Since 2009, 12 February has been declared by the United Nations International Day of Child Soldiers. This is the name for minors who are forced, due to circumstances, to actively participate in wars and armed conflicts.
According to various sources, up to several tens of thousands of minors took part in hostilities during the Great Patriotic War. "Sons of the regiment", pioneer heroes - they fought and died on a par with adults. For military service they were awarded orders and medals. The images of some of them were used in Soviet propaganda as symbols of courage and loyalty to the Motherland.
Five underage fighters of the Great Patriotic War were awarded the highest award - the titles of Heroes of the USSR. All - posthumously, remaining in textbooks and books by children and teenagers. All Soviet schoolchildren knew these heroes by name. Today "RG" recalls their short and often similar biographies.
Marat Kazei, 14 years old
Member of the partisan detachment named after the 25th anniversary of October, scout of the headquarters of the 200th Rokossovsky partisan brigade in the occupied territory of the Byelorussian SSR.
Marat was born in 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk region of Belarus, managed to finish 4 classes of a rural school. Before the war, his parents were arrested on charges of sabotage and "Trotskyism", numerous children were "scattered" over their grandparents. But the Kazei family did not get angry with the Soviet regime: In 1941, when Belarus became an occupied territory, Anna Kazei, the wife of an "enemy of the people" and the mother of little Marat and Ariadne, hid wounded partisans in her house, for which she was executed by the Germans. And the brother and sister went to the partisans. Ariadne was subsequently evacuated, but Marat remained in the detachment.
Along with his older comrades, he went on reconnaissance - both alone and with a group. Participated in raids. He blew up trains. For the battle in January 1943, when, wounded, he raised his comrades to attack and fought his way through the enemy ring, Marat received a medal "For Courage".
And in May 1944, while performing another task near the village of Khoromitskie, 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 in a hollow. There was nowhere to leave in the open field, and there was no possibility - the teenager was seriously wounded in the arm. While there were cartridges, I kept the line, and when the store was empty, I took the last weapon - two grenades, from my belt. He threw one at the Germans at once, and with the second he waited: when the enemies came very close, he blew himself up with them.
In 1965, Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.
Valya Kotik, 14 years old
A partisan scout in the Karmelyuk detachment, the youngest Hero of the USSR.
Valya was born in 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk region of Ukraine. Before the war he graduated from five classes. In a village occupied by German troops, the boy secretly collected weapons, ammunition and handed them over to the partisans. And he fought his own little war, as he understood it: he drew and pasted caricatures of the Nazis in prominent places.
Since 1942, he contacted the Shepetivka underground party organization and carried out its intelligence assignments. And in the fall of the same year, Valya and her boys of the same age received their first real combat mission: to eliminate the chief of the field gendarmerie.
"The roar of the engines grew louder - the cars were approaching. The faces of the soldiers were already clearly visible. Sweat was dripping from their foreheads, half-covered with green helmets. Some soldiers carelessly took off their helmets. The front car caught up with the bushes behind which the boys were hiding. Valya stood up, counting the seconds to himself. The car passed, an armored car was already in front of him. Then he got up to his full height and, shouting "Fire!" , rushed into a ditch and from there opened random fire from machine guns, "- this is how a Soviet textbook describes this first battle. Val then fulfilled the task of the partisans: the chief of the gendarmerie, chief lieutenant Franz Koenig and seven German soldiers were killed. About 30 people were injured.
In October 1943, the young soldier scouted the location of the underground telephone cable of the Hitlerite headquarters, which was soon blown up. Valya also took part in the destruction of six railway echelons and a warehouse.
On October 29, 1943, while at the post, Valya noticed that the punishers had staged a raid on the detachment. After killing a fascist officer with a pistol, the teenager raised the alarm, and the partisans had time to prepare for battle. On February 16, 1944, five days after his 14th birthday, in a battle for the city of Izyaslav, Kamenets-Podolsk, now Khmelnitsky region, the scout was mortally wounded and died the next day.
In 1958, Valentin Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lenya Golikov, 16 years old
Scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad Partisan Brigade.
Born in 1926 in the village of Lukino, Parfinsky district, Novgorod region. When the war broke out, he got a rifle and went to the partisans. Slender and short, he looked even younger than all 14 years old. Disguised as a beggar, Lenya walked through the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of the fascist troops and the number of their military equipment, and then transmitted this information to the partisans.
In 1942 he joined the detachment. "He took part in 27 military operations, destroyed 78 German soldiers and officers, blew up 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition ... On August 12, in the new combat area of \u200b\u200bthe brigade, Golikov crashed a passenger car in which there was a major general of engineering troops Richard Wirtz, heading from Pskov to Luga "- such data is contained in his award sheet.
The regional military archive preserved the original report of Golikov with a story about the circumstances of this battle:
"In the evening of 12.08.42, we, 6 partisans, got out onto the Pskov-Luga highway and lay down near the village of Varnitsa. There was no movement at night. It was dawning. A small car appeared from the Pskov side. we were, the car was quieter. Partizan Vasiliev threw an anti-tank grenade, did not hit. The second grenade was thrown by Petrov Alexander from the ditch, hit the traverse. The car did not stop immediately, but walked another 20 meters and almost caught up with us. Two officers jumped out of the car. I fired a burst from a machine gun. Didn't hit. The officer who was driving ran across the ditch towards the forest. I gave several bursts from my PPSh. I hit the enemy in the neck and back. Petrov began to shoot at the second officer, who kept looking around, shouting and Petrov killed this officer with a rifle. Then the two of us ran to the first wounded officer. They tore off the shoulder straps, took the briefcase, documents. There was still a heavy suitcase in the car. We barely pulled it into the bushes (150 meters from the highway). Not at the car, we heard an alarm, a ringing, a scream in the neighboring village. Grabbing a briefcase, shoulder straps and three captured pistols, we ran to our ... ".
For this feat Lenya was nominated for the highest government award - the Gold Star medal and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But he did not have time to get them. From December 1942 to January 1943, the partisan detachment in which Golikov was located, with fierce battles left the encirclement. Only a few managed to survive, but Leni was not among them: he died in a battle with a punitive detachment of fascists on January 24, 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov region, before he was 17 years old.
Sasha Chekalin, 16 years old
Member of the Vanguard partisan detachment of the Tula region.
Born in 1925 in the village of Peskovatskoe, now the Suvorov district of the Tula region. Before the start of the war he graduated from 8 classes. After the occupation of his native village by the Nazi troops in October 1941, he joined the "Vanguard" fighter partisan detachment, where he managed to serve for just over a month.
By November 1941, the partisan detachment inflicted significant damage on the Nazis: warehouses burned, cars exploded on mines, enemy trains went downhill, sentries and patrols disappeared without a trace. Once a group of partisans, including Sasha Chekalin, ambushed the road to the town of Likhvin (Tula region). A car appeared in the distance. A minute passed - and the explosion blew the car apart. Several more cars passed and exploded behind it. One of them, overcrowded with soldiers, tried to slip through. But the grenade thrown by Sasha Chekalin destroyed it too.
In early November 1941, Sasha caught a cold and fell ill. The commissar allowed him to lie down with a trusted person in the nearest village. But there was a traitor who betrayed him. At night, the Nazis broke into the house where the sick partisan was lying. Chekalin managed to grab the prepared grenade and throw it, but it did not explode ... After several days of torture, the Nazis hanged the teenager in the central Likhvin square and for more than 20 days did not allow his corpse to be removed from the gallows. And only when the city was liberated from the invaders, the military comrades-in-arms of the partisan Chekalin buried him with military honors.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Alexander Chekalin in 1942.
Zina Portnova, 17 years old
Member of the underground Komsomol-youth organization "Young Avengers", a scout of the Voroshilov partisan detachment on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR.
She was born in 1926 in Leningrad, graduated from 7 classes there and went to rest with her relatives in the village of Zuya in the Vitebsk region of Belarus for the summer holidays. There she was caught by the war.
In 1942, she joined the Obolsk underground Komsomol-youth organization "Young Avengers" and was actively involved in distributing leaflets among the population and sabotaging the invaders.
Since August 1943, Zina has been a scout for the Voroshilov partisan detachment. In December 1943, she was tasked with identifying the reasons for the failure of the Young Avengers organization and establishing contact with the underground. But upon returning to the detachment, Zina was arrested.
During the interrogation, the girl grabbed the pistol of the fascist investigator from the table, shot him and two more Nazis, tried to escape, but was captured.
From the book "Zina Portnova" by the Soviet writer Vasily Smirnov: "The most sophisticated executioners in cruel torture interrogated her ... She was promised to save her life, if only the young partisan confesses everything, names all the underground fighters and partisans she knows. And again the Gestapo met with the astonishing by their unshakable firmness of this stubborn girl, who in their protocols was called a “Soviet bandit.” Zina, exhausted by torture, refused to answer questions, hoping that she would be killed as soon as possible. ... Once in the prison yard, the prisoners saw how a completely gray-haired girl I was taken 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 led for interrogation ... ".
On January 10, 1944, in the village of Goryany, now in the Shumilinsky District of the Vitebsk Region of Belarus, 17-year-old Zina was shot.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union Zinaida Tailor was awarded in 1958.
The Soviet government raised remarkable people. Great job in raising a new person
labor and heroism were carried out by the Lenin Pioneer Organization. During the war, young pioneers went voluntarily to the front, attributing years to themselves. We worked in the rear at the factories from morning till night, providing the soldiers with products under the slogan "Everything for the front, everything for Victory!" These were Soviet children, brought up in the ideals of devotion to the Soviet Motherland, ready for heroism and labor in the name of the most just society on earth. Not that, then today - "row for yourself, for your country and your people - don't give a damn, it's bad for you - run abroad." Today they raise boys for the bourgeoisie, bad boys. And that time was - Time of heroes.
Yes, it was they who became the people of the future, they stepped into immortality.
Pioneer heroes during the Great Patriotic War
Valya Kotik is the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. He was 14 years old.
Already in the first days of the war, a pupil of a musical platoon, 14-year-old Petya Klypa, distinguished himself in the defense of the Brest Fortress. Many pioneers participated in partisan detachments, where they were often used as scouts and saboteurs, as well as in conducting underground activities; among the young partisans, Marat Kazei, Volodya Dubinin, Lyonya Golikov and Valya Kotik are especially famous (all of them died in battles, except for Volodya Dubinin, who was blown up by a mine; and all of them, except for the older Lenya Golikov, were 13-14 years old by the time of their death) ...
There were frequent cases when school-age teenagers fought as part of military units (the so-called "sons and daughters of regiments" - the story of the same name by Valentin Kataev is known, the prototype of which was the 11-year-old Isaak Rakov).
For military services tens of thousands of children and pioneers were awarded orders and medals:
Order of Lenin were awarded - Tolya Shumov, Vitya Korobkov, Volodya Kaznacheev; Orders of the Red Banner - Volodya Dubinin, Julius Kantemirov, Andrey Makarikhin, Kostya Kravchuk;
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree — Petya Klypa, Valery Volkov, Sasha Kovalev; Orders of the Red Star - Volodya Samorukha, Shura Efremov, Vanya Andrianov, Vitya Kovalenko, Lyonya Ankinovich.
Hundreds of pioneers have been awarded
medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War",
medal "For the Defense of Leningrad"-
over 15,000,
"For the Defense of Moscow"-
over 20,000 medals
Four pioneer heroes were awarded the title
Hero of the Soviet Union:
Lyonya Golikov, Marat Kazey, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova.
Utah Bondarovskaya
Wherever the blue-eyed girl Utah went, her red tie was invariably with her ...
In the summer of 1941, she came from Leningrad on vacation to a village near Pskov. Here the terrible news overtook Utah: war! Here she saw the enemy. Utah began to help the partisans. First she was a messenger, then a scout. Disguised as a beggar boy, she collected information in the villages: where the fascists' headquarters were, how they were guarded, how many machine guns.
Returning from the assignment, I immediately tied a red tie. And as if the strength was increasing! Utah supported tired fighters with a ringing pioneer song, a story about her native Leningrad ...
And how happy everyone was, how the Utah partisans congratulated when a message came to the detachment: the blockade had been broken! Leningrad survived, Leningrad won! On that day, both Utah's blue eyes and her red tie shone, as it seems, never.
But the earth was still groaning under the enemy's yoke, and the detachment, together with units of the Red Army, left to help the partisans of Estonia. In one of the battles - near the Estonian farm Rostov - Yuta Bondarovskaya, a little heroine of the great war, a pioneer who did not part with her red tie, died a heroic death. The Motherland awarded its heroic daughter posthumously the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree.
Galya Komleva
When the war began, and the Nazis approached Leningrad, Anna Petrovna Semenova, a high school counselor, was left for underground work in the village of Tarnovichi - in the south of the Leningrad Region. To communicate with the partisans, she selected her most reliable pioneers, and the first among them was Galina Komleva. A cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl during her six school years was awarded six times with books with the signature: "For excellent studies"
The young messenger brought assignments from the partisans to her counselor, and forwarded her reports to the detachment along with bread, potatoes, food, which they got with great difficulty. Once, when a messenger from the partisan detachment did not come to the meeting place on time, Galya, half frozen, made her way into the detachment, conveyed a report and, slightly warmed up, hurried back, carrying a new mission to the underground.
Together with the Komsomol member Taseya Yakovleva, Galya wrote leaflets and scattered them around the village at night. The fascists hunted down and seized the young underground workers. They were kept in the Gestapo for two months. After severely beating them, they threw them into a cell, and in the morning they again took them out for interrogation. Galya did not say anything to the enemy, she did not betray anyone. The young patriot was shot.
Gali Komleva's feat was celebrated by the Motherland with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.
Kostya Kravchuk
On June 11, 1944, units that were leaving for the front were lined up on the central square of Kiev. 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 battle banners of rifle regiments during the occupation of the city of Kiev ...
Retreating from Kiev, two wounded soldiers entrusted the banners to Kostya. And Kostya promised to keep them.
First, he buried it under a pear tree in the garden: it was thought that ours would return soon. But the war dragged on, and, having dug up the banners, Kostya kept them in the shed until he remembered the old, abandoned well outside the city, near the Dnieper. Having wrapped his priceless treasure in burlap and rolled 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 hard guard at the banner, although he was rounded up, and even fled from the train, in which the Kievites were driven to Germany.
When Kiev 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 overwhelmed and yet amazed soldiers.
On June 11, 1944, the newly formed units leaving for the front were handed replacements to the rescued Kostya.
Lara Mikheenko
For the reconnaissance and explosion of the railway. Leningrad schoolgirl Larisa Mikheenko was presented with a government award of the bridge over the Drissa river. But the Motherland did not have time to present the award to its brave daughter ...
The war cut the girl off from her hometown: in the summer she went on vacation to the Pustoshkinsky district, but could not return - the village was occupied by the Nazis. The pioneer dreamed of breaking free from Hitler's slavery, making her way to her own. And one night with two older friends left the village.
At the headquarters of the 6th Kalinin Brigade, Commander Major P. V. Ryndin first appeared to accept "such little ones": well, what partisans are they? But how much can even its very young citizens do for the Motherland! The girls were able to do what strong men did not. Dressed in rags, Lara walked through the villages, finding out where and how the guns were located, sentries were placed, which German cars were moving along the highway, what kind of trains and with what cargo they came to Pustoshka station.
She also took part in military operations ...
The young partisan, betrayed by a traitor in the village of Ignatovo, was shot by the Nazis. The decree on awarding Larisa Mikheenko with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree contains a bitter word: "Posthumously."
Vasya Korobko
Chernihiv region. The front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy. On the outskirts, covering the withdrawal of our units, a company held the defense. The boy brought 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, brings out the pioneer banner and hides it securely.
The outskirts of the village. Vasya is under the bridge. He pulls out the iron brackets, saws the piles, and at dawn watches from the shelter as the bridge collapses under the weight of a Nazi armored personnel carrier. The partisans made sure that Vasya could be trusted, and entrusted him with a serious business: to become a scout in the enemy's den. At the headquarters of the Nazis, he stokes the stoves, chops wood, and he himself looks closely, remembers, transfers information to the partisans. Punishers, planning to exterminate the partisans, forced the boy to lead them into the forest. But Vasya led the Nazis to the ambush of the policemen. The Nazis, mistaking them for partisans in the dark, opened furious fire, killed all the policemen, and suffered heavy losses themselves.
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 its little hero, who lived a short but such a bright life, with the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree.
Sasha Borodulin
There was a war going on. Above the village where Sasha lived, enemy bombers hummed hysterically. The enemy's boot trampled on the native land. Sasha Borodulin, a pioneer with a warm heart of a young Leninist, could not put up with this. He decided to fight the fascists. Got a rifle. After killing a fascist motorcyclist, he took the first battle trophy - a real German machine gun. Day after day he conducted reconnaissance. More than once he went on the most dangerous missions. A lot of destroyed cars and soldiers were on his account. For the performance of dangerous tasks, for the shown courage, resourcefulness and courage, Sasha Borodulin in the winter of 1941 was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Punishers tracked down the partisans. The detachment left them for three days, twice broke out of the encirclement, but the enemy ring closed again. Then the commander called in volunteers to cover the detachment's retreat. Sasha stepped forward first. Five took the fight. One by one, they died. Sasha was left alone. It was still possible to retreat - the forest is nearby, but every minute is so dear to the detachment, which will delay the enemy, and Sasha fought to the end. He, allowing the Nazis to close the ring around him, pulled out a grenade and blew them and himself. Sasha Borodulin died, but his memory is alive. The memory of the heroes is eternal!
Vitya Khomenko
The pioneer Vitya Khomenko went through his heroic way of fighting the fascists in the underground organization "Nikolaev Center".
... At school, Viti's German was "excellent", and the underground workers instructed the pioneer to get a job in the officers' mess. He washed dishes, it happened, served the officers in the hall and listened to their conversations. In drunken disputes, the Nazis blurted out information that was of great interest to the "Nikolaev Center".
The officers began to send the fast, intelligent boy on assignments, and soon they made him a messenger at the headquarters. It never occurred to them that the most secret packages were the first to be read by the underground members at the attendance ...
Together with Shura Kober, Vitya was tasked with crossing the front line in order to establish contact with Moscow. In Moscow, at the headquarters of the partisan movement, they reported on the situation and told about what they had observed on the way.
Returning to Nikolaev, the guys delivered a radio transmitter, explosives, and weapons to the underground workers. Again, a fight without fear and hesitation. On December 5, 1942, ten members of the underground were seized by the Nazis and executed. Among them are two boys - Shura Kober and Vitya Khomenko. They lived as heroes and died like heroes.
The Motherland awarded her fearless son with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree - posthumously. The name of Vitya Khomenko is the school where he studied.
Volodya Kaznacheev
1941 ... In the spring I graduated from the fifth grade. In the autumn he joined a partisan detachment.
When, together with his sister Anya, he came to the partisans in the Kletnyansky forests, in the Bryansk region, in the detachment they said: "Well, replenishment! .." True, having learned that they are from Solovyanovka, the children of Elena Kondratyevna Kaznacheeva, the one who baked bread for the partisans , they stopped joking (Elena Kondratyevna was killed by the Nazis).
The detachment had a "partisan school". Future miners and demolition workers were trained there. Volodya mastered this science with excellent marks and, together with his senior comrades, derailed eight echelons. He had to cover the retreat of the group, stopping the pursuers with grenades ...
He was connected; often went to Kletnya, delivering the most valuable information; waiting for darkness, he put up leaflets. From operation to operation, he became more experienced, more skillful.
The Nazis appointed a reward for the head of the partisan Kzanacheyev, not even suspecting that their brave adversary was still a boy. He fought alongside adults until the very day when his native land was liberated from the fascist scum, and rightfully shared with the adults the glory of the hero - the liberator of his native land. Volodya Kaznacheev was awarded the Order of Lenin, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1 degree.
Nadya Bogdanova
She was executed twice by the Nazis, and for many years Nadya was considered dead by her fighting friends. They even erected a monument to her.
It's hard to believe, but when she became a scout in the partisan detachment of "Uncle Vanya" Dyachkov, she was not even 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 the partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, mined objects.
The first time she was seized when, together with Vanya Zvontsov, she hung out a red flag on November 7, 1941 in enemy-occupied Vitebsk. 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, momentarily 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 1943. 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. Local residents came out, paralyzed and almost blind. After the war in Odessa, Academician V.P. Filatov returned Nadia's eyesight.
15 years later, she heard on the radio how the chief of intelligence of the 6th detachment Slesarenko - her commander - said that the fighters would never forget their dead comrades, and named among them Nadia Bogdanova, who saved his life as a wounded man ...
Only then did she appear, only then did the people who worked with her learned about what an amazing fate she was, Nadya Bogdanova, who was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner, the First Degree of the Patriotic War, and medals.
Valya Zenkina
The Brest Fortress was the first to take the enemy's blow. Bombs and shells exploded, walls collapsed, people died both in the fortress and in the city of Brest. From the first minutes, Valin's father went into battle. He left and did not return, he died a hero, like many defenders of the Brest Fortress.
And the Nazis forced Valya to make his way into the fortress under fire in order to convey to its defenders the demand to surrender. Valya made her way into the fortress, told about the atrocities of the fascists, explained what weapons they had, indicated their location and stayed to help our soldiers. She bandaged the wounded, collected cartridges and presented them to the soldiers.
There was not enough water in the fortress, it was divided by a sip. I felt like drinking painfully, but Valya refused her sip again and again: the wounded needed water. When the command of the Brest Fortress decided to take the children and women out of the fire, to transport them to the other bank of the Mukhavets River - there was no other way to save their lives, - the little nurse Valya Zenkina asked to leave her with the soldiers. But an order is an order, and then she vowed to continue fighting the enemy until complete victory.
And Valya kept her oath. Various tests fell to her lot. But she held out. She survived. And she continued her struggle already in the partisan detachment. She fought bravely, on a par with adults. For courage and courage, the Motherland awarded her young daughter with the Order of the Red Star.
Nina Kukoverova
Every summer, Nina and her younger brother and sister were taken out of Leningrad by their mother to the village of Nechepert, where there is clean air, soft grass, where honey and fresh milk ... Rumble, explosions, flame and smoke fell on this quiet land in the fourteenth summer of pioneer Nina Kukoverova. War! From the first days of the arrival of the Nazis, Nina became a partisan intelligence officer. Everything that I saw around, I remembered, reported to the detachment.
A punitive detachment is located in the village of the mountain, all approaches are blocked, even the most experienced scouts cannot get through. Nina volunteered to go. For fifteen kilometers it walked on a snow-covered plain, in a field. The Nazis did not pay attention to the chilled, tired girl with a bag, and nothing was hidden from her attention - neither the headquarters, nor the fuel depot, nor the location of the sentries. And when at night the partisan detachment set out on a campaign, Nina walked alongside the commander as a scout, as a guide. Fascist warehouses flew into the air that night, headquarters flared up, punishers fell, slain by fierce fire.
More than once, Nina, a pioneer who was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War," 1st degree, went on combat missions.
The young heroine died. But the memory of the daughter of Russia is alive. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. Nina Kukoverova is forever enrolled in her pioneer squad.
Arkady Kamanin
He dreamed of the sky when he was still just a boy. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, a pilot, took part in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And also my father's friend, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov, is always nearby. There was a reason to ignite the boy's heart. But they did not let him into the air, they said: grow up.
When the war began, he went to work at an aircraft factory, then at the airfield he was used by any opportunity to take to the skies. Experienced pilots, even for only a few minutes, happened to trust him to fly the plane. Once an enemy bullet broke the glass of the cockpit. The pilot was blinded. Losing consciousness, he managed to transfer control to Arkady, and the boy landed the plane at his airfield.
After that, Arkady was allowed to seriously study flying, and soon he began to fly on his own.
Once from a height, a young pilot saw our plane shot down by the Nazis. Under heavy mortar fire, Arkady landed, carried the pilot to his plane, took off and returned to his own. The Order of the Red Star shone on his chest. For participation in battles with the enemy, Arkady was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. By that time he had already become an experienced pilot, although he was fifteen years old.
Until the very victory, Arkady Kamanin fought with the Nazis. The young hero dreamed of the sky and conquered the sky!
Lida Vashkevich
An ordinary black bag would not have attracted the attention of visitors to the local history museum if it were not for the red tie next to it. Unwittingly a boy or girl will freeze, an adult will stop and read a yellowed certificate issued by the Commissioner
partisan detachment. About the fact that the young mistress of these relics, pioneer Lida Vashkevich, risking her life, helped to fight the Nazis. There is one more reason to stop near these exhibits: Lida was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
... In the city of Grodno, occupied by the Nazis, there was a communist underground. One of the groups was led by Lida's father. Messengers of the underground, partisans came to him, and each time the commander's daughter was on duty at the house. To look from the outside - I played. And she kept a sharp eye, listened to see if the police were approaching, the patrol,
and, if necessary, signaled to her father. Dangerous? Highly. But compared to other tasks, it was almost a game. Lida obtained paper for leaflets, buying up a couple of leaflets in different stores, often with the help of her friends. A pack will be picked up, the girl will hide it at the bottom of a black bag and deliver it to the appointed place. And the next day the whole city reads
words of truth about the victories of the Red Army near Moscow, Stalingrad.
A girl warned the people's avengers about raids, bypassing safe houses. I went by train from station to station to convey an important message to partisans, underground fighters. I carried the explosives past the fascist posts in the same black bag, filling it to the top with coal and trying not to bend so as not to arouse suspicion - coal is lighter than explosives ...
This is what the bag was in the Grodno Museum. And the tie that Lida then wore in her bosom: she could not, did not want to part with him.
Pioneer Hero Names
(incomplete list)
Aksen Timonin
Alyosha Kuznetsov
Albert Kupsha
Arkady Kamanin - the youngest pilot of World War II
Valery Volkov
Valya Zenkina
Valya Kotik, Hero of the Soviet Union
Vanya Andrianov
Vanya Vasilchenko
Vanya Gritsenko
Vasya Korobko
Vasya Shishkovsky
Vitya Kovalenko
Vitya Korobkov
Vitya Khomenko
Vitya Cherevichkin
Volodya Dubinin
Volodya Kaznacheev
Volodya Kolyadov
Volodya Samorukha
Volodya Shcherbatsevich
Galya Komleva
Grisha Hakobyan
Dima Potapenko
Zhenya Popov
Zina Portnova, Hero of the Soviet Union
Camilia Shaga
Kirya Baev
Kolya Myagotin
Kolya Ryzhov
Kostya Kravchuk
Lara Mikheenko
Lyonya Ankinovich
Lyonya Golikov, Hero of the Soviet Union
Lida Vashkevich
Lida Matveeva
Lucy Gerasimenko
Marat Kazei, Hero of the Soviet Union
Maria Mukhina
Marx Krotov
Misha Gavrilov
Nadia Bogdanova
Nina Kukoverova
Nina Sagaidak
Pavlik Morozov
Pavlusha Andreev
Pyotr Zaichenko
Musya Pinkenson
Sasha Borodulin
Sasha Kovalev
Sasha Kolesnikov
Tikhon Baran
Tolya Shumov
Shura Kober
Shura Efremov
Utah Bondarovskaya
Little heroes of the big war.PIONEERS HEROES
Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped the elders, played, ran and jumped, broke noses and knees. Their names were known only to relatives, classmates and friends.
THE HOUR IS COMING - THEY HAVE SHOWED HOW HUGE A LITTLE CHILD'S HEART CAN BECOME WHEN A SACRED LOVE FOR THE MOTHERLAND AND HATE FOR ITS ENEMIES FLASH IN HIM.
Boys. Girls. The burden of adversity, calamity, and grief of the war years fell on their fragile shoulders. And they did not bend under this weight, they became stronger in spirit, more courageous, more enduring.
Little heroes of the big war. They fought alongside their elders - fathers, brothers, alongside communists and Komsomol members.
They 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. Underground, like Volodya Shcherbatsevich.
And young hearts did not tremble for a moment!
Their matured childhood was filled with such trials that, even a very talented writer would have thought of them, it would be hard to believe. But it was. It was in the history of our big country, it was in the destinies of its little guys - ordinary boys and girls.
Utah Bondarovskaya
Wherever the blue-eyed girl Utah went, her red tie was invariably with her ...
In the summer of 1941, she came from Leningrad on vacation to a village near Pskov. Here the terrible news overtook Utah: war! Here she saw the enemy. Utah began to help the partisans. First she was a messenger, then a scout. Disguised as a beggar boy, she collected information in the villages: where the fascists' headquarters were, how they were guarded, how many machine guns.
Returning from the assignment, I immediately tied a red tie. And as if the strength was increasing! Utah supported tired fighters with a ringing pioneer song, a story about her native Leningrad ...
And how happy everyone was, how the Utah partisans congratulated when a message came to the detachment: the blockade was broken! Leningrad survived, Leningrad won! On that day, both Utah's blue eyes and her red tie shone, as it seems, never.
But the earth was still groaning under the enemy's yoke, and the detachment, together with units of the Red Army, left to help the partisans of Estonia. In one of the battles - near the Estonian farm Rostov - Yuta Bondarovskaya, a little heroine of the great war, a pioneer who did not part with her red tie, died a heroic death. The Motherland awarded its heroic daughter posthumously with the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree.
Valya Kotik
He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Khmelnitsky region. He studied at school No. 4 in the city of Shepetovka, was a recognized leader of the pioneers, his peers.
When the Nazis broke into Shepetovka, Valya Kotik, together with her friends, decided to fight the enemy. The guys collected weapons at the site of the battles, which were then transported by the partisans to the detachment in a hay cart.
Having looked closely at the boy, the communists entrusted Vale to be a liaison and intelligence officer in their underground organization. He learned the location of enemy posts, the order of changing the guard.
The Nazis planned a punitive operation against the partisans, and Valya, after tracking down the Hitlerite officer who led the punishers, killed him ...
When the arrests began in the city, Valya, along with his mother and brother Viktor, went to the partisans. The pioneer, who had just turned fourteen, fought shoulder to shoulder with adults, freeing his 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 of the 1st degree, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 2nd degree.
Valya Kotik died as a hero, and the Motherland posthumously honored him with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to him has been erected in front of the school where this brave pioneer studied. And today the pioneers salute the hero.
Marat Kazei
... The war fell on the Belarusian land. The Nazis burst into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Alexandrovna 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 fierce.
For communication with the partisans, Anna Aleksandrovna Kazei was seized, and soon Marat learned that his mother had been hanged in Minsk. The boy's heart filled with anger and hatred for the enemy. Together with his sister, Komsomol member Ada, the pioneer Marat Kazei went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest. He became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade. He penetrated into enemy garrisons and delivered valuable information to the command. Using these data, 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, the 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.
Zina Portnova
The war found the Leningrad pioneer Zina Portnova in the village of Zuya, where she came on vacation, not far from the Obol station, Vitebsk region. In Oboli, 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, conducted reconnaissance on the instructions of a partisan detachment.
... It was December 1943. Zina was returning from a mission. In the village of Mostishche, she was betrayed by a traitor. The fascists 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 shot point-blank at the Gestapo.
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 marked her feat with her highest title - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lenya Golikov
Grew up in the village of Lukino, on the banks of the Polo River, which flows into the legendary Ilmen Lake. When his native village was captured by the enemy, 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, which Lenya fought alone with a fascist general. A grenade thrown by the boy knocked out the car. A Nazi got out of it with a briefcase in his hands and, firing back, rushed to run. Lenya follows him. He pursued the enemy for almost a kilometer and finally killed him. There were very important documents in the portfolio. The partisan headquarters immediately flew them to Moscow.
There were many more battles in his short life! And the young hero who fought shoulder to shoulder with the adults never wavered. 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 he would not be spared ...
On April 2, 1944, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published on awarding the pioneer partisan Lena Golikov the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Galya Komleva
When the war began, and the Nazis approached Leningrad, Anna Petrovna Semenova, a high school counselor, was left for underground work in the village of Tarnovichi - in the south of the Leningrad Region. To communicate with the partisans, she selected her most reliable pioneers, and the first among them was Galina Komleva. A cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl during her six school years was awarded six times with books with the signature: "For excellent studies"
The young messenger brought assignments from the partisans to her counselor, and forwarded her reports to the detachment along with bread, potatoes, food, which they got with great difficulty. Once, when a messenger from the partisan detachment did not arrive on time at the meeting place, Galya, half frozen, made her way into the detachment, conveyed a report and, slightly warmed up, hurried back, carrying a new mission to the underground.
Together with the Komsomol member Taseya Yakovleva, Galya wrote leaflets and scattered them around the village at night. The fascists hunted down and seized the young underground workers. They were kept in the Gestapo for two months. Having severely beaten, they threw them into the cell, and in the morning they again took them out for interrogation. Galya did not say anything to the enemy, she did not betray anyone. The young patriot was shot.
The feat of Gali Komleva was celebrated by the Motherland with the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree
Kostya Kravchuk
On June 11, 1944, units that were leaving for the front were lined up on the central square of Kiev. 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 battle banners of rifle regiments during the occupation of the city of Kiev ...
Retreating from Kiev, two wounded soldiers entrusted the banners to Kostya. And Kostya promised to keep them.
First, he buried it under a pear tree in the garden: it was thought that ours would return soon. But the war dragged on, and, having dug up the banners, Kostya kept them in the barn until he remembered the old, abandoned well outside the city, near the Dnieper. Having wrapped his priceless treasure in burlap and rolled it with straw, he got out of the house at dawn and, with a canvas bag over his shoulder, led a cow to a distant forest. And there, looking around, he hid the bundle in the well, covered it with branches, dry grass, turf ...
And throughout the long occupation, the pioneer did not have his difficult guard at the banner, although he was rounded up, and even fled from the echelon in which the Kievites were driven to Germany.
When Kiev 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 overwhelmed and still amazed soldiers.
On June 11, 1944, the newly formed units leaving for the front were handed replacements to the rescued Kostya.
Lara Mikheenko
For the reconnaissance and explosion of the railway. Leningrad schoolgirl Larisa Mikheenko was presented with a government award of the bridge over the Drissa river. But the Motherland did not have time to present the award to its brave daughter ...
The war cut the girl off from her hometown: in the summer she went on vacation to the Pustoshkinsky district, but could not return - the village was occupied by the Nazis. The pioneer dreamed of breaking free from Hitler's slavery, making her way to her own. And one night with two older friends left the village.
At the headquarters of the 6th Kalinin Brigade, Commander Major P. V. Ryndin first appeared to accept "such little ones": well, what partisans are they? But how much can even its very young citizens do for the Motherland! The girls were able to do what strong men did not. Dressed in rags, Lara walked through the villages, finding out where and how the guns were located, sentries were posted, what German cars were moving along the highway, what kind of trains and with what cargo they came to Pustoshka station.
She also took part in military operations ...
A young partisan, betrayed by a traitor in the village of Ignatovo, was shot by the Nazis. The decree on awarding Larisa Mikheenko with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree contains a bitter word: "Posthumously."
Vasya Korobko
Chernihiv region. The front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy. On the outskirts, covering the withdrawal of our units, a company held the defense. The boy brought 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, brings out the pioneer banner and hides it securely.
The outskirts of the village. Vasya is under the bridge. He pulls out the iron braces, saws the piles, and at dawn watches from the shelter as the bridge collapses under the weight of the Nazi armored personnel carrier. The partisans made sure that Vasya could be trusted, and entrusted him with a serious business: to become a scout in the enemy's lair. At the headquarters of the Nazis, he stokes the stoves, chops wood, and he himself looks closely, remembers, transfers information to the partisans. Punishers, planning to exterminate the partisans, forced the boy to lead them into the forest. But Vasya led the Nazis to the ambush of the policemen. The Nazis, mistaking them for partisans in the dark, opened furious fire, killed all the policemen, and suffered heavy losses themselves.
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 its little hero, who lived a short but such a bright life, with the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree.
Sasha Borodulin
There was a war going on. Above the village where Sasha lived, enemy bombers hummed hysterically. The enemy's boot trampled on the native land. Sasha Borodulin, a pioneer with a warm heart of a young Leninist, could not put up with this. He decided to fight the fascists. Got a rifle. After killing a fascist motorcyclist, he took the first battle trophy - a real German machine gun. Day after day he conducted reconnaissance. More than once he went on the most dangerous missions. A lot of destroyed cars and soldiers were on his account. For the performance of dangerous tasks, for the shown courage, resourcefulness and courage, Sasha Borodulin in the winter of 1941 was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Punishers tracked down the partisans. For three days the detachment left them, twice broke out of the encirclement, but the enemy ring closed again. Then the commander summoned the volunteers to cover the detachment's retreat. Sasha stepped forward first. Five took the fight. One by one, they died. Sasha was left alone. It was still possible to retreat - the forest is nearby, but the detachment is so dear to every minute that will delay the enemy, and Sasha fought to the end. He, allowing the Nazis to close the ring around him, pulled out a grenade and blew them and himself. Sasha Borodulin died, but his memory is alive. The memory of the heroes is eternal!
Vitya Khomenko
The pioneer Vitya Khomenko went through his heroic way of fighting the fascists in the underground organization "Nikolaev Center".
... At school, Viti's German was "excellent", and the underground workers instructed the pioneer to get a job in the officers' mess. He washed dishes, it happened, served the officers in the hall and listened to their conversations. In drunken disputes, the Nazis blurted out information that was of great interest to the "Nikolaev Center".
The officers began to send the fast, intelligent boy on assignments, and soon they made him a messenger at the headquarters. It never occurred to them that the most secret packages were the first to be read by the underground members at the attendance ...
Together with Shura Kober, Vitya was tasked with crossing the front line in order to establish contact with Moscow. In Moscow, at the headquarters of the partisan movement, they reported on the situation and talked about what they saw on the way.
Returning to Nikolaev, the guys delivered a radio transmitter, explosives, and weapons to the underground workers. Again, a fight without fear and hesitation. On December 5, 1942, ten members of the underground were seized by the Nazis and executed. Among them are two boys - Shura Kober and Vitya Khomenko. They lived as heroes and died like heroes.
The Motherland awarded her fearless son with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree - posthumously. The name of Vitya Khomenko is the school where he studied.
Volodya Kaznacheev
1941 ... In the spring I graduated from the fifth grade. In the autumn he joined a partisan detachment.
When, together with his sister Anya, he came to the partisans in the Kletnyansky forests, in the Bryansk region, in the detachment they said: "Well, replenishment! .." True, having learned that they are from Solovyanovka, the children of Elena Kondratyevna Kaznacheeva, the one who baked bread for the partisans , they stopped joking (Elena Kondratyevna was killed by the Nazis).
The detachment had a "partisan school". Future miners and demolition workers were trained there. Volodya mastered this science with excellent marks and, together with his senior comrades, derailed eight echelons. He had to cover the retreat of the group, stopping the pursuers with grenades ...
He was connected; often went to Kletnya, delivering the most valuable information; waiting for darkness, he put up leaflets. From operation to operation, he became more experienced, more skillful.
For the head of the partisan Kzanacheyev, the fascists appointed a reward, not even suspecting that their brave adversary was still a boy. He fought alongside adults until the very day when his native land was liberated from the fascist scum, and rightfully shared with the adults the glory of the hero - the liberator of his native land. Volodya Kaznacheev was awarded the Order of Lenin, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1 degree.
Nadia Bogdanova
She was executed twice by the Nazis, and for many years Nadya was considered dead by her fighting friends. They even erected a monument to her.
It's hard to believe, but when she became a scout in the partisan detachment of "Uncle Vanya" Dyachkov, she was not even 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 the partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, mined objects.
The first time she was seized when, together with Vanya Zvontsov, she hung out a red flag on November 7, 1941 in enemy-occupied Vitebsk. 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, momentarily 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 1943. 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. Local residents came out, paralyzed and almost blind. After the war in Odessa, Academician V.P. Filatov returned Nadia's eyesight.
15 years later, she heard on the radio how the chief of intelligence of the 6th detachment Slesarenko - her commander - said that the fighters would never forget their dead comrades, and named among them Nadia Bogdanova, who saved his life as a wounded man ...
Only then did she appear, only then did the people who worked with her learned about what an amazing fate she was, Nadya Bogdanova, who was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner, the First Degree of the Patriotic War, and medals.
Valya Zenkina
The Brest Fortress was the first to take the enemy's blow. Bombs and shells exploded, walls collapsed, people died both in the fortress and in the city of Brest. From the first minutes, Valin's father went into battle. He left and did not return, he died a hero, like many defenders of the Brest Fortress.
And the Nazis forced Valya to make his way into the fortress under fire in order to convey to its defenders the demand to surrender. Valya made her way into the fortress, told about the atrocities of the fascists, explained what weapons they had, indicated their location and stayed to help our soldiers. She bandaged the wounded, collected cartridges and presented them to the soldiers.
There was not enough water in the fortress, it was divided by a sip. I felt like drinking painfully, but Valya refused her sip again and again: the wounded needed water. When the command of the Brest Fortress decided to take the children and women out of the fire, to transport them to the other bank of the Mukhavets River - there was no other way to save their lives, - the little nurse Valya Zenkina asked to leave her with the soldiers. But an order is an order, and then she vowed to continue fighting the enemy until complete victory.
And Valya kept her oath. Various tests fell to her lot. But she held out. She survived. And she continued her struggle already in the partisan detachment. She fought bravely, on a par with adults. For courage and courage, the Motherland awarded her young daughter with the Order of the Red Star.
Nina Kukoverova
Every summer, Nina and her younger brother and sister were taken out of Leningrad by their mother to the village of Nechepert, where there is clean air, soft grass, where honey and fresh milk ... Rumble, explosions, flame and smoke fell on this quiet land in the fourteenth summer of pioneer Nina Kukoverova. War! From the first days of the arrival of the Nazis, Nina became a partisan intelligence officer. Everything that I saw around, I remembered, reported to the detachment.
A punitive detachment is located in the village of the mountain, all approaches are blocked, even the most experienced scouts cannot get through. Nina volunteered to go. For fifteen kilometers it walked on a snow-covered plain, in a field. The Nazis did not pay attention to the chilled, tired girl with a bag, and nothing was hidden from her attention - neither the headquarters, nor the fuel depot, nor the location of the sentries. And when at night the partisan detachment set out on a campaign, Nina walked alongside the commander as a scout, as a guide. Fascist warehouses flew into the air that night, headquarters flared up, punishers fell, slain by fierce fire.
More than once, Nina, a pioneer who was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War," 1st degree, went on combat missions.
The young heroine died. But the memory of the daughter of Russia is alive. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. Nina Kukoverova is forever enrolled in her pioneer squad.
Arkady Kamanin
He dreamed of the sky when he was still just a boy. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, a pilot, took part in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And also my father's friend, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov, is always nearby. There was a reason to ignite the boy's heart. But they did not let him into the air, they said: grow up.
When the war began, he went to work at an aircraft factory, then at the airfield he was used by any opportunity to take to the skies. Experienced pilots, even for only a few minutes, happened to trust him to fly the plane. Once an enemy bullet broke the glass of the cockpit. The pilot was blinded. Losing consciousness, he managed to transfer control to Arkady, and the boy landed the plane at his airfield.
After that, Arkady was allowed to seriously study flying, and soon he began to fly on his own.
Once from a height, a young pilot saw our plane shot down by the Nazis. Under heavy mortar fire, Arkady landed, carried the pilot to his plane, took off and returned to his own. The Order of the Red Star shone on his chest. For participation in battles with the enemy, Arkady was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. By that time he had already become an experienced pilot, although he was fifteen years old.
Until the very victory, Arkady Kamanin fought with the Nazis. The young hero dreamed of the sky and conquered the sky!
Lida Vashkevich
An ordinary black bag would not have attracted the attention of visitors to the local history museum if it were not for the red tie next to it. Unwittingly a boy or girl will freeze, an adult will stop and read a yellowed certificate issued by the Commissioner
partisan detachment. About the fact that the young mistress of these relics, pioneer Lida Vashkevich, risking her life, helped to fight the Nazis. There is one more reason to stop near these exhibits: Lida was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
... In the city of Grodno, occupied by the Nazis, there was a communist underground. One of the groups was led by Lida's father. Messengers of the underground, partisans came to him, and each time the commander's daughter was on duty at the house. To look from the outside - I played. And she kept a sharp eye, listened to see if the police were approaching, the patrol,
and, if necessary, signaled to her father. Dangerous? Highly. But compared to other tasks, it was almost a game. Lida obtained paper for leaflets, buying up a couple of leaflets in different stores, often with the help of her friends. A pack will be picked up, the girl will hide it at the bottom of a black bag and deliver it to the appointed place. And the next day the whole city reads
words of truth about the victories of the Red Army near Moscow, Stalingrad.
A girl warned the people's avengers about raids, bypassing safe houses. I went by train from station to station to convey an important message to partisans, underground fighters. I carried the explosives past the fascist posts in the same black bag, filling it to the top with coal and trying not to bend so as not to arouse suspicion - coal is lighter than explosives ...
This is what the bag was in the Grodno Museum. And the tie that Lida then wore in her bosom: she could not, did not want to part with him.
"Pioneers Heroes"
Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped the elders, played, ran and jumped, broke noses and knees. Their names were known only to relatives, classmates and friends.
THE HOUR IS COMING - THEY HAVE SHOWED HOW HUGE A LITTLE CHILDREN'S HEART CAN BECOME WHEN A SACRED LOVE FOR THE MOTHERLAND AND HATE FOR ITS ENEMIES FLASH IN HIM.
Boys. Girls. The burden of adversity, calamity, and grief of the war years fell on their fragile shoulders. And they did not bend under this weight, they became stronger in spirit, more courageous, more enduring.
Little heroes of the big war. They fought alongside their elders - fathers, brothers, alongside communists and Komsomol members.
They 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. Underground, like Volodya Shcherbatsevich.
And young hearts did not tremble for a moment!
Their matured childhood was filled with such trials that, even a very talented writer would have thought of them, it would be hard to believe. But it was. It was in the history of our big country, it was in the destinies of its little guys - ordinary boys and girls.
Utah Bondarovskaya
Wherever the blue-eyed girl Utah went, her red tie was invariably with her ...
In the summer of 1941, she came from Leningrad on vacation to a village near Pskov. Here the terrible news overtook Utah: war! Here she saw the enemy. Utah began to help the partisans. First she was a messenger, then a scout. Disguised as a beggar boy, she collected information in the villages: where the fascists' headquarters were, how they were guarded, how many machine guns.
Returning from the assignment, I immediately tied a red tie. And as if the strength was increasing! Utah supported tired fighters with a ringing pioneer song, a story about her native Leningrad ...
And how happy everyone was, how the Utah partisans congratulated when a message came to the detachment: the blockade was broken! Leningrad survived, Leningrad won! On that day, both Utah's blue eyes and her red tie shone, as it seems, never.
But the earth was still groaning under the enemy's yoke, and the detachment, together with units of the Red Army, left to help the partisans of Estonia. In one of the battles - near the Estonian farm Rostov - Yuta Bondarovskaya, a little heroine of the great war, a pioneer who did not part with her red tie, died a heroic death. The Motherland awarded its heroic daughter posthumously with the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree.
Valya Kotik
He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Khmelnitsky region. He studied at school No. 4 in the city of Shepetovka, was a recognized leader of the pioneers, his peers.
When the Nazis broke into Shepetovka, Valya Kotik, together with her friends, decided to fight the enemy. The guys collected weapons at the site of the battles, which were then transported by the partisans to the detachment in a hay cart.
Having looked closely at the boy, the communists entrusted Vale to be a liaison and intelligence officer in their underground organization. He learned the location of enemy posts, the order of changing the guard.
The Nazis planned a punitive operation against the partisans, and Valya, after tracking down the Hitlerite officer who led the punishers, killed him ...
When the arrests began in the city, Valya, along with his mother and brother Viktor, went to the partisans. The pioneer, who had just turned fourteen, fought shoulder to shoulder with adults, freeing his 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 of the 1st degree, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 2nd degree.
Valya Kotik died as a hero, and the Motherland posthumously honored him with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to him has been erected in front of the school where this brave pioneer studied. And today the pioneers salute the hero.
Marat Kazei
The war fell on the Belarusian land. The Nazis burst into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Alexandrovna 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 fierce.
For communication with the partisans, Anna Aleksandrovna Kazei was seized, and soon Marat learned that his mother had been hanged in Minsk. The boy's heart filled with anger and hatred for the enemy. Together with his sister, Komsomol member Ada, the pioneer Marat Kazei went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest. He became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade. He penetrated into enemy garrisons and delivered valuable information to the command. Using these data, 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, the 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.
Zina Portnova
The war found the Leningrad pioneer Zina Portnova in the village of Zuya, where she came on vacation, not far from the Obol station, Vitebsk region. In Oboli, 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, conducted reconnaissance on the instructions of a partisan detachment.
... It was December 1943. Zina was returning from a mission. In the village of Mostishche, she was betrayed by a traitor. The fascists 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 shot point-blank at the Gestapo.
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 marked her feat with her highest title - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Lenya Golikov
Grew up in the village of Lukino, on the banks of the Polo River, which flows into the legendary Ilmen Lake. When his native village was captured by the enemy, 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, which Lenya fought alone with a fascist general. A grenade thrown by the boy knocked out the car. A Nazi got out of it with a briefcase in his hands and, firing back, rushed to run. Lenya follows him. He pursued the enemy for almost a kilometer and finally killed him. There were very important documents in the portfolio. The partisan headquarters immediately flew them to Moscow.
There were many more battles in his short life! And the young hero who fought shoulder to shoulder with the adults never wavered. 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 he would not be spared ...
On April 2, 1944, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published on awarding the pioneer partisan Lena Golikov the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Galya Komleva
When the war began, and the Nazis approached Leningrad, Anna Petrovna Semenova, a high school counselor, was left for underground work in the village of Tarnovichi - in the south of the Leningrad Region. To communicate with the partisans, she selected her most reliable pioneers, and the first among them was Galina Komleva. A cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl during her six school years was awarded six times with books with the signature: "For excellent studies"
The young messenger brought assignments from the partisans to her counselor, and forwarded her reports to the detachment along with bread, potatoes, food, which they got with great difficulty. Once, when a messenger from the partisan detachment did not arrive on time at the meeting place, Galya, half frozen, made her way into the detachment, conveyed a report and, slightly warmed up, hurried back, carrying a new mission to the underground.
Together with the Komsomol member Taseya Yakovleva, Galya wrote leaflets and scattered them around the village at night. The fascists hunted down and seized the young underground workers. They were kept in the Gestapo for two months. Having severely beaten, they threw them into the cell, and in the morning they again took them out for interrogation. Galya did not say anything to the enemy, she did not betray anyone. The young patriot was shot.
The feat of Gali Komleva was celebrated by the Motherland with the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree
Kostya Kravchuk
On June 11, 1944, units that were leaving for the front were lined up on the central square of Kiev. And before this battle formation, they read the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding pioneer Kostya Kravchuk with the Order of the Red Banner for saving and preserving two battle banners of rifle regiments during the occupation of the city of Kiev ...
Retreating from Kiev, two wounded soldiers entrusted the banners to Kostya. And Kostya promised to keep them.
First, he buried it under a pear tree in the garden: it was thought that ours would return soon. But the war dragged on, and, having dug up the banners, Kostya kept them in the barn until he remembered the old, abandoned well outside the city, near the Dnieper. Having wrapped his priceless treasure in burlap and rolled it with straw, he got out of the house at dawn and, with a canvas bag over his shoulder, led a cow to a distant forest. And there, looking around, he hid the bundle in the well, covered it with branches, dry grass, turf ...
And throughout the long occupation, the pioneer did not have his difficult guard at the banner, although he was rounded up, and even fled from the echelon in which the Kievites were driven to Germany.
When Kiev 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 overwhelmed and still amazed soldiers.
On June 11, 1944, the newly formed units leaving for the front were handed replacements to the rescued Kostya.
Lara Mikheenko
For the reconnaissance and explosion of the railway. Leningrad schoolgirl Larisa Mikheenko was presented with a government award of the bridge over the Drissa river. But the Motherland did not have time to present the award to its brave daughter ...
The war cut the girl off from her hometown: in the summer she went on vacation to the Pustoshkinsky district, but could not return - the village was occupied by the Nazis. The pioneer dreamed of breaking free from Hitler's slavery, making her way to her own. And one night with two older friends left the village.
At the headquarters of the 6th Kalinin Brigade, Commander Major P. V. Ryndin first appeared to accept "such little ones": well, what partisans are they? But how much can even its very young citizens do for the Motherland! The girls were able to do what strong men did not. Dressed in rags, Lara walked through the villages, finding out where and how the guns were located, sentries were posted, what German cars were moving along the highway, what kind of trains and with what cargo they came to Pustoshka station.
She also took part in military operations ...
A young partisan, betrayed by a traitor in the village of Ignatovo, was shot by the Nazis. The decree on awarding Larisa Mikheenko with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree contains a bitter word: "Posthumously."
Vasya Korobko
Chernihiv region. The front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy. On the outskirts, covering the withdrawal of our units, a company held the defense. The boy brought 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, brings out the pioneer banner and hides it securely.
The outskirts of the village. Vasya is under the bridge. He pulls out the iron braces, saws the piles, and at dawn watches from the shelter as the bridge collapses under the weight of the Nazi armored personnel carrier. The partisans made sure that Vasya could be trusted, and entrusted him with a serious business: to become a scout in the enemy's lair. At the headquarters of the Nazis, he stokes the stoves, chops wood, and he himself looks closely, remembers, transfers information to the partisans. Punishers, planning to exterminate the partisans, forced the boy to lead them into the forest. But Vasya led the Nazis to the ambush of the policemen. The Nazis, mistaking them for partisans in the dark, opened furious fire, killed all the policemen, and suffered heavy losses themselves.
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 its little hero, who lived a short but such a bright life, with the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree.
Sasha Borodulin
There was a war going on. Above the village where Sasha lived, enemy bombers hummed hysterically. The native land was trampled by the enemy's boot. Sasha Borodulin, a pioneer with a warm heart of a young Leninist, could not put up with this. He decided to fight the fascists. Got a rifle. Having killed the fascist motorcyclist, he took the first battle trophy - a real German machine gun. Day after day he conducted reconnaissance. More than once he went on the most dangerous missions. A lot of destroyed cars and soldiers were on his account. For the performance of dangerous tasks, for the shown courage, resourcefulness and courage, Sasha Borodulin in the winter of 1941 was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Punishers tracked down the partisans. For three days the detachment left them, twice broke out of the encirclement, but the enemy ring closed again. Then the commander summoned the volunteers to cover the detachment's retreat. Sasha stepped forward first. Five took the fight. One by one, they died. Sasha was left alone. It was still possible to retreat - the forest is nearby, but the detachment is so dear to every minute that will delay the enemy, and Sasha fought to the end. He, allowing the Nazis to close the ring around him, pulled out a grenade and blew them and himself. Sasha Borodulin died, but his memory is alive. The memory of the heroes is eternal!
Vitya Khomenko
The pioneer Vitya Khomenko went through his heroic way of fighting the Nazis in the underground organization "Nikolaev Center".
... At school, Viti's German was "excellent", and the underground workers instructed the pioneer to get a job in the officers' mess. He washed dishes, it happened, served the officers in the hall and listened to their conversations. In drunken disputes, the Nazis blurted out information that was of great interest to the "Nikolaev Center".
The officers began to send the fast, intelligent boy on assignments, and soon they made him a messenger at the headquarters. It never occurred to them that the most secret packages were the first to be read by the underground in attendance ...
Together with Shura Kober, Vitya was tasked with crossing the front line in order to establish contact with Moscow. In Moscow, at the headquarters of the partisan movement, they reported on the situation and talked about what they saw on the way.
Returning to Nikolaev, the guys delivered a radio transmitter, explosives, and weapons to the underground workers. Again, a fight without fear and hesitation. On December 5, 1942, ten members of the underground were seized by the Nazis and executed. Among them are two boys - Shura Kober and Vitya Khomenko. They lived as heroes and died like heroes.
The Motherland awarded her fearless son with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree - posthumously. The name of Vitya Khomenko is the school where he studied.
Volodya Kaznacheev
1941 ... In the spring I graduated from the fifth grade. In the autumn he joined a partisan detachment.
When, together with his sister Anya, he came to the partisans in the Kletnyansky forests, in the Bryansk region, in the detachment they said: "Well, replenishment! .." True, having learned that they are from Solovyanovka, the children of Elena Kondratyevna Kaznacheeva, the one who baked bread for the partisans , they stopped joking (Elena Kondratyevna was killed by the Nazis).
The detachment had a "partisan school". Future miners and demolition workers were trained there. Volodya mastered this science with excellent marks and, together with his senior comrades, derailed eight echelons. He had to cover the retreat of the group, stopping the pursuers with grenades ...
He was connected; often went to Kletnya, delivering the most valuable information; waiting for darkness, he put up leaflets. From operation to operation, he became more experienced, more skillful.
The Nazis appointed a reward for the head of the partisan Kzanacheyev, not even suspecting that their brave adversary was still a boy. He fought alongside adults until the very day when his native land was liberated from the fascist scum, and rightfully shared with the adults the glory of the hero - the liberator of his native land. Volodya Kaznacheev was awarded the Order of Lenin, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1 degree.
Nadya Bogdanova
She was executed twice by the Nazis, and for many years Nadya was considered dead by her fighting friends. They even erected a monument to her.
It's hard to believe, but when she became a scout in the partisan detachment of "Uncle Vanya" Dyachkov, she was not even 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 the partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, mined objects.
The first time she was seized when, together with Vanya Zvontsov, she hung out a red flag on November 7, 1941 in enemy-occupied Vitebsk. 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, momentarily 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 1943. 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. Local residents came out, paralyzed and almost blind. After the war in Odessa, Academician V.P. Filatov returned Nadia's eyesight.
15 years later, she heard on the radio how the chief of intelligence of the 6th detachment Slesarenko - her commander - said that the fighters would never forget their dead comrades, and named among them Nadia Bogdanova, who saved his life as a wounded man ...
Only then did she appear, only then did the people who worked with her learned about what an amazing fate she was, Nadya Bogdanova, who was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner, the First Degree of the Patriotic War, and medals.
Valya Zenkina
The Brest Fortress was the first to take the enemy's blow. Bombs and shells exploded, walls collapsed, people died both in the fortress and in the city of Brest. From the first minutes, Valin's father went into battle. He left and did not return, he died a hero, like many defenders of the Brest Fortress.
And the Nazis forced Valya to make his way into the fortress under fire in order to convey to its defenders the demand to surrender. Valya made her way into the fortress, told about the atrocities of the fascists, explained what weapons they had, indicated their location and stayed to help our soldiers. She bandaged the wounded, collected cartridges and presented them to the soldiers.
There was not enough water in the fortress, it was divided by a sip. I felt like drinking painfully, but Valya refused her sip again and again: the wounded needed water. When the command of the Brest Fortress decided to take the children and women out of the fire, to transport them to the other bank of the Mukhavets River - there was no other way to save their lives, - the little nurse Valya Zenkina asked to leave her with the soldiers. But an order is an order, and then she vowed to continue fighting the enemy until complete victory.
And Valya kept her oath. Various tests fell to her lot. But she held out. She survived. And she continued her struggle already in the partisan detachment. She fought bravely, on a par with adults. For courage and courage, the Motherland awarded her young daughter with the Order of the Red Star.
Nina Kukoverova
Every summer, Nina and her younger brother and sister were taken out of Leningrad by their mother to the village of Nechepert, where there is clean air, soft grass, where honey and fresh milk ... Rumble, explosions, flame and smoke fell on this quiet land in the fourteenth summer of pioneer Nina Kukoverova ... War! From the first days of the arrival of the Nazis, Nina became a partisan intelligence officer. Everything that I saw around, I remembered, reported to the detachment.
A punitive detachment is located in the village of the mountain, all approaches are blocked, even the most experienced scouts cannot get through. Nina volunteered to go. For fifteen kilometers it walked on a snow-covered plain, in a field. The Nazis did not pay attention to the chilled, tired girl with a bag, and nothing was hidden from her attention - neither the headquarters, nor the fuel depot, nor the location of the sentries. And when at night the partisan detachment set out on a campaign, Nina walked alongside the commander as a scout, as a guide. Fascist warehouses flew into the air that night, headquarters flared up, punishers fell, slain by fierce fire.
More than once, Nina, a pioneer who was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War," 1st degree, went on combat missions.
The young heroine died. But the memory of the daughter of Russia is alive. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. Nina Kukoverova is forever enrolled in her pioneer squad.
Arkady Kamanin
He dreamed of the sky when he was still just a boy. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, a pilot, took part in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And also my father's friend, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov, is always nearby. There was a reason to ignite the boy's heart. But they did not let him into the air, they said: grow up.
When the war began, he went to work at an aircraft factory, then at the airfield he was used by any opportunity to take to the skies. Experienced pilots, even for only a few minutes, happened to trust him to fly the plane. Once an enemy bullet broke the glass of the cockpit. The pilot was blinded. Losing consciousness, he managed to transfer control to Arkady, and the boy landed the plane at his airfield.
After that, Arkady was allowed to seriously study flying, and soon he began to fly on his own.
Once from a height, a young pilot saw our plane shot down by the Nazis. Under heavy mortar fire, Arkady landed, carried the pilot to his plane, took off and returned to his own. The Order of the Red Star shone on his chest. For participation in battles with the enemy, Arkady was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. By that time he had already become an experienced pilot, although he was fifteen years old.
Until the very victory, Arkady Kamanin fought with the Nazis. The young hero dreamed of the sky and conquered the sky!
Lida Vashkevich
An ordinary black bag would not have attracted the attention of visitors to the local history museum if it were not for the red tie next to it. Unwittingly a boy or girl will freeze, an adult will stop and read a yellowed certificate issued by the Commissioner
partisan detachment. About the fact that the young mistress of these relics, pioneer Lida Vashkevich, risking her life, helped to fight the Nazis. There is one more reason to stop near these exhibits: Lida was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
... In the city of Grodno, occupied by the Nazis, there was a communist underground. One of the groups was led by Lida's father. Messengers of the underground, partisans came to him, and each time the commander's daughter was on duty at the house. To look from the outside - I played. And she kept a sharp eye, listened to see if the police were approaching, the patrol,
and, if necessary, signaled to her father. Dangerous? Highly. But compared to other tasks, it was almost a game. Lida obtained paper for leaflets, buying up a couple of leaflets in different stores, often with the help of her friends. A pack will be picked up, the girl will hide it at the bottom of a black bag and deliver it to the appointed place. And the next day the whole city reads the words of the truth about the victories of the Red Army near Moscow and Stalingrad.
A girl warned the people's avengers about raids, bypassing safe houses. I went by train from station to station to convey an important message to partisans, underground fighters. I carried the explosives past the Nazi posts in the same black bag, filling it to the top with coal and trying not to bend so as not to arouse suspicion - the coal is lighter than explosives ...
This is what the bag was in the Grodno Museum. And the tie that Lida then wore in her bosom: she could not, did not want to part with him.
Twelve out of thousands of examples of unparalleled childhood courage
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War - how many were there? If you count - how could it be otherwise ?! - the hero of every boy and every girl whom fate brought to war and made soldiers, sailors or partisans, then tens, if not hundreds of thousands.
According to the official data of the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) of Russia, during the war, more than 3,500 servicemen under the age of 16 were in combat units. At the same time, it is clear that not every unit commander who risked taking on the education of the regiment's son found the courage to announce his pupil on command. You can understand how their fathers-commanders tried to hide the age of the little fighters, who in fact were for many instead of their fathers, by the confusion in the award documents. On the yellowed archival sheets, the majority of underage servicemen are clearly overstated. The real one came to light much later, after ten or even forty years.
But there were still children and adolescents who fought in partisan detachments and were members of underground organizations! And there there were much more of them: sometimes whole families left for partisans, and if not, then almost every teenager who found himself in the occupied land had someone to avenge.
So “tens of thousands” is far from an exaggeration, but rather an understatement. And, apparently, we will never know the exact number of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War. But this is not a reason not to remember them.
Boys walked from Brest to Berlin
The youngest of all the 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 of the 47th Guards Rifle Division, Sergei Aleshkin. In archival documents, you can find two certificates about the awarding of a boy who was born in 1936 and ended up in the army since September 8, 1942, shortly after the punishers shot his mother and older brother for contact with the partisans. The first document dated April 26, 1943 - about rewarding him with the medal "For Military Merit" due to the fact that "Comrade. Aleshkin's favorite of the regiment "" with his cheerfulness, love for the unit and those around him in extremely difficult moments inspired courage and confidence in victory. " The second, dated November 19, 1945, on awarding the pupils of the Tula Suvorov Military School with the medal "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945": in the list of 13 Suvorovites, the name of Aleshkin is the first.
But still, such a young soldier is an exception even for wartime and for a country where all the people, young and old, rose to defend the Motherland. Most of the young heroes who fought at the front and behind enemy lines were on average 13-14 years old. The very first of them were defenders of the Brest Fortress, and one of the regiment's sons - 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. Fighting in different places and performing 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 the opportunity to show unprecedented courage, were 17 years old, two more - Valea Kotik and Marat Kazei - only 14 each.
Lenya Golikov was the first of the four who was awarded the highest rank: the assignment decree was signed on April 2, 1944. The text says that the title of Hero of the Soviet Union Golikov was awarded "for exemplary performance of command assignments and displayed courage and heroism 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 the undermining of more than a dozen bridges, in the capture of a German major general with secret documents ... the battle near the village of Ostraya Luka, without waiting for a high award for the capture of a strategically important "language".
Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union 13 years after the Victory, in 1958. Zina was awarded an award for the courage with which she carried out underground work, then performed the duties of a liaison between the partisans and the underground, and in the end 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 Shepetivka partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, where he came after a year of work in an underground organization in Shepetivka itself. And Marat Kazei received the highest award only in the year of the 20th anniversary of Victory: the decree on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on him 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 who surrounded 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 present people are certainly told about them. But even among those who did not receive the highest award, there were many real heroes - pilots, sailors, snipers, scouts and even musicians.
Sniper Vasily Kurka
The war found Vasya as a sixteen-year-old teenager. In the very first days he was mobilized to the labor front, and in October he achieved enrollment in the 726th Infantry Regiment of the 395th Infantry Division. At first, the boy of non-recruiting age, who also looked a couple of years younger than his age, was left in the train: they say, there is nothing for teenagers on the front line to do. But soon the guy got his way and was transferred to a combat unit - to the sniper team.
Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum
An amazing military fate: from the first to the last day Vasya Kurka fought in the same regiment of the same division! Made a good military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant and taking command of a rifle platoon. He wrote down to his own account, according to various sources, from 179 to 200 killed Nazis. He fought from Donbass to Tuapse and back, and then further, to the West, to the Sandomierz bridgehead. It was there that Lieutenant Kurka was mortally wounded in January 1945, less than six months before the Victory.
Pilot Arkady Kamanin
The 15-year-old Arkady Kamanin arrived at the location of the 5th Guards Assault Air Corps with his father, who was appointed commander of this famous 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 a communications squadron. But they soon became convinced that the "general's son" did not live up to their negative expectations at all. The boy did not hide behind the back of the famous father, but simply did his job well - and strove with all his might to the sky.
Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee
Soon Arkady achieved his goal: first he rises into the air as a letnab, then as a navigator on the U-2, and then goes on the first independent flight. And finally - the long-awaited appointment: the son of General Kamanin becomes the pilot of the 423rd separate communications squadron. Before the victory, Arkady, who rose to the rank of foreman, managed to fly almost 300 hours and earned three orders: two - the Red Star and one - the Red Banner. And if it were not for meningitis, who literally in a matter of days killed an 18-year-old guy in the spring of 1947, perhaps in the cosmonaut corps, the first commander of which was Kamanin Sr., Kamanin Jr. would also be listed: Arkady managed to enter the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy back in 1946.
Front 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 manage to return to his native Vitebsk, where the Germans had already entered. So he left together 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
Yura managed a lot on this path. In January 1942, he, who had never jumped with a parachute before, went to the rescue of the encircled partisans and helped them break through the enemy ring. In the summer of 1942, together with a group of fellow intelligence officers, he blows up a strategically important bridge across the Berezina, sending not only the bridge bed to the bottom of the river, but also nine trucks passing through it, and less than a year later, he turns out to be the only messenger who managed to break through to the surrounded battalion and help him get out of the "ring".
By February 1944, the 13-year-old scout's chest 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 the Suvorov School, but did not pass for health reasons. Then the retired young intelligence officer retrained as welders and on this "front" also managed to become famous, having traveled with his welding machine almost half of Eurasia - he was building pipelines.
Infantryman Anatoly Komar
Among the 263 Soviet soldiers who covered the enemy embrasures with their bodies, the youngest was Anatoly Komar, a 15-year-old private of the 332nd reconnaissance company of the 252nd rifle division of the 53rd army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. The teenager entered the active army in September 1943, when the front came close to his native Slavyansk. It happened with him in 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 men. Anatoly helped them to 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, the front line of Tolya Komar was much shorter. Only two months he had a chance to wear the shoulder straps 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 in battle. The last obstacle on the way back was the machine gun, which pressed the reconnaissance to the ground. Anatoly Komar threw a grenade at him, and the fire died down, but as soon as the scouts got up, the machine gunner started firing again. And then Tolya, who was closest to the enemy, got up and fell on the machine-gun barrel, at the cost of his life buying his comrades precious minutes to break through.
Sailor Boris Kuleshin
In the cracked photograph, a boy of about ten is standing against the backdrop of sailors in black uniforms with ammunition boxes on their backs and the superstructures of a Soviet cruiser. His hands are tightly gripping the PPSh submachine gun, 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 Tashkent destroyers Borya Kuleshin. The photo was taken in Poti, where after repairs the ship entered for another load of ammunition for the besieged Sevastopol. It was here that twelve-year-old Borya Kuleshin appeared at the gangway of "Tashkent" His father died at the front, his mother, as soon as Donetsk was occupied, was driven to Germany, and he himself managed to escape through the front line to his own people and, together with the retreating army, reached 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 in the cabin boy, the sailors managed to give him a belt, a peakless cap and a machine gun and take a photo of the new crew member. And then there was a transition to Sevastopol, the first raid on the "Tashkent" in Boris's life and the first in his life clips for an anti-aircraft artillery machine, 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 a ship in the port of Novorossiysk. After the hospital, Borya followed Captain Eroshenko to a new ship - the Krasny Kavkaz guards cruiser. And already here I found him a well-deserved award: presented for the battles on the "Tashkent" for 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 is already showing off in the new uniform of a young sailor, on whose head 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, along with other teachers, educators and students, he was awarded the medal "For 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 beginning of the war. But Petya refused to leave the fighting citadel, which, among others, was defended by his only family member - his older brother Lieutenant Nikolai. So he became one of the first teenage soldiers in the Great Patriotic War and a full-fledged participant in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress.
Petr Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com
He fought there until early July, when he received an order to break through to Brest along with the remnants of the regiment. This is where Petit's ordeal began. Having crossed the tributary of the Bug, he, among other colleagues, was captured, from which he soon managed to escape. He reached Brest, lived there for a month and moved east, following the retreating Red Army, but did not reach it. During one of the nights he and a friend were found by policemen, and the teenagers were sent to forced labor in Germany. Petya was freed only in 1945 by American troops, and after being checked, he even managed to serve in the Soviet army for several months. And upon returning to his homeland, he again ended up behind bars, because he succumbed to the persuasions of an old friend and helped him speculate on the loot. Pyotr Klypa was released only seven years later. He needed to thank the historian and writer Sergei Smirnov for this, who, bit by bit, recreated the history of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and, of course, did not miss the history of one of its youngest defenders, who after his liberation was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.