Before the war, they were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped the elders, played, ran, jumped, broke their noses and knees. Only relatives, classmates and friends knew their names. The time has come - they showed how huge a small child's heart can become when a sacred love for the Motherland and hatred for its enemies flare up in it.
Boys. Girls. On their fragile shoulders lay the weight of adversity, disasters, grief of the war years. And they did not bend under this weight, they became stronger in spirit, more courageous, more enduring. little heroes big war. They fought next to the elders - fathers, brothers, next to the communists and Komsomol members.
Fought everywhere. At sea, like Borya Kuleshin. In the sky, like Arkasha Kamanin. In a partisan detachment, like Lenya Golikov. In the Brest Fortress, like Valya Zenkina. In the Kerch catacombs, like Volodya Dubinin. In the underground, like Volodya Shcherbatsevich. And not for a moment did young hearts tremble!
Their grown-up childhood was filled with such trials that even a very talented writer could come up with them, it would be hard to believe. But it was. It was in the history of our great country, it was in the fate of its little guys - ordinary boys and girls.
For military merits, tens of thousands of children and pioneers were awarded orders and medals:
Orders of Lenin were awarded - Tolya Shumov, Vitya Korobkov, Volodya Kaznacheev;
Order of the Red Banner - Volodya Dubinin, Yuli Kantemirov, Andrey Makarikhin, Kravchuk Kostya;
Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree - Valery Volkov, Sasha Kovalev;
Order of the Red Star - Volodya Samorukha, Shura Efremov, Vanya Andrianov, Vitya Kovalenko, Lenya Ankinovich.
Hundreds of pioneers were awarded the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War", over 15,000 - the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad", over 20,000 medals "For the Defense of Moscow".
Four pioneer heroes were awarded the title Hero Soviet Union : Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova.
Chekalin Alexander Pavlovich
Born on March 24, 1925 in the village of Peskovatskoye, now the Suvorov district of the Tula region. Russian. The house has now been turned into a functioning museum. The son of a hunter, from an early age he learned to shoot accurately, he knew the surrounding forests well. He played the mandolin, was fond of photography.
Mother Nadezhda Samoilovna Chekalina was the chairman of the collective farm. Alexander's older brother became a military man after the war. One of the younger sisters was scalded at the age of 2 and died.
He studied at a secondary school in the city of Likhvin. Member of the Komsomol since 1939.
He was captured along with the inhabitants of Peskovatsky at the beginning of the war, and on the way to Likhvin under escort, in front of the city, he persuaded everyone to flee into the forest.
In July 1941, Alexander Chekalin volunteered for a fighter detachment, then for the "Forward" partisan detachment, led by D.T. Teterichev, where he became a scout. He was engaged in collecting intelligence information about the deployment and number of German units, their weapons, and routes of movement. On an equal footing, he participated in ambushes, mined roads, undermined communications and derailed trains.
In early November, I caught a cold and came to native home lie down. Noticing the smoke from the chimney, the headman reported this to the German military commandant's office. The arriving German units surrounded the house and offered Sasha to surrender. In response, Sasha opened fire, and when the cartridges ran out, he threw a grenade, but it did not explode. He was captured and taken to the military commandant's office. For several days he was tortured, trying to get the necessary information from him. But having achieved nothing, they staged a demonstrative execution in the city square: he was hanged on November 6, 1941. Before his death, Sasha managed to shout: “Do not take them to Moscow! Don't defeat us!" Alexander Chekalin was posthumously awarded the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union on February 4, 1942.
Marat Kazei
The war fell on the Belarusian land. The Nazis broke into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Aleksandrovna Kazya. 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 furious.
Anna Alexandrovna Kazei was captured for her connection with the partisans, and soon Marat found out 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, a Komsomol member Ada, pioneer Marat Kazei went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest. He became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade. Penetrated into 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 participated in the battles and invariably showed courage, fearlessness, along with experienced demolition workers, mined railway.
Marat died in battle. He fought to the last bullet, and when he had only one grenade left, he let the 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.
Valya Kotik
February 11, 1930 - February 17, 1944 - pioneer hero, young reconnaissance partisan, the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. At the time of the feat, he was 14 years old. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously.
He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenetz-Podolsk (from 1954 until now - Khmelnytsky) region of Ukraine into a peasant family.
By the beginning of the war, he had only moved to the sixth grade, but from the first days of the war he began to fight the German invaders. In the autumn of 1941, together with his comrades, he killed the head of the field gendarmerie near the city of Shepetovka, throwing a grenade at the car in which he was traveling. Since 1942, he took an active part in the partisan movement on the territory of Ukraine. At first he was a liaison of the Shepetovskaya underground organization, then he participated in the battles. Since August 1943 - in the partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk under the command of I. A. Muzalev, he was wounded twice. In October 1943, he discovered an underground telephone cable, which was soon blown up, and the connection between the invaders and Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw was cut off. He also contributed to the undermining of six railway echelons and a warehouse.
On October 29, 1943, while on patrol, he noticed punishers who were about to raid the detachment. After killing the officer, he raised the alarm; thanks to his actions, the partisans managed to repulse the enemy.
In the battle for the city of Izyaslav on February 16, 1944, he was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the center of the park in the city of Shepetovka. In 1958, Valentin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lenya Golikov
In the Pskov region, in the village of Lukino, there lived a boy, Lenya Golikov. He studied at school, helped his parents with the housework, was friends with the guys. But the Great Patriotic War suddenly began, and all that he so dreamed of in peaceful life, suddenly broke off. When the war began, he was only 15 years old.
The Nazis seized his village, began to commit atrocities, tried to establish their own " new order". Together with adults, Lenya joined a partisan detachment to fight against the Nazis. The partisans attacked enemy columns, blew up trains, destroyed German soldiers and officers.
The Nazis were afraid of the partisans. Captured Germans stated during interrogations: “Behind every turn, behind every tree, behind every house and corner, we saw terrible Russian partisans. We were afraid to travel and walk alone. And the partisans were elusive.”
The young partisan Leni Golikov had a lot of military affairs. But one thing was special.
In August 1942, Lenya was in ambush near the road. Suddenly he saw that a luxurious German car was driving along the road. He knew that very important fascists were transported on such cars, and decided to stop this car at all costs. First, he looked to see if there were guards, let the car come closer, and then threw a grenade at it. A grenade exploded next to the car, and immediately two hefty Fritz jumped out of it and ran to Lena. But he was not afraid and began to shoot at them with a machine gun. He immediately laid down one, and the second began to run away into the forest, but Lenin's bullet caught up with him as well. One of the Nazis turned out to be General Richard Witz. They found important documents with him and immediately sent them to Moscow. Soon, from the General Staff of the partisan movement, an order was received to present all participants in the daring operation to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And there was only one participant... Young Lenya Golikov! It turns out that Lenya obtained valuable information - drawings and descriptions of new samples of German mines, inspection reports to higher command, minefield maps and other important military papers.
For this feat, Lenya Golikov was presented to the highest government award- medals Golden Star"and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But the hero did not have time to receive the award. In December 1942, Golikov's partisan detachment was surrounded by the Germans. After fierce fighting, the detachment managed to break through the encirclement and leave for another area. 50 people remained in the ranks, the radio was broken, the cartridges were running out. Attempts to establish contact with other detachments and stock up on food ended in the death of the partisans. On a January night in 1943, 27 exhausted fighters came out to the village of Ostraya Luka and occupied three extreme huts. Intelligence did not find anything suspicious - the German garrison was located a few kilometers away. The commander of the detachment of patrols decided not to put up, so as not to attract attention. In the morning, the sleep of the partisans was interrupted by the roar of a machine gun - a traitor was found in the village who told the Germans who had come to the village at night. I had to, fighting back, go to the forest ...
In that battle, the entire headquarters of the partisan brigade was killed. Among the fallen was Lenya Golikov. He received the title of Hero posthumously.
Zina Portnova was born in Leningrad. After the seventh grade in the summer of 1941, she came to visit her grandmother in the Belarusian village of Zuya for the holidays. There she found the war. Belarus was occupied by the Nazis.
From the first days of the occupation, the boys and girls began to act decisively, a secret organization "young avengers" was created. The guys fought against the fascist invaders. They blew up a pumping station, which delayed the sending of ten fascist echelons to the front. Distracting the enemy, the Avengers destroyed bridges and highways, blew up a local power plant, and burned down a factory. Obtaining information about the actions of the Germans, they immediately passed them on to the partisans.
Zina Portnova was assigned more and more difficult tasks. According to one of them, the girl managed to get a job in a German canteen. After working there for a while, she carried out an effective operation - she poisoned food for German soldiers. More than 100 fascists suffered from her dinner. The Germans began to accuse Zina. Wanting to prove her innocence, the girl tried the poisoned soup and only miraculously survived.
In 1943, traitors appeared who revealed secret information and handed over our guys to the Nazis. Many were arrested and shot. Then command partisan detachment instructed Portnova to establish contact with those who survived. The Nazis grabbed the young partisan when she was returning from a mission. Zina was terribly tortured. But the answer to the enemy was only her silence, contempt and hatred. The interrogations didn't stop.
“The Gestapo man went to the window. And Zina, rushing to the table, grabbed a pistol. Obviously sensing a rustle, the officer turned around impulsively, but the weapon was already in her hand. She pulled the trigger. For some reason I didn't hear the shot. I only saw how the German, clutching his chest with his hands, fell to the floor, and the second, who was sitting at the side table, jumped up from his chair and hastily unfastened the holster of his revolver. She pointed the gun at him as well. Again, almost without aiming, she pulled the trigger. Rushing to the exit, Zina yanked open the door, jumped out into the next room and from there onto the porch. There she almost point-blank shot at the sentry. Running out of the building of the commandant's office, Portnova rushed down the path in a whirlwind.
"If only I could run to the river," the girl thought. But the noise of the chase was heard from behind ... "Why don't they shoot?" The surface of the water seemed to be quite near. And beyond the river was a forest. She heard the sound of machine gun fire, and something sharp pierced her leg. Zina fell on the river sand. She still had enough strength, slightly rising, to shoot ... She saved the last bullet for herself.
When the Germans ran up very close, she decided that it was all over, and pointed the gun to her chest and pulled the trigger. But the shot did not follow: a misfire. The fascist knocked the pistol out of her weakening hands.
Zina was sent to prison. For more than a month, the Germans brutally tortured the girl, they wanted her to betray her comrades. But having taken an oath of allegiance to the Motherland, Zina kept her.
On the morning of January 13, 1944, a gray-haired and blind girl was taken to be shot. She walked, stumbling barefoot, through the snow.
The girl withstood all the torture. She truly loved our Motherland and died for it, firmly believing in our victory.
Zinaida Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
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Heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and their exploits
The battles have long died down. The veterans leave one by one. But the heroes of the Second World War of 1941-1945 and their exploits will forever remain in the memory of grateful descendants. This article will tell about the brightest personalities of those years and their immortal deeds. Some were still quite young, while others were no longer young. Each of the characters has its own character and its own destiny. But all of them were united by love for the Motherland and a willingness to sacrifice themselves for its good.Alexander Matrosov
Orphanage pupil Sasha Matrosov went to war at the age of 18. Immediately after the infantry school, he was sent to the front. February 1943 turned out to be "hot". Alexander's battalion went on the attack, and at some point the guy, along with several comrades, was surrounded. It was not possible to break through to our own - enemy machine guns fired too densely.
Soon Matrosov was left alone. His comrades perished under the bullets. The young man had only a few seconds to make a decision. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the last in his life. Wanting to bring at least some benefit to his native battalion, Alexander Matrosov rushed to the embrasure, covering it with his body. The fire is silent. The attack of the Red Army was ultimately successful - the Nazis retreated. And Sasha went to heaven as a young and handsome 19-year-old guy ...
Marat Kazei
When the Great Patriotic War began, Marat Kazei was only twelve. He lived in the village of Stankovo with his sister and parents. In the 41st he was in occupation. Marat's mother helped the partisans, providing them with her shelter and feeding them. Once the Germans found out about this and shot the woman. Left alone, the children, without hesitation, went to the forest and joined the partisans.
Marat, who had completed only four classes before the war, helped his senior comrades as much as he could. He was even taken on reconnaissance; and he also participated in undermining the German trains. In the 43rd, the boy was awarded the medal "For Courage", for the heroism shown during the breakthrough of the encirclement. The boy was wounded in that terrible battle.
And in 1944, Kazei was returning from intelligence with an adult partisan. They were noticed by the Germans and began to fire. The older comrade died. Marat fired back to the last bullet. And when he had only one grenade left, the teenager let the Germans get closer and blew himself up along with them. He was 15 years old.
Alexey Maresyev
The name of this man is known to every inhabitant of the former Soviet Union. After all, we are talking about a legendary pilot. Alexei Maresyev was born in 1916 and dreamed of the sky since childhood. Even the transferred rheumatism did not become an obstacle on the way to the dream. Despite the prohibitions of doctors, Alexei entered the flight - they took him after several futile attempts.
In 1941, the stubborn young man went to the front. The sky was not what he dreamed of. But it was necessary to defend the Motherland, and Maresyev did everything for this. Once his plane was shot down. Wounded in both legs, Aleksey managed to land the car on the territory occupied by the Germans and even somehow get through to his own.
But time has been lost. The legs were "devoured" by gangrene, and they had to be amputated. Where to go to a soldier without both limbs? After all, she was completely crippled ... But Alexei Maresyev was not one of those. He remained in the ranks and continued to fight the enemy.
As many as 86 times the winged car with the hero on board managed to take to the skies. Maresyev shot down 11 German planes. The pilot was lucky to survive in that terrible war and feel the heady taste of victory. He died in 2001. "The Tale of a Real Man" by Boris Polevoy is a work about him. It was the feat of Maresyev that inspired the author to write it.
Zinaida Portnova
Born in 1926, Zina Portnova met the war as a teenager. At that time, a native resident of Leningrad was visiting relatives in Belarus. Once in the occupied territory, she did not sit on the sidelines, but entered into partisan movement. Pasted leaflets, established contact with the underground ...
In 1943, the Germans grabbed the girl and dragged her to their lair. During the interrogation, Zina somehow managed to take a pistol from the table. She shot her tormentors - two soldiers and an investigator.
It was a heroic act that made the attitude of the Germans towards Zina even more brutal. It is impossible to convey in words the torment that the girl experienced during the terrible torture. But she was silent. Not a word could be squeezed out by the Nazis from her. As a result, the Germans shot their captive without getting anything from the heroine Zina Portnova.
Andrey Korzun
Andrei Korzun turned thirty in 1941. He was immediately called to the front, sent to the artillerymen. Korzun took part in the terrible battles near Leningrad, during one of which he was seriously wounded. It was November 5, 1943.As he fell, Korzun noticed that the ammunition depot was on fire. It was necessary to urgently put out the fire, otherwise an explosion of enormous force threatened to take many lives. Somehow, bleeding and in pain, the gunner crawled to the warehouse. The artilleryman did not have the strength to take off his overcoat and throw it on the flame. Then he covered the fire with his body. The explosion didn't happen. Andrei Korzun failed to survive.
Leonid Golikov
Another young hero- Lenya Golikov. Born in 1926. Lived in the Novgorod region. With the outbreak of war, he left to partisan. The courage and determination of this teenager was not to take. Leonid destroyed 78 fascists, a dozen enemy trains and even a couple of bridges.
The explosion that went down in history and claimed the German General Richard von Wirtz was his doing. The car of an important rank flew into the air, and Golikov took possession of valuable documents, for which he received the star of the Hero.
A brave partisan died in 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka during a German attack. The enemy significantly outnumbered our fighters in number, and they had no chance. Golikov fought until his last breath.
These are just six of the great many stories that permeated the entire war. Everyone who passed it, who even for a moment brought victory closer, is already a hero. Thanks to such as Maresyev, Golikov, Korzun, Matrosov, Kazei, Portnova and millions of other Soviet soldiers, the world got rid of the brown plague of the 20th century. And the reward for their deeds was eternal life!
Twelve of several thousand examples of unparalleled childish courage
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War - how many were there? If you count - how else? - 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 years there were over 3,500 servicemen under the age of 16 in combat units. At the same time, it is clear that not every unit commander who dared to take on the education of the son of the regiment, found the courage to declare a pupil on command. You can understand how their fathers-commanders, who really were many instead of fathers, tried to hide the age of the little fighters, by the confusion in the award documents. On the yellowed archival sheets, most of the underage servicemen indicate a clearly overestimated age. The real one became clear much later, after ten or even forty years.
But there were still children and teenagers who fought in partisan detachments and were members of underground organizations! And there were much more of them: sometimes whole families went to the partisans, and if not, then almost every teenager who ended up 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 that is no reason not to remember them.
The boys went from Brest to Berlin
The youngest of all known little soldiers - in any case, according to the documents stored in the military archives - can be considered a pupil of the 142nd Guards rifle regiment 47th Guards rifle division Sergei Aleshkin. In archival documents, one can find two certificates of awarding a boy who was born in 1936 and ended up in the army on September 8, 1942, shortly after the punishers shot his mother and older brother for their connection with the partisans. The first document dated April 26, 1943 - on awarding him the medal "For Military Merit" due to the fact that "Comrade. Aleshkin, the regiment's favorite, ""with his cheerfulness, love for the unit and those around him, in extremely difficult moments, instilled vigor and confidence in victory." The second, dated November 19, 1945, is about awarding students of the Tula Suvorov Military School with the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945": in the list of 13 Suvorov students, Aleshkin's name is first.
But still, such a young soldier is an exception even for wartime and for a country where all the people, young and old, have risen to defend their homeland. 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 the defenders of the Brest Fortress, and one of the sons of the regiment was a holder of the Order of the Red Star, the Order of Glory III degree and the medal "For Courage" Vladimir Tarnovsky, who served in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th rifle division, left his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag in the 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. They fought in different places and accomplished feats of different circumstances, all of them were 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 - by the time they had to show unprecedented courage, were 17 years old, two more - Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei - only 14.
Lenya Golikov was the first of the four who was awarded the highest rank: the decree on assignment was signed on April 2, 1944. The text says that Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union "for the exemplary performance of command assignments and the courage and heroism shown in battles." 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 undermining more than a dozen bridges, in capturing a German major general with secret documents ... And heroically die in battle near the village of Ostraya Luka, without waiting for a high reward for capturing a strategically important "language".
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 eventually endured inhuman torment, falling into the hands of the Nazis at the very beginning of 1944. Valya - according to the totality of exploits in the ranks of the Shepetov partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, where he came after a year of work in an underground organization in Shepetovka itself. And Marat Kazei was awarded the highest award only in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory: the decree on 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 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 of Soviet schoolchildren has grown up on their example, and the current generation is 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 caught Vasya at the age of sixteen. In the very first days, he was mobilized to the labor front, and in October he achieved admission to the 726th rifle regiment 395th Rifle Division. At first, a boy of unconscripted 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 got his way and was transferred to a combat unit - to a team of snipers.
Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum
Amazing military fate: from the first to 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. Recorded at his own expense, according to various sources, from 179 to 200 destroyed Nazis. He fought from the 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
At the location of the 5th Guards Assault Air Corps, 15-year-old Arkady Kamanin arrived with his father, who was appointed commander of this illustrious unit. The pilots were surprised to learn that the son of the legendary pilot, one of the first seven Heroes of the Soviet Union, a member of the Chelyuskin rescue expedition, would work as an aircraft mechanic in the communications squadron. But they soon became convinced that the "general's son" did not justify their negative expectations at all. The boy did not hide behind the back of the famous father, but simply did his job well - and with all his might strove for the sky.
Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee
Soon Arkady achieved his goal: first he takes to the air as a letnab, then as a navigator on the 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 foreman, managed to fly almost 300 hours and earn three orders: two - the Red Star and one - the Red Banner. And if it weren’t for meningitis, which literally killed an 18-year-old guy in the spring of 1947, literally in a matter of days, Kamanin Jr. would have been included in the cosmonaut detachment, the first commander of which was Kamanin Sr.: Arkady managed to enter the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy back in 1946.
Front-line scout 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. And so he left with a part to the east, to Moscow itself, in order to start the return journey to the west from there.
Yuri Zhdanko. Photo: russia-reborn.ru
On this path, Yura managed a lot. In January 1942, he, who had never jumped with a parachute before, went to the rescue of encircled partisans and helped them break through the enemy ring. In the summer of 1942, together with a group of reconnaissance colleagues, he blows up the strategically important bridge across the Berezina, sending to the bottom of the river not only the bridge deck, but also nine trucks passing through it, and less than a year later, he is the only one of all the messengers who managed to break through to the surrounded battalion and help him get out of the "ring".
By February 1944, the chest of the 13-year-old scout was decorated with the medal "For Courage" and the Order of the Red Star. But a shell that exploded literally underfoot interrupted Yura's front-line career. He ended up in the hospital, from where he went to Suvorov School but failed due to health reasons. Then the retired young intelligence officer retrained as a welder and also managed to become famous on this “front”, having traveled with his welding machine almost half of Eurasia - he built pipelines.
Infantryman Anatoly Komar
Among 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 got into the active army in September 1943, when the front came close to his native Slavyansk. It happened with him almost the same way as with Yura Zhdanko, with the only difference that the boy served as a guide not for the retreating, but for the advancing Red Army. Anatoly helped them go deep into the front line of the Germans, 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 a chance to wear epaulettes that had recently appeared in the Red Army and go on reconnaissance. In November of the same year, returning from a free search in the rear of the Germans, a group of scouts revealed themselves and was forced to break through to their own with a fight. The last obstacle on the way back was a machine gun, which pressed the reconnaissance to the ground. Anatoly Komar threw a grenade at him, and the fire subsided, but as soon as the scouts got up, the machine gunner began to shoot again. And then Tolya, who was closest to the enemy, got up and fell on a 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 ten-year-old boy stands against the background of sailors in black uniforms with ammunition boxes on their backs and the superstructures of a Soviet cruiser. His hands are tightly squeezing a PPSh assault rifle, and on his head is a peakless cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription "Tashkent". This is a pupil of the crew of the leader of the destroyers "Tashkent" Borya Kuleshin. The picture was taken in Poti, where, after repairs, the ship called for another cargo of ammunition for the besieged Sevastopol. It was here that the twelve-year-old Borya Kuleshin appeared at the gangway of the Tashkent. His father died at the front, his mother, as soon as Donetsk was occupied, was taken to Germany, and he himself managed to escape across the front line to his own people and, together with the retreating army, get to the Caucasus.
Boris Kuleshin. Photo: weralbum.ru
While they were persuading the commander of the ship, Vasily Eroshenko, while they were deciding which combat unit to enroll the cabin boy in, the sailors managed to give him a belt, cap and machine gun and take a picture of the new crew member. And then there was a transition to Sevastopol, the first raid on "Tashkent" in Borya's life and the first clips for an anti-aircraft gun in his life, which he, along with other anti-aircraft gunners, gave to the shooters. At his combat post, he was wounded on July 2, 1942, when German aircraft tried to sink the ship in the port of Novorossiysk. After the hospital, Borya followed Captain Eroshenko to new ship- Guards cruiser "Red Caucasus". And already here he found his well-deserved award: presented for the battles on the "Tashkent" to the medal "For Courage", he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the decision of the front commander, Marshal Budyonny and a member of the Military Council, Admiral Isakov. And in the next front-line picture, he already flaunts in a new uniform of a young sailor, on whose head is a peakless 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, among other teachers, educators and pupils, he was awarded the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
Musician Petr Klypa
Fifteen-year-old pupil of the musical platoon of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, Pyotr Klypa, like other underage inhabitants of the Brest Fortress, had to go to the rear with the outbreak of war. But to leave the fighting citadel, which, among others, was defended by the only native person- his older brother, Lieutenant Nikolai, Petya refused. So he became one of the first teenage soldiers in the history of the Great Patriotic War and a full participant heroic defense Brest fortress.
Peter Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com
He fought there until the beginning of July, until he received an order, along with the remnants of the regiment, to break through to Brest. This is where Petit's ordeals began. Having crossed the tributary of the Bug, he, along with other colleagues, was captured, from which he soon managed to escape. He got to Brest, lived there for a month and moved east, behind the retreating Red Army, but did not reach. During one of the nights, he and a friend were discovered by the police, and the teenagers were sent to forced labor in Germany. Petya was released only in 1945 American troops, and after checking, he even managed to serve for several months in Soviet army. And upon returning to his homeland, he again ended up behind bars, because he succumbed to the persuasion of an old friend and helped him speculate on the loot. Pyotr Klypa was released only seven years later. He had to thank the historian and writer Sergei Smirnov for this, bit by bit recreating the history of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and, of course, not missing the story of one of its youngest defenders, who, after his release, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.
To this day, the soldiers who defended our Motherland from enemies are remembered. Those who made 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, the death of loved ones, overwork, devastation, the children did not know what fragrant soap, sugar, comfortable new clothes, shoes. All of them have long been old men and teach the younger generation to cherish everything they have. But often they are not given due attention, and it is so important for them to pass on their experience to others.
Training during the war
Despite the war, many children studied, went to school, whatever they had to.“Schools worked, but few people studied, everyone worked, education was up to grade 4. There were textbooks, but there were no notebooks, the children wrote on newspapers, old receipts on any piece of paper they found. The ink was the soot from the furnace. It was diluted with water and poured into a jar - it was ink. They dressed in school in what they had, neither boys nor girls had a certain uniform. The school day was short, as I had to go to work. Brother Petya was taken by my father's sister to Zhigalovo, he was one of the family who graduated from the 8th grade ”(Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“We had an incomplete secondary school (7 classes), 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 and read, cooked homework. They gave one notebook per person to do homework. We had a strict teacher in Russian and literature, he called to the blackboard and asked me to recite a poem by heart. If you don't tell, then next lesson you will definitely be asked. Therefore, I still know the poems of A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov and many others" (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna).
“I went to school very late, there was nothing to wear. The poor and the lack of textbooks existed even after the war ”(Kadnikova Alexandra Yegorovna)
“In 1941, I finished the 7th grade at the Konovalovskaya school with an award - a cut of chintz. They gave me a ticket to Artek. Mom asked me to show on the map where that Artek was and refused the ticket, saying: “It’s far away. What if there's a war?" And I was not mistaken. In 1944 I went to study in Malyshevskaya high school. They got to Balagansk by walkers, and then by ferry to Malyshevka. There were no relatives in the village, but there was an acquaintance of my father - Sobigray 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 working for a shelter. From the products until the new year there was a bag of potatoes and a bottle of vegetable oil. It had to be stretched out before 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. At the first lesson, for the first 5 minutes, the teacher talked about the events at the front. Every day a line was held, 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 students 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 an acute problem of food shortages. They ate poorly, mainly from the garden, from the taiga. They caught fish from nearby water bodies.
“Basically, we were fed by the taiga. We picked berries and mushrooms and prepared them for the winter. The most delicious and joyful was when my mother baked pies with cabbage, bird cherry, potatoes. Mom planted a garden where the whole family worked. There wasn't a single weed. And they carried water for irrigation from the river, climbed high up the mountain. They kept cattle, if there were cows, then 10 kg of butter per year were given to the front. They dug frozen potatoes and collected spikelets left on the field. When dad was taken away, Vanya replaced him for us. He, like his father, was a hunter and fisherman. In our village, the Ilga River flowed, and good fish were found in it: grayling, hare, burbot. Vanya will wake us up early in the morning, and we will go to pick different berries: currants, boyarka, wild rose, lingonberries, bird cherry, dove. We will collect, dry and rent for money and for procurement to the defense fund. Gathered until the dew was gone. As soon as it comes down, run home - you need to go to the collective farm haymaking, row the hay. The food was given out very little, in small pieces, if only there was enough for everyone. Brother Vanya sewed Chirki shoes for the whole family. Dad was a hunter, he got a lot of furs and sold them. Therefore, when he left, a large amount of stock remained. They grew wild hemp and sewed pants from it. The elder sister was a needlewoman; she knitted socks, stockings and mittens" (Fartunatova Kapitalina Andreevna). 
“We were fed by Baikal. We lived in the village of Barguzin, we had a cannery. There were teams of fishermen, they caught both from Baikal and from the Barguzin River, different fish. Sturgeon, whitefish, and omul were caught from Baikal. In the river there were fish such as perch, roach, crucian carp, burbot. Made canned food was sent to Tyumen, and then to the front. The weak old people, those who did not go to the front, had their own foreman. The brigadier was a fisherman all his life, he had his own boat and net. They called all the inhabitants and asked: "Who needs fish?" Everyone needed fish, since only 400 g were given out per year, and 800 g per employee. Everyone who needed fish pulled a seine on the shore, the old people swam into the river in a boat, set up a seine, then the other end was brought ashore. On both sides, a rope was evenly chosen, and a net was pulled to the shore. It was important not to let the joint out of the “motni”. Then the brigadier divided the fish among all. That is how they fed themselves. At the factory, after they made canned food, they sold fish heads, 1 kilogram cost 5 kopecks. We didn’t have potatoes, and we didn’t have vegetable gardens either. Because there was only a forest around. Parents went to a neighboring village and exchanged fish for potatoes. We did not feel severe hunger ”(Tomar Alexandrovna Vorotkova).
“There was nothing to eat, they walked around the field and picked spikelets and frozen potatoes. They kept cattle and planted vegetable gardens” (Kadnikova Alexandra Yegorovna).
“All spring, summer and autumn I went barefoot - from snow to snow. It was especially bad when they worked on the field. On the stubble, the legs were stabbed into the blood. The clothes were like 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 that died of hunger. The bones hovered and then sipped salted water. Potatoes, carrots were dried and sent to the front in parcels ”(Fonareva Ekaterina Adamovna)
In the archive, I studied the Book of Orders for the Balagansky Rayzdrav. (Fund No. 23 inventory No. 1 sheet No. 6 - Appendix 2) Found that epidemics of infectious diseases during the war years among children were not allowed, although by order of the District Health Service of September 27, 1941, rural obstetric centers were closed. (Fund No. 23 inventory No. 1 sheet No. 29-Appendix 3) Only in 1943 in the village of Molka an epidemic is mentioned (the disease is not indicated). . I conclude that preventing the spread of infection was a very important matter.
In the report at the 2nd district party conference on the work of the district party committee on March 31, 1945, the results of the work of the Balagansky district during the war years are summed up. It can be seen from the report that 1941, 1942, 1943 were very difficult years for the region. Yields dropped drastically. Potato yield in 1941 - 50, in 1942 - 32, in 1943 - 18 centners. (Annex 4)
Gross grain harvest - 161627, 112717, 29077 centners; received for workdays of grain: 1.3; 0.82; 0.276 kg. According to these figures, we can conclude that people really lived from hand to mouth. (Appendix 5)
Hard work
Everyone worked, both old and young, the work was different, but difficult in its own way. They worked day in and day out from early morning until late at night.
“Everyone worked. Both adults and children from 5 years old. The boys carried hay and drove horses. Until the hay was removed from the field, no one left. The women took the young cattle and raised them, while the children helped them. They took the cattle to the watering place and provided food. In the autumn, while studying, 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, picking spikelets of rye, etc. Most of the people worked on the collective farm. They worked on a calf, raised cattle, worked in collective farm gardens. We tried to quickly remove the bread, not sparing ourselves. As soon as the bread is removed, the snow will fall, and they will be sent to logging sites. The saws were ordinary with two handles. They felled huge forests in the forest, cut off branches, sawed them into chocks and chopped firewood. The lineman came and measured the cubic capacity. It was necessary to prepare at least five cubes. I remember how my brothers and sisters were bringing firewood home from the forest. They were carried on a bull. He was big, with a temper. They began to move down the hill, and he carried it, fooled around. The cart rolled, and the firewood fell out to the side of the road. The bull broke the harness and ran to the stable. The cattlemen realized that this was our family and sent my grandfather on a horse to help. So they brought firewood to the house already dark. And in winter, the wolves came close to the village, howled. Cattle were often bullied, but people were not touched.
The calculation was carried out at the end of the year according to 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 during 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 them to give me like everyone else. They added cows, and I overfulfilled the plan, milked a lot of milk. They gave me 3 m of satin for this blue color. This was my prize. A dress was sewn from satin, which was very dear to me. There were both hard workers and lazy people on the collective farm. Our collective farm has always exceeded the plan. We collected parcels for the front. Knitted socks, mittens.
There were not enough matches, salt. Instead of matches at the beginning of the village, the old people set fire to a large deck, it slowly burned, smoke. They took coal from it, brought it home and fanned the fire in the furnace. (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“Children worked mainly on firewood. Worked with 6th and 7th grade students. All adults fished and worked at the factory. They worked weekends." (Vorotkova Tamara Alexandrovna).
“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 manger, then at an inn, where she cleaned the yard with her younger brother, drove and sawed firewood. She worked as an accountant in a tractor brigade, then in a field farm brigade, and in general, she went where she was sent. She made hay, harvested crops, weeded the fields from weeds, planted vegetables in the collective farm garden. (Fonareva Ekaterina Adamovna)
Valentin Rasputin's story "Live and Remember" describes such work during the war. The conditions are the same (Ust-Uda and Balagansk are located nearby, stories about a common military past seem to be written off from one source:
“And we got it,” Lisa picked up. - Right, women, got it? It hurts to remember. On a collective farm, work is fine, it's your own. And only we will remove the bread - already snow, logging. I will remember these logging operations until the end of my life. There are no roads, the horses are torn, they do not pull. And you can’t refuse: the labor front, help our peasants. From the little guys in the first years they left ... And whoever is without children or who is older, they didn’t get off those, went and went. Nastena, she did not miss more than one winter, however. I even went there twice, I left the kids here. Heap these woods, these cubic meters, and take the banner with you to the sleigh. Not a step without a banner. Either it will bring it into a snowdrift, or something else - turn it around, little girls, push. Where you turn out, and where not. He won’t let the wall be torn off: the winter before last, a mare rolled down the hill and didn’t manage to turn around - the sleigh was in negligence, on its side, the mare almost knocked over. I fought, fought - I can not. Got out of strength. I sat on the road and cried. Nastena drove up from behind - I burst into a roar in a stream. Tears welled up in Lisa's eyes. - She helped me. Helped, we went together, but I can’t calm down, I roar and roar. - Even more succumbing to memories, Lisa sobbed. I roar and roar, I can’t help myself. I can not.
I worked in the archives and looked through the Book of Accounting for the Workdays of Collective Farmers of the “In Memory of Lenin” Collective Farm for 1943. Collective farmers and the work they performed were recorded in it. The book is written by family. Teenagers are recorded only by last name and first name - Nyuta Medvetskaya, Shura Lozovaya, Natasha Filistovich, Volodya Strashinsky, in general, I counted 24 teenagers. The following types of work were listed: logging, grain harvesting, hay harvesting, road work, horse care and others. Basically, the following months of work are indicated for children: August, September, October and November. I associate this time of work with hay making, harvesting and threshing grain. At this time, it was necessary to carry out the harvest before the snow, so everyone was attracted. 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. [Fund No. 19, inventory No. 1-l, sheets No. 1-3, 7.8, 10,22,23,35,50, 64,65]
The resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of 09/05/1941 "On the beginning of the collection of warm clothes and linen for the Red Army" indicated a list of things to collect. Schools in the Balagansky district also collected things. According to the list of the head of the school (surname and school not established), the parcel included: cigarettes, soap, handkerchiefs, cologne, gloves, hat, pillowcases, towels, shaving brushes, soap dish, underpants.
Holidays
Despite hunger and cold, as well as such a hard life, people in different villages tried to celebrate holidays.
“There were holidays, for example: when all the bread was removed and the threshing was finished, then the “Threshing” holiday was held. At the holidays, they sang songs, danced, played different games, for example: towns, jumped on a board, prepared a kochul (swing) and rolled balls, made a ball from dried manure. They took a round stone and dried the manure in layers to the desired size. That's what they played. The older sister sewed and knitted beautiful outfits and dressed us up for the holiday. Everyone had fun at the festival, both children and the elderly. There were no drunks, everyone was sober. Most often on holidays they were invited home. We went from house to house, as no one had a lot of treats. ” (Fartunatova Kapitalina Andreevna).
« Celebrated New Year, Constitution Day and May 1st. Since the forest surrounded us, we chose the most beautiful Christmas tree and put it in the club. The inhabitants of our village carried all the toys they could to the Christmas tree, most were homemade, but there were also rich families who could already bring beautiful toys. Everyone went to this tree in turn. First graders and 4th graders, then 4th-5th grades and then two final grades. After all the schoolchildren, workers from the factory, from shops, from the post office and from other organizations came there in the evening. On holidays they danced: waltz, krakowiak. Gifts were given to each other. After the festive concert, the women held gatherings with alcohol and various conversations. On May 1, demonstrations are held, all organizations gather for it” (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna).
Beginning and end of the war
Childhood is the best period in life, from which the best and brightest memories remain. And 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 torments will they have to overcome and what will they have to put up with?
“We all collective farm removed stones from arable land. An employee of the Village Council rode as a messenger on horseback and shouted "The War has begun." Immediately began to collect 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 Komsomolets horse, and he was also taken away. In 1942, a funeral came for dad.
On May 9, 1945, we worked in the field, and again an employee of the Village Council rode with a flag in his hands and announced that the war was over. Who cried, who rejoiced! (Fartunatova Kapitolina Andreevna).
“I worked as a postman and then they call me and announce that the war has begun. Everyone was crying with each other. We lived at the mouth of the Barguzin River, there were still a lot of villages further downstream from us. From Irkutsk, the Angara ship sailed to us; 200 people were placed on it, and when the war began, it gathered all future military men. It was deep-water and therefore stopped 10 meters from the shore, the men sailed there in fishing boats. Many tears were shed! In 1941, everyone was taken to the front in the army, the main thing was that the legs and arms were intact, and the head was on the 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 rejoiced, hugged, some cried! (Vorotkova Tamara Aleksandrovna)
Children - heroes of the Great Patriotic War
Marat Kazei
The war fell on the Belarusian land. The Nazis broke into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Aleksandrovna Kazya. 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 furious.
Anna Alexandrovna Kazei was captured for her connection with the partisans, and soon Marat found out 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, a Komsomol member Ada, pioneer Marat Kazei went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest. He became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade. Penetrated into enemy garrisons and delivered valuable information to the command. Using this information, the partisans developed a daring operation and defeated the fascist garrison in the city of Dzerzhinsk ...
Marat took part in the battles and invariably showed courage, 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 the 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 Ilmen Lake. When the enemy captured his native village, the boy went to the partisans.
More than once he went to reconnaissance, 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 knocked out a car. A Nazi with a briefcase in his hands got out of it and, shooting back, rushed to run. Lenya is behind him. He pursued the enemy for almost a kilometer and finally killed him. There were some very important documents in the briefcase. The headquarters of the partisans immediately sent them by plane to Moscow.
There were many more battles in his short life! And the young hero who fought shoulder to shoulder with adults never flinched. He died near the village of Ostraya 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 number 4 in the city of Shepetovka, was a recognized leader of the pioneers, his peers.
When the Nazis broke into Shepetovka, Valya Kotik and his friends decided to fight the enemy. The guys collected weapons at the battlefield, which the partisans then transported to the detachment in a wagon of hay.
Having looked closely at the boy, the communists entrusted Valya to be a liaison and intelligence officer in their underground organization. He learned the location of enemy posts, the order of the changing of the guard.
The Nazis planned a punitive operation against the partisans, and Valya, having tracked down the Nazi officer who led the punishers, killed him ...
When arrests began in the city, Valya, along with his mother and brother Viktor, went to the partisans. The pioneer, who had just turned fourteen years old, fought shoulder to shoulder with adults, freeing native land. On his account - six enemy echelons blown up on the way to the front. Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War," 2nd class.
Valya Kotik died as a hero, and the Motherland posthumously honored him with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In front of the school where this brave pioneer studied, a monument was erected to him.
Zina Portnova
The war found the Leningrad pioneer Zina Portnova in the village of Zuya, where she came for the holidays - this is not far from the Obol station in the Vitebsk region. In Obol, an underground Komsomol youth organization "Young Avengers" was created, 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 the instructions of the partisan detachment.
It was December 1943. Zina was returning from a mission. In the village of Mostishche, a traitor betrayed her. The Nazis seized 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 the Gestapo at point-blank range.
The officer who ran into 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 steadfast, courageous, unbending. And the Motherland posthumously noted her feat with her highest title - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Kostya Kravchuk
On June 11, 1944, units leaving for the front lined up on the central square of Kyiv. And before this battle formation, they read 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 combat banners of rifle regiments during the occupation of the city of Kiev ...
Retreating from Kyiv, two wounded soldiers entrusted banners to Kostya. And Kostya promised to keep them.
At first I buried it in the garden under a pear tree: it was thought that ours would soon return. But the war dragged on, and, having dug up the banners, Kostya kept them in a barn until he remembered an old, abandoned well outside the city, near the Dnieper. Wrapping his priceless treasure in sacking, covering it with straw, at dawn he got out of the house 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 his difficult guard at the banner, although he fell into a round-up, and even fled from the train in which the people of Kiev were driven 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 the banners in front of the seen and yet amazed fighters.
On June 11, 1944, the newly formed units leaving for the front were given replacements rescued by Kostya.
Vasya Korobko
Chernihiv region. The front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy. On the outskirts, covering the retreat of our units, the company held the defense. The boy brought the cartridges to the fighters. His name was Vasya Korobko.
Night. Vasya sneaks up to the school building occupied by the Nazis.
He sneaks into the pioneer room, takes out the pioneer banner and hides it securely.
Outskirts of the village. Under the bridge - Vasya. He pulls out the iron staples, saws the piles, and at dawn from the shelter he watches the bridge collapse under the weight of the fascist armored personnel carrier. The partisans were convinced that Vasya could be trusted, and they entrusted him with a serious task: to become a scout in the enemy's lair. At the headquarters of the Nazis, he heats stoves, chop wood, and he looks closely, remembers, and transmits 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 an ambush of the police. 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, hundreds of Nazis. In one of the battles, he was hit by an enemy bullet. The Motherland awarded her little hero, who lived a short but such a bright life, with the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree.
Nadia Bogdanova
She was executed twice by the Nazis, and fighting friends for many years considered Nadya dead. She even erected a monument.
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 when, together with Vanya Zvontsov, she hung out a red flag on November 7, 1941 in Vitebsk, occupied by the enemy. They beat her with ramrods, tortured her, and when they brought her to the ditch - to shoot, she had no strength left - she fell into the ditch, for a moment, ahead of the bullet. Vanya died, and the partisans found Nadya alive in the ditch...
The second time she was captured at the end of the 43rd. And again torture: they poured ice water over her in the cold, burned a five-pointed star on her back. Considering the scout dead, the Nazis, when the partisans attacked Karasevo, abandoned her. Came out of her, paralyzed and almost blind, the locals. After the war in Odessa, Academician V.P. Filatov restored Nadia's sight.
After 15 years, she heard on the radio how the head of intelligence of the 6th detachment Slesarenko - her commander - said that the soldiers of their dead comrades would never forget, and named Nadya Bogdanova among them, who saved his life, wounded ...
Only then did she show up, only then did the people who worked with her find out what an amazing fate she was, Nadya Bogdanova, who was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and medals.
