In Belarus there was a newspaper "Zorka", which was looking for veterans of the Great Patriotic War associated with Belarus: either by birth, or fought in these places. A battalion of Belarusian eaglets was created. Alexander Ilyich Livintsev was appointed commander of this battalion.
Every holiday in the newspaper "Dawn" there was a note that the young pathfinders were looking for participants in the war, and more and more new people were enrolled in the battalion. In 1972, when the Belarusian pioneer organization was celebrating 50 years, we were all gathered in Minsk. That's how we met.
Here are the names of eight partisans who carried out dangerous assignments, some paid with their lives. Low bow and eternal memory!
Marat Kazei.
Born in the village of Stankovo, Dzerzhinsky District in 1929. Participated in sabotage on railways and highways.
In 1944 he died.
Marat Kazei
Zina Portnova.
In 1944 they were executed.
Zina Portnova
Tikhon Baran
He repeated the feat of Ivan Susanin: he led the Germans into the swamps. Killed in 1944.
Tikhon Baran
Valya Donchik.
At the age of 9 he joined the partisans. He remained alive, after the war he was the editor of the newspaper "Znamya Yunosti"
Valya Donchik
Marat Gurlo.
The Germans grabbed Marat at home and threw him in jail. One of the adults noticed that the bars on the windows were such that a boy could climb through them, and they pushed him through. He managed to climb down a sheer wall from the third floor down, fled, remained alive. This was in 1943. After the war, he worked as a shop manager at an electronic machine factory.
Yura Zhdanko.
At the age of 10 he joined the partisans. Dressed as a beggar, he walked with a bag on his shoulders, begging for alms. Thus, the little "beggar" collected information about the location and number of enemy garrisons. In 1944 he was wounded. After the hospital, the boy was sent to study. He worked as a gas and electric welder.
Yura Zhdanko
Vitya Curly.
Although his last name is Curly, he is completely bald. Here's what amazing case. The Germans shot him - the bullet hit the eye, went through the head, came out from behind, but he remained alive. There was a confluence of favorable circumstances. He, like all those who were shot, was thrown into a pit. That evening, a woman passed by this place, she heard groans from under the ground. I dug up the ground and pulled the boy out. This woman was associated with the underground. She dragged him to the detachment and on the same night the detachment received a plane from Moscow. Vitya was sent by plane. An operation was performed in Moscow, and he survived.
Vitya Curly
Vitya Pashkevich is a legendary person. In order to be taken to a sabotage school, he attributed to himself an extra 2 years. He wrote that he was born in 1927. He and a detachment were thrown into Transcarpathia, where he was a partisan.
In Borisovka, near Minsk, there was a whole group of underground pioneers, they studied at the same school, in the same pioneer detachment, and together they played dirty tricks on the Nazis. Boys - there are boys: somewhere there were combat missions, somewhere purely hooligan. For example, they attached the inscription "Traitor" to the back of the chief of police. And he walked down the street for several hours, not noticing anything.
The guys managed to destroy the petrol storage of the Borisov airfield. The Germans used this airfield to refuel their aircraft. Local underground workers tried to destroy it, but they did not succeed. Then the guys, there were four of them: three boys and one girl, organized a football match on the field near the gas depot. Played for several days. The Germans began to come out, watch and cheer for the teams. And then the unsuccessfully launched ball hit the territory of the gas storage. The guys ran up to the soldier - the guard, began to ask him to return the ball to them. He took it out and threw it back. The children continued to play. After some time, the ball flew there again, this was repeated two or three times, until the guard got tired and said to Vitya: “Go on your own!”. This is what was required! Viti had a magnetic mine in his pocket. He ran after the ball. While running, he fell, the ball rolled further, to the gas tanks. The Germans laughed, and the boy disappeared for a moment, took out a mine from his pocket, put the fuse into firing position and stuck the mine to the tank. Grabbing the ball, he returned to the guys, the game continued. And at night there was an explosion and all the tanks flew into the air. The Germans turned on the searchlights, rummaged through the sky, looking for the plane, but found no one.
When the war ended, he became a professor of political science, taught at the University of Uzhgorod.
Vitya Pashkevich
Volodya Shcherbatsevich was the first underground. One of the first was hanged in 1941. In 1976, he was awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" posthumously.
Volodya Shcherbatsevich
Prepared by Tatyana Aleshina
"The boys left - overcoats on their shoulders,
The boys left - bravely sang songs,
The boys retreated on the dusty steppes,
The boys were dying, where - they themselves did not know ...
The boys ended up in terrible barracks,
Fierce dogs chased the boys.
Boys were killed for escaping on the spot,
The boys did not sell conscience and honor ...
The boys did not want to succumb to fear,
The boys rose on the whistle to attack.
In the black smoke of battles, on the sloping armor
The boys were leaving, clutching their guns.
The boys have seen - brave soldiers -
Volga - in the forty-first,
Spree - in the forty-fifth,
The boys showed for four years,
Who are the boys of our people."I. Karpov
Pupil of the N-th regiment Sasha Morozov
Alyosha Yablokov, Red Army volunteer, member of the Komsomol horse guard corps Belov.
06/29/1942
Nakhimov Petya Parovov, born in 1928, Guards Sergeant.
One of the first to break into Nazi-occupied Novgorod
Guards junior sergeant Gennady Vecherenko.
12 years. Medals "For Courage" and "For Military Merit"
Alexander Alexandrovich Ryabov from the Ryazan region, machine gunner of the 26th Guards Tank Brigade of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps.Born on August 28, 1926 in the village of Fedyaevo, Sasovsky district, Ryazan province (now Shatsky district, Ryazan region) in a peasant family. After graduating from 5 classes of school, he worked on a collective farm.
At the end of 1943, he was drafted into the army by the Kaverinsky district military registration and enlistment office, from June 1944 - in the battles of the Great Patriotic War.
During the liberation of Belarus, being a submachine gunner of a motorized battalion of the 26th tank brigade (2nd guards tank corps, 3rd Belorussian Front), in the village of Zadrovye (Orsha district) on June 26 destroyed 37 enemy soldiers and officers, took nine prisoners. In the area of the village of Pasyrevo (Kruglyansky district), being on the armor of a tank, he shot a convoy of Germans from a machine gun on the move, was the first to break into a concentration camp and, together with other fighters, neutralizing the guards, freed about 200 people from captivity.
On June 30, 1944, during the liberation of the Borisov region (Minsk region), A. A. Ryabov, as part of a tank assault, crossed the burning bridge over the Berezina River near the village of Chernyavka, personally destroyed an enemy machine-gun crew. With the support of artillery, the landing force drove the enemy out of locality, which contributed to the capture of the crossing and the prevention of the explosion of the bridge. With a further offensive, the tank landing was the first to enter Minsk and occupied the railway station, which made it impossible for the enemy to retreat by rail.
In March 1945, Ryabov was awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.
After the end of the war, Sergeant A. A. Ryabov served in the aviation unit in Yaroslavl. After demobilization, he returned to work as a mechanic, then as a farm manager in Fedyaevo, Shatsk district. Later he moved to Rostov-on-Don, where he worked as an electric welder at a car repair plant. In 1957 he joined the CPSU.
"Vitya Pashkevich is a legendary person.In order to be taken to a sabotage school, he attributed to himself an extra 2 years. He wrote that he was born in 1927. He and a detachment were thrown into Transcarpathia, where he was a partisan.
In Borisovka, near Minsk, there was a whole group of underground pioneers, they studied at the same school, in the same pioneer detachment, and together they played dirty tricks on the Nazis. Boys - there are boys: somewhere there were combat missions, somewhere purely hooligan. For example, they attached the inscription "Traitor" to the back of the chief of police. And he walked down the street for several hours, not noticing anything.The guys managed to destroy the petrol storage of the Borisov airfield. The Germans used this airfield to refuel their aircraft. Local underground workers tried to destroy it, but they did not succeed. Then the guys, there were four of them: three boys and one girl, organized a football match on the field near the gas depot. Played for several days. The Germans began to come out, watch and cheer for the teams. And then the unsuccessfully launched ball hit the territory of the gas storage. The guys ran up to the soldier - the guard, began to ask him to return the ball to them. He took it out and threw it back. The children continued to play. After some time, the ball flew there again, this was repeated two or three times, until the guard got tired and said to Vitya: “Go on your own!”. This is what was required! Viti had a magnetic mine in his pocket. He ran after the ball. While running, he fell, the ball rolled further, to the gas tanks. The Germans laughed, and the boy disappeared for a moment, took out a mine from his pocket, put the fuse into firing position and stuck the mine to the tank. Grabbing the ball, he returned to the guys, the game continued. And at night there was an explosion and all the tanks flew into the air. The Germans turned on the searchlights, rummaged through the sky, looking for the plane, but found no one.
When the war ended, he became a professor of political science, taught at the University of Uzhgorod.
Pupil of the N-th regiment F. Polikarpov
Kolya Khristichenko. Sniper. 1929 year of birth. There is an error with the date in the award.
On International Children's Day, we publish a story about a simple Soviet boy - Yura Zhdanko, who showed courage and heroism worthy of the memory of generations.
Yura - in a city flooded with the blood of people who only yesterday smiled, scolded him for pranks. The Germans shot my sister, my mother was lost. He, the boy, would play war, and here she is - face to face. How much Yuri Zhdanko had to go through these days is unknown. And is there any way to measure it? He only became an adult at ten.
Scouts of the 332nd Rifle Ivanovo Division named after M.V. Frunze picked up Yura. And he went to war as a soldier.
On the banks of the Dvina, the soldiers stopped in indecision: no crossing, no bridge. "Not knowing the ford ..." - as the Russian proverb says. And then the black-haired boy, taking a confident step, said: "Follow me, I know the ford." This was their introduction. More than once, when experienced scouts could not get through, a boy went into reconnaissance.
Yura also faced another difficult test. Behind enemy lines it was necessary to blow up the bridge. The operation was a success, but the older comrade with whom he was wounded. I don’t know if every adult would have had so much strength and courage: to drag a heavy, almost lifeless body across the front line. But the boy had these powers.
They accepted Yuri into the Komsomol at the age of eleven. Komsomol ticket No. 17445061 is now kept in Minsk at the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin presented Yuri Zhdanko with the medal "For Courage".
During the Great Patriotic War, a whole army of boys and girls acted against the Nazi invaders. Only in occupied Belarus, at least 74,500 boys and girls, boys and girls fought ...
During Great Patriotic War a whole army of boys and girls acted against the Nazi invaders. In occupied Belarus alone, at least 74,500 boys and girls, boys and girls fought in partisan detachments. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia says that during the Great Patriotic War, more than 35 thousand pioneers - young defenders of the Motherland - were awarded military orders and medals.
It was amazing" traffic"! The boys and girls did not wait until they will call» adults – began to act from the first days of the occupation. They risked death!
Similarly, many others began to act at their own peril and risk. Someone found leaflets scattered from airplanes and distributed them in their regional center or village. The Polotsk boy Lenya Kosach collected 45 rifles, 2 light machine guns, several baskets of cartridges and grenades at the battlefields and safely hid it all; an opportunity presented itself - he handed it over to the partisans. In the same way, hundreds of other guys created arsenals for the partisans. Twelve-year-old excellent student Lyuba Morozova, knowing a little German, studied " special propaganda" among the enemies, telling them how well she lived before the war without " new order» occupiers. The soldiers often told her that she red to the bone”, and advised to hold your tongue until it ended badly for her. Later, Lyuba became a partisan. Eleven-year-old Tolya Korneev stole a pistol with cartridges from a German officer and began to look for people who would help him reach the partisans. In the summer of 1942, the boy succeeded in this, meeting his classmate Olya Demes, who by that time was already a member of one of the detachments. And when the older guys brought 9-year-old Zhora Yuzov to the detachment, and the commander jokingly asked: “ And who will babysit this little one?”, the boy, in addition to the pistol, laid out four grenades in front of him:“ That's who will babysit me!».
Serezha Roslenko For 13 years, in addition to collecting weapons, he conducted reconnaissance at his own peril and risk: there is someone to pass on information to! And found. From somewhere, the children also had the concept of conspiracy. sixth grader Vitya Pashkevich in the fall of 1941, in Borisov, occupied by the Nazis, he organized a kind of Krasnodon " Young Guard". He and his team took out weapons and ammunition from enemy warehouses, helped the underground organize escapes of prisoners of war from concentration camps, burned the enemy warehouse with uniforms with thermite incendiary grenades ...
Experienced Scout
In January 1942, one of the partisan detachments operating in the Ponizovsky district Smolensk region, was surrounded by the Nazis. The Germans, pretty battered during the counteroffensive Soviet troops near Moscow, they did not dare to immediately liquidate the detachment. They did not have accurate intelligence about its numbers, so they were waiting for reinforcements. However, the ring was held tight. The partisans puzzled over how to get out of the encirclement. Food was running out. And the detachment commander asked for help from the command of the Red Army. In response, a cipher came over the radio, in which it was reported that the troops would not be able to help with active actions, but an experienced scout would be sent to the detachment.
And indeed, at the appointed time, the noise of the engines of an air transport was heard over the forest, and a few minutes later a paratrooper landed in the location of the encircled. The partisans, who received the heavenly messenger, were quite surprised when they saw in front of them ... a boy.
Are you an experienced scout? the commander asked.
- I. And what, it doesn’t look like it? - The boy was in a uniform army pea coat, wadded pants and a hat with earflaps with an asterisk. Red Army man!
– How old are you? - the commander still could not recover from surprise.
“It will soon be eleven!” - importantly replied " experienced scout».
The boy's name was Yura Zhdanko . He was originally from Vitebsk. In July 1941, the ubiquitous urchin and expert on local territories showed the retreating Soviet part a ford across the Western Dvina. He could no longer return home - while he acted as a guide, Hitler's armored vehicles entered his hometown. And the scouts who were instructed to escort the boy back took him with them. So he was enrolled as a pupil of the motor reconnaissance company of the 332nd Infantry Division of Ivanovo. M.F. Frunze.
At first, he was not involved in business, but, by nature, observant, big-eyed and memory, he quickly learned the basics of front-line raid science and even dared to give advice to adults. And his abilities were appreciated. He was sent to the front line. In the villages, he, disguised, begged for alms with a bag over his shoulders, collecting information about the location and number of enemy garrisons. He managed to participate in the mining of a strategically important bridge. During the explosion, a Red Army miner was wounded, and Yura, having provided first aid, brought him to the location of the unit. Why did you get your first Medal of Honor" .
... The best scout to help the partisans, it seems, really could not be found.
“But you, kid, didn’t jump with a parachute ...” the head of intelligence said contritely.
- Jumped twice! Yura objected loudly. - I begged the sergeant ... he quietly taught me ...
Everyone knew that this sergeant and Yura were inseparable, and he could, of course, follow the regiment's favorite. The Li-2 engines were already roaring, the plane was ready to take off, when the boy admitted that, of course, he had never jumped with a parachute:
- The sergeant did not allow me, I only helped lay the dome. Show me how and what to pull!
- Why did you lie? the instructor shouted at him. - He slandered the sergeant.
- I thought you would check ... But they wouldn’t check: the sergeant was killed ...
Arriving safely in the detachment, ten-year-old Vitebsk resident Yura Zhdanko did what adults could not do ... He was dressed in everything village, and soon the boy made his way into the hut where the German officer who was in charge of the encirclement was quartered. The Nazi lived in the house of a certain grandfather Vlas. A young scout came to him under the guise of a grandson from the regional center, who was given a rather difficult task - to get documents from an enemy officer with plans for the destruction of the encircled detachment. Opportunity fell only a few days later. The Nazi left the house light, leaving the key to the safe in his overcoat ... So the documents ended up in the detachment. And at the same time, Yury brought grandfather Vlas, convincing him that it was impossible to stay in such a situation in the house.
In 1943, Yura led a regular battalion of the Red Army out of encirclement. All the scouts sent to find " the corridor” for comrades, perished. The task was entrusted to Yura. One. And he found weakness in the enemy ring... Became an order bearer of the Red Star.
Yuri Ivanovich Zhdanko , recalling his military childhood, said that he " played in real war, did what adults could not, and there were a lot of situations when they could not do something, but I could».
Fourteen-year-old POW rescuer
14-year-old Minsk underground worker Volodya Shcherbatsevich was one of the first teenagers to be executed by the Germans for participating in the underground. They captured his execution on film and then distributed these shots throughout the city - as a warning to others ...
From the first days of the occupation of the Belarusian capital, mother and son Shcherbatsevich hid Soviet commanders in their apartment, for whom the underground from time to time organized escapes from the prisoner of war camp. Olga Fyodorovna was a doctor and provided medical assistance to the released, dressed in civilian clothes, which, together with her son Volodya, collected from relatives and friends. Several groups of the rescued have already been withdrawn from the city. But once on the way, already outside the city blocks, one of the groups fell into the clutches of the Gestapo. Issued by a traitor, the son and mother ended up in Nazi dungeons. Withstood all torture.
And on October 26, 1941, the first gallows appeared in Minsk. On this day, for the last time, surrounded by a pack of submachine gunners, Volodya Shcherbatsevich also walked through the streets of his native city ... The pedantic punishers captured a report of his execution on film. And perhaps we see on it the first young hero who gave his life for the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.
Die but take revenge
Here is another amazing example of youthful heroism from 1941...
Village of Osintorf. On one of the August days, the Nazis, together with their henchmen from local residents- burgomaster, clerk and chief policeman - raped and brutally killed a young teacher Anya Lyutova. By that time, a youth underground was already operating in the village under the leadership of Slava Shmuglevsky. The guys got together and decided: “ Death to traitors!» Slava himself volunteered to execute the sentence, as well as teenage brothers Misha and Zhenya Telenchenko, thirteen and fifteen years old.
By that time, they already had a machine gun found in the battlefields hidden away. They acted simply and directly, in a boyish way. The brothers took advantage of the fact that the mother went to her relatives that day and had to return only in the morning. The machine gun was installed on the balcony of the apartment and began to wait for the traitors, who often passed by. Didn't count. When they approached, Slava started shooting at them almost point-blank. But one of the criminals - the burgomaster - managed to escape. He reported by telephone to Orsha that the settlement had been attacked by a large partisan detachment(a machine gun is a serious thing). Cars with punishers rushed by. With the help of bloodhounds, the weapon was quickly found: Misha and Zhenya, not having time to find a more reliable hiding place, hid the machine gun in the attic of their own house. Both were arrested. The boys were tortured most severely and for a long time, but not one of them betrayed Slava Shmuglevsky and other underground workers to the enemy. The Telenchenko brothers were executed in October.
Great conspirator
Pavlik Titov for his eleven he was a great conspirator. He partisans for more than two years in such a way that even his parents did not know about it. Many episodes of his combat biography remained unknown. Here is what is known. First, Pavlik and his comrades rescued the wounded Soviet commander, burned in a burned-out tank - they found a reliable shelter for him, and at night they brought him food, water, and some medicinal decoctions according to grandmother's recipes. Thanks to the boys, the tanker quickly recovered.
In July 1942, Pavlik and his friends handed over to the partisans several rifles and machine guns with cartridges they had found. Tasks followed. The young scout penetrated the location of the Nazis, conducted calculations of manpower and equipment.
He was generally a slick kid. Once he brought a bale with a fascist uniform to the partisans:
- I think it will come in handy for you ... Not to wear it yourself, of course ...
- And where did you get it?
- Yes, the Fritz were swimming ...
More than once, dressed in the uniform obtained by the boy, the partisans carried out daring raids and operations. The boy died in the autumn of 1943. Not in combat. The Germans carried out another punitive operation. Pavlik and his parents hid in a dugout. The punishers shot the whole family - father, mother, Pavlik himself and even his little sister. He was buried in mass grave in Surazh, not far from Vitebsk.
Zina Portnova
Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova in June 1941 she came with her younger sister Galya to summer vacation to my grandmother in the village of Zui (Shumilinsky district of Vitebsk region). She was fifteen ... At first she got a job as an auxiliary worker in the canteen for German officers. And soon, together with her friend, she carried out a daring operation - she poisoned more than a hundred Nazis. She could have been caught immediately, but they began to follow her. By that time, she was already associated with the Obol underground organization " young avengers". In order to avoid failure, Zina was transferred to a partisan detachment.
Somehow she was instructed to reconnoiter the number and type of troops in the Obol region. Another time - to clarify the reasons for the failure in the Obolsk underground and establish new connections ... After completing the next task, she was seized by punishers. They tortured me for a long time. During one of the interrogations, the girl, as soon as the investigator turned away, grabbed a pistol from the table, with which he had just threatened her, and shot him dead. She jumped out the window, shot down a sentry and rushed to the Dvina. Another sentry rushed after her. Zina, hiding behind a bush, wanted to destroy him too, but the weapon misfired ...
Then she was no longer interrogated, but methodically tortured, mocked. Eyes gouged out, ears cut off. They drove needles under the nails, twisted their arms and legs ... On January 13, 1944, Zina Portnova was shot.
"Kid" and his sisters
From the report of the Vitebsk underground city party committee in 1942: “ Baby”(he is 12 years old), having learned that the partisans need gun oil, without a task, on his own initiative, he brought 2 liters of gun oil from the city. Then he was instructed to deliver for sabotage purposes sulfuric acid. He also brought it. And carried in a bag, behind his back. The acid spilled, his shirt burned through, his back burned, but he did not throw the acid away.
« Toddler" was Alyosha Vyalov , which enjoyed special sympathy among the local partisans. And he acted as part of a family group. When the war began, he was 11, his older sisters Vasilisa and Anya were 16 and 14, the rest of the children were small and small. Alyosha and his sisters were very resourceful. They set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times, prepared the explosion of the labor exchange in order to confuse the registration of the population and save young people and other residents from being stolen into " german paradise”, they blew up the passport office in the police premises ... There are dozens of sabotage on their account. And this is in addition to the fact that they were connected, distributed leaflets ...
« Baby"and Vasilisa died shortly after the war from tuberculosis ... A rare case: a memorial plaque was installed on the Vyalovs' house in Vitebsk. These children would have a monument made of gold! ..
Meanwhile, it is known about another Vitebsk family - Lynchenko . 11-year-old Kolya, 9-year-old Dina and 7-year-old Emma were liaisons to their mother, Natalya Fedorovna, whose apartment served as a turnout. In 1943, as a result of the failure, the Gestapo broke into the house. The mother was beaten in front of the children, shot over her head, demanding to name the members of the group. They also mocked the children, asking them who came to their mother, where she herself went. They tried to bribe little Emma with chocolate. The children didn't say anything. Moreover, during a search in the apartment, having seized the moment, Dina took out ciphers from under the board of the table, where there was one of the caches, and hid them under her dress, and when the punishers left, having taken away her mother, she burned them. The children were left in the house as a bait, but those, knowing that the house was being watched, managed to warn the messengers going to the failed turnout with signs ...
Prize for the head of a young saboteur
For the head of an Orsha schoolgirl Oli Demes the Nazis promised a round sum. About this in his memoirs " From the Dnieper to the Bug”said the Hero of the Soviet Union, former commander of the 8th partisan brigade, Colonel Sergey Zhunin. A 13-year-old girl at the Orsha-Central station blew up fuel tanks. Sometimes she acted with her twelve-year-old sister Lida. Zhunin recalled how Olya was instructed before the assignment: “ It is necessary to put a mine under a tank of gasoline. Remember, only under the tank with gasoline!» – « I know how it smells of kerosene, I cooked it myself on kerosene gas, but gasoline ... let me at least smell it". Many trains accumulated at the node, dozens of tanks, and you find " the very one". Olya and Lida crawled under the trains, sniffing: this one or not this one? Gasoline or not gasoline? Then they threw pebbles and determined by the sound: empty or full? And only then they hitched a magnetic mine. The fire destroyed a huge number of wagons with equipment, food, uniforms, fodder, and steam locomotives burned down ...
The Germans managed to capture Olya's mother and sister, they were shot; but Olya remained elusive. For ten months of his participation in the brigade " Chekist"(from June 7, 1942 to April 10, 1943) she showed herself not only as a fearless intelligence officer, but also derailed seven enemy echelons, participated in the defeat of several military and police garrisons, had on her personal account 20 destroyed enemy soldiers and officers . And then she was also a participant rail war».
Eleven-year-old saboteur
Vitya Sitnitsa . How he wanted to partisan! But for two years from the beginning of the war remained " only» as a conductor of partisan sabotage groups passing through his village Kuritichi. However, he learned something from the partisan guides during their short breaks. In August 1943, together with his older brother, he was accepted into a partisan detachment. I was assigned to the economic platoon. Then he said that it was unfair to peel potatoes and take out slops with his ability to lay mines. Moreover, the “rail war” is in full swing. And they began to take him on combat missions. The boy personally derailed 9 echelons with manpower and military equipment of the enemy.
In the spring of 1944, Vitya fell ill with rheumatism and was released to his relatives for medicine. In the village he was seized by the Nazis dressed as Red Army soldiers. The boy was brutally tortured.
Little Susanin
He began his war with the Nazi invaders at the age of 9. Already in the summer of 1941, in the house of his parents in the village of Bayki in the Brest region, the regional anti-fascist committee equipped a secret printing house. They issued leaflets with summaries of the Sovinformburo. Tikhon Baran helped distribute them. For two years, the young underground worker was engaged in this activity. The Nazis managed to get on the trail of the printers. The printing press was destroyed. Tikhon's mother and sisters hid with relatives, and he himself went to the partisans. Once, when he was visiting his relatives, the Germans raided the village. The mother was taken to Germany, and the boy was beaten. He became very ill and stayed in the village.
Local historians dated his feat on January 22, 1944. On this day, punishers appeared again in the village. For communication with the partisans, all residents were shot. The village was burned. " And you, - they said to Tikhon, - show us the way to the partisans". It is difficult to say whether the village boy had heard anything about the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin, who led the Polish interventionists into a swampy swamp more than three centuries before, only Tikhon Baran showed the Nazis the same road. They killed him, but not all of them got out of that quagmire themselves.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia says that during the war more than 35,000 pioneers were awarded military decorations. Someone - posthumously, and someone still remembers his terrible childhood in combat. In the last issue we started talking about such heroes. We continue.
Olya Demesh
When Olya Demes first came to the partisans and asked to join the detachment, she was refused - she was too small. But Olga did not give up. Together with her friend Tolik Korneev, she tried her best to prevent the Germans. Either the tires of the cars will be punctured, or some muck will be thrown into the food, and then, when they managed to steal weapons from the German aviators, they again tried to join the ranks of the partisans. This time they accepted.
At first, Olya was not taken on combat missions. She helped care for the wounded and cook. Later, the guerrillas taught her how to handle magnetic mines. And one day she was called to the commander. Long asked about hometown Orsha and about acquaintances, and then asked if she would be afraid to go there on a mission. And that's all she wanted. She was given a new name - Maria Bolotnikova. They cut her hair so that the Germans thought she was ill with typhus, gave her a basket of groceries in her hand and sent her to Orsha.
Often on assignments, Olya was helped by her younger sister Lida. She lived in the city with her mother and 5-year-old brother Borey. Olya and Lida came to the station to "look for food", and they themselves tried to get closer to the tanks with aviation gasoline in order to catch the moment and set a mine. Zhunin, the commander of the partisan brigade, recalled how Olya was instructed before the first task: “It is necessary to put a mine under a tank of gasoline. Remember, only under the tank with gasoline! - “I know how kerosene smells, I cooked it myself on kerosene gas, but gasoline ... Let me at least smell it.”
Many trains accumulated at the node, dozens of tanks, and you find the very one. Olya and Lida crawled under the trains, sniffed: gasoline or not gasoline? Then they threw pebbles and determined by the sound: empty or full. And only then they hitched a magnetic mine. The fire destroyed a huge number of wagons with equipment, food, uniforms, and steam locomotives burned down.
13-year-old Lida often took a basket and went to the railway tracks to collect coal, obtaining intelligence about German military trains. If she was stopped by sentries, she explained that she was collecting coal to heat the room in which the Germans lived. Little Lida passed on the information she obtained to her older sister, who passed it on to the partisans.
Once Lida carried a letter from a partisan and did not return. She was seized by the Gestapo, tortured, but the girl endured all the torment and did not betray anyone. Later, Olya's mother was also arrested. The Germans accused her of being a partisan liaison and shot her.
Olya continued to fearlessly carry out the tasks of the partisans. For the head of a young intelligence officer, the Nazis promised a generous reward - land plot, a cow and 10 thousand marks. Her photos were everywhere. Capture her alive - that was the order. But the girl could not be caught.
From June 7, 1942 to April 10, 1943, as part of the partisan detachment No. 15 of the Chekist brigade of the Mogilev region and from April 10, 1943 to July 30, 1944, in detachment No. 15 of the brigade No. 8 of the Brest region, Olya showed herself not only fearless scout, but also derailed seven enemy echelons, participated in the defeat of several military-police garrisons, destroyed twenty German soldiers and officers, conducted reconnaissance, participated in the "rail war" and in the destruction of German punitive detachments.
For active participation in the fight against the Nazi invaders, Olga Demesh was awarded the Order of Glory III degree and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" I degree.
Lenya Golikov
Lenya was born on June 17, 1926 in the village of Lukino, Novgorod Region, into a working-class family. At the beginning of the war, he got a rifle and went to the partisans. Thin, small in stature, at 14 he looked even younger. Under the guise of a beggar, he walked around the villages and collected data on enemy troops and the amount of enemy military equipment.
Once, together with his peers, he picked up several rifles from the battlefield and stole two boxes of grenades from the Germans. All this they handed over to the partisans.
Leonid Golikov personally participated in 27 military operations. In total, he accounted for 78 killed Germans. He destroyed two railway and 12 highway bridges, two food and fodder depots and ten vehicles with ammunition.
On August 15, 1942, Lenya Golikov crashed a car in which he was German general. In this operation, the boy obtained important documents describing new types of German mines, inspection reports to the higher command, and other valuable intelligence data. For this feat, he was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In January 1943, when the partisan brigade moved to a new area of operations, Lenya and his comrades stopped for a halt in the village of Ostraya Luka, where, according to a denunciation, they were attacked by enemies a couple of hours later. German punishers surrounded the place of deployment of the partisans. In that battle, the entire headquarters of the 4th partisan brigade was killed. Lenya was among the fallen.
Leonid was buried in a mass grave in the village of Ostraya Luka.
For valor and courage, the young hero was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the medal "For Courage" and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 2nd degree.
Yura Zhdanko
Belarusian 10-year-old boy Yura Zhdanko got into the partisans by accident. In July 1941, he, who knows every centimeter native land, showed the retreating Soviet part of the ford across the Western Dvina. However, he was not destined to be home again - while Yurka was guiding the soldiers across the river, his native Vitebsk was filled with Nazi armored vehicles. Seeing this, the scouts who escorted the boy back took him with them. So Yuri Zhdanko became a pupil of the motor reconnaissance company of the 332nd Infantry Ivanovo Division.
Yurka quickly learned the basics of front-line raid science and even dared to give advice to adults. He was sent to the front line. In villages and hamlets, under the guise of a vagabond beggar with a bag over his shoulders, he asked for alms, and he himself collected information about enemy garrisons. He managed to participate in the mining of a strategically important bridge. During the explosion, the Red Army miner was wounded, and Yura, having provided first aid, brought him to the location of the unit. For which he received his first medal "For Courage".
In January 1942, a partisan detachment in the Smolensk region was taken by the Germans into a tight ring. The Nazis were cautious, having no data on the size of the detachment, they were waiting for reinforcements. The forces of the partisans were running out, food was running out. The detachment commander asked for help from the command of the Red Army. In an encrypted response, they said on the radio that they could only help by sending them an experienced intelligence officer to the detachment.
At the time appointed in the message, a parachutist landed on the ground from an air transporter. The partisans who received the heavenly messenger were discouraged: they were sent a boy.
Are you an experienced scout? - asked the commander.
- I. And what, it doesn't look like it?
- How old are you? - the commander could not recover from surprise.
- Soon it will be eleven!
Having figured out everything and dressing the boy in village rags, they sent him to the hut of a certain grandfather Vlas, where the German officer who was in charge of the environment lodged. A young scout came there under the guise of a grandson from the regional center. He was supposed to get documents with plans for the destruction of the encircled detachment. The boy waited several days for an opportunity. And finally, when the Nazi left the house, leaving the key to the safe, the boy pulled out the key and took out the papers. So the documents ended up in the detachment.
Yura Zhdanko performed many feats. He also participated in undermining a strategically important bridge: for a whole week he carried fish and schnapps to guards, looking out for machine-gun points, a convenient approach for demolitions. He took out important documents from the encircled battalion. Right on the front line, under fire, I picked up a three-year-old girl. She was handed over to the orphanage under the name Zhdanko.
In 1943, Yura led a regular battalion of the Red Army out of encirclement. All the scouts sent to find the "corridor" for their comrades died. The task was entrusted to Yura. One. And he found a weak spot in the enemy ring. Became an order bearer of the Red Star.
Yuri became one of the few child heroes who managed to celebrate Victory Day.
Valya Kotik
Born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Kamenetz-Podolsk region (Ukraine). By the beginning of the war, he was in the sixth grade. While in the occupied territory, he began an active fight against the enemies: from collecting ammunition at the battlefields, drawing and pasting caricatures of Nazi soldiers. The boy received his first combat mission at the age of 11. Together with peers in the fall of 1941, Valentin threw a grenade into a car with German gendarmes. The head of the field gendarmerie was killed.
Already since 1942, Valya Kotik took part in the partisan movement in Ukraine. At first he was a liaison of an underground organization, and then he took part in battles with the invaders. In August 1943, in the detachment. Karmelyuka was wounded twice. But already in October 1943, Valentine, despite being seriously injured, discovered an underground telephone cable that provided communication between the invaders and Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw. The cable was undermined, the connection stopped.
On February 16, 1944, in the battle for the city of Izyaslav, Khmelnitsky region, the 14-year-old hero was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the park of the Ukrainian city of Shepetovka.
For heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders Kotik Valentin Alexandrovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" of the II degree. Valentin Kotik became the most young hero Soviet Union. And he died for the liberation of his native lands from the enemy people.
We will continue to tellabout "little big heroes"
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