Marat Kazei Pioneer hero Marat Kazei was born in 1929 into a family of ardent Bolsheviks. They named him such an unusual name in honor of the seagoing vessel of the same name, where his father served...

Marat Kazei

Pioneer hero Marat Kazei was born in 1929 into a family of ardent Bolsheviks. They named him with such an unusual name in honor of the seagoing vessel of the same name, where his father served for 10 years.

Soon after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Marat’s mother began to actively help the partisans in the capital of Belarus; she sheltered wounded soldiers and helped them recover for further battles. But the Nazis found out about this and hanged the woman.

Soon after the death of his mother, Marat Kazei and his sister joined a partisan detachment, where the boy began to be listed as a scout. Brave and flexible, Marat often easily made his way into Nazi military units and brought important information. In addition, the pioneer participated in organizing many acts of sabotage at German targets.

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

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

A significant feat was accomplished by Marat Kazei in the spring of 1943, when the Nazis surrounded a partisan detachment near one of the Belarusian villages. The teenager got out of the ring of enemies and led the Red Army soldiers to help the partisans. The Nazis were dispersed, the Soviet soldiers were saved.

Recognizing the teenager’s considerable merits in military battles, open combat and as a saboteur, at the end of 1943 Marat Kazei was awarded three times: two medals and an order.

Marat Kazei met his heroic death on May 11, 1944. The pioneer and his friend were walking back from reconnaissance, and suddenly they were surrounded by the Nazis. Kazei’s partner was shot by the enemies, and the teenager blew himself up with the last grenade so that he could not be captured. There is an alternative opinion among historians that the young hero wanted to prevent it so much that if the Nazis recognized him, they would severely punish the inhabitants of the entire village where he lived. The third opinion is that the young man decided to deal with this and take with him several Nazis who came too close to him.

In 1965, Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to the young hero was erected in the capital of Belarus, depicting the scene of his heroic death. Many streets throughout the USSR were named after the young man. In addition, a children's camp was organized, where students were brought up by the example of the young hero, and they were instilled with the same ardent and selfless love for the Motherland. He also bore the name "Marat Kazei".

Valya Kotik

Pioneer hero Valentin Kotik was born in 1930 in Ukraine, into a peasant family. When the Great Patriotic War began, the boy had only completed five years of schooling. During his studies, Valya showed himself to be a sociable, intelligent student, a good organizer and a born leader.

When the Nazis captured Vali Kotik’s hometown, he was only 11 years old. Historians claim that the pioneer immediately began helping adults collect ammunition and weapons, which were sent to the line of fire. Valya and his comrades picked up pistols and machine guns from the sites of military clashes and secretly handed them over to the partisans in the forest. In addition, Kotik himself drew caricatures of the Nazis and hung them up in the city.

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

Valya Kotik also blew up fascist warehouses and trains and was ambushed many times. While still a young hero, he found out information about Nazi posts for the partisans.

In the fall of 1943, the boy again saved the lives of many partisans. While standing on duty, he was attacked. Valya Kotik killed one of the Nazis and reported the danger to his comrades.

For his many exploits, pioneer hero Valya Kotik was awarded two orders and a medal.

There are two versions of the death of Valentin Kotik. The first is that he died at the beginning of 1944 (February 16) in a battle for one of the Ukrainian cities. The second is that the relatively lightly wounded Valentin was sent on a convoy to the rear after the fighting, and this convoy was bombed by the Nazis.

During the Soviet era, all students knew the name of the brave teenager, as well as all his achievements. A monument to Valentin Kotik was erected in Moscow.

Volodya Dubinin

Pioneer hero Volodya Dubinin was born in 1927. His father was a sailor and a former Red partisan. Already from a young age, Volodya demonstrated a lively mind, quick wit and dexterity. He read a lot, took photographs, and made aircraft models. Father Nikifor Semenovich often told his children about his heroic partisan past and the formation of Soviet power.

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

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

Since the partisans did not sit silently in the quarries after the Nazis captured Old Quarantine, but organized all sorts of sabotage for them, the Nazis staged a blockade of the catacombs. They sealed all the exits from the quarries, filling them with cement, and it was at this moment that Volodya and his comrades did a lot for the partisans.

The boys penetrated narrow crevices and reconnoitered the situation in Old Quarantine captured by the Germans. Volodya Dubinin was the smallest in build and one day he was the only one left who could get to the surface. At this time, his comrades helped as best they could, diverting the attention of the fascists from those places where Volodya was getting out. Then they were active in another place so that Volodya could return back to the catacombs just as unnoticed in the evening.

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

In the winter of 1941, the Nazis decided to put an end to the partisans in the quarries near Old Karantin once and for all by flooding them with water. Volodya Dubinin, who went on reconnaissance duty, found out about this in time and promptly warned the underground fighters about the insidious plan of the fascists. In order to

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

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

At the time of his death, Volodya Dubinin was 14 years old. This happened after the New Year of 1942. On the orders of the partisan commander, he went to the Adzhimushkai quarries to establish contact with them. On the road, he met Soviet military units that liberated Kerch from the fascist invaders.

All that remained was to rescue the partisans from the quarries, defusing the minefield that the Nazis had left behind. Volodya became a guide for the sappers. But one of them made a fatal mistake and the boy, along with four soldiers, was blown up by a mine. They were buried in a common grave in the city of Kerch. And posthumously, the pioneer hero Volodya Dubinin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Zina Portnova

Zina Portnova performed several feats and acts of sabotage against the Nazis, being a member of the underground organization in the city of Vitebsk. The inhuman torment that she had to endure from the Nazis is forever in the hearts of her descendants and many years later fills us with sorrow.

Zina Portnova was born in 1926 in Leningrad. Before the war began, she was an ordinary girl. In the summer of 1941, she and her sister went to visit her grandmother in the Vitebsk region. After the start of the war, German invaders almost immediately came to this area. The girls were unable to return to their parents and stayed with their grandmother.

Almost immediately after the start of the war, many underground cells and partisan detachments were organized in the Vitebsk region to fight the fascists. Zina Portnova became a member of the Young Avengers group. Their leader Efrosinya Zenkova was seventeen years old. Zina turned 15.

Zina’s most significant feat is the case of poisoning more than a hundred fascists. The girl managed to do this while performing the duties of a kitchen worker. She was suspected of this sabotage, but she herself ate the poisoned soup and they abandoned her. She herself miraculously remained alive after this; her grandmother treated her with the help of medicinal herbs.

Upon completion of this matter, Zina went to the partisans. Here I became a Komsomol member. But in the summer of 1943, a traitor revealed the Vitebsk underground, 30 young people were executed. Only a few managed to escape. The partisans instructed Zina to contact the survivors. However, she failed, she was recognized and arrested.

The Nazis already knew that Zina was also part of the Young Avengers, they just didn’t know that it was she who poisoned the German officers. They tried to “split” her so that she would betray those members of the underground who managed to escape. But Zina stood her ground and actively resisted. During one of the interrogations, she snatched a Mauser from a German and shot three fascists. But she couldn’t escape - she was wounded in the leg. Zina Portnova could not kill herself - it was a misfire.

After this, the angry fascists began to brutally torture the girl. They poked Zina's eyes out, stuck needles under her nails, and burned her with hot irons. She just dreamed of dying. After another torture, she threw herself under a passing car, but the German monsters saved her to continue the torture.

In the winter of 1944, Zina Portnova, exhausted, crippled, blind and completely gray-haired, was finally shot in the square along with other Komsomol members. Only fifteen years later this story became known to the world and Soviet citizens.

In 1958, Zina Portnova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.

Alexander Chekalin

Sasha Chekalin accomplished several feats and died heroically at the age of sixteen. He was born in the spring of 1925 in the Tula region. Following the example of his father, a hunter, Alexander was able to shoot very accurately and navigate the terrain at his age.

At the age of fourteen, Sasha was accepted into the Komsomol. By the beginning of the war, he graduated from the eighth grade. A month after the Nazi attack, the front became close to the Tula region. Father and son Chekalin immediately joined the partisans.

In the early days, the young partisan showed himself to be a smart and brave fighter; he successfully obtained information about important secrets of the Nazis. Sasha also trained as a radio operator and successfully connected his detachment with other partisans. The young Komsomol member also organizes very effective sabotage of the Nazis on the railway. Chekalin often sits in ambushes, punishes defectors, and undermines enemy posts.

At the end of 1941, Alexander became seriously ill with a cold, and in order for him to receive treatment, the partisan command sent him to a teacher in one of the villages. But when Sasha got to the designated place, it turned out that the teacher was arrested by the Nazis and taken to another locality. Then the young man climbed into the house where they lived with their parents. But the traitorous elder tracked him down and informed the Nazis about his arrival.

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

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

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

Lenya Golikov

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

In 1941, Leni’s native village was captured by the Nazis. Having seen enough of their atrocities, the teenager voluntarily joined the partisans after the liberation of his native land. At first they didn’t want to take him because of his young age (15 years old), but his former teacher vouched for him.

In the spring of 1942, Golikov became a full-time partisan intelligence officer. He acted very smartly and courageously, and had twenty-seven successful military operations to his credit.

The most important achievement of the pioneer hero came in August 1942, when he and another intelligence officer blew up a Nazi car and captured documents that were very important for the partisans.

In the last month of 1942, the Nazis began to pursue the partisans with redoubled force. January 1943 turned out to be especially difficult for them. The detachment in which Lenya Golikov served, about twenty people, took refuge in the village of Ostraya Luka. We decided to pass the night quietly. But a local traitor betrayed the partisans.

One hundred and fifty Nazis attacked the partisans at night, they bravely entered the battle, and only six escaped the ring of punitive forces. Only at the end of the month did they reach their own people and tell them that their comrades had died heroes in an unequal battle. Among them was Lenya Golikov.

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

On February 11, 1930, Valya Kotik was born - the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union, a young partisan intelligence officer. Along with him, many children performed exploits during the war. We decided to remember a few more pioneer heroes of World War II

Valya Kotik

1. Valya Kotik was born into a peasant family in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district in the Kamenets-Podolsk region of Ukraine. This territory was occupied by German troops. When the war began, Valya had just entered the sixth grade. However, he accomplished many feats. At first, he worked to collect weapons and ammunition, drew and posted caricatures of the Nazis. Then the teenager was entrusted with more meaningful work. The boy's record includes work as a messenger in an underground organization, several battles in which he was wounded twice, and a break in the telephone cable through which the invaders communicated with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw. In addition, Valya blew up six railway trains and a warehouse, and in October 1943, while on patrol, he threw grenades at an enemy tank, killed a German officer and warned the detachment in time about the attack, thereby saving the lives of the soldiers. The boy was mortally wounded in the battle for the city of Izyaslav on February 16, 1944. 14 years later he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree.

Peter Klypa

2. When the war began, Petya Klypa was fifteen years old. On June 21, 1941, Petya, together with his friend Kolya Novikov, a boy a year or a year and a half older than him, who was also a student in the music production plant, watched a movie in the Brest Fortress. It was especially crowded there. In the evening, Petya decided not to return home, but to spend the night in the barracks with Kolya, and the next morning the boys were going to go fishing. They did not yet know that they would wake up amid roaring explosions, seeing blood and death around them... The assault on the fortress began on June 22 at three o'clock in the morning. Petya, who jumped out of bed, was thrown against the wall by the explosion. He hit himself hard and lost consciousness. Having come to his senses, the boy immediately grabbed the rifle. He coped with his anxiety and helped his older comrades in everything. During the following days of defense, Petya went on reconnaissance missions, carrying ammunition and medical supplies for the wounded. All the time, risking his life, Petya carried out difficult and dangerous tasks, participated in battles and at the same time was always cheerful, cheerful, constantly humming some kind of song, and the very sight of this daring, cheerful boy raised the spirit of the fighters and added strength to them. What can we say: from childhood he chose a military vocation for himself, looking at his older brother-lieutenant, and wanted to become the commander of the Red Army (from the book “Brest Fortress” by S.S. Smirnov - 1965). By 1941, Petya had already served for several years in the army as a graduate of the regiment and during this time became a real military man.
When the situation in the fortress became hopeless, they decided to send children and women into captivity to try to save them. When Petya was told about this, the boy was outraged. “Am I not a Red Army soldier?” he asked the commander indignantly. Later, Petya and his comrades managed to swim across the river and break through the German ring. He was taken prisoner, and even there Petya was able to distinguish himself. The guys were assigned to a large column of prisoners of war, which was being led across the Bug under strong escort. They were filmed by a group of German cameramen for military chronicles. Suddenly, all black with dust and gunpowder soot, a half-naked and bloodied boy, walking in the first row of the column, raised his fist and threatened directly at the camera lens. It must be said that this act seriously infuriated the Germans. The boy was almost killed. But he remained alive and lived for a long time.
It’s hard to wrap my head around it, but the young hero was imprisoned for not informing on a comrade who committed a crime. He spent seven of his required 25 years in Kolyma.

Vilor Chekmak

3. Partisan resistance fighter Vilor Chekmak had just finished 8th grade at the beginning of the war. The boy had a congenital heart disease, despite this, he went to war. A 15-year-old teenager saved the Sevastopol partisan detachment at the cost of his life. On November 10, 1941, he was on patrol. The guy noticed the approach of the enemy. Having warned the squad about the danger, he alone took the battle. Vilor fired back, and when the cartridges ran out, he allowed the enemies to approach him and blew himself up along with the Nazis with a grenade. He was buried in the cemetery of WWII veterans in the village of Dergachi near Sevastopol. After the war, Vilor’s birthday became the Day of Young Defenders of Sevastopol.

Arkady Kamanin

4. Arkady Kamanin was the youngest pilot of World War II. He started flying when he was only 14 years old. This is not at all surprising, given that before the boy’s eyes was the example of his father - the famous pilot and military leader N.P. Kamanin. Arkady was born in the Far East, and subsequently fought on several fronts: Kalinin - from March 1943; 1st Ukrainian - from June 1943; 2nd Ukrainian - from September 1944. The boy flew to division headquarters, to regimental command posts, and delivered food to the partisans. The teenager was given his first award at the age of 15 - it was the Order of the Red Star. Arkady saved the pilot who crashed an Il-2 attack aircraft in no man's land. Later he was also awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The boy died at the age of 18 from meningitis. During his, albeit short, life, he flew more than 650 missions and logged 283 hours of flight time.

Lenya Golikov

5. Another young Hero of the Soviet Union - Lenya Golikov - was born in the Novgorod region. When the war came, he graduated from seven classes. Leonid was a scout of the 67th detachment of the fourth Leningrad partisan brigade. He participated in 27 combat operations. Leni Golikov killed 78 Germans, he destroyed 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, 2 food and feed warehouses and 10 vehicles with ammunition. In addition, he was accompanying a food convoy that was being transported to besieged Leningrad.
The feat of Leni Golikov in August 1942 is especially famous. On the 13th, he was returning from reconnaissance from the Luga-Pskov highway, not far from the village of Varnitsa, Strugokrasnensky district. The boy threw a grenade and blew up a car with German Engineering Major General Richard von Wirtz. The young Hero died in battle on January 24, 1943.

Volodya Dubinin

6. Volodya Dubinin died at the age of 15. The pioneer hero was a member of a partisan detachment in Kerch. Together with two other guys, he carried ammunition, water, food to the partisans, and went on reconnaissance missions.
In 1942, the boy volunteered to help his adult comrades - sappers. They cleared the approaches to the quarries. An explosion occurred - a mine exploded, and along with it one of the sappers and Volodya Dubinin. The boy was buried in the partisan grave. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
A city and streets in several localities were named after Volodya, a film was made and two books were written.

Marat with his sister Ariadna

7. Marat Kazei was 13 years old when his mother died, and he and his sister joined the partisan detachment. The Germans hanged my mother, Anna Kazei, in Minsk because she hid wounded partisans and treated them.
Marat's sister, Ariadne, had to be evacuated - the girl froze both legs when the partisan detachment left the encirclement, and they had to be amputated. However, the boy refused to be evacuated and remained in service. For courage and courage in battles, he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medals “For Courage” (wounded, raised the partisans to attack) and “For Military Merit.” The young partisan died when he was blown up by a grenade. The boy blew himself up so as not to surrender and not bring trouble to the residents of a nearby village.

Pioneer heroes.

I would like to present them all posthumously to the order,
those who said firmly as one:
We can give our lives for our Motherland,
- but we won’t give up our homeland for our lives!

Pioneer heroes - Soviet pioneers who accomplished feats during the formative years of Soviet power and the Great Patriotic War.

The images of pioneer heroes were actively used in Soviet propaganda as examples of high morality and morality. The official list of “pioneer heroes” was drawn up in 1954 with the compilation of the Book of Honor of the All-Union Pioneer Organization named after V. I. Lenin; Books of honor of local pioneer organizations joined it. However, some modern historians dispute a number of key facts in the official biographies of pioneer heroes.

Already in the first days of the war, while defending the Brest Fortress, a student of the musical platoon, 14-year-old Petya Klypa, distinguished himself. Many pioneers participated in partisan detachments, where they were often used as scouts and saboteurs, as well as in carrying out underground activities; Among the young partisans, Marat Kazei, Volodya Dubinin, Zhora Antonenko, Lenya Golikov and Valya Kotik are especially famous (all of them died in battle, except for Volodya Dubinin, who was blown up by a mine; and all of them, except for the older Lenya Golikov, were 13 at the time of their death -14 years old). There were often cases when school-age teenagers fought as part of military units (the so-called “sons and daughters of regiments” - the story “Son of the Regiment” by Valentin Kataev is known).

Young patriots often fought the enemy as part of partisan detachments. 15-year-old Vilor Chekmak saved the Sevastopol partisan detachment at the cost of his own life. Despite a bad heart and young age, Vilor went into the forest with the partisans in August 1941. On November 10, he was on patrol and was the first to notice the approach of a punitive detachment. With a rocket, Vilor warned the squad about the danger and alone took on the battle with numerous fascists. When he ran out of ammunition, Vilor let the enemies get closer and blew himself up along with the Nazis with a grenade. He was buried in the cemetery of WWII veterans in the village of Dergachi near Sevastopol.

The pioneers became cabin boys on warships; in the Soviet rear they worked in factories, replacing adults who had gone to the front, and also participated in civil defense.

As part of the Komsomol underground organization "Young Avengers", created at the Obol station in the Vitebsk region, pioneer Zina Portnova acted, who joined the ranks of the Komsomol underground, was executed by the Germans and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

For military services, tens of thousands of children and pioneers were awarded orders and medals:

The Order of Lenin was awarded - Tolya Shumov, Vitya Korobkov, Volodya Kaznacheev, Alexander Chekalin;

Order of the Red Banner - Volodya Dubinin, Yuliy Kantemirov, Andrey Makarikhin, Kostya Kravchuk; Arkady Kamanin.

Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class - Petya Klypa, Valery Volkov, Sasha Kovalev;

Order of the Red Star - Volodya Samorukha, Shura Efremov, Vanya Andrianov, Vitya Kovalenko, Lenya Ankinovich.

Hundreds of pioneers were awardedmedal “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War”, over 15,000 - medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" over 20,000 medal "For the Defense of Moscow".

Four pioneer heroes were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova. Golikov, the only one of all, was awarded the title directly during the war (04/02/1944), the rest after the end of the war.

Many young participants in the war died in battle or were executed by the Germans. A number of children were included in“Book of Honor of the All-Union Pioneer Organization named after. V.I. Lenin" and elevated to the rank of "pioneer heroes".

Valya Kotik.

Valya Kotik (Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik ; February 11, 1930 - February 17, 1944) - pioneer hero, young partisan reconnaissance, the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. At the time of his death he was14 years. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously. Born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk (from 1954 to the present - Khmelnitsky) region of Ukraine in a peasant family.

By the beginning of the war, he had just entered the sixth grade of school No. 4 in the city of Shepetivka, but from the first days of the war he began to fight the German 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 officer for the Shepetivka underground organization, then he took part in battles. Since August 1943 - in the partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk under the command of I. A. Muzalev, he was wounded twice. In October 1943, he discovered an underground telephone cable, which was soon undermined, and the connection between the invaders and Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw ceased. He also contributed to the destruction of six railway trains and a warehouse.

On October 29, 1943, while on patrol, I noticed punitive forces about to launch a raid on the detachment. Having killed the officer, he raised the alarm; Thanks to his actions, the partisans managed to repel the enemy.

In the battle for the city of Izyaslav on February 16, 1944, he was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the center of the park in the city of Shepetivka. In 1958, Valentin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Awards.

The order of Lenin;

Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree.

Zina Portnova.

Zinaida Martynovna (Zina) Portnova (February 20, 1926, Leningrad, USSR - January 10, 1944, Polotsk, BSSR, USSR) - Pioneer hero, Soviet underground fighter, partisan, member of the underground organization “Young Avengers”; scout of the partisan detachment named after K. E. Voroshilov on the territory of the Belarusian SSR occupied by the Nazis. Member of the Komsomol since 1943. Hero of the Soviet Union.

Born on February 20, 1926 in the city of Leningrad in a working-class family. Belarusian by nationality. Graduated from 7th grade.

At the beginning of June 1941, she came for school holidays to the village of Zui, near the Obol station, Shumilinsky district, Vitebsk region. After the Nazi invasion of the USSR, Zina Portnova found herself in occupied territory. Since 1942, a member of the Obol underground organization “Young Avengers,” whose leader was the future Hero of the Soviet Union E. S. Zenkova, a member of the organization’s committee. While underground she was accepted into the Komsomol.

She participated in the distribution of leaflets among the population and sabotage against the invaders. While working in the canteen of a retraining course for German officers, at the direction of the underground, she poisoned the food (more than a hundred officers died). During the proceedings, wanting to prove to the Germans that she was not involved, she tried the poisoned soup. Miraculously, she survived.

Since August 1943, scout of the partisan detachment named after. K. E. Voroshilova. In December 1943, returning from a mission to find out the reasons for the failure of the Young Avengers organization, she was captured in the village of Mostishche and identified by a certain Anna Khrapovitskaya. During one of the interrogations at the Gestapo in the village of Goryany (now Polotsk district, Vitebsk region of Belarus), she grabbed the investigator’s pistol from the table, shot him and two other Nazis, tried to escape, and was captured. The Germans brutally tortured the girl for more than a month; they wanted her to betray her comrades. But having taken an oath of allegiance to the Motherland, Zina kept it. On the morning of January 10, 1944, a gray-haired and blind girl was taken out to be executed. She was shot in the prison of Polotsk (according to another version, in the village of Goryany).

Awards .

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 1, 1958, Zinaida Martynovna Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin.

Memorial plaque in St. Petersburg. Zina Portnova Street.

Memorial plaque st. Zina Portnova, 60 St. Petersburg.

Lenya Golikov.

Leonid Aleksandrovich Golikov (known as Lenya Golikov; June 17, 1926, village of Lukino, Novgorod region - January 24, 1943, village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov region) - teenage partisan, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Born in the village of Lukino, now Parfinsky district, Novgorod region, into a working-class family.

Graduated from 7th grade. He worked at plywood factory No. 2 in the village of Parfino.

Brigade reconnaissance officer of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade, operating in the Novgorod and Pskov regions. Participated in 27 combat operations. He especially distinguished himself during the defeat of German garrisons in the villages of Aprosovo, Sosnitsy, and Sever.

In total, he destroyed: 78 Germans, 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, 2 food and fodder warehouses and 10 vehicles with ammunition. Accompanied a convoy with food (250 carts) to besieged Leningrad. For valor and courage he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, the medal “For Courage” and the Partisan of the Patriotic War medal, 2nd degree.

not far from the village of Varnitsa, Strugokrasnensky district, he used a grenade to blow up a passenger car in which there was a German major general of the engineering troops, Richard von Wirtz. The report from the detachment commander indicated that Golikov, in a shootout, shot the general, the officer accompanying him and the driver with a machine gun, but after that, in 1943-1944, General Wirtz commanded the 96th Infantry Division, and in 1945 he was captured by the American troops and died on December 9, 1963 in Germany. The intelligence officer delivered a briefcase with documents to the brigade headquarters. These included drawings and descriptions of new models of German mines, inspection reports to higher command and other important military papers. Nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On January 24, 1943, in an unequal battle in the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov Region, Leonid Golikov died.

Subsequently, he was included in the list of pioneer heroes, although by the beginning of the war he was already 15 years old.

For a long time it was believed that no photographs of Lenya Golikov had survived, and Lenya’s sister Lida posed for the portrait created by Viktor Fomin in 1958. But there is also a genuine photograph of the hero.

Awards.

Hero of the Soviet Union. The title was awarded posthumously by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of April 2, 1944.

The order of Lenin.

Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree.

Marat Kazei.

Marat Ivanovich Kazei (October 29, 1929, Stankovo ​​village, Dzerzhinsky district - May 11, 1944, Khoromitsky village, Uzdensky district, Minsk region) - pioneer hero, young partisan reconnaissance, Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

Father - Ivan Georgievich Kazei - a communist, activist, served for 10 years in the Baltic Fleet, then worked for MTS, headed tractor driver training courses, was the chairman of a comrades' court, was arrested in 1935 for “sabotage”, and rehabilitated posthumously in 1959.

Mother - Anna Aleksandrovna Kazei - was also an activist and was a member of the election commission for elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. She was also subjected to repression: she was arrested twice on charges of “Trotskyism”, but then released. Despite the arrests, she continued to actively support Soviet power. During the Great Patriotic War, she hid wounded partisans and treated them, for which she was hanged by the Germans in Minsk in 1942.

After the death of her mother, Marat and her older sister Ariadne went to the partisan detachment named after. 25th anniversary of October (November 1942).

When the partisan detachment was leaving the encirclement, Ariadne’s legs were frozen, and therefore she was flown to the mainland, where she had to have both legs amputated. Marat, as a minor, was also offered to evacuate along with his sister, but he refused and remained in the detachment.

Subsequently, Marat was a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade named after. K.K. Rokossovsky. In addition to reconnaissance, he participated in raids and sabotage. For courage and courage in battles he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medals “For Courage” (wounded, raised partisans to attack) and “For Military Merit”. Returning from reconnaissance, Marat and the reconnaissance commander of the brigade headquarters, Larin, arrived early in the morning in the village of Khoromitsky, where they had to meet with a liaison officer. The horses were tied behind the peasant's barn. Less than half an hour had passed when shots rang out. The village was surrounded by a chain of Germans. Larin was killed immediately. Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. He was seriously wounded. This happened in front of almost the entire village. While there were cartridges, he held the defense, and when the magazine was empty, he took one of the grenades hanging on his belt and threw it at the enemies. The Germans almost didn’t shoot; they wanted to take him alive. And with the second grenade, when they came very close, he blew himself up along with them.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded in 1965 - 21 years after his death.

Awards .

Medal "Golden Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union (05/08/1965);

Order of Lenin (05/08/1965);

Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree;

Medal of Honor"

Medal "For Military Merit".

Alexander Chekalin.

Alexander Pavlovich Chekalin (March 25, 1925 - November 6, 1941) - young partisan reconnaissance during the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1942, posthumously).

In 1941 he graduated from the 8th grade of high school in the city of Likhvin, Suvorovsky district, Tula region. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he volunteered to join a fighter detachment, and then, when the territory of the Tula region was partially occupied by German troops, he became a scout in the “Advanced” partisan detachment. At the beginning of November 1941, he was captured, tortured and hanged on November 6 in the city square of the city of Likhvin.

In 1944, the city of Likhvin was renamed Chekalin, and streets in many localities in Russia and states in the former USSR were named in his honor. Many literary works and the film “The Fifteenth Spring” (USSR, 1972) are dedicated to the feat of Komsomol member Alexander Chekalin.

Born on March 25, 1925 in the village of Peskovatskoye, now Suvorovsky district, Tula region, in the family of an employee. The son of a hunter, he learned to shoot accurately from an early age and knew the surrounding forests well. He played the mandolin and was interested in photography.

In 1932 he entered a rural school. In 1938, the family moved to the city of Likhvin, where mother Nadezhda Samoilovna was transferred to work in the district executive committee. In May 1941, Sasha graduated from the 8th grade of high school. Member of the Komsomol since 1939. At school, he was most interested in physics and natural history: he knew the Latin names of many meadow grasses and flowers. At the age of 15, he wore the “Voroshilov Shooter”, PVHO and GTO badges on his chest, and had a radio he had assembled with his own hands. His comrades nicknamed him restless, and in his family - Sasha the restless.

Awards.

Soviet state awards and titles:

In July 1941, Alexander Chekalin volunteered to join a fighter detachment, then, during the retreat of Soviet troops from the territory of the Tula region during the Tula defensive operation, he and his father joined the “Advanced” partisan detachment (commander - D. T. Teterichev; commissioner - P. S. Makeev), where he became a scout. He was involved in collecting intelligence information about the deployment and strength of German units, their weapons and movement routes. On equal terms with other members of the detachment, he participated in ambushes, mined roads, disrupted enemy communications and derailed echelons. The command of the detachment noted that “he had a special passion for weapons. I always tried to get an extra grenade, a rifle and more ammunition.” He also served as a radio operator.

Pioneer heroes in cinema .

Among the films made about pioneer heroes, the following films can be distinguished:

« "filmed in 1945. It tells the story of the young defenders of Donbass who fought against the occupiers during the Great Patriotic War.

« » filmed in 1957. Dedicated to the young partisan Valya Kotko (prototype of Hero of the Soviet Union).

« » filmed in 1962. A film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Lev Kassil and Max Polyanovsky, dedicated to the pioneer hero Volodya Dubinin.

« » filmed in 1964. At the site of the Kolchak train accident, the White Guards found a flag with the inscription “Wagtail Army” (that’s what street children, young participants in the civil war in Latvia called themselves).

« » filmed in 1970. It tells the story of the feat of young partisans in war-torn Belarus.

« » filmed in 1970 at Lenfilm. The pioneers help the security officers expose German agents in besieged Leningrad.

", or Mishka takes the fight" filmed in 1970 - pioneers from a camp captured by the Germans in the first days of the war help a Soviet tankman break through to his own.

« » filmed in 1972 at the Odessa Film Studio. Teenagers first rescue thoroughbred horses from a stud farm. And then they help those around them.

« » filmed in 1972. Dedicated to the feat of Sasha Chekalin, who shot a German officer.

« » filmed in 1973. It tells the story of the guys from the Ukrainian border town of Kamenets-Podolsk, who become witnesses and participants in the revolutionary battles for Soviet power. Based on the novel by Vladimir Belyaev.

« » filmed in 1974. Tells about the heroic deeds of a Leningrad partisan during World War II.

« » filmed in 1977. Tells about children of war. In 1943, teenagers from a village liberated from the Germans cleared a rye field and gave their fellow villagers the opportunity to harvest.

« » filmed in 1979. It tells the story of schoolchildren who, in the first post-war year, helped the police neutralize a group of dangerous criminals.

« » filmed in 1982. It tells the story of the “son of the regiment” Vova Didenko, a village boy who became a student of a reconnaissance platoon during the Great Patriotic War.» came out in 2009. A fantastic cartoon, not connected with any real events. Here the image of typical Pioneer Heroes who fight the order is played out.

Pioneer heroes in literature.

The biographies of Pioneer Heroes listed in works of fiction, as noted, appear and immediately come into wide use since the mid-1950s, although the first and most famous example of the genre was written somewhat earlier ( - O ). Candidate of Philological Sciences S. G. Leontyeva finds in the biographies of the “pioneer heroes” signs of a pattern in which she sees numerous intersections with Christian

literature, primarily in the details of his characteristics, description of his early childhood and martyrdom. The hero is certainly endowed with numerous virtues (both corresponding to universal human morality and specific Soviet ones); special emphasis is placed on doing well in school; He is typically a leader, leading and mentoring his peers; but at the same time, his “ordinariness” is emphasized, which should show that anyone can become a hero. The hero is distinguished by “high consciousness”; his feat is determined by his membership in the pioneer organization. On the other hand, the “childishness” of the hero is especially emphasized, which should give special significance to his actions worthy of an adult. In this regard, it can be noted that, for example, in the book by Yuri Korolkov represented by a little boy: “The officer looked back and saw a boy running after him. Very small. If they were placed side by side, the boy would barely reach his waist.” The sleeves of the jacket of the German general killed by Lenya hang below his knees, etc. Meanwhile, the events described took place in August g., that is, when Lena was 16 years old (born in G.)

Morphologically, S. G. Leontyeva identifies six plot types:

ideological victory of the hero over the enemy;

victory of the hero, accompanied by the elimination of the enemy;

the hero's victory is the revenge of the enemy's accomplices and the hero's death is the revenge of the hero's comrades;

the death of the hero is the revenge of the hero’s comrades;

destruction of the enemy by the hero on the second attempt;

destruction of the enemy by the hero on the second attempt - revenge of the enemy's accomplices and the death of the hero.

In the description of the hero’s martyrdom, naturalistic details of torture and torment are common, which, according to S. G. Leontyeva, was aimed at satisfying the audience’s age-related demand for “scary” and “bloody” plots (blocked in other genres of children’s literature of that time).

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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. 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. 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 punitive forces blocked their path again and again. 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. It happened that he himself showed 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.

3

4 14-year-old Minsk underground worker Volodya Shcherbatsevich was one of the first teenagers whom the Germans executed for participating in the underground. They captured his execution on film and then distributed these shots throughout the city - as a edification to others... Mother and son Shcherbatsevichs, from the first days of the occupation of the Belarusian capital, hid Soviet commanders in their apartment, for whom underground fighters from time to time arranged escapes from a prisoner of war camp. Olga Fedorovna was a doctor and provided medical assistance to the liberated people, dressing them in civilian clothes, which she and her son Volodya collected from relatives and friends. Several groups of rescued people have already been brought out of the city. But one day on the way, already outside the city blocks, one of the groups fell into the clutches of the Gestapo. Handed over by a traitor, the son and mother ended up in fascist dungeons. They withstood all the torture. And on October 26, 1941, the first gallows appeared in Minsk. On this day, for the last time, surrounded by a pack of machine gunners, Volodya Shcherbatsevich walked through the streets of his native city... The pedantic punishers captured the report of his execution on photographic film. And perhaps we see on it the first young hero who gave his life for his Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.

5 Pavlik Titov, for his eleven, was a great conspirator. He fought as a partisan for more than two years without even his parents knowing about it. Many episodes of his combat biography remained unknown. This is what is known. First, Pavlik and his comrades rescued a wounded Soviet commander who had been burned in a burnt tank - they found a reliable shelter for him, and at night they brought him food, water, and brewed some medicinal decoctions according to his 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. Missions followed. The young intelligence officer penetrated the Nazis' location and kept count of manpower and equipment. He was generally a cunning guy. One day he brought a bundle of fascist uniforms to the partisans: “I think it will be useful for you... Not to wear it yourself, of course...” “Where did you get it?” - Yes, the Krauts 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 fall of 1943. Not in battle. The Germans carried out another punitive operation. Pavlik and his parents were hiding in the dugout. The punishers shot the entire family - father, mother, Pavlik himself and even his little sister. He was buried in a mass grave in Surazh, near Vitebsk. Pavlik Titov

6 Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova in June 1941 came with her younger sister Galya for the summer holidays to her grandmother in the village of Zui (Shumilinsky district of the Vitebsk region). She was fifteen... First, she got a job as an auxiliary worker in a 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 captured right away, but they began to follow her. By that time, she was already connected with the Obol underground organization “Young Avengers”. In order to avoid failure, Zina was transferred to a partisan detachment. Once she was instructed to scout out the number and type of troops in the Oboli area. Another time - to clarify the reasons for the failure in the Obol underground and establish new connections... After completing the next task, she was captured by punitive forces. They tortured me for a long time. During one of the interrogations, the girl, as soon as the investigator turned away, grabbed the pistol from the table with which he had just threatened her and shot him. She jumped out the window, shot 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 and mocked. They gouged out their eyes and cut off their ears. They drove needles under her nails, twisted her arms and legs... On January 13, 1944, Zina Portnova was shot.

7 From the report of the Vitebsk underground city party committee in 1942: “Baby” (he is 12 years old), having learned that the partisans needed gun oil, without an assignment, on his own initiative, brought 2 liters of gun oil from the city. Then he was tasked with delivering sulfuric acid for sabotage purposes. He also brought it. And he carried it in a bag behind his back. The acid spilled, his shirt was burned, his back was burned, but he did not throw the acid. The “baby” was Alyosha Vyalov, who 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 a little younger. Alyosha and his sisters were very inventive. They set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times, prepared to blow up the labor exchange in order to confuse the population records and save young people and other residents from being taken to the “German paradise”, blew up the passport office in the police premises... They have dozens of acts of sabotage. And this is in addition to the fact that they were messengers, distributed leaflets... “Malysh” and Vasilisa died soon after the war from tuberculosis... A rare case: a memorial plaque was installed on the Vyalovs’ house in Vitebsk. These children should have a monument made of gold!..

8 He began his war against 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 reports from the Sovinforburo. Tikhon Baran helped distribute them. For two years the young underground worker was engaged in this activity. The Nazis managed to get on the trail of the printers. The printing house was destroyed. Tikhon’s mother and sisters hid with relatives, and he himself went to the partisans. One day, when he was visiting his relatives, the Germans came to the village. The mother was taken to Germany, and the boy was beaten. He became very ill and remained in the village. Local historians dated his feat to January 22, 1944. On this day, punitive forces appeared in the village again. All residents were shot for contacting the partisans. The village was burned. “And you,” they told Tikhon, “will 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 more than three centuries earlier had led the Polish interventionists into a swampy swamp; only Tikhon Baran showed the fascists the same road. They killed him, but not all of them got out of that quagmire.

Vitya Sitnitsa. How he wanted to be a partisan! But for two years from the beginning of the war he remained “only” a conductor of partisan sabotage groups passing through his village of Kuritichi. However, he learned something from the partisan guides during their short rests. In August 1943, he and his older brother were accepted into the partisan detachment. They were assigned to the economic platoon. Then he said that peeling potatoes and taking out slops with his ability to lay mines was unfair. Moreover, the “rail war” is in full swing. And they began to take him on combat missions. The boy personally derailed 9 echelons of enemy manpower and military equipment. In the spring of 1944, Vitya fell ill with rheumatism and was sent to his relatives for medicine. In the village, he was captured by Nazis dressed as Red Army soldiers. The boy was brutally tortured. 9

Marat Kazei was born on October 10, 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk region of Belarus. In November 1942 he joined the partisan detachment named after. 25th anniversary of October, then became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade named after. K.K. Rokossovsky. Marat went on reconnaissance missions, both alone and with a group. Participated in raids. He blew up the echelons. For the battle in January 1943, when, wounded, he roused his comrades to attack and made his way through the enemy ring, Marat received the medal “For Courage”. And in May 1944, Marat died. Returning from a mission together with the reconnaissance commander, they came across the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to leave in the open field, and there was no opportunity - Marat was seriously wounded. While there were cartridges, he held the defense, and when the magazine was empty, he picked up his last weapon - two grenades, which he did not remove from his belt. He threw one at the Germans, and left the second. When the Germans came very close, he blew himself up along with the enemies. In Minsk, a monument to Kazei was erected using funds raised by Belarusian pioneers. In 1958, an obelisk was erected at the grave of the young Hero in the village of Stankovo, Dzerzhinsky district, Minsk region. The state farm, streets, schools, pioneer squads and detachments of many schools of the Soviet Union, the ship of the Caspian Shipping Company were named after the pioneer hero Marat Kazei. 10

11 Valya Kotik. Young partisan scout of the Great Patriotic War in the Karmelyuk detachment, operating in temporarily occupied territory; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War, being in territory temporarily occupied by Nazi troops, Valya Kotik worked to collect weapons and ammunition, drew and pasted up caricatures of the Nazis. Valentin and his peers received their first combat mission in the fall of 1941. The guys lay down in the bushes near the Shepetovka-Slavuta highway. Hearing the noise of the engine, they froze. It was scary. But when the car with the fascist gendarmes caught up with them, Valya Kotik stood up and threw a grenade. The head of the field gendarmerie was killed.

12 Only in May Valya Zenkina turned 14 years old, she finished 7th grade, and in June the war began. Valya became one of those who were the first to experience the horrors of war. The girl participated in the defense of the Brest Fortress to the last and left there as a prisoner only by decision of the command. For her feat, Valya was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Valya Zenkina's father was the foreman of a musician platoon of the 33rd engineering regiment. The girl remembered the night before the attack for the rest of her life.

13 A minute of silence, like an oath of allegiance You won’t forget it, you won’t betray it And your memory brings you back to the family at the front and the cramped dugout And every word, and conversation, and laughter Simple conversations, as if in spirit And one big grief, but for everyone And songs a spring in the soldier's ear, And rare minutes of conversation with relatives, When all the words are like the last hello, The Holy Triangle flew along crooked paths, not hoping to come or not. And frequent moments of realization that life, What was just there and suddenly left And no matter how hard you try, don’t hold on to it Death somehow suddenly took it and found it. A minute of silence - memory and pain, And there is no cure for this disease. The damned vale cuts my soul, And unsung songs sound in my heart...