Twelve of several thousand examples of unparalleled childhood courage
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War- how many were there? If you count - how could it be otherwise?! - the hero of every boy and every girl whom fate brought to war and made soldiers, sailors or partisans, then tens, if not hundreds of thousands.

According to official data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) of Russia, during the war there were over 3,500 military personnel under the age of 16 in combat units. At the same time, it is clear that not every unit commander who risked raising a son of the regiment found the courage to declare his pupil on command. You can understand how their father-commanders, who actually served as fathers to many, tried to hide the age of the little fighters by looking at the confusion in the award documents. On yellowed archival sheets, the majority of underage military personnel clearly indicate an inflated age. The real one became clear much later, after ten or even forty years.

But there were also children and teenagers who fought in partisan detachments and were members of underground organizations! And there were much more of them: sometimes whole families joined the partisans, and if not, then almost every teenager who found himself on the occupied land had someone to avenge.

So “tens of thousands” is far from an exaggeration, but rather an understatement. And, apparently, we will never know the exact number of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War. But this is no reason not to remember them.

The boys walked from Brest to Berlin

The youngest of all known little soldiers - at least according to documents stored in military archives - can be considered a graduate of the 142nd Guards rifle regiment 47th Guards rifle division Sergei Aleshkin. IN archival documents you can find two certificates of award for a boy who was born in 1936 and ended up in the army on September 8, 1942, shortly after the punitive forces shot his mother and older brother for connections with the partisans. The first document, dated April 26, 1943, is about awarding him the medal “For Military Merit” due to the fact that “Comrade. ALESHKIN, the favorite of the regiment,” “with his cheerfulness, love for his unit and those around him, in extremely difficult moments, inspired cheerfulness and confidence in victory.” The second, dated November 19, 1945, is about awarding students of the Tula Suvorov Military School with the medal “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”: in the list of 13 Suvorov students, Aleshkin’s name comes first.

But still, such a young soldier is an exception even for wartime and for a country where the entire people, young and old, rose up to defend the Motherland. Most of the young heroes who fought at the front and behind enemy lines were on average 13–14 years old. The very first of them were defenders Brest Fortress, and one of the sons of the regiment is a holder of the Order of the Red Star, Order of Glory III degree and medals “For Courage” Vladimir Tarnovsky, who served in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th Infantry Division, left his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag in the victorious May 1945...

The youngest Heroes Soviet Union

These four names - Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik - have been the most famous symbol of the heroism of the young defenders of our Motherland for over half a century. Having fought in different places and having accomplished feats of different circumstances, they were all partisans and all were posthumously awarded the country's highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Two - Lena Golikov and Zina Portnova - were 17 years old by the time they showed unprecedented courage, two more - Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei - were only 14.

Lenya Golikov was the first of the four to receive the highest rank: the decree on the assignment was signed on April 2, 1944. The text says that Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union “for exemplary execution of command assignments and demonstrated courage and heroism in battle.” And indeed, in less than a year - from March 1942 to January 1943 - Lenya Golikov managed to take part in the defeat of three enemy garrisons, in the blowing up of more than a dozen bridges, in the capture of a German major general with secret documents... And died heroically in battle near the village of Ostray Luka, without waiting for a high reward for capturing the strategically important “tongue”.

Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik were awarded the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union 13 years after the Victory, in 1958. Zina was awarded for the courage with which she conducted underground work, then served as a liaison between the partisans and the underground, and ultimately endured inhuman torment, falling into the hands of the Nazis at the very beginning of 1944. Valya - based on the totality of his exploits in the ranks of the Shepetovka partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, where he came after a year of work in an underground organization in Shepetivka itself. And Marat Kazei received the highest award only in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory: the decree conferring on him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was promulgated on May 8, 1965. For almost two years - from November 1942 to May 1944 - Marat fought as part of the partisan formations of Belarus and died, blowing up both himself and the Nazis surrounding him with the last grenade.

Over the past half century, the circumstances of the exploits of the four heroes have become known throughout the country: more than one generation of Soviet schoolchildren has grown up on their example, and even today’s children are certainly told about them. But even among those who did not receive the highest award, there were many real heroes - pilots, sailors, snipers, scouts and even musicians.

Sniper Vasily Kurka

The war found Vasya a sixteen-year-old teenager. In the very first days he was mobilized to the labor front, and in October he achieved enrollment in the 726th Infantry Regiment of the 395th Infantry Division. At first, the boy of non-conscription age, who also looked a couple of years younger than his age, was left in the wagon train: they say, there is nothing for teenagers to do on the front line. But soon the guy achieved his goal and was transferred to a combat unit - to a sniper team.

Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum

Amazing military fate: from the first to last day Vasya Kurka fought in the same regiment of the same division! Made a good one military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant and taking command of a rifle platoon. He chalked up, according to various sources, from 179 to 200 killed Nazis. He fought from Donbass to Tuapse and back, and then further to the West, to the Sandomierz bridgehead. It was there that Lieutenant Kurka was mortally wounded in January 1945, less than six months before the Victory.

Pilot Arkady Kamanin

15-year-old Arkady Kamanin arrived at the location of the 5th Guards Attack Air Corps with his father, who had been appointed commander of this illustrious unit. The pilots were surprised to learn that the son of the legendary pilot, one of the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union, a participant in the Chelyuskin rescue expedition, would work as an aircraft mechanic in a communications squadron. But they soon became convinced that the “general’s son” did not live up to their negative expectations at all. The boy did not hide behind the back of his famous father, but simply did his job well - and strived towards the sky with all his might.

Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee

Soon Arkady achieved his goal: first he takes to the air as a flight attendant, then as a navigator on a U-2, and then goes on his first independent flight. And finally - the long-awaited appointment: the son of General Kamanin becomes a pilot of the 423rd separate communications squadron. Before the victory, Arkady, who had risen to the rank of sergeant major, managed to fly almost 300 hours and earn three orders: two of the Red Star and one of the Red Banner. And if it weren’t for meningitis, which literally killed an 18-year-old boy in the spring of 1947, perhaps Kamanin Jr. would have been included in the cosmonaut corps, the first commander of which was Kamanin Sr.: Arkady managed to enter the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy back in 1946.

Frontline intelligence officer Yuri Zhdanko

Ten-year-old Yura ended up in the army by accident. In July 1941, he went to show the retreating Red Army soldiers a little-known ford on the Western Dvina and did not have time to return to his native Vitebsk, where the Germans had already entered. So he left with his unit to the east, all the way to Moscow, from there to begin the return journey to the west.

Yuri Zhdanko. Photo: russia-reborn.ru

Yura accomplished a lot along this path. In January 1942, he, who had never jumped with a parachute before, went to the rescue of partisans who were surrounded and helped them break through the enemy ring. In the summer of 1942, together with a group of fellow reconnaissance officers, he blew up a strategically important bridge across the Berezina, sending not only the bridge deck, but also nine trucks driving along it to the bottom of the river, and less than a year later he was the only one of all the messengers who managed to break through to the encircled battalion and help it get out of the “ring”.

By February 1944, the chest of the 13-year-old intelligence officer was decorated with the medal “For Courage” and the Order of the Red Star. But a shell that exploded literally under his feet interrupted Yura’s front-line career. He ended up in the hospital, from where he was sent to Suvorov School, but did not pass due to health reasons. Then the retired young intelligence officer retrained as a welder and on this “front” he also managed to become famous, having traveled almost half of Eurasia with his welding machine - building pipelines.

Infantryman Anatoly Komar

Among the 263 Soviet soldiers who covered enemy embrasures with their bodies, the youngest was a 15-year-old private of the 332nd reconnaissance company of the 252nd rifle division of the 53rd army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front Anatoly Komar. The teenager joined the active army in September 1943, when the front came close to his native Slavyansk. This happened to him in almost the same way as to Yura Zhdanko, with the only difference being that the boy served as a guide not to the retreating, but to the advancing Red Army soldiers. Anatoly helped them go deeper front line Germans, and then left with the advancing army to the west.

Young partisan. Photo: Imperial War Museum

But, unlike Yura Zhdanko, Tolya Komar’s front-line path was much shorter. For only two months he had the opportunity to wear the shoulder straps that had recently appeared in the Red Army and go on reconnaissance missions. In November of the same year, returning from a free search behind German lines, a group of scouts revealed themselves and was forced to break through to their own in battle. The last obstacle on the way back was a machine gun, pinning the reconnaissance unit to the ground. Anatoly Komar threw a grenade at him, and the fire died down, but as soon as the scouts got up, the machine gunner began shooting again. And then Tolya, who was closest to the enemy, stood up and fell on the machine gun barrel, at the cost of his life, buying his comrades precious minutes for a breakthrough.

Sailor Boris Kuleshin

In the cracked photograph, a boy of about ten stands against the backdrop of sailors in black uniforms with ammunition boxes on their backs and the superstructure of a Soviet cruiser. His hands tightly grip a PPSh machine gun, and on his head he wears a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Tashkent.” This is a student of the crew of the leader of the Tashkent destroyers, Borya Kuleshin. The photo was taken in Poti, where, after repairs, the ship called for another load of ammunition for the besieged Sevastopol. It was here that twelve-year-old Borya Kuleshin appeared at the Tashkent gangplank. His father died at the front, his mother, as soon as Donetsk was occupied, was driven to Germany, and he himself managed to escape across the front line to his own people and, together with the retreating army, reach the Caucasus.

Boris Kuleshin. Photo: weralbum.ru

While they were persuading the ship’s commander, Vasily Eroshenko, while they were making a decision in which combat unit to enlist the cabin boy, the sailors managed to give him a belt, a cap and a machine gun and take a photograph of the new crew member. And then there was the transition to Sevastopol, the first raid on “Tashkent” in Bori’s life and the first clips in his life for an anti-aircraft artillery gun, which he, along with other anti-aircraft gunners, gave to the shooters. At his combat post, he was wounded on July 2, 1942, when German aircraft tried to sink a ship in the port of Novorossiysk. After the hospital, Borya followed Captain Eroshenko to new ship- guards cruiser "Red Caucasus". And already here he received a well-deserved reward: nominated for the medal “For Courage” for the battles on “Tashkent”, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the decision of the front commander, Marshal Budyonny and member of the Military Council, Admiral Isakov. And in the next front-line photo he is already showing off in the new uniform of a young sailor, on whose head is a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Red Caucasus”. It was in this uniform that in 1944 Borya went to the Tbilisi Nakhimov School, where in September 1945 he, along with other teachers, educators and students, was awarded the medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”

Musician Petr Klypa

Fifteen-year-old student of the musical platoon of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, Pyotr Klypa, like other minor inhabitants of the Brest Fortress, had to go to the rear with the beginning of the war. But Petya refused to leave the fighting citadel, which, among others, was defended by his only relative - his older brother, Lieutenant Nikolai. So he became one of the first teenage soldiers in the Great Patriotic War and a full participant in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress.

Peter Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com

He fought there until the beginning of July, until he received an order, together with the remnants of the regiment, to break through to Brest. This is where Petya's ordeal began. Having crossed the tributary of the Bug, he, along with other colleagues, was captured, from which he soon managed to escape. I got to Brest, lived there for a month and moved east, behind the retreating Red Army, but did not reach it. During one of the overnight stays, he and a friend were discovered by police, and the teenagers were sent to forced labor in Germany. Petya was released only in 1945 American troops, and after checking he even managed to serve for several months in Soviet army. And upon returning to his homeland, he again ended up in jail because he succumbed to the persuasion of an old friend and helped him speculate with the loot. Pyotr Klypa was released only seven years later. For this he had to thank the historian and writer Sergei Smirnov, who piece by piece recreated the history of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and, of course, did not miss the story of one of its youngest defenders, who after liberation was awarded the order Patriotic War I degree.

Extracurricular activities

General history

History of Russia

Children-heroes of the Second World War: seven exploits of young warriors

War is not a child's business. Such terrible events should not distort and break the lives of children. However, history knows many opposite examples: during the Great Patriotic War, many children sought to protect their country from the Nazis. Let us remember the most famous young warriors.

Image taken from the site 900igr.net

Marat Kazei Despite his young age, Marat Kazei became an outstanding fighter in the partisan detachment named after. 25th anniversary of October. The boy fled to the partisans in 1942, after the Germans executed his mother for treating wounded soldiers. The young defender of the homeland turned out to be a talented intelligence officer: getting German documents or breaking through the encirclement unnoticed, participating in sabotage - Marat could do all this. But the young partisan did not live to see the Victory. In the spring of 1944, having gone to a meeting with a contact, Marat and his comrade in arms were surrounded by a German punitive detachment. They fought until the last bullet. The little soldier did not want to fall into the hands of the Nazis alive: he had his last grenade left...

Image taken from the site en.wikipedia.org

Volodya Dubinin At the beginning of the war, Volodya’s family ended up in Kerch. But things were no longer calm in Crimea either: the Crimeans began to actively prepare for defense. A persistent and brave boy achieved his acceptance into partisan detachment, who operated in the Starokaratinsky quarries. The young defender was short, so he easily made his way through the narrow passages in these labyrinths. He obtained very important information for his detachment, which the partisans used in their military operations: the location and number of German troops, their movements. Legends told about his heroism... But one day Volodya volunteered to help sappers clear the approaches to the quarries and died from an explosion...

Technological maps lessons were developed in accordance with the textbook "History of Russia. Beginning of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century. Grade 10" by O. V. Volobueva, S. P. Karpacheva, P. N. Romanova, the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of secondary general education and historical and cultural standard. The manual provides the course content and defines the sequence of study educational material, reflects the planned subject, meta-subject, personal learning outcomes, types of educational and cognitive activity students, as well as forms of control. The manual will help the teacher organize educational process and will significantly reduce the time spent preparing for the lesson. The manual materials are exemplary (1 lesson - 1 academic hour), the teacher can supplement them at his own discretion, based on the assigned tasks, the level of students' preparation and taking into account the school component.

Image taken from the site en.wikipedia.org

Lenya Golikov This little soldier is widely known for his military exploits: how he, together with the partisans, crushed the Wehrmacht troops in the Pskov region! He managed to destroy several dozen Nazis and participate in many sabotage operations. And one day he attacks German general, takes a briefcase with valuable documents and plans of the German command and undermines the general’s machine! The brave warrior also had a chance to visit besieged Leningrad: he accompanied food convoys. But, unfortunately, a German bullet caught Leonid in battle, and the little defender was gone. For his many exploits, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Image taken from the site en.wikipedia.org

Valya Kotik When the war began, Valya was in the sixth grade. From the first days of the war, he began to fight the German occupiers and soon became a liaison in the partisan detachment named after U. Ya. Karmelyuk. One day he managed to greatly harm the work of the local German headquarters: he discovered and destroyed an underground telephone cable that provided communication between the Germans and Hitler’s headquarters in Warsaw! Valya also took part in the bombing of German railway trains and weapons depots. And when he noticed German soldiers approaching the partisan camp, he raised the alarm and saved his comrades. Valya was mortally wounded in the battle for the city of Izyaslav in the winter of 1944. Valentin Kotik became the youngest hero of the Soviet Union.

Image taken from the site worldmemorybook.rf

Tolya Shumov Tolya grew up without a father, but his mother raised him as a real hero: in the fall of 1941, they joined a partisan detachment together. Tolya obtained information about the number of German troops under the very nose of the Germans. He had to be very careful, but one day he finally fell into the hands of the German invaders! The Germans did not arrest him after interrogation: Tolya convinced everyone that he was lost and looking for his mother. The guy managed to win over the German commander and he lived in a Nazi camp for two days. Being behind enemy lines, he did not waste time: he carefully studied the camp, the composition of the armed forces and, escaping, took with him a field bag with maps and plans. A month later, the Germans identified him and arrested him. During long torture, Tolya did not betray his fellow soldiers, and he was executed.

The textbook, prepared in accordance with the ICS, covers the period national history from 1914 to beginning of the XXI century. The content of the textbook is aimed at developing the cognitive interests of students. The textbook's methodology is based on a system-activity approach that promotes the formation of the skills to independently work with information and use it in practical activities.

Image taken from the site en.wikipedia.org

Sasha Chekalin In July 1941, Sasha Chekalin joined his father in a partisan detachment: the man was a hunter and taught his son shooting well, showing him secret paths in the surrounding forests. Ambushes, sabotage, road mining, subversive activities - Sasha turned out to be a master of military affairs. But the young fighter was betrayed. Returning to rest briefly in his father’s empty house and lighting the stove, Sasha attracted the attention of the village elder, who betrayed him to the Nazis. German soldiers They surrounded the house and a battle ensued. Having spent the last cartridge, Sasha tried to retreat to his own. But the Germans captured him and, after much torture, executed him for show.

Image taken from the site en.wikipedia.org

Volodya Kaznacheev At the beginning of the war, young Volodya Kaznacheev immediately decided to become a partisan: the boy passionately wanted to avenge the death of his mother, who baked bread for the partisans, for which she was shot by the Germans. Finally, in 1942, the boy was taken into the partisan detachment as a demolition worker - he brilliantly studied the basics of this matter under the guidance of specialists sent to the partisan detachment from Moscow. He had the opportunity to participate in the famous partisan operation “Kovel Knot” - fighters undermined German transport trains on the Brest-Kovel line. Volodya went through the entire war as a partisan, and Vladimir Petrovich is still alive today. Guys, thank you for the Victory!

The workbook is part of the educational complex on the history of Russia by I.L. Andreeva, L.M. Lyashenko, O.V. Volobueva and others and corresponds to the Federal State Educational Standard for basic general education and the historical and cultural standard. Structure workbook corresponds to the structure of the textbook for grade 10 by O.V. Volobueva, S.P. Karpacheva, P.N. Romanova. The notebook contains a variety of tasks: tests, writing an essay, working with a historical map, correlating dates and events, etc. and adapted for training students for the OGE and the Unified State Exam. Special signs mark tasks aimed at developing meta-subject skills (planning activities, identifying various features, comparing, classifying, establishing cause-and-effect relationships, converting information, etc.) and personal qualities students.

Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Educational material for extracurricular activities By literary reading or history for primary school on topic: WWII

Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped their elders, played, raised pigeons, and sometimes even took part in fights. These were ordinary children and teenagers, whom only family, classmates and friends knew about.

But the hour of difficult trials came and they proved how huge an ordinary little child’s heart can become when a sacred love for the Motherland, pain for the fate of one’s people and hatred for enemies flares up in it. Together with the adults, the weight of adversity, disaster, and grief of the war years fell on their fragile shoulders. And they did not bend under this weight, they became stronger in spirit, more courageous, more resilient. And no one expected that it was these boys and girls who were capable of accomplishing a great feat for the glory of the freedom and independence of their Motherland!

No! - we told the fascists, -

Our people will not tolerate

So that Russian bread is fragrant

Called by the word "brot"....

Where is the strength in the world?

So that she can break us,

Bent us under the yoke

In those regions where on the days of victory

Our great-grandparents

Have you feasted so many times?..

And from sea to sea

The Russian regiments stood up.

We stood up, united with the Russians,

Belarusians, Latvians,

People of free Ukraine,

Both Armenians and Georgians,

Moldovans, Chuvash...

Glory to our generals,

Glory to our admirals

And to ordinary soldiers...

On foot, swimming, horseback,

Tempered in hot battles!

Glory to the fallen and the living,

Thank you to them from the bottom of my heart!

Let's not forget those heroes

What lies in the damp ground,

Giving my life on the battlefield

For the people - for you and me.

Excerpts from S. Mikhalkov’s poem “True for Children”

Kazei Marat Ivanovich(1929-1944), partisan of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1965, posthumously). Since 1942, scout for a partisan detachment (Minsk region).

The Nazis burst into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Alexandrovna. In the fall, Marat no longer had to go to school in the fifth grade. The Nazis turned the school building into their barracks. The enemy was fierce. Anna Aleksandrovna Kazei was captured for her connection with the partisans, and soon Marat learned that his mother had been hanged in Minsk. The boy's heart was filled with anger and hatred for the enemy. Together with his sister Hell Marat, Kazei went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest. He became a scout at the headquarters of a partisan brigade. He penetrated enemy garrisons and delivered valuable information to the command. Using this data, the partisans developed a daring operation and defeated the fascist garrison in the city of Dzerzhinsk. Marat took part in battles and invariably showed courage and fearlessness; together with experienced demolition men, he mined the railway. Marat died in battle. He fought to the last bullet, and when he had only one grenade left, he let his enemies get closer and blew them up... and himself. For courage and bravery, fifteen-year-old Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to the young hero was erected in the city of Minsk.

Portnova Zinaida Martynovna (Zina) (1926-1944), young partisan of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1958, posthumously). Scout of the partisan detachment “Young Avengers” (Vitebsk region).

The war found Leningrad resident Zina Portnova in the village of Zuya, where she came for vacation, not far from the Obol station in the Vitebsk region. An underground Komsomol-youth organization “Young Avengers” was created in Obol, and Zina was elected a member of its committee. She took part in daring operations against the enemy, distributed leaflets, and conducted reconnaissance on instructions from a partisan detachment. In December 1943, returning from a mission in the village of Mostishche, Zina was handed over as a traitor to the Nazis. The Nazis captured the young partisan and tortured her. The answer to the enemy was Zina’s silence, her contempt and hatred, her determination to fight to the end. During one of the interrogations, choosing the moment, Zina grabbed a pistol from the table and shot point-blank at the Gestapo man. The officer who ran in to hear the shot was also killed on the spot. Zina tried to escape, but the Nazis overtook her. The brave young partisan was brutally tortured, but before last minute remained persistent, courageous, unbending. And the Motherland posthumously celebrated her feat with its highest title - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Kotik Valentin Alexandrovich(Valya) (1930-1944), young partisan of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1958, posthumously). Since 1942 - liaison officer for an underground organization in the city of Shepetovka, scout for a partisan detachment (Khmelnitsky region, Ukraine).

Valya was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Khmelnitsky region. Studied at school No. 4. When the Nazis burst into Shepetivka, Valya Kotik and his friends decided to fight the enemy. The guys collected weapons at the battle site, which the partisans then transported to the detachment on a cart of hay. Having taken a closer look at the boy, the leaders of the partisan detachment entrusted Valya with being a liaison and intelligence officer in their underground organization. He learned the location of enemy posts and the order of changing the guard. The Nazis planned a punitive operation against the partisans, and Valya, having tracked down the Nazi officer who led the punitive forces, killed him. When arrests began in the city, Valya, along with his mother and brother Victor, went to join the partisans. An ordinary boy, who had just turned fourteen years old, fought shoulder to shoulder with adults, freeing native land. He was responsible for six enemy trains that were blown up on the way to the front. Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree. Valya died as a hero in one of the unequal battles with the Nazis.

Golikov Leonid Alexandrovich(1926-1943). Young partisan hero. Brigade scout of the 67th detachment of the fourth Leningrad partisan brigade, operating in the Novgorod and Pskov regions. Participated in 27 combat operations.

In total, he destroyed 78 fascists, two railway and 12 highway bridges, two food and feed warehouses and 10 vehicles with ammunition. He distinguished himself in battles near the villages of Aprosovo, Sosnitsa, and Sever. 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 Red Banner of Battle and the medal "For Courage".

On August 13, 1942, returning from reconnaissance from the Luga-Pskov highway, near the village of Varnitsa, he blew up a passenger car in which there was a German Major General of the Engineering Troops, Richard von Wirtz. In a shootout, Golikov shot and killed the general, the officer accompanying him, and the driver with a machine gun. 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 papers of a military nature. Nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. January 24, 1943 in unequal battle in the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov region, Leonid Golikov died. By decree of April 2, 1944, the Presidium of the Supreme Council awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Arkady Kamanin dreamed of heaven when I was just a boy. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, a pilot, participated in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And my father’s friend, Mikhail Vasilyevich Vodopyanov, is always nearby. There was something to make the boy's heart burn. But they didn’t let him fly, they told him to grow up. When the war began, he went to work at an aircraft factory, then at an airfield. Experienced pilots, even if only for a few minutes, sometimes trusted him to fly the plane. One day the cockpit glass was broken by an enemy bullet. The pilot was blinded. Losing consciousness, he managed to hand over control to Arkady, and the boy landed the plane at his airfield. After this, Arkady was allowed to seriously study flying, and soon he began to fly on his own. One day, from above, a young pilot saw our plane shot down by the Nazis. Under heavy mortar fire, Arkady landed, carried the pilot into his plane, took off and returned to his own. The Order of the Red Star shone on his chest. For participation in battles with the enemy, Arkady was awarded the second Order of the Red Star. By that time he had already become an experienced pilot, although he was fifteen years old. Arkady Kamanin fought with the Nazis until the victory. The young hero dreamed of the sky and conquered the sky!

Utah Bondarovskaya in the summer of 1941 she came from Leningrad on vacation to a village near Pskov. Here she overtook her terrible war. Utah began to help the partisans. At first she was a messenger, then a scout. Dressed as a beggar boy, she collected information from the villages: where the fascist headquarters were, how they were guarded, how many machine guns there were. The partisan detachment, together with units of the Red Army, left to help the Estonian partisans. In one of the battles - near the Estonian farm of Rostov - Yuta Bondarovskaya, a little heroine great war, died the death of the brave. The Motherland posthumously awarded its heroic daughter the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree, and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

When the war began, and the Nazis were approaching Leningrad, for underground work in the village of Tarnovichi - in the south Leningrad region- the counselor was left high school Anna Petrovna Semenova. To communicate with the partisans, she selected her most reliable guys, and the first among them was Galina Komleva. During her six school years, the cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl was awarded books six times with the signature: “For excellent studies.” The young messenger brought assignments from the partisans to her counselor, and forwarded her reports to the detachment along with bread, potatoes, and food products, which were obtained from with great difficulty. Once, when a messenger from a partisan detachment did not arrive at the meeting place on time, Galya, half-frozen, snuck into the detachment herself, handed over a report and, having warmed up a little, hurried back, carrying a new task to the underground fighters. Together with the young partisan Tasya Yakovleva, Galya wrote leaflets and scattered them around the village at night. The Nazis tracked down and captured the young underground fighters. They kept me in the Gestapo for two months. The young patriot was shot. The Motherland celebrated the feat of Galya Komleva with the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Leningrad schoolgirl Larisa Mikheenko was nominated for a government award for the operation of reconnaissance and explosion of a railway bridge across the Drissa River. But the young heroine did not have time to receive her award.

The war cut the girl off from her hometown: in the summer she went on vacation to the Pustoshkinsky district, but was unable to return - the village was occupied by the Nazis. And then one night Larisa and two older friends left the village. At the headquarters of the 6th Kalinin Brigade, the commander is Major P.V. Ryndin initially refused to accept “such little ones.” But young girls were able to do what they couldn’t strong men. Dressed in rags, Lara walked through the villages, finding out where and how the guns were located, the sentries were posted, what German vehicles were moving along the highway, what kind of trains were coming to Pustoshka station and with what cargo. She also took part in combat operations. The young partisan, betrayed by a traitor in the village of Ignatovo, was shot by the Nazis. In the Decree on awarding Larisa Mikheenko the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, there is a bitter word: “Posthumously.”

Could not put up with the atrocities of the Nazis and Sasha Borodulin. Having obtained a rifle, Sasha destroyed the fascist motorcyclist and took his first battle trophy - a real German machine gun. This was a good reason for his admission to the partisan detachment. Day after day he conducted reconnaissance. More than once he went on the most dangerous missions. He was responsible for many destroyed vehicles and soldiers. For carrying out dangerous tasks, for demonstrating courage, resourcefulness and courage, Sasha Borodulin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in the winter of 1941. Punishers tracked down the partisans. The detachment left them for three days. In the group of volunteers, Sasha remained to cover the detachment’s retreat. When all his comrades died, the brave hero, allowing the fascists to close a ring around him, grabbed a grenade and blew them up and himself.

The feat of a young partisan

(Excerpts from M. Danilenko’s essay “Grishina’s Life” (translation by Yu. Bogushevich))

At night, punitive forces surrounded the village. Grisha woke up from some sound. He opened his eyes and looked out the window. A shadow flashed across the moonlit glass.

- Dad! - Grisha called quietly.

- Sleep, what do you want? - the father responded.

But the boy did not sleep anymore. Stepping barefoot on the cold floor, he quietly went out into the hallway. And then I heard someone tear open the doors and several pairs of boots thundered heavily into the hut.

The boy rushed into the garden, where there was a bathhouse with a small extension. Through the crack in the door Grisha saw his father, mother and sisters being taken out. Nadya was bleeding from her shoulder, and the girl was pressing the wound with her hand...

Until dawn, Grisha stood in the outbuilding and looked ahead with wide open eyes. The moonlight filtered sparingly. Somewhere an icicle fell from the roof and crashed on the rubble with a quiet ringing sound. The boy shuddered. He felt neither cold nor fear.

That night a small wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. Appeared never to disappear again. Grisha's family was shot by the Nazis.

A thirteen-year-old boy with an unchildishly stern look walked from village to village. I went to Sozh. He knew that somewhere across the river his brother Alexei was, there were partisans. A few days later Grisha came to the village of Yametsky.

A resident of this village, Feodosia Ivanova, was a liaison officer for a partisan detachment commanded by Pyotr Antonovich Balykov. She brought the boy to the detachment.

The detachment commissar Pavel Ivanovich Dedik and the chief of staff Alexei Podobedov listened to Grisha with stern faces. And he stood in a torn shirt, with his legs knocked against the roots, with an unquenchable fire of hatred in his eyes. The partisan life of Grisha Podobedov began. And no matter what mission the partisans were sent on, Grisha always asked to take him with them...

Grisha Podobedov became an excellent partisan intelligence officer. Somehow the messengers reported that the Nazis, together with policemen from Korma, robbed the population. They took 30 cows and everything they could get their hands on and were heading towards the Sixth Village. The detachment set off in pursuit of the enemy. The operation was led by Pyotr Antonovich Balykov.

“Well, Grisha,” said the commander. - You will go with Alena Konashkova on reconnaissance. Find out where the enemy is staying, what he is doing, what he is thinking of doing.

And so a tired woman with a hoe and a bag wanders into the Sixth Village, and with her a boy dressed in a large padded jacket that is too large for his size.

“They sowed millet, good people,” the woman complained, turning to the police. - Try to raise these fellings with little ones. It's not easy, oh, it's not easy!

And no one, of course, noticed how the boy’s keen eyes followed each soldier, how they noticed everything.

Grisha visited five houses where fascists and policemen stayed. And I found out about everything, then reported in detail to the commander. A red rocket soared into the sky. And a few minutes later it was all over: the partisans drove the enemy into a cleverly placed “bag” and destroyed him. The stolen goods were returned to the population.

Grisha also went on reconnaissance missions before the memorable battle near the Pokat River.

With a bridle, limping (a splinter had gotten into his heel), the little shepherd scurried among the Nazis. And such hatred burned in his eyes that it seemed that it alone could incinerate his enemies.

And then the scout reported how many guns he saw at the enemies, where there were machine guns and mortars. And from partisan bullets and mines, the invaders found their graves on Belarusian soil.

At the beginning of June 1943, Grisha Podobedov, together with partisan Yakov Kebikov, went on reconnaissance to the area of ​​​​the village of Zalesye, where a punitive company from the so-called Dnepr volunteer detachment was stationed. Grisha snuck into the house where the drunken punishers were having a party.

The partisans silently entered the village and completely destroyed the company. Only the commander was saved; he hid in a well. In the morning, a local grandfather pulled him out of there, like a filthy cat, by the scruff of the neck...

This was the last operation in which Grisha Podobedov participated. On June 17, together with foreman Nikolai Borisenko, he went to the village of Ruduya Bartolomeevka to buy flour prepared for the partisans.

The sun was shining brightly. A gray bird fluttered on the roof of the mill, watching people with its cunning little eyes. Broad-shouldered Nikolai Borisenko had just loaded a heavy sack onto the cart when the pale miller came running.

- Punishers! - he exhaled.

The foreman and Grisha grabbed their machine guns and rushed into the bushes growing near the mill. But they were noticed. Evil bullets whistled, cutting off the branches of the alder tree.

- Get down! - Borisenko gave the command and fired a long burst from the machine gun.

Grisha, aiming, fired short bursts. He saw how the punishers, as if they had stumbled upon an invisible barrier, fell, mowed down by his bullets.

- So for you, so for you!..

Suddenly the sergeant-major gasped loudly and grabbed his throat. Grisha turned around. Borisenko twitched all over and fell silent. His glassy eyes now looked indifferently into high sky, and his hand dug, as if stuck, into the stock of the machine gun.

The bush, where only Grisha Podobedov now remained, was surrounded by enemies. There were about sixty of them.

Grisha clenched his teeth and raised his hand. Several soldiers immediately rushed towards him.

- Oh, you Herods! What did you want?! - the partisan shouted and slashed at them point-blank with a machine gun.

Six Nazis fell at his feet. The rest lay down. More and more often bullets whistled over Grisha’s head. The partisan was silent and did not respond. Then the emboldened enemies rose again. And again, under well-aimed machine gun fire, they pressed into the ground. And the machine gun had already run out of cartridges. Grisha pulled out a pistol. - I give up! - he shouted.

A tall and thin as a pole policeman ran up to him at a trot. Grisha shot him straight in the face. For an elusive moment, the boy looked around at the sparse bushes and clouds in the sky and, putting the pistol to his temple, pulled the trigger...

You can read about the exploits of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War in the books:

Avramenko A.I. Messengers from Captivity: a story / Trans. from Ukrainian - M.: Young Guard, 1981. - 208 e.: ill. — (Young heroes).

Bolshak V.G. Guide to the Abyss: Document. story. - M.: Young Guard, 1979. - 160 p. — (Young heroes).

Vuravkin G.N. Three pages from a legend / Trans. from Belarusian - M.: Young Guard, 1983. - 64 p. — (Young heroes).

Valko I.V. Where are you flying, little crane?: Document. story. - M.: Young Guard, 1978. - 174 p. — (Young heroes).

Vygovsky B.S. Fire of a young heart / Transl. from Ukrainian — M.: Det. lit., 1968. - 144 p. - (School library).

Children of the wartime / Comp. E. Maksimova. 2nd ed., add. - M.: Politizdat, 1988. - 319 p.

Ershov Ya.A. Vitya Korobkov - pioneer, partisan: story - M.: Voenizdat, 1968 - 320 p. — (Library of a young patriot: About the Motherland, exploits, honor).

Zharikov A.D. Exploits of the Young: Stories and Essays. — M.: Young Guard, 1965. —- 144 e.: ill.

Zharikov A.D. Young partisans. - M.: Education, 1974. - 128 p.

Kassil L.A., Polyanovsky M.L. Street of the youngest son: a story. — M.: Det. lit., 1985. - 480 p. — (Student’s military library).

Kekkelev L.N. Countryman: The Tale of P. Shepelev. 3rd ed. - M.: Young Guard, 1981. - 143 p. — (Young heroes).

Korolkov Yu.M. Partisan Lenya Golikov: a story. - M.: Young Guard, 1985. - 215 p. — (Young heroes).

Lezinsky M.L., Eskin B.M. Live, Vilor!: a story. - M.: Young Guard, 1983. - 112 p. — (Young heroes).

Logvinenko I.M. Crimson Dawns: document. story / Transl. from Ukrainian — M.: Det. lit., 1972. - 160 p.

Lugovoi N.D. Scorched childhood. - M.: Young Guard, 1984. - 152 p. — (Young heroes).

Medvedev N.E. Eaglets of the Blagovsky forest: document. story. - M.: DOSAAF, 1969. - 96 p.

Morozov V.N. A boy went on reconnaissance: a story. - Minsk: State Publishing House of the BSSR, 1961. - 214 p.

Morozov V.N. Volodin Front. - M.: Young Guard, 1975. - 96 p. — (Young heroes).

June 22, 1941 began as an ordinary day for most people. They didn’t even know that soon this happiness would no longer exist, and children who were born or would be born from 1928 to 1945 would have their childhood stolen from them. Children suffered no less than adults in the war. The Great Patriotic War changed their lives forever.

Children at war. Children who have forgotten how to cry

During the war, children forgot how to cry. If they ended up with the Nazis, they quickly realized that they couldn’t cry, otherwise they would be shot. They are called “children of war” not because of the date of their birth. The war educated them. They had to see real horror. For example, the Nazis often shot at children just for fun. They did this only to watch them run away in horror.

We could have chosen live target just to practice accuracy. Children cannot work hard in the camp, which means they can be killed with impunity. That's what the Nazis thought. However, sometimes there was work for children in concentration camps. For example, they often donated blood to soldiers of the army of the Third Reich... Or they could be forced to remove ashes from the crematorium and sew them into bags in order to fertilize the ground later.

Children who were of no use to anyone

It is impossible to believe that they left to work in the camps of their own free will. This “good will” was personified by the barrel of a machine gun in the back. The Nazis “sorted” those suitable and unsuitable for work very cynically. If a child reached the mark on the wall of the barracks, then he was fit to work, to serve “Greater Germany.” If he couldn’t reach it, he was sent to gas chamber. The Third Reich did not need the kids, so they had only one fate. However, not everyone had a happy fate at home. Many children during the Great Patriotic War lost all their loved ones. That is, in their homeland, only an orphanage and half-starved youth awaited them during the post-war devastation.

Children raised by labor and real valor

Many children, already at the age of 12, stood up to machines in factories and plants, worked on construction sites along with adults. Due to their hard work, which was far from childish, they grew up early and replaced their dead parents for their brothers and sisters. It was the children in the war of 1941-1945. helped keep the country afloat and then restore the country's economy. They say that there are no children in war. This is actually true. During the war, they worked and fought on an equal basis with adults, both in the active army and in the rear, and in partisan detachments.

It was common for many teenagers to add a year or two to their lives and go to the front. Many of them, at the cost of their lives, collected cartridges, machine guns, grenades, rifles and other weapons remaining after the battles, and then handed them over to the partisans. Many were engaged in partisan reconnaissance and worked as messengers in detachments of people's avengers. They helped our underground fighters organize escapes of prisoners of war, rescued the wounded, and set fire to German warehouses with weapons and food. Interestingly, not only boys fought in the war. The girls did this with no less heroism. There were especially many such girls in Belarus... The courage of these children, the ability to sacrifice for the sake of only one goal, made a huge contribution to the overall Victory. All this is true, but these children died in tens of thousands... Officially, 27 million people died in this war in our country. Only 10 million of them are military personnel. The rest are civilians, mostly children who died in the war... Their number cannot be calculated accurately.

Children who really wanted to help the front

From the first days of the war, children wanted to help adults in every possible way. They built fortifications, collected scrap metal and medicinal plants, and took part in collecting things for the army. As already mentioned, children worked for days in factories in place of their fathers and older brothers who had gone to the front. They collected gas masks, made smoke bombs, fuses for mines, fuses for In school workshops, in which girls had labor lessons before the war, they now sewed underwear and tunics for the army. They also knitted warm clothes - socks, mittens, and sewed tobacco pouches. Children also helped the wounded in hospitals. In addition, they wrote letters for their relatives under their dictation and even staged concerts and performances that brought a smile to adult men exhausted by the war. Feats are accomplished not only in battles. All of the above are also the exploits of children in war. And hunger, cold and disease quickly dealt with their lives, which had not yet really begun...

Sons of the Regiment

Very often, teenagers aged 13-15 years fought in the war, along with adults. This was not something very surprising, since the sons of the regiment had served in the Russian army for a long time. Most often it was a young drummer or cabin boy. On Velikaya there were usually children who had lost their parents, killed by the Germans or taken to concentration camps. It was the best option for them, because being left alone in an occupied city was the most terrible thing. A child in such a situation could only face starvation. In addition, the Nazis sometimes had fun and threw a piece of bread to the hungry children... And then they fired a burst from a machine gun. That is why units of the Red Army, if they passed through such territories, were very sensitive to such children and often took them with them. As Marshal Bagramyan mentions, often the courage and ingenuity of the sons of the regiment amazed even experienced soldiers.

The exploits of children in war deserve no less respect than the exploits of adults. According to the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, 3,500 children under 16 years of age fought in the army during the Great Patriotic War. However, these data cannot be accurate, since they did not take into account young heroes from partisan detachments. Five were awarded the highest military award. We will talk about three of them in more detail, although these were not all of them; they were child heroes who especially distinguished themselves in the war and deserve mention.

Valya Kotik

14-year-old Valya Kotik was a partisan scout in the Karmelyuk detachment. He is the youngest hero of the USSR. He carried out orders from the Shepetivka military intelligence organization. His first task (and he completed it successfully) was to eliminate the field gendarmerie detachment. This task was far from the last. Valya Kotik died in 1944, 5 days after he turned 14.

Lenya Golikov

16-year-old Lenya Golikov was a scout of the Fourth Leningrad Partisan Brigade. When the war began, he joined the partisans. Thin Lenya looked even younger than his 14 years (that’s how old he was at the start of the war). He, under the guise of a beggar, went around the villages and passed on important information to the partisans. Lenya took part in 27 battles, blew up vehicles with ammunition and more than a dozen bridges. In 1943, his squad was unable to escape from encirclement. Few managed to survive. Leni was not among them.

Zina Portnova

17-year-old Zina Portnova was a scout for the Voroshilov partisan detachment on the territory of Belarus. She was also a member of the underground Komsomol youth organization “Young Avengers”. In 1943, she was tasked with finding out the reasons for the collapse of this organization and establishing contacts with the underground. Upon returning to the detachment, she was arrested by the Germans. During one of the interrogations, she grabbed the pistol of a fascist investigator and shot him and two other fascists. She tried to escape, but she was captured.

As mentioned in the book “Zina Portnova” by the writer Vasily Smirnov, the girl was tortured harshly and sophisticatedly so that she would name the names of other underground fighters, but she was unshakable. For this, the Nazis called her a “Soviet bandit” in their protocols. In 1944 she was shot.

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Alexander Matrosov

Submachine gunner of the 2nd separate battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after Stalin.

Sasha Matrosov did not know his parents. He was brought up in an orphanage and a labor colony. When the war began, he was not even 20. Matrosov was drafted into the army in September 1942 and sent to the infantry school, and then to the front.

In February 1943, his battalion attacked a Nazi stronghold, but fell into a trap, coming under heavy fire, cutting off the path to the trenches. They fired from three bunkers. Two soon fell silent, but the third continued to shoot the Red Army soldiers lying in the snow.

Seeing that the only chance to get out from under fire was to suppress the enemy’s fire, Sailors and a fellow soldier crawled to the bunker and threw two grenades in his direction. The machine gun fell silent. The Red Army soldiers went on the attack, but the deadly weapon began to chatter again. Alexander’s partner was killed, and Sailors was left alone in front of the bunker. Something had to be done.

He didn't have even a few seconds to make a decision. Not wanting to let his comrades down, Alexander closed the bunker embrasure with his body. The attack was a success. And Matrosov posthumously received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Military pilot, commander of the 2nd squadron of the 207th long-range bomber aviation regiment, captain.

He worked as a mechanic, then in 1932 he was drafted into the Red Army. He ended up in an air regiment, where he became a pilot. Nikolai Gastello participated in three wars. A year before the Great Patriotic War, he received the rank of captain.

On June 26, 1941, the crew under the command of Captain Gastello took off to strike a German mechanized column. It happened on the road between the Belarusian cities of Molodechno and Radoshkovichi. But the column was well guarded by enemy artillery. A fight ensued. Gastello's plane was hit by anti-aircraft guns. The shell damaged the fuel tank and the car caught fire. The pilot could have ejected, but he decided to fulfill his military duty to the end. Nikolai Gastello directed the burning car directly at the enemy column. This was the first fire ram in the Great Patriotic War.

The name of the brave pilot became a household name. Until the end of the war, all aces who decided to ram were called Gastellites. If you follow official statistics, then during the entire war there were almost six hundred rams against the enemy.

Brigade reconnaissance officer of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade.

Lena was 15 years old when the war began. He was already working at a factory, having completed seven years of school. When the Nazis captured his native Novgorod region, Lenya joined the partisans.

He was brave and decisive, the command valued him. Over the several years spent in the partisan detachment, he participated in 27 operations. He was responsible for several destroyed bridges behind enemy lines, 78 Germans killed, and 10 trains with ammunition.

It was he who, in the summer of 1942, near the village of Varnitsa, blew up a car in which was the German Major General of the Engineering Troops Richard von Wirtz. Golikov managed to obtain important documents about the German offensive. The enemy attack was thwarted, and the young hero was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for this feat.

In the winter of 1943, a significantly superior enemy detachment unexpectedly attacked the partisans near the village of Ostray Luka. Lenya Golikov died as a real hero- in battle.

Pioneer. Scout of the Voroshilov partisan detachment in the territory occupied by the Nazis.

Zina was born and went to school in Leningrad. However, the war found her on the territory of Belarus, where she came on vacation.

In 1942, 16-year-old Zina joined the underground organization “Young Avengers”. She distributed anti-fascist leaflets in the occupied territories. Then, undercover, she got a job in a canteen for German officers, where she committed several acts of sabotage and was only miraculously not captured by the enemy. Many experienced military men were surprised at her courage.

In 1943, Zina Portnova joined the partisans and continued to engage in sabotage behind enemy lines. Due to the efforts of defectors who surrendered Zina to the Nazis, she was captured. She was interrogated and tortured in the dungeons. But Zina remained silent, not betraying her own. During one of these interrogations, she grabbed a pistol from the table and shot three Nazis. After that she was shot in prison.

An underground anti-fascist organization operating in the area of ​​modern Lugansk region. There were more than a hundred people. The youngest participant was 14 years old.

This underground youth organization was formed immediately after the occupation of the Lugansk region. It included both regular military personnel who found themselves cut off from the main units, and local youth. Among the most famous participants: Oleg Koshevoy, Ulyana Gromova, Lyubov Shevtsova, Vasily Levashov, Sergey Tyulenin and many other young people.

The Young Guard issued leaflets and committed sabotage against the Nazis. Once they managed to disable an entire tank repair workshop and burn down the stock exchange, from where the Nazis were driving people away for forced labor in Germany. Members of the organization planned to stage an uprising, but were discovered due to traitors. The Nazis captured, tortured and shot more than seventy people. Their feat is immortalized in one of the most famous military books by Alexander Fadeev and the film adaptation of the same name.

28 people from personnel 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment.

In November 1941, a counter-offensive against Moscow began. The enemy stopped at nothing, making a decisive forced march before the onset of a harsh winter.

At this time, fighters under the command of Ivan Panfilov took up a position on the highway seven kilometers from Volokolamsk, a small town near Moscow. There they gave battle to the advancing tank units. The battle lasted four hours. During this time, they destroyed 18 armored vehicles, delaying the enemy's attack and thwarting his plans. All 28 people (or almost all, historians’ opinions differ here) died.

According to legend, the company political instructor Vasily Klochkov, before the decisive stage of the battle, addressed the soldiers with a phrase that became famous throughout the country: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind us!”

The Nazi counteroffensive ultimately failed. The Battle of Moscow, which was assigned the most important role during the war, was lost by the occupiers.

As a child, the future hero suffered from rheumatism, and doctors doubted that Maresyev would be able to fly. However, he stubbornly applied to the flight school until he was finally enrolled. Maresyev was drafted into the army in 1937.

He met the Great Patriotic War at a flight school, but soon found himself at the front. During a combat mission, his plane was shot down, and Maresyev himself was able to eject. Eighteen days later, seriously wounded in both legs, he got out of the encirclement. However, he still managed to overcome the front line and ended up in the hospital. But gangrene had already set in, and doctors amputated both of his legs.

For many, this would have meant the end of their service, but the pilot did not give up and returned to aviation. Until the end of the war he flew with prosthetics. Over the years, he made 86 combat missions and shot down 11 enemy aircraft. Moreover, 7 - after amputation. In 1944, Alexey Maresyev went to work as an inspector and lived to be 84 years old.

His fate inspired the writer Boris Polevoy to write “The Tale of a Real Man.”

Deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment.

Viktor Talalikhin began to fight already in the Soviet-Finnish war. Shot down 4 in a biplane enemy aircraft. Then he served at an aviation school.

In August 1941, one of the first Soviet pilots carried out a ramming attack, shooting down a German bomber in a night air battle. Moreover, the wounded pilot was able to get out of the cockpit and parachute down to the rear of his troops.

Then Talalikhin shot down five more German aircraft. Died during another air combat near Podolsk in October 1941.

73 years later, in 2014, search engines found Talalikhin’s plane, which remained in the swamps near Moscow.

Artilleryman of the 3rd counter-battery artillery corps of the Leningrad Front.

Soldier Andrei Korzun was drafted into the army at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War. He served on the Leningrad Front, where there were fierce and bloody battles.

On November 5, 1943, during another battle, his battery came under fierce enemy fire. Korzun was seriously injured. Despite the terrible pain, he saw that the powder charges were set on fire and the ammunition depot could fly into the air. Gathering his last strength, Andrei crawled to the blazing fire. But he could no longer take off his overcoat to cover the fire. Losing consciousness, he made a final effort and covered the fire with his body. The explosion was avoided at the cost of the life of the brave artilleryman.

Commander of the 3rd Leningrad Partisan Brigade.

A native of Petrograd, Alexander German, according to some sources, was a native of Germany. He served in the army since 1933. When the war started, I joined the scouts. He worked behind enemy lines, commanded a partisan detachment that terrified enemy soldiers. His brigade destroyed several thousand fascist soldiers and officers, derailed hundreds of trains and blew up hundreds of cars.

The Nazis staged a real hunt for Herman. In 1943, his partisan detachment was surrounded in the Pskov region. Making his way to his own, the brave commander died from an enemy bullet.

Commander of the 30th Separate Guards Tank Brigade of the Leningrad Front

Vladislav Khrustitsky was drafted into the Red Army back in the 20s. At the end of the 30s he completed armored courses. Since the fall of 1942, he commanded the 61st separate light tank brigade.

He distinguished himself during Operation Iskra, which marked the beginning of the defeat of the Germans on the Leningrad Front.

Killed in the battle near Volosovo. In 1944, the enemy retreated from Leningrad, but from time to time they attempted to counterattack. During one of these counterattacks tank brigade Khrustitsky fell into a trap.

Despite heavy fire, the commander ordered the offensive to continue. He radioed to his crews with the words: “Fight to the death!” - and went forward first. Unfortunately, the brave tanker died in this battle. And yet the village of Volosovo was liberated from the enemy.

Commander of a partisan detachment and brigade.

Before the war he worked for railway. In October 1941, when the Germans were already near Moscow, he himself volunteered for a complex operation in which his railway experience was needed. Was thrown behind enemy lines. There he came up with the so-called “coal mines” (in fact, these are just mines disguised as coal). With the help of this simple but effective weapon, hundreds of enemy trains were blown up in three months.

Zaslonov actively agitated the local population to go over to the side of the partisans. The Nazis, having realized this, dressed their soldiers in Soviet uniform. Zaslonov mistook them for defectors and ordered them to join the partisan detachment. The way was open for the insidious enemy. A battle ensued, during which Zaslonov died. A reward was announced for Zaslonov, alive or dead, but the peasants hid his body, and the Germans did not get it.

Commander of a small partisan detachment.

Efim Osipenko fought back in Civil War. Therefore, when the enemy captured his land, without thinking twice, he joined the partisans. Together with five other comrades, he organized a small partisan detachment that committed sabotage against the Nazis.

During one of the operations, it was decided to undermine the enemy personnel. But the detachment had little ammunition. The bomb was made from an ordinary grenade. Osipenko himself had to install the explosives. He crawled to the railway bridge and, seeing the train approaching, threw it in front of the train. There was no explosion. Then the partisan himself hit the grenade with a pole from a railway sign. It worked! A long train with food and tanks went downhill. The detachment commander survived, but completely lost his sight.

For this feat, he was the first in the country to be awarded the “Partisan of the Patriotic War” medal.

Peasant Matvey Kuzmin was born three years before the abolition of serfdom. And he died, becoming the oldest holder of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

His story contains many references to the story of another famous peasant - Ivan Susanin. Matvey also had to lead the invaders through the forest and swamps. And, like the legendary hero, he decided to stop the enemy at the cost of his life. He sent his grandson ahead to warn a detachment of partisans who had stopped nearby. The Nazis were ambushed. A fight ensued. Matvey Kuzmin died at the hands of a German officer. But he did his job. He was 84 years old.

A partisan who was part of a sabotage and reconnaissance group at the headquarters of the Western Front.

While studying at school, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya wanted to enter literary institute. But these plans were not destined to come true - the war interfered. In October 1941, Zoya came to the recruiting station as a volunteer and, after a short training at a school for saboteurs, was transferred to Volokolamsk. There, an 18-year-old partisan fighter, along with adult men, performed dangerous tasks: mined roads and destroyed communication centers.

During one of the sabotage operations, Kosmodemyanskaya was caught by the Germans. She was tortured, forcing her to give up her own people. Zoya heroically endured all the trials without saying a word to her enemies. Seeing that it was impossible to achieve anything from the young partisan, they decided to hang her.

Kosmodemyanskaya bravely accepted the tests. A moment before her death, she shouted to the crowd local residents: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender!” The girl’s courage shocked the peasants so much that they later retold this story to front-line correspondents. And after publication in the Pravda newspaper, the whole country learned about Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat. She became the first woman to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.