Hero of the Second World War child. Children of the Great Patriotic War

During Great Patriotic War a whole army of boys and girls acted against the Nazi invaders. In occupied Belarus alone, at least 74,500 boys and girls, boys and girls fought in partisan detachments. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia says that during the Great Patriotic War, more than 35 thousand pioneers - young defenders of the Motherland - were awarded military orders and medals.

It was amazing" traffic"! The boys and girls did not wait until they will call» adults – began to act from the first days of the occupation. They risked death!

Similarly, many others began to act at their own peril and risk. Someone found leaflets scattered from airplanes and distributed them in their regional center or village. The Polotsk boy Lenya Kosach collected 45 rifles, 2 light machine guns, several baskets of cartridges and grenades at the battlefields and safely hid it all; an opportunity presented itself - he handed it over to the partisans. In the same way, hundreds of other guys created arsenals for the partisans. Twelve-year-old excellent student Lyuba Morozova, knowing a little German, studied " special propaganda" among the enemies, telling them how well she lived before the war without " new order» occupiers. The soldiers often told her that she red to the bone”, and advised to hold your tongue until it ended badly for her. Later, Lyuba became a partisan. Eleven-year-old Tolya Korneev stole a pistol with cartridges from a German officer and began to look for people who would help him reach the partisans. In the summer of 1942, the boy succeeded in this, meeting his classmate Olya Demes, who by that time was already a member of one of the detachments. And when the older guys brought 9-year-old Zhora Yuzov to the detachment, and the commander jokingly asked: “ And who will babysit this little one?”, the boy, in addition to the pistol, laid out four grenades in front of him:“ That's who will babysit me!».

Serezha Roslenko For 13 years, in addition to collecting weapons, he conducted reconnaissance at his own peril and risk: there is someone to pass on information to! And found. From somewhere, the children also had the concept of conspiracy. sixth grader Vitya Pashkevich in the fall of 1941, in Borisov, occupied by the Nazis, he organized a kind of Krasnodon " Young Guard". He and his team took out weapons and ammunition from enemy warehouses, helped the underground organize escapes of prisoners of war from concentration camps, burned the enemy warehouse with uniforms with thermite incendiary grenades ...

Experienced scout

In January 1942, one of the partisan detachments operating in the Ponizovsky district of the Smolensk region was surrounded by the Nazis. The Germans, pretty battered during the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Moscow, did not dare to immediately liquidate the detachment. They did not have accurate intelligence about its numbers, so they were waiting for reinforcements. However, the ring was held tight. The partisans puzzled over how to get out of the encirclement. Food was running out. And the detachment commander asked for help from the command of the Red Army. In response, a cipher came over the radio, in which it was reported that the troops would not be able to help with active actions, but an experienced scout would be sent to the detachment.

And indeed, at the appointed time, the noise of the engines of an air transport was heard over the forest, and a few minutes later a paratrooper landed in the location of the encircled. The partisans, who received the heavenly messenger, were quite surprised when they saw in front of them ... a boy.

Are you an experienced scout? the commander asked.

- I. And what, it doesn’t look like it? - The boy was in a uniform army pea coat, wadded pants and a hat with earflaps with an asterisk. Red Army man!

– How old are you? - the commander still could not recover from surprise.

“It will soon be eleven!” - importantly replied " experienced scout».

The boy's name was Yura Zhdanko . He was originally from Vitebsk. In July 1941, the ubiquitous urchin and expert on local territories showed the retreating Soviet part a ford across the Western Dvina. He could no longer return home - while he acted as a guide, Hitler's armored vehicles entered his hometown. And the scouts who were instructed to escort the boy back took him with them. So he was enrolled as a pupil of the motor reconnaissance company of the 332nd Infantry Division of Ivanovo. M.F. Frunze.

At first, he was not involved in business, but, by nature, observant, big-eyed and memory, he quickly learned the basics of front-line raid science and even dared to give advice to adults. And his abilities were appreciated. He was sent to the front line. In the villages, he, disguised, begged for alms with a bag over his shoulders, collecting information about the location and number of enemy garrisons. He managed to participate in the mining of a strategically important bridge. During the explosion, a Red Army miner was wounded, and Yura, having provided first aid, brought him to the location of the unit. Why did you get your first Medal of Honor" .

... The best scout to help the partisans, it seems, really could not be found.

“But you, kid, didn’t jump with a parachute ...” the head of intelligence said contritely.

- Jumped twice! Yura objected loudly. - I begged the sergeant ... he quietly taught me ...

Everyone knew that this sergeant and Yura were inseparable, and he could, of course, follow the regiment's favorite. The Li-2 engines were already roaring, the plane was ready to take off, when the boy admitted that, of course, he had never jumped with a parachute:

- The sergeant did not allow me, I only helped lay the dome. Show me how and what to pull!

- Why did you lie? the instructor shouted at him. - He slandered the sergeant.

- I thought you would check ... But they wouldn’t check: the sergeant was killed ...

Arriving safely in the detachment, ten-year-old Vitebsk resident Yura Zhdanko did what adults could not do ... He was dressed in everything village, and soon the boy made his way into the hut where the German officer who was in charge of the encirclement was quartered. The Nazi lived in the house of a certain grandfather Vlas. To him, under the guise of a grandson from the regional center, a young intelligence officer came, who was given quite difficult task- get documents from an enemy officer with plans for the destruction of the encircled detachment. Opportunity fell out after a few days. The Nazi left the house light, leaving the key to the safe in his overcoat ... So the documents ended up in the detachment. And at the same time, Yurai brought grandfather Vlas, convincing him that it was impossible to stay in such a situation in the house.

In 1943, Yura led a regular battalion of the Red Army out of encirclement. All the scouts sent to find " the corridor” for comrades, perished. The task was entrusted to Yura. One. And he found weakness in the enemy ring... Became an order bearer of the Red Star.

Yuri Ivanovich Zhdanko , recalling his military childhood, said that he " played a real war, did what adults could not, and there were a lot of situations when they could not do something, but I could».

Fourteen-year-old POW rescuer

14-year-old Minsk underground worker Volodya Shcherbatsevich was one of the first teenagers to be executed by the Germans for participating in the underground. They captured his execution on film and then distributed these shots throughout the city - as a warning to others ...

From the first days of the occupation of the Belarusian capital, mother and son Shcherbatsevich hid Soviet commanders in their apartment, for whom the underground from time to time organized escapes from the prisoner of war camp. Olga Fedorovna was a doctor and provided medical care, dressed in civilian clothes, which, together with her son Volodya, collected from relatives and friends. Several groups of the rescued have already been withdrawn from the city. But once on the way, already outside the city blocks, one of the groups fell into the clutches of the Gestapo. Issued by a traitor, the son and mother ended up in Nazi dungeons. Withstood all torture.

And on October 26, 1941, the first gallows appeared in Minsk. On this day, for the last time, surrounded by a pack of submachine gunners, Volodya Shcherbatsevich also walked through the streets of his native city ... The pedantic punishers captured a report of his execution on film. And perhaps we see on it the first young hero who gave his life for the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.

Die but take revenge

Here is another amazing example of youthful heroism from 1941...

Village of Osintorf. On one of the August days, the Nazis, together with their henchmen from local residents - the burgomaster, the clerk and the chief policeman - raped and brutally killed the young teacher Anya Lyutova. By that time, a youth underground was already operating in the village under the leadership of Slava Shmuglevsky. The guys got together and decided: “ Death to traitors!» Slava himself volunteered to execute the sentence, as well as teenage brothers Misha and Zhenya Telenchenko, thirteen and fifteen years old.

By that time, they already had a machine gun found in the battlefields hidden away. They acted simply and directly, in a boyish way. The brothers took advantage of the fact that the mother went to her relatives that day and had to return only in the morning. The machine gun was installed on the balcony of the apartment and began to wait for the traitors, who often passed by. Didn't count. When they approached, Slava started shooting at them almost point-blank. But one of the criminals - the burgomaster - managed to escape. He reported by phone to Orsha that a large partisan detachment had attacked the village (a machine gun is a serious thing). Cars with punishers rushed by. With the help of bloodhounds, the weapon was quickly found: Misha and Zhenya, not having time to find a more reliable hiding place, hid the machine gun in the attic of their own house. Both were arrested. The boys were tortured most severely and for a long time, but not one of them betrayed Slava Shmuglevsky and other underground workers to the enemy. The Telenchenko brothers were executed in October.

Great conspirator

Pavlik Titov for his eleven he was a great conspirator. He partisaned two an extra year so that even his parents did not know about it. Many episodes of his combat biography remained unknown. Here is what is known. First, Pavlik and his comrades rescued the wounded Soviet commander, burned in a burned-out tank - they found a reliable shelter for him, and at night they brought him food, water, and some medicinal decoctions according to grandmother's recipes. Thanks to the boys, the tanker quickly recovered.

In July 1942, Pavlik and his friends handed over to the partisans several rifles and machine guns with cartridges they had found. Tasks followed. The young scout penetrated the location of the Nazis, conducted calculations of manpower and equipment.

He was generally a slick kid. Once he brought a bale with a fascist uniform to the partisans:

- I think it will come in handy for you ... Not to wear it yourself, of course ...

- And where did you get it?

- Yes, the Fritz were swimming ...

More than once, dressed in the uniform obtained by the boy, the partisans carried out daring raids and operations. The boy died in the autumn of 1943. Not in combat. The Germans carried out another punitive operation. Pavlik and his parents hid in a dugout. The punishers shot the whole family - father, mother, Pavlik himself and even his little sister. He was buried in a mass grave in Surazh, not far from Vitebsk.

Zina Portnova

Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova in June 1941 she came with her younger sister Galya to summer vacation to my grandmother in the village of Zui (Shumilinsky district of Vitebsk region). She was fifteen ... At first she got a job as an auxiliary worker in the canteen for German officers. And soon, together with her friend, she carried out a daring operation - she poisoned more than a hundred Nazis. She could have been caught immediately, but they began to follow her. By that time, she was already associated with the Obol underground organization " young avengers". In order to avoid failure, Zina was transferred to a partisan detachment.

Somehow she was instructed to reconnoiter the number and type of troops in the Obol region. Another time - to clarify the reasons for the failure in the Obolsk underground and establish new connections ... After completing the next task, she was seized by punishers. They tortured me for a long time. During one of the interrogations, the girl, as soon as the investigator turned away, grabbed a pistol from the table, with which he had just threatened her, and shot him dead. She jumped out the window, shot down a sentry and rushed to the Dvina. Another sentry rushed after her. Zina, hiding behind a bush, wanted to destroy him too, but the weapon misfired ...

Then she was no longer interrogated, but methodically tortured, mocked. Eyes gouged out, ears cut off. They drove needles under the nails, twisted their arms and legs ... On January 13, 1944, Zina Portnova was shot.

"Kid" and his sisters

From the report of the Vitebsk underground city party committee in 1942: “ Baby”(he is 12 years old), having learned that the partisans need gun oil, without a task, on his own initiative, he brought 2 liters of gun oil from the city. Then he was instructed to deliver for sabotage purposes sulfuric acid. He also brought it. And carried in a bag, behind his back. The acid spilled, his shirt burned through, his back burned, but he did not throw the acid away.

« Toddler" was Alyosha Vyalov , which enjoyed special sympathy among the local partisans. And he acted as part of a family group. When the war began, he was 11, his older sisters Vasilisa and Anya were 16 and 14, the rest of the children were small and small. Alyosha and his sisters were very resourceful. They set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times, prepared the explosion of the labor exchange in order to confuse the registration of the population and save young people and other residents from being stolen into " german paradise”, they blew up the passport office in the police premises ... There are dozens of sabotage on their account. And this is in addition to the fact that they were connected, distributed leaflets ...

« Baby"and Vasilisa died shortly after the war from tuberculosis ... A rare case: a memorial plaque was installed on the Vyalovs' house in Vitebsk. These children would have a monument made of gold! ..

Meanwhile, it is known about another Vitebsk family - Lynchenko . 11-year-old Kolya, 9-year-old Dina, and 7-year-old Emma were liaisons to their mother, Natalya Fedorovna, whose apartment served as a turnout. In 1943, as a result of the failure of the Gestapo, they broke into the house. The mother was beaten in front of the children, shot over her head, demanding to name the members of the group. They also mocked the children, asking them who came to their mother, where she herself went. They tried to bribe little Emma with chocolate. The children didn't say anything. Moreover, during a search in the apartment, having seized the moment, Dina took out ciphers from under the board of the table, where there was one of the caches, and hid them under her dress, and when the punishers left, having taken away her mother, she burned them. The children were left in the house as bait, but those, knowing that the house was being watched, managed to warn the messengers going to the failed turnout with signs ...

Prize for the head of a young saboteur

For the head of an Orsha schoolgirl Oli Demes the Nazis promised a round sum. About this in his memoirs " From the Dnieper to the Bug» said Hero Soviet Union, former commander of the 8th partisan brigade colonel Sergey Zhunin. A 13-year-old girl at the Orsha-Central station blew up fuel tanks. Sometimes she acted with her twelve-year-old sister Lida. Zhunin recalled how Olya was instructed before the assignment: “ It is necessary to put a mine under a tank of gasoline. Remember, only under the tank with gasoline!» – « I know how it smells of kerosene, I cooked it myself on kerosene gas, but gasoline ... let me at least smell it". Many trains accumulated at the node, dozens of tanks, and you find " the very one". Olya and Lida crawled under the trains, sniffing: this one or not this one? Gasoline or not gasoline? Then they threw pebbles and determined by the sound: empty or full? And only then they hitched a magnetic mine. The fire destroyed a huge number of wagons with equipment, food, uniforms, fodder, and steam locomotives burned down ...

The Germans managed to capture Olya's mother and sister, they were shot; but Olya remained elusive. For ten months of his participation in the brigade " Chekist"(from June 7, 1942 to April 10, 1943) she showed herself not only as a fearless intelligence officer, but also derailed seven enemy echelons, participated in the defeat of several military and police garrisons, had on her personal account 20 destroyed enemy soldiers and officers . And then she was also a participant rail war».

Eleven-year-old saboteur

Vitya Sitnitsa . How he wanted to partisan! But for two years from the beginning of the war remained " only» as a conductor of partisan sabotage groups passing through his village Kuritichi. However, he learned something from the partisan guides during their short breaks. In August 1943, together with his older brother, he was accepted into a partisan detachment. I was assigned to the economic platoon. Then he said that peeling potatoes and taking out slops with his ability to lay mines is unfair. Moreover, the “rail war” is in full swing. And they began to take him on combat missions. The boy personally derailed 9 echelons with manpower and military equipment of the enemy.

In the spring of 1944, Vitya fell ill with rheumatism and was released to his relatives for medicine. In the village he was seized by the Nazis dressed as Red Army soldiers. The boy was brutally tortured.

Little Susanin

He began his war with the Nazi invaders at the age of 9. Already in the summer of 1941, in the house of his parents in the village of Bayki in the Brest region, the regional anti-fascist committee equipped a secret printing house. They issued leaflets with summaries of the Sovinforburo. Tikhon Baran helped distribute them. For two years, the young underground worker was engaged in this activity. The Nazis managed to get on the trail of the printers. The printing press was destroyed. Tikhon's mother and sisters hid with relatives, and he himself went to the partisans. Once, when he was visiting his relatives, the Germans raided the village. The mother was taken to Germany, and the boy was beaten. He became very ill and stayed in the village.

Local historians dated his feat on January 22, 1944. On this day, punishers appeared again in the village. For communication with the partisans, all residents were shot. The village was burned. " And you, - they said to Tikhon, - show us the way to the partisans". It is difficult to say whether the village boy had heard anything about the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin, who led the Polish interventionists into a swampy swamp more than three centuries before, only Tikhon Baran showed the Nazis the same road. They killed him, but not all of them got out of that quagmire themselves.

Covering squad

Vanya Kazachenko from the village of Zapolye, Orsha district, Vitebsk region, in April 1943, he became a machine gunner in a partisan detachment. He was thirteen. Those who served in the army and carried at least a Kalashnikov assault rifle (not a machine gun!) On their shoulders can imagine what it cost the boy. Guerrilla raids were most often many hours long. And the then machine guns are heavier than the current ones ... After one of the successful operations to defeat the enemy garrison, in which Vanya once again distinguished himself, the partisans, returning to base, stopped to rest in a village near Bogushevsk. Vanya, assigned to guard, chose a place, disguised himself and covered the leader in locality road. Here the young machine gunner took his last battle.

Noticing the wagons with the Nazis that suddenly appeared, he opened fire on them. While the comrades arrived, the Germans managed to surround the boy, seriously wound him, take him prisoner and retreat. The partisans did not have the opportunity to chase the carts to beat him. For about twenty kilometers, Vanya, tied to a cart, was dragged by the Nazis along an icy road. In the village of Mezhevo, Orsha district, where the enemy garrison was stationed, he was tortured and shot.

The hero was 14 years old

Marat Kazei was born on October 10, 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk Region, Belarus. In November 1942 he joined the partisan detachment. 25th anniversary of October, then became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade. K. K. Rokossovsky.

Marat's father Ivan Kazei was arrested in 1934 as " pest", and rehabilitated him only in 1959. Later, his wife was also arrested - then, however, they were released. So it turned out the family " enemy of the people”, which was shunned by the neighbors. Because of this, Kazei's sister, Ariadna, was not accepted into the Komsomol.

It would seem that Kazei should have been angry with the authorities from all this - but no. In 1941, Anna Kazei, the wife of the "enemy of the people", hid the wounded partisans at her place - for which she was executed by the Germans. Ariadna and Marat went to the partisans. Ariadne survived, but became disabled - when the detachment left the encirclement, she froze her legs, which had to be amputated. When she was taken to the hospital by plane, the commander of the detachment offered to fly with her and Marat so that he could continue his studies interrupted by the war. But Marat refused and remained in the partisan detachment.

Marat went to reconnaissance, both alone and with a group. Participated in raids. Undermined the echelons. For the battle in January 1943, when, wounded, he raised his comrades to attack and made his way through the enemy ring, Marat received Medal of Honor" . And in May 1944, Marat died. Returning from a mission together with the intelligence commander, they stumbled upon the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to leave in an open field, and there was no possibility - Marat was seriously wounded. While there were cartridges, he kept the defense, and when the store was empty, he picked up his last weapon - two grenades, which he did not remove from his belt. He threw one at the Germans, and left the other. When the Germans came very close, he blew himself up along with the enemies.

A monument to Kazei was erected in Minsk with funds raised by Belarusian pioneers. In 1958, an obelisk was erected on the grave of the young Hero in the village of Stankovo, Dzerzhinsky district, Minsk region. The monument to Marat Kazei was erected in Moscow (on the territory of VDNKh). The state farm, streets, schools, pioneer squads and detachments of many schools of the Soviet Union, the ship of the Caspian Shipping Company were named after the pioneer hero Marat Kazei.

boy of legend

Golikov Leonid Alexandrovich, scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade, born in 1926, a native of the village of Lukino, Parfinsky district. That's what it says on the award sheet. The boy from the legend - that's what the glory of Lenya Golikov called.

When the war began, a schoolboy from the village of Lukino, near Staraya Russa, got a rifle and joined the partisans. Thin, small in stature, at 14 he looked even younger. Under the guise of a beggar, he walked around the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of the fascist troops, on the amount of enemy military equipment.

With peers, he once picked up several rifles at the battlefield, stole two boxes of grenades from the Nazis. All this they later handed over to the partisans. " Tov. Golikov joined the partisan detachment in March 1942, the award list says. - Participated in 27 combat operations ... He exterminated 78 German soldiers and officers, blew up 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition ... On August 15, in a new combat area of the brigade, Golikov crashed a car in which the general was major engineering troops Richard Wirtz heading from Pskov to Luga. A brave partisan killed the general with a machine gun, delivered his tunic and captured documents to the brigade headquarters. Among the documents were: a description of new models of German mines, inspection reports to the higher command and other valuable intelligence data.».

Lake Radilovskoye was a rally point when the brigade moved to a new area of operations. On the way there, the partisans had to engage in battles with the enemy. Punishers followed the advance of the partisans, and as soon as the forces of the brigade connected, they forced a fight on it. After the battle at Radilovsky Lake, the main forces of the brigade continued on their way to the Lyadsky forests. The detachments of Ivan the Terrible and B. Ehren-Price remained in the lake area to distract the Nazis. They never managed to connect with the brigade. In mid-November, the invaders attacked the headquarters. Defending it, many fighters died. The rest managed to retreat to the Terp-Kamen swamp. On December 25, several hundred Nazis surrounded the swamp. With considerable losses, the partisans broke out of the ring and entered the Strugokrasnensky district. Only 50 people remained in the ranks, the radio did not work. And the punishers scoured all the villages in search of partisans. We had to walk along untraveled paths. The path was paved by scouts, and among them Lenya Golikov. Attempts to establish contact with other detachments and stock up on food ended tragically. There was only one way out - to make his way to the mainland.

After crossing the Dno-Novosokolniki railway late at night on January 24, 1943, 27 hungry, exhausted partisans came out to the village of Ostraya Luka. Ahead for 90 kilometers stretched the Guerrilla Territory burned by punishers. The scouts found nothing suspicious. The enemy garrison was located a few kilometers away. The companion of the partisans - a nurse - was dying of a serious wound and asked for at least a little warmth. They occupied three extreme huts. Dozorov brigade commander Glebov decided not to exhibit, so as not to attract attention. They were on duty alternately at the windows and in the barn, from where both the village and the road to the forest were clearly visible.

Two hours later, the dream was interrupted by the roar of an exploding grenade. And immediately the heavy machine gun rattled. At the denunciation of a traitor, punishers descended. The guerrillas jumped out into the yard and vegetable gardens, shooting back, began to move in dashes towards the forest. Glebov with combat guards covered the departing with fire from a light machine gun and machine guns. Halfway down the seriously wounded chief of staff fell. Lenya rushed to him. But Petrov ordered to return to the brigade commander, and he himself, closing individual package wound under a quilted jacket, again scribbled from the machine gun. In that unequal battle, the entire headquarters of the 4th partisan brigade perished. Among the fallen was the young partisan Lenya Golikov. Six managed to reach the forest, two of them were seriously injured and could not move without outside help... Only on January 31, near the village of Zhemchugovo, exhausted, frostbitten, they met with scouts of the 8th Panfilov Guards Division.

For a long time, his mother Ekaterina Alekseevna did not know anything about the fate of Leni. The war had already moved far to the west, when one Sunday afternoon a rider in military uniform stopped near their hut. Mother stepped out onto the porch. The officer handed her a large package. Received it with trembling hands old woman, called daughter Valya. In the package was a letter bound in crimson leather. Here lay an envelope, opening which Valya said quietly: - This is for you, mother, from Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin himself. With excitement, the mother took a bluish piece of paper and read: Dear Ekaterina Alekseevna! According to the command, your son Leonid Aleksandrovich Golikov died a heroic death for his Motherland. For the heroic feat accomplished by your son in the fight against the German invaders behind enemy lines, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by Decree of April 2, 1944, awarded him the highest degree of distinction - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. I am sending you a letter from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding your son the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to keep as a memory of his heroic son, whose feat will never be forgotten by our people. M. Kalinin». – « Here he turned out to be, my Lenyushka!' the mother said softly. And there were in these words both grief, and pain, and pride for the son ...

Lenya was buried in the village of Ostraya Luka. His name is inscribed on the obelisk, installed on the mass grave. The monument in Novgorod was opened on January 20, 1964. The figure of a boy in a hat with earflaps with a machine gun in his hands was carved from light granite. The streets in St. Petersburg, Pskov, Staraya Russa, Okulovka, the village of Pola, the village of Parfino, the ship of the Riga Shipping Company, in Novgorod - the street, the House of Pioneers, the training ship for young sailors in Staraya Russa bear the name of the hero. In Moscow, at the VDNKh of the USSR, a monument to the hero was also erected.

The youngest hero of the Soviet Union

Valya Kotik . Young partisan scout Great Patriotic War in the detachment named after Karmelyuk, operating in the temporarily occupied territory; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenetz-Podolsk region of Ukraine, according to one information in the family of an employee, according to another - a peasant. From the education of only 5 classes high school in the district center.

During the Great Patriotic War, while on the territory temporarily occupied by the Nazi troops, Valya Kotik was collecting weapons and ammunition, drawing and pasting caricatures of the Nazis. Valentin and his peers received their first combat mission in the fall of 1941. The guys lay down in the bushes near the Shepetovka-Slavuta highway. Hearing the noise of the engine, they froze. It was scary. But when the car with the fascist gendarmes caught up with them, Valya Kotik got up and threw a grenade. The head of the field gendarmerie was killed.

In October 1943, the young partisan reconnoitered the location of the underground telephone cable of the Nazi headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the undermining of six railway echelons and a warehouse. On October 29, 1943, while on duty, Valya noticed that the punishers had raided the detachment. Having killed a fascist officer with a pistol, he raised the alarm, and thanks to his actions, the partisans managed to prepare for battle.

On February 16, 1944, in the battle for the city of Izyaslav, Khmelnytsky region, a 14-year-old partisan scout was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the center of the park in the Ukrainian city of Shepetovka. For the heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 58, Kotik Valentin Alexandrovich was posthumously awarded title of Hero of the Soviet Union . He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" 2nd degree . The ship is named after him general education schools, there used to be pioneer squads and detachments named after Valya Kotik. Monuments were erected to him in Moscow and in his hometown in 1960. There is a street named after the young hero in Yekaterinburg, Kyiv and Kaliningrad.

Marat Kazei Pioneer-hero Marat Kazei was born in 1929 in a family of fiery Bolsheviks. They called him that 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 in a family of fiery Bolsheviks. They called him such an unusual name in honor of the seaworthy 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 fighters and helped them recover for further battles. But the Nazis found out about this and the woman was hanged.

Soon after the death of his mother, Marat Kazei and his sister joined the partisan detachment, where the boy became 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 the organization of many acts of sabotage at German facilities.

The boy also demonstrated his courage and heroism in direct combat with enemies - even when he was wounded, he gathered his strength and continued to attack the Nazis.

At the very beginning of 1943, Marat was offered to leave for a quiet area, far from the front, accompanying his sister Ariadna, who had significant health problems. The pioneer would have been easily released to the rear, since he had not yet reached the age of 18, but Kazei refused and remained to fight on.

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 to help the partisans. The Nazis were dispersed, the Soviet soldiers were saved.

Recognizing the considerable merits of the teenager 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 comrade were walking back from reconnaissance, and suddenly the Nazis encircled them. Kazei's partner was shot by enemies, and the teenager blew himself up on the last grenade so that they could not capture him. There is an alternative opinion of historians that the young hero so wanted to prevent the fact 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 a few 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, organized Kid `s camp, where students were brought up on the example of a young hero, and they were instilled with the same ardent and selfless love for the Motherland. He also bore the name "Marat Kazei".

Valya Kotik

Pioneer-hero Valentin Kotik was born in 1930 in Ukraine, in peasant family. When the Great Patriotic War began, the boy managed to unlearn only five years. During his studies, Valya showed himself to be a sociable, smart student, a good organizer and a born leader.

When the Nazis captured the hometown of Vali Kotika, he was only 11 years old. Historians claim that the pioneer immediately began to help adults collect ammunition and weapons, which were sent to the firing line. Valya and his comrades picked up pistols and machine guns from the places of military clashes and secretly passed them to the partisans in the forest. In addition, Kotik personally drew caricatures of the Nazis and hung them in the city.

In 1942, Valentin was accepted into the underground organization of his hometown as a scout. There is information about his exploits committed as part of a partisan detachment in 1943. In the autumn of 1943, Kotik obtained information about a communication cable buried deep underground, which was used by the Nazis, and it was successfully destroyed.

Valya Kotik also blew up warehouses and trains of the Nazis, sat in ambushes many times. Even a young hero learned for the partisans information about the posts of the Nazis.

In the autumn of 1943, the boy again saved the lives of many partisans. While standing at his post, he was attacked. Valya Kotik killed one of the Nazis and informed his comrades-in-arms about the danger.

Valya Kotik was awarded two orders and a medal for his many heroic deeds.

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 slightly wounded Valentine was sent on a wagon train to the rear after the fighting, and this wagon train was bombed by the Nazis.

In Soviet times, all students knew the name of the brave teenager, as well as about all his accomplishments. 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 in the past - a red partisan. From a young age, Volodya demonstrated a lively mind, quick wit and dexterity. He read a lot, took photographs, made aircraft models. Father Nikifor Semenovich often told the children about his heroic partisan past, about the formation of Soviet power.

At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, my father went to the front. Volodya's mother went with him and his sister to relatives near Kerch, in the village of Stary Karantin.

Meanwhile, the enemy was approaching. Part of the population decided to join the partisans, hiding in the nearby quarries. Volodya Dubinin and other pioneers asked to join them. The main partisan in the detachment, Alexander Zyabrev, hesitated, agreed. There were many chokepoints in the underground catacombs that only children could penetrate, and so, he reasoned, they could scout. This was the beginning of the heroic activity of the pioneer hero Volodya Dubinin, who many times rescued the partisans.

Since the partisans did not sit silently in the quarries, after the Nazis captured the Old Quarantine, but arranged all kinds 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 the Old Quarantine captured by the Germans. Volodya Dubinin was the smallest in physique and one day he was the only one who could get out to the surface. His comrades at that time helped as best they could, diverting the attention of the Nazis from those places where Volodya got out. Then they were active in another place, so that Volodya could return to the catacombs just as unnoticed in the evening.

The boys not only scouted the situation - they brought ammunition and weapons, medicine for the wounded and did other useful things. Volodya Dubinin differed from everyone in the effectiveness of his actions. He deftly deceived the Nazi patrols, making his way into the quarries, and, among other things, accurately memorized important numbers, for example, the number of enemy units in different villages.

In the winter of 1941, the Nazis decided once and for all to put an end to the partisans in the quarries under the Old Quarantine by flooding them with water. Volodya Dubinin, who went into intelligence, found out about this in time and promptly warned the underground about the insidious plan of the Nazis. To

in time, he returned to the catacombs in the middle of the day, risking being seen by the Nazis.

The partisans urgently put up a barrier, building a dam, and were saved thanks to this. This is the most significant feat of Volodya Dubinin, which saved the lives of many partisans, their wives and children, because some of them went into the catacombs with their whole families.

At the time of his death, Volodya Dubinin was 14 years old. This happened after the new year 1942. On the orders of the partisan commander, he went to the Adzhimushkay quarries to establish contact with them. On the way, he met the Soviet military units, which liberated Kerch from the Nazi invaders.

It only remained to rescue the partisans from the quarries, neutralizing the minefield that the Nazis had left behind. Volodya became a guide to the sappers. But one of them made a fatal mistake and the boy, along with four fighters, 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 accomplished several feats and acts of sabotage against the Nazis, being a member of the underground organization of the city of Vitebsk. The inhuman torments that she had to endure from the Nazis will forever be in the hearts of her descendants and after many years fill us with sorrow.

Zina Portnova was born in 1926 in Leningrad. Before the start of the war, she was an ordinary girl. In the summer of 1941, she went with her sister to her grandmother in the Vitebsk region. After the outbreak of the war, German invaders came to this area almost immediately. The girls could not 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 Nazis. Zina Portnova became a member of the Young Avengers group. Their leader, Efrosinya Zenkova, was seventeen years old. Zina turned 15.

The most significant feat of Zina is the case of poisoning more than a hundred Nazis. The girl managed to do this while acting as a kitchen worker. She was suspected of this sabotage, but she herself ate the poisoned soup and was abandoned. She herself miraculously remained alive after that, her grandmother departed her with the help of medicinal herbs.

Upon completion of this case, Zina went to the partisans. Here she became a Komsomol member. But in the summer of 1943, a traitor uncovered the Vitebsk underground, 30 young people were executed. Only a few managed to escape. Zina was instructed by the partisans to contact the survivors. However, she did not succeed, she was recognized and arrested.

The Nazis already knew that Zina was also a member of the Young Avengers, they only did not 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 at the same time. During one of the interrogations, she snatched a Mauser from a German and shot three Nazis. But she could not escape - she was wounded in the leg. Zina Portnova could not kill herself - a misfire came out.

After that, angry fascists began to brutally torture the girl. They gouged out Zina's eyes, stuck needles under her nails, burned her with a red-hot iron. She just wanted to die. After another torture, she threw herself under a passing car, but the German nonhumans saved her in order to continue the torture.

In the winter of 1944, exhausted, crippled, blind and completely gray-haired, Zina Portnova 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. Taking an example from his father, a hunter, Alexander knew how to shoot very accurately and navigate the terrain in his years.

At fourteen, Sasha was accepted into the Komsomol. By the beginning of the war, he had completed the eighth grade. A month after the Nazi attack, the front became close to the Tula region. Chekalina's father and son immediately joined the partisans.

The young partisan showed himself in the first days as smart and brave fighter, he successfully obtained information about important secrets fascists. Sasha also trained as a radio operator and successfully connected his detachment with other partisans. The young Komsomol member also arranges very effective sabotage against the Nazis on railway. Chekalin often sits in ambush, punishes defectors, undermines enemy posts.

At the end of 1941, Alexander fell seriously ill with a cold, and in order for him to heal, 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 Nazis arrested the teacher and took him to another settlement. Then the young man climbed into the house where they lived with their parents. But the headman-traitor tracked him down and informed the Nazis about his arrival.

The Nazis laid siege to Sasha's home and ordered him to come out with his hands up. Komsomol started firing. When the ammunition ran out, Sasha threw a "lemon", but it did not explode. The young man was taken. For almost a week he was tortured very cruelly, demanding information about the partisans. But Chekalin did not say anything.

Later, the Nazis hanged the young man in front of the people. A sign was attached to the dead body that all partisans were executed in this way, and it hung in this form for three weeks. Only when the Soviet soldiers finally liberated the Tula region, the body of the young hero was buried with honor in the city of Likhvin, which was later renamed Chekalin.

Already in 1942, Chekalin Alexander Pavlovich was posthumously given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Lenya Golikov

The pioneer hero Lenya Golikov was born in 1926 from the villages of the Novgorod region. The parents were workers. He studied for only seven years, after which he went to work at the factory.

In 1941, the Nazis captured Leni's native village. Having seen enough of their atrocities, the teenager after his release native land voluntarily joined the partisans. At first they did not 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 cleverly and courageously, on account of his twenty-seven successful military operations.

The most important achievement of the pioneer hero came in August 1942, when he and another scout 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 a vengeance. January 1943 was especially difficult for them. The detachment, in which Lenya Golikov also served, about twenty people, took refuge in the village of Ostraya Luka. We decided to spend the night quietly. But a traitor from the locals betrayed the partisans.

One hundred and fifty Nazis attacked the partisans at night, they bravely entered the battle, he left the ring of punishers only six. Only at the end of the month they got to their own and said that their comrades died as heroes in an unequal battle. Among them was Lenya Golikov.

In 1944, Leonid was given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

War has no face. War has no age, gender or nationality. War is terrible. War does not choose. Every year we remember the war that claimed millions of lives. Every year we thank those who fought for our country.

From 1941 to 1945, several tens of thousands of underage children took part in hostilities. The "sons of the regiment", the pioneers - village boys and girls, guys from the cities - they were posthumously recognized as heroes, although they were much younger than you and me. Along with adults, they suffered hardships, defended, shot, were captured, sacrificing their own lives. They fled from home to the front to defend their homeland. They stayed at home and endured terrible hardships. In the rear and on the front line, they performed a small feat every day. They did not have time for childhood, they did not get the years to grow up. They grew up by the minute, because the war is not a child's face.

In this collection, only some of the stories of children who died on the front line for their own country; children who did things that adults were afraid to think about; children whom the war deprived of childhood, but not strength of mind.

Marat Kazei, 14 years old, partisan

Member of the partisan detachment named after the 25th anniversary of October, intelligence officer of the headquarters of the 200th partisan brigade named after Rokossovsky in the occupied territory of the Byelorussian SSR.
Marat was born in 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk Region, Belarus, and managed to finish the 4th grade of a rural school. His parents were arrested on charges of sabotage and “Trotskyism”, brothers and sisters were “scattered” among their grandparents. But the Kazeev family did not get angry at Soviet power: In 1941, when Belarus became an occupied territory, Anna Kazei, the wife of the “enemy of the people” and the mother of little Marat and Ariadne, hid the wounded partisans at her place, for which she was hanged. Marat went to the partisans. He went to reconnaissance, participated in raids and undermined the echelons.

And in May 1944, while performing another assignment near the village of Khoromitsky, Minsk Region, a 14-year-old soldier died. Returning from a mission together with the intelligence commander, they stumbled upon the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, and Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to go, the teenager was seriously wounded in the arm. While there were cartridges, he kept the defense, and when the store was empty, he took the last weapon - two grenades from his belt. He threw one at the Germans immediately, and waited with the second: when the enemies came very close, he blew himself up along with them.
In 1965, Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.

Boris Yasen, young actor

Boris Yasen is an actor who played Mishka Kvakin in the film Timur and His Team. According to some reports, in 1942 he returned from the front to take part in the filming of the film Timur's Oath. To date, the young actor is considered missing. There is no information about Boris in the Memorial OBD.

Valya Kotik, 14 years old, scout

Valya is the youngest Hero of the USSR. Born in 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenetz-Podolsk region of Ukraine. In a village occupied by German troops, the boy secretly collected weapons and ammunition and handed them over to the partisans. And he waged his own little war, as he understood it: he drew and pasted caricatures of the Nazis in prominent places. In 1942, he began to carry out intelligence assignments from an underground party organization, and in the autumn of the same year he completed his first combat mission - he eliminated the head of the field gendarmerie. In October 1943, Valya reconnoitered the location of the underground telephone cable of the Nazi headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the destruction of six railway echelons, a warehouse. The guy was mortally wounded in February 1944.
In 1958, Valentin Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sasha Kolesnikov, 12 years old, son of a regiment

In March 1943, Sasha ran away from school with a friend and went to the front. He wanted to get to the unit where his father served as commander, but on the way he met a wounded tanker who fought in his father's unit. Then I learned that the father had received news from his mother about his escape, and upon arrival at the unit, a terrible scolding awaited him. This changed the boy's plans and he immediately joined the tankers who were heading to the rear to reorganize. Sasha lied to them that he was left completely alone. So at the age of 12 he became a soldier, "the son of a regiment."

Several times he successfully went to reconnaissance, helped to destroy a train with German ammunition. At that time, the Germans caught the boy and, having become brutal, they beat him for a long time, and then they crucified him - they nailed his hands with nails. Sasha was saved by our scouts. During his service, Sasha "grew" to the level of a tanker and knocked out several enemy vehicles. The soldiers called him none other than "San Sanych."

He returned home in the summer of 1945.

Alyosha Yarsky, 17 years old

Alexei was an actor, you can remember him from the film "Gorky's Childhood", in which the boy played Lesha Peshkov. The guy went to the front as a volunteer when he was 17 years old. He died on February 15, 1943 near Leningrad.

Lenya Golikov, 16 years old

When the war began, Lenya got a rifle and joined the partisans. Thin, small in stature, he looked younger than his then 14 years old. Under the guise of a beggar, Lenya walked around the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of the fascist troops and the number of their military equipment, and then passed this information on to the partisans.

In 1942 he joined the detachment. He went to reconnaissance, brought important information to the partisan detachment. Lenya fought one battle alone against 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. For almost a kilometer, he pursued the enemy and killed him. The portfolio turned out to be very important documents. Then the headquarters of the partisans immediately sent the papers by plane to Moscow.

From December 1942 to January 1943, the partisan detachment, in which Golikov was located, left the encirclement with fierce battles. The boy died in a battle with a Nazi punitive detachment on January 24, 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov Region.

Volodya Buryak, under 18

How old Volodya was exactly is unknown. We only know that in June 1942, when Vova Buryak was sailing as a cabin boy on the ship "Imperfect" with his father, he had not yet reached military age. The boy's father was the captain of the ship.

On June 25, the ship received cargo in the port of Novorossiysk. The crew was faced with the task of breaking into the besieged Sevastopol. Then Vova fell ill and the ship's doctor prescribed bed rest for the guy. His mother lived in Novorossiysk and he was sent home for treatment. Suddenly, Vova remembered that he had forgotten to tell his crewmate where he put one of the spare parts of the machine gun. He jumped out of bed and ran to the ship.

The sailors understood that this voyage would most likely be the last, because it became more and more difficult to break through to Sevastopol every day. They left memorabilia and letters on the shore asking them to pass them on to their relatives. Having learned about what was happening, Volodya decided to stay on board the destroyer. When his father saw him on deck, the guy replied that he could not leave. If he, the captain's son, leaves the ship, then everyone will definitely believe that the ship will not return from the attack.

"Flawless" was attacked from the air on June 26 in the morning. Volodya stood at the machine gun and fired at enemy vehicles. When the ship began to go under water, Captain Buryak gave the order to leave the ship. The board was empty, but the captain of the 3rd rank Buryak and his son Volodya did not leave their combat post.

Zina Portnova, 17 years old

Zina served as a scout for a partisan detachment on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR. In 1942, she joined the underground Komsomol youth organization Young Avengers. There, Zina actively participated in the distribution of campaign leaflets and staged sabotage against the invaders. In 1943, Portnova was captured by the Germans. During the interrogation, she grabbed the investigator's pistol from the table, shot him and two other Nazis, and tried to escape. But she failed to do so.

From Vasily Smirnov's book "Zina Portnova":
“The most sophisticated executioners in cruel tortures interrogated her .... She was promised to save her life if only the young partisan would confess everything, name all the underground fighters and partisans known to her. And again, the Gestapo met with the unshakable firmness of this stubborn girl, who was called “Soviet bandit” in their protocols, which surprised them. Zina, exhausted by torture, refused to answer questions, hoping that she would be killed faster this way. ... Once, in the prison yard, the prisoners saw how a completely gray-haired girl, when she was being led to another interrogation-torture, threw herself under the wheels of a passing truck. But the car was stopped, the girl was pulled out from under the wheels and again taken for interrogation…”

January 10, 1944 17-year-old Zina Portnova was shot. In 1985 she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sasha Chekalin, 16 years old

At the age of 16, the village boy Sasha became a member of the Peredovaya partisan detachment in the Tula region. Together with other partisans, he set fire to fascist warehouses, blew up cars and eliminated enemy sentries and patrols.

In November 1941, Sasha fell seriously ill. For some time he was in one of the villages of the Tula region, near the city of Likhvin, with a "verified person." One of the residents betrayed the young partisan to the Nazis. At night they broke into the house and grabbed Chekalin. When the door swung open, Sasha threw a grenade prepared in advance at the Germans, but it did not explode.

The Nazis tortured the boy for several days. Then they hung him. The body remained on the gallows for more than 20 days - they were not allowed to remove it. Sasha Chekalin was buried with full military honors only when the city was liberated from the invaders. In 1942 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Marat Kazei, 14 years old, partisan

Member of the partisan detachment named after the 25th anniversary of October, intelligence officer of the headquarters of the 200th partisan brigade named after Rokossovsky in the occupied territory of the Byelorussian SSR.

Marat was born in 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk Region, Belarus, and managed to finish the 4th grade of a rural school. His parents were arrested on charges of sabotage and Trotskyism, brothers and sisters were "scattered" among their grandparents. But the Kazeev family did not become angry with the Soviet authorities: in 1941, when Belarus became an occupied territory, Anna Kazei, the wife of the “enemy of the people” and the mother of little Marat and Ariadna, hid the wounded partisans at her place, for which she was hanged. Marat went to the partisans. He went to reconnaissance, participated in raids and undermined the echelons.

And in May 1944, while performing another assignment near the village of Khoromitsky, Minsk Region, a 14-year-old soldier died. Returning from a mission together with the intelligence commander, they stumbled upon the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, and Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to go, the teenager was seriously wounded in the arm. While there were cartridges, he kept the defense, and when the store was empty, he took the last weapon - two grenades from his belt. He threw one at the Germans immediately, and waited with the second: when the enemies came very close, he blew himself up along with them.

In 1965, Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.

Boris Yasen, young actor

Boris Yasen is an actor who played Mishka Kvakin in the film Timur and His Team. According to some reports, in 1942 he returned from the front to take part in the filming of the film Timur's Oath. To date, the young actor is considered missing. There is no information about Boris in the Memorial OBD.

Valya Kotik, 14 years old, scout

Valya is one of the youngest Heroes of the USSR. Born in 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenetz-Podolsk region of Ukraine. In a village occupied by German troops, the boy secretly collected weapons and ammunition and handed them over to the partisans. And he waged his own little war, as he understood it: he drew and pasted caricatures of the Nazis in prominent places. In 1942, he began to carry out intelligence assignments from an underground party organization, and in the fall of the same year he completed his first combat mission - he eliminated the head of the field gendarmerie. In October 1943, Valya reconnoitered the location of the underground telephone cable of the Nazi headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the destruction of six railway echelons, a warehouse. The guy was mortally wounded in February 1944.

In 1958, Valentin Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sasha Kolesnikov, 12 years old, son of a regiment

In March 1943, Sasha ran away from school with a friend and went to the front. He wanted to get to the unit where his father served as commander, but on the way he met a wounded tanker who fought in his father's unit. Then I learned that the father had received news from his mother about his escape, and upon arrival at the unit, a terrible scolding awaited him. This changed the boy's plans, and he immediately joined the tankers, who were heading to the rear to reorganize. Sasha lied to them that he was left completely alone. So at the age of 12 he became a soldier, "the son of a regiment."

Several times he successfully went to reconnaissance, helped to destroy a train with German ammunition. At that time, the Germans caught the boy and, having become brutal, they beat him for a long time, and then they crucified him - they nailed his hands with nails. Sasha was saved by our scouts. During his service, Sasha has grown to be a tanker and knocked out several enemy vehicles. The soldiers called him none other than San Sanych.

He returned home in the summer of 1945.

Alyosha Yarsky, 17 years old

Alexei was an actor, you can remember him from the film "Gorky's Childhood", in which the boy played Lesha Peshkov. The guy went to the front as a volunteer when he was 17 years old. He died on February 15, 1943 near Leningrad.

Lenya Golikov, 16 years old

When the war began, Lenya got a rifle and joined the partisans. Thin, small in stature, he looked younger than his then 14 years old. Under the guise of a beggar, Lenya walked around the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of the fascist troops and the number of their military equipment, and then passed this information on to the partisans.

In 1942 he joined a partisan detachment. Went on reconnaissance, brought important information. Lenya fought one battle alone against 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. For almost a kilometer, he pursued the enemy and killed him. There were important documents in the briefcase. Then the headquarters of the partisans immediately sent the papers by plane to Moscow.

From December 1942 to January 1943, the partisan detachment, in which Golikov was located, left the encirclement with fierce battles. The boy died in a battle with a Nazi punitive detachment on January 24, 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov Region.

Volodya Buryak, under 18

How old Volodya was exactly is unknown. We only know that in June 1942, when Vova Buryak was sailing as a cabin boy on the ship "Imperfect" with his father, he had not yet reached military age. The boy's father was the captain of the ship.

On June 25, the ship received cargo in the port of Novorossiysk. The crew was faced with the task of breaking into the besieged Sevastopol. Then Vova fell ill, and the ship's doctor prescribed bed rest for the guy. His mother lived in Novorossiysk, and he was sent home for treatment. Suddenly, Vova remembered that he had forgotten to tell his crewmate where he put one of the spare parts of the machine gun. He jumped out of bed and ran to the ship.

The sailors understood that this voyage would most likely be the last, because it was becoming more and more difficult to break through to Sevastopol every day. They left memorabilia and letters on the shore asking them to pass them on to their relatives. Having learned about what was happening, Volodya decided to stay on board the destroyer. When his father saw him on deck, the guy replied that he could not leave. If he, the captain's son, leaves the ship, then everyone will definitely believe that the ship will not return from the attack.

"Flawless" was attacked from the air on June 26 in the morning. Volodya stood at the machine gun and fired at enemy vehicles. When the ship began to go under water, Captain Buryak gave the order to leave the ship. The board was empty, but the captain of the 3rd rank Buryak and his son Volodya did not leave their combat post.

Zina Portnova, 17 years old

Zina served as a scout for a partisan detachment on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR. In 1942, she joined the underground Komsomol youth organization Young Avengers. There, Zina actively participated in the distribution of campaign leaflets and staged sabotage against the invaders. In 1943, Portnova was captured by the Germans. During the interrogation, she grabbed the investigator's pistol from the table, shot him and two other Nazis, and tried to escape. But she failed to do so.

From Vasily Smirnov's book "Zina Portnova":

“The most sophisticated executioners in cruel tortures interrogated her .... She was promised to save her life if only the young partisan would confess everything, name all the underground fighters and partisans known to her. And again, the Gestapo met with the unshakable firmness of this stubborn girl, who in their protocols was called the “Soviet bandit,” which surprised them. Zina, exhausted by torture, refused to answer questions, hoping that this way she would be killed faster ... Once in the prison yard, prisoners saw how a completely gray-haired girl, when she was being led to another interrogation-torture, threw herself under the wheels of a passing truck. But the car was stopped, the girl was pulled out from under the wheels and again taken for interrogation…”

On January 10, 1944, 17-year-old Zina Portnova was shot. In 1985, she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sasha Chekalin, 16 years old

At the age of 16, the village boy Sasha became a member of the Peredovoy partisan detachment in the Tula region. Together with other partisans, he set fire to fascist warehouses, blew up cars and eliminated enemy sentries and patrols.

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Alexander Matrosov

Submachine gunner of the 2nd Separate Battalion of the 91st Separate Siberian Volunteer Brigade named after Stalin.

Sasha Matrosov did not know his parents. He was brought up in an orphanage and a labor colony. When the war began, he was not even 20. Matrosov was drafted into the army in September 1942 and sent to an infantry school, and then to the front.

In February 1943, his battalion attacked the Nazi stronghold, but fell into a trap, falling under heavy fire, cutting off the path to the trenches. They fired from three bunkers. Two soon fell silent, but the third continued to shoot the Red Army soldiers who lay in the snow.

Seeing that the only chance to get out of the fire was to suppress the enemy's fire, Matrosov crawled to the bunker with a fellow soldier and threw two grenades in his direction. The gun was silent. The Red Army went on the attack, but the deadly weapon chirped again. Alexander's partner was killed, and Matrosov was left alone in front of the bunker. Something had to be done.

He didn't even have a few seconds to make a decision. Not wanting to let his comrades down, Alexander closed the embrasure of the bunker with his body. The attack was successful. And Matrosov posthumously received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Military pilot, commander of the 2nd squadron of the 207th long-range bomber aviation regiment, captain.

He worked as a mechanic, then in 1932 he was called up for service in the Red Army. He got into the air regiment, where he became a pilot. Nicholas Gastello participated in three wars. A year before the Great Patriotic War, he received the rank of captain.

On June 26, 1941, the crew under the command of Captain Gastello took off to attack a German mechanized column. It was on the road between the Belarusian cities of Molodechno and Radoshkovichi. But the column was well guarded by enemy artillery. A fight ensued. Aircraft Gastello was hit by anti-aircraft guns. The shell damaged the fuel tank, the car caught fire. The pilot could eject, but he decided to fulfill his military duty to the end. Nikolai Gastello sent a burning car directly to the enemy column. It was the first fire ram in the Great Patriotic War.

The name of the brave pilot has become a household name. Until the end of the war, all the aces who decided to go for a ram were called Gastellites. According to official statistics, almost six hundred enemy rams were made during the entire war.

Brigadier scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade.

Lena was 15 years old when the war began. He already worked at the factory, having finished the seven-year plan. When the Nazis captured his native Novgorod region, Lenya joined the partisans.

He was brave and determined, the command appreciated him. For several years spent in the partisan detachment, he participated in 27 operations. On his account, several destroyed bridges behind enemy lines, 78 destroyed Germans, 10 trains with ammunition.

It was he who, in the summer of 1942, near the village of Varnitsa, blew up a car in which the German Major General of the Engineering Troops, Richard von Wirtz, was located. Golikov managed to obtain important documents about the German offensive. The enemy attack was thwarted, and the young hero for this feat was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In the winter of 1943, a significantly superior enemy detachment unexpectedly attacked partisans near the village of Ostraya Luka. Lenya Golikov died like a real hero - in battle.

Pioneer. Scout of the partisan detachment named after Voroshilov in the territory occupied by the Nazis.

Zina was born and went to school in Leningrad. However, the war found her on the territory of Belarus, where she came for the holidays.

In 1942, 16-year-old Zina joined the underground organization Young Avengers. It distributed anti-fascist leaflets in the occupied territories. Then, under cover, she got a job working in a canteen for German officers, where she committed several acts of sabotage and only miraculously was not captured by the enemy. Her courage surprised many experienced soldiers.

In 1943, Zina Portnova joined the partisans and continued to engage in sabotage behind enemy lines. Due to the efforts of defectors who surrendered Zina to the Nazis, she was captured. In the dungeons, she was interrogated and tortured. But Zina was silent, not betraying her. At one of these interrogations, she grabbed a pistol from the table and shot three Nazis. After that, she was shot in prison.

Underground anti-fascist organization operating in the area of modern Luhansk region. There were over a hundred people. The youngest participant was 14 years old.

This youth underground organization was formed immediately after the occupation of the Lugansk region. It included both regular military personnel, who were cut off from the main units, and local youth. Among the most famous participants: Oleg Koshevoy, Ulyana Gromova, Lyubov Shevtsova, Vasily Levashov, Sergey Tyulenin and many other young people.

The "Young Guard" issued leaflets and committed sabotage against the Nazis. Once they managed to disable an entire tank repair shop, burn down the stock exchange, from where the Nazis drove people to forced labor in Germany. The members of the organization planned to stage an uprising, but were exposed because of the traitors. The Nazis caught, tortured and shot more than seventy people. Their feat is immortalized in one of the most famous military books by Alexander Fadeev and the film adaptation of the same name.

28 people from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment.

In November 1941, a counteroffensive against Moscow began. The enemy did not stop at nothing, making a decisive forced march before the onset of a harsh winter.

At this time, the fighters under the command of Ivan Panfilov took up a position on the highway seven kilometers from Volokolamsk, a small town near Moscow. There they gave battle to the advancing tank units. The battle lasted four hours. During this time, they destroyed 18 armored vehicles, delaying the enemy's attack and frustrating his plans. All 28 people (or almost all, here the opinions of historians differ) died.

According to legend, the company's political instructor Vasily Klochkov, before the decisive stage of the battle, turned to the fighters with a phrase that became known throughout the country: "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!"

The Nazi counteroffensive ultimately failed. The battle for Moscow, which was assigned the most important role during the war, was lost by the occupiers.

As a child, the future hero suffered from rheumatism, and the doctors doubted that Maresyev would be able to fly. However, he stubbornly applied to the flight school until he was finally enrolled. Maresyev was drafted into the army in 1937.

He met the Great Patriotic War at the flight school, but soon got to the front. During a sortie, his plane was shot down, and Maresyev himself was able to eject. Eighteen days, seriously wounded in both legs, he got out of the encirclement. However, he still managed to overcome the front line and ended up in the hospital. But gangrene had already begun, and the doctors amputated both of his legs.

For many, this would mean the end of the service, but the pilot did not give up and returned to aviation. Until the end of the war, he flew with prostheses. Over the years, he made 86 sorties and shot down 11 enemy aircraft. And 7 - already after amputation. In 1944, Alexei Maresyev went to work as an inspector and lived to be 84 years old.

His fate inspired the writer Boris Polevoy to write The Tale of a Real Man.

Deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment.

Victor Talalikhin began to fight already in the Soviet-Finnish war. Shot down 4 on a biplane enemy aircraft. Then he served in the aviation school.

In August 1941, one of the first Soviet pilots made a ram, shooting down a German bomber in a night air battle. Moreover, the wounded pilot was able to get out of the cockpit and descend by parachute to the rear of his own.

Talalikhin then shot down five more German planes. Killed during another air battle near Podolsk in October 1941.

After 73 years, in 2014, search engines found Talalikhin's plane, which remained in the swamps near Moscow.

Artilleryman of the 3rd counter-battery artillery corps of the Leningrad Front.

Soldier Andrei Korzun was drafted into the army at the very beginning of World War II. He served on the Leningrad front, where there were fierce and bloody battles.

November 5, 1943, during the next battle, his battery came under fierce enemy fire. Korzun was seriously wounded. Despite the terrible pain, he saw that the powder charges were set on fire and the ammunition depot could fly into the air. Gathering the last of his strength, Andrey crawled to the blazing fire. But he could no longer take off his overcoat to cover the fire. Losing consciousness, he made a last effort and covered the fire with his body. The explosion was avoided at the cost of the life of a brave gunner.

Commander of the 3rd Leningrad Partisan Brigade.

A native of Petrograd, Alexander German, according to some sources, was a native of Germany. He served in the army from 1933. When the war began, he became a scout. He worked behind enemy lines, commanded a partisan detachment, which terrified the enemy soldiers. His brigade destroyed several thousand fascist soldiers and officers, derailed hundreds of trains and blew up hundreds of vehicles.

The Nazis staged a real hunt for Herman. In 1943, his partisan detachment was surrounded in the Pskov region. Making his way to his own, the brave commander died from an enemy bullet.

Commander of the 30th Separate Guards Tank Brigade of the Leningrad Front

Vladislav Khrustitsky was drafted into the Red Army back in the 1920s. In the late 30s he graduated from armored courses. Since the autumn of 1942, he commanded the 61st separate light tank brigade.

He distinguished himself during Operation Iskra, which marked the beginning of the defeat of the Germans on the Leningrad front.

He died in the battle near Volosovo. In 1944, the enemy retreated from Leningrad, but from time to time made attempts to counterattack. During one of these counterattacks, Khrustitsky's tank brigade fell into a trap.

Despite heavy fire, the commander ordered to continue the offensive. He turned on the radio to his crews with the words: "Stand to the death!" - and went forward first. Unfortunately, the brave tanker died in this battle. And yet the village of Volosovo was liberated from the enemy.

Commander of a partisan detachment and brigade.

Before the war, he worked on the railroad. In October 1941, when the Germans were already standing near Moscow, he himself volunteered for a difficult operation, in which his railway experience was needed. Was thrown behind enemy lines. There he came up with the so-called "coal mines" (in fact, these are just mines disguised as coal). With the help of this simple but effective weapon, a hundred enemy trains were blown up in three months.

Zaslonov actively campaigned local population go over to the side of the partisans. The Nazis, having learned this, dressed their soldiers in Soviet uniforms. Zaslonov mistook them for defectors and ordered them to be allowed into the partisan detachment. The path to the insidious enemy was open. A battle ensued, during which Zaslonov died. A reward was announced for living or dead Zaslonov, but the peasants hid his body, and the Germans did not get it.

The commander of a small partisan detachment.

Efim Osipenko fought back in civil war. Therefore, when the enemy seized his land, without thinking twice, he joined the partisans. Together with five other comrades, he organized a small partisan detachment that committed sabotage against the Nazis.

During one of the operations, it was decided to undermine the enemy composition. But there was little ammunition in the detachment. The bomb was made from an ordinary grenade. The explosives were to be installed by Osipenko himself. He crawled to the railway bridge and, seeing the approach of the train, threw it in front of the train. There was no explosion. Then the partisan himself hit the grenade with a pole from the railway sign. It worked! A long train with food and tanks went downhill. The squad leader survived, but lost his sight completely.

For this feat, he was the first in the country to be awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War."

The peasant Matvey Kuzmin was born three years before the abolition of serfdom. And he died, becoming the oldest holder of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

His story contains many references to the history of another famous peasant - Ivan Susanin. Matvey also had to lead the invaders through the forest and swamps. And, like the legendary hero, he decided to stop the enemy at the cost of his life. He sent his grandson ahead to warn a detachment of partisans who had stopped nearby. The Nazis were ambushed. A fight ensued. Matvey Kuzmin died at the hands of a German officer. But he did his job. He was in his 84th year.

A partisan who was part of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the headquarters of the Western Front.

While studying at school, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya wanted to enter a literary institute. But these plans were not destined to come true - the war prevented. In October 1941, Zoya, as a volunteer, came to the recruiting station and, after a short training at a school for saboteurs, was transferred to Volokolamsk. There, an 18-year-old partisan fighter, along with adult men, performed dangerous tasks: she mined roads and destroyed communication centers.

During one of the sabotage operations, Kosmodemyanskaya was caught by the Germans. She was tortured, forcing her to betray her own. Zoya heroically endured all the trials without saying a word to the enemies. Seeing that it was impossible to get anything from the young partisan, they decided to hang her.

Kosmodemyanskaya steadfastly accepted the test. A moment before her death, she shouted to the assembled local residents: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it's too late, surrender!" The courage of the girl so shocked the peasants that they later retold this story to front-line correspondents. And after the publication in the Pravda newspaper, the whole country learned about the feat of Kosmodemyanskaya. She became the first woman to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.

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