Valya the cat, 14 years old, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Participant of the partisan movement in Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War.

Valya Kotik was born on February 11, 1930 in a peasant family. Since 1937 he lived in the city of Shepetovka. When the war began, he had just entered the sixth grade. From the first days of the occupation of Shepetivka, Valya began to fight against the Nazis.

Once, together with his comrades, he threw a grenade at the car in which the head of the Shepetivka gendarmerie was riding. Hitler's executioner was killed.

In 1942, Valya established constant contact with the Shepetivka underground organization and, on its instructions, collected weapons and distributed leaflets.

In the summer of 1943, he became a partisan in the Karmalyuk detachment. In the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav, the boy was mortally wounded. He died in the arms of his adult partisan comrades.

Awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and a medal.

Valya Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously.

The name Kotik was given to the ship and schools.

In the city of Shepetivka in 1960, a monument to Valya Kotik was erected.

“The Last Battle” is a story written by Valya’s mother, Anna Kotik.

Last Stand.

A line of new arrivals formed at the forest edge, and among them were my sons, Valya and Victor. Both have captured machine guns. They are accepted into the partisan detachment only with weapons, and my sons fulfilled this requirement, and also got weapons not only for themselves.

In front of the line are partisan commander Anton Zakharovich Odukha and commissar Ignatius Vasilyevich Kuzovkin. The Commissioner slowly, phrase by phrase, reads the words of the partisan oath. And the newcomers repeat after him in solemn silence:

“For the burned cities and villages, for the death of our wives and children, for the torment and violence against my people, I swear to take revenge on the enemy mercilessly and tirelessly.

Blood for blood!

Death for death!

I swear that I would rather die in a brutal battle with enemies than give myself, my family and the entire Soviet people into slavery to bloody fascism...”

That day my sons became partisan fighters.

One day, Valina’s group was tasked with defeating a German garrison stationed in a neighboring village.

The partisans made their way along forest paths. In front is reconnaissance, and on the sides and in the rear are combat guards. The detachment had been pursued by punitive forces the day before, but now it seemed that it had already broken away from them. It's quiet in the forest. Only the birds sing and the trees rustle above.

Halt! - the commander ordered. “Valik, it’s your turn to guard.”

“I obey,” Valya saluted and disappeared behind the trees.

His post was located several hundred meters from the resting place. The boy sat down in the bushes in front of the forest edge.

There is silence all around.

But what is it? A flock of birds took off from the tree. Through the noise of the forest, Valya heard a loud crunch of branches under his feet. He grabbed the machine gun and threw himself to the ground, but... Someone's rough, strong hands snatched the weapon from him. These were punitive forces.

Where are you from? - the translator asked menacingly.

“What to do, how to warn the squad about the danger, how to delay time?” - an alarming thought drilled into my brain. A sharp blow - and again the same question:

Where?

Valya points to the sky:

From an airplane.

Who else is with you? Where are they?

The Nazis forced Valya to lie down and ordered him not to move. And he thought feverishly:

“Another ten minutes and the enemies will attack the squad. What to do?"

As soon as he moved, a threatening shout from the fascist was heard:

Ligen!

Suddenly Valya felt the ribbed surface of a lemon grenade dig into his side.

He had to be very careful so that the punishers wouldn’t notice, pull his hand under himself, remove the ring...

Valya quickly jumped up, threw a grenade at the feet of his guards, and rushed into the bushes. But can you run so far in three seconds without being overtaken by fragments? Something burned his legs and back. Valya fell, but then crawled deeper into the forest.

The detachment heard an explosion, and when the punitive forces approached the resting place, they, of course, did not find anyone.

What happened to Valya?

He survived, crawled to the forester’s hut, who bandaged his wounds and notified the partisans...

The winter of 1944 has arrived. Under the blows of the Red Army, fascist troops rolled back to the west. The partisans helped the front, and in order to remain behind enemy lines, they had to “retreat” along with the Nazis.

One January day, the partisans stormed Slavuta and established Soviet power there. And when the advanced units of the front reached Slavuta, the partisans received orders to prepare for the assault on Izyaslav.

Muzalev’s detachment, where Valya was, was located about seven kilometers from the city. As soon as we stopped, the radio operator took hold of the receiver and began to catch Moscow:

Order of the Supreme Commander...

Everyone who was free gathered around the radio. We were waiting impatiently: what will Moscow please us with today?

The announcer solemnly read:

A large railway junction has been captured - the city of Shepetivka!

Hooray! - swept through the forest.

Most of the partisans in Muzalev’s detachment were from Shepetovka. Their city had already been liberated, and the detachment was preparing for its last battle.

The day before, a liaison officer from the front headquarters arrived here. Then representatives of all detachments appeared.

After some time, Muzalev convened the platoon commanders. Immediately after a short meeting, partisan scouts in white camouflage coats disappeared into the darkness of the night.

At seven in the morning the assault on Izyaslav! - they repeated in the detachment.

Valik, during the battle you will remain at headquarters,” Muzalev ordered.

Why don’t I go on the attack? What, am I a bad shooter?

This is an order, and orders are not discussed,” Muzalev answered sternly.

Okay,” Valya frowned.

No, Muzalev couldn’t send him into the thick of it now. After all, this is the last battle. In a few days, Valya will return to Shepetovka, already Soviet, will go to school, and soon his hands will again get used to the briefcase, notebooks, pencils...

The Nazis did not expect an attack. They jumped out of houses half-naked, ran around like crazy and randomly shot back. The detachment passed the first buildings. The Nazis fled the city. But the partisans knew that victory would not be easy. After all, the last echelons with equipment and soldiers were passing through Izyaslav; units defeated at Shepetovka were leaving through Izyaslav.

The partisans immediately began to dig in to gain a foothold in the city.

Valya was assigned to guard a weapons warehouse abandoned by the Nazis.

He stood on guard and thought that it was in vain that Muzalev did not allow him to go on the attack.

What will he remember later about this battle? Endless phone calls to KP Muzalev? How he wanted to rush from this checkpoint to where the bullets were whistling! But the order cannot be violated.

And suddenly Valya heard the hum of engines coming from the side where the Nazis had retreated. Tiger tanks and Ferdinand self-propelled guns appeared. It is difficult to defeat such equipment when the squad has only a few anti-tank rifles and one anti-tank gun.

He saw from a distance how one of the partisans rose to his full height near a spotted tank and fell right under the tracks.

There was an explosion... The tank spun in place and smoke poured out of the turret.

The tanks were approaching the warehouse. Valya can already clearly distinguish the fascists running after them. He crouched to the ground and began shooting at the black figures on the white snow.

Another tank stopped. The rest turned back. The partisan “hurray” rang out over the city again. The Nazi offensive was repelled.

Valya stood up to his full height.

Suddenly a blunt blow to the stomach knocked him off his feet. A stray bullet mortally wounded the boy.

He came to consciousness when the cart shook sharply and a sharp pain pierced his whole body.

Valya was lying on the straw, covered with trophy blankets and overcoats. Muzalev walked heavily next to him all the time, holding the edge of the cart with his hand.

Only now did he realize how tired he was after the intense battle. It's all over now. Soviet troops arrived from the other flank in a timely manner. Izyaslav was released. The partisans were returning home. They fulfilled their difficult duty.

Fast news today

Patriotic stories. Children of war. Valya Kotik

Valya Kotik (or Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik) was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka (Ukraine) into a peasant family. By the beginning of the war, he had just entered the sixth grade, but from the first days he began to fight the occupiers. In the fall of 1941, together with his comrades, he killed the head of the field gendarmerie near the city of Shepetovka, throwing a grenade at the car in which he was driving. Since 1942, he took an active part in the partisan movement in Ukraine. At first he was a liaison for the Shepetovsky underground organization, then he took part in battles.

When the Germans occupied the Shepetovsky district, Valya Kotik was only 11 years old. The official biography states that he immediately took part in collecting ammunition and weapons, which were then sent to the front. Together with his friends, Valya collected weapons abandoned at the site of clashes, which were transported to the partisans in carts of hay. The young hero also independently made and posted caricatures of fascists around the city.

In 1942, he was accepted into the ranks of the Shepetivka underground organization as an intelligence officer. Further, his military biography was supplemented by participation in the exploits of a partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev (1943). In October of the same year, Valya Kotik accomplished his first high-profile feat - he managed to discover an underground telephone cable at the German command headquarters, which was then successfully blown up by partisans.

The courageous pioneer also has other feats to his credit - the successful bombing of six warehouses and railway trains, as well as numerous ambushes in which he took part. Valya Kotik’s responsibilities included obtaining information about the location of German posts and the order of changing their guards.

The young hero accomplished another feat that saved the lives of many of his adult comrades on October 29, 1943. That day, the guy was standing at his post when suddenly he was attacked by Hitler’s punitive forces. The boy managed to shoot an enemy officer, and thereby raise the alarm. This made it possible to prevent the partisans from being taken by surprise.

For his heroism, courage and repeated feats, pioneer Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the Order of Lenin, as well as the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree.

On February 16, 1944, the 14-year-old hero was mortally wounded in the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav Kamenets-Podolsky. He died the next day, February 17, and was buried in the central park of Shepetivka.

According to another version of Valya Kotik’s biography from a direct participant in the battles for the city of Izyaslav, WWII veteran Murashov, the boy was first non-fatally wounded, in the shoulder. The narrator's brother (who was with him on the mission) dragged him to the nearby Gorinya valley and bandaged him. On the second day, during the evacuation of the wounded to the partisan hospital in Strigani, the carts carrying Kotik were subjected to German bombardment. The young hero received mortal wounds from which he died on the way.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 1958, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

During the Soviet years, every schoolchild knew about this brave pioneer and his exploits. Numerous streets, both in Russia and Ukraine, pioneer squads, detachments and camps were named after the courageous guy. A monument to Valya Kotik was erected in front of the school where he studied, another monument stood at VDNKh. One motor ship was also named after him.

The biography of the pioneer Valya Kotko formed the basis of a feature film about Valya Kotko, released in 1957 under the title “Eaglet”. The film tells about the struggle of the young pioneer Vali with the fascist invaders who occupied his hometown. The boy helps his partisan detachment spy on the enemy and obtain weapons. One day, finding himself surrounded by Nazis, a schoolboy accomplishes a feat by blowing himself up with a grenade.

One of the most famous child heroes of the Great Patriotic War is Valya Kotik. The feat (a brief summary of his biography and military activities is the subject of this review) of this boy is probably known to every schoolchild. This work provides a description of his life and participation in battles in the partisan detachment. His personality became an example of the courage and heroism of the Soviet people shown during the years of the German invasion of our Motherland. The child's fate was all the more tragic because he died at the age of fourteen, however, despite his young age, he did a lot to liberate his native city, for which he was awarded the highest military award.

Childhood

In 1930, Valya Kotik was born into the family of an employee. The feat (a summary of which will be described below) of this boy was of great importance not only in a practical, but also in an ideological sense, since his actions became an example to follow. He was the youngest in the family and was in the sixth grade at the time of the enemy invasion.

At first, the child began to pay attention to fascist posts and distribute propaganda leaflets calling for a fight against the invaders. Thus, the schoolboy attracted the attention of the leader of a local underground organization, who settled in his house. At first, the little hero of the big war, Valya Kotik, mistook him for an enemy spy and traitor, but after learning the truth, he became a member of his group. They began to give him small assignments: to monitor German officers, to obtain and guard weapons. The capable child showed courage, quickness and ingenuity, so that he began to be given more responsible and serious assignments.

Participation in the partisan movement

The boy quickly learned how to handle weapons and explosives. He was able to mine the roads and highways along which patrols passed. One day, a child noticed the head of the local gendarmerie in a passing car, who was driving to his hometown of Shepetivka. The student threw a grenade and the car exploded.

Thus, Valya Kotik made a great contribution to the liberation of the city. The boy’s feat (a brief summary of his military biography reflects the tragic fate of many child partisans) is that he combined physical dexterity with ideological conviction, thanks to which he did not leave his detachment even at a time when he was offered to cross to safe areas of the country.

1942-1944

At first, the student served as a liaison in an underground group, but soon began to participate in battles. An important stage in his military biography was the transition to the command of Lieutenant Muzalev, who headed the occupied territories. The teenager actively fought on the side of the Red Army and was wounded twice.

In 1943, Valya Kotik interrupted Warsaw’s connection with the main German headquarters. The feat, a brief summary of which allows us only to approximately judge the significance of this step, facilitated the actions of the members of the underground organization in the liberation of the conquered territory. The boy also took part in undermining German trains. In addition to his powers of observation and skillful organizational skills, he also proved himself to be an excellent patrolman. One day, he, alone from the entire group of partisans, noticed an impending raid on his comrades and raised the alarm in time, thus saving all the people.

Death

Valya Kotik, a feat whose biography is compulsorily studied in all Soviet schools, fought on Ukrainian territory. As mentioned above, he was offered to move to a safer area, but he did not want to leave his home unit. He took part in the liberation operation to lift the occupation from the city of Izyaslav. According to one version, the boy was sent on reconnaissance, noticed a German patrol, raised the alarm, but was mortally wounded, after which he quickly died. Some scientists believe that the young hero's wound was minor, but he died due to shelling during the evacuation. He was buried in his hometown. Many streets in Russian cities are named after him, as well as pioneer camps, schools, and squads. Several monuments have been erected to him, including in the capital of our country. A number of films are dedicated to his life.

Confession

Among the many partisans who made a significant contribution to the victory, Valya Kotik, a pioneer hero, stands out. Heroes of Russia and the USSR have always received the highest awards and orders. So the boy initially received partisan medals, and in 1958 he was awarded the country's main honorary title. As mentioned above, a film was made about him.

According to the plot of the film, the character, a young schoolboy, sacrifices his life by blowing himself up with a grenade so as not to be captured by the enemy. It is significant that many young fighters became famous after their tragic death. In this series, Kotik occupies an honorable place, as he carried out a number of actions of strategic importance. The destruction of the connection with the headquarters was a step whose significance went beyond local success. Therefore, in school history lessons, attention should be paid to the importance of his underground activities in the liberation of Ukraine from German occupation.

On February 11, 1930, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik (Valya Kotik) was born - a young partisan scout of the Karmelyuk partisan detachment operating in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kamenets-Podolsk region of the Ukrainian SSR; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union.

You don’t choose times, says the well-known wisdom. Some people experience a childhood with pioneer camps and collecting waste paper, others with game consoles and accounts on social networks.

The generation of children of the 1930s suffered a cruel and terrible war, which took away relatives, loved ones, friends and childhood itself. And instead of children's toys, the most persistent and courageous took rifles and machine guns into their hands. They took it to take revenge on the enemy and fight for the Motherland.

War is not a child's business. But when she comes to your house, the usual ideas change radically.

In 1933, writer Arkady Gaidar wrote “The Tale of the Military Secret, the Boy-Kibalchish and his firm word.” This work by Gaidar, written eight years before the start of the Great Patriotic War, was destined to become a symbol of memory of all the young heroes who died in the fight against the Nazi invaders.

Valya Kotik, like all Soviet boys and girls, of course, heard the fairy tale about Malchish-Kibalchish. But he hardly thought that he would have to be in the place of the brave hero Gaidar.

Valya Kotik was born on February 11, 1930 in Ukraine, in the village of Khmelevka, Kamenets-Podolsk region, into a peasant family.

Valya had an ordinary childhood as a boy of that time, with the usual pranks, secrets, and sometimes bad grades. Everything changed in June 1941, when war broke into the life of sixth-grader Valya Kotik.

The rapid Hitlerite blitzkrieg of the summer of 1941, and now Valya, who by that time lived in the city of Shepetivka, together with his family was already in the occupied territory.

The victorious power of the Wehrmacht instilled fear in many adults, but did not frighten Valya, who, together with his friends, decided to fight the Nazis. To begin with, they began to collect and hide weapons that remained at the sites of battles that raged around Shepetivka. Then they grew bolder to the point that they began to steal machine guns from unwary Nazis.

And in the fall of 1941, a desperate boy committed real sabotage - setting up an ambush near the road, he used a grenade to blow up a car with Nazis, killing several soldiers and the commander of a field gendarmerie detachment.

The underground members learned about Valya's affairs. It was almost impossible to stop the desperate boy, and then he was involved in underground work. He was tasked with collecting information about the German garrison, posting leaflets, and acting as a liaison.

For the time being, the nimble boy did not arouse suspicion among the Nazis. However, the more successful actions became on the account of the underground, the more carefully the Nazis began to look for their assistants among the local residents.

In the summer of 1943, the threat of arrest hung over Valya’s family, and he, along with his mother and brother, went into the forest, becoming a fighter in the Karmelyuk partisan detachment.

The command tried to take care of the 13-year-old boy, but he was eager to fight. In addition, Valya showed himself to be a skilled intelligence officer and a person capable of finding a way out of the most difficult situation.

In October 1943, Valya, who was on a partisan patrol, ran into punitive forces preparing to attack the base of a partisan detachment. They tied up the boy, but, deciding that he did not pose a threat and could not provide valuable intelligence, they left him under guard right there, on the edge of the forest.

Valya himself was wounded, but managed to get to the hut of the forester who was helping the partisans. After recovery, he continued to fight in the detachment.

Valya participated in the undermining of six enemy echelons, the destruction of the Nazi strategic communications cable, as well as in a number of other successful actions, for which he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree.”

On February 11, 1944, Valya turned 14 years old. The front was rapidly moving to the West, and the partisans helped the regular army as best they could. Shepetovka, where Valya lived, had already been liberated, but the detachment moved on, preparing for its last operation - the assault on the city of Izyaslav.

After it, the detachment had to be disbanded, the adults had to join the regular units, and Valya had to return to school.

The battle for Izyaslav on February 16, 1944 turned out to be hot, but it was already ending in favor of the partisans when Valya was seriously wounded by a stray bullet.

Soviet troops rushed into the city to help the partisans. The wounded Valya was urgently sent to the rear, to the hospital. However, the wound turned out to be fatal - on February 17, 1944, Valya Kotik died.

Valya was buried in the village of Khorovets. At the request of his mother, the son’s ashes were transferred to the city of Shepetivka and reburied in the city park.

A large country that survived a terrible war could not immediately appreciate the exploits of all those who fought for its freedom and independence. But over time, everything fell into place.

For his heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1958, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In history, he never became Valentin, remaining simply Valya. The youngest Hero of the Soviet Union.

His name, like the names of other pioneer heroes, whose feats were told to Soviet schoolchildren in the post-war period, was subjected to defamation and mockery in the post-Soviet period.

But time puts everything in its place. A feat is a feat, and betrayal is betrayal. Valya Kotik, in a difficult time of testing for the Motherland, turned out to be more courageous than many adults, who to this day are looking for justification for their cowardice and cowardice.

Eternal memory to him!

Soviet children, pioneers and others, who fought along with adults for the freedom of our country, who died in the fight against the enemy, who lived to see the Victory - they are all in the Immortal Regiment of a thousand years of Russian history.

Soviet ideology was too rigid and sometimes too intrusive. But what was most harmful about it was that some facts were either made up or embellished. And in the case of the pioneer children, much was also unclear, but the children of the Soviet Union needed an example, they needed a guideline of honor and conscience, courage and bravery. And that is the only reason why children of the war years were especially celebrated. Nowadays, with our humanity and tolerance, people are increasingly reading old stories or stories about such heroes with disapproval. “You have to fight like that at the age of 14!!! Can't be!!!" - you can hear indignant exclamations. Yes, today's children are hardly capable of feats for the sake of their Motherland. But there was this Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik (Valya Kotik).

He was born in Ukraine on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk (from 1954 to the present - Khmelnitsky) region of Ukraine in the family of an employee, in the very country where today they hate everything that he loved. He actually fought there and was mortally wounded there. By the way, he was buried there in the city of Shepetovka. Now everything Soviet there is being destroyed, so it is quite possible that his grave will be razed to the ground. So, Kotik was the youngest of those who were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Receiving such a title at the age of 14 is very honorable. But he didn’t see it himself; the award was given posthumously. So what is this award for? Can you imagine that a boy, together with the partisans, could kill the head of the gendarmerie? He did this by throwing a grenade at the head's car. Further, the boy was a liaison in the Shepetovsky underground organization (oh, how he would be cursed now!), and participated in battles. It was he who deprived Hitler’s headquarters of communication with Warsaw by completely accidentally discovering an underground telephone cable. And he also took part in the bombing of trains with military equipment and blew up warehouses.

In Soviet times, his feat, which he accomplished in the fall of 1943, was especially celebrated. Then, while on patrol, he noticed punitive forces who were clearly heading towards the partisans. And now attention: Valya Kotik not only raised the alarm, but killed an officer, causing a fuss. The partisans naturally came to his aid and repulsed the enemy. In this case, everything seems a little far-fetched: the boy unmistakably chose the officer from the entire squad and killed him. By the way, from what? He couldn't run up to him and shoot? Did the guy really have a sniper rifle?

Awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union (June 27, 1958);
• The order of Lenin;
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree;
• Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree.

Memory

• Streets were named after Valya Kotik (in the cities of Bor, Donetsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Kyiv, Krivoy Rog, Korosten, Nizhny Novgorod, Onatskovtsy, Rovno, Starokonstantinov, Shepetovka), pioneer squads, schools (in Yekaterinburg), a motor ship, pioneer camps (in Tobolsk, Berdsk and Nizhny Novgorod).
• In 1957, the film “Eaglet”, dedicated to Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei, was shot at the Odessa Film Studio.
• Monuments to the hero were erected:
  • in Moscow in 1960, on the territory of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (now the All-Russian Exhibition Center) at the entrance to pavilion No. 8, a bust was installed (sculptor N. Kongisern);
  • in Shepetovka in 1960 (sculptors L. Skiba, P. Flit, I. Samotos);
  • in the city of Bor;
  • in the village of Yagodnoye near Togliatti, the territory of the former pioneer camp “Scarlet Sails”;
  • in Simferopol on the Alley of Heroes in the Children's Park.
• In Tashkent, before the collapse of the USSR, there was a park named after Vali Kotik; after the declaration of independence of Uzbekistan, it was renamed the Zafar Diyor Park.
• He was the prototype for the character in the Russian-Japanese-Canadian animated fantasy film “The First Squad”.