Partisan detachments during the Second World War. Legendary Kovpak and “Mikhailo” from Azerbaijan

During the Great Patriotic War in territories occupied by fascist troops Soviet Union was carried out people's war, which is a guerrilla movement. We will tell you about its features and the most prominent representatives in our article.

Concept and organization of movement

Partisans (partisan detachments) are considered to be unofficial persons (armed groups) hiding, avoiding direct collision, while fighting the enemy on occupied lands. Important point partisan activity - voluntary support by the civilian population. If this does not happen, then the combat groups are saboteurs or simply bandits.

The Soviet partisan movement began to form immediately in 1941 (very active in Belarus). The partisans were required to take an oath. The detachments operated mainly in the front-line zone. During the war years, about 6,200 groups (a million people) were created. Where the terrain did not allow the creation of partisan zones, underground organizations or sabotage groups operated.

The main goals of the partisans:

• Disruption of the support and communications systems of German troops;
• Conducting reconnaissance;
• Political agitation;
• Destruction of defectors, false partisans, Nazi managers and officers;
• Combat assistance to representatives of Soviet power and military units that survived the occupation.

The partisan movement was not uncontrolled. Already in June 1941, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a directive that listed the main necessary actions of the partisans. In addition, some of the partisan detachments were created in free territories and then transported to enemy rear. In May 1942, the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement was formed.

Rice. 1. Soviet partisans.

Partisan heroes

Many underground fighters and partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are recognized heroes.
Let's list the most famous:

• Tikhon Bumazhkov (1910-1941): one of the first organizers of the partisan movement (Belarus). Together with Fyodor Pavlovsky (1908-1989) - the first partisans who became heroes of the USSR;
• Sidor Kovpak (1887-1967): one of the organizers of partisan activity in Ukraine, commander of the Sumy partisan unit, twice Hero;
• Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923-1941): saboteur-scout. She was captured, after severe torture (she did not give up any information, not even her real name) and was hanged;
• Elizaveta Chaikina (1918-1941): participated in the organization of partisan detachments in the Tver region. After unsuccessful torture, she was shot;
• Vera Voloshina (1919-1941): saboteur-scout. She diverted the enemy's attention, covering the retreat of the group with valuable data. Wounded, after torture - hanged.

Rice. 2. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

It is worth mentioning the pioneer partisans:

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• Vladimir Dubinin (1927-1942): Using his excellent memory and natural dexterity, he obtained intelligence data for a partisan detachment operating in the Kerch quarries;
• Alexander Chekalin (1925-1941): collected intelligence data, organized sabotage in the Tula region. Captured, after torture - hanged;
• Leonid Golikov (1926-1943): participated in the destruction of enemy equipment and warehouses, and the seizure of valuable documents;
• Valentin Kotik (1930-1944): liaison of the Shepetiv underground organization (Ukraine). Discovered German underground telephone cable; killed an officer of a punitive group who organized an ambush for the partisans;
• Zinaida Portnova (1924-1943): underground worker (Vitebsk region, Belarus). About 100 officers were poisoned in the German canteen. Captured, after torture - shot.

In Krasnodon (1942, Lugansk region, Donbass), the youth underground organization “Young Guard” was formed, immortalized in the film and novel of the same name (author Alexander Fadeev). Ivan Turkenich (1920-1944) was appointed its commander. The organization included about 110 people, 6 of whom became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Participants organized sabotage and distributed leaflets. Major action: setting fire to lists of people selected for deportation to Germany; raid on cars carrying German new Year gifts. In January 1943, the Germans arrested and killed about 80 underground workers.

1941 - 1945 - this is part of the Resistance movement, which was designed to destroy the German support system (undermining provisions, ammunition, roads, etc.). As you know, the fascist invaders were very afraid of this organization, so they treated its members very cruelly.

RSFSR

The main points of the tasks of the partisan movement were formulated in the directive of 1941. The necessary actions were described in more detail in Stalin's order of 1942.

The basis of the partisan detachments were ordinary residents, mainly of occupied territories, that is, those who knew life under the fascist sight and power. Similar organizations began to appear from the first days of the war. Old people, women, men who for some reason were not taken to the front, and even children and pioneers entered there.

The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 carried out sabotage activities, engaged in reconnaissance (even undercover intelligence), propaganda, provided combat assistance to the USSR army, and directly destroyed the enemy.

Countless detachments, sabotage groups, and formations (about 250 thousand people) operated on the territory of the RSFSR, each of which brought enormous benefits to achieving victory. Many names remain forever in the annals of history.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who became a symbol of heroism, was thrown into the German rear to set fire to the village of Petrishchevo, where the German regiment was located. Naturally, she was not alone, but, by coincidence, their group partially dispersed after setting three houses on fire. Zoya decided to return there alone and finish what she started. But the residents were already on their guard and Zoya was captured. She had to go through terrible torture and humiliation (including from her compatriots), but she did not give out a single name. The Nazis hanged the girl, but even during the execution she did not lose courage and called on the Soviet people to resist the German invaders. She was the first woman to be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Byelorussian SSR

On the territory of Belarus lasted from 1941 to 1944. During this time, many strategic tasks were solved, the main one of which was the disabling of German trains and the railway tracks along which they moved.

The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 provided invaluable assistance in the fight against the invaders. 87 of them received the highest military award of the Soviet Union. Among them was Marat Kazei, a sixteen-year-old boy whose mother was executed by the Germans. He came to partisan detachment to defend their right to freedom and happy life. He performed tasks just like adults.

Marat did not live exactly a year before victory. He died in May 1944. Every death in war is tragic in itself, but when a child dies it becomes a thousand times more painful.

Marat and his commander were returning to headquarters. By chance they met German punitive forces. The commander was killed immediately, the boy was only wounded. Firing back, he disappeared into the forest, but the Germans pursued him. Until the bullets ran out, Marat escaped the chase. And then he took it for himself important decision. The boy had two grenades. He immediately threw one into a group of Germans, and held the second tightly in his hand until he was surrounded. Then he blew it up, taking German soldiers with him to the next world.

Ukrainian SSR

During the Great Patriotic War, partisans on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR united into 53 formations, 2,145 detachments and 1,807 groups, with a total number of about 220 thousand people.

Among the main command of the partisan movement in Ukraine one can single out K. I. Pogorelov, M. I. Karnaukhov, S. A. Kovpak, S. V. Rudnev, A. F. Fedorov and others.

Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak, on Stalin’s orders, was engaged in propaganda in Right Bank Ukraine, which was practically inactive. It was for the Carpathian raid that he was awarded one of the awards.

Mikhail Karnaukhov led the movement in Donbass. His subordinates and local residents nicknamed him “father” for his warm human relations. Dad was killed by the Germans in 1943. Secretly, residents of local occupied villages gathered at night to bury the commander and pay him due respect.

The partisan heroes of the Great Patriotic War were later reburied. Karnaukhov rests in Slavyansk, where his remains were transferred in 1944, when the territories were liberated from the German invaders.

During the operation of Karnaukhov’s detachment, 1,304 fascists were destroyed (out of 12 were officers).

Estonian SSR

Already in July 1941, an order was given to form a partisan detachment on the territory of Estonia. His command included B. G. Kumm, N. G. Karotamm, J. H. Lauristin.

The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 faced an almost insurmountable obstacle in Estonia. A large number of local residents were friendly towards the occupying Germans and even rejoiced at this coincidence of circumstances.

That is why underground organizations and sabotage groups had great power in this territory, which had to think through their moves even more carefully, since betrayal could be expected from anywhere.

They became Lehen Kuhlman (shot by the Germans in 1943 as a Soviet intelligence officer) and Vladimir Fedorov.

Latvian SSR

Until 1942, the activities of the partisans in Latvia were not going well. This was due to the fact that most activists and party leaders were killed at the very beginning of the war, people had poor preparation both physically and financially. Thanks to denunciations of local residents, not a single underground organization was destroyed by the Nazis. Some hero-partisans of the Great Patriotic War died nameless, so as not to betray or compromise their comrades.

After 1942, the movement intensified, people began to come to the detachments with a desire to help and free themselves, since the German occupiers sent hundreds of Estonians to Germany for hard work.

Among the leaders of the Estonian partisan movement was Arthur Sprogis, under whom Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya studied. He is also mentioned in Hemingway's book For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Lithuanian SSR

On Lithuanian territory, the partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 carried out hundreds of acts of sabotage, as a result of which almost 10 thousand Germans were killed.

With a total number of partisans of 9,187 people (only identified by name), seven are Heroes of the Soviet Union:

1. Yu. Yu. Alexonis. Underground radio operator, died in unequal battle surrounded by the Germans in 1944.
2. S. P. Apivala. Personally destroyed seven trains with enemy ammunition.
3. G.I. Boris. The commander of a special sabotage group, died at the hands of the Gestapo after being captured in 1944.
4. A. M. Cheponis. A radio operator who died in 1944 in a single battle against a German unit. At the same time he killed 20 fascists.
5. M.I. Melnikaite. She was captured, spent a whole week in torture, without saying a word to the Nazis, but she was able to slap one of the Wehrmacht officers in the face. Shot in 1943.
6. B.V. Urbanavichus. He led a subversive group of partisans.
7. Yu. T. Vitas. Leader of the Lithuanian partisan underground. He was captured and shot by the Nazis after denunciation by a traitor in 1943.

The heroic partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 fought in Lithuania not only with fascist invaders, but also with the Lithuanian liberation army, which did not exterminate the Germans, but sought to destroy Soviet and Polish soldiers.

Moldavian SSR

During the four years of operation of partisan detachments on the territory of Moldova, about 27 thousand fascists and their accomplices were destroyed. They are also responsible for the destruction of a huge amount of military equipment, ammunition, and kilometers of communication lines. Heroes-partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 were engaged in the production of leaflets and information reports in order to maintain good spirits and faith in victory among the population.

Two are Heroes of the Soviet Union - V.I. Timoshchuk (commander of the First Moldavian formation) and N.M. Frolov (under his leadership 14 German trains were blown up).

Jewish resistance

There were 70 purely Jewish liberation detachments operating on the territory of the USSR. Their goal was to save the remaining Jewish population.

Unfortunately, Jewish units had to deal with anti-Semitic sentiments even among Soviet partisans. Most of them did not want to provide any support to these people and were reluctant to accept Jewish youth into their units.

Most Jews were refugees from the ghetto. There were often children among them.

The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 did great job, provided invaluable assistance to the Red Army in the liberation of territories and victory over the German fascists.

The first days of the Great Patriotic War were catastrophic for the Soviet Union: the surprise attack on June 22, 1941 allowed Hitler's army to gain significant advantages. Many border outposts and formations that took the brunt of the enemy’s first strike were killed. Wehrmacht troops advanced at high speed deep into Soviet territory. Behind a short time 3.8 million soldiers and commanders of the Red Army were captured. But, despite the most difficult conditions of military operations, the defenders of the Fatherland from the very first days of the war showed courage and heroism. A striking example heroism was the creation, in the first days of the war, in the occupied territory of the first partisan detachment under the command of Korzh Vasily Zakharovich.

Korzh Vasily Zakharovich- commander of the Pinsk partisan unit, member of the Pinsk underground regional party committee, major general. Born on January 1 (13), 1899 in the village of Khorostov, now Soligorsk district, Minsk region, in a peasant family. Belarusian. Member of the CPSU since 1929. He graduated from a rural school. In 1921–1925, V.Z. Korzh fought in the partisan detachment K.P. Orlovsky, who operated in Western Belarus. In 1925 he moved across the border to Soviet Belarus. Since 1925, he was the chairman of collective farms in the regions of the Minsk District. In 1931–1936 he worked in the GPU NKVD of the BSSR. In 1936–1937, through the NKVD, Korzh participated as an adviser in the revolutionary war of the Spanish people and was the commander of an international partisan detachment. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he formed and led a fighter battalion, which grew into the first partisan detachment in Belarus. The detachment included 60 people. The detachment was divided into 3 rifle squads of 20 soldiers each. We armed ourselves with rifles and received 90 rounds of ammunition and one grenade. On June 28, 1941, in the area of ​​the village of Posenichi, the first battle of a partisan detachment under the command of V.Z. Korzha. To guard the city from the northern side, a group of partisans was placed on the Pinsk Logishin road.

The partisan detachment commanded by Korzh was ambushed by 2 German tanks. It was reconnaissance from the 293rd Wehrmacht Infantry Division. The partisans opened fire and knocked out one tank. As a result of this operation, they managed to capture 2 Nazis. This was the first partisan battle of the first partisan detachment in the history of the Great Patriotic War. On July 4, 1941, the detachment met enemy cavalry squadrons 4 kilometers from the city. Korzh quickly “deployed” the firepower of his detachment, and dozens of fascist cavalrymen died on the battlefield. The front moved to the east, and the partisans had more to do every day. They set up ambushes on the roads and destroyed enemy vehicles with infantry, equipment, ammunition, food, and intercepted motorcyclists. With the first mine Korzh personally made from explosives, used before the war to move tree stumps, the partisans blew up the first armored train. The squad's combat score grew.

But there was no connection with the mainland. Then Korzh sent a man behind the front line. The liaison officer was the famous Belarusian underground worker Vera Khoruzhaya. And she managed to get to Moscow. In the winter of 1941/42, it was possible to establish contact with the Minsk underground regional party committee, which deployed its headquarters in the Lyuban region. We jointly organized a sleigh ride in the Minsk and Polesie regions. Along the way, they “smoked out” uninvited foreign guests and gave them a “try” of partisan bullets. During the raid, the detachment was replenished thoroughly. Guerrilla warfare flared up. By November 1942, 7 impressively powerful detachments merged together and formed a partisan unit. Korzh took command over him. In addition, 11 underground district party committees, the Pinsk city committee, and about 40 primary organizations began to operate in the region. They even managed to “recruit” to their side an entire Cossack regiment formed by the Nazis from prisoners of war! By the winter of 1942/43, the Korzh union had restored Soviet power in a significant part of the Luninets, Zhitkovichi, Starobinsky, Ivanovo, Drogichinsky, Leninsky, Telekhansky, and Gantsevichi districts. Communication with the mainland has been established. Planes landed at the partisan airfield and brought ammunition, medicine, and walkie-talkies.

The partisans reliably controlled a huge area railway Brest - Gomel, the Baranovichi - Luninets section, and the enemy echelons went downhill according to a strict partisan schedule. The Dnieper-Bug Canal was almost completely paralyzed. In February 1943, the Nazi command attempted to put an end to the Korzh partisans. Regular units with artillery, aviation, and tanks were advancing. On February 15, the encirclement closed. The partisan zone turned into a continuous battlefield. Korzh himself led the column to break through. He personally led the shock troops to break through the ring, then the defense of the neck of the breakthrough, while convoys with civilians, wounded and property crossed the gap, and, finally, the rearguard group covering the pursuit. And so that the Nazis did not think that they had won, Korzh attacked a large garrison in the village of Svyatoy Volya. The battle lasted 7 hours, in which the partisans were victorious. Until the summer of 1943, the Nazis threw part after part against the Korzh formation.

And each time the partisans broke through the encirclement. Finally, they finally escaped from the cauldron to the area of ​​​​Lake Vygonovskoye. . Council resolution People's Commissars USSR dated September 16, 1943 No. 1000 - to one of the ten commanders of the partisan formations of the Byelorussian SSR - V.Z. Korzh assigned military rank"Major General" Throughout the summer and autumn of 1943, the “rail war” thundered in Belarus, proclaimed by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement. The Korzh compound made a significant contribution to this grandiose “event.” In 1944, several operations that were brilliant in concept and organization upset all the Nazis’ plans for a systematic, well-thought-out withdrawal of their units to the west.

The partisans destroyed railway arteries (on July 20, 21 and 22, 1944 alone, demolitionists blew up 5 thousand rails!), tightly closed the Dnieper-Bug Canal, and thwarted the enemy’s attempts to establish crossings across the Sluch River. Hundreds of Aryan warriors, together with the commander of the group, General Miller, surrendered to the Korzh partisans. And a few days later the war left the Pinsk region... In total, by July 1944, the Pinsk partisan unit under the command of Korzh in battles defeated 60 German garrisons, derailed 478 enemy trains, blew up 62 railway bridges, destroyed 86 tanks and armored vehicles, 29 guns, 519 kilometers of communication lines are out of order. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated August 15, 1944, for the exemplary performance of command assignments in the fight against the Nazi invaders behind enemy lines and the courage and heroism shown, Vasily Zakharovich Korzh was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. "(No. 4448). Graduated in 1946 Military Academy General Staff. Since 1946, Major General Korzh V.Z. in reserve. In 1949–1953 he worked as Deputy Minister of Forestry of the Belarusian SSR. In 1953–1963 he was chairman of the collective farm “Partizansky Krai” in the Soligorsk district of the Minsk region. In the last years of his life he lived in Minsk. Died May 5, 1967. He was buried at the Eastern (Moscow) cemetery in Minsk. Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, Red Star, medals. A monument to the Hero was erected in the village of Khorostov, memorial plaques in the cities of Minsk and Soligorsk. The collective farm “Partizansky Krai”, streets in the cities of Minsk, Pinsk, Soligorsk, as well as a school in the city of Pinsk are named after him.

Sources and literature.

1. Ioffe E.G. The Higher Partisan Command of Belarus 1941-1944 // Directory. – Minsk, 2009. – P. 23.

2. Kolpakidi A., Sever A. GRU Special Forces. – M.: “YAUZA”, ESKMO, 2012. – P. 45.

The medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" was established in the USSR on February 2, 1943. Over the following years, about 150 thousand heroes were awarded it. This material tells about five people's militias who, by their example, showed how to defend the Motherland.

Efim Ilyich Osipenko

An experienced commander who fought during Civil War, a true leader, Efim Ilyich became the commander of a partisan detachment in the fall of 1941. Although a detachment is too strong a word: together with the commander there were only six of them. There were practically no weapons and ammunition, winter was approaching, and endless groups German army were already approaching Moscow.

Realizing that as much time as possible was needed to prepare the defense of the capital, the partisans decided to blow up a strategically important section of the railway near Myshbor station. There were few explosives, there were no detonators at all, but Osipenko decided to detonate the bomb with a grenade. Silently and unnoticed, the group moved close to the railway tracks and planted explosives. Having sent his friends back and being left alone, the commander saw the train approaching, threw a grenade and fell into the snow. But for some reason the explosion did not happen, then Efim Ilyich himself hit the bomb with a pole from a railway sign. There was an explosion and a long train with food and tanks went downhill. The partisan himself miraculously survived, although he completely lost his sight and was severely shell-shocked. On April 4, 1942, he was the first in the country to be awarded the “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War” medal for No. 000001.

Konstantin Chekhovich

Konstantin Chekhovich - organizer and performer of one of the largest partisan sabotage acts of the Great Patriotic War.

The future hero was born in 1919 in Odessa, almost immediately after graduating from the Industrial Institute he was drafted into the Red Army, and already in August 1941, as part of a sabotage group, he was sent behind enemy lines. While crossing the front line, the group was ambushed, and of the five people, only Chekhovich survived, and he had nowhere to take much optimism - the Germans, after checking the bodies, were convinced that he only had a shell shock and Konstantin Aleksandrovich was captured. He managed to escape from it two weeks later, and after another week he already got in touch with the partisans of the 7th Leningrad Brigade, where he received the task of infiltrating the Germans in the city of Porkhov for sabotage work.

Having achieved some favor with the Nazis, Chekhovich received the position of administrator at a local cinema, which he planned to blow up. He involved Evgenia Vasilyeva in the case - his wife’s sister was employed as a cleaner at the cinema. Every day she carried several briquettes in buckets with dirty water and a rag. This cinema became a mass grave for 760 German soldiers and officers - an inconspicuous “administrator” installed bombs on the supporting columns and roof, so that during the explosion the entire structure collapsed like a house of cards.

Matvey Kuzmich Kuzmin

The oldest recipient of the "Partisan of the Patriotic War" and "Hero of the Soviet Union" awards. He was awarded both awards posthumously, and at the time of his feat he was 83 years old.

The future partisan was born back in 1858, 3 years before the abolition of serfdom, in the Pskov province. He spent his entire life isolated (he was not a member of the collective farm), but by no means lonely - Matvey Kuzmich had 8 children from two different wives. He was engaged in hunting and fishing, and knew the area remarkably well.

The Germans who came to the village occupied his house, and later the battalion commander himself settled in it. At the beginning of February 1942, this German commander asked Kuzmin to be a guide and lead the German unit to the village of Pershino occupied by the Red Army, in return he offered almost unlimited food. Kuzmin agreed. However, having seen the route of movement on the map, he sent his grandson Vasily to the destination in advance to warn the Soviet troops. Matvey Kuzmich himself led the frozen Germans through the forest for a long time and confusedly and only in the morning led them out, but not to the desired village, but to an ambush, where the Red Army soldiers had already taken positions. The invaders came under fire from machine gun crews and lost up to 80 people captured and killed, but the hero-guide himself also died.

Leonid Golikov

He was one of many teenage partisans of the Great Patriotic War, a Hero of the Soviet Union. Brigade scout of the Leningrad partisan brigade, spreading panic and chaos in German units in the Novgorod and Pskov regions. Despite his young age - Leonid was born in 1926, at the start of the war he was 15 years old - he was distinguished by his sharp mind and military courage. In just a year and a half of partisan activity, he destroyed 78 Germans, 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, 2 food warehouses and 10 wagons with ammunition. Guarded and accompanied a food convoy to besieged Leningrad.

This is what Lenya Golikov himself wrote about his main feat in a report: “On the evening of August 12, 1942, we, 6 partisans, got out onto the Pskov-Luga highway and lay down near the village of Varnitsa. There was no movement at night. It was dawn. From Pskov 13 August, a small passenger car appeared. It was going fast, but near the bridge where we were, the car went quieter. Partisan Vasiliev threw an anti-tank grenade, but missed. Alexander Petrov threw the second grenade from the ditch, hit the beam. The car didn’t stop immediately, but went further 20 meters and almost caught up with us (we were lying behind a pile of stones). Two officers jumped out of the car. I fired a burst from a machine gun. I didn’t hit. The officer who was driving ran through the ditch towards the forest. I fired several bursts from my PPSh . Hit the enemy in the neck and back. Petrov began shooting at the second officer, who kept looking around, shouting and firing back. Petrov killed this officer with a rifle. Then the two of them ran to the first wounded officer. They tore off their shoulder straps, took a briefcase, documents, it turned out to be the general from the infantry of the special weapons troops, that is, the engineering troops, Richard Wirtz, who was returning from a meeting from Konigsberg to his corps in Luga. There was still a heavy suitcase in the car. We barely managed to drag him into the bushes (150 meters from the highway). While we were still at the car, we heard an alarm, a ringing sound, and a scream in the neighboring village. Grabbing a briefcase, shoulder straps and three captured pistols, we ran to our....”.

As it turned out, the teenager took out extremely important drawings and descriptions of new examples of German mines, maps of minefields, and inspection reports to higher command. For this, Golikov was nominated for the Golden Star and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

He received the title posthumously. Defending himself in a village house from a German punitive detachment, the hero died along with the partisan headquarters on January 24, 1943, before he turned 17 years old.

Tikhon Pimenovich Bumazhkov

Coming from a poor peasant family, Hero of the Soviet Union, Tikhon Pimenovich was already the director of the plant at the age of 26, but the onset of the war did not take him by surprise. Bumazhkov is considered by historians to be one of the first organizers of partisan detachments during the Great Patriotic War. In the summer of 1941, he became one of the leaders and organizers of the extermination squad, which later became known as “Red October”.

In collaboration with units of the Red Army, the partisans destroyed several dozen bridges and enemy headquarters. In just less than 6 months of management guerrilla warfare Bumazhkov's detachment destroyed up to two hundred enemy cars and motorcycles, up to 20 warehouses with fodder and food were blown up or captured, and the number of captured officers and soldiers is estimated at several thousand. Bumazhkov died a heroic death while escaping from encirclement near the village of Orzhitsa, Poltava region.

Last updated: November 30, 2016 at 8:31 pm

The children in the Soviet partisan detachments did not think that they had not yet grown up, that it was too early to go defend their Motherland, that they could cope without them. They simply went and defended, although no one demanded this of them except their own conscience.

In Soviet times, portraits of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War hung in every school. And every teenager knew their names. Zina Portnova, Marat Kazei, Lenya Golikov, Valya Kotik, . But there were also tens of thousands of young heroes whose names are unknown. They were called “pioneer heroes”, Komsomol members. But they were heroes not because, like all their peers, they were members of a pioneer or Komsomol organization, but because they were real patriots and real people.

During the Great Patriotic War, a whole army of boys and girls acted against the Nazi occupiers. In occupied Belarus alone, at least 74,500 boys and girls, young men and women fought in partisan detachments. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia says that during the Great Patriotic War, more than 35 thousand pioneers - young defenders of the Motherland - were awarded military orders and medals.

It was an amazing “movement”! The boys and girls did not wait until adults “called” them, they began to act from the first days of the occupation. They took a mortal risk!

Likewise, many others began to act at their own peril and risk. Someone found leaflets scattered from airplanes and distributed them in their regional center or village. Polotsk boy Lenya Kosach collected 45 rifles, 2 light machine guns, several baskets of cartridges and grenades from the battlefields and hid it all securely; an opportunity presented itself - he handed it over to the partisans. Hundreds of other guys created arsenals for the partisans in the same way. Twelve-year-old excellent student Lyuba Morozova, knowing a little German, engaged in “special propaganda” among the enemies, telling them how well she lived before the war without the “new order” of the invaders. Soldiers often told her that she was “red to the bone” and advised her to hold her tongue until it ended badly for her. Later Lyuba became a partisan.

Eleven-year-old Tolya Korneev stole a pistol with ammunition from a German officer and began looking for people who would help him reach the partisans. In the summer of 1942, the boy succeeded in this, meeting his classmate Olya Demesh, who by that time was already a member of one of the units. And when the older guys brought 9-year-old Zhora Yuzov to the detachment, and the commander jokingly asked: “Who will babysit this little guy?”, the boy, in addition to the pistol, laid out four grenades in front of him: “That’s who will babysit me!”

For 13 years, Seryozha Roslenko, in addition to collecting weapons, conducted reconnaissance at his own risk: there will be someone to pass on information to! And I found it. From somewhere the children got the idea of ​​conspiracy.

In the fall of 1941, sixth-grader Vitya Pashkevich organized a semblance of the Krasnodon “Young Guard” in Borisov, occupied by the Nazis. He and his team carried weapons and ammunition from enemy warehouses, helped underground fighters to escape prisoners of war from concentration camps, and burned an enemy warehouse with uniforms with thermite incendiary grenades.

Experienced Scout

In January 1942, one of the partisan detachments operating in the Ponizovsky district of the Smolensk region was surrounded by the Nazis. The Germans, pretty battered during the counteroffensive Soviet troops near Moscow, they did not risk immediately liquidating the detachment. They did not have accurate intelligence information about its strength, so they waited for reinforcements. However, the ring was held tightly. The partisans were racking their brains about how to get out of the encirclement. Food was running out. And the detachment commander requested help from the Red Army command. In response, an encrypted message came over the radio, in which it was reported that active actions the troops will not be able to help, but an experienced scout will be sent to the detachment.

And indeed, at the appointed time, the noise of the engines of an air transport was heard above the forest, and a few minutes later a paratrooper landed in the location of the surrounded people. The partisans who received the heavenly messenger were quite surprised when they saw in front of them... a boy.

– Are you an experienced intelligence officer? – asked the commander.

- I am. What, you don’t look like him? “The boy was wearing a uniform army pea coat, cotton pants and a hat with earflaps with an asterisk. Red Army soldier!

- How old are you? – the commander still could not come to his senses from surprise.

- It's going to be eleven soon! – answered importantly “ experienced scout».

The boy's name was Yura Zhdanko. He was originally from Vitebsk. In July 1941, the ubiquitous shooter and expert on local territories showed the retreating Soviet unit a ford across the Western Dvina. He was no longer able to return home - while he was acting as a guide, Hitler’s armored vehicles entered his hometown. And the scouts, who were tasked with escorting the boy back, took him with them. So he was enrolled as a graduate of the motor reconnaissance company of the 332nd Ivanovo Rifle Division named after. M.F. Frunze.

At first he was not involved in business, but, naturally observant, sharp-eyed and memorative, he quickly learned the basics of front-line raid science and even dared to give advice to adults. And his abilities were appreciated. They began to send him behind the front line. In the villages, he, dressed in disguise, with a bag over his shoulders, begged for alms, collecting information about the location and number of enemy garrisons. I also managed to take part in the mining of a strategically important bridge. During the explosion, a Red Army miner was wounded, and Yura, after providing first aid, led him to the unit’s location. Why did I get my first one? Medal of Honor".

...It seems that a better intelligence officer could not have been found to help the partisans.

“But you, boy, didn’t jump with a parachute...” the intelligence chief said sadly.

- Jumped twice! – Yura objected loudly. “I begged the sergeant... he quietly taught me...

Everyone knew that this sergeant and Yura were inseparable, and he could, of course, follow the lead of the regimental favorite. The Li-2 engines were already roaring, the plane was ready to take off, when the guy admitted that, of course, he had never jumped with a parachute:

“The sergeant didn’t allow me, I only helped lay the dome.” Show me how and what to pull!

– Why did you lie?! – the instructor shouted at him. - He was lying against the sergeant in vain.

- I thought you would check... But they wouldn’t: the sergeant was killed...

Having arrived safely at the detachment, ten-year-old Vitebsk resident Yura Zhdanko did what adults could not... He was dressed in all the village clothes, and soon the boy made his way to the hut where the German officer in charge of the encirclement lodged. The Nazi lived in the house of a certain grandfather Vlas. It was to him, under the guise of a grandson, that a young intelligence officer came to him from the regional center, who was given a rather difficult task- obtain from the enemy officer documents with plans for the destruction of the encircled detachment. An opportunity arose only a few days later. The Nazi left the house lightly, leaving the key to the safe in his overcoat... So the documents ended up in the detachment. And at the same time, Jurai brought grandfather Vlas, convincing him that it was impossible to stay in the house in such a situation.

In 1943, Yura led a regular Red Army battalion out of encirclement. All the scouts sent to find the “corridor” for their comrades died. The task was entrusted to Yura. Alone. And he found weakness in the enemy ring... Became an Order Bearer of the Red Star.

Yuri Ivanovich Zhdanko, recalling his military childhood, said that he “played in a real war, did what adults couldn’t, and there were a lot of situations when they couldn’t do something, but I could.”

Fourteen-year-old savior of prisoners of war

14-year-old Minsk underground fighter Volodya Shcherbatsevich was one of the first teenagers whom the Germans executed for participating in the underground. They captured his execution on film and then distributed these images throughout the city - as an edification to others...

From the first days of the occupation of the Belarusian capital, mother and son Shcherbatsevichs hid Soviet commanders in their apartment, for whom underground fighters from time to time arranged escapes from a prisoner of war camp. Olga Fedorovna was a doctor and provided assistance to those released medical care, changed into civilian clothes, which she and her son Volodya collected from relatives and friends. Several groups of rescued people have already been brought out of the city. But one day on the way, already outside the city blocks, one of the groups fell into the clutches of the Gestapo. Handed over by a traitor, the son and mother ended up in fascist dungeons. They withstood all the torture.

And on October 26, 1941, the first gallows appeared in Minsk. On this day, for the last time, surrounded by a pack of machine gunners, Volodya Shcherbatsevich walked through the streets of his native city... The pedantic punishers captured the report of his execution on photographic film. And perhaps we see the first one on it young hero who gave his life for his Motherland during the Great Patriotic War.

Die, but take revenge

Here is another amazing example of young heroism from 1941...

Osintorf village. One August day, the Nazis, together with their henchmen from local residents - the burgomaster, the clerk and the chief policeman - raped and brutally killed the young teacher Anya Lyutova. By that time, a youth underground was already operating in the village under the leadership of Slava Shmuglevsky. The guys gathered and decided: “Death to traitors!” Slava himself volunteered to carry out the sentence, as did teenage brothers Misha and Zhenya Telenchenko, aged thirteen and fifteen.

By that time, they already had hidden a machine gun found in the battlefields. They acted simply and directly, like a boy. The brothers took advantage of the fact that their mother had gone to relatives that day and was supposed to return only in the morning. They installed a machine gun on the balcony of the apartment and began to wait for traitors who often passed by. We didn't miscalculate. When they approached, Slava began shooting at them almost point-blank. But one of the criminals, the burgomaster, managed to escape. He reported by telephone to Orsha that the village was attacked by a large partisan detachment (a machine gun is a serious thing). Cars with punitive forces rushed in. With the help of bloodhounds, the weapon was quickly found: Misha and Zhenya, not having time to find a more reliable hiding place, hid the machine gun in the attic of their own house. Both were arrested. The boys were tortured most cruelly and for a long time, but not one of them betrayed Slava Shmuglevsky and other underground fighters to the enemy. The Telenchenko brothers were executed in October.

The Great Conspirator

Pavlik Titov for his eleven he was a great conspirator. He fought as a partisan for more than two years without even his parents knowing about it. Many episodes of his combat biography remained unknown. This is what is known. First, Pavlik and his comrades rescued a wounded Soviet commander who had been burned in a burnt tank - they found a reliable shelter for him, and at night they brought him food, water, and brewed some medicinal decoctions according to his grandmother’s recipes. Thanks to the boys, the tanker quickly recovered.

In July 1942, Pavlik and his friends handed over to the partisans several rifles and machine guns with cartridges they had found. Missions followed. Young Scout penetrated the location of the Nazis, kept calculations of manpower and equipment.

He was generally a cunning guy. One day he brought a bundle of fascist uniforms to the partisans:

- I think it will be useful for you... Not to carry it yourself, of course...

- Where did you get it?

- Yes, the Krauts were swimming...

More than once, dressed in the uniform obtained by the boy, the partisans carried out daring raids and operations. The boy died in the fall of 1943. Not in battle. The Germans carried out another punitive operation. Pavlik and his parents were hiding in the dugout. The punishers shot the entire family - father, mother, Pavlik himself and even his little sister. He was buried in a mass grave in Surazh, near Vitebsk.

Zina Portnova

Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova in June 1941, she came with her younger sister Galya for the summer holidays to her grandmother in the village of Zui (Shumilinsky district of the Vitebsk region). She was fifteen... First, she got a job as an auxiliary worker in a canteen for German officers. And soon, together with her friend, she carried out a daring operation - she poisoned more than a hundred Nazis. She could have been captured right away, but they began to follow her. By that time she was already connected with Obolskaya underground organization"Young Avengers". In order to avoid failure, Zina was transferred to a partisan detachment.

Once she was instructed to scout out the number and type of troops in the Oboli area. Another time - to clarify the reasons for the failure in the Obol underground and establish new connections... After completing the next task, she was captured by punitive forces. They tortured me for a long time. During one of the interrogations, the girl, as soon as the investigator turned away, grabbed the pistol from the table with which he had just threatened her and shot him. She jumped out the window, shot a sentry and rushed to the Dvina. Another sentry rushed after her. Zina, hiding behind a bush, wanted to destroy him too, but the weapon misfired...

Then they no longer interrogated her, but methodically tortured and mocked her. They gouged out their eyes and cut off their ears. They drove needles under her nails, twisted her arms and legs... On January 13, 1944, Zina Portnova was shot.

"Kid" and his sisters

From a report of the Vitebsk underground city party committee in 1942: “Baby” (he is 12 years old), having learned that the partisans needed gun oil, without an assignment, on his own initiative, brought 2 liters of gun oil from the city. Then he was assigned to deliver for sabotage purposes sulfuric acid. He also brought it. And he carried it in a bag behind his back. The acid spilled, his shirt was burned, his back was burned, but he did not throw the acid.

Was a "kid" Alyosha Vyalov, who enjoyed special sympathy among the local partisans. And he acted as part of a family group. When the war began, he was 11, his older sisters Vasilisa and Anya were 16 and 14, the rest of the children were a little younger. Alyosha and his sisters were very inventive. They set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times, prepared to blow up the labor exchange in order to confuse the population records and save young people and other residents from being taken to the “German paradise”, blew up the passport office in the police premises... They have dozens of acts of sabotage. And this is in addition to the fact that they were messengers and distributed leaflets...

“Baby” and Vasilisa died soon after the war from tuberculosis... A rare case: on the Vyalovs’ house in Vitebsk a Memorial plaque. These children should have a monument made of gold!..

Meanwhile, we also know about another Vitebsk family - Lynchenko. 11-year-old Kolya, 9-year-old Dina and 7-year-old Emma were the messengers of their mother, Natalya Fedorovna, whose apartment served as a reporting area. In 1943, as a result of the failure, the Gestapo broke into the house. The mother was beaten in front of her children, they shot above her head, demanding to name the members of the group. They also mocked the children, asking them who came to their mother and where she herself went. They tried to bribe little Emma with chocolate. The children didn't say anything. Moreover, during the search in the apartment, seizing the moment, Dina took out encryption codes from under the board of the table, where one of the hiding places was, and hid them under her dress, and when the punishers left, taking her mother away, she burned them. The children were left in the house as bait, but they, knowing that the house was being watched, managed to warn the messengers with signs who were going to the failed appearance...

Prize for the head of a young saboteur

For the head of an Orsha schoolgirl Oli Demes The Nazis promised a round sum. Hero of the Soviet Union, former commander of the 8th Partisan Brigade, Colonel Sergei Zhunin, spoke about this in his memoirs “From the Dnieper to the Bug”. A 13-year-old girl at the Orsha-Tsentralnaya station blew up fuel tanks. Sometimes she acted with her twelve-year-old sister Lida. Zhunin recalled how Olya was instructed before the mission: “It is necessary to place a mine under the gasoline tank. Remember, only for a gasoline tank!” “I know what kerosene smells like, I cooked with kerosene gas myself, but gasoline... let me at least smell it.” There were a lot of trains and dozens of tanks at the junction, and you had to find “the one.” Olya and Lida crawled under the trains, sniffing: is this one or not this one? Gasoline or not gasoline? Then they threw stones and determined by the sound: empty or full? And only then they hooked the magnetic mine. The fire destroyed great amount wagons with equipment, food, uniforms, fodder, and steam locomotives burned...

The Germans managed to capture Olya’s mother and sister and shot them; but Olya remained elusive. During the ten months of her participation in the Chekist brigade (from June 7, 1942 to April 10, 1943), she showed herself not only to be a fearless intelligence officer, but also derailed seven enemy echelons, participated in the defeat of several military-police garrisons, and had his personal account 20 destroyed enemy soldiers and officers. And then she was also a participant in the “rail war”.

Eleven-year-old saboteur

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

In the spring of 1944, Vitya fell ill with rheumatism and was sent to his relatives for medicine. In the village, he was captured by Nazis dressed as Red Army soldiers. The boy was brutally tortured.

Little Susanin

He began his war against the Nazi invaders at the age of 9. Already in the summer of 1941, in the house of his parents in the village of Bayki in the Brest region, the regional anti-fascist committee equipped a secret printing house. They issued leaflets with reports from the Sovinforburo. Tikhon Baran helped distribute them. For two years the young underground worker was engaged in this activity. The Nazis managed to get on the trail of the printers. The printing house was destroyed. Tikhon’s mother and sisters hid with relatives, and he himself went to the partisans. One day, when he was visiting his relatives, the Germans came to the village. The mother was taken to Germany, and the boy was beaten. He became very ill and remained in the village.

Local historians dated his feat to January 22, 1944. On this day, punitive forces appeared in the village again. All residents were shot for contacting the partisans. The village was burned. “And you,” they told Tikhon, “will show us the way to the partisans.” It is difficult to say whether the village boy heard anything about the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin, who more than three centuries earlier led the Polish interventionists into a swampy swamp, only Tikhon Baran showed the fascists the same road. They killed him, but not all of them got out of that quagmire.

Covering detachment

Vanya Kazachenko from the village of Zapolye, Orsha district Vitebsk region in April 1943 he became a machine gunner in a partisan detachment. He was thirteen. Anyone who served in the army and carried at least a Kalashnikov assault rifle (not a machine gun!) on their shoulders can imagine what it cost the boy. Guerrilla raids most often lasted many hours. And the machine guns of that time were heavier than the current ones... After one of the successful operations to defeat the enemy garrison, in which Vanya once again distinguished himself, the partisans, returning to the base, stopped to rest in a village not far from Bogushevsk. Vanya, assigned to guard, chose a place, disguised himself and covered the leading locality the road. Here the young machine gunner fought his last battle.

Noticing the carts with the Nazis suddenly appearing, he opened fire on them. By the time his comrades arrived, the Germans managed to surround the boy, seriously wound him, take him prisoner and retreat. The partisans did not have the opportunity to chase the carts to beat him up. Vanya, tied to a cart, was dragged along an icy road for about twenty kilometers by the Nazis. In the village of Mezhevo, Orsha region, where there was an enemy garrison, he was tortured and shot.

The hero was 14 years old

Marat Kazei born on October 10, 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk region of Belarus. In November 1942 he joined the partisan detachment named after. 25th anniversary of October, then became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade named after. K.K. Rokossovsky.

Marat's father Ivan Kazei was arrested in 1934 as a “saboteur”, and he was rehabilitated only in 1959. Later, his wife was also arrested, but later, however, she was released. So it turned out to be a family of an “enemy of the people” who were shunned by their neighbors. Kazei’s sister, Ariadne, was not accepted into the Komsomol because of this.

It would seem that all this should have made the Kazei angry with the authorities - but no. In 1941, Anna Kazei, the wife of an “enemy of the people,” hid wounded partisans in her home - for which she was executed by the Germans. Ariadne and Marat went to the partisans. Ariadne remained alive, but became disabled - when the detachment left the encirclement, her legs froze, which had to be amputated. When she was taken to the hospital by plane, the detachment commander offered to fly with her and Marat so that he could continue his studies interrupted by the war. But Marat refused and remained in the partisan detachment.

Marat went on reconnaissance missions, both alone and with a group. Participated in raids. He blew up the echelons. For the battle in January 1943, when, wounded, he roused his comrades to attack and made his way through the enemy ring, Marat received Medal of Honor". And in May 1944, Marat died. Returning from a mission together with the reconnaissance commander, they came across the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. Go to open field there was nowhere to go, and there was no opportunity - Marat was seriously wounded. While there were cartridges, he held the defense, and when the magazine was empty, he picked up his last weapon - two grenades, which he did not remove from his belt. He threw one at the Germans, and left the second. When the Germans came very close, he blew himself up along with the enemies.

In Minsk, a monument to Kazei was erected using funds raised by Belarusian pioneers. In 1958, an obelisk was erected at the grave of the young Hero in the village of Stankovo, Dzerzhinsky district, Minsk region. The monument to Marat Kazei was erected in Moscow (on the territory of VDNH). The state farm, streets, schools, pioneer squads and detachments of many schools of the Soviet Union, the ship of the Caspian Shipping Company were named after the pioneer hero Marat Kazei.

The boy from the legend

Golikov Leonid Aleksandrovich, scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad Partisan Brigade, born in 1926, native of the village of Lukino, Parfinsky district. This is what is written on the award sheet. A boy from a legend—that’s what fame called Lenya Golikova.

When the war began, a schoolboy from the village of Lukino, near Staraya Russa, got a rifle and joined the partisans. Slender, short stature, at 14 he looked even younger. Under the guise of a beggar, he walked around the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of fascist troops and the amount of enemy military equipment.

Together with his peers, he once picked up several rifles at a battle site and stole two boxes of grenades from the Nazis. They then handed all this over to the partisans. “Comrade Golikov joined the partisan detachment in March 1942, the award sheet says. - Participated in 27 military operations... Exterminated 78 German soldiers and officers, blew up 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition... On August 15, in the new combat area of ​​the Golikov brigade, he crashed a passenger car in which Major General of the Engineering Troops Richard was located Wirtz, heading from Pskov to Luga. A brave partisan killed the general with a machine gun and delivered his jacket and captured documents to the brigade headquarters. The documents included: a description of new types of German mines, inspection reports to higher command and other valuable intelligence data.”

Lake Radilovskoye was a gathering point during the brigade’s transition to a new area of ​​operations. On the way there, the partisans had to engage in battles with the enemy. The punishers monitored the progress of the partisans, and as soon as the forces of the brigade united, they forced a battle on it. After the battle at Lake Radilovskoe, the main forces of the brigade continued their journey to the Lyadskie forests. The detachments of I. Grozny and B. Eren-Price remained in the lake area to distract the fascists. They never managed to connect with the brigade. In mid-November, the occupiers attacked the headquarters. Many soldiers died defending him. The rest managed to retreat to the Terp-Kamen swamp. On December 25, the swamp was surrounded by several hundred fascists. With considerable losses, the partisans broke out of the ring and entered the Strugokrasnensky region. Only 50 people remained in the ranks, the radio did not work. And the punishers scoured all the villages in search of partisans. We had to follow untrodden paths. The path was paved by scouts, and among them Lenya Golikov. Attempts to establish contact with other units and stock up on food ended tragically. There was only one way out - to make our way to the mainland.

After crossing the Dno-Novosokolniki railway late at night on January 24, 1943, 27 hungry, exhausted partisans came to the village of Ostray Luka. Ahead, the Partizansky region, burned by punitive forces, stretched 90 kilometers. The scouts did not find anything suspicious. The enemy garrison was located several kilometers away. The partisans' companion, a nurse, was dying from a serious wound and asked for at least a little warmth. They occupied the three outer huts. Brigade commander Glebov decided not to post patrols so as not to attract attention. They were on duty alternately at the windows and in the barn, from where both the village and the road to the forest were clearly visible.

About two hours later, my sleep was interrupted by the roar of an exploding grenade. And immediately the heavy machine gun began to rattle. Following the traitor's denunciation, punitive forces arrived. The partisans jumped out into the courtyard and through the vegetable gardens, firing back, and began to rush towards the forest. Glebov with a military escort covered the retreating forces with light machine gun and machine gun fire. Halfway there, the seriously wounded chief of staff fell. Lenya rushed to him. But Petrov ordered to return to the brigade commander, and he himself, covering the wound under his padded jacket with an individual bag, again stitched with a machine gun. In that unequal battle, the entire headquarters of the 4th partisan brigade was killed. Among the fallen was the young partisan Lenya Golikov. Six managed to reach the forest, two of them were seriously injured and could not move without outside help...Only on January 31, near the village of Zhemchugovo, exhausted and frostbitten, did they meet the scouts of the 8th Guards Panfilov Division.

For a long time, his mother Ekaterina Alekseevna knew nothing about Leni’s fate. The war had already moved far to the west when one Sunday afternoon a horseman in military uniform. Mother went out onto the porch. The officer handed her a large package. With trembling hands I accepted it old woman, called my daughter Valya. The package contained a certificate bound in crimson leather. There was also an envelope, which Valya opened quietly and said: “This is for you, mom, from Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin himself.” With excitement, the mother took a bluish sheet of paper and read: “Dear Ekaterina Alekseevna! According to the command, your son Leonid Aleksandrovich Golikov died a brave death for his homeland. For the heroic feat performed by your son in the fight against German invaders behind enemy lines, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by Decree of April 2, 1944, awarded him highest degree distinction - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. I am sending you a letter from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR conferring on your son the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to be kept as a memory of a heroic son whose feat will never be forgotten by our people. M. Kalinin." - “That’s what he turned out to be, my Lenyushka!” - the mother said quietly. And in these words there was grief, pain, and pride for his son...

Lenya was buried in the village of Ostraya Luka. His name is inscribed on the obelisk installed on the mass grave. The monument in Novgorod was opened on January 20, 1964. The figure of a boy in a hat with earflaps and a machine gun in his hands is carved from light granite. The hero’s name is given to streets in St. Petersburg, Pskov, Staraya Russa, Okulovka, the village of Pola, the village of Parfino, a motor ship of the Riga Shipping Company, in Novgorod - a street, the House of Pioneers, a training ship for young sailors in Staraya Russa. In Moscow, at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR, a monument to the hero was also erected.

Valya Kotik. Young partisan scout Great Patriotic War in the detachment named after Karmelyuk, operating in temporarily occupied territory; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk region of Ukraine, according to one information in the family of an employee, according to another - a peasant. From education there are only 5 classes high school in the regional center.

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

In October 1943, a young partisan scouted the location of the underground telephone cable of Hitler's headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the bombing of six railway trains and a warehouse. On October 29, 1943, while at his post, Valya noticed that the punitive forces had staged a raid on the detachment. Having killed a fascist officer with a pistol, he raised the alarm, and thanks to his actions, the partisans managed to prepare for battle.

On February 16, 1944, in a battle for the city of Izyaslav, Khmelnitsky region, a 14-year-old partisan scout was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the center of a park in the Ukrainian city of Shepetivka. For his heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 58, Kotik Valentin Aleksandrovich was posthumously awarded title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" 2nd degree. A motor ship is named after him, a row secondary schools, there used to be pioneer squads and detachments named after Vali Kotik. In Moscow and its hometown in 60, monuments were erected to him. There is a street named after the young hero in Yekaterinburg, Kyiv and Kaliningrad.