Every summer, Nina and her younger brother and sister were taken from Leningrad to the village of Nechepert, where there is clean air, soft grass, honey and fresh milk... Roar, explosions, flames and smoke hit this quiet land in the fourteenth summer of pioneer Nina Kukoverova. War! From the first days of the arrival of the Nazis, Nina became a partisan intelligence officer. I remembered everything I saw around me and reported it to the detachment. A punitive detachment is located in the village of the mountain, all approaches are blocked, even the most experienced scouts cannot get through. Nina volunteered to go. She walked for a dozen kilometers through a snow-covered plain and field. The Nazis did not pay attention to the chilled, tired girl with a bag, but nothing escaped her attention - neither the headquarters, nor the fuel depot, nor the location of the sentries. And when the partisan detachment set out on a campaign at night, Nina walked next to the commander as a scout, as a guide. That night, fascist warehouses flew into the air, the headquarters burst into flames, and the punitive forces fell, struck down by fierce fire. Nina, a pioneer who was awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree, went on combat missions more than once. The young heroine died. But the memory of Russia’s daughter is alive. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. Nina Kukoverova is forever included in her pioneer squad.
Arkady Kamanin
He dreamed of heaven when he was just a boy. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, a pilot, participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And my father’s friend, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov, is always nearby. There was something to make the boy's heart burn. But they didn’t let him fly, they told him to grow up. When the war began, he went to work at an aircraft factory, then he used the airfield for any opportunity to take to the skies. Experienced pilots, even if only for a few minutes, sometimes trusted him to fly the plane. One day the cockpit glass was broken by an enemy bullet. The pilot was blinded. Losing consciousness, he managed to hand over control to Arkady, and the boy landed the plane at his airfield. After this, Arkady was allowed to seriously study flying, and soon he began to fly on his own. One day, from above, a young pilot saw our plane shot down by the Nazis. Under heavy mortar fire, Arkady landed, carried the pilot into his plane, took off and returned to his own. The Order of the Red Star shone on his chest. For participation in battles with the enemy, Arkady was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. By that time he had already become an experienced pilot, although he was fifteen years old. Arkady Kamanin fought with the Nazis until the victory. The young hero dreamed of the sky and conquered the sky!
Lida Vashkevich
An ordinary black bag would not attract the attention of visitors to a local history museum if it were not for a red tie lying next to it. A boy or girl will involuntarily freeze, an adult will stop, and they will read the yellowed certificate issued by the commissar of the partisan detachment. The fact that the young owner of these relics, pioneer Lida Vashkevich, risking her life, helped fight the Nazis. There is another reason to stop near these exhibits: Lida was awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree. ...In the city of Grodno, occupied by the Nazis, a communist underground operated. One of the groups was led by Lida’s father. Contacts of underground fighters and partisans came to him, and each time the commander’s daughter was on duty at the house. From the outside looking in, she was playing. And she peered vigilantly, listened to see if the policemen or patrol were approaching, and, if necessary, gave a sign to her father. Dangerous? Very. But compared to other tasks, this was almost a game. Lida obtained paper for leaflets by buying a couple of sheets from different stores, often with the help of her friends. A pack will be collected, the girl will hide it at the bottom of a black bag and deliver it to the appointed place. And the next day the whole city reads the words of truth about the victories of the Red Army near Moscow and Stalingrad. The girl warned the people's avengers about the raids while going around safe houses. She traveled from station to station by train to convey an important message to the partisans and underground fighters. She carried the explosives past the fascist posts in the same black bag, filled to the top with coal and trying not to bend so as not to arouse suspicion - coal is lighter than explosives... This is what kind of bag ended up in the Grodno Museum. And the tie that Lida was wearing in her bosom back then: she couldn’t, didn’t want to part with it.
The Vecherka correspondent found those who today support the memory of the pioneer heroes of our city and region
At the end of last year, “VP” talked about the younger sister of the Hero of the Soviet Union, pioneer Zina Portnova, Galina, who was with her sister in Belarus during the war, and now lives in St. Petersburg. Sharing her memories, our interlocutor complained that the memory of the heroes who brought Victory closer is now being washed away without a trace. “If Zina’s name is still remembered,” shared Galina Martynovna, “then they don’t know or talk about our other heroic schoolchildren-compatriots - Larisa Mikheenko, Nina Kukoverova, Marx Krotov.” We decided to address this topic and talk about those whom the whole country once knew and honored. Especially now, on the eve of Victory Day, which we are celebrating in a very turbulent environment, this seems especially relevant.
Nina Kukoverova: I am Russian
Nina Kukoverova met the war near Leningrad. In the very first month of the occupation, she began to help the partisans. She was exiled with her relatives to the Pskov region, where she joined a partisan detachment as a scout. Executed at the end of 1943.
For many years, the place of memory of Nina was the village of Shapki, in the Tosnensky district. Since the 50s, local teachers and students have kept in touch with her mother Alexandra Stepanovna, collected information about the life of the pioneer, and hosted schoolchildren from all over the Union. In the early 2000s, the Shapka school was closed. Classes were transferred to neighboring Nurma. They did not forget about Nina Kukoverova, but the tradition of carefully maintaining the memory of the heroic young Leningrader, unfortunately, was interrupted.
“Evening” visited Nurma, met with history teacher and head of the school museum Tatyana Antipenko. And I found out: all that remained from half a century of painstaking work by Shapkin’s enthusiasts was an old green album containing photographs of Nina, as well as letters and memories of her mother.
“This is the only document we have,” said Tatyana Ivanovna. — Yes, and it was preserved essentially completely by accident. When the school was abolished, many things were thrown away. And most likely they would have thrown out this album too. But someone grabbed it, decided to keep it and transported it to Nurma. But even here it lay in the school utility room, forgotten for several years, until it was accidentally discovered...
Information about Nina Kukoverova today, unfortunately, is not easy to find. On-duty crumbs are given out on the Internet. Books telling about the exploits of children of war are almost never republished. Therefore, the school album became for us, journalists, a real valuable primary source in this sense.
The Kukoverovs came to the small village of Nechepert, across the forest from Shapoki, every summer, rented a house, and took a break from the city.
They also arrived in 1941. When the war began, the mother and her children - 14-year-old Nina and two younger ones - remained in the village (they had not yet thought of fleeing to Leningrad). At this time my father was taken to the front. Soon he sent a letter: “Ninochka, while I stand near the cannon and beat the Nazis, you help mommy!” The daughter replied: “I want to help you beat the fascist bastards.”
In August, the Nazis entered the Leningrad region. On the 28th they took Shapki and Nechepert. The remnants of the defeated Soviet units in groups made their way to the east. Then Nina sheltered the first wounded Red Army soldiers in the house. Soon the partisans appeared: “Girl, are there any Russians in the village?” (The village was Finnish.) “I’m Russian!” - she answered.
I started helping. Walk around the area. Take note of where and what kind of concentration of fascists. Tell your friends. According to her intelligence data, already in the fall several attacks were carried out on stationed German detachments that were preparing to be transferred to Leningrad or were returning from there for treatment.
A year later, the Kukoverovs, like other local residents, were sent to a camp in Gatchina. And from there they took me to Velikiye Luki. Nina immediately contacted the partisans. And then she left for the detachment. As in the Tosnensky district, I began to walk around the villages, collecting information and posting leaflets. At the end of 1943, she participated in the destruction of the SS base in the village of Gory: she entered the territory of the village, studied the location of the punitive forces, and reported information to her friends.
She died in December of the same 1943. During the next raid, the girl was betrayed by a traitor. Nina was subjected to severe torture and then executed. On these very days, in December, Zina Portnova was captured in the neighboring Vitebsk region. There was a month left before the liberation of Leningrad, the homeland of both girls...
This is our story, short, without much detail. Although a lot has been said. I just wish the memory wasn’t short (how many people in St. Petersburg itself remember this girl today?). So that all that remains of her is not only one tattered green album with photographs that are probably no longer needed by anyone. Where it is written in an uneven mother’s handwriting: “The Germans were surprised - who could transmit information to the partisans, they called me...”. Or: “Nina’s body was found in the basement with potatoes...” And other similar lines that are always so bitter to read. And especially today.
Krotov, Kupsha, Ryzhov: If ours, we must save
Three more names that the whole country once knew: Marx Krotov, Albert Kupsha, Kolya Ryzhov. We lived in the village of Smerdynya, Tosnensky district (very close, 30 km from Shapoki, where Nina Kukoverova found herself under occupation). They committed a major sabotage. They were executed. Local residents today do not forget about their countryman heroes. The place of memory of the pioneers is the obelisk at the site of the execution and the school named after A. N. Radishchev in the city of Lyuban.
Lyuban is the center of the surrounding villages. And Smerdynya too. The dead boys are remembered here from the words of eyewitnesses.
“Marx was from Smerdyn itself, Albert came with his family from Latvia, nothing is known about Kolya,” says the head of the school museum and the head of the library, Marina Efremova. — We studied at the same school, were friends. When the war began, they were 12-13 years old. At first, like all boys, we ran through the forests, looking at what was going on. Then Marx went out to the partisans...
These are the lines we find in the memoirs of Marx’s mother, Evdokia Pavlovna:
“Once an air battle began over our village. Everyone hid at home. And Marx, Kolya and Albert disappeared. We observed a battle on the outskirts of the village. When one of the planes caught fire, they decided: “If it’s ours, we need to save it.” The pilot turned out to be Russian. He was completely burned and was already dead. The boys took documents and a letter to their mother. All this was taken to the partisans, and they forwarded it to their relatives. The pilot was buried in secret. And then we often visited that grave.”
Or: “One night, in winter, they knock on the window. I look: there are two people standing.
“Yours,” they say, “let them in.”
I looked at the children and it became scary. For hiding Red Army soldiers - execution.
And Marx, without hesitation: “We must let him in, these are ours”...
He got up, closed the windows tightly, and flooded the cast iron. The soldiers warmed up. Then Marx took them out of the village by a roundabout route.”
At the end of December 1941, on instructions from the partisans, the guys made their way on skis at night to the airfield in the neighboring village of Borodulino and used kerosene lanterns to mark the location of the German planes that were flying to Leningrad. On a tip, in the dark, Soviet pilots bombed the airfield. On the same night, the partisans attacked the Borodulino fascist military unit - they killed the soldiers, took away horses, food, and weapons.
Afterwards, the Nazis began to comb the villages and identify underground fighters.
One night a man came to the Krotovs; he introduced himself as a fugitive Red Army soldier and asked for food, clothing, as well as skis and a lantern. Marx replied that he had none of this. The man visited several more houses. And they did not refuse him one thing, they also explained how to go to the partisans. There was a puncture.
The boys and another underground worker were arrested.
Marx and Albert were shot. Kolya was hanged. The execution took place on the shores of White Lake, not far from Smerdyn, on February 7, 1942...
In the school museum today there are two photographs of the victims - Marx and Albert. There is no Kolya card.
Among the documents kept at the school are large albums (similar to Nurmin’s) with photographs and memories. Once upon a time there was a railway school in Lyuban, its students collected information about the heroes of the Great Patriotic War who liberated this land. After the school was disbanded in the 80s, the documents - and these are as many as 30 albums (!) - were kept for some time by one of the teachers. Afterwards she donated them to the city library. And in the early 2000s, the school named after Radishchev received a call from the library: “If you need albums, take them. No, we’ll throw it away.”
The Radishchevites took the albums to their museum. And they found the most valuable information in them, which today cannot be found either on the Internet or in books! Stories of participants in the liberation of Lyuban. Detailed biographies of the fighters, including the nurse of the 318th medical battalion Lisa Otvagina - in 1944 she fought for Lyuban. Hero of the Soviet Union Tajik Tuichi Erdzhigitov, who closed a German embrasure with his body on October 5, 1943 in the battle for Smerdyn. Tatar poet Musa Jalil, captured in 1942 near Lyuban and organized an underground resistance network on German soil. Of course, Marx, Albert, Kolya...
After the war, a memorial monument was erected at the supposed site of the death of friends on White Lake. In Soviet times, Lyuban fifth-graders were initiated into pioneers here every year. Three years ago the school revived this tradition. In the form of historical reconstruction, schoolchildren are brought to the obelisk of the pioneer heroes, they tie ties, explain the meaning of the ritual, then they sing songs and light a fire.
“So that they know what happened before,” the teachers say. “And who are the real heroes?”
From a letter from Pavel Venkov, the director of the school where the boys studied until 1941:
“Marx Krotov graduated from 5 grades; the original of his certificate with grades on completion of primary school is kept in the Museum of the History of Leningrad in the Pioneer Hall. Ryzhov Nikolai, due to family circumstances, did not enter the 5th grade, but went to work as a grazing assistant - to graze collective farm cattle. Albert Kupsha studied a grade higher than Krotov and was an excellent student in all subjects.”
Larisa Mikheenko: The war will end, we will come home...
“Partisan Lara” is the name of the story that Nadezhda Nadezhdina wrote about her. “That Distant Summer” is a feature film that was made about this girl at Lenfilm. Larisa Mikheenko was born in 1929. She studied at school No. 106 on Lesnoy Prospekt. I went with my grandmother to the Kalinin region. She joined the partisans. In November 1943 she was captured. Shot in the vicinity of the village of Ignatovo, Pustoshkinsky district, 3 days before the Red Army arrived here.
School 106 today is located on Serdobolskaya Street in St. Petersburg. Other walls, other people. But the former student is remembered here. Created in the 70s, the museum named after her survived both the perestroika years and the 90s. Several years ago it was renamed the “school history museum.” But the main exhibition still remained dedicated to the pioneer.
“We became aware of Larisa quite by accident,” says history teacher and head of the museum Tatyana Galko. “In 1957, our students—sixth and seventh graders—collected waste paper and went door to door. And then we met a woman in one apartment. She said: “My daughter was the same and also studied in the 106th,” she began to cry. They started asking questions. Explained in general terms. Mom didn’t know much herself. After the war, she thought that her daughter was alive, she went to the village, and there they showed her the grave. The school became interested in this story: their student was a partisan! We decided to go to Pustoshkinsky district. And so, expedition after expedition, a picture of the feat of the Leningrad schoolgirl was formed...
We found out that in the summer of 1941, Larisa and her grandmother went to the village of Pechenevo to visit a relative, Uncle Rodion; the old woman wanted to visit her native place in her old age. When the Germans appeared in these parts, the girl and her grandmother tried to fight their way back, but failed.
“Dear mommy,” the daughter wrote to her mother, “a great misfortune has happened. The railway in Pustoshka was bombed, we can’t come. I could have come on foot, I would have had enough strength, but it would be a pity to leave my grandmother alone. Don't wait, I won't come. I don’t have time to write in more detail, I’m in a hurry. I am sending this letter with a soldier. Ours are retreating. Don’t be upset, the war will end, we’ll come home...”
After the Nazis arrived in Pechenevo, my uncle agreed to serve the occupation authorities and became the headman. He sent his mother and niece, who condemned him, to live in a bathhouse. A year later, the girl received a summons to appear at a youth camp, from where teenagers were sent to work in Germany. Larisa and her friends decided to go to the partisans.
Reading the memoirs of the deputy reconnaissance commander of the 6th partisan brigade, Pavel Kotlyarov, which are kept in the school, one is amazed at the variety of tasks that the young partisan performed.
The task has been set to immediately identify the numbering of the fascist units that are moving to the east. Lara, disguised as a beggar, appears in the village of Ust-Dolyssy, where there is a large garrison of policemen. Among them are two - secret partisans Vasya Novak and Kolya Sharkovsky. She explains the task to them. The guys steal a bag of German field mail at night and give it to Larisa, who delivers it to the detachment. A day later, letters with valuable information were sent by plane to the front commander. The information is known.
In the same village there is a battalion of Vlasovites. Kolya Sharkovsky contacts them, gives leaflets, communicates. As a result, 18 people decide to go over to the partisans. Lara is a mediator between the parties and leads the Vlasovites out of the village to her own.
And there are dozens of such stories, including rescuing the wounded, blowing up bridges, and reconnaissance of the area...
The end came during the next task. At one of the appearances, Larisa and two partisans ran into an ambush (one of the locals surrendered). In the ensuing battle, both men were killed. Lara was captured. During her arrest, she tried to blow up herself and the Germans with a hand fragmentation grenade, but for some reason the shell did not explode...
School No. 106 maintained contacts with Larisa’s mother, Tatyana Andreevna, until the woman’s death. The tradition of expeditions to the Pustoshkinsky district continues to this day. At intervals of two or three years, just like 50 years ago (and in our time this seems amazing), modern St. Petersburg schoolchildren go to the places where their peers fought and go around village after village. The last time was in 2011. Now they will go this year, in June.
As the deputy told us. for educational work Tatyana Maksimtsova, a month ago they already went to Pustoshka and agreed with the local school about accommodation. 15 high school students will go on the expedition together with their teachers. Over the course of three days, they will cover an 80-kilometer route. They will restore order at the burials, paint the signs, lay flowers...
From the memories of Larisa’s childhood friend, Leningrad resident Lidia Tyotkina:
“The last time I saw Lara was June 22, 1941. In the morning she came to me to say goodbye. She went on vacation with her grandmother to the village. She said, “Lida, I don’t want to leave. Write to me. I don't take anything with me. I’ll only take one guitar, I can’t live without it.” I came to accompany her to the house, but they were in such a hurry that I didn’t have time to say anything to Lara. In my memory she remains in a red dress with a guitar and a grocery bag in her hands.”
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Pioneer heroes
When the Great Patriotic War began, not only adult men and women joined the fighting line. Thousands of boys and girls, your peers, rose to defend the Motherland. They sometimes did things that strong men could not do. What guided them in that terrible time? Craving for adventure? Responsibility for the fate of your country? Hatred towards the occupiers? Probably all together. They accomplished a true feat. And we cannot help but remember the names of young patriots.
Lenya Golikov
He grew up as an ordinary village boy. When the German invaders occupied his native village of Lukino, in the Leningrad region, Lenya collected several rifles from the battlefields and obtained two bags of grenades from the Nazis to give them to the partisans. And he himself remained in the partisan detachment. He fought along with adults. At just over 10 years old, in battles with the invaders, Lenya personally destroyed 78 German soldiers and officers and blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition. He participated in 27 combat operations, the explosion of 2 railway and 12 highway bridges. On August 15, 1942, a young partisan blew up a German passenger car in which there was an important Nazi general. Lenya Golikov died in the spring of 1943 in an unequal battle. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Marat Kazei 
Schoolboy Marat Kazei was just over 13 years old when he went to join the partisans with his sister. Marat became a scout. He made his way into enemy garrisons, looked out for where German posts, headquarters, and ammunition depots were located. The information he delivered to the detachment helped the partisans inflict heavy losses on the enemy. Like Golikov, Marat blew up bridges and derailed enemy trains. In May 1944, when the Soviet Army was already very close and the partisans were about to unite with it, Marat was ambushed. The teenager shot back until the last bullet. When Marat had only one grenade left, he let the enemies get closer and pulled the pin... Marat Kazei posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Zinaida Portnova 
In the summer of 1941, Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova went on vacation to her grandmother in Belarus. There the war found her. A few months later, Zina joined the underground organization “Young Patriots”. Then she became a scout in the Voroshilov partisan detachment. The girl was distinguished by fearlessness, ingenuity and never lost heart. One day she was arrested. The enemies had no direct evidence that she was a partisan. Perhaps everything would have worked out if Portnova had not been identified by the traitor. She was tortured for a long time and cruelly. During one of the interrogations, Zina grabbed a pistol from the investigator and shot him and two other guards. She tried to escape, but the girl, exhausted from torture, did not have enough strength. She was captured and soon executed. Zinaida Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Valentin Kotik 
At the age of 12, Valya, then a fifth-grader at the Shepetovskaya school, became a scout in a partisan detachment. He fearlessly made his way to the location of enemy troops, obtaining valuable information for the partisans about security posts of railway stations, military warehouses, and the deployment of enemy units. He did not hide his joy when adults took him with them to a combat operation. Valya Kotik has blown up 6 enemy trains and many successful ambushes. He died at the age of 14 in an unequal battle with the Nazis. By that time, Valya Kotik already wore on his chest the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree. Such awards would honor even the commander of a partisan unit. And here is a boy, a teenager. Valentin Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Vasily Korobko 
The partisan fate of a sixth-grader from the village of Pogoreltsy, Vasya Korobko, was unusual. He received his baptism of fire in the summer of 1941, covering with fire the withdrawal of our units. Consciously remained in the occupied territory. Once, at my own risk, I sawed down the bridge piles. The very first fascist armored personnel carrier that drove onto this bridge collapsed from it and became inoperable. Then Vasya became a partisan. The detachment blessed him to work at Hitler's headquarters. There, no one could even imagine that the silent stoker and cleaner perfectly remembers all the icons on enemy maps and catches German words familiar from school. Everything that Vasya learned became known to the partisans. Once the punitive forces demanded that Korobko lead them to the forest from where the partisans were making forays. And Vasily led the Nazis to the police ambush. In the dark, the punishers mistook the police for partisans and opened fire on them, destroying many traitors to the Motherland.
Subsequently, Vasily Korobko became an excellent demolitionist and took part in the destruction of 9 echelons of enemy personnel and equipment. He died while carrying out another partisan mission. The exploits of Vasily Korobko were awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st degree.
Vitya Khomenko 
Like Vasily Korobko, seventh-grader Vitya Khomenko pretended to serve the occupiers while working in the officers' canteen. I washed dishes, heated the stove, and wiped tables. And I remembered everything that the Wehrmacht officers, relaxed with Bavarian beer, talked about. The information obtained by Victor was highly valued in the underground organization “Nikolaev Center”. The Nazis noticed the smart, efficient boy and made him a messenger at headquarters. Naturally, the partisans became aware of everything contained in the documents that fell into the hands of Khomenko.
Vasya died in December 1942, tortured by enemies who became aware of the boy’s connections with the partisans. Despite the most terrible torture, Vasya did not reveal to the enemies the location of the partisan base, his connections and passwords. Vitya Khomenko was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Galya Komleva 
In the Luga district of the Leningrad region, the memory of the brave young partisan Galya Komleva is honored. She, like many of her peers during the war years, was a scout, supplying the partisans with important information. The Nazis tracked down Komleva, captured her, and threw her into a cell. Two months of continuous interrogations, beatings, and abuse. They demanded that Gali name the names of the partisan contacts. But the torture did not break the girl; she did not utter a word. Galya Komleva was mercilessly shot. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Utah Bondarovskaya 
The war found Utah on vacation with his grandmother. Just yesterday she was playing carefree with her friends, and today circumstances demanded that she take up arms. Utah was a liaison officer and then a scout in a partisan detachment that operated in the Pskov region. Dressed as a beggar boy, the fragile girl wandered around enemy lines, memorizing the location of military equipment, security posts, headquarters, and communications centers. Adults would never be able to deceive the enemy's vigilance so cleverly. In 1944, in a battle near an Estonian farm, Yuta Bondarovskaya died a heroic death along with her older comrades. Utah was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st class.
Volodya Dubinin 
Legends were told about him: how Volodya led an entire detachment of Nazis tracking down partisans in the Crimean quarries by the nose; how he slipped like a shadow past reinforced enemy posts; how could he remember, down to one soldier, the number of several Nazi units located in different places at once... Volodya was the partisans’ favorite, their common son. But war is war, it spares neither adults nor children. The young intelligence officer died when he was blown up by a fascist mine while returning from his next mission. The commander of the Crimean Front, having learned about the death of Volodya Dubinin, gave the order to posthumously award the young patriot the Order of the Red Banner.
Sasha Kovalev 
He was a graduate of the Solovetsky Jung School. Sasha Kovalev received his first order - the Order of the Red Star - for the fact that the engines of his torpedo boat No. 209 of the Northern Fleet never failed during 20 combat trips to sea. The young sailor was awarded the second, posthumous award - the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree - for a feat of which an adult has the right to be proud. This was in May 1944. While attacking a fascist transport ship, Kovalev’s boat received a hole in the collector from a shell fragment. Boiling water was gushing out of the torn casing; the engine could stall at any minute. Then Kovalev closed the hole with his body. Other sailors came to his aid, and the boat continued to move. But Sasha died. He was 15 years old.
Nina Kukoverova 
She began her war against the Nazis by distributing leaflets in a village occupied by enemies. Her leaflets contained truthful reports from the fronts, which instilled in people faith in victory. The partisans entrusted Nina with intelligence work. She did an excellent job with all tasks. The Nazis decided to put an end to the partisans. A punitive detachment entered one of the villages. But its exact numbers and weapons were not known to the partisans. Nina volunteered to scout out the enemy forces. She remembered everything: where and how many sentries, where the ammunition was stored, how many machine guns the punishers had. This information helped the partisans defeat the enemy.
While performing her next task, Nina was betrayed by a traitor. She was tortured. Having achieved nothing from Nina, the Nazis shot the girl. Nina Kukoverova was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Marx Krotov
Our pilots, who were ordered to bomb the enemy airfield, were eternally grateful to this boy with such an expressive name. The airfield was located in the Leningrad region, near Tosno, and was carefully guarded by the Nazis. But Marx Krotov managed to get close to the airfield unnoticed and give our pilots a light signal.
Focusing on this signal, the bombers accurately attacked targets and destroyed dozens of enemy aircraft. And before that, Marx collected food for the partisan detachment and handed it over to the forest fighters.
Marx Krotov was captured by a Nazi patrol when he, together with other schoolchildren, was once again aiming our bombers at the target. The boy was executed on the shores of Lake Belye in February 1942.
Albert Kupsha 
Albert was the same age and comrade of Marx Krotov, whom we have already talked about. Together with them, Kolya Ryzhov took revenge on the invaders. The guys collected weapons, handed them over to the partisans, and led the Red Army soldiers out of encirclement. But they accomplished their main feat on New Year’s Eve 1942. On instructions from the partisan commander, the boys made their way to the Nazi airfield and, giving light signals, guided our bombers to the target. The enemy planes were destroyed. The Nazis tracked down the patriots and, after interrogation and torture, shot them on the shores of Lake Belye.
Sasha Kondratiev 
Not all young heroes were awarded orders and medals for their courage. Many, having accomplished their feat, were not included in the award lists for various reasons. But the boys and girls did not fight the enemy for the sake of medals; they had another goal - to pay off the occupiers for their suffering Motherland.
In July 1941, Sasha Kondratyev and his comrades from the village of Golubkovo created their own squad of avengers. The guys got hold of weapons and began to act. First, they blew up a bridge on the road along which the Nazis were transporting reinforcements. Then they destroyed the house in which the enemies had set up a barracks, and soon they set fire to the mill where the Nazis ground grain. The last action of Sasha Kondratyev’s detachment was the shelling of an enemy aircraft circling over Lake Cheremenets. The Nazis tracked down the young patriots and captured them. After a bloody interrogation, the guys were hanged in the square in Luga.
Lara Mikheenko 
Their destinies are as similar as drops of water. Study interrupted by the war, an oath to take revenge on the invaders until the last breath, partisan everyday life, reconnaissance raids on enemy rear lines, ambushes, explosions of trains. Except that death was different. Some were executed in public, others were shot in the back of the head in a remote basement.
Lara Mikheenko became a partisan intelligence officer. She found out the location of enemy batteries, counted the cars moving along the highway towards the front, remembered which trains and with what cargo arrived at Pustoshka station. Lara was betrayed by a traitor. The Gestapo did not make allowances for age - after a fruitless interrogation, the girl was shot. It happened on November 4, 1943. Lara Mikheenko was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Shura Kober 
Nikolaev schoolboy Shura Kober, in the very first days of the occupation of the city where he lived, joined an underground organization. His task was to reconnaissance of the redeployment of Nazi troops. Shura completed every task quickly and accurately. When a radio transmitter in a partisan detachment failed, Shura was tasked with crossing the front line and contacting Moscow. What crossing the front line is, only those who have done it know: countless posts, ambushes, the risk of coming under fire from both strangers and their own. Shura, having successfully overcome all obstacles, brought invaluable information about the location of Nazi troops in the front line. After some time, he returned to the partisans, again crossing the front line. Fought. I went on reconnaissance missions. In November 1942, the boy was betrayed by a provocateur. He was one of 10 underground members who was executed in the city square.
Sasha Borodulin 
Already in the winter of 1941, he wore the Order of the Red Banner on his tunic. There was a reason for it. Sasha, together with the partisans, fought the Nazis in open battle, took part in ambushes, and went on reconnaissance more than once.
The partisans were unlucky: the punishers tracked down the detachment and encircled them. For three days the partisans evaded pursuit and broke through the encirclement. But the punishers again and again blocked their path. Then the detachment commander called 5 volunteers, who were supposed to cover the withdrawal of the main partisan forces with fire. At the commander’s call, Sasha Borodulin was the first to step out of the ranks. The brave five managed to delay the punitive forces for some time. But the partisans were doomed. Sasha was the last to die, stepping towards the enemies with a grenade in his hands.
Vitya Korobkov 
12-year-old Vitya was next to his father, army intelligence officer Mikhail Ivanovich Korobkov, who was operating in Feodosia. Vitya helped his father as much as he could and carried out his military orders. Sometimes he himself took the initiative: he posted leaflets, obtained information about the location of enemy units. He was arrested along with his father on February 18, 1944. There was very little time left before our troops arrived. The Korobkovs were thrown into the Old Crimean prison, and they extorted testimony from the intelligence officers for 2 weeks. But all the efforts of the Gestapo were in vain.
How many were there?
We talked about only a few of those who, before reaching adulthood, gave their lives in the fight against the enemy. Thousands, tens of thousands of boys and girls sacrificed themselves for victory.
There is a one-of-a-kind museum in Kursk, where unique information about the fate of children of war is collected. Museum staff managed to identify more than 10 thousand names of sons and daughters of regiments and young partisans. There are absolutely amazing human stories.
Tanya Savicheva. She lived in besieged Leningrad. Dying of hunger, Tanya gave the last crumbs of bread to other people, with the last of her strength she carried sand and water to the city attics so that she would have something to extinguish incendiary bombs. Tanya kept a diary in which she talked about how her family was dying of hunger, cold, and disease. The last page of the diary remained unfinished: Tanya herself died.
Maria Shcherbak. She went to the front at the age of 15 under the name of her brother Vladimir, who died at the front. She became a machine gunner in the 148th Infantry Division. Maria ended the war as a senior lieutenant, holder of four orders.
Arkady Kamanin. He was a graduate of an air regiment; at the age of 14 he first boarded a combat aircraft. He flew as a gunner-radio operator. Liberated Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna. He earned 3 orders. 3 years after the war, Arkady, when he was only 18 years old, died from wounds.
Zhora Smirnitsky. At the age of 9 he became a fighter in the Red Army and received weapons. He acted as a liaison officer and went on reconnaissance missions behind the front line. At the age of 10 he received the rank of junior sergeant, and on the eve of the victory he received his first high award - the Order of Glory, 3rd degree...
How many were there? How many young patriots fought the enemy along with adults? Nobody knows this for sure. Many commanders, in order not to get into trouble, did not enter the names of young soldiers into company and battalion lists. But this did not make the heroic mark they left on our military history any paler.
Let us briefly interrupt the chronicle of the triumph of Russian weapons and Russian fighting spirit. And let’s try to understand the following: our military history is not limited to these dates, it is much more voluminous. Suvorov, Ushakov, Nakhimov won dozens of major victories, and we told only about a few. But those who value our history probably know about this and, leafing through military chronicles, will make many more interesting discoveries for themselves. And this is what is important: our victories have no statute of limitations; new generations of Russian fighters have been and will be educated on them, who will have the opportunity to write their pages in the military history of the Fatherland. Everything has its beginning. When our people faced the most difficult test, they accepted it, overshadowed by the victories of our ancestors, enriched by their combat experience, perseverance and courage. That is why Hitler failed to break Russia, and neither will anyone else.
Now let's move on to the Days of Military Glory of Russia from the Great Patriotic War calendar. The witnesses and creators of this glory are still alive and remember well how difficult our greatest victory was. Talk to them about the days of their youth more often, because veterans are not eternal, they will leave, and with them the living memory of the Great Patriotic War will go.
And one more thing, very important. When the war began, it wasn't just grown men and women who joined the fighting line. Thousands of boys and girls, your peers, rose to defend Russia. They sometimes did things that strong men could not do. What guided them in that terrible time? Craving for adventure? Responsibility for the fate of your country? Hatred towards the occupiers? Probably all together. They accomplished a true feat. And we cannot help but remember the names of young patriots.
Lenya Golikov
He grew up as an ordinary village boy. When the German invaders occupied his native village of Lukino, in the Leningrad region, Lenya collected several rifles from the battlefields and obtained two bags of grenades from the Nazis to give them to the partisans. And he himself remained in the partisan detachment. He fought along with adults. At just over ten years old, in battles with the invaders, Lenya personally destroyed 78 German soldiers and officers and blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition. He participated in 27 combat operations, the explosion of 2 railway and 12 highway bridges. On August 15, 1942, a young partisan blew up a German passenger car in which there was an important Nazi general. Lenya Golikov died in the spring of 1943 in an unequal battle. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Marat Kazei
Belarusian schoolboy Marat Kazei was just over thirteen years old when he went to join the partisans with his sister. Marat became a scout. He made his way into enemy garrisons, looked out for where German posts, headquarters, and ammunition depots were located. The information he delivered to the detachment helped the partisans inflict heavy losses on the enemy. Like Golikov, Marat blew up bridges and derailed enemy trains. In May 1944, when the Soviet Army was already very close and the partisans were about to unite with it, Marat was ambushed. The teenager shot back until the last bullet. When Marat had only one grenade left, he let the enemies get closer and pulled the pin... Marat Kazei posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Zinaida Portnova
Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova in the summer of 1941 went on vacation to her grandmother in Belarus. There the war found her. A few months later, Zina joined the underground organization "Young Patriots". Then she became a scout in the Voroshilov partisan detachment. The girl was distinguished by fearlessness, ingenuity and never lost heart. One day she was arrested. The enemies had no direct evidence that she was a partisan. Perhaps everything would have worked out if Portnova had not been identified by the traitor. She was tortured for a long time and cruelly. During one of the interrogations, Zina grabbed a pistol from the investigator and shot him and two other guards. She tried to escape, but the girl, exhausted from torture, did not have enough strength. She was captured and soon executed. Zinaida Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Valentin Kotik
At the age of 12, Valya, then a fifth-grader at the Shepetovskaya school, became a scout in a partisan detachment. He fearlessly made his way to the location of enemy troops, obtaining valuable information for the partisans about security posts of railway stations, military warehouses, and the deployment of enemy units. He did not hide his joy when adults took him with them to a combat operation. Valya Kotik has six enemy trains blown up and many successful ambushes. He died at the age of 14 in an unequal battle with the Nazis. By that time, Valya Kotik already wore on his chest the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree. Such awards would honor even the commander of a partisan unit. And here is a boy, a teenager.
Valentin Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Vasily Korobko
The partisan fate of a sixth-grader from the village of Pogoreltsy, Vasya Korobko, was unusual. He received his baptism of fire in the summer of 1941, covering with fire the withdrawal of our units. Consciously remained in the occupied territory. Once, at my own risk, I sawed down the bridge piles. The very first fascist armored personnel carrier that drove onto this bridge collapsed from it and became inoperable. Then Vasya became a partisan. The detachment blessed him to work at Hitler's headquarters. There, no one could even imagine that the silent stoker and cleaner perfectly remembers all the icons on enemy maps and catches German words familiar from school. Everything that Vasya learned became known to the partisans. Once the punitive forces demanded that Korobko lead them to the forest from where the partisans were making forays. And Vasily led the Nazis to the police ambush. In the dark, the punishers mistook the police for partisans and opened fire on them, destroying many traitors to the Motherland.
Subsequently, Vasily Korobko became an excellent demolitionist and took part in the destruction of nine echelons of enemy personnel and equipment. He died while carrying out another partisan mission. The exploits of Vasily Korobko were awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st degree.
Vitya Khomenko
Like Vasily Korobko, seventh-grader Vitya Khomenko pretended to serve the occupiers while working in the officers' canteen. I washed dishes, heated the stove, and wiped tables. And I remembered everything that the Wehrmacht officers, relaxed with Bavarian beer, talked about. The information obtained by Victor was highly valued in the underground organization "Nikolaev Center". The Nazis noticed the smart, efficient boy and made him a messenger at headquarters. Naturally, the partisans became aware of everything contained in the documents that fell into the hands of Khomenko.
Vasya died in December 1942, tortured by enemies who became aware of the boy’s connections with the partisans. Despite the most terrible torture, Vasya did not reveal to the enemies the location of the partisan base, his connections and passwords. Vitya Khomenko was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Galya Komleva
In the Luga district of the Leningrad region, the memory of the brave young partisan Galya Komleva is honored. She, like many of her peers during the war years, was a scout, supplying the partisans with important information. The Nazis tracked down Komleva, captured her, and threw her into a cell. Two months of continuous interrogations, beatings, and abuse. They demanded that Gali name the names of the partisan contacts. But the torture did not break the girl; she did not utter a word. Galya Komleva was mercilessly shot. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Utah Bondarovskaya
The war found Utah on vacation with his grandmother. Just yesterday she was playing carefree with her friends, and today circumstances demanded that she take up arms. Utah was a liaison officer and then a scout in a partisan detachment that operated in the Pskov region. Dressed as a beggar boy, the fragile girl wandered around enemy lines, memorizing the location of military equipment, security posts, headquarters, and communications centers. Adults would never be able to deceive the enemy's vigilance so cleverly. In 1944, in a battle near an Estonian farm, Yuta Bondarovskaya died a heroic death along with her older comrades. Utah was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st class.
Volodya Dubinin
Legends were told about him: how Volodya led an entire detachment of Nazis tracking down partisans in the Crimean quarries by the nose; how he slipped like a shadow past reinforced enemy posts; how could he remember, down to the accuracy of one soldier, the number of several Nazi units located in different places at once... Volodya was the favorite of the partisans, their common son. But war is war, it spares neither adults nor children. The young intelligence officer died when he was blown up by a fascist mine while returning from his next mission. The commander of the Crimean Front, having learned about the death of Volodya Dubinin, gave the order to posthumously award the young patriot the Order of the Red Banner.
Sasha Kovalev
He was a graduate of the Solovetsky Jung School. Sasha Kovalev received his first order - the Order of the Red Star - for the fact that the engines of his torpedo boat N209 of the Northern Fleet never failed during 20 combat trips to sea. The young sailor was awarded the second, posthumous award - the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree - for a feat of which an adult has the right to be proud. This was in May 1944. While attacking a fascist transport ship, Kovalev’s boat received a hole in the collector from a shell fragment. Boiling water was gushing out of the torn casing; the engine could stall at any minute. Then Kovalev closed the hole with his body. Other sailors came to his aid, and the boat continued to move. But Sasha died. He was 15 years old.
Nina Kukoverova
She began her war against the Nazis by distributing leaflets in a village occupied by enemies. Her leaflets contained truthful reports from the fronts, which instilled in people faith in victory. The partisans entrusted Nina with intelligence work. She did an excellent job with all tasks. The Nazis decided to put an end to the partisans. A punitive detachment entered one of the villages. But its exact numbers and weapons were not known to the partisans. Nina volunteered to scout out the enemy forces. She remembered everything: where and how many sentries, where the ammunition was stored, how many machine guns the punishers had. This information helped the partisans defeat the enemy.
While performing her next task, Nina was betrayed by a traitor. She was tortured. Having achieved nothing from Nina, the Nazis shot the girl. Nina Kukoverova was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Marx Krotov
Our pilots, who were ordered to bomb the enemy airfield, were eternally grateful to this boy with such an expressive name. The airfield was located in the Leningrad region, near Tosno, and was carefully guarded by the Nazis. But Marx Krotov managed to get close to the airfield unnoticed and give our pilots a light signal.
Focusing on this signal, the bombers accurately attacked targets and destroyed dozens of enemy aircraft. And before that, Marx collected food for the partisan detachment and handed it over to the forest fighters.
Marx Krotov was captured by a Nazi patrol when he, together with other schoolchildren, was once again aiming our bombers at the target. The boy was executed on the shores of Lake Belye in February 1942.
Sasha Kondratiev
Not all young heroes were awarded orders and medals for their courage. Many, having accomplished their feat, were not included in the award lists for various reasons. But the boys and girls did not fight the enemy for the sake of medals; they had another goal - to pay off the occupiers for their suffering Motherland.
In July 1941, Sasha Kondratyev and his comrades from the village of Golubkovo created their own squad of avengers. The guys got hold of weapons and began to act. First, they blew up a bridge on the road along which the Nazis were transporting reinforcements. Then they destroyed the house in which the enemies had set up a barracks, and soon they set fire to the mill where the Nazis ground grain. The last action of Sasha Kondratyev’s detachment was the shelling of an enemy aircraft circling over Lake Cheremenets. The Nazis tracked down the young patriots and captured them. After a bloody interrogation, the guys were hanged in the square in the city of Luga.
Lara Mikheenko
Their destinies are as similar as drops of water. Study interrupted by the war, an oath to take revenge on the invaders until the last breath, partisan everyday life, reconnaissance raids on enemy rear lines, ambushes, explosions of trains... Except that death was different. Some were executed in public, others were shot in the back of the head in a remote basement.
Lara Mikheenko became a partisan intelligence officer. She found out the location of enemy batteries, counted the cars moving along the highway towards the front, remembered which trains and with what cargo arrived at Pustoshka station. Lara was betrayed by a traitor. The Gestapo did not make allowances for age - after a fruitless interrogation, the girl was shot. This happened on November 4, 1943. Lara Mikheenko was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Shura Kober
Nikolaev schoolboy Shura Kober, in the very first days of the occupation of the city where he lived, joined an underground organization. His task was to reconnaissance of the redeployment of Nazi troops. Shura completed every task quickly and accurately. When a radio transmitter in a partisan detachment failed, Shura was tasked with crossing the front line and contacting Moscow. What crossing the front line is, only those who have done it know: countless posts, ambushes, the risk of coming under fire from both strangers and their own. Shura, having successfully overcome all obstacles, brought invaluable information about the location of Nazi troops in the front line. After some time, he returned to the partisans, again crossing the front line. Fought. I went on reconnaissance missions. In November 1942, the boy was betrayed by a provocateur. He was one of ten underground fighters who was executed in the city square.
Sasha Borodulin
Already in the winter of 1941, he wore the Order of the Red Banner on his tunic. There was a reason for it. Sasha, together with the partisans, fought the Nazis in open battle, took part in ambushes, and went on reconnaissance more than once.
The partisans were unlucky: the punishers tracked down the detachment and encircled them. For three days the partisans evaded pursuit and broke through the encirclement. But the punishers again and again blocked their path. Then the detachment commander called five volunteers who were supposed to cover the withdrawal of the main partisan forces with fire. At the commander’s call, Sasha Borodulin was the first to step out of the ranks. The brave five managed to delay the punitive forces for some time. But the partisans were doomed. Sasha was the last to die, stepping towards the enemies with a grenade in his hands.
Vitya Korobkov
Twelve-year-old Vitya was next to his father, army intelligence officer Mikhail Ivanovich Korobkov, who was operating in Feodosia. Vitya helped his father as much as he could and carried out his military orders. Sometimes he himself took the initiative: he posted leaflets, obtained information about the location of enemy units. He was arrested along with his father on February 18, 1944. There was very little time left before our troops arrived. The Korobkovs were thrown into the Starokrymsk prison, where they extorted testimony from the intelligence officers for two weeks. But all the efforts of the Gestapo were in vain...
Albert Kupsha
Albert was the same age and comrade of Marx Krotov, whom we have already talked about. Together with them, Kolya Ryzhov took revenge on the invaders. The guys collected weapons, handed them over to the partisans, and led the Red Army soldiers out of encirclement. But they accomplished their main feat on New Year's Eve 1942. On instructions from the partisan commander, the boys made their way to the Nazi airfield and, giving light signals, guided our bombers to the target. The enemy planes were destroyed. The Nazis tracked down the patriots and, after interrogation and torture, shot them on the shores of Lake Belye.
Vasya Shishkovsky
Vasya died when the front was already far away and our troops were finishing off the Nazis near the borders with Germany.
He lived and studied in the Ternopil region, now a territory of Western Ukraine. And although Soviet power had already been restored there, Hitler’s accomplices, the so-called Banderaites, continued to hide in the forests. They terrorized civilians, hunted activists, and forced pioneers to take off their red ties. Vasya was not afraid to speak at a crowded meeting and say that he and his friends would wear red ties.
On New Year's Eve 1945, Bandera's supporters killed Vasily Shishkovsky. Then they set fire to his house and threw the boy's body into the fire.
The next day, all of Vasily’s peers in the village put on pioneer ties and went to school. The death of a comrade united the pioneer ranks. And soon the police got on the trail of the bandits and killed them all.
How many were there?
We talked about only a few of those who, before reaching adulthood, gave their lives in the fight against the enemy. Thousands, tens of thousands of boys and girls sacrificed themselves for victory.
In the city of Kursk there is a one-of-a-kind museum that contains unique information about the fate of children of war. Over forty years, the museum staff managed to identify more than 10 thousand names of sons and daughters of regiments and young partisans. There are absolutely amazing human stories.
Tanya Savicheva. She lived in besieged Leningrad. Dying of hunger, Tanya gave the last crumbs of bread to other people, with the last of her strength she carried sand and water to the city attics so that she would have something to extinguish incendiary bombs. Tanya kept a diary in which she talked about how her family was dying of hunger, cold, and disease. The last page of the diary remained unfinished: Tanya herself died.
Maria Shcherbak. She went to the front at the age of 15 under the name of her brother Vladimir, who died at the front. She became a machine gunner in the 148th Infantry Division. Maria ended the war as a senior lieutenant, holder of four orders.
Arkady Kamanin. He was a graduate of an air regiment; at the age of 14 he first boarded a combat aircraft. He flew as a gunner-radio operator. Liberated Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna. He earned three orders. Three years after the war, Arkady, when he was only 18 years old, died from his wounds.
Zhora Smirnitsky. At the age of 9 he became a fighter in the Red Army and received weapons. He acted as a liaison officer and went on reconnaissance missions behind the front line. At the age of 10 he received the rank of junior sergeant, and on the eve of the victory his first high award - the Order of Glory, III degree...
How many were there? How many young patriots fought the enemy along with adults? Nobody knows this for sure. Many commanders, in order not to get into trouble, did not enter the names of young soldiers into company and battalion lists. But this did not make the heroic mark they left on our military history any paler.
Let us continue our chronicle of Russian military glory, interrupted by the victory of Admiral Nakhimov’s squadron over the Turks. Almost a hundred years passed before Russia entered another date into the world chronicles.
December 5, 1941. No other victory was given to us so hard, with such blood and such strain of strength.
The Nazis reached all the way to Moscow. In the diaries of German generals there are already entries that Russia has been defeated and the war has been won. Already at the German headquarters plans are ripening for the return of most of the armies home to rest; a campaign against India, a war against the United States of America, and the defeat of England are being developed. You just need a little more effort - to take Moscow, crush the capital of a still resisting country. But it’s surprising: every day moving forward is becoming more and more difficult and with great losses. If at the beginning of the war the Wehrmacht troops covered 30 kilometers per day, now only 6-7. In tank divisions, the main striking force of the Wehrmacht, 40 percent of their equipment and personnel remained. Then the first embarrassment - near Smolensk the Germans were forced to go on the defensive. But for us this is a temporary success; the enemy continues to attack Moscow.
On October 20, a state of siege was declared in the capital. Most enterprises were evacuated to the east, bridges, train stations, thermal power plants, and factories were mined. The Germans approached Kashira from the south, and Krasnaya Polyana and Yakhroma from the north. In the Moscow direction, the Nazis employed over one and a half million soldiers and officers, 615 aircraft, 1,170 tanks, 13,500 guns and mortars. We have almost half as many tanks and artillery, half a million fewer soldiers, and we are only slightly superior to the enemy in aircraft. And also, perhaps, in a fighting spirit. Something happened, some kind of change in mood - hundreds of thousands of people in greatcoats suddenly felt a surge of new strength. Proof of this was the feat of 28 soldiers from General Panfilov’s division.
| Patriotic, spiritual and moral education of schoolchildren | Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War | Pioneer heroes of the Great Patriotic War | Nina Kukoverova
Pioneer heroes of the Great Patriotic War
Nina Kukoverova
When the war began, the mother and her children - 14-year-old Nina and two younger ones - remained in the village. At this time my father was taken to the front. In August, the Nazis entered the Leningrad region. On the 28th they took Shapki and Nechepert. The remnants of the defeated Soviet units in groups made their way to the east. Then Nina sheltered the first wounded Red Army soldiers in the house. The partisans soon appeared. I started helping. Walk around the area. Take note of where and what kind of concentration of fascists. Tell your friends. According to her intelligence data, already in the fall several attacks were carried out on stationed German detachments that were preparing to be transferred to Leningrad or were returning from there for treatment.
A year later, the Kukoverovs, like other local residents, were sent to a camp in Gatchina. And from there they took me to Velikiye Luki. Nina immediately contacted the partisans. And then she left for the detachment. As in the Tosnensky district, I began to walk around the villages - collecting information, posting leaflets. At the end of 1943, she participated in the destruction of the SS base in the village of Gory: she entered the territory of the village, studied the location of the punitive forces, and reported information to her friends.
She died in December of the same 1943. During the next raid, the girl was betrayed by a traitor. Nina was subjected to severe torture and then executed.
For many years, the place of memory of Nina was the village of Shapki, in the Tosnensky district. Since the 50s, local teachers and students have kept in touch with her mother Alexandra Stepanovna, collected information about the life of the pioneer, and hosted schoolchildren from all over the USSR. In the early 2000s, the Shapka school was closed. Classes were transferred to neighboring Nurma.
Awarded the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree. Enlisted in the pioneer squad.
