. By the beginning of the war, he had graduated from the eighth grade. A month after the Nazi attack, the front became close to the Tula region. Father and son Chekalin immediately joined the partisans.
In the early days, the young partisan showed himself to be a smart and brave fighter; he successfully obtained information about important secrets of the Nazis. Sasha also trained as a radio operator and successfully connected his detachment with other partisans. The young Komsomol member also organizes very effective sabotage of the Nazis on the railway. Chekalin often sits in ambushes, punishes defectors, and undermines enemy posts.
At the end of 1941, Alexander became seriously ill with a cold, and in order for him to receive treatment, the partisan command sent him to a teacher in one of the villages. But when Sasha got to the designated place, it turned out that the teacher was arrested by the Nazis and taken to another locality. Then the young man climbed into the house where they lived with their parents. But the traitorous elder tracked him down and informed the Nazis about his arrival.
The Nazis besieged Sasha's home and ordered him to come out with his hands up. The Komsomol began firing. When the ammunition ran out, Sasha threw a lemon, but it did not explode. The young man was captured. For almost a week he was very cruelly tortured, demanding information about the partisans. But Chekalin didn’t say anything.
Later, the Nazis hanged the young man in front of the people. A sign was attached to the dead body that this is how all partisans are executed, and it hung like that for three weeks. Only when Soviet soldiers finally liberated the Tula region was the body of the young hero buried with honor in the city of Likhvin, which was later renamed Chekalin.
Already in 1942, Alexander Pavlovich Chekalin was posthumously given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lenya Golikov
Pioneer hero Lenya Golikov was born in 1926 from the villages of the Novgorod region. Parents were workers. He studied for only seven years, after which he went to work at a factory.
In 1941, Leni’s native village was captured by the Nazis. Having seen enough of their atrocities, the teenager, after his release, native land voluntarily joined the partisans. At first they didn’t want to take him because of his young age (15 years), but he former teacher vouched for him.
In the spring of 1942, Golikov became a full-time partisan intelligence officer. He acted very smartly and courageously, and had twenty-seven successful military operations to his credit.
The most important achievement of the pioneer hero came in August 1942, when he and another intelligence officer blew up a Nazi car and captured documents that were very important for the partisans.
In the last month of 1942, the Nazis began to pursue the partisans with redoubled force. January 1943 turned out to be especially difficult for them. The detachment in which Lenya Golikov served, about twenty people, took refuge in the village of Ostraya Luka. We decided to pass the night quietly. But a local traitor betrayed the partisans.
One hundred and fifty Nazis attacked the partisans at night, they bravely entered the battle, and only six escaped the ring of punitive forces. Only at the end of the month did they reach their own people and tell them that their comrades had died heroes in an unequal battle. Among them was Lenya Golikov.
In 1944, Leonid was given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Children - heroes of the Great Patriotic War
Marat Kazei
War struck the Belarusian land. The Nazis burst into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Alexandrovna Kazeya. 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 Marat soon 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, Komsomol member Ada, the pioneer Marat Kazei went to join 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, pioneer 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.
Lenya Golikov
He grew up in the village of Lukino, on the banks of the Polo River, which flows into the legendary Lake Ilmen. When his native village was captured by the enemy, the boy went to the partisans.
More than once he went on reconnaissance missions and brought important information to the partisan detachment. And enemy trains and cars flew downhill, bridges collapsed, enemy warehouses burned...
There was a battle in his life that Lenya fought one on one with a fascist general. A grenade thrown by a boy hit a car. A Nazi man got out of it with a briefcase in his hands and, firing back, began to run. Lenya is behind him. He pursued the enemy for almost a kilometer and finally killed him. The portfolio contained very important documents. The partisan headquarters immediately transported them by plane to Moscow.
There were many more fights in his short life! And the young hero, who fought shoulder to shoulder with adults, never flinched. He died near the village of Ostray Luka in the winter of 1943, when the enemy was especially fierce, feeling that the earth was burning under his feet, that there would be no mercy for him...
Valya Kotik
He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Khmelnitsky region. He studied at school No. 4 in the city of Shepetovka, and was a recognized leader of the pioneers, his peers.
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 communists entrusted Valya with being 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. The pioneer, who had just turned fourteen years old, fought shoulder to shoulder with adults, liberating his native land. He is responsible for six enemy trains 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 Kotik died as a hero, and the Motherland posthumously awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to him was erected in front of the school where this brave pioneer studied.
Zina Portnova
The war found the Leningrad pioneer 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 participated in daring operations against the enemy, in sabotage, distributed leaflets, and conducted reconnaissance on instructions from a partisan detachment.
It was December 1943. Zina was returning from a mission. In the village of Mostishche she was betrayed by a traitor. 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 fired at point-blank range 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 pioneer 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.
Kostya Kravchuk
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.
Vasya Korobko
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. The Motherland awarded its little hero, who lived a short but such a bright life, 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.
Nadya Bogdanova
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 on her in the cold, 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 learn about what an amazing destiny of a person she, Nadya Bogdanova, was awarded with the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and medals.