According to well-known statistics, the Great Patriotic War claimed about 27 million lives of citizens Soviet Union. Of these, about 10 million are soldiers, the rest are old people, women, and children. But statistics are silent about how many children died during the Great Patriotic War. There simply is no such data. The war crippled thousands of children's destinies and took away a bright and joyful childhood. The children of war, as best they could, brought Victory closer to the best of their, albeit small, albeit weak, strength. They drank a full cup of grief, perhaps too big for little man, because the beginning of the war coincided for them with the beginning of life... How many of them were driven to a foreign land... How many were killed by the unborn...

During the Great Patriotic War, hundreds of thousands of boys and girls went to military registration and enlistment offices, gained a year or two more, and went off to defend their Motherland; many died for it. Children of war often suffered no less from it than the soldiers at the front. War-torn childhood, suffering, hunger, death made the children adults early, instilling in them childlike fortitude, courage, the ability to self-sacrifice, to feat in the name of the Motherland, in the name of Victory. Children fought along with adults both in the active army and in partisan detachments. And these were not isolated cases. According to Soviet sources, there were tens of thousands of such guys during the Great Patriotic War.

Here are the names of some of them: Volodya Kazmin, Yura Zhdanko, Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Lara Mikheenko, Valya Kotik, Tanya Morozova, Vitya Korobkov, Zina Portnova. Many of them fought so hard that they earned military orders and medals, and four: Marat Kazei, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova, Lenya Golikov, became Heroes of the Soviet Union. From the first days of the occupation, boys and girls began to act at their own risk, which was truly fatal.

The guys collected rifles, cartridges, machine guns, grenades left over from the battles, and then handed it all over to the partisans; of course, they took a serious risk. Many schoolchildren, again at their own peril and risk, conducted reconnaissance and served as messengers in partisan detachments. We rescued wounded Red Army soldiers and helped underground fighters to escape our prisoners of war from German concentration camps. They set fire to German warehouses with food, equipment, uniforms, and fodder, and blew up railway cars and locomotives. Both boys and girls fought on the “children's front.” It was especially widespread in Belarus.

In units and subunits at the front, teenagers aged 13-15 often fought alongside soldiers and commanders. These were mainly children who had lost their parents, in most cases killed or driven away by the Germans to Germany. Children left in destroyed cities and villages became homeless, doomed to starvation. It was scary and difficult to stay in enemy-occupied territory. Children could be sent to a concentration camp, taken to work in Germany, turned into slaves, made donors for German soldiers etc.

In addition, the Germans in the rear were not at all shy, and dealt with the children with all cruelty. "...Often, because of entertainment, a group of Germans on vacation arranged a release for themselves: they threw a piece of bread, the children ran to it, followed by machine-gun fire. How many children died because of such amusements of the Germans throughout the country! Children swollen from hunger could without meaning to take something edible from a German, and then there’s a burst of fire from the machine gun, and the child is forever full!” (Solokhina N.Ya., Kaluga region, Lyudinovo, from the article “We do not come from childhood”, “World of News”, No. 27, 2010, p. 26).
Therefore, the Red Army units passing through these places were sensitive to such guys and often took them with them. The sons of the regiments - children of the war years - fought against the German occupiers on an equal basis with adults. Marshal Bagramyan recalled that the courage, bravery of the teenagers, and their ingenuity in carrying out tasks amazed even old and experienced soldiers.

"Fedya Samodurov. Fedya is 14 years old, he is a graduate of a motorized rifle unit, commanded by Guard Captain A. Chernavin. Fedya was picked up in his homeland, in a destroyed village Voronezh region. Together with the unit, he took part in the battles for Ternopil, with machine-gun crews he kicked the Germans out of the city. When almost the entire crew was killed, the teenager, together with the surviving soldier, took up the machine gun, firing long and hard, and detained the enemy. Fedya was awarded the medal "For Courage".
Vanya Kozlov. Vanya is 13 years old, he was left without family and has been in a motorized rifle unit for two years now. At the front, he delivers food, newspapers and letters to soldiers in the most difficult conditions.
Petya Zub. Petya Zub chose an equally difficult specialty. He decided long ago to become a scout. His parents were killed, and he knows how to settle accounts with the damned German. Together with experienced scouts, he gets to the enemy, reports his location by radio, and the artillery, at their direction, fires, crushing the fascists." ("Arguments and Facts", No. 25, 2010, p. 42).

Graduate of the 63rd Guards tank brigade Anatoly Yakushin received the Order of the Red Star for saving the life of the brigade commander. There are quite a lot of examples of heroic behavior of children and teenagers at the front...

A lot of these guys died and went missing during the war. In Vladimir Bogomolov’s story “Ivan” you can read about the fate of a young intelligence officer. Vanya was originally from Gomel. His father and sister died during the war. The boy had to go through a lot: he was in the partisans, and in Trostyanets - in the death camp. Mass executions and cruel treatment of the population also aroused in children a great desire for revenge. When they found themselves in the Gestapo, the teenagers showed amazing courage and resilience. This is how the author describes the death of the hero of the story: “...On December 21 of this year, at the location of the 23rd Army Corps, in a restricted area near the railway, auxiliary police officer Efim Titkov noticed and after two hours of observation detained a Russian student, 10-12 years old. , lying in the snow and watching the movement of trains on the Kalinkovichi - Klinsk section... During interrogations, he behaved defiantly: he did not hide his hostile attitude towards the German army and German Empire. In accordance with the directive of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of November 11, 1942, he was executed on December 25, 1943 at 6.55."

Girls also actively participated in the underground and partisan struggle in the occupied territory. Fifteen-year-old Zina Portnova came from Leningrad to visit her relatives in 1941. summer holidays to the village of Zuy, Vitebsk region. During the war, she became an active participant in the Obol anti-fascist underground youth organization “Young Avengers”. While working in the canteen of a retraining course for German officers, at the direction of the underground, she poisoned the food. She took part in other acts of sabotage, distributed leaflets among the population, and conducted reconnaissance on instructions from a partisan detachment. In December 1943, returning from a mission, she was arrested in the village of Mostishche and identified as a traitor. During one of the interrogations, she grabbed the investigator’s pistol from the table, shot him and two other Nazis, tried to escape, but was captured, brutally tortured and on January 13, 1944, shot in the Polotsk prison.

And sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Olya Demesh with her younger sister Lida at the Orsha station in Belarus, on instructions from the commander of the partisan brigade S. Zhulin, used magnetic mines to blow up fuel tanks. Of course, girls attracted much less attention from German guards and policemen than teenage boys or adult men. But the girls were just right to play with dolls, and they fought with Wehrmacht soldiers!

Thirteen-year-old Lida often took a basket or bag and went to the railway tracks to collect coal, obtaining intelligence about German military trains. If the guards stopped her, she explained that she was collecting coal to heat the room in which the Germans lived. Olya’s mother and little sister Lida were captured and shot by the Nazis, and Olya continued to fearlessly carry out the partisans’ tasks. The Nazis promised a generous reward for the head of the young partisan Olya Demesh - land, a cow and 10 thousand marks. Copies of her photograph were distributed and sent to everyone patrol services, policemen, elders and secret agents. Capture and deliver her alive - that was the order! But they failed to catch the girl. Olga destroyed 20 German soldiers and officers, derailed 7 enemy trains, conducted reconnaissance, participated in the “rail war”, and in the destruction of German punitive units.

From the first days of the war, the children had a great desire to help the front in some way. In the rear, children did their best to help adults in all matters: they participated in air defense - they were on duty on the roofs of houses during enemy raids, built defensive fortifications, collected ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal, medicinal plants, participated in collecting things for the Red Army, worked on Sundays .

The guys worked for days in factories, factories and factories, standing at the machines instead of brothers and fathers who had gone to the front. Children also worked at defense enterprises: they made fuses for mines, fuses for hand grenades, smoke bombs, colored flares, collected gas masks. Worked in agriculture, grew vegetables for hospitals. In school sewing workshops, pioneers sewed underwear and tunics for the army. The girls knitted warm clothes for the front: mittens, socks, scarves, and sewed tobacco pouches. The guys helped the wounded in hospitals, wrote letters to their relatives under their dictation, staged performances for the wounded, organized concerts, bringing a smile to war-weary adult men. E. Yevtushenko has a touching poem about one such concert:

"The radio was turned off in the room...
And someone stroked my cowlick.
In the Ziminsky hospital for the wounded
Our children's choir gave a concert..."

Meanwhile, hunger, cold, and disease quickly dealt with fragile little lives.
A number of objective reasons: teachers leaving for the army, evacuation of the population from western to eastern regions, inclusion of students in labor activity In connection with the family's breadwinners leaving for the war, the transfer of many schools to hospitals, etc., prevented the deployment in the USSR during the war of universal seven-year compulsory education, which began in the 30s. In the remaining educational institutions training was carried out in two, three, and sometimes four shifts. At the same time, the children were forced to store firewood for the boiler houses themselves. There were no textbooks, and due to a shortage of paper, they wrote on old newspapers between the lines. Nevertheless, new schools were opened and additional classes were created. Boarding schools were created for evacuated children. For those youth who left school at the beginning of the war and were employed in industry or agriculture, schools for working and rural youth were organized in 1943.

In the chronicles of the Great Patriotic War there are still many little-known pages, for example, the fate of kindergartens. “It turns out that in December 1941, kindergartens were operating in bomb shelters in besieged Moscow. When the enemy was repulsed, they resumed their work faster than many universities. By the fall of 1942, 258 kindergartens had opened in Moscow!

More than five hundred teachers and nannies dug trenches on the outskirts of the capital in the fall of 1941. Hundreds worked in logging operations. The teachers, who just yesterday were dancing with the children in a round dance, fought in the Moscow militia. Natasha Yanovskaya, a kindergarten teacher in the Baumansky district, died heroically near Mozhaisk. The teachers who remained with the children did not perform any feats. They simply saved children whose fathers were fighting and whose mothers were at work. Most kindergartens became boarding schools during the war; children were there day and night. And in order to feed children in half-starvation, protect them from the cold, give them at least a modicum of comfort, occupy them with benefit for the mind and soul - such work required great love for children, deep decency and boundless patience." (D. Shevarov " World of News", No. 27, 2010, p. 27).

"Play now, children.
Grow in freedom!
That's why you need red
Childhood is given", wrote N.A. Nekrasov, but the war also deprived kindergarteners of their “red childhood.” These little children also grew up early, quickly forgetting how to be naughty and capricious. Recovering soldiers from hospitals came to children's matinees in kindergartens. The wounded soldiers applauded the little artists for a long time, smiling through their tears... The warmth of the children's holiday warmed the wounded souls of the front-line soldiers, reminded them of home, and helped them return from the war unharmed. Children from kindergartens and their teachers also wrote letters to soldiers at the front, sent drawings and gifts.

Children's games have changed, "... a new game- to the hospital. Hospital has been played before, but not like this. Now the wounded for them - real people. But they play war less often, because no one wants to be a fascist. Trees perform this role for them. They shoot snowballs at them. We learned to provide assistance to the injured - the fallen, the bruised." From a boy's letter to a front-line soldier: "We used to often play war, but now much less often - we're tired of the war, it would sooner end so that we could live well again..." (Ibid.).

Due to the death of their parents, many homeless children appeared in the country. The Soviet state, despite the difficult war time, still fulfilled its obligations to children left without parents. To combat neglect, a network of children's reception centers and orphanages was organized and opened, and employment of teenagers was organized. Many families of Soviet citizens began to take in orphans, where they found new parents. Unfortunately, not all teachers and heads of children's institutions were distinguished by honesty and decency. Here are some examples.

"In the autumn of 1942, in the Pochinkovsky district of the Gorky region, children dressed in rags were caught stealing potatoes and grain from collective farm fields. It turned out that the pupils of the district orphanage. And they did this not at all out of a good life. Upon further investigation, local police discovered a criminal group, or, in fact, a gang, consisting of employees of this institution. In total, seven people were arrested in the case, including the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev, accountant Sdobnov, storekeeper Mukhina and other persons. During the searches, 14 children's coats, seven suits, 30 meters of cloth, 350 meters of textiles and other illegally appropriated property, allocated with great difficulty by the state during this harsh wartime, were confiscated from them.

The investigation established that by failing to supply the required quota of bread and products, these criminals stole seven tons of bread, half a ton of meat, 380 kg of sugar, 180 kg of cookies, 106 kg of fish, 121 kg of honey, etc. during 1942 alone. The orphanage workers sold all these scarce products on the market or simply ate them themselves. Only one comrade Novoseltsev received fifteen portions of breakfast and lunch every day for himself and his family members. The rest of the staff also ate well at the expense of the pupils. The children were fed “dishes” made from rotten vegetables, citing poor supplies. For the entire 1942, they were only given one candy for the 25th anniversary once. October revolution... And what is most surprising, the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev in the same 1942 received a certificate of honor from the People's Commissariat of Education for excellent educational work. All these fascists were deservedly sentenced to long terms of imprisonment." (Zefirov M.V., Dektyarev D.M. “Everything for the front? How victory was actually forged,” pp. 388-391).

"Similar cases of crimes and failure to comply teaching staff their responsibilities were also revealed in other regions. Thus, in November 1942, a special message was sent to the Saratov City Defense Committee about the difficult financial and living situation of children in orphanages... Boarding schools are poorly heated or have no fuel at all, children are not provided with warm clothes and shoes, as a result of non-compliance with basic social and hygienic rules are observed infectious diseases. Educational work neglected... In the boarding school in the village of Nesterovo, on some days the children did not receive bread at all, as if they lived not in the rear Saratov region, but in besieged Leningrad. Education was abandoned long ago due to the lack of teachers and lack of premises. In boarding schools in the Rivne region, in the village of Volkovo and others, children also did not receive bread at all for several days." (Ibid. p. 391-392).

“Oh, war, what have you done, vile....” Over the long four years that the Great Patriotic War lasted, children, from toddlers to high school students, fully experienced all its horrors. War every day, every second, every dream and so on for almost four years. But war is hundreds of times more terrible if you see it through a child’s eyes... And no amount of time can heal the wounds of war, especially children’s. “These years that once were, the bitterness of childhood does not allow one to forget...”

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Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. We studied, helped elders, played, scored

CHILDREN - HEROES OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941-1945 AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

 23:09 08 May 2017

Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped their elders, played, raised pigeons, and sometimes even took part in fights. But the hour of difficult trials came and they proved how huge an ordinary little child’s heart can become when a sacred love for the Motherland, pain for the fate of one’s people and hatred for enemies flares up in it. And no one expected that it was these boys and girls who were capable of accomplishing a great feat for the glory of the freedom and independence of their Motherland!

Children left in destroyed cities and villages became homeless, doomed to starvation. It was scary and difficult to stay in enemy-occupied territory. Children could be sent to a concentration camp, taken to work in Germany, turned into slaves, made donors for German soldiers, etc.

Here are the names of some of them: Volodya Kazmin, Yura Zhdanko, Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Lara Mikheenko, Valya Kotik, Tanya Morozova, Vitya Korobkov, Zina Portnova. Many of them fought so hard that they earned military orders and medals, and four: Marat Kazei, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova, Lenya Golikov, became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

From the first days of the occupation, boys and girls began to act at their own risk, which was truly fatal.

"Fedya Samodurov. Fedya is 14 years old, he is a graduate of a motorized rifle unit, commanded by Guard Captain A. Chernavin. Fedya was picked up in his homeland, in a destroyed village in the Voronezh region. Together with the unit, he took part in the battles for Ternopil, with machine-gun crews he kicked the Germans out of the city. When almost the entire crew was killed, the teenager, together with the surviving soldier, took up the machine gun, firing long and hard, and detained the enemy. Fedya was awarded the medal "For Courage".

Vanya Kozlov, 13 years old, he was left without relatives and has been in a motorized rifle unit for two years now. At the front, he delivers food, newspapers and letters to soldiers in the most difficult conditions.

Petya Zub. Petya Zub chose an equally difficult specialty. He decided long ago to become a scout. His parents were killed, and he knows how to settle accounts with the damned German. Together with experienced scouts, he gets to the enemy, reports his location by radio, and the artillery, at their direction, fires, crushing the fascists." ("Arguments and Facts", No. 25, 2010, p. 42).

A sixteen year old schoolgirl Olya Demesh with her younger sister Lida At the Orsha station in Belarus, on the instructions of the commander of the partisan brigade S. Zhulin, fuel tanks were blown up using magnetic mines. Of course, girls attracted much less attention from German guards and policemen than teenage boys or adult men. But the girls were just right to play with dolls, and they fought with Wehrmacht soldiers!

Thirteen-year-old Lida often took a basket or bag and went to the railway tracks to collect coal, obtaining intelligence about German military trains. If the guards stopped her, she explained that she was collecting coal to heat the room in which the Germans lived. Olya’s mother and little sister Lida were captured and shot by the Nazis, and Olya continued to fearlessly carry out the partisans’ tasks.

Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. We studied, played, ran, jumped, broke our noses and knees, and helped our elders. Only their relatives, classmates, and friends knew their names. The terrible hour came, and they showed how huge and fearless a child’s heart can become when a sacred love for the Motherland and hatred for its enemies flares up in it.

For the courage and heroism shown during the Great Patriotic War, thousands of children and teenagers were awarded orders and medals. Thus, over 200 of them were awarded the medal “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War”, over 15,000 – the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”, over 20,000 – the medal “For the Defense of Moscow”.

Five young patriots were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Photo demonstration

You see portraits of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War, but do you know their names? Why were they awarded high government awards?

Leonid Golikov born June 17, 1926 in the Novgorod region. Before the war, after finishing seven classes, he worked at a plywood factory.

Leonid was a scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade. He participated in 27 combat operations. Leni Golikov killed 78 Germans, he destroyed 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, 2 food and feed warehouses and 10 vehicles with ammunition. In addition, he was accompanying a food convoy that was being transported to besieged Leningrad.

Leonid Golikov received his first award, the medal “For Courage,” in July 1942. Everyone who knew Lenya when he was a partisan noted his courage and courage.

One day, returning from reconnaissance, Lenya went to the outskirts of the village, where he discovered five Germans marauding in the apiary. The Nazis were so busy extracting honey and swatting away bees that they put their weapons aside. The scout took advantage of this, destroying three Germans. The remaining two escaped.

The feat of Leonid Golikov is especially famous when on August 13, 1942 he was returning from reconnaissance from the Luga-Pskov highway, not far from the village of Varnitsa, Strugokrasnensky district. A brave partisan used a grenade to blow up a car carrying German Major General Richard von Wirtz, captured it and delivered it to brigade headquarters, delivering a briefcase with important documents, including drawings and descriptions of new types of German mines, inspection reports to higher command and other documents.

On January 24, 1943, a group of partisans consisting of just over 20 people reached the village of Ostraya Luka. Germans in locality there was none, and the exhausted people stopped to rest in three houses. After some time, the village was surrounded by a punitive detachment of 150 people, composed of local traitors and Lithuanian nationalists. The partisans, who were taken by surprise, nevertheless entered the battle.

Only a few people were able to escape from the encirclement, and later reported to headquarters about the death of the detachment. Lenya Golikov, like most of his comrades, died in battle in Ostray Luka.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated April 2, 1944, Leonid Aleksandrovich Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

Alexander Chekalin

Chekalin Alexander Pavlovich was born on March 25, 1925, Russian, from peasant background, student, resident of the village of Peskovatskoye, Tula region.

In July 1941, Alexander Chekalin volunteered to join the fighter squad, then to the “Advanced” partisan detachment, led by D. T. Teterichev, where he became a scout. He was involved in collecting intelligence information about the deployment and strength of German units, their weapons, and movement routes. He participated as equals in ambushes, mined roads, disrupted communications and derailed echelons.

On November 2, Shura Chekalin fell ill and was sent to the village as a detachment commissar. Mouse to a trusted person for treatment. Here he learned that the Germans had learned of his whereabouts. Chekalin went to the village of Peskovatskoye at night, where his relatives lived. The traitors betrayed the young patriot. At night, the Nazis surrounded and then broke into the house where the sick Chekalin lay. Shura did not give up without a fight. Snatching a grenade, he threw it at the feet of the fascists who surrounded him, deciding to destroy them and die himself. The grenade did not explode. The Nazis grabbed him and took him to headquarters in the city of Likhvin.

He was tortured at headquarters, but no amount of torture broke the spirit of the partisan. The executioners failed to extract any of the confessions they needed. The next morning his execution took place on Likhvin Square. All the residents of Likhvin were gathered to watch Sasha’s execution. According to the recollections of fellow villagers, when the young partisan, barefoot, was led to the square, bloody footprints were left on the road.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 4, 1942, Alexander Pavlovich Chekalin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Marat Kazei

Marat Ivanovich Kazei was born on October 10, 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk region. The boy was named Marat by his father, a former sailor. Baltic Fleet- in honor of the battleship “Marat”, on which he himself had the opportunity to serve.

Marat's mother, Anna Kazei, began collaborating with the Minsk underground from the first days of the occupation. The history of the first Minsk underground workers turned out to be tragic. Not having sufficient skills in such activities, they were soon exposed by the Gestapo and arrested. The underground fighter Anna Kazei, along with her comrades in the struggle, was hanged by the Nazis in Minsk.

For 13-year-old Marat Kazei and his 16-year-old sister Ariadne, the death of their mother was the impetus for the start of an active struggle against the Nazis - in 1942 they became fighters in a partisan detachment.

Marat was a scout. The clever boy successfully penetrated enemy garrisons in villages many times, obtaining valuable intelligence information.

In battle, Marat was fearless - in January 1943, even while wounded, he launched an attack on the enemy several times. He took part in dozens of sabotages on railways and other objects that were of particular importance to the Nazis.

In March 1943, Marat saved an entire partisan detachment. When the punitive forces took the Furmanov partisan detachment “in pincers” near the village of Rumok, it was scout Kazei who managed to break through the enemy’s “ring” and bring help from neighboring partisan detachments. As a result, the punitive forces were defeated.

In the winter of 1943, when the detachment was leaving encirclement, Ariadna Kazei received severe frostbite. To save the girl's life, doctors had to amputate her legs. field conditions, and then transport it by plane to Big Earth. She was taken to the rear, to Irkutsk, where doctors managed to get her out.

And Marat continued to fight the enemy even angrier, more desperately, avenging his murdered mother, his crippled sister, his desecrated Motherland...

For his courage and bravery, Marat, who was only 14 years old at the end of 1943, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medals “For Courage” and “For Military Merit.”

It was May 1944. Operation Bagration was already being prepared in full, which would bring freedom to Belarus from the Nazi yoke. But Marat was not destined to see this. On May 11, near the village of Khoromitsky, a reconnaissance group of partisans was discovered by the Nazis. Marat’s partner died immediately, and he himself entered the battle. The Germans surrounded him, hoping to capture the young partisan alive. When the cartridges ran out, Marat blew himself up with a grenade.

Marat was buried in his native village.

For heroism in the fight against German fascist invaders By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1965, Kazei Marat Ivanovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Ariadna Kazei returned to Belarus in 1945. Despite the loss of her legs, she graduated from Minsk Pedagogical University, taught at school, and was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council of Belarus. In 1968, the partisan heroine, honored teacher of Belarus Ariadna Ivanovna Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Ariadna Ivanovna passed away in 2008. But the memory of her and her brother, Marat Kazei, is alive. A monument to Marat was erected in Minsk; several streets in the cities of Belarus and in the countries of the former USSR are named after him.

Valentin Kotik

Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik was born in 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk region ( modern name– Khmelnitsky region) of Ukraine in a peasant family. He graduated from five classes of high school in the city of Shepetivka.

During the Great Patriotic War, being in the temporarily occupied Nazi troops territory of the Shepetovsky district, Valya Kotik worked to collect weapons and ammunition, drew and posted caricatures of the Nazis. Since 1942, he was in touch with the Shepetovsky underground party organization and carried out its intelligence orders. In August 1943, he became a scout for the Shepetovsky partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk.

In October 1943, Valya Kotik explored the location of the underground telephone cable Hitler's rate, which was soon undermined. 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 the partisans managed to prepare for battle.

Valentin Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree.

On February 16, 1944, in a battle for the city of Izyaslav (Ukraine), 14-year-old partisan scout Valya Kotik was mortally wounded and died the next day. He is buried in the center of the park in the city of Shepetivka.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 27, 1958, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

Zinaida Portnova

Zinaida Martynovna Portnova was born in Leningrad, into a working-class family, on February 20, 1926. I studied at school, studied in a circle and didn’t think about exploits.

At the beginning of June 1941, few people in Leningrad thought about the war. And therefore, the parents calmly sent Zina and her younger sister Galya to their grandmother in Belarus for the summer.

In the village of Zui, in the Vitebsk region, the rest did not last long. The Nazis' advance was rapid, and very soon the threat of occupation loomed over the village where Zina and her sister lived.

The grandmother gathered her granddaughters for the journey and sent them along with the refugees. However, the Nazis cut the road, and there was no chance of returning to Leningrad. This is how 15-year-old Zina Portnova ended up under occupation.

Resistance to the Nazis on the territory of Belarus was especially fierce. From the first days of the war, partisan detachments and underground groups were created here.

In the Shumilinsky district of the Vitebsk region, an underground youth organization “Young Avengers” was created, the history of which is similar to the history of the legendary “Young Guard”. The leader of the “Young Avengers” was Fruza (Efrosinya) Zenkova, who rallied local youth around herself, ready to resist the fascists.

Fruza had connections with “adult” underground fighters and with a local partisan detachment. The Young Avengers coordinated their actions with the partisans.

Fruza Zenkova, the leader of the Komsomol resistance, was 17 years old at the beginning of the war. Zina Portnova, who became one of the most active participants in the Young Avengers, is 15.

What could these children do against the Nazis?

They started with posting leaflets and minor sabotage like damaging the property of the Nazis. The further it went, the more serious the shares became. The blowing up of a power plant, the burning of factories, the burning of wagons with flax at the station intended for shipment to Germany - in total, the Young Avengers were responsible for more than 20 successful acts of sabotage.

Hitler's counterintelligence followed the trail of the underground. The Nazis managed to introduce a provocateur into their ranks, who would betray the majority of the organization’s members.

But that will happen later. Before this, Zina Portnova will carry out one of the largest sabotage acts in the history of the Young Avengers. A girl who worked as a dishwasher in the canteen of a retraining course for German officers poisoned the food prepared for lunch. As a result of sabotage, about a hundred Nazis died.

Enraged Nazis arrested the entire canteen staff. Zina escaped arrest that day by accident. When the first signs of poisoning appeared, the Nazis burst into the dining room and came across Portnova. They forced a plate into her hands and forced her to eat the poisoned soup. Zina understood that if she refused, she would give herself away. Maintaining amazing self-control, she ate several spoons, after which the Germans, releasing her, were distracted by other kitchen workers. The Nazis decided that the dishwasher knew nothing about the poisoning.

Zina was saved from death by her strong body and grandmother, who managed to soften the effect of the poison with folk remedies.

Since the summer of 1943, Zina Portnova was a fighter in the Voroshilov partisan detachment, participating in many operations against the Nazis.

On August 26, 1943, German counterintelligence carried out mass arrests of members of the Young Avengers organization. By luck, only a few activists and the leader of the Avengers, Fruza Zenkova, did not fall into the hands of the Nazis.

Torture and interrogation of underground fighters continued for three months. On October 5 and 6, all of them, more than 30 boys and girls, were shot.

When it became known in the partisan detachment about the defeat of the youth underground, Zina Portnova was instructed to try to restore contact with those who escaped arrest and find out about the reasons for the failure.

However, during this task, Zina herself was identified and detained as a member of the underground.

The provocateur did a good job - the Nazis knew almost everything about her. And about her parents in Leningrad, and about her role in the Young Avengers organization. The Germans, however, did not know that it was she who poisoned the German officers. Therefore, she was offered a deal - life in exchange for information about the whereabouts of Fruza Zenkova and the base of the partisan detachment.

But the carrot and stick method did not work. It was impossible to buy Zina or intimidate her.

During one of the interrogations, a Nazi officer became distracted, and Zina reacted instantly, grabbing a pistol lying on the table. She shot the Nazi, jumped out of the office and began to run. She managed to shoot two more Germans, but was unable to escape - Zina was shot in the legs.

After that, the Nazis were driven only by rage. She was no longer tortured for information, but in order to give her the most terrible torture possible, to make the girl scream and beg for mercy.

Zina endured everything steadfastly, and this steadfastness infuriated the executioners even more.

During the last interrogation in the Gestapo prison in the city of Polotsk, the Nazis gouged out her eyes.

Early in the morning in January 1944, the crippled but not broken Zina was shot.

Her grandmother died under German bombs during a large-scale punitive operation of the Nazis. Little sister Galya was miraculously saved, being able to be taken by plane to the mainland.

The truth about the fate of Zina and other underground fighters became known much later, when Belarus was completely liberated from the Nazis.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 1, 1958, Zinaida Martynovna Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for her heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders.

Among the young heroes of the Great Patriotic War is the “son of the regiment” of the 7th Marine Brigade, 13-year-old Valery Volkov, who died during the defense of Sevastopol and was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

The youngest pilot of the Great Patriotic War was Arkady Kamanin, who began flying independently at the age of 14. By April 1945, he had flown more than 650 combat missions on a U-2 aircraft and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and two Orders of the Red Star.

The Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, were awarded to 14-year-old partisan Vasily Korobko, who died in April 1944 in Belarus.

At the age of 12, an order Patriotic War 1st degree (posthumously) was awarded to the liaison of the partisan detachment Konstantin Yanin, who at the cost of his life warned the Soviet soldiers about the Nazis mining the bridge.

Covering the retreat of the partisan detachment to Leningrad region In the summer of 1942, Alexander Borodulin, holder of the Order of the Red Banner, died.

The Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the Ushakov Medal were awarded to Northern cabin boy Alexander Kovalev, who covered the hole in the torpedo boat’s engine with his body.

Boys. Girls. The weight of adversity, disaster, and grief of the war years fell on their fragile shoulders. And they did not bend under this weight, they became stronger in spirit, more courageous, more resilient.

Little heroes great war. They fought alongside their elders - fathers, brothers.

They fought everywhere. At sea, like Borya Kuleshin. In the sky, like Arkasha Kamanin. In a partisan detachment, like Lenya Golikov. In the Brest Fortress, like Valya Zenkina. In the Kerch catacombs, like Volodya Dubinin. In the underground, like Volodya Shcherbatsevich.

And the young hearts did not waver for a moment!

Their matured childhood was filled with such trials that, even if a very talented writer had invented them, it would have been difficult to believe. But it was. It was in the history of our great country, it was in the destinies of its little children - ordinary boys and girls.

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

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

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

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

The boys walked from Brest to Berlin

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

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

The youngest Heroes of the Soviet Union

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

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

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

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

Sniper Vasily Kurka

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

Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum

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

Pilot Arkady Kamanin

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

Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee

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

Frontline intelligence officer Yuri Zhdanko

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

Yuri Zhdanko. Photo: russia-reborn.ru

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

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

Infantryman Anatoly Komar

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

Young partisan. Photo: Imperial War Museum

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

Sailor Boris Kuleshin

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

Boris Kuleshin. Photo: weralbum.ru

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

Musician Petr Klypa

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

Peter Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com

He fought there until the beginning of July, until he received an order, together with the remnants of the regiment, to break through to Brest. This is where Petya's ordeal began. Having crossed the tributary of the Bug, he, along with other colleagues, was captured, from which he soon managed to escape. I got to Brest, lived there for a month and moved east, behind the retreating Red Army, but did not reach it. During one of the overnight stays, he and a friend were discovered by police, and the teenagers were sent to forced labor in Germany. Petya was released only in 1945 by American troops, and after verification he even managed to serve for several months in Soviet army. And upon returning to his homeland, he again ended up in jail because he succumbed to the persuasion of an old friend and helped him speculate with the loot. Pyotr Klypa was released only seven years later. For this he had to thank the historian and writer Sergei Smirnov, who piece by piece recreated the history of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and, of course, did not miss the story of one of its youngest defenders, who, after his liberation, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

War has no face. War has no age, gender or nationality. War is terrible. War does not choose. Every year we remember the war that claimed millions of lives. Every year we thank those who fought for our country.

From 1941 to 1945, several tens of thousands of minor children took part in hostilities. “Sons of the regiment”, pioneers - village boys and girls, guys from cities - they were posthumously recognized as heroes, although they were much younger than you and me. Along with adults, they suffered hardships, defended, shot, were captured, sacrificing their own lives. They ran away from home to the front to defend their homeland. They stayed at home and suffered terrible hardships. In the rear and on the front line, they accomplished a small feat every day. They didn't have time for childhood, they didn't get years to grow up. They grew up minute by minute, because war does not have a childish face.

This collection contains only a few stories of children who died on the front line for their own country; children who committed acts that adults were afraid to think about; children whom the war deprived of their childhood, but not their fortitude.

Marat Kazei, 14 years old, partisan

Member of the partisan detachment named after the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, scout at the headquarters of the 200th partisan brigade named after Rokossovsky in the occupied territory of the Belarusian SSR.
Marat was born in 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk region of Belarus, and managed to finish 4th grade rural school. His parents were arrested on charges of sabotage and “Trotskyism,” his brothers and sisters were “scattered” among their grandparents. But the Kazey family was not angry with the Soviet regime: In 1941, when Belarus became an occupied territory, Anna Kazey, the wife of the “enemy of the people” and the mother of little Marat and Ariadne, hid wounded partisans in her home, for which she was hanged. Marat joined the partisans. He went on reconnaissance missions, took part in raids and undermined echelons.


And in May 1944, while performing another mission near the village of Khoromitskiye, Minsk Region, a 14-year-old soldier died. Returning from a mission together with the reconnaissance commander, they came across the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, and Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to go; the teenager was seriously wounded in the arm. While there were cartridges, he held the defense, and when the magazine was empty, he took the last weapon - two grenades from his belt. He threw one at the Germans right away, and waited with the second: when the enemies came very close, he blew himself up along with them.
In 1965, Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.

Boris Yasen, young actor


Boris Yasen is an actor who played Mishka Kvakin in the film “Timur and His Team.” According to some reports, in 1942 he returned from the front to take part in the filming of the film “Timur’s Oath.” Today, the young actor is considered missing. There is no information about Boris in the Memorial ODB.

Valya Kotik, 14 years old, scout


Valya is the youngest Hero of the USSR. Born in 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk region of Ukraine. In a village occupied by German troops, the boy secretly collected weapons and ammunition and handed them over to the partisans. And he fought his own little war, as he understood it: he drew and pasted caricatures of the Nazis in prominent places. In 1942, he began to carry out intelligence orders from the underground party organization, and in the fall of the same year he completed his first combat mission - he eliminated the head of the field gendarmerie. In October 1943, Valya scouted the location of the underground telephone cable of Hitler's headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the destruction of six railway trains and a warehouse. The guy was mortally wounded in February 1944.
In 1958, Valentin Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sasha Kolesnikov, 12 years old, son of the regiment


In March 1943, Sasha and a friend ran away from class and went to the front. He wanted to get to the unit where his father served as commander, but on the way he met a wounded tankman who fought in his father’s unit. Then I learned that the priest had received news from his mother about his escape and upon his arrival at the unit, a terrible scolding awaited him. This changed the boy’s plans and he immediately joined the tankers who were heading to the rear for reorganization. Sasha lied to them that he was left all alone. So at the age of 12 he became a soldier, “the son of a regiment.”

He successfully went on reconnaissance missions several times and helped destroy a train with German ammunition. That time the Germans caught the boy and, brutalizing him, beat him for a long time, and then crucified him - nailed his hands. Sasha was saved by our scouts. During his service, Sasha “grew up” to become a tank driver and knocked out several enemy vehicles. The soldiers called him nothing more than “San Sanych.”


He returned home in the summer of 1945.

Alyosha Yarsky, 17 years old


Alexey was an actor; you may remember him from the film “Gorky’s Childhood”, in which the boy played Lesha Peshkov. The guy volunteered for the front when he was 17 years old. Died on February 15, 1943 near Leningrad.

Lenya Golikov, 16 years old


When the war began, Lenya got a rifle and joined the partisans. Thin and short, he looked younger than his then 14 years. Under the guise of a beggar, Lenya walked around the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of fascist troops and about the quantity of their military equipment, and then passed this information on to the partisans.

In 1942 he joined the detachment. He went on reconnaissance missions and brought important information to the partisan detachment. Lenya fought one battle alone against a fascist general. A grenade thrown by a boy hit a car. A Nazi man got out of it with a briefcase in his hands and, firing back, began to run. Lenya follows him. He pursued the enemy for almost a kilometer and killed him. The portfolio contained very important documents. Then the partisan headquarters immediately sent the papers by plane to Moscow.


From December 1942 to January 1943, the partisan detachment in which Golikov was located fought out of encirclement with fierce battles. The boy died in battle with punitive squad fascists on January 24, 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov region.

Volodya Buryak, under 18 years old


It is unknown exactly how old Volodya was. We only know that in June 1942, when Vova Buryak sailed as a cabin boy on the ship “Impeccable” with his father, he had not yet reached conscription age. The boy's father was the captain of the ship.

On June 25, the ship accepted cargo in the port of Novorossiysk. The crew was faced with the task of breaking through to besieged Sevastopol. Then Vova fell ill and the ship’s doctor prescribed bed rest for the guy. His mother lived in Novorossiysk and he was sent home for treatment. Suddenly Vova remembered that he had forgotten to tell his crewmate where he had put one of the spare parts of the machine gun. He jumped out of bed and ran to the ship.

The sailors understood that this voyage would most likely be their last, because getting to Sevastopol was becoming more and more difficult every day. They left mementos and letters on the shore with a request to give them to their relatives. Having learned about what was happening, Volodya decided to stay on board the destroyer. When his father saw him on the deck, the guy replied that he could not leave. If he, the captain's son, leaves the ship, then everyone will definitely believe that the ship will not return from the attack.


"Impeccable" was attacked from the air on June 26 in the morning. Volodya stood at the machine gun and fired at enemy vehicles. When the ship began to go under water, Captain Buryak gave the order to abandon the ship. The board was empty, but captain 3rd rank Buryak and his son Volodya did not leave their combat post.

Zina Portnova, 17 years old


Zina served as a scout for a partisan detachment on the territory of the Belarusian SSR. In 1942, she joined the underground Komsomol youth organization “Young Avengers”. There, Zina actively participated in distributing propaganda leaflets and organized sabotage against the invaders. In 1943, Portnova was captured by the Germans. During the interrogation, she grabbed the investigator's pistol from the table, shot him and two other fascists, and tried to escape. But she failed to do this.


From Vasily Smirnov’s book “Zina Portnova”:
“She was interrogated by the executioners who were the most sophisticated in cruel torture…. They promised to save her life if only the young partisan confessed everything and named the names of all the underground fighters and partisans known to her. And again the Gestapo men were surprised by the unshakable firmness of this stubborn girl, who in their protocols was called a “Soviet bandit.” Zina, exhausted by torture, refused to answer questions, hoping that they would kill her faster... Once, in the prison yard, prisoners saw how a completely gray-haired girl, when she was being led to another interrogation-torture, threw herself under the wheels of a passing truck. But the car was stopped, the girl was pulled out from under the wheels and again taken for interrogation..."

On January 10, 1944, 17-year-old Zina Portnova was shot. In 1985 she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Sasha Chekalin, 16 years old


At the age of 16, the village boy Sasha became a member of the “Advanced” partisan detachment in the Tula region. Together with other partisans, he set fire to fascist warehouses, blew up cars and eliminated enemy sentries and patrolmen.

In November 1941, Sasha became seriously ill. For some time he was in one of the villages of the Tula region, near the city of Likhvin, with a “trusted person.” One of the residents betrayed the young partisan to the Nazis. At night they broke into the house and grabbed Chekalin. When the door opened, Sasha threw a pre-prepared grenade at the Germans, but it did not explode.

The Nazis tortured the boy for several days. Then he was hanged. The body remained on the gallows for more than 20 days - they were not allowed to remove it. Sasha Chekalin was buried with full military honors only when the city was liberated from the invaders. In 1942 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.