Who really betrayed the Young Guard? Who was the traitor in the Young Guard?


I arrived in Krasnodon on the morning of May 8 to meet several good people there and discuss humanitarian matters. But the realities of Novorossiya made their own adjustments, namely, there was a global drop in communications. Neither local nor Russian numbers were called from approximately five in the evening on May 7th until noon on the 8th. By at least, it was at 5 pm on the 7th that I started calling alonso_kexano , but couldn't get through.
On the 8th I met Vera, who was coming from Moscow, in Krasnodon odinokiy_orc , which carried banners for the May 9th parade in Stakhanov and vitamins for the grandfather-veteran. We didn’t have time to agree on the exact meeting place, so I spent some time running circles around Krasnodon, trying to find some way to get through. However, we successfully met at the bus station. To connect with e_m_rogov , with whom it was also planned to meet and devirtualize, there was no possibility. So we went to the Young Guard Museum, and then walked to Mine No. 5, the same one where the Young Guards were executed.


Krasnodon is the first large settlement after the border. Now he is relatively in the rear. But all the same, war is war, and the comparative prosperity of Krasnodon does not mean at all that people there are not afraid of war or do not experience problems due to the lack of salaries and pensions. The museum staff works enthusiastically without receiving a salary. Our guide mentioned that she was afraid of air bombing; according to her, it was much worse than even artillery.
The impressive Red Banner flies over the city's central square.


It is huge, and, judging by the clearly visible seams, I believe it is self-sewn. In general, in Novorossiya before May 9 there were a considerable number of red banners. Apparently, when it is not possible to raise the Victory Banner, they simply hang out a red banner. However, as my friend Roman from Stakhanov said, “we miss you here without the red banners.” They symbolize not only Victory, but are also associated with the good times of the USSR for Donbass, when the region prospered and was part of a single power with the RSFSR.

Museum and surroundings

In front of the Young Guard Museum we came across the house of Oleg Koshevoy

Memorial plaque


Busts of the Young Guards


We walked along the alley with monuments to them and Fadeev, who wrote the novel


And we went to the museum itself


There I photographed an exhibition of children's drawings for May 9th

Here is a whole allegory of the history of the Second World War being reshaped in a living way.

And here the child drew more from the stories of his brother or father than from his grandfather or great-grandfather. What can you do, they also had to fight, defending their native land

The inscription is in Ukrainian, as the children of the Russian Krasnodon were taught in schools in Ukraine, and this did not stop the local authorities from sending the drawing to the exhibition

The museum itself, despite the war, is open. Although the collections were packed in case of need to evacuate.
Parents of Young Guards

I was especially interested in the portrait of the Knight of St. George - the father of Ulyana Gromova

Prehistory. The lands of the modern LPR are the Cossack region, the territory of the Don Army

The first mines in Krasnodon, their life and the revolution of 1917

Life in a mining town in the 30s. Stakhanov movement

Childhood

Komsomol tickets?

School years of the future Young Guard

School essay

War

Especially for tarkhil photographed medical instruments

Field radio

Workers of Krasnodon who tried to sabotage work for Germany, and were brutally executed for this by punitive forces (they were buried alive in the ground), which some future Young Guards witnessed

Camps and work in Germany, where residents of Krasnodon were taken

Life during the occupation

Young guard

Oath. According to the guide, the Krasnodon militia slightly altered the text to suit modern realities, and pronounced it as an oath.

Arson by the Young Guard of the Labor Exchange building, which saved many people from being deported to Germany

Banners raised in Krasnodon on the anniversary of the Great October Revolution

An amateur club where the Young Guards held their meetings

Preserved surroundings and costumes

Dress by Lyubov Shevtsova

Suicide letters

Arrest

On the left is a photograph of a prison (or rather, not even an adequate prison, but a bathhouse adapted for it, not really heated, and in January, when the Young Guards were arrested, extremely uncomfortable)

Camera

Interrogation room, or rather torture room


The noose is presented because one of the tortures was to simulate hanging. A man was hanged, he began to choke, he was taken down, brought to his senses, asked to confess, and the procedure was repeated as a result of his refusal.

Lyuba Shevtsova, one of the last Young Guards was shot. They wanted to execute her with a bullet in the back of the head, but she didn’t want to kneel, so they shot her in the face

Mine No. 5 is the place of execution of the main group. Personal items by which relatives identified the dead children

The FSB Central Archive provided us with the opportunity to study Case No. 20056 - twenty-eight volumes of investigation materials on charges of policemen and German gendarmes in the massacre of the underground organization “Young Guard”, which operated in the Ukrainian city of Krasnodon in 1942.

Let us recall that the novel “The Young Guard,” which we have not re-read for a long time, tells in detail about these events. The writer Fadeev made a special trip to Krasnodon after his release and wrote an essay for Pravda, and then a book.

Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Ulyana Gromova, Sergei Tyulenin and Lyubov Shevtsova were immediately awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

After this, not only the dead, but even the surviving “Young Guards” no longer belonged to themselves, but to Fadeev. In 1951, at the insistence of the Central Committee, he introduced communist mentors into his book. Here and in real life, kilometers of dissertations were written about their role in the leadership of the Krasnodon youth underground. And not the writer from eyewitnesses, but real participants in the events began to ask the writer: what was the Young Guard really doing? Who led it? Who betrayed her? Fadeev replied: “I wrote a novel, not a story.”

The investigation was hot on the trail when not all the witnesses and accused had yet read the novel, which quickly became a classic. This means that in their memory and testimony, the well-known underground book heroes have not yet managed to replace the completely real boys and girls executed by the Krasnodon police.

The “Young Guard” was invented twice. First at the Krasnodon police. Then Alexander Fadeev. Before a criminal case was opened regarding the theft of New Year's gifts at a local bazaar, SUCH an underground youth organization that we have known about since childhood did not exist in Krasnodon.

Or did it still exist?

So, the facts.

FROM CASE MATERIALS No. 20056:
Valya Borts: “I joined the Young Guard through my school friend Seryozha Safonov, who introduced me to Sergei Tyulenin in August 1942. At that time the organization was small and was called the “Hammer” detachment. Took the oath.

The commander was Viktor Tretyakevich, the commissar was Oleg Koshevoy, and the members of the headquarters were Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin and Ulyana Gromova. Later the headquarters was expanded to include Lyuba Shevtsova.”

Korostylev, engineer of the Krasnougol trust : “One day at the beginning of October 1942, I handed over a radio receiver to the Young Guard. The reports they recorded were multiplied and then distributed throughout the city.”

Valya Borts:“...On November 7, red flags were hung on the buildings of the coal directorate and the club of mine No. 5-bis. The labor exchange was burned, in which lists of Soviet citizens subject to deportation to Germany were kept. Shevtsova, Lukyanchenko and Tyulenin set fire to the labor exchange.”

That's all, perhaps. Of course, it is not for us to judge whether this is a lot or a little when it comes to life and death, but even the gendarmes and police officers involved in Case No. 20056, just three years after the Krasnodon events, had difficulty remembering the Young Guard. They were never able to say how many people it consisted of or what it actually did. At first, they didn’t even understand why, out of everything they managed to do during the war, the investigation was interested in this short episode with teenagers.

In fact, only twenty-five gendarmes were left to support the Ordnung of the Germans in the entire area. Then five more were seconded. They were led by a fifty-year-old German - the head of the gendarmerie Renatus, a member of the NSDAP since 1933. And for every thirty Germans in the area there were four hundred police officers. And the competition for a position in the police was such that they hired only on recommendation.

“On the facts of arson at the labor exchange and hanging flags,” the police reported the next day: eight people were arrested. The head of the gendarmerie without hesitation ordered everyone to be shot.

In the Case there is a mention of only one victim of police reporting - the daughter of the collective farm manager Kaseev, who admitted to hanging the flags. It is absolutely known that Kaseeva was never a “Young Guard” and is not on the list of heroes.

The “culprit” of posting leaflets was also found immediately. The wife of a coal directorate engineer was just solving family problems. And, in order to get rid of her husband, she reported to the police: there was an engineer here who was in contact with the partisans. The "poster" was miraculously saved by his neighbor next door, burgomaster Statsenko.

Where did the myth about a huge, branched underground organization that poses a terrible threat to the Germans come from?

On the night of December 25-26, 1942, near the Krasnodon district government building, a German car containing mail and New Year's gifts for German soldiers and officers was robbed.

The driver of the car reported this to the Krasnodon gendarmerie.

The head of the Krasnodon police, Solikovsky, gathered all the police, showed a pack of cigarettes of the same brand as the stolen ones, and ordered them to immediately go to the local bazaar and bring to the police anyone who would sell such cigarettes.

Soon, the translator Burgart and a German in civilian clothes walking with him through the bazaar managed to detain twelve-year-old Alexander Grinev (aka Puzyrev). The boy admitted that Evgeny Moshkov gave him the cigarettes. Eight boxes of cigarettes and cookies were found in Moshkov’s apartment.

So the head of the club Moshkov, head. string circle Tretyakevich and some others.

And then they took Olga Lyadskaya.

In fact, she was arrested completely by accident. They came to Tosa Mashchenko in search of the “robber” Valya Borts, who by that time was already walking towards the front line. The policeman liked Tosya's tablecloth and decided to take it with him. Under the tablecloth lay an unsent letter from Lyadskaya to her acquaintance Fyodor Izvarin.

She wrote that she did not want to go to Germany for “SLAVERY”. That's right: in quotes and in capital letters.

Investigator Zakharov promised to hang Lyadskaya at the market for her capital letters in quotation marks, if he did not immediately name others dissatisfied with the new order. She asked: who is already in the police? The investigator cheated and named Tosya Mashchenko, who had been released by him by that time. Then Lyadskaya showed that Mashchenko was unreliable.

The investigator didn't expect anything more. But Lyadskaya was hooked and named a couple more names - those she remembered from active Komsomol work before the war, who had nothing to do with the Young Guard.

FROM CASE MATERIALS No. 20056:
Lyadskaya:“I named the people whom I suspected of partisan activity: Kozyrev, Tretyakevich, Nikolaenko, because they once asked me if there were partisans on our farm and if I was helping them. And after Solikovsky threatened to beat me up, I betrayed Mashchenko’s friend Borts...”

And eighty more people.

Even according to post-war lists, there were about seventy members of the organization.

For a long time, in addition to Lyadskaya, the “Young Guard” Pocheptsov was considered an “official” traitor. Indeed, investigator Cherenkov recalls that Gennady Pocheptsov, the nephew of the former chief of the Krasnodon police, handed over the group in the village of Pervomaisky to Solikovsky and Zakharov in writing. And he issued the MG headquarters in this order: Tretyakevich (chief), Lukashev, Zemnukhov, Safonov and Koshevoy. He also named the commander of his “five” - Popov.

Brought to the police, Tosya Mashchenko admitted that she had distributed leaflets. And she extradited Tretyakevich, who had been extradited for the third time since the New Year.

Tretyakevich betrayed Shevtsov and began calling “Young Guards” entire villages.

The circle of suspects expanded so much that chief Solikovsky even managed to get the son of burgomaster Statsenko into the police force. And, judging by the post-war testimony of the pope, Zhora told everything he knew about his friends whispering behind their backs. His father rescued him, just like the engineer who had been arrested “for leaflets” before. By the way, he also came running and reported that Oleg Koshevoy’s radio was being listened to illegally in his apartment.

Indeed, the “Young Guard” Gennady Pocheptsov, who after the war was made “an official traitor to the Young Guard,” betrayed on his own initiative. But he no longer told Solikovsky anything new.

The documents mention the Chinese Yakov Ka-Fu as a traitor to the Young Guard. Investigator Zakharov told investigator Orlov already in Italy, at the very end of the war, that this Chinese man betrayed the organization. The post-war investigation was able to establish only one thing: Yakov could have been offended by the Soviet government, because before the war he was removed from work due to his poor knowledge of the Russian language.

Imagine how the offended Chinese Ka-Fu betrayed the underground organization. How he answered the investigators' questions in detail - probably on his fingers. It is strange that the list of “Young Guards” did not include, if not all of China, then at least the entire Krasnodon region “Shanghai”.

For decades there has been a debate about how the real history of the Young Guard differs from that written by Fadeev. It turns out that the argument was pointless. Case

No. 20056 that the book embellished not life, but a myth already created before the writer. At first, the exploits of the youth underground were multiplied by the Krasnodon police themselves.

For what? Let's not forget that the Krasnodon police did not fall from the moon and did not come from the Third Reich. To report to your superiors, uncovering an ordinary robbery is much less significant than an entire underground organization. And once opened, it was not difficult for the former Soviets to believe in it. For former Soviets - on both sides of the front.

But all this was just the prehistory of the Young Guard. The story begins only now.

FROM CASE MATERIALS No. 20056:
Maria Borts:“...When I entered the office, Solikovsky was sitting at the table. In front of him lay a set of whips: thick, thin, wide, belts with lead tips. Vanya Zemnukhov, mutilated beyond recognition, stood by the sofa. His eyes were red, his eyelids were very inflamed. There are abrasions and bruises on the face. All of Vanya’s clothes were covered in blood, the shirt on his back was stuck to his body, and blood was seeping through it.”

Nina Zemnukhova:“From a resident of Krasnodon, Lensky Rafail Vasilyevich, who was kept in the same cell with Vanya, I learned that the executioners took Vanya, naked, into the police yard and beat him in the snow until he lost consciousness.

... Zhenya Moshkov was taken to the Kamenka River, frozen in an ice hole and then thawed in a stove in a nearby hut, after which they were again taken to the police for interrogation...

...Volodya Osmukhin had a bone broken in his arm, and every time during interrogation they twisted his broken arm..."

Tyulenina (Sergei's mother):“On the third day after my arrest, I was summoned for questioning where Seryozha was. Solikovsky, Zakharov and Cherenkov forced me to strip naked, and then beat me with whips until I lost consciousness. And when I woke up, in my presence they began to burn Seryozha’s right hand wound with a hot rod. The fingers were placed under the doors and squeezed until they were completely dead. Needles were driven under the nails and hung on ropes. The air in the room where the torture was carried out was filled with the smell of burnt meat.

...In the cells, policeman Avsetsin did not give us water for whole days in order to at least slightly moisten the blood that had dried in our mouth and throat.”

Cherenkov (police investigator):“I conducted a confrontation between Gromova, Ivanikhina and Zemnukhov. At that moment, Solikovsky and his wife entered the office. Having laid Gromova and Ivanikhin on the floor, I began to beat them. Solikovsky, egged on by his wife, snatched the whip from my hands and began to deal with the arrested himself.

... Since the prison cells were filled with young people, many, like Olga Ivantsova’s mother, were simply lying around in the corridor.”

Maria Borts:“...Solikovsky, Zakharov, Davidenko forced the girls to strip naked, and then they began to mock them, accompanied by beatings.Sometimes this was done in the presence of Solikovsky’s wife, who usually sat on the sofa and burst into laughter.

...Ulya Gromova was hung up by her braids... Her chest was trampled under boots.

...Policeman Bautkin beat Popov with a whip and forced him to lick up the blood that splashed on the wall with his tongue.”

In 1948, Sergei Gerasimov filmed his film “The Young Guard”. The whole city gathered to film the scene of the execution of underground workers at the mine. And Krasnodon roared loudly when the actor playing Oleg Koshevoy, Alexander Ivanov, was the first to go to the pit... It is unlikely that, knowing that Koshevoy was not shot at the mine, they would have cried less.

The decision to execute at mine No. 5-bis was made by the police chief Solikovsky and burgomaster Statsenko. The place was checked, Krasnodon residents had already been shot there.

According to the Case, the “Young Guards” were taken to execution in four stages. The first time, on January 13, there were thirteen girls in a truck, with six Jews attached to them. First, the Jews were shot and thrown into the pit of mine No. 5-bis. And then the girls started shouting that they were not guilty of anything. The police began to lift and tie the girls' dresses over their heads. And some were thrown into the mine alive.

The next day, sixteen more people were taken to the mine on three carts, including Moshkov and Popov.

Tretyakevich was thrown into the mine alive because he managed to grab police investigator Zakharov and tried to drag him along with him. So decide for yourself what Viktor Tretyakevich really was like, about whom not a single writer wrote a single line for twenty years after his execution.

The third time - on January 15 - seven girls and five boys were taken out on two carts. And for the last time, in early February, Tyulenin and four others were taken out on one cart. Then the execution almost fell through. Kovalev and Grigorenko managed to untie each other’s hands. Grigorenko was killed by the translator Burgart, and Kovalev was only wounded - then they found his coat, pierced by a bullet. The rest were hastily shot and thrown into the mine.

For almost a week, Oleg Koshevoy hid from persecution in the villages, dressed in a woman’s dress. Then he lay down for three days - under a bed in a relative’s apartment.

Koshevoy thought that the Krasnodon police were looking for him as a commissar of the Young Guard. In fact, he was caught as a participant in the robbery of a car with New Year's gifts. But they took me for neither one nor the other - simply because in the front-line zone they grabbed and searched all the young people.

Koshevoy was taken to the Rovno district gendarmerie to investigator Orlov. Oleg knew: this is the same Ivan Orlov who once called in for questioning and raped the teacher. And the Germans even had to “meet the population halfway” and remove Orlov from Krasnodon here, to Rovenki.

Koshevoy shouted to Orlov: I am an underground commissar! But the investigator didn’t listen about the Young Guard: how could real partisans pretend to be so stupid? But the young man irritated the investigator so much that during six days of interrogation Oleg turned gray.

The Germans from the firing squad testified about how Koshevoy died. They hardly remembered how, during breakfast, the chief of the gendarmerie Fromme came into the dining room and said: hurry up, there is work. As usual, they took the prisoners into the forest, divided them into two parties, and placed them facing the pits...

But they clearly remembered that after the volley one gray-haired boy did not fall into the hole, but remained lying on the edge. He turned his head and simply looked in their direction. Gendarme Drewitz could not stand it, he approached and shot him in the back of the head with a rifle.

For the Germans, neither the name of Oleg Koshevoy nor the “Young Guard” existed. But even a few years after the war, they did not forget the look of the gray-haired boy lying on the edge of the pit...

After the liberation of Krasnodon, on March 1, 1943, forty-nine corpses of the dead were placed in coffins and transported to the park named after. Komsomol. It snowed, immediately turning into mud. The funeral lasted from morning until late evening.

In 1949, Lyadskaya asked to be given the opportunity to independently complete the 10th grade program, because she had been in prison since the age of seventeen. Olga Lyadskaya was rehabilitated in the mid-nineties on the grounds that she was not a member of the Young Guard youth Komsomol organization, and therefore could not extradite her.

In 1960, Viktor Tretyakevich was included in the lists of the “Young Guard” and was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

The editors express their gratitude to the leadership of the Central Election Commission of the FSB.


share:

Novaya Gazeta completes a series of publications about the legendary underground organization “Young Guard”, which was created exactly 75 years ago. And about how people live today in the Lugansk region, where the active phase of the last hostilities ended in March not in 1943, but in 2015, and where there is still a front line. It is also the demarcation line established by the Minsk agreements between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the formations of the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”).

After studying the party archives stored in Lugansk, Novaya special correspondent Yulia POLUKHINA returned to Krasnodon. Based on archive materials, in previous publications we were able to talk about how the underground Komsomol organization of Krasnodon was created in September 1942, what role in its work was played by connections with partisan detachments and underground regional committees of Voroshilovograd (as Lugansk was called during the war) and Rostov-on-Don. on Don and why the commissar of the Young Guard was first Viktor Tretyakevich (the prototype of the “traitor” Stakhevich in Fadeev’s novel), and then Oleg Koshevoy. And both suffered posthumously for ideological reasons. Tretyakevich was branded a traitor, although even the author of The Young Guard himself said that Stakhevich was a collective image. Koshevoy, on the contrary, suffered during the wave of struggle against Soviet mythology: they began to talk about him, too, as a collective image that Fadeev “drew” to please the party leadership.

Perhaps, neither the Krasnodon nor Lugansk archives make it possible to say unambiguously who was the leader of the Young Guard, exactly how many large and small feats (or, in modern terms, special operations) it had to its credit, and which of the guys already captured by the police , gave a confession under torture.

But the fact is that the Young Guard is not a myth. It united living young people, almost children, whose main feat, accomplished against their will, was martyrdom.

We will talk about this tragedy in the last publication of the series about the Krasnodon residents, relying on the memories of the relatives of the Young Guard, the stories of their descendants, as well as interrogation reports of policemen and gendarmes involved in torture and executions.

Boys play football at the memorial to the executed Young Guards. Photo: Yulia Polukhina / Novaya Gazeta

Genuine, material evidence of what happened in Krasnodon in the first two weeks of 1943, when the Young Guard members and many members of the underground party organization were first arrested and then executed, began to disappear in the first days after the liberation of the city by the Red Army. The more valuable is each unit of the scientific funds of the Young Guard Museum. The museum staff introduces me to them.

“Here we have materials on policemen Melnikov and Podtynov. I remember how they were tried in 1965. The trial took place in the Palace of Culture named after. Gorky, the microphones were connected to speakers on the street, it was winter, and the whole city stood and listened. Even today we cannot reliably say how many of these policemen there were; one was caught in 1959, and the second in 1965,” says the chief custodian of the funds, Lyubov Viktorovna. For her, as for most museum workers, “The Young Guard” is a very personal story. And this is the main reason that in the summer of 2014, despite the approach of hostilities, they refused to evacuate: “We even started putting everything in boxes, what to send first, what to send second, but then we made a joint decision that we would not go anywhere . As part of decommunization, we were not ready to lie on the shelves and become covered in dust. At that time there was no such law in Ukraine, but such conversations were already underway.”

Decommunization really overtook Krasnodon, which ceased to exist because in 2015 it was renamed Sorokino. However, this is not felt at all in the museum, and none of the local residents would even think of calling themselves Sorokinites.

“Look at this photo. On the walls of the cells in which the Young Guard members were kept after their arrest, inscriptions are clearly visible,” Lyubov Viktorovna shows me one of the rarities. And explains what its value is. — These photos were taken by Leonid Yablonsky, a photojournalist for the 51st Army newspaper “Son of the Fatherland.” By the way, he was the first to film not only the story about the Young Guards, but also the Adzhimushkai quarries and the Bagerovo ditch, where the bodies of the executed residents of Kerch were dumped after mass executions. And the photo from the Yalta conference is also his. This, by the way, did not prevent Yablonsky from being repressed in 1951 for allegedly disrespectful statements about Stalin, but after the death of the leader, the photographer was released and then rehabilitated. So, according to Yablonsky, when the Red Army soldiers entered Krasnodon, it was already dark. Everything in the cells was scratched with inscriptions - both the window sills and the walls. Yablonsky took a few pictures and decided that he would return in the morning. But when I came in the morning, there was nothing there, not a single inscription. And who erased it, not the fascists? This was done by local residents, we still don’t know what the guys wrote there, and which of the locals erased all these inscriptions.”

“Children were identified by their clothes”

The pit of mine No. 5 is a mass grave of the Young Guards. Photo: RIA Novosti

But it is known that Vasily Gromov, the stepfather of Young Guard member Gennady Pocheptsov, was initially entrusted with leading the work of extracting the bodies of those executed from the pit of mine No. 5. Under the Germans, Gromov was a secret police agent and was directly related to at least the arrests of underground fighters. Therefore, of course, he did not want bodies with traces of inhuman torture to be brought to the surface.

This is how this moment is described in the memoirs of Maria Vintsenovskaya, the mother of the deceased Yuri Vintsenovsky:

“For a long time he tormented us with his slowness. Either he doesn’t know how to remove it, or he doesn’t know how to install the winch, or he just delayed extraction. His miner parents told him what and how to do. Finally, everything was ready. We hear Gromov’s voice: “Who voluntarily agrees to go down into the tub?” - "I! I!" - we hear. One was my 7th grade student Shura Nezhivov, the other was a worker Puchkov.<…>We, the parents, were allowed to take a seat in the front row, but at a decent distance. There was absolute silence. Such silence that you could hear your own heartbeat. Here comes the tub. Shouts of “Girl, girl” can be heard. It was Tosya Eliseenko. She was one of the first batch dropped. The corpse was placed on a stretcher, covered with a sheet and taken to the pre-mine bathhouse. Snow was laid out along all the walls in the bathhouse, and corpses were laid on the snow. The tub descends again. This time the guys shouted: “And this is a boy.” It was Vasya Gukov, who was also shot in the first batch and also hung on a protruding log. Third fourth. “And this naked one, he probably died there, his hands are folded on his chest.” Like an electric current went through my body. “Mine, mine!” - I screamed. Words of consolation were heard from all sides. “Calm down, this is not Yurochka.” What difference does it make, if not the fourth, then the fifth will be Yuri. The third was Misha Grigoriev, the fourth was Yura Vintsenovsky, the fifth was V. Zagoruiko, Lukyanchenko, Sopova and the subsequent Seryozha Tyulenin.<…>Meanwhile, evening came, there were no more corpses in the mine. Gromov, after consulting with the doctor Nadezhda Fedorovna Privalova, who was present here, announced that he would no longer remove corpses, since the doctor said that cadaveric poison is lethal. There will be a mass grave here. Work to remove the corpses was stopped. The next morning we were back at the pit, now we were allowed to go into the bathhouse. Each mother tried to recognize her own in the corpse, but it was difficult because... the children were completely disfigured. For example, I recognized my son only by signs on the fifth day. Zagoruika O.P. I was sure that my son Volodya was in Rovenki ( Some of the Young Guards were taken from Krasnodon to the Gestapo, they were executed already in Rovenki.Yu.P.) passed a message there for him, walked calmly around the corpses. Suddenly a terrible cry, fainting. She saw a familiar patch on the fifth corpse's trousers; it was Volodya. Despite the fact that the parents identified their children, they went to the pit several times during the day. I went too. One evening my sister and I went to the pit. From a distance we noticed that a man was sitting just above the abyss of the pit and smoking.<…>It was Androsov, the father of Androsova Lida. “It’s good for you, they found the body of your son, but I won’t find the body of my daughter. Corpse poison is lethal. I may die from the poison of my daughter's corpse, but I must get her. Just think, it's a tricky thing to manage the extraction. I’ve been working in the mine for twenty years, I have a lot of experience, there’s nothing tricky about it. I’ll go to the city party committee and ask permission to direct the extraction.” And the next day, having received permission, Androsov got to work.”

And here is a fragment of the memoirs of Makar Androsov himself. He is a hard worker, a miner, and he describes the most terrible moments of his life casually, like work:

“The medical examination has arrived. Doctors said that the bodies could be removed, but special rubber clothing was needed. Many parents of the Young Guard knew me as a career miner, so they insisted that I be appointed responsible for rescue work.<…>Residents volunteered to help. The bodies were removed by mountain rescue workers. Once I tried to drive with them to the end, deep into the pit, but I couldn’t. A suffocating, corpse-like smell came from the mine. Rescuers said that the mine shaft was littered with stones and trolleys. Two corpses were placed in a box. After each extraction, the parents rushed to the box, crying and screaming. The bodies were taken to the mine bathhouse. The cement floor of the bathhouse was covered with snow, and the bodies were placed directly on the floor. A doctor was on duty at the pit and revived the parents, who were losing consciousness. The corpses were disfigured beyond recognition. Many parents recognized their children only by their clothes. There was no water in the mine. The bodies retained their shape, but began to “go wrong.” Many bodies were found without arms or legs. Rescue operations took 8 days. Daughter Lida was removed from the pit on the third day. I recognized her by her clothes and the green cloaks that her neighbor sewed. She was arrested wearing these burkas. Lida had a string around her neck. They probably shot him in the forehead, because there was a large wound on the back of the head and a smaller one on the forehead. One arm, leg, and eye were missing. The cloth skirt was torn and was held only by the waist; the jumper was also torn. When they took out Lida’s body, I fainted. A.A. Startseva said that she recognized Lida even by her face. There was a smile on his face. A neighbor (who was present when the corpses were removed) says that Lida’s entire body was bloodied. In total, 71 corpses were taken out of the pit. Coffins were made from old boards from dismantled houses. On February 27 or 28, we brought the bodies of our children from Krasnodon to the village. The coffins were placed in one row at the village council. The coffin of Lida and Kolya Sumsky was placed in the grave next to each other.”

Tyulenin and his five

Sergey Tyulenin

When you read these “sick” memories of the parents, although recorded after years, you understand what exactly eludes during disputes about the historical truth in the history of the “Young Guard”. That they were children. They were involved in a big adult nightmare and, although they perceived it with absolute, even deliberate seriousness, it was still perceived as a kind of game. And who at 16 years old would believe in an imminent tragic ending?

Most of the parents of the Young Guard had no idea what they were doing with their friends in the city occupied by the Germans. This was also facilitated by the principle of secrecy: the Young Guards, as you know, were divided into fives, and ordinary underground fighters knew only members of their own group. Most often, the fives included boys and girls who were friends or simply knew each other well before the war. The first group, which later became the most active five, was formed around Sergei Tyulenin. One can argue endlessly about who in the Young Guard was a commissar and who was a commander, but I am confident: the leader, without whom there would be no legend, is Tyulenin.

In the archives of the Young Guard Museum there is his biography:

“Sergei Gavrilovich Tyulenin was born on August 25, 1925 in the village of Kiselevo, Novosilsky district, Oryol region, into a working-class family. In 1926, his entire family moved to live in the city of Krasnodon, where Seryozha grew up. There were 10 children in the family. Sergei, the youngest, enjoyed the love and care of his older sisters. He grew up as a very lively, active, cheerful boy who was interested in everything.<…>Seryozha was sociable, gathered all his comrades around him, loved excursions, hiking, and Seryozha especially loved war games. His dream was to become a pilot. Having completed seven classes, Sergei is trying to enter a flight school. For health reasons, he was considered quite fit, but was not enrolled due to his age. I had to go to school again: eighth grade.<….>The war begins, and Tyulenin voluntarily joins the labor army to build defensive structures.<…>At this time, at the direction of the Bolshevik underground, a Komsomol organization was created. At the suggestion of Sergei Tyulenin, it was called the “Young Guard”...

Tyulenin was one of the members of the Young Guard headquarters and took part in most military operations: distributing leaflets, setting fire to stacks of bread, collecting weapons.

November 7th was approaching. Sergei's group received the task of hoisting a flag at school No. 4. ( Tyulenin, Dadyshev, Tretyakevich, Yurkin, Shevtsova studied at this school. —Yu.P.). This is what Radiy Yurkin, a 14-year-old participant in the operation, recalls:

“On the long-awaited night before the holiday, we set off to complete the task.<…>Seryozha Tyulenin was the first to climb the creaky ladder. We are behind him with grenades at the ready. We looked around and immediately got to work. Styopa Safonov and Seryozha climbed onto the roof using wire fastenings. Lenya Dadyshev stood at the dormer window, peering and listening to see if anyone had sneaked up on us. I attached the banner towel to the pipe. All is ready. “Senior miner” Stepa Safonov, as we later called him, declared that the mines were ready.<…>Our banner flies proudly in the air, and below in the attic lie anti-tank mines attached to the flagpole.<…>In the morning a lot of people gathered near the school. Enraged policemen rushed to the attic. But now they came back, confused, muttering something about mines.”

This is what the second loud and successful action of the Young Guard looks like in Yurkin’s memoirs: the arson of the labor exchange, which allowed two and a half thousand Krasnodon residents to avoid being sent to forced labor in Germany, including many of the Young Guards who had received summonses the day before.

“On the night of December 5-6, Sergei, Lyuba Shevtsova, Viktor Lukyanchenko quietly snuck into the attic of the exchange, scattered pre-prepared incendiary cartridges and set the exchange on fire.”

And here the ringleader was Tyulenin.

One of Sergei's closest friends was Leonid Dadyshev. Leonid's father, an Azerbaijani of Iranian origin, came to Russia to look for his brother, but then married a Belarusian woman. They moved to Krasnodon in 1940. Nadezhda Dadysheva, Leonid Dadyshev’s younger sister, described these months in her memoirs:

“Sergei Tyulenin studied with his brother, and we lived next door to him. Obviously, this was the impetus for their future friendship, which was not interrupted until the end of his short but bright life.<…>Lenya loved music. He had a mandala, and he could sit for hours and play Russian and Ukrainian folk melodies on it. My favorite songs were about the heroes of the Civil War. There were also abilities in the field of drawing. His favorite themes in his drawings were warships (destroyers, battleships), cavalry in battle, and portraits of commanders. (During the search during the arrest of my brother, the police took a lot of his drawings.)<…>One day my brother asked me to bake some homemade crumpets. He knew that a column of Red Army prisoners of war would be escorted through our city, and, wrapping donuts in a bundle, he set off with his comrades to the main highway. The next day, his comrades said that Lenya threw a bundle of food into the crowd of prisoners of war, and also threw his winter hat with earflaps, and he himself wore a cap in the severe frost.”

The ending of Nadezhda Dadysheva’s memoirs takes us back to the pit of mine No. 5.

“On February 14, the city of Krasnodon was liberated by units of the Red Army. That same day, my mother and I went to the police building, where we saw a terrible picture. In the police yard we saw a mountain of corpses. These were executed Red Army prisoners of war, covered with straw on top. My mother and I went into the former police station: all the doors were wide open, broken chairs and broken dishes were lying on the floor. And on the walls of all the cells were written arbitrary words and poems of the dead. In one cell, the entire wall was written in large letters: “Death to the German occupiers!” On one door was scratched with something metal: “Lenya Dadash sat here!” Mom cried a lot, and it took me a lot of effort to take her home. Literally a day later, they began to remove the corpses of the dead Young Guards from the shaft of shaft No. 5. The corpses were disfigured, but each mother recognized her son and daughter, and with each winch lifting upward, heartbreaking screams and cries of exhausted mothers could be heard for a long time.<…>More than forty years have passed since then, but it is always painful and disturbing to remember those tragic events. I cannot hear the words from the song “Eaglet” without emotion: I don’t want to think about death, believe me, at the age of 16 as a boy”... My brother died at the age of 16.”

The Dadyshevs’ mother died soon; she could not survive the death of her son. They took Leonid out of the pit, all blue because he had been whipped, with his right hand severed. Before being thrown into the pit, he was shot.

And Dadyshev’s sister Nadezhda is still alive. True, it was not possible to talk to her, because due to her serious health condition, she spends the last years of her life in a Krasnodon hospice.

Policemen and traitors

Gennady Pocheptsov

The museum's scientific collection contains not only memories of heroes and victims, but also materials about traitors and executioners. Here are excerpts from the interrogations of investigative case No. 147721 from the archives of the VUCHN-GPU-NKVD. It was investigated against police investigator Mikhail Kuleshov, agent Vasily Gromov and his stepson Gennady Pocheptsov, a 19-year-old Young Guard who, fearful of arrests, wrote a statement on the advice of his stepfather, indicating the names of his comrades.

From the protocol of interrogation of Vasily Grigorievich Gromov dated June 10, 1943.“...When at the end of December 1942, young people robbed a German car with gifts, I asked my son: was he involved in this robbery and did he receive a share of these gifts? He denied. However, when I came home, I saw that someone else was at home. But from the words of his wife, I learned that Gennady’s comrades came and smoked. Then I asked my son if there were any members of an underground youth organization among those arrested for theft. The son replied that indeed some of the organization's members had been arrested for stealing German gifts. In order to save my son’s life, and also so that the blame for belonging to my son’s organization would not fall on me, I suggested that Pocheptsov (my step-son) immediately write a statement to the police that he wanted to extradite the members of the underground youth organization. The son promised to fulfill my proposal. When I soon asked him about this, he said that he had already written a statement to the police; I didn’t ask which one he wrote.”

The police investigation into the Krasnodon case was headed by senior investigator Mikhail Kuleshov. According to archive documents, before the war he worked as a lawyer, but his career did not work out; he had a criminal record and was known for his systematic drinking. Before the war, he often received party-line reprimands from Mikhail Tretyakevich, the elder brother of the Young Guard Tretyakevich, who was later exposed as a traitor, for “everyday corruption.” And Kuleshov felt personal hostility towards him, which he later took out on Viktor Tretyakevich.


Policemen Solikovsky (on the left), Kuleshov (on the right in the central photo) and Melnikov (on the far right of the photo in the foreground).

The latter’s “betrayal” became known only from the words of Kuleshov, who was interrogated by the NKVD. Viktor Tretyakevich became the only Young Guard member whose name was deleted from the award lists; worse, on the basis of Kuleshov’s testimony, the conclusions of the “Toritsyn commission” were formed, based on the materials of which Fadeev wrote his novel.

From the protocol of interrogation of former investigator Ivan Emelyanovich Kuleshov dated May 28, 1943 .

“...The police had such an order that first of all the arrested person was brought to Solikovsky, he brought him “to consciousness” and ordered the investigator to interrogate him, draw up a report that must be handed over to him, i.e. Solikovsky, for viewing. When Davidenko brought Pocheptsov to Solikovsky’s office, and before that Solikovsky took a statement out of his pocket and asked if he wrote it. Pocheptsov answered in the affirmative, after which Solikovsky again hid this statement in his pocket.<…>Pocheptsov said that he is indeed a member of an underground youth organization existing in Krasnodon and its environs. He named the leaders of this organization, or rather, the city headquarters. Namely: Tretyakevich, Levashov, Zemnukhov, Safonov, Koshevoy. Solikovsky wrote down the named members of the organization, called the police and Zakharov and began making arrests. He ordered me to take Pocheptsov and interrogate him and present him with the interrogation protocols. During my interrogation, Pocheptsov said that the headquarters had weapons at its disposal<…>. After this, 30-40 members of the underground youth organization were arrested. I personally interrogated 12 people, including Pocheptsov, Tretyakevich, Levashov, Zemnukhov, Kulikov, Petrov, Vasily Pirozhok and others.”

From the protocol of interrogation of Gennady Prokofievich Pocheptsov dated April 8, 1943 and June 2, 1943.

“...On December 28, 1942, the police chief Solikovsky, his deputy Zakharov, the Germans and the police arrived on a sleigh at Moshkov’s house (he lived next to me). They searched Moshkov’s apartment, found some kind of bag, put it on a sled, put Moshkov in and left. My mother and I saw it all. Mother asked if Moshkov was from our organization. I said no, because I didn’t know about Moshkov’s membership in the organization. After some time, Fomin came to see me. He said that on Popov’s instructions he went to the center to find out which of the guys had been arrested. He said that Tretyakevich, Zemnukhov and Levashov were arrested. We began to discuss what we should do, where to run, who to consult, but made no decision. After Fomin left, I thought about my situation and, not finding another solution, showed cowardice and decided to write a statement to the police saying that I knew an underground youth organization.<…>Before writing a statement, I myself went to the Gorky club and saw what was going on there. Arriving there, I saw Zakharov and the Germans. They were looking for something in the club. Then Zakharov came up to me and asked if I knew Tyulenin, while he was looking at some kind of list, which contained a number of other names. I said that I don’t know Tyulenin. He went home and at home decided to hand over the members of the organization. I thought the police already knew everything..."

But in fact, it was Pocheptsov’s “letter” that played a key role. Because the guys were initially taken as thieves, and there was no evidence against them. After several days of interrogation, the police chief ordered: “Whip the thieves and drive them out.” At this time, Pocheptsov, summoned by Solikovsky, came to the police. He pointed out those he knew, primarily from the village of Pervomaika, in whose group Pocheptsov himself was. From January 4 to 5, arrests began in Pervomaika. Pocheptsov simply did not know about the existence of underground communists Lyutikov, Barakov and others. But the mechanical workshops where their cell operated were monitored by Zons agents ( Deputy Chief of the Krasnodon Gendarmerie.Yu.P.). Zons was shown lists of arrested underground workers, which included only children 16-17 years old, and then Zons ordered the arrest of Lyutikov and 20 other people, whom his agents had been closely monitoring for a long time. Thus, more than 50 people who had one connection or another with the “Young Guard” and underground communists ended up in the cells.

Testimony of police officer Alexander Davydenko.“In January, I went into the office of the police secretary, it seems, to receive my salary, and through the open door I saw in the office of the police chief Solikovsky the arrested members of the Young Guard Tretyakevich, Moshkov, Gukhov (inaudible). The police chief, Solikovsky, who was there, interrogated him, his deputy Zakharov, the translator Burkhard, a German whose last name I don’t know, and two policemen - Gukhalov and Plokhikh. The Young Guard members were interrogated about how and under what circumstances they stole gifts from cars intended for German soldiers. During this interrogation, I also went into Solikovsky’s office and saw the entire process of this interrogation. During the interrogation of Tretyakevich, Moshkov and Gukhov, they were subjected to beatings and torture. They were not only beaten, but also hung on a rope from the ceiling, imitating execution by hanging. When the Young Guards began to lose consciousness, they were taken down and doused with water on the floor, bringing them to their senses.” Victor Tretyakevich

Viktor Tretyakevich was interrogated with particular passion by Mikhail Kuleshov.

On August 18, 1943, in an open court hearing in the city of Krasnodon, the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovograd region sentenced Kuleshov, Gromov and Pocheptsov to capital punishment. The next day the sentence was carried out. They were shot publicly in the presence of five thousand people. Pocheptsov's mother Maria Gromova, as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland, was exiled to the Kustanai region of the Kazakh SSR for a period of five years with complete confiscation of property. Her further fate is unknown, but in 1991, the effect of Art. 1 of the Law of the Ukrainian SSR “On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression in Ukraine.” Due to the lack of evidence confirming the validity of prosecution, she was exonerated.

Policeman Solikovsky managed to escape and was never found. Although he was the main one among the direct perpetrators of the execution of the Young Guards in Krasnodon.

From the interrogation protocol of gendarme Walter Eichhorn dated November 20, 1948.“Under the force of torture and abuse, testimonies were obtained from those arrested about their involvement in an underground Komsomol organization operating in the city. Krasnodon. About these arrests, Master Shen ( head of the gendarme post of Cransodon.Yu.P.) reported on command to his boss Wenner. Later an order was received to shoot the youth.<…>They began to bring out into our yard one by one the arrested people, prepared to be sent to be shot; besides us, the gendarmes, there were five policemen. One car was accompanied by Commandant Sanders, and with him in the cockpit was Zons ( Deputy Chief Shen.Yu.P.), and I stood on the step of the car. The second car was accompanied by Solikovsky, and the head of the criminal police, Kuleshov, was there.<…>About ten meters from the mine, the cars stopped and were cordoned off by gendarmes and police officers who escorted them to the place of execution<…>. I personally was close to the place of execution and saw how one of the policemen one by one took the arrested from their cars, undressed them and brought them to Solikovsky, who shot them at the mine shaft and threw the corpses into the pit of the mine ... "

Initially, the case of the Young Guards was handled by the Krasnodon police, because they were accused of a banal criminal offense. But when a clear political component emerged, the gendarmerie of the city of Rovenki became involved in the case. Some of the Young Guards were taken there because the Red Army was already advancing on Krasnodon. Oleg Koshevoy managed to escape, but was arrested in Rovenki.

Oleg Koshevoy

Later, this created the basis for speculation that Koshevoy was allegedly an agent of the Gestapo (according to another version, a member of the OUN-UPA, an organization banned in Russia), and for this reason he was not shot, but went with the Germans to Rovenki and then disappeared, starting a new living on false documents.

Similar stories are known, for example, if we recall the Krasnodon executioners, then not only Solikovsky, but also policemen Vasily Podtynny and Ivan Melnikov managed to escape. Melnikov, by the way, was directly related not only to the torture of Young Guards, but also to the executions of miners and communists buried alive in the Krasnodon city park in September 1942. After the retreat from Krasnodon, he fought as part of the Wehrmacht, was captured in Moldova, and in 1944 was drafted into the Red Army. He fought with dignity and was awarded medals, but in 1965 he was exposed as a former policeman and subsequently shot.

The fate of policeman Podtynny developed in a similar way: he was tried many years after the crime was committed, but in Krasnodon, in public. By the way, during the trial and investigation, Podtynny testified that Viktor Tretyakevich was not a traitor and that investigator Kuleshov slandered him for reasons of personal revenge. After this, Tretyakevich was rehabilitated (but Stakhevich in Fadeev’s novel remained a traitor).

However, all these analogies do not apply to Koshevoy. The archives contain protocols of interrogations of direct participants and eyewitnesses of his execution in Rovenki.

From the interrogation protocol of Ivan Orlov, a Rovenki police officer:

“I first learned about the existence of the Young Guard at the end of January 1943 from Komsomol member Oleg Koshevoy, who was arrested in Rovenki. Then people who came to Rovenki at the beginning of 1943 told me about this organization. Krasnodon police investigators Usachev and Didik, who took part in the investigation into the Young Guard case.<…>I remember that I asked Usachev whether Oleg Koshevoy was involved in the Young Guard case. Usachev said that Koshevoy was one of the leaders of the underground organization, but he disappeared from Krasnodon and cannot be found. In this regard, I told Usachev that Koshevoy was arrested in Rovenki and shot by the gendarmerie.”

From the interrogation protocol of Otto-August Drewitz, an employee of the Rovenki gendarmerie :

Question: They show you a slide with the image of the leader of the illegal Komsomol organization “Young Guard” operating in Krasnodon, Oleg Koshevoy. Isn't this the young man you shot? Answer: Yes, this is the same young man. I shot Koshevoy in the city park in Rovenki. Question: Tell us under what circumstances you shot Oleg Koshevoy. Answer: At the end of January 1943, I received an order from the deputy commander of the Fromme gendarmerie unit to prepare for the execution of arrested Soviet citizens. In the courtyard I saw police guarding nine arrested people, among whom was also the identified Oleg Koshevoy. By order of Fromme, we led those sentenced to death to the place of execution in the city park in Rovenki. We placed the prisoners on the edge of a large hole dug in advance in the park and shot everyone on Fromme’s orders. Then I noticed that Koshevoy was still alive, he was only wounded, I came closer to him and shot him straight in the head. When I shot Koshevoy, I was returning with other gendarmes who participated in the execution back to the barracks. Several policemen were sent to the execution site to bury the corpses.” Protocol of interrogation of the gendarme from Rovenky Drevnitsa, who shot Oleg Koshevoy

It turns out that Oleg Koshevoy was the last of the Young Guards to die, and there were no traitors among them, except Pocheptsov.

The story of the life and death of the Young Guard immediately began to become overgrown with myths: first Soviet, and then anti-Soviet. And much is still unknown about them - not all archives are in the public domain. But be that as it may, for modern Krasnodon residents the history of the Young Guard is very personal, regardless of the name of the country in which they live.

Krasnodon

document. 18+ (description of torture)

Information about the atrocities of the Nazi invaders, about the injuries inflicted on the underground fighters of Krasnodon as a result of interrogations and executions at the pit of mine No. 5 and in the Thunderous Forest of Rovenki. January-February 1943. (Archive of the Young Guard Museum.)

The certificate was compiled on the basis of the act of investigating the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the Krasnodon region, dated September 12, 1946, on the basis of archival documents of the Young Guard Museum and documents of the Voroshilovograd KGB.

1. Barakov Nikolai Petrovich, born in 1905. During interrogations, the skull was broken, the tongue and ear were cut off, the teeth and left eye were knocked out, the right hand was cut off, both legs were broken, and the heels were cut off.

2. Daniil Sergeevich Vystavkin, born in 1902, traces of severe torture were found on his body.

3. Vinokurov Gerasim Tikhonovich, born in 1887. He was pulled out with a crushed skull, a smashed face, and a crushed arm.

4. Lyutikov Philip Petrovich, born in 1891. He was thrown into the pit alive. Cervical vertebrae were broken, the nose and ears were cut off, there were wounds on the chest with torn edges.

5. Sokolova Galina Grigorievna, born in 1900. She was among the last to be pulled out with her head crushed. The body is bruised, there is a knife wound on the chest.

6. Yakovlev Stepan Georgievich, born in 1898. He was extracted with a crushed head and a dissected back.

7. Androsova Lidiya Makarovna, born in 1924. She was taken out without an eye, ear, hand, with a rope around her neck, which cut heavily into the body, baked blood is visible on her neck.

8. Bondareva Alexandra Ivanovna, born in 1922. The head and right mammary gland were removed. The whole body is beaten, bruised, and black.

9. Vintsenovsky Yuri Semenovich, born in 1924. He was taken out with a swollen face, without clothes. There were no wounds on the body. Apparently he was dropped alive.

10. Glavan Boris Grigorievich, born in 1920. It was recovered from the pit, severely mutilated.

11. Gerasimova Nina Nikolaevna, born in 1924. The victim's head was flattened, her nose was depressed, her left arm was broken, and her body was beaten.

12. Grigoriev Mikhail Nikolaevich, born in 1924. The victim had a laceration on his temple resembling a five-pointed star. The legs were cut, covered with scars and bruises: the whole body was black, the face was disfigured, the teeth were knocked out.

Ulyana Gromova

13. Ulyana Matveevna Gromova, born in 1924. A five-pointed star was carved on her back, her right arm was broken, and her ribs were broken.

14. Gukov Vasily Safonovich, born in 1921. Beaten beyond recognition.

15. Dubrovina Alexandra Emelyanovna, born in 1919. She was pulled out without a skull, there were puncture wounds on her back, her arm was broken, her leg was shot.

16. Dyachenko Antonina Nikolaevna, born in 1924. There was an open fracture of the skull with a patchy wound, striped bruises on the body, elongated abrasions and wounds resembling imprints of narrow, hard objects, apparently from blows with a telephone cable.

17. Eliseenko Antonina Zakharovna, born in 1921. The victim had traces of burns and beatings on her body, and there was a trace of a gunshot wound on her temple.

18. Zhdanov Vladimir Alexandrovich, born in 1925. He was extracted with a laceration in the left temporal region. The fingers are broken, which is why they are twisted, and there are bruises under the nails. Two stripes 3 cm wide and 25 cm long were cut out on the back. Eyes were gouged out and ears were cut off.

19. Zhukov Nikolay Dmitrievich, born in 1922. Extracted without ears, tongue, teeth. An arm and a foot were severed.

20. Zagoruiko Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1927. Recovered without hair, with a severed hand.

21. Zemnukhov Ivan Alexandrovich, born in 1923. He was taken out beheaded and beaten. The whole body is swollen. The foot of the left leg and the left arm (at the elbow) are twisted.

22. Ivanikhina Antonina Aeksandrovna, born in 1925. The victim's eyes were gouged out, her head was bandaged with a scarf and wire, and her breasts were cut out.

23. Ivanikhina Liliya Aleksandrovna, born in 1925. The head was removed and the left arm was severed.

24. Kezikova Nina Georgievna, born in 1925. She was pulled out with her leg torn off at the knee, her arms twisted. There were no bullet wounds on the body; apparently, she was thrown out alive.

25. Evgenia Ivanovna Kiikova, born in 1924. Extracted without the right foot and right hand.

26. Klavdiya Petrovna Kovaleva, born in 1925. The right breast was pulled out swollen, the right breast was cut off, the feet were burned, the left breast was cut off, the head was tied with a scarf, traces of beatings were visible on the body. Found 10 meters from the trunk, between the trolleys. Probably dropped alive.

27. Koshevoy Oleg Vasilievich, born in 1924. The body bore traces of inhuman torture: there was no eye, there was a wound in the cheek, the back of the head was knocked out, the hair on the temples was gray.

28. Levashov Sergey Mikhailovich, born in 1924. The radius bone of the left hand was broken. The fall caused dislocations in the hip joints and both legs were broken. One is in the femur and the other is in the knee area. The skin on my right leg was all torn off. No bullet wounds were found. Was dropped alive. They found him crawling far away from the crash site with his mouth full of dirt.

29. Lukashov Gennady Alexandrovich, born in 1924. The victim was missing a foot, his hands showed signs of being beaten with an iron rod, and his face was disfigured.

30. Lukyanchenko Viktor Dmitrievich, born in 1927. Extracted without hand, eye, nose.

31. Minaeva Nina Petrovna, born in 1924. She was pulled out with broken arms, a missing eye, and something shapeless was carved on her chest. The entire body is covered with dark blue stripes.

32. Moshkov Evgeniy Yakovlevich, born in 1920. During interrogations, his legs and arms were broken. The body and face are blue-black from beatings.

33. Nikolaev Anatoly Georgievich, born in 1922. The entire body of the extracted man was dissected, his tongue was cut out.

34. Ogurtsov Dmitry Uvarovich, born in 1922. In the Rovenkovo ​​prison he was subjected to inhuman torture.

35. Ostapenko Semyon Makarovich, born in 1927. Ostapenko's body bore signs of cruel torture. The blow of the butt crushed the skull.

36. Osmukhin Vladimir Andreevich, born in 1925. During interrogations, the right hand was cut off, the right eye was gouged out, there were burn marks on the legs, and the back of the skull was crushed.

37. Orlov Anatoly Alekseevich, born in 1925. He was shot in the face with an explosive bullet. The entire back of my head is crushed. Blood is visible on the leg; he was removed with his shoes off.

38. Maya Konstantinovna Peglivanova, born in 1925. She was thrown into the pit alive. She was pulled out without eyes or lips, her legs were broken, lacerations were visible on her leg.

39. Petlya Nadezhda Stepanovna, born in 1924. The victim's left arm and legs were broken, her chest was burned. There were no bullet wounds on the body; she was dropped alive.

40. Petrachkova Nadezhda Nikitichna, born in 1924. The body of the extracted woman bore traces of inhuman torture, and was removed without a hand.

41. Petrov Viktor Vladimirovich, born in 1925. A knife wound was inflicted in the chest, fingers were broken at the joints, ears and tongue were cut off, and the soles of the feet were burned.

42. Pirozhok Vasily Makarovich, born in 1925. He was pulled out of the pit beaten. The body is bruised.

43. Polyansky Yuri Fedorovich - born in 1924. Extracted without left arm and nose.

44. Popov Anatoly Vladimirovich, born in 1924. The fingers of the left hand were crushed and the foot of the left foot was severed.

45. Rogozin Vladimir Pavlovich, born in 1924. The victim's spine and arms were broken, his teeth were knocked out, and his eye was gouged out.

46. ​​Samoshinova Angelina Tikhonovna, born in 1924. During interrogations, his back was cut with a whip. The right leg was shot in two places.

47. Sopova Anna Dmitrievna, born in 1924. Bruises were found on the body, and the braid was torn out.

48. Startseva Nina Illarionovna, born in 1925. She was pulled out with a broken nose and broken legs.

49. Subbotin Viktor Petrovich, born in 1924. The beatings on the face and twisted limbs were visible.

50. Sumskoy Nikolay Stepanovich, born in 1924. The eyes were blindfolded, there was a trace of a gunshot wound on the forehead, there were signs of lashing on the body, traces of injections under the nails were visible on the fingers, the left arm was broken, the nose was pierced, the left eye was missing.

51. Tretyakevich Viktor Iosifovich, born in 1924. The hair was torn out, the left arm was twisted, the lips were cut off, the leg was torn off along with the groin.

52. Tyulenin Sergey Gavrilovich, born in 1924. In the police cell they tortured him in front of his mother, Alexandra Tyulenina. During the torture, he received a through gunshot wound on his left hand, which was burned with a hot rod, his fingers were placed under the door and squeezed until the limbs of his hands were completely necrosis, needles were driven under his nails, and he was hung on ropes. When extracted from the pit, the lower jaw and nose were knocked to the side. The spine is broken.

53. Fomin Dementy Yakovlevich, born in 1925. Removed from a pit with a broken head.

54. Shevtsova Lyubov Grigorievna, born in 1924. Several stars are carved on the body. Shot in the face by an explosive bullet.

55. Shepelev Evgeny Nikiforovich, born in 1924. Boris Galavan was removed from the pit, bound face to face with barbed wire, his hands were cut off. The face is disfigured, the stomach is ripped open.

56. Shishchenko Alexander Tarasovich, born in 1925. Shishchenko had a head injury, knife wounds on his body, and his ears, nose and upper lip were torn off. The left arm was broken at the shoulder, elbow and hand.

57. Shcherbakov Georgy Kuzmich, born in 1925. The man's face was bruised and his spine was broken, as a result of which the body was removed in parts.

In Soviet times, ships and schools were named in honor of these boys and girls, monuments were erected to them, books, songs and films were dedicated to their feat. Their actions were cited as an example of the mass heroism of Komsomol youth in the Great Patriotic War.

Then, in the wake of the post-reform boom of “glasnost,” many people surfaced who wanted to “reconsider” the services of young heroes to the fatherland. Active myth-making has done its job: today, a considerable number of modern people associate the word “Young Guards” with the youth wing of a popular political party rather than with the fallen Komsomol members of the Great Patriotic War. And in the homeland of heroes, in general, part of the population raises the names of their executioners on the flag...

Meanwhile, every honest person should know the true story of the feat and the true tragedy of the death of the “Young Guards”.


School amateur club. In a Cossack costume - Seryozha Tyulenin, a future underground worker.

“Young Guard” is an underground anti-fascist Komsomol organization that operated during the Great Patriotic War from September 1942 to January 1943 in the city of Krasnodon, Voroshilovgrad region of the Ukrainian SSR. The organization was created shortly after the occupation of the city of Krasnodon by Nazi Germany, which began on July 20, 1942.

The first underground youth groups to fight the fascist invasion arose in Krasnodon immediately after its occupation by German troops in July 1942. The core of one of them consisted of soldiers of the Red Army, who, by the will of military fate, found themselves surrounded in the rear of the Germans, such as soldiers Evgeny Moshkov, Ivan Turkenich, Vasily Gukov, sailors Dmitry Ogurtsov, Nikolai Zhukov, Vasily Tkachev.

At the end of September 1942, underground youth groups united into a single organization “Young Guard”, the name of which was proposed by Sergei Tyulenin.

Ivan Turkenich was appointed commander of the organization. The members of the headquarters were Georgy Arutyunyants - responsible for information, Ivan Zemnukhov - chief of staff, Oleg Koshevoy - responsible for conspiracy and security, Vasily Levashov - commander of the central group, Sergei Tyulenin - commander of the combat group. Later, Ulyana Gromova and Lyubov Shevtsova were brought into the headquarters. The overwhelming majority of the Young Guard members were Komsomol members; temporary Komsomol certificates for them were printed in the organization’s underground printing house along with leaflets.

Younger guys aged 14-17 were messengers and scouts. The Krasnodon Komsomol youth underground included about 100 people, more than 70 were very active. According to the lists of underground fighters and partisans arrested by the Germans, the organization includes forty-seven boys and twenty-four girls. The youngest of the prisoners was fourteen years old, and fifty-five of them never turned nineteen...


Lyuba Shevtsova with friends (pictured first on the left in the second row)

The most ordinary guys, no different from the same boys and girls of our country, the guys made friends and quarreled, studied and fell in love, ran to dances and chased pigeons. They participated in school clubs and sports clubs, played stringed musical instruments, wrote poetry, and many drew well. We studied in different ways - some were excellent students, while others had difficulty mastering the granite of science. There were also a lot of tomboys. We dreamed about our future adult life. They wanted to become pilots, engineers, lawyers, some were going to go to a theater school, and others to a pedagogical institute...

The “Young Guard” was as multinational as the population of these southern regions of the USSR. Russians, Ukrainians (there were also Cossacks among them), Armenians, Belarusians, Jews, Azerbaijanis and Moldovans, ready to come to each other’s aid at any moment, fought the fascists.

The Germans occupied Krasnodon on July 20, 1942. And almost immediately the first leaflets appeared in the city, a new bathhouse began to burn, already ready for German barracks. It was Seryozha Tyulenin who began to act. There is still only one...
On August 12, 1942 he turned seventeen. Sergei wrote leaflets on pieces of old newspapers, and the police often found them even in their pockets. He began to slowly steal weapons from the policemen, without even doubting that they would definitely come in handy. And he was the first to attract a group of guys ready to fight. At first it consisted of eight people. However, by the first days of September, several groups were already operating in Krasnodon, practically unrelated to one another - in total there were about 25 people in them.

The birthday of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” was September 30: then a plan was adopted to create a detachment, specific actions of underground work were outlined, a headquarters was created, the active members of the organization were divided into fighting fives. For the purpose of secrecy, each member of the five knew only his comrades and commander, being unaware of the full composition of the headquarters.

The “Young Guards” put up leaflets - first handwritten ones, then they took out a printing press and opened a real printing house. 30 series of leaflets were published with a total circulation of about 5 thousand copies. The content is mainly calls for sabotage of forced labor and fragments of Sovinformburo reports received thanks to a secretly stored radio receiver.

On occasion, Komsomol members stole weapons from Germans and policemen - at the time of the defeat of the organization, 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, about 15 thousand cartridges, 10 pistols, 65 kilograms of explosives and several hundred meters of fuse cord had already been accumulated in its secret warehouse. With this arsenal, Oleg Koshevoy was going to arm the Komsomol partisan detachment “Molot”, which he intended to soon separate from the organization and redeploy outside the city to openly fight the enemy, but these plans were no longer destined to come true...
The guys burned a barn with bread that the Germans had taken by force from the population. On the day of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, red flags were hung around the city of Krasnodon, which the girls had sewn the day before from the red curtains of the stage of the former House of Culture. Several dozen prisoners of war were rescued from the camp.

Most of the Young Guard's actions took place at night. By the way, there was a curfew in Krasnodon during the entire period of occupation, and a simple walk around the city after six in the evening was punishable by arrest followed by execution. The Komsomol members also tried to establish contact with the partisan detachments operating in the Rostov region. However, it was not possible to find the Voroshilovgrad partisans and underground fighters. First of all, because in the forests the partisans kept a good secret, and in the city the underground was already defeated by the enemy and virtually ceased to exist.

This is where the first myth arises, created during the era of work on the famous novel by the writer Alexander Fadeev. As if the Komsomol members of Krasnodon fought against fascism exclusively as messengers and saboteurs under the leadership of an underground party organization led by Nikolai Barakov and Philip Lyutikov. Senior comrades develop an operation plan - Komsomol members, risking their lives, carry it out...

By the way, in the first edition of Fadeev’s novel there is no mention of the “adult” communist underground. Only by the second edition the author “strengthened” the connections between the Komsomol and the “adult” underground and introduced a scene of joint preparation for sabotage in one of the mines that the Germans wanted to launch.

In fact, the communist miners Barakov and Lyutikov really planned to disrupt the launch of the mine. But - completely independent of the “Young Guards”. The guys also prepared sabotage - on their own - and it was they who carried out it.
For the Nazis, coal was a strategic raw material, so they sought to put at least one of the Krasnodon mines into operation. Using the labor of prisoners of war and the force of driven local residents, the Germans prepared Sorokin mine No. 1 for launch.

But literally on the eve of the start of work at night, underground Komsomol member Yuri Yatsinovsky entered the pile driver and damaged the cage lift: he misregulated the mechanism and cut the lifting ropes. As a result, when the lift was launched, the cage with mining tools, in which there were also German foreman, and policemen with weapons, and forced miners, and several strikebreakers who voluntarily agreed to work for the enemy, collapsed into the mine shaft. I feel sorry for the dead slaves of fascism. But the launch of the mine was disrupted; until the end of the occupation, the Germans were unable to raise the cage and clear the shaft pit of the collapsed parts of the lift. As a result, during the six months of their rule, the Germans were never able to remove a ton of coal from Krasnodon.

Krasnodon Komsomol members also thwarted the mass deportation of their peers to Germany. The Young Guards introduced one of the underground workers into the labor exchange, who copied the list of young people compiled by the Germans. Having learned about the number and timing of the departure of the train of “Ostarbeiters,” the guys burned the stock exchange with all the documentation, and warned potential farm laborers of the need to flee the city. This action infuriated the police and the German commandant's office, and almost two thousand Krasnodon residents were spared from German hard labor.

Even such a seemingly purely demonstrative action as hanging red flags on November 7 and congratulating residents on the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution was of great importance for the occupied city. The residents, eagerly awaiting liberation, realized: “They remember us, we are not forgotten by our people!”


Oleg Koshevoy

In addition, the “Young Guards” recaptured more than 500 head of livestock confiscated from the population from the horse-riding police. Animals were returned to those who could, the rest of the cows, horses and goats were simply distributed to the population of the surrounding farms, who were very poor after being robbed by German marauders. How many peasant families were saved from hunger thanks to such a “partisan gift” is now difficult to even calculate.

The real combat operation was the organization, jointly with the partisans, of a mass escape of prisoners of war from a temporary camp organized by the invaders outside the city in the open air. Those of the Red Army soldiers who were not yet completely exhausted from wounds and beatings joined the partisan detachment. Those unable to hold weapons were sheltered in their homes by villagers - and everyone left. Thus, the lives of almost 50 people were saved.

The German telephone wires were regularly cut. Moreover, the restless Seryozha Tyulenev came up with or read somewhere about a cunning method: the wire was cut in two places lengthwise with a thin knife. Then, using a crochet hook similar to a crochet hook, a section of the copper core was removed between the cuts. Outwardly, the wire looked intact, until you feel it along its entire length - you simply cannot find these thinnest cuts. Therefore, it was not easy for German signalmen to repair the communication gap - most often they were forced to re-lay the line.

Basically, the guys acted secretly, the only armed action of the underground took place on the eve of the New Year 1943 - the Young Guards made a daring raid on German vehicles with New Year's gifts for Wehrmacht soldiers and officers. The cargo was confiscated. In the future, German gifts, consisting mainly of food and warm clothes, were planned to be distributed to Krasnodon families with children. The Komsomol members decided to slowly sell the cigarettes, which were also gifts, at a local flea market, and use the proceeds for the needs of the organization.

Isn’t this what ruined the young underground fighters? In 1998, one of the surviving “Young Guards” Vasily Levashov put forward his version of the disclosure of the organization. According to his recollections, some of the cigarettes were given to a boy of 12-13 years old who knew the underground, who went to the market to exchange tobacco for food. During the raid, the guy was caught and didn’t have time to throw away the goods. They began to interrogate him, and with cruelty. And the teenager “split” under the beatings, admitting that his older friend, Genka Pocheptsov, gave him the cigarettes. On the same day, the Pocheptsovs’ home was searched, Gennady himself was arrested and also tortured.

According to Levashov's version, it was Gennady, who was tortured in the presence of the named father - Vasily Grigorievich Gromov, the head of mine No. 1-bis and part-time secret agent of the Krasnodon police - on January 2, 1943, began to admit to participating in the underground. The Germans extracted from the guy all the information he possessed, and the commandant’s office became aware of the names of those underground fighters whose group operated in the Pervomaika area.

Then the Germans took the search for the partisans seriously, and within a few days two high school students were arrested because they did not have time to safely hide the bags of gifts. Levashov did not name the names of these guys, as well as his younger friend Gena Pocheptsov.

Levashov’s version can be doubted because, according to his memoirs, Gena Pocheptsov began speaking on January 2. And on the first day, the Germans took three “Young Guards” - Evgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Vanya Zemnukhov. Most likely, this was the result of an investigation that the Germans conducted after the Komsomol attack on a convoy carrying Christmas gifts.

On the day of the arrest of three members of the Young Guard headquarters, a secret meeting of Komsomol members took place. And at it a decision was made: all “Young Guards” should immediately leave the city, and the leaders of the combat groups should not spend the night at home that night. All underground workers were notified of the headquarters’ decision through liaison officers. But the entire punitive apparatus has already begun to move. Mass arrests began...

Why did most of the “Young Guards” not follow the orders of headquarters? After all, this first disobedience cost almost all of them their lives? There can be only one answer: during the days of mass arrests, the Germans spread information throughout the city that they knew the full composition of the “gangster partisan gang.” And that if any of the suspects leave the city, their families will be shot en masse.

The guys knew that if they ran away, their relatives would be arrested in their place. Therefore, they remained faithful children to the end and did not try to protect themselves by the death of their parents,” surviving underground fighter Vladimir Minaev later said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda journalists.

Only twelve “Young Guards,” at the insistence of their relatives, managed to escape in those days. But later, two of them - Sergei Tyulenin and Oleg Koshevoy - were nevertheless arrested. The four cells of the city police jail were packed to capacity. In one they kept girls, in the other three – boys.

No matter how much they have previously written about the Young Guard, as a rule, researchers spare the feelings of readers. They write carefully - that Komsomol members were beaten, sometimes, following Fadeev, they talk about bloody stars carved on the body. The reality is even worse... But none of the popular publications mentions the names of the torturers in detail - only general phrases: “fascist monsters, occupiers and accomplices of the occupiers.” However, documents from the regional department of state security indicate that mass torture and executions were not carried out by ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers. For the role of executioners, the Germans used either special SS units - Einsatzgruppen, or police units recruited from the local population.

The SS Einsatzgruppe arrived in the Lugansk region in September 1942, the headquarters was located in Starobelsk, the special detachment of executioners was commanded by SS Brigadefuehrer Major General of Police Max Thomas. However, he, a professional torturer, preferred to place his soldiers in the cordon of the prison, dispatching only three hefty soldiers to punish the prisoners with rubber whips. And, in fact, the reprisal against the underground was carried out mainly by policemen of the local Krasnodon branch. Cossacks, as they called themselves...


Leaflet "Young Guard"

What these monsters - both the SS men and their local henchmen - did to the young partisans is scary to even read. But we have to. Because without this it is impossible to fully understand either the horrors of fascism or the heroism of those who dared to oppose themselves to it.

Almost immediately after the massacre of the teenagers, Krasnodon was liberated from the fascist invaders - in February 1943. Within two days, NKVD investigators began arresting individuals involved in the death of the underground organization. As a result, lists of people directly involved in the crimes were compiled - both Germans and local Nazi servants. Hence the special scrupulousness of the investigation and the search for criminals.

Lidiya Androsova was arrested on January 12. According to Pocheptsov's denunciation. It was the police who took her - and according to the testimony of the girls’ parents, during the search they mercilessly looted the house, not even disdaining women’s underwear. The girl spent five days in the police custody... When Lida’s body was removed from the pit of the mine where she was executed, her relatives identified her daughter only by the remnants of her clothes. The girl’s face was mutilated, one eye was cut out, her ears were cut off, her hand was chopped off with an ax, her back was striped with whips so that her ribs were visible through the cut skin. A piece of the rope loop with which Lida was dragged to execution remained on her neck.


Lida Androsova

Kolya Sumsky, whom his friends considered Lida’s first friend and even boyfriend, was taken on January 4 at the mine, where he was picking out coal crumbs from a waste heap. Ten days later they were sent to Krasnodon, and four days later they were executed. The teenager’s body was also mutilated: traces of beatings, broken arms and legs, cut off ears...

The same police arrested Alexandra Bondareva and her brother Vasily on January 11. The torture began on the first day. The brother and sister were kept in separate cells. On January 15, Vasya Bondarev was led to execution. He was not allowed to say goodbye to his sister. The young man was thrown alive into the same pit of mine No. 5 where Lida Androsova was killed. On the evening of January 16, Shura was also taken to execution. Before pushing the girl into the mine, the police beat her again with rifle butts until she fell into the snow. Vasya and Shura’s mother Praskovya Titovna, when she saw the bodies of her children raised from the mine, almost died of a heart attack.


Shura Bondareva

Seventeen-year-old Nina Gerasimova was executed on January 11. From the protocol of identification of the body by relatives: “A girl of 16-17 years old, thin build, was thrown into a pit almost naked - in her underwear. The left arm is broken; the whole body, and especially the chest, are black from beatings, the right side of the face is completely disfigured” (RGASPI Fund M-1, inventory 53, item 329.)

Close friends Borya Glavan and Zhenya Shepelev were executed together - tied face to face with barbed wire. During torture, Boris's face was smashed with a rifle butt, both hands were cut off, and they stabbed him in the stomach with a bayonet. Evgeniy’s head was pierced, and his hands were also chopped off with an axe.


Borya Glavan

Mikhail Grigoriev tried to escape on January 31 along the road to the place of execution. Pushing the guard aside, he rushed across the virgin snow into the darkness... The police quickly overtook the teenager, exhausted from the beatings, but finally dragged him to the mine and threw him into the pit alive. The women who went to the waste heap for coal chips heard for several days that Misha remained alive for a long time, groaning in the trunk, but they could not help - the pit was guarded by a police patrol.

Vasily Gukov, executed on January 15, was identified by his mother by the scar on his chest. The young man's face was trampled under police boots, his teeth were knocked out, and his eyes were cut out.

Seventeen-year-old Leonid Dadyshev was tortured for ten days. They mercilessly flogged him and cut off the hand on his right hand. Lenya was shot with a pistol and thrown into a pit on January 15.


Zhenya Shepelev

Maya Peglivanova experienced such tortures before her death that no inquisitor would have imagined. The girl's nipples were cut off with a knife and both legs were broken.

Maya's friend Shura Dubrovina probably could have even been saved - the Germans were never able to prove her connection with the underground. In prison, the girl looked after the wounded Maya until the very end and was literally forced to carry her friend to execution in her arms. The police also cut Alexandra Dubrovina's chest with knives, and then right next to the mine shaft, they killed the girl with the butt of a rifle.

Zhenya Kiikova, arrested on January 13, gave her family a note from prison. “Dear mom, don’t worry about me - I’m fine. Kiss grandpa for me, feel sorry for yourself. Your daughter is Zhenya.” This was the last letter - during the next interrogation, all the girl’s fingers were broken. In five days at the police station, Zhenya turned gray like an old woman. She was executed together with her friend Tosya Dyachenko, who had been arrested the day before, tied up. The friends were then buried in the same coffin.


Maya Peglivanova

Antonina Eliseenko was arrested on January 13 at two in the morning. The police burst into the room where Antonina was sleeping and ordered her to get dressed. The girl refused to dress in front of men. The police were forced to leave. The girl was executed on January 18. Antonina's body was disfigured, with her genitals, eyes, ears cut out...

“Tosya Eliseenko, 22 years old, was executed in a pit. During torture, she was forced to sit on a hot potbelly stove; her body was removed from the mine with 3rd and 4th degree burns on her thighs and buttocks.”


Tosya Eliseenko

Vladimir Zhdanov was taken from his home on January 3. He also gave his family a note, hiding it in the bloody laundry that was being taken out for washing: “Hello, dears... I’m still alive. My fate is unknown. I don't know anything about the others. I am sitting separately from everyone in solitary confinement. Goodbye, they’ll probably kill me soon... I kiss you deeply.” On January 16, Vladimir, along with other Young Guard members, was taken to the pit. The square was cordoned off by police. They brought 2-3 people to the place of execution, shot the prisoners in the head and threw them into the mine. Tied up, having suffered severe beatings with a rubber whip and a Cossack whip, Vovka Zhdanov at the last moment tried to push the chief of police Solikovsky, who was observing the execution, into the pit with his head. Luckily for the executioner, he stood on his feet, and the executioners immediately began to torture Vovka himself further, and then shot him. When the young man’s body was lifted from the mine, the parents fainted: “Volodya Zhdanov, 17 years old, was pulled out with a laceration in the left temporal region from point-blank shooting, the fingers of both hands were broken and twisted, there were bruises under the nails, two stripes three times wide were cut on his back centimeter long, twenty-five centimeters, eyes gouged out and ears cut off” (Young Guard Museum, f. 1, no. 36).

At the beginning of January, Kolya Zhukov was also arrested. After torture, on January 16, 1943, the guy was shot and thrown into the pit of mine No. 5: “Nikolai Zhukov, 20 years old, was taken out without ears, tongue, teeth, his arm was cut off at the elbow and his foot was cut off” (Young Guard Museum, f. 1, d. 73).

Vladimir Zagoruiko was arrested on January 28. Police Chief Solikovsky personally took part in the arrest. On the way to prison, the chief policeman was sitting in a cart, Vladimir was walking through the snowdrifts, tied up, barefoot, in only his underwear, in a frost of minus 15. The police pushed the guy with rifle butts, pinned him with bayonets and offered to warm up... by dancing: “Dance, red-bellied, they say you are before the war I studied in a dance ensemble!” During the torture, Volodya had his arms twisted at the shoulders on a rack and hung by his hair. They threw him into the pit alive.


Vova Zhdanov

Antonina Ivanikhina was arrested on January 11. Until the last hour, the girl looked after her comrades, weakened after torture. Execution - January 16. “Tonya Ivanikhina, 19 years old, was taken out of the mine without eyes, her head was tied with a scarf, under which a wreath of barbed wire was tightly placed on her head, her breasts were cut out” (Young Guard Museum, f. 1, no. 75).

Antonina's sister Lilia was arrested on January 10 and executed on the 16th. The surviving third sister, Lyubasha, who was very young during the war, recalled: “One day our distant relative, the wife of a policeman, came to us and said: “My husband was placed as a watchman near mine No. 5. I don’t know if yours are there or not, but My husband found combs and combs... Look at the things, maybe you’ll find your own. Most likely, don’t look for your daughters, probably yours are there, in the pit.” When they were shooting, my grandfather, who was collecting coal, was forced to leave. But he climbed onto the waste heap and saw from above: some girls jumped on their own, not wanting to be touched by the hands of the executioners, some friends or lovers jumped hugging each other, the guys sometimes resisted - they spat at the police, cursed them with the last words, pushed them, tried to drag them into the trunk the mines behind them... When the Red Army soldiers later dismantled the mine, they brought the dead sisters. Lily's hand was cut off and her eyes were blindfolded with wire. Tonya is also mutilated. Then they brought coffins, and our Ivanikhins were put in one coffin.”


Tonya Ivanikhina

Klavdiya Kovaleva was arrested in early January and executed on the 16th: “Klavdiya Kovaleva, 17 years old, was taken out swollen from beatings. The right breast was cut off, the soles of the feet were burned, the left arm was cut off, the head was tied with a scarf, and black traces of beatings were visible on the body. The girl’s body was found ten meters from the trunk, between the trolleys, she was probably thrown alive and was able to crawl away from the pit” (Young Guard Museum, f. 1, no. 10.)

Antonina Mashchenko was executed on January 16. Antonina’s mother Maria Alexandrovna recalled: “As I found out later, my beloved child was also executed with terrible torture. When Antonina’s corpse was pulled out of the pit along with other Young Guards, it was difficult to identify my girl in it. She had barbed wire in her braids and half of her full hair was missing. My daughter was hung up and tortured by animals.”


Klava Kovaleva. Fragment of a family portrait with mother and uncle

Nina Minaeva was executed on January 16. The underground worker’s brother Vladimir recalled: “...My sister was recognized by her woolen gaiters - the only clothing that remained on her. Nina’s arms were broken, one eye was knocked out, there were shapeless wounds on her chest, her whole body was covered in black stripes...”


Nina Minaeva

Police officers Krasnov and Kalitventsev led Evgeniy Moshkov tied up around the city all night. It was severely frosty. The policemen brought Zhenka to the water intake well and began to dunk him in there on a rope. Into icy water. Dropped several times. Then Kalitventsev froze and brought everyone to his home. Moshkov was seated by the stove. They even gave me a cigarette. They drank the moonshine themselves, warmed up and took them out again... Zhenya was tortured all night, by dawn he could no longer move independently. The twenty-two-year-old “Young Guard,” a communist, nevertheless, choosing the right moment during the interrogation, hit the policeman. Then the fascist beasts hung Moshkov by his legs and kept him in this position until blood gushed from his nose and throat. They removed him and began interrogating him again. But Moshkov only spat in the executioner’s face. The enraged investigator who was torturing Moshkov hit him backhand. Exhausted by torture, the communist hero fell, hitting the back of his head on the door frame, and lost consciousness. They threw him into the pit unconscious, perhaps he had already died.


Zhenya Moshkov with friends (left)

Vladimir Osmukhin, who spent ten days in the hands of the police, was identified by sister Lyudmila from the remains of his clothes: “When I saw Vovochka, mutilated, almost completely headless, missing his left arm up to the elbow, I thought I was going crazy. I didn't believe it was him. He was wearing only one sock, and his other foot was completely bare. Instead of a belt, wear a warm scarf. No outerwear. The head is broken. The back of the head had completely fallen out, leaving only the face, on which only teeth remained. Everything else is mutilated. The lips are twisted, the mouth is torn, the nose is almost completely gone ... "

Viktor Petrov was arrested on January 6. On the night of January 15-16, he was thrown into a pit alive. Victor’s sister Natasha recalls: “When Vitya was taken out of the pit, he could have been about 80 years old. A gray-haired, emaciated old man... His left ear, nose, and both eyes were missing, his teeth were knocked out, hair remained only on the back of his head. There were black stripes around the neck, apparently traces of strangulation in a noose, all the fingers on the hands were finely broken, the skin on the soles of the feet was raised like a blister from a burn, on the chest there was a large deep wound inflicted by a cold weapon. Obviously, it was inflicted while still in prison, because the jacket and shirt were not torn.”


Shura Dubrovina

Anatoly Popov was born on January 16. On his birthday, January 16, he was thrown into a pit alive. The last meeting of the Young Guard headquarters took place at Anatoly Popov’s apartment. From the protocol for examining the young man’s body: “Beaten, the fingers on his left hand and the foot on his right leg were cut off” (RGASPI F-1 Op.53 D.332.)

Angelina Samoshina was executed on January 16. From the protocol for examining the body: “Traces of torture were found on Angelina’s body: her arms were twisted, her ears were cut off, a star was carved on her cheek” (RGASPI. F. M-1. Op. 53. D. 331.). Geli’s mother, Anastasia Emelyanovna, wrote: “She sent a note from prison, where she wrote that they wouldn’t hand over a lot of food, that she felt good here, “like at a resort.” On January 18, they did not accept the transfer from us; they said that they were sent to a concentration camp. Nina Minaeva’s mother and I went to the camp in Dolzhanka, where they were not there. Then the policeman warned us not to go and look for us. But rumors spread that they were thrown into the pit of mine No. 5, where they were found. This is how my daughter died..."


Gelya Samoshina

Anna Sopova's parents - Dmitry Petrovich and Praskovya Ionovna - witnessed the torture of their daughter. Parents were specifically forced to watch this, in the hope that the older generation would persuade the young partisans to confess and hand over their comrades. The old miner recalled: “They started asking my daughter who she knew, who she had a connection with, what did she do? She was silent. They ordered her to undress - naked, in front of the police and her father... She turned pale - and did not move. And she was beautiful, her braids were huge, lush, down to her waist. They tore off her clothes, wrapped her dress over her head, laid her on the floor and began to whip her with a wire whip. She screamed terribly. And then, when they started beating her on her hands and head, she couldn’t stand it, poor thing, and asked for mercy. Then she fell silent again. Then Plokhikh - one of the main executioners of the police - hit her in the head with something...” Anya was lifted out of the pit half bald - in order to further torture the girl, they hung her on her own braid and tore out half of her hair.


Anya Sopova with friends by the sea (second from left)

Among the last to be lifted from the mine was Viktor Tretyakevich. His father, Joseph Kuzmich, in a thin patched coat, stood day after day, clutching the post, and did not take his eyes off the pit. And when they recognized his son - without a face, with a black and blue back, with crushed hands - he fell to the ground, as if knocked down. No traces of bullets were found on Victor’s body, which means they dumped him alive...

Nina Startseva was taken out of the pit on the third day after the execution - the girl almost did not live to see the liberation of the city. Mom recognized her by her hair and the embroidery on the sleeve of her shirt. Nina had needles driven under her fingers, strips of skin were cut on her chest, and her left side was burned with a hot iron. Before being thrown into the pit, the girl was shot in the back of the head.

Demyan Fomin, on whom a sketch of a leaflet was found during a search, was subjected to especially cruel torture and was executed by beheading. Before his death, the guy had all the skin cut off from his back in narrow strips. When asked what he was like, Dyoma’s mother Maria Frantsevna answered: “A kind, gentle, responsive son. I was interested in technology and dreamed of driving trains.”

Alexander Shishchenko was arrested on January 8, executed on the 16th: “The nose, ears, lips were cut off, arms were twisted, the whole body was cut up, shot in the head...”

Ulyana Gromova kept a diary right up to her execution, managing to smuggle the notebook even into the dungeon. The entry in it dated November 9, 1942: “It is much easier to see heroes die than to listen to the cries of some coward for mercy. Jack London". Executed on January 16. “Ulyana Gromova, 19 years old, a five-pointed star was carved on her back, her right arm was broken, her ribs were broken.”


Ulya Gromova

In total, at the end of January, the occupiers and police threw 71 people, alive or shot, into the pit of mine No. 5, among whom were both “Young Guards” and members of the underground party organization. Other members of the Young Guard, including Oleg Koshevoy, were shot on February 9 in the city of Rovenki in the Thunderous Forest.
In the liberated city of Krasnodon, there were many living witnesses to both the struggle of the “Young Guards” and their deaths.


Uli's letter from prison

The first document of the declassified archival criminal case is a statement from Mikhail Kuleshov addressed to the leadership of the regional NKVD department dated February 20, 1943, says Vasily Shkola. - Then the first investigative actions were carried out. The facts of brutal torture of young people, whose bodies were removed from the pit of mine No. 5, have been established. In the materials of interrogations of members of the organization who were still alive at that time and who were subjected to torture, there is a description of the office of the police officer of the city of Krasnodon Solikovsky. - It is said that there are whips and heavy objects, including wooden ones.

From the testimony of Captain Emil Renatus, who commanded the Krasnodon district gendarmerie during the occupation: “Those arrested, suspected of criminal activities and who refused to testify, were laid on a bench and beaten with rubber whips until they confessed. If previous measures did not produce results, they were transferred to a cold room, where they had to lie on an ice floor. The same arrested persons had their arms and legs tied behind their backs, hung in this position with their face to the ground and held until the arrested person confessed. Moreover, all these executions were accompanied by regular beatings.”

Krasnodon resident Nina Ganochkina said: “I and two other women, on the orders of the police, were cleaning the girls’ cell. They could not do the cleaning themselves, since they were constantly taken for interrogation, and after torture they could not even get up. I once saw how Ulya Gromova was interrogated. Ulya did not answer questions accompanied by abuse. Policeman Popov hit her on the head so that the comb holding the scythe broke. He shouts: “Pick it up!” She bent down, and the policeman began to hit her in the face and everywhere. I was already cleaning the floor in the corridor, and Ulya had just finished torturing her. She, having lost consciousness, was dragged along the corridor and thrown into a cell.”


Oleg Koshevoy

As the burgomaster of Krasnodon Vasily Statsenkov showed during interrogation after the war in 1949, over 70 people were arrested for involvement in the Young Guard in Krasnodon and the surrounding areas alone within a few days.

Walter Eichhorn, who as part of the gendarme group directly participated in the beatings and executions of members of the Young Guard, was found in Thuringia, where he worked... in a doll factory. Ernst-Emil Renatus, the former head of the German district gendarmerie in Krasnodon, who also tortured the “Young Guards” and ordered the police to gouge out the guys’ eyes, was also found and arrested in Germany.

From Eichhorn’s testimony (9.III.1949):
“While still in Magdeburg, before being sent to occupied Soviet territory, we received a number of instructions regarding the establishment of a “new order” in the East, which stated that the gendarmes should see in every Soviet citizen a communist partisan, and therefore, with all composure, each of We are obliged to exterminate peaceful Soviet citizens as our opponents.”

From the testimony of Renatus (VII.1949):
Arriving in July 1942 as part of a gendarme team in the city of Stalino, I participated in a meeting of officers of the “Einsatzkommando gendarmerie”... At this meeting, the head of the team, Lieutenant Colonel Ganzog, instructed us to first of all focus on the arrests of communists, Jews and Soviet activists. At the same time, Gantsog emphasized that the arrest of these persons does not require any action against the Germans. At the same time, Gantzog explained that all communists and Soviet activists should be exterminated and only as an exception imprisoned in concentration camps. Having been appointed head of the German gendarmerie in the city. Krasnodon, I followed these directives..."

“Artes Lina, a translator, told me that Zons and Solikovsky torture those arrested. Zons especially loved to torture arrested people. It was a great pleasure for him to summon prisoners after dinner and subject them to torture. Zons told me that he only brings prisoners to confession through torture. Artes Lina asked me to release her from work in the gendarmerie due to the fact that she could not be present during the beatings of those arrested.”

From the testimony of district police investigator Cherenkov:

“I interrogated members of the Young Guard organization, Komsomol members Ulyana Gromova, two Ivanikhin sisters, brother and sister Bondarevs, Maya Peglivanova, Antonina Eliseenko, Nina Minaeva, Viktor Petrov, Klavdiya Kovaleva, Vasily Pirozhok, Anatoly Popov, about 15 people in total... Using special measures of influence (torture and bullying), we established that soon after the Germans arrived in the Donbass, the youth of Krasnodon, mostly Komsomol members, organized themselves and waged an underground struggle against the Germans... I admit that during interrogations I beat the arrested members of the underground Komsomol organization Gromova and the Ivanikhin sisters "


Volodya Osmukhin

From the testimony of policeman Lukyanov (11/11/1947):
“The first time I participated in the mass execution of Soviet patriots was at the end of September 1942 in the Krasnodon city park... At night, a group of German gendarmes led by officer Kozak arrived at the Krasnodon police in cars. After a short conversation between Kozak and Solikovsky and Orlov, according to a pre-compiled list, the police began to take the arrested people out of their cells. In total, more than 30 people were selected, mainly communists... Having announced to the arrested that they were being transported to Voroshilovgrad, they were taken out of the police building and driven to the Krasnodon city park. Upon arrival at the park, the arrested were tied by the hands in groups of five and taken into a pit that had previously served as a refuge from German air raids and there they were shot. ... Some of those shot were still alive, and therefore the gendarmes who remained with us began to shoot those who still showed signs of life. However, the gendarmes soon got tired of this activity, and they ordered to bury the victims, among whom there were still living ones...”

Among the recently declassified investigative documents is a statement written by Gennady Pocheptsov. According to Levashov - under torture, according to the parents of those executed - voluntarily. ..

“To the head of mine No. 1 bis Mr. Zhukov
from Mr. Pocheptsov Gennady Prokofievich
Statement
Mr. Zhukov, an underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” was organized in Krasnodon, of which I became an active member. I ask you to come to my apartment in your free time and I will tell you in detail about this organization and its members. My address: st. Chkalova, house 12, entrance No. 1, apartment of Gromov D.G.
20.XII.1942 Pocheptsov.”

From the testimony of Guriy Fadeev, an agent of German special forces:
“The police had such an order that first of all the arrested person was brought to Solikovsky, he brought him to consciousness, and ordered the investigator to interrogate him. Pocheptsov was called to the police. He said that he was indeed a member of an underground youth organization that existed in Krasnodon and its environs. He named the leaders of this organization, or rather, the city headquarters, namely: Tretyakevich, Zemnukhov, Lukashov, Safonov and Koshevoy. Pocheptsov named Tretyakevich as the head of the citywide organization. He himself is a member of the Pervomaisk organization, whose leader is Anatoly Popov. The May Day organization consisted of 11 people, including Popov, Glavan, Zhukov, Bondarevs (two), Chernyshov and a number of others. He said that the headquarters had weapons at its disposal: Popov had a rifle, Nikolaev and Zhukov had machine guns, Chernyshov had a pistol. He also said that in one of the quarries in the pit there was a weapons warehouse. There used to be a Red Army warehouse there, which was blown up during the retreat, but the youth found a lot of ammunition there. The organizational structure was as follows: headquarters, Pervomaiskaya organization, organization in the village of Krasnodon and city organization. He did not name the total number of participants. Before I was removed from my job, up to 30 people were arrested. Personally, I interrogated 12 people, incl. Pocheptsov, Tretyakevich, Lukashov, Petrov, Vasily Pirozhka and others. Of the members of the headquarters of this organization, Kosheva and Safonov were not arrested, because they disappeared.

As a rule, preliminary interrogations were carried out personally by Solikovsky, Zakharov and the gendarmerie, using whips, fists, etc. Even investigators were not allowed to be present during such “interrogations.” Such methods have no precedent in the history of criminal law.

After I was recruited by the police to identify individuals distributing Young Guard leaflets, I met several times with the deputy chief of the Krasnodon police, Zakharov. During one of the interrogations, Zakharov asked me a question: “Which of the partisans recruited your sister Alla?” Knowing this from the words of my mother M.V. Fadeeva, I betrayed Vanya Zemnukhov to Zakharov, who actually made an offer to my sister to join an underground anti-fascist organization. I told him that in Korostylev’s apartment, Korostylev’s sister Elena Nikolaevna Koshevaya and her son Oleg Koshevoy, who was recording messages from the Sovinformburo, were listening to radio broadcasts from Moscow”...

From the testimony of the head of the Rovenkovo ​​district police, Orlov (XI 14, 1943)
“Oleg Koshevoy was arrested at the end of January 1943 by a German gendarme and a railway policeman at a crossing 7 km from the city of Rovenki and brought to my police station. During the arrest, Koshevoy’s revolver was confiscated, and during a second search at the Rovenkovo ​​police, a seal of the Komsomol organization and some two blank forms were found on him. I interrogated Koshevoy and received testimony from him that he is the leader of the Krasnodon underground organization.”

From the testimony of policeman Bautkin:
“At the beginning of January 1943, I arrested and brought to the police a member of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” discovered by the police in Krasnodon... Dymchenko, who lived at mine No. 5. She was tortured by the police and, along with her other friends in the underground, was shot by the Germans... I arrested a “Young Guard” who lived at mine No. 2-4 (I don’t remember his last name) from whose apartment, during a search, we found and seized three notebooks with prepared texts anti-fascist leaflets."

From Renatus' testimony:
“...In February, Wenner and Zons reported to me that my order to shoot Krasnodon Komsomol members had been carried out. Some of those arrested... were shot in Krasnodon in mid-January, and the other part, due to the approach of the front line to Krasnodon, was taken from there and shot in the mountains. Rovenki."

From the testimony of policeman Davidenko:
“I admit that I took part in the executions of the “Young Guards” three times and with my participation about 35 Komsomol members were shot... In front of the “Young Guards”, first 6 Jews were shot, and then one by one all 13 “Young Guards”, whose corpses were thrown into the pit shaft No. 5 is about 80 meters deep. Some were thrown into the mine pit alive. To prevent shouting and proclamation of Soviet patriotic slogans, girls' dresses were lifted and twirled over their heads; in this state, the doomed were dragged to the mine shaft, after which they were shot and then pushed into the mine shaft.”

From the testimony of Schultz, a gendarme of the German district gendarmerie in Rovenki:
“At the end of January, I took part in the execution of a group of members of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard,” among whom was the leader of this organization, Koshevoy. ...I remember him especially clearly because I had to shoot him twice. After the shots, all those arrested fell to the ground and lay motionless, only Koshevoy stood up and, turning around, looked in our direction. This greatly angered Fromme and he ordered the gendarme Drewitz to finish him off. Drewitz approached the lying Koshevoy and shot him in the back of the head.

...Before escaping from Rovenki on February 8 or 9, 1943, Fromme ordered me, Drewitz and other gendarmes to shoot a group of Soviet citizens held in the Rovenki prison. These victims included five men, a woman with a three-year-old child, and active Young Guard member Shevtsova. Having delivered the arrested to the Rovenkovsky city park, Fromme ordered me to shoot Shevtsova. I led Shevtsova to the edge of the pit, walked away a few steps and shot her in the back of the head, but the trigger mechanism on my carbine turned out to be faulty and it misfired. Then Hollender, who was standing next to me, shot at Shevtsova. During the execution, Shevtsova behaved courageously, standing on the edge of the grave with her head held high, her dark shawl slid over her shoulders and the wind ruffled her hair. Before the execution, she did not utter a word about mercy...”

From the testimony of Geist, a gendarme of the German district gendarmerie in Rovenki:
“...I took part, together with... other gendarmes, in the execution in Rovenkovsky Park of Komsomol members arrested in Krasnodon for underground work against the Germans. Of the executed members of the Young Guard organization, I remember only Shevtsova. I remember her because I interrogated her. In addition, she attracted attention with her courageous behavior during the execution...”

From the testimony of policeman Kolotovich:
“Arriving at the mother of Young Guard member Vasily Bondarev, Davidenko and Sevastyanov told her that the police were sending her son to work in Germany, and he was asking her to give him things. Bondarev's mother gave Davidenko gloves and socks. The latter took gloves for himself upon leaving, and gave Sevastyanov socks and said: “There is a start!”

Then we went to the house of the Young Guard Nikolaev. Entering Nikolaev's house, Davidenko, turning to Nikolaev's sister, said that the police were sending her brother to work in Germany, and he asked for food and things for the road. Nikolaev’s sister apparently knew that he had been shot, so she refused to give him any things or food. After that, Davidenko and Sevastyanov, a policeman (I don’t know her last name) and I forcibly took away her man’s coat and sheep. Then we went to another Young Guard member (I don’t know his last name) and they also forcibly took four pieces of lard and a man’s shirt from the latter’s mother. Having put the lard in the sleigh, we went to the family of the Young Guard Zhukov. In this way, Davidenko, Sevastyanov and others robbed the families of the Young Guard.”


Vanya Turkenich

From the testimony of Orlov, the head of the Rovenkovsky district police:
“Shevtsova was required to indicate the storage location of the radio transmitter that she used to communicate with the Red Army. Shevtsova categorically refused, saying that she was not Lyadskaya, and called us monsters. The next day, Shevtsova was handed over to the gendarmerie department and shot”...

It's time to talk about another myth related to the history of the Young Guard. In Fadeev’s novel, written hot on the heels of the liberation of the city, the collapse of the underground is explained by betrayal. The names of the informers are mentioned - a certain Stakhovich, Vyrikova, Lyadskaya and Polyanskaya.

Where did the writer get these “traitors”? The fact is that literally immediately after the arrest of three representatives of the headquarters, the Germans started a rumor that Viktor Tretyakevich “split during interrogation. The writer, who was staying with Oleg Koshevoy’s mother while working on the book, allegedly received a note in which an unknown local resident named the names of the informers...

The version does not stand up to criticism. Fadeev wrote the book hastily; he did not even have time to meet the relatives of many Young Guards, for which many Krasnodon residents later reproached him. Meanwhile, the parents of many Young Guards are L. Androsova, G. Harutyunyanants, V. Zhdanova. O. Koshevoy, A. Nikolaev, V. Osmukhin, V. Petrov, V. Tretyakevich - not only knew about the underground activities of their sons and daughters, but also helped them in every possible way in equipping the printing house, storing weapons, radios, collecting medicines, making leaflets , red flags...

The note itself has not survived, which may be why until now researchers have not been able to establish the authorship of the forged document. But for a long time there was a rumor in Krasnodon that Viktor Tretyakevich was brought out under the name of Stakhovich in Fadeev’s novel. Until 1990, the Tretyakevich family was labeled as “relatives of a traitor.” For many years they collected eyewitness accounts and documents about Victor’s innocence...

Olga Lyadskaya is a real person. The girl was only 17 years old when she was captured by the Germans for the first time. The young beauty attracted the attention of Deputy Chief of Police Zakharov, who had a separate office for intimate meetings. A few days later, her mother managed to ransom her daughter from her concubines for moonshine and warm clothes. But the stigma of “police litter” remained with Olya. The frightened girl, whom the policeman promised to hang if she did not return to him, and who was condemned by all her neighbors for her connection with the punisher, was even afraid to leave the house. Is this why Lyuba Shevtsova uttered the words “I’m not Lyadskaya to you!” during one of the interrogations?

After Krasnodon’s release, Olga initially served as a witness in the case of police atrocities, but later told the SMERSH investigator that she was taken to confront the arrested “Young Guardsmen.” They asked: “Do you know such and such?” And she, seeing that her peers were being cruelly tortured, said that she went to school with some of the kids, danced with someone in an ensemble, made gliders with someone in the House of Pioneers... Lyadskaya allegedly said nothing about the underground , because I simply didn’t know about it. But nevertheless, in the investigation materials there is a confession signed by Olya personally in cooperation with the occupiers and the police. Most likely, the girl, with her will broken even by Zakharov, thought that for cohabitation with a policeman, especially a forced one, in the worst case, she would simply be exiled. And living for several years away from shame, even in Siberia, seemed to her not the worst outcome of the matter... But as a result, Olga received ten years in Stalin’s camps...

And after the publication of the novel “The Young Guard,” the investigation into the case of “Lyadskaya’s betrayal” was resumed, and a show trial was being prepared. True, it did not take place: Olga fell ill with tuberculosis and was released, and there was clearly little evidence “from the book” for Soviet justice. She managed to recover, even finish her studies at the institute, get married, give birth to a son... Later, Olga Lyadskaya, through the prosecutor’s office, applied for further investigation – herself. And all charges of betrayal of the “Young Guards” were dropped after a careful study of the materials of her case.

Zina Vyrikova and Serafima Polyanskaya, released from the police as “not involved in a partisan gang,” also went into exile in Bugulma after the liberation of the city. SMERSH arrested them even before the publication of Fadeev’s book. Subsequently, Zinaida Vyrikova also got married, changed her last name and left for another city, but until her death she was afraid that she would be identified as a “traitor” and arrested... Neither Zina nor Sima, by the way, could extradite any of the “Moldovan Guards” - their own knowledge of the composition and activities of the underground was limited to rumors that “the leaflets were planted by boys from our school.”

His parents stood up for Vitya Treryakevich, who died in fascist dungeons and was slandered by German henchmen. They wrote all the way to the Komsomol Central Committee, seeking the truth. Only 16 years after the war, it was possible to arrest one of the most ferocious executioners who tortured the Young Guard, policeman Vasily Podtynny. During the investigation, he stated: Tretyakevich was slandered. In this way they wanted to “set an example for other partisans” - they say, your leader has already spoken, it’s time for you to loosen your tongue! A special state commission created after the trial of the policeman established that Viktor Tretyakevich was the victim of a deliberate slander, and “one of the members of the organization, Gennady Pocheptsov, was identified as the real traitor.”

The surviving underground fighter Levashov confirmed that his father was arrested three times to find out where his son was hiding. Levashov Sr. sat with Tretyakevich in the same cell, where he saw how the latter was brought from interrogations completely crippled, which, in the opinion of Levashov’s father himself, was clear evidence that “...Viktor still did not split.”

By the way, the fate of Gennady Pocheptsov himself, who was released from the police three days after the denunciation, was cruel but fair: after the liberation of the city of Krasnodon by the Red Army, Gena Pocheptsov, as well as police agents Gromov and Kuleshov, were put on trial.

The investigation into the case of the Young Guard traitors lasted 5 months. On August 1, 1943, an indictment was presented to Pocheptsov and Gromov. Having familiarized himself with it, Pocheptsov stated: “I plead guilty in full to the charges brought against me, namely that, as a member of the underground youth organization “Young Guard,” I betrayed its members to the police, named the leaders of this organization and told the police about the presence of weapons.” .

After the indictment was approved by the head of the operational group of the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR, Lieutenant Colonel Bondarenko, the case against Pocheptsov and his stepfather was considered by the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovgrad (now Lugansk) region, the visiting sessions of which were held in Krasnodon from August 15 to 18, 1943. When Gromov, contrary to previous in his testimony, began to assert that he did not advise his stepson to betray the underground members, the latter asked to speak and said, “Gromov is not telling the truth, he advised me to file a police report against members of the youth organization, telling me that by doing this I would save my life and the life of my family, according to We never quarreled with him on this issue." In his last word, Pocheptsov, addressing the court, stated: “I am guilty, I committed a crime against my Motherland, I betrayed my comrades, judge me as the law requires.”


Funeral of the "Young Guards"

Having found Gromov and Pocheptsov guilty of treason, the Military Tribunal sentenced them to capital punishment - execution with confiscation of personal property.

On September 9, 1943, the issue of the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops was discussed at the Military Council of the Southwestern Front. His resolution, signed by the front commander, Army General R.Ya. Malinovsky, stated: “The verdict of the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovgrad region dated August 18 of this year in relation to ... Vasily Grigorievich Gromov and Gennady Prokofievich Pocheptsov is to be approved and carried out on place where the crime was committed - in public."

Having familiarized themselves with the verdict of the Military Tribunal, Gromov and Pocheptsov appealed to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a petition for pardon. Pocheptsov wrote: “I consider the verdict of the tribunal to be correct: I filed a statement with the police as a member of an underground youth organization, saving my life and the life of my family. But the organization was discovered for other reasons. My statement did not play a corresponding role, because it was written later than "The organization was exposed. And therefore I ask the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Union to save my life, since I am still young. I ask for the opportunity to wash away the black stain that has fallen on me. I ask to be sent to the front line."
However, the petitions of the convicts were rejected, and the verdict of the Military Tribunal was carried out on September 19, 1943. A native of Krasnodon, Igor Cherednichenko, who studied the history of the organization, cited in one of his articles the words of his godfather, who witnessed the execution:

“Gromov stood scared, as white as chalk. His eyes ran around, hunched over, he was trembling like a hunted animal. Pocheptsov first fell, a crowd of residents moved towards him, they wanted to tear him to pieces, but the soldiers at the last moment managed to snatch him from the crowd. And Kuleshov stood near the side of the car with his head raised and it seemed that this did not concern him. He died with indifference on his face... Pocheptsova was even going to shoot her own mother, but someone held her, although she was roaring and demanding to give her rifle. By the way, his mother was a very respected person in the city. She trimmed everyone at the lowest prices, did not refuse anyone."

So, almost 17 years later, the truth triumphed. By decree of December 13, 1960, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR rehabilitated Viktor Tretyakevich and awarded him the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (posthumously). His name began to be included in all official documents along with the names of other heroes of the Young Guard.

Anna Iosifovna, Victor’s mother, who never took off her black mourning clothes until the end of her life, stood in front of the presidium of the ceremonial meeting in Voroshilovgrad when she was presented with her son’s posthumous award. The crowded hall stood and applauded her. Anna Iosifovna turned to her comrade who was rewarding her with only one request: not to show the film “The Young Guard” in the city these days, shot by the brilliant director Gerasimov based on the novel by Fadeev...

By the decision of the Presidium of the Lugansk Regional Court, which, implementing the law of Ukraine of April 17, 1991 “On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression in Ukraine,” on December 9, 1992, reviewed the conclusion of the Lugansk Regional Prosecutor’s Office on criminal cases charging Gromov and Pocheptsov, it was recognized that these citizens were convicted justifiably and are not subject to rehabilitation.

Thus another myth collapsed. And the feat will remain for centuries...


The pit of Mine No. 5, where the heroes were executed, became part of the memorial park

"Young guard"

The heroic history of the underground organization of Krasnodon boys and girls who fought against the Nazis and laid down their lives in this struggle was known to every Soviet person. Now this story is remembered much less often...

The famous novel played a huge role in glorifying the feat of the Young Guards Alexandra Fadeeva and the film of the same name Sergei Gerasimov. In the 90s of the last century, they began to forget about The Young Guard: Fadeev’s novel was removed from the school curriculum, and the story itself was declared almost an invention of Soviet propagandists.

Meanwhile, in the name of the freedom of their Motherland, the boys and girls of Krasnodon fought against the German occupiers, showing steadfastness and heroism, withstood torture and bullying and died very young. Their feat cannot be forgotten, says Doctor of Historical Sciences Nina PETROVA– compiler of the collection of documents “The True History of the Young Guard.”

Almost everyone died...

– Did the study of the heroic history of the Krasnodon Komsomol underground begin during the war?

– In the Soviet Union, it was officially believed that 3,350 Komsomol and youth underground organizations operated in the temporarily occupied territory. But we don’t know the history of each of them. For example, practically nothing is still known about the youth organization that arose in the city of Stalino (now Donetsk). And the Young Guards really found themselves in the spotlight. It was the largest organization in terms of numbers, almost all of whose members died.

Soon after the liberation of Krasnodon on February 14, 1943, Soviet and party authorities began collecting information about the Young Guard. Already on March 31, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR Vasily Sergienko reported on the activities of this organization to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks) Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev brought the information received to the attention of Joseph Stalin, and the story of the “Young Guard” received wide publicity and people started talking about it. And in July 1943, based on the results of a trip to Krasnodon, the deputy head of the special department of the Komsomol Central Committee Anatoly Toritsyn(later Major General of the KGB) and Central Committee instructor N. Sokolov prepared a memorandum on the emergence and activities of the Young Guard.

– How and when did this organization arise?

– Krasnodon is a small mining town. Mining villages grew up around it - Pervomaika, Semeykino and others. At the end of July 1942, Krasnodon was occupied. It is officially recognized that the Young Guard arose at the end of September. But we must keep in mind that small underground youth organizations appeared not only in the city, but also in the villages. And at first they were not related to each other.

I believe that the process of forming the Young Guard began at the end of August and was completed by November 7. The documents contain information that in August an attempt was made to unite the youth of Krasnodon Sergey Tyulenin. According to the recollections of his teachers, Sergei was a very proactive young man, thoughtful and serious. He loved literature and dreamed of becoming a pilot.

In September appeared in Krasnodon Victor Tretyakevich. His family came from Voroshilovgrad (now Lugansk). Tretyakevich was left underground by the regional committee of the Komsomol and immediately began to play a leading role in the activities of the Krasnodon underground organization. By that time he had already fought in a partisan detachment...

– Disputes about how responsibilities were distributed at the organization’s headquarters have not subsided for more than 70 years. Who led the Young Guard - Viktor Tretyakevich or Oleg Koshevoy? As far as I understand, even the few surviving Young Guards expressed different opinions on this matter...

Oleg Koshevoy was a 16-year-old boy , joined the Komsomol in 1942. How could he create such a fighting organization when there were older people nearby? How could Koshevoy seize the initiative from Tretyakevich, having come to the Young Guard later than him?

We can confidently say that the organization was led by Tretyakevich, a member of the Komsomol since January 1939. Ivan Turkenich, who served in the Red Army, was much older than Koshevoy. He managed to avoid arrest in January 1943, spoke at the funeral of Young Guards and managed to talk about the activities of the organization without delay. Turkenich died during the liberation of Poland. From his repeated official statements it followed that Koshevoy appeared in the Young Guard on the eve of November 7, 1942. True, after some time Oleg actually became the secretary of the Komsomol organization, collected membership fees, and took part in some actions. But he was still not the leader.

– How many people were part of the underground organization?

– There is still no consensus on this. In Soviet times, for some reason it was believed that the more underground workers, the better. But, as a rule, the larger the underground organization, the more difficult it is to maintain secrecy. And the failure of the Young Guard is an example of this. If we take official data on the number, they range from 70 to 100 people. Some local researchers talk about 130 Young Guards.

In addition, the question arises: who should be considered members of the Young Guard? Only those who worked there constantly, or also those who helped occasionally, carrying out one-time assignments? There were people who sympathized with the Young Guards, but personally did nothing within the organization or did very little. Should those who wrote and distributed only a few leaflets during the occupation be considered underground workers? This question arose after the war, when being a Young Guard member became prestigious and people whose participation in the organization was previously unknown began to ask to confirm their membership in the Young Guard.

– What ideas and motivations underlay the activities of the Young Guards?

– Boys and girls grew up in families of miners, were educated in Soviet schools, and were brought up in a patriotic spirit. They loved literature – both Russian and Ukrainian. They wanted to convey to their fellow countrymen the truth about the true state of affairs at the front, to dispel the myth of the invincibility of Hitler's Germany. That's why they distributed leaflets. The guys were eager to do at least some harm to their enemies.

– What damage did the Young Guards cause to the invaders? What do they get credit for?

“The Young Guards, without thinking about what their descendants would call them and whether they were doing everything right, simply did what they could, what was within their power. They burned the building of the German Labor Exchange with lists of those who were going to be driven to Germany. By decision of the Young Guard headquarters, over 80 Soviet prisoners of war were released from a concentration camp, and a herd of 500 head of cattle was recaptured. Bugs were introduced into grain that was being prepared for shipment to Germany, which led to the spoilage of several tons of grain. The young men attacked motorcyclists: they obtained weapons in order to begin an open armed struggle at the right moment.

SMALL CELLS WERE CREATED IN DIFFERENT PLACES OF KRASNODON AND IN THE SURROUNDING VILLAGES. They were divided into fives. The members of each five knew each other, but they could not know the composition of the entire organization

Members of the Young Guard exposed the disinformation spread by the invaders and instilled in the people faith in the inevitable defeat of the invaders. Members of the organization wrote leaflets by hand or printed leaflets in a primitive printing house and distributed Sovinformburo reports. In leaflets, the Young Guards exposed the lies of fascist propaganda and sought to tell the truth about the Soviet Union and the Red Army. In the first months of the occupation, the Germans, calling on young people to work in Germany, promised everyone a good life there. And some succumbed to these promises. It was important to dispel illusions.

On the night of November 7, 1942, the guys hung red flags on school buildings, the gendarmerie and other institutions. The flags were hand-sewn by the girls from white fabric, then painted scarlet - a color that symbolized freedom for the Young Guard. On New Year's Eve 1943, members of the organization attacked a German car carrying gifts and mail for the invaders. The boys took the gifts with them, burned the mail, and hid the rest.

Unconquered. Hood. F.T. Kostenko

– How long did the Young Guard operate?

- The arrests began immediately after Catholic Christmas - at the end of December 1942. Accordingly, the period of active activity of the organization lasted about three months.

Young Guards. Biographical sketches about members of the Krasnodon party-Komsomol underground / Comp. R.M. Aptekar, A.G. Nikitenko. Donetsk, 1981

The true history of the “Young Guard” / Comp. N.K. Petrova. M., 2015

Who really betrayed?

– Various people were blamed for the failure of the Young Guard. Is it possible today to draw final conclusions and name who betrayed the underground fighters to the enemy and is responsible for their deaths?

– He was declared a traitor in 1943 Gennady Pocheptsov, whom Tretyakevich accepted into the organization. However, 15-year-old Pocheptsov had no relation to the governing bodies and was not even very active in the Young Guard. He could not know all its members. Even Turkenich and Koshevoy did not know everyone. This was prevented by the very principle of building an organization proposed by Tretyakevich. Small cells were created in different places in Krasnodon and in surrounding villages. They were divided into fives. The members of each five knew each other, but they could not know the composition of the entire organization.

Testimony against Pocheptsov was given by a former lawyer of the Krasnodon city government who collaborated with the Germans Mikhail Kuleshov- During the occupation, a district police investigator. He claimed that on December 24 or 25 he went into the office of the commandant of the Krasnodon region and the head of the local police, Vasily Solikovsky, and saw Pocheptsov’s statement on his desk. Then they said that the young man allegedly handed over a list of Young Guard members to the police through his stepfather. But where is this list? Nobody saw him. Pocheptsov's stepfather, Vasily Gromov, after Krasnodon’s release, he testified that he did not take any list to the police. Despite this, on September 19, 1943, Pocheptsov, his stepfather Gromov and Kuleshov were publicly shot. Before his execution, a 15-year-old boy rolled on the ground and shouted that he was not guilty...

– Is there now an established point of view about who the traitor was?

– There are two points of view. According to the first version, Pocheptsov betrayed. According to the second, the failure did not occur because of betrayal, but because of poor conspiracy. Vasily Levashov and some other surviving Young Guard members argued that if not for the attack on the car with Christmas gifts, the organization could have survived. Boxes of canned food, sweets, biscuits, cigarettes, and other things were stolen from the car. All this was carried home. Valeria Borts I took a raccoon coat for myself. When the arrests began, Valeria's mother cut the fur coat into small pieces, which she then destroyed.

Young underground workers were caught smoking cigarettes. I sold them Mitrofan Puzyrev. The police were also led on the trail by candy wrappers that the guys threw anywhere. And so the arrests began even before the new year. So, I think, the organization was ruined by non-compliance with the rules of secrecy, the naivety and gullibility of some of its members.

Everyone was arrested before Evgenia Moshkova- the only communist among the Young Guards; he was brutally tortured. On January 1, Ivan Zemnukhov and Viktor Tretyakevich were captured.

After the release of Krasnodon, rumors spread that Tretyakevich allegedly could not stand the torture and betrayed his comrades. But there is no documentary evidence of this. And many facts do not fit with the version of Tretyakevich’s betrayal. He was one of the first to be arrested and until the very day of his execution, that is, for two weeks, he was cruelly tortured. Why if he has already named everyone? It is also unclear why the Young Guards were taken in groups. The last group was captured on the night of January 30-31, 1943 - a month after Tretyakevich himself was arrested. According to the testimony of Hitler’s accomplices who tortured the Young Guard, the torture did not break Victor.

The version of his betrayal also contradicts the fact that Tretyakevich was thrown into the mine first and still alive. It is known that at the last moment he tried to drag the chief of police Solikovsky and the chief of the German gendarmerie Zons into the pit with him. For this, Victor received a blow to the head with the butt of a pistol.

During the arrests and investigations, policemen Solikovsky, Zakharov, as well as Plokhikh and Sevastyanov tried their best. They mutilated Ivan Zemnukhov beyond recognition. Yevgeny Moshkov was doused with water, taken outside, then put on the stove, and then again taken for interrogation. Sergei Tyulenin had a wound on his hand cauterized with a hot rod. When Sergei’s fingers stuck into the door and closed it, he screamed and, unable to bear the pain, lost consciousness. Ulyana Gromova was suspended from the ceiling by her braids. The guys had their ribs broken, their fingers cut off, their eyes gouged out...

Ulyana Gromova (1924–1943). The girl’s suicide letter became known thanks to her friend Vera Krotova, who, after the release of Krasnodon, went through all the cells and discovered this tragic inscription on the wall. She copied the text onto a piece of paper...

“There was no party underground in Krasnodon”

– Why were they tortured so brutally?

“I think that the Germans wanted to go into the party underground, that’s why they tortured me like that. But there was no party underground in Krasnodon. Having not received the information they needed, the Nazis executed members of the Young Guard. Most of the Young Guards were executed at mine No. 5-bis on the night of January 15, 1943. 50 members of the organization were thrown into the pit of a mine 53 meters deep.

In print you can find the number 72...

– 72 people is the total number of people executed there, that’s how many corpses were raised from the mine. Among the dead were 20 communists and captured Red Army soldiers who had no relation to the Young Guard. Some Young Guard members were shot, others were thrown into a pit alive.

However, not everyone was executed that day. Oleg Koshevoy, for example, was detained only on January 22. On the road near the Kartushino station, police stopped him, searched him, found a pistol, beat him and sent him under escort to Rovenki. There he was searched again and under the lining of his coat they found two forms of temporary membership cards and a homemade Young Guard seal. The police chief recognized the young man: Oleg was the nephew of his friend. When Koshevoy was interrogated and beaten, Oleg shouted that he was the commissar of the Young Guard. Lyubov Shevtsova, Semyon Ostapenko, Viktor Subbotin and Dmitry Ogurtsov were also tortured in Rovenki.

Koshevoy was shot on January 26, and Lyubov Shevtsova and all the others were shot on the night of February 9. Just five days later, on February 14, Krasnodon was liberated. The bodies of the Young Guards were taken out of the mine. On March 1, 1943, a funeral took place in the Lenin Komsomol Park from morning to evening.

– Which of the Young Guards survived?

“The only one who escaped on the way to the place of execution was Anatoly Kovalev. According to recollections, he was a brave and courageous young man. Little has always been said about him, although his story is interesting in its own way. He signed up for the police, but only served there for a few days. Then he joined the Young Guard. Was arrested. Mikhail Grigoriev helped Anatoly escape, who untied the rope with his teeth. When I was in Krasnodon, I met Antonina Titova, Kovalev’s girlfriend. At first, the wounded Anatoly was hiding with her. Then his relatives took him to the Dnepropetrovsk region, where he disappeared, and his further fate is still unknown. The Young Guard’s feat was not even noted with the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” because Kovalev served as a policeman for several days. Antonina Titova waited for him for a long time, wrote memoirs, collected documents. But she never published anything.

ALL DISPUTES ON SPECIFIC ISSUES AND ABOUT THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE IN THE ORGANIZATION SHOULD NOT THROW A SHADOW ON THE GREATNESS OF THE FEAT accomplished by the young underground fighters of Krasnodon

The survivors were Ivan Turkenich, Valeria Borts, Olga and Nina Ivantsov, Radik Yurkin, Georgy Arutyunyants, Mikhail Shishchenko, Anatoly Lopukhov and Vasily Levashov. I will especially say about the latter. On April 27, 1989, employees of the Komsomol Central Archive held a meeting with him and Tretyakevich’s brother Vladimir. A tape recording was made. Levashov said that he fled near Amvrosyevka, to the village of Puteynikova. When the Red Army arrived, he declared his desire to go to war. In September 1943, during an inspection, he admitted that he was in the temporarily occupied territory in Krasnodon, where he was abandoned after graduating from intelligence school. Not knowing that the story of the Young Guard had already become famous, Vasily said that he was a member of it. After the interrogation, the officer sent Levashov to the barn, where a young man was already sitting. They started talking. At that meeting in 1989, Levashov said: “Only 40 years later, I realized that it was an agent of that security officer when I compared what he asked and what I answered.”

As a result, they believed Levashov and he was sent to the front. He liberated Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Chisinau and Warsaw, and took Berlin as part of the 5th Shock Army.

Roman Fadeeva

– Work on the book “Young Guard” Alexander Fadeev started in 1943. But the original version of the novel was criticized for not reflecting the leadership of the Communist Party. The writer took the criticism into account and revised the novel. Has historical truth suffered from this?

– I believe that the first version of the novel was successful and was more in line with historical realities. In the second version, a description of the leading role of the party organization appeared, although in reality the Krasnodon party organization did not manifest itself in any way. The remaining communists in the city were arrested. They were tortured and executed. It is significant that no one made any attempts to recapture the captured communists and Young Guards from the Germans. The boys were taken home like kittens. Those who were arrested in the villages were then transported in sleighs over a distance of ten kilometers or more. They were accompanied by only two or three policemen. Has anyone tried to fight them off? No.

Only a few people left Krasnodon. Some, like Anna Sopova, had the opportunity to escape, but did not take advantage of it.

Alexander Fadeev and Valeria Borts, one of the few surviving members of the Young Guard, at a meeting with readers. 1947

- Why?

“They were afraid that their relatives would suffer because of them.”

– How accurately did Fadeev manage to reflect the history of the Young Guard and in what ways did he deviate from the historical truth?

– Fadeev himself said about this: “Although the heroes of my novel have real names and surnames, I was not writing the real history of the Young Guard, but a work of art in which there is a lot of fiction and even there are fictitious persons. Roman has the right to this." And when Fadeev was asked whether it was worth making the Young Guards so bright and ideal, he replied that he wrote as he saw fit. Basically, the author accurately reflected the events that took place in Krasnodon, but there are also discrepancies with reality. So, in the novel the traitor Stakhovich is written out. This is a fictional collective image. And it was written from Tretyakevich - one to one.

Relatives and friends of the victims began to loudly express their dissatisfaction with the way certain episodes of the history of the Young Guard were shown in the novel immediately after the book was published. For example, the mother of Lydia Androsova addressed Fadeev with a letter. She claimed that, contrary to what was written in the novel, her daughter's diary and other notes were never given to the police and could not have been the reason for the arrests. In a response letter dated August 31, 1947 to D.K. and M.P. Androsov, Lydia’s parents, Fadeev admitted:

“Everything that I wrote about your daughter shows her as a very devoted and persistent girl. I deliberately made it so that her diary allegedly ended up with the Germans after her arrest. You know better than me that there is not a single entry in the diary that speaks about the activities of the Young Guard and could be of benefit to the Germans in terms of revealing the Young Guard. In this regard, your daughter was very careful. Therefore, by allowing such fiction in the novel, I do not put any stain on your daughter.”

“My parents thought differently...

- Certainly. And most of all, the residents of Krasnodon were indignant at the role assigned by the writer Oleg Koshevoy. Koshevoy’s mother claimed (and this was included in the novel) that the underground gathered at their home on Sadovaya Street, 6. But the Krasnodon residents knew for sure that German officers were quartered with her! This is not Elena Nikolaevna’s fault: she had decent housing, so the Germans preferred it. But how could the headquarters of the Young Guard meet there?! In fact, the headquarters of the organization gathered with Harutyunyants, Tretyakevich and others.

Koshevoy's mother was awarded the Order of the Red Star in 1943. Even Oleg’s grandmother, Vera Vasilyevna Korostyleva, was awarded the medal “For Military Merit”! The stories in the novel about her heroic role look anecdotal. She did not perform any feats. Later, Elena Nikolaevna wrote the book “The Tale of a Son.” More precisely, other people wrote it. When the regional committee of the Komsomol asked her if everything in the book was correct and objective, she replied: “You know, writers wrote the book. But from my story."

- Interesting position.

– What’s even more interesting is that Oleg Koshevoy’s father was alive. He was divorced from Oleg’s mother and lived in a neighboring city. So Elena Nikolaevna declared him dead! Although the father came to his son’s grave and mourned him.

Koshevoy's mother was an interesting, charming woman. Her story greatly influenced Fadeev. It must be said that the writer did not hold meetings with the relatives of all the dead Young Guards. In particular, he refused to accept Sergei Tyulenin’s relatives. Access to the author of The Young Guard was regulated by Elena Nikolaevna.

Another thing is noteworthy. Parents and grandmothers strive to preserve drawings and notes made by their children and grandchildren at different ages. And Elena Nikolaevna, being the head of the kindergarten, destroyed all of Oleg’s diaries and notebooks, so there is no way to even see his handwriting. But the poems written by Elena Nikolaevna’s hand have been preserved, which she declared to belong to Oleg. There were rumors that she had composed them herself.

We must not forget about the main thing

– The surviving Young Guards could bring clarity to controversial issues. Did they get together after the war?

– All together – not once. In fact, there was a split. They did not agree on the question of who should be considered the commissar of the Young Guard. Borts, Ivantsov and Shishchenko considered him Koshevoy, and Yurkin, Arutyunyants and Levashov considered Tretyakevich. Moreover, in the period from 1943 to the end of the 1950s, Tretyakevich was considered a traitor. His older brother Mikhail was relieved of his post as secretary of the Lugansk regional party committee. Another brother, Vladimir, an army political worker, was punished by the party and demobilized from the army. Tretyakevich’s parents also experienced this injustice hard: his mother was ill, his father was paralyzed.

In 1959, Victor was rehabilitated, his feat was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. However, in May 1965, only Yurkin, Lopukhov and Levashov from the Young Guard came to the opening of a monument to Tretyakevich in the village of Yasenki, Kursk region, where he was born. According to Valeria Borts, the Komsomol Central Committee in the 1980s gathered the surviving members of the Krasnodon underground organization. But there are no documents about this meeting in the archives. And the disagreements between the Young Guards were never eliminated.

Monument "Oath" on the central square of Krasnodon

– What impression did films about young underground fighters make on you? After all, the story of the “Young Guard” has been filmed more than once.

– I like Sergei Gerasimov’s film. The black and white film accurately and dynamically conveyed that time, the state of mind and experiences of the Soviet people. But on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, veterans and the whole country received a very strange “gift” from Channel One. The series “Young Guard” was announced as the “true story” of an underground organization. On the basis of what this supposedly true story was created, they did not bother to explain to us. The heroes of The Young Guard, whose images were captured on the screen, were probably rolling over in their graves. Creators of historical films need to carefully read documents and works that truly reflect a bygone era.

– Roman Fadeev, who was part of the school curriculum for many decades, has long been excluded from it. Do you think it might be worth bringing it back?

– I like the novel, and I advocate that it be included in the school curriculum. It correctly reflects the thoughts and feelings of young people of that time, and truthfully depicts their characters. This work rightfully entered the golden fund of Soviet literature, combining both documentary truth and artistic comprehension. The educational potential of the novel continues to this day. In my opinion, it would be good to re-release the novel in its first version, not corrected by Fadeev himself. Moreover, the publication should be accompanied by an article that would briefly outline what we were talking about. It must be emphasized that the novel is a novel, and not the story of the Young Guard. The history of the Krasnodon underground must be studied from documents. And this topic is not closed yet.

At the same time, we must not forget about the main thing. All disputes on specific issues and the role of individual people in the organization should not cast a shadow on the greatness of the feat accomplished by the young underground fighters of Krasnodon. Oleg Koshevoy, Viktor Tretyakevich and other Young Guards gave their lives for the freedom of the Motherland. And we have no right to forget about this. And further. Speaking about the activities of the Young Guard, we must remember that this is not a feat of individuals. This is a collective feat of Krasnodon youth. We need to talk more about the contribution of each Young Guard member to the struggle, and not argue about who held what position in the organization.

Interviewed by Oleg Nazarov