Twelve of several thousand examples of unparalleled childish courage
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War- how many were there? If you count - how else? - 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 years there were over 3,500 servicemen under the age of 16 in combat units. At the same time, it is clear that not every unit commander who dared to take on the education of the son of the regiment, found the courage to declare a pupil on command. You can understand how their fathers-commanders, who really were many instead of fathers, tried to hide the age of the little fighters, by the confusion in the award documents. On the yellowed archival sheets, most of the underage servicemen indicate a clearly overestimated age. The real one became clear much later, after ten or even forty years.

But there were still children and teenagers who fought in partisan detachments and were members of underground organizations! And there were much more of them: sometimes whole families went to the partisans, and if not, then almost every teenager who ended up 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 that is no reason not to remember them.

The boys went from Brest to Berlin

The youngest of all the known little soldiers - at least, according to the documents stored in the military archives - can be considered a pupil of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 47th Guards Rifle Division Sergei Aleshkin. In archival documents, one 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 punishers shot his mother and older brother for their connection with the partisans. The first document dated April 26, 1943 - on awarding him the medal "For Military Merit" due to the fact that "Comrade. Aleshkin, the regiment's favorite, ""with his cheerfulness, love for the unit and those around him, in extremely difficult moments, instilled vigor and confidence in victory." The second, dated November 19, 1945, is about awarding students of the Tula Suvorov Military School with the medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945": in the list of 13 Suvorov students, Aleshkin's name is first.

But still, such a young soldier is an exception even for wartime and for a country where all the people, young and old, have risen to defend their homeland. 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 the defenders of the Brest Fortress, and one of the sons of the regiment - holder of the Order of the Red Star, the Order of Glory of the III degree and the medal "For Courage" Vladimir Tarnovsky, who served in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th rifle division, left his autograph on wall of the Reichstag in the victorious May 1945 ...

The youngest Heroes Soviet Union

These four names - Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik - have been the most famous symbol of the heroism of the young defenders of our Motherland for over half a century. They fought in different places and accomplished feats of different circumstances, all of them were 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 - by the time they had to show unprecedented courage, were 17 years old, two more - Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei - only 14.

Lenya Golikov was the first of the four who was awarded the highest rank: the decree on assignment was signed on April 2, 1944. The text says that Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union "for the exemplary performance of command assignments and the courage and heroism shown in battles." 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 undermining more than a dozen bridges, in capturing a German major general with secret documents ... And heroically die in battle near the village of Ostraya Luka, without waiting for a high reward for capturing a strategically important "language".

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 eventually endured inhuman torment, falling into the hands of the Nazis at the very beginning of 1944. Valya - according to the totality of exploits in the ranks of Shepetovsky partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, where he came after a year of work in an underground organization in Shepetivka itself. And Marat Kazei was awarded the highest award only in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory: the decree on 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 in the partisan formations Belarus and died, having blown up with the last grenade both himself and the Nazis who surrounded him.

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 the current generation is 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 caught Vasya at the age of sixteen. In the very first days he was mobilized to the labor front, and in October he was admitted to the 726th rifle regiment of the 395th rifle division. At first, a boy of unconscripted 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 got his way and was transferred to a combat unit - to a team of snipers.

Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum

amazing military fate: from 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. Recorded at his own expense, according to various sources, from 179 to 200 destroyed Nazis. He fought from the 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

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

Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee

Soon Arkady achieved his goal: first he takes to the air as a letnab, then as a navigator on the 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 foreman, managed to fly almost 300 hours and earn three orders: two - the Red Star and one - the Red Banner. And if it weren’t for meningitis, which literally killed an 18-year-old guy in the spring of 1947, literally in a matter of days, Kamanin Jr. would have been included in the cosmonaut detachment, the first commander of which was Kamanin Sr.: Arkady managed to enter the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy back in 1946.

Front-line scout Yuri Zhdanko

Ten-year-old Yura ended up in the army by chance. 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. And so he left with a part to the east, to Moscow itself, in order to start the return journey to the west from there.

Yuri Zhdanko. Photo: russia-reborn.ru

On this path, Yura managed a lot. In January 1942, he, who had never jumped with a parachute before, went to the rescue of encircled partisans and helped them break through the enemy ring. In the summer of 1942, together with a group of reconnaissance colleagues, he blows up the strategically important bridge across the Berezina, sending to the bottom of the river not only the bridge deck, but also nine trucks passing through it, and less than a year later, he is the only one of all the messengers who managed to break through to the surrounded battalion and help him get out of the "ring".

By February 1944, the chest of the 13-year-old scout was decorated with the medal "For Courage" and the Order of the Red Star. But a shell that exploded literally underfoot interrupted Yura's front-line career. He ended up in the hospital, from where he went to Suvorov School but failed due to health reasons. Then the retired young intelligence officer retrained as a welder and also managed to become famous on this “front”, having traveled with his welding machine almost half of Eurasia - he 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 got into the active army in September 1943, when the front came close to his native Slavyansk. It happened with him almost the same way as with Yura Zhdanko, with the only difference that the boy served as a guide not for the retreating, but for the advancing Red Army. Anatoly helped them go deep into the front line of the Germans, and then left with the advancing army to the west.

Young partisan. Photo: Imperial War Museum

But, unlike Yura Zhdanko, Tolya Komar's front-line path was much shorter. For only two months he had a chance to wear epaulettes that had recently appeared in the Red Army and go on reconnaissance. In November of the same year, returning from a free search in the rear of the Germans, a group of scouts revealed themselves and was forced to break through to their own with a fight. The last obstacle on the way back was a machine gun, which pressed the reconnaissance to the ground. Anatoly Komar threw a grenade at him, and the fire subsided, but as soon as the scouts got up, the machine gunner began to shoot again. And then Tolya, who was closest to the enemy, got up and fell on a 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 ten-year-old boy stands against the backdrop of sailors in black uniforms with ammunition boxes on their backs and the superstructures of a Soviet cruiser. His hands are tightly squeezing a PPSh assault rifle, and on his head is a peakless cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription "Tashkent". This is a pupil of the crew of the leader of the destroyers "Tashkent" Borya Kuleshin. The picture was taken in Poti, where, after repairs, the ship called for another cargo of ammunition for the besieged Sevastopol. It was here that the twelve-year-old Borya Kuleshin appeared at the gangway of the Tashkent. His father died at the front, his mother, as soon as Donetsk was occupied, was taken to Germany, and he himself managed to escape across the front line to his own people and, together with the retreating army, get to the Caucasus.

Boris Kuleshin. Photo: weralbum.ru

While they were persuading the commander of the ship, Vasily Eroshenko, while they were deciding which combat unit to enroll the cabin boy in, the sailors managed to give him a belt, cap and machine gun and take a picture of the new crew member. And then there was a transition to Sevastopol, the first raid on "Tashkent" in Borya's life and the first clips for an anti-aircraft gun in his life, 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 the ship in the port of Novorossiysk. After the hospital, Borya, following Captain Eroshenko, came to a new ship - the guards cruiser Krasny Kavkaz. And already here he found his well-deserved award: presented for the battles on the "Tashkent" to the medal "For Courage", he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the decision of the front commander, Marshal Budyonny and a member of the Military Council, Admiral Isakov. And in the next front-line picture, he already flaunts in a new uniform of a young sailor, on whose head is a peakless cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription "Red Caucasus". It was in this form that in 1944 Borya went to the Tbilisi nakhimov school, where in September 1945, among other teachers, educators and pupils, he was awarded the medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."

Musician Petr Klypa

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

Peter Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com

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

Volgograd Sevastopol Odessa Moscow Kyiv Kerch Novorossiysk Minsk Brest Tula Murmansk Smolensk

When, in June 1941, fascist Germany unleashed the full power of its blow on our country, every Soviet city stood in its way as a mighty bastion. There was a heroic struggle literally for every quarter, for every inch of land, which mentally and physically exhausted the enemy. Particularly distinguished cities for the massively shown courage and heroism of their defenders were subsequently awarded the high rank Hero Cities.

For the first time, the concept of a hero city was voiced in the Order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of May 1, 1945, so they were named: Leningrad, Sevastopol, Odessa and Stalingrad, this of course was not an official assignment of the title, but an emphasis on their important contribution to the final victory and the heroic role of the defenders. Even during the war, participants in the defense of these cities were awarded specially established medals.

In 1965, on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the title of Hero City of the USSR was awarded to six cities, in addition to those already noted in the order of 1945, they were Kyiv and Moscow, as well as the Hero Fortress Brest. In 1973, this title was awarded to Novorossiysk and Kerch, in 1974 to Minsk, in 1976 to Tula. In the year of the fortieth anniversary of the Victory (1985), the title of Hero City was awarded to Smolensk and Murmansk.

Each of the cities awarded the high title of Hero City contributed its own unforgettable page to the fiery history of the Great Patriotic War.

So, Moscow, the capital of our Motherland, from the very beginning of the war was the primary object for the implementation of the enemy's aggressive plans to seize the USSR. For their implementation, the German command threw colossal forces. But their plan was thwarted thanks to the heroic struggle of the Soviet troops and the civilian population.

On the way to Moscow, other cities of the country stood in front of the Nazis with a powerful barrier - Smolensk, Tula and Minsk, which turned out to be at the very epicenter of the battles of 1941. Tula put up fierce resistance with a small number of defenders. Smolensk heroically withstood numerous enemy attacks and occupation, although even here the Nazis outnumbered our troops in terms of numbers and combat equipment.

In September 1941, the enemy managed to take Leningrad into a tight ring, as a result of which a grueling 900-day blockade began, which led to mass deaths from hunger and cold. But, despite this, the inhabitants of Leningrad heroically survived, directing all their forces to fight the invaders.

Odessa, completely surrounded by enemy troops in 1941, bravely fought against an enemy that outnumbered it by five times. The importance of the defense of Sevastopol lay in its status as the main naval base of the country and the largest port on the Black Sea. The city survived three large-scale enemy attacks and occupation, its defenders were able to inflict serious damage on the German troops and frustrate their plans on the southern wing of the front.

Volgograd (Stalingrad) stood in the way of the Nazis, who sought to cut off the fertile and resource-rich southern regions of the country with a throw to the Volga. The Battle of Stalingrad went down in history as the largest and greatest battle of the Great Patriotic War. It lasted 200 days and nights, as a result of which the enemy lost 1.5 million people and was forced to turn back.

The Brest Fortress distinguished itself with special heroism, which, with the courage of its defenders, stopped the enemy for a whole month in his plans to advance deep into the country. The Germans were sure that they would capture it in just a few hours, due to a sudden attack on the garrison.

Moscow. Cenotaph.

Coat of arms of the Hero City of Sevastopol.

Minsk. Obelisk on top of the Mound of Glory. .

Before the war, they were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped the elders, played, bred pigeons, sometimes even took part in fights. But the hour of hard trials has come 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 its people and hatred of enemies flares up in it. And no one expected that it was these boys and girls who were able to accomplish a great feat for the glory of the freedom and independence of their Motherland!

Children who remained in the destroyed cities and villages became homeless, doomed to starvation. It was terrible and difficult to stay in the territory occupied by the enemy. 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, the boys and girls began to act at their own peril and risk, which was really deadly.

"Fedya Samodurov. Fedya is 14 years old, he is a graduate of the motorized rifle unit, commanded by the guard captain A. Chernavin. Fedya was picked up in his homeland, in the ruined village of the Voronezh region. Together with a unit, he took part in the battles for Ternopil, with a machine-gun crew he kicked the Germans out of the city. When almost the entire crew died, 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 the second year. At the front, he delivers food, newspapers and letters to soldiers in the most difficult conditions.

Petya Zub. Petya Zub chose a no less difficult specialty. He had long ago decided to become a scout. His parents were killed, and he knows how to pay off the accursed German. Together with experienced scouts, he gets to the enemy, reports his location on the radio, and artillery fires at their orders, crushing the Nazis. "(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, tanks with fuel were blown up using magnetic mines. Of course, the girls attracted much less attention of the German guards and policemen than teenage boys or adult men. But after all, it was just right for the girls to play with dolls, and they fought with Wehrmacht soldiers!

Thirteen-year-old Lida often took a basket or a bag and went to railways collect coal, extracting intelligence on German military echelons. If she was stopped by sentries, she explained that she was collecting coal to heat the room in which the Germans lived. The Nazis seized and shot Olya's mother and younger sister Lida, and Olya continued to fearlessly carry out the tasks of the partisans.

For the head of the young partisan Olya Demes, the Nazis promised a generous reward - land, a cow and 10,000 marks. Copies of her photograph were distributed and sent to all patrol services, policemen, elders and secret agents. Capture and deliver her alive - that was the order! But the girl could not be caught. Olga destroyed 20 German soldiers and officers, derailed 7 enemy echelons, conducted reconnaissance, participated in the "rail war", in the destruction of German punitive units.

Children of the Great Patriotic War

What happened to the children during this terrible time? During the war?

The guys worked for days at factories, factories and industries, standing behind the machines instead of the 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 signal flares, and collected gas masks. Worked in agriculture, grew vegetables for hospitals.

In the school sewing workshops, the pioneers sewed underwear and tunics for the army. Girls knitted warm clothes for the front: mittens, socks, scarves, sewed pouches for tobacco. The guys helped the wounded in hospitals, wrote letters to their relatives under their dictation, put on performances for the wounded, arranged concerts, evoking a smile from war-torn adult men.

A number of objective reasons: the departure of teachers to the army, the evacuation of the population from western to eastern regions, the inclusion of students in labor activities in connection with the departure of family breadwinners for the war, the transfer of many schools to hospitals, etc., prevented the deployment in the USSR during the war of a universal seven-year compulsory education started in the 1930s. In the remaining educational institutions, training was conducted in two or three, and sometimes four shifts.

At the same time, the children themselves were forced to store firewood for boiler houses. There were no textbooks, and because of the lack 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 young people 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.

There are still many little-known pages in the annals of the Great Patriotic War, for example, the fate of kindergartens. "It turns out that in December 1941 in besieged Moscowkindergartens worked in bomb shelters. When the enemy was driven back, they resumed their work faster than many universities. By the autumn of 1942, 258 kindergartens had opened in Moscow!

From the memories of the military childhood of Lydia Ivanovna Kostyleva:

“After the death of my grandmother, I was assigned to Kindergarten, older sister at school, mother at work. I went to kindergarten alone, by tram, when I was less than five years old. Once I became seriously ill with mumps, I was lying at home alone with high temperature, there were no medicines, in delirium I fancied a pig running under the table, but everything worked out.
I saw my mother in the evenings and on rare weekends. Children were brought up by the street, we were friendly and always hungry. From early spring, they ran to the mosses, the benefit of the forest and swamps nearby, picked berries, mushrooms, and various early grass. The bombings gradually stopped, allied residences were placed in our Arkhangelsk, this brought a certain color to life - we, the children, sometimes got warm clothes, some food. Basically, we ate black shangi, potatoes, seal meat, fish and fish oil, on holidays - seaweed marmalade, tinted with beets.

More than five hundred teachers and nannies in the fall of 1941 were digging trenches on the outskirts of the capital. Hundreds worked in logging. The teachers, who only yesterday led a round dance with the children, fought in the Moscow militia. Natasha Yanovskaya, a kindergarten teacher in the Bauman district, heroically died near Mozhaisk. The teachers who remained with the children did not perform feats. They just saved the kids, whose fathers fought, and their mothers stood at the machines.

Most of the kindergartens during the war became boarding schools, the children were there day and night. And in order to feed the children in the half-starved time, to protect them from the cold, to give them at least a modicum of comfort, to keep them occupied for the benefit of 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).

Children's games have changed, "... a new game has appeared - in the hospital. They played in the hospital before, but not like that. Now the wounded are for them - real people. But they play war less often, because no one wants to be a fascist. This role is played by trees. They shoot snowballs at them. We learned to help the injured - the fallen, the bruised."

From a letter from a boy to a front-line soldier: “We also often played war before, but now much less often - we are tired of the war, it would sooner end so that we could live well again ...” (Ibid.).

In connection with the death of parents, many homeless children appeared in the country. The Soviet state, despite the difficult war time, nevertheless 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 for adolescents was organized.

Many families of Soviet citizens began to take in orphans to raisewhere they found new parents. Unfortunately, not all educators 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. investigations, local police officers uncovered a criminal group, and, 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, the accountant Sdobnov, the storekeeper Mukhina and others. During the searches, 14 children's coats, seven suits, 30 meters of cloth, 350 meters of manufactory and other misappropriated property, allocated by the state with great difficulty during this harsh wartime, were seized from them.

The investigation found that by not giving the due norm of bread and products, these criminals only during 1942 stole seven tons of bread, half a ton of meat, 380 kg of sugar, 180 kg of biscuits, 106 kg of fish, 121 kg of honey, etc. The orphanage workers sold all these scarce products in the market or simply ate them up themselves.

Only one comrade Novoseltsev received fifteen portions of breakfasts and lunches daily for himself and his family members. At the expense of the pupils, the rest of the staff also ate well. Children were fed "dishes" made from rot and vegetables, referring to the poor supply.

For the whole of 1942, they were only once given one candy for the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution ... And what is most surprising, the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev in the same 1942 received from the People's Commissariat of Education certificate of honor for excellent educational work. All these fascists were deservedly sentenced to long terms of imprisonment."

At such a time, the whole essence of a person is manifested .. Every day to face a choice - how to act .. And the war showed us examples of great mercy, great heroism and great cruelty, great meanness .. We must remember this !! For the sake of the future!!

And no time can heal the wounds of the war, especially those of children. “These years that were once, the bitterness of childhood does not allow to forget ...”

Even if the walls of the fortress fall, there will certainly be people behind them, and the future of the city, country and humanity will depend on them. Second World War like a hurricane swept over Europe. Literally in a matter of months, Hitler subjugated a significant number of countries, but then he crossed the borders of the Soviet Union and found out what a real battle is. Where others surrendered, Soviet soldiers did not even think about escaping. They fought for every meter native land, cities were blockaded for months, but did not raise white flags. This put a lot of pressure on the invaders. After the victory in the Great Patriotic War, the country's government decided to award the title of "Hero City" to the places whose inhabitants showed themselves well, fighting alongside the military. The Hero Cities of the USSR are a powerful bastion defending their country.

About normative acts

In May 1945, a decree was issued granting the status of "Hero City" to the area that distinguished itself in the battle against the fascist invaders. According to this order, the first hero cities of the USSR were:

• Stalingrad;
• Odessa;
• Sevastopol;
• Leningrad.

In 1961, this title was given to Kyiv. 1965 The Presidium certifies the position on the status of "Hero City". Almost immediately issued 7 orders. According to regulatory documents, all hero cities of the USSR received the Gold Star medal. In addition to this medal, Odessa, Stalingrad and Sevastopol were additionally awarded the Order of Lenin. Also, according to the issued order, the immortal title of "Heroes" was awarded to Moscow and the Brest Fortress.

In 1980, the position on the status of "Hero City" was slightly corrected, now it is not a simple title, but the highest degree of recognition. As a memory of the heroism of the past, a series of badges with the local emblem was made in these cities. In the post-war years, traveling to places that received the highest award, no one returned home without the badge of the "Hero City" of the USSR.

Hero cities in alphabetical order

The Hero City status is the most noble and highest award for numerous, social heroism. The war brought many losses, but revealed such qualities as the valor and courage of every inhabitant. One has only to remember the siege of Leningrad. For 900 long days the area was in the enemy's cordon, but no one was going to give up. In total, the list of "Hero Cities" of the USSR includes 12 places:

• Volgograd;
• Kerch;
• Kyiv;
• Leningrad;
• Minsk;
• Moscow;
• Murmansk;
• Novorossiysk;
• Odessa;
• Sevastopol;
• Smolensk;
• Tula.

This list can also be added to the Brest Fortress, which was awarded the immortal title "Fortress-Hero". Each of these cities is known for a great feat, which is not forgotten.

Leningrad

This hero city of the former USSR will surely be remembered for a very long time. The invaders intended to completely destroy the population. Fierce battles began on the approach to the city on 07/10/1941. The enemy had a numerical advantage, both in terms of weapons and in the number of soldiers. 09/08/1941 German troops began to control the Neva, and Leningrad was separated from the mainland.

The blockade of the city continued until January 1944. During these 900 days of occupation, more residents died than the United States and Great Britain combined lost in this war. 800 thousand people died from starvation. But every day, half a million inhabitants worked on the construction of defensive obstacles. 35 km of barricades, more than 40 km of anti-tank installations, over 4 thousand pillboxes. In addition, Leningraders repaired and produced weapons. So, 1.9 thousand tanks, 225.2 thousand machine guns, 10 million mines and explosive shells, 12.1 thousand mortars were transported to the front zones. More than half a million people received military medals.

Stalingrad (Volgograd)

The hero-city of the USSR Stalingrad survived the most large-scale confrontation of the Second World War, which went down in the history of military battles as on July 17, 1942, the invaders went towards the present Volgograd with the intention of quickly winning. But this battle dragged on for 200 days, both the military and ordinary Soviet residents were involved in it.

On August 23, 1942, the first attack on the city took place, and already on August 25, a state of emergency was declared. 50,000 volunteers joined the Soviet army. Despite the constant shelling, local factories continued to operate without slowing down in order to supply the necessary military ammunition to the front. The Germans came close on 12 September. 2 months of fierce battles caused significant damage to the enemy army. On November 19, 1942, the Leningraders launched a counterattack. After 2.5 months, the enemy was destroyed.

Odessa and Sevastopol

The forces of the Nazis were 5 times greater than the combat power of the defenders of Odessa, but the defense of the city still continued for 73 days. During this period of time, the soldiers of the Soviet army and volunteers from the people's militia were able to inflict tangible damage on the invader's army. However, the city still fell under the care of the Nazis.

Hero cities of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War played their own key roles, even if they were besieged, they were an example of endurance, strength and unshakable courage. The defensive tactics of Sevastopol are known in the pages of military history and in tactical exercises as a standard for long-term and active defensive operations behind enemy lines. The defense of the seaside city lasted more than 8 months, starting from 10/30/1941. Only from the 4th attempt did the Germans manage to capture it.

Brest Fortress

It was Brest that became the first city that faced the enemy army face to face. On the morning of June 22, the Brest Fortress was under enemy fire, where at that time there were about 7,000 Soviet soldiers. The Nazi invaders planned to seize control of the fortress in a few hours, but were stuck for a whole month. german army suffered significant losses, control of the fortress was taken a week later, but for another month the Nazis suppressed individual pockets of resistance. The time won by Brest allowed the Union military forces to mobilize and prepare to repel the attack.

Moscow and Kyiv

They distinguished themselves in the battle with the enemy and the capitals of the two great powers. The beginning of the war was marked for Kyiv by an air strike. The city came under fire from the invaders in the first hours of the war, but two weeks later a committee for the defense of the city was founded. The 72-day defensive operation began. 33 thousand Kyivans joined the ranks of the Soviet troops. They were part of the destruction battalions and gave a worthy battle to the enemy.

The enemy attack was stopped on the first line of the city fortification. The enemy failed to capture Kyiv on the move, but on 07/30/1941 another attempt was made to storm. After 10 days, the enemies managed to break the defenses in the southwest, but the defenders were able to counteract this. After 5 days, the invaders retreated to their former positions. Kyiv was no longer taken by direct assault. 17 fascist divisions took part in the battles near Kyiv for a long time. Therefore, the enemy was forced to withdraw part of the offensive forces that were heading for Moscow and send them towards Kyiv. Because of this, the Soviet troops retreated on September 19.

As for Moscow, the battle for it consisted of two types of operations: defensive and offensive. The Nazi command decided to go towards Moscow. Its capture would be a devastating blow to the allied army, so the main combat power was thrown at the capital. In turn, the Soviet army was not going to give up so easily. On December 5, the Germans were pushed back from Moscow, and its defenders went on the defensive from the defense, this event was the culminating turn in the war.

climax

Due respect must be given to Kerch, Tula, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Smolensk, which made a worthy contribution to the battle against the Nazis. Soviet army fought to the last, and the locals fought with them. All human resources were involved in defensive and attacking battles. Murmansk, Novorossiysk, Leningrad, Stalingrad - thanks to titanic efforts, they were able to stop the enemy's advance, and were not captured. A brutal siege in the Kerch quarries made it possible to delay the advance of the Nazis, but the inhabitants suffered monstrous losses. It was on the Kerch Peninsula that the Soviet Commission began to investigate the crimes of the Nazis.

Twelve, that's how many hero cities there were in the USSR. They were that inflexible spirit that remains after the walls of the fortress fall.

Many women, having small children in their arms to take care of, worked in factories and factories.

Children and old people, standing at the machines for days and nights, made weapons for the soldiers, constantly malnourished, in the cold and overcoming the most difficult conditions. They did everything in their power to help survive the war and defeat the invaders.

Many soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals, many received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The title of Hero of the Great Patriotic War was awarded to soldiers, officers, sailors, partisans, and pioneers. All the people of a vast country stood up to defend their homeland. Everyone gave their strength to fight the enemy, both those who fought at the front and those who worked in the rear. Only thanks to the exploits of millions of people, the new generation received the right to a free life.

We must remember the names of the heroes who gave their lives in the struggle for liberation: Alexander Matrosov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Nikolai Gastello and many others, which will be discussed.

Alexander Matrosov

Matrosov Alexander Matveevich - submachine gunner of the 2nd separate battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after I.V. Stalin of the 6th Stalinist Siberian Volunteer Rifle Corps of the 22nd Army of the Kalinin Front, private.

Born February 5, 1924 in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). Russian. Member of the Komsomol. He lost his parents early. For 5 years he was brought up in the Ivanovo regime orphanage (Ulyanovsk region). In 1939 he was sent to a car repair plant in the city of Kuibyshev (now Samara), but soon escaped from there. By the verdict of the people's court of the 3rd section of the Frunzensky district of the city of Saratov dated October 8, 1940, Alexander Matrosov was sentenced under article 192 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to two years in prison for violating the passport regime (the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR on May 5, 1967 overturned this sentence) . He served time in the Ufa children's labor colony. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he repeatedly applied with written requests to send him to the front ...

He was drafted into the Red Army by the Kirov District Military Commissariat of the city of Ufa, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in September 1942 and sent to the Krasnokholmsky Infantry School (October 1942), but soon most of the cadets were sent to the Kalinin Front.

In the army since November 1942. He served in the 2nd separate rifle battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade named after I.V. Stalin (later the 254th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 56th Guards Rifle Division, Kalinin Front). For some time the brigade was in reserve. Then she was transferred near Pskov to the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Big Lomovaty Bor. Right from the march, the brigade entered the battle.

On February 27, 1943, the 2nd battalion received the task of attacking a stronghold near the village of Pleten, west of the village of Chernushki, Loknyansky district of the Pskov region. As soon as our soldiers passed through the forest and reached the edge of the forest, they came under heavy enemy machine gun fire - three enemy machine guns in bunkers covered the approaches to the village. One machine gun was suppressed by an assault group of machine gunners and armor-piercers. The second bunker was destroyed by another group of armor-piercers. But the machine gun from the third bunker continued to shell the entire hollow in front of the village. Efforts to silence him were unsuccessful. Then the Red Army soldier Alexander Matrosov crawled towards the bunker. He approached the embrasure from the flank and threw two grenades. The machine gun fell silent. But as soon as the fighters went on the attack, the machine gun came to life again. Then Matrosov got up, rushed to the bunker and closed the embrasure with his body. At the cost of his life, he contributed to the combat mission of the unit.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born in September 1923 in the Tambov region, the village of Osino-Gai. The father was a priest. The younger brother received the award of the Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1930 the family settled in Moscow. Here Zoya graduated from nine classes of high school.

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Zoya strove for the front. To do this, she turned to the regional committee of the Komsomol. A few days later, she was sent to military unit No. 9903. This military unit was sent to the front of the Mozhaisk direction on the instructions of the headquarters. Twice Zoya was behind enemy lines. In November 1941, in the village of Petrishchevo, Moscow Region, she was captured by the Germans.

To find out secret information, she was subjected to various tortures. But Zoya was silent, not saying anything, not even her first and last name. After severe torture, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was executed on the rural square of the village of Petrishchevo on November 29, 1941.

Nicholas Gastello

Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello was born in May 1908 in Moscow. My father was a German who had lived in Russia for a long time. In 1933, Nikolai became a graduate of the Luhansk flight school and began to serve in aviation on a bomber. During the Soviet-Finnish war, he took part in air battles. He participated in the battles on the Khalkhin Gol River, for participation in which he was awarded the Order of Lenin. And by the beginning of World War II, he was already a squadron commander in aviation.

Victor Gastello, the son of a pilot, has repeatedly spoken about the death of his father and his crew. This version was published in well-known Russian publications.

This version looks like this. On June 26, 1941, at the very beginning of the war, throughout the day, the 3rd long-range bomber aviation corps attacked the enemy. Military operations took place in Belarus, in the Radoshkovichi-Molodechino region near the village of Dekshany. The 207th Aviation Regiment was on its second sortie of the day. The regiment had two aircraft. The crew of Nikolai Gastello consisted of four people: navigator Lieutenant Anatoly Burdenyuk, gunner-radio operator Sergeant Alexei Kalinin and squadron adjutant gunner Lieutenant Grigory Skorobogaty. Little is known about the second plane, only that its pilot was Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Vorobyov, and Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas was the navigator. A little over an hour after the start of the flight, a column of enemy military equipment was discovered from a height. Only one aircraft, piloted by Lieutenant Vorobyov, returned to the base. Upon arrival, he and the navigator filed a report in which they described the feat of commander Gastello and his crew. According to them, the downed plane crashed into a column of armored vehicles, and the main part of the armored vehicles was destroyed by a powerful explosion.

For many years there was only this version of what happened that day. But in the 90s of the last century, others began to put forward. So, in 1994, the Izvestia newspaper published an article “The crew of Captain Maslov is worthy of the title of heroes,” which stated that two bombers did not return from a combat mission that day. The 1st under the command of Nikolai Gastello, and the second - Captain Alexander Spiridonovich Maslov, commander of the 3rd squadron of the 42nd aviation division.

Marat Kazei

The war fell on the Belarusian land. The Nazis broke into the village where Marat lived with his mother, Anna Aleksandrovna Kazya. In the fall, Marat no longer had to go to school in the fifth grade. The Nazis turned the school building into their barracks. The enemy was furious.

Anna Alexandrovna Kazei was captured for her connection with the partisans, and soon Marat found out that his mother had been hanged in Minsk. The boy's heart was filled with anger and hatred for the enemy. Together with his sister, a Komsomol member Ada, pioneer Marat Kazei went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest. He became a scout at the headquarters of the partisan brigade. Penetrated into enemy garrisons and delivered valuable information to the command. Using this information, the partisans developed a daring operation and defeated the fascist garrison in the city of Dzerzhinsk ...

Marat took part in the battles and invariably showed courage, fearlessness, together with experienced demolition men, he mined the railway.

Marat died in battle. He fought to the last bullet, and when he had only one grenade left, he let the enemies get closer and blew them up ... and himself.

For courage and bravery pioneer Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to the young hero was erected in the city of Minsk.

Lenya Golikov

He grew up in the village of Lukino, on the banks of the Polo River, which flows into the legendary Ilmen Lake. When the enemy captured his native village, the boy went to the partisans.

More than once he went to reconnaissance, brought important information to the partisan detachment. And enemy trains and cars flew downhill, bridges collapsed, enemy warehouses burned ...

There was a battle in his life that Lenya fought one on one with a fascist general. A grenade thrown by a boy knocked out a car. A Nazi with a briefcase in his hands got out of it and, shooting back, rushed to run. Lenya is behind him. He pursued the enemy for almost a kilometer and finally killed him. There were some very important documents in the briefcase. The headquarters of the partisans immediately sent them by plane to Moscow.

There were many more battles in his short life! And never flinched young hero who fought shoulder to shoulder with adults. He died near the village of Ostraya Luka in the winter of 1943, when the enemy was especially fierce, feeling that the earth was burning under his feet, that there would be no mercy for him ...

Outstanding military leader of the Great Patriotic War, General of the Army Alexei Innokentyevich Antonov

On the eve of the sixtieth Battle of Kursk a group of military leaders appealed to the President of Russia V.V. Putin with a request to confer the title of Hero of Russia (posthumously) to the outstanding military figure of the Great Patriotic War, General of the Army Alexei Innokentyevich Antonov.
Army General A.I. Antonov, by the will of evil fate or by coincidence, was not awarded either the title of Hero of the Soviet Union or the title of Marshal, although he was repeatedly worthy of both. How could it be that the chief General Staff Armed Forces of the Soviet Union final stage war was bypassed by the attention of Stalin, who, as you know, appreciated Antonov, one can only guess.
There is a version that Antonov, being the chief of the General Staff, rejected the proposal of L.P. Beria about cooperation with him and for this, through the efforts of the latter, he was exiled to the Transcaucasian Military District for the post of deputy commander of the district, and the proposal for conferring the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union was never realized.

Valya Kotik

He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Khmelnitsky region. He studied at school number 4 in the city of Shepetovka, was a recognized leader of the pioneers, his peers.

When the Nazis broke into Shepetovka, Valya Kotik and his friends decided to fight the enemy. The guys collected weapons at the battlefield, which the partisans then transported to the detachment in a wagon of hay.

Having looked closely at the boy, the communists entrusted Valya to be a liaison and intelligence officer in their underground organization. He learned the location of enemy posts, the order of the changing of the guard.

The Nazis planned a punitive operation against the partisans, and Valya, having tracked down the Nazi officer who led the punishers, killed him ...

Yuta Bondarovskaya

Wherever the blue-eyed girl Yuta went, her red tie was invariably with her ...

In the summer of 1941, she came from Leningrad for a vacation to a village near Pskov. Here overtook Utah formidable news: war! Here she saw the enemy. Utah began to help the partisans. First she was a messenger, then a scout. Disguised as a beggar boy, she collected information from the villages: where the headquarters of the Nazis were, how they were guarded, how many machine guns.

Zina Portnova

The war found the Leningrad pioneer Zina Portnova in the village of Zuya, where she came for the holidays - this is not far from the Obol station in the Vitebsk region. In Obol, an underground Komsomol youth organization "Young Avengers" was created, and Zina was elected a member of its committee. She participated in daring operations against the enemy, in sabotage, distributed leaflets, and conducted reconnaissance on the instructions of the partisan detachment.

It was December 1943. Zina was returning from a mission. In the village of Mostishche, a traitor betrayed her. The Nazis seized the young partisan and tortured her. The answer to the enemy was Zina's silence, her contempt and hatred, her determination to fight to the end. During one of the interrogations, choosing the moment, Zina grabbed a pistol from the table and fired at the Gestapo at point-blank range.

The officer who ran into the shot was also killed on the spot. Zina tried to escape, but the Nazis overtook her...

The brave young pioneer was brutally tortured, but until the last minute she remained steadfast, courageous, unbending. And the Motherland posthumously noted her feat with her highest title - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Galya Komleva

When the war began, and the Nazis were approaching Leningrad, for underground work in the village of Tarnovichi - in the south of the Leningrad region - Anna Petrovna Semenova, a school counselor, was left. To communicate with the partisans, she picked up her most reliable pioneers, and the first among them was Galina Komleva. Cheerful, brave, inquisitive girl for her six school years was awarded six times with books with the signature: "For excellent study"

The young messenger brought assignments from the partisans to her leader, and she forwarded her reports to the detachment along with bread, potatoes, products, which were obtained with great difficulty. Once, when a messenger from the partisan detachment did not arrive at the meeting point on time, Galya, half-frozen, herself made her way to the detachment, handed over a report and, having warmed up a little, hurried back, carrying a new task to the underground.

Together with Komsomol member Tasya Yakovleva, Galya wrote leaflets and scattered them around the village at night. The Nazis tracked down and captured the young underground workers. They were kept in the Gestapo for two months. After being severely beaten, they threw him into a cell, and in the morning they took him out again for interrogation. Galya did not say anything to the enemy, she did not betray anyone. The young patriot was shot.

The Motherland marked the feat of Gali Komleva with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.

Kostya Kravchuk

June 11, 1944 on central square Kyiv, units were lined up that went to the front. And before this battle formation, they read the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding the pioneer Kostya Kravchuk with the Order of the Red Banner for saving and preserving two combat banners of rifle regiments during the occupation of the city of Kyiv ...

Retreating from Kyiv, two wounded soldiers entrusted banners to Kostya. And Kostya promised to keep them.

Lara Mikheenko

For the operation of reconnaissance and explosion of the railway. bridge over the Drissa River, a Leningrad schoolgirl Larisa Mikheenko was presented with a government award. But the Motherland did not have time to present the award to her brave daughter ...

The war cut the girl off hometown: in the summer she went on vacation to the Pustoshkinsky district, but failed to return - the village was occupied by the Nazis. The pioneer dreamed of breaking out of Hitler's slavery, making her way to her own. And one night with two older friends left the village.

At the headquarters of the 6th Kalinin brigade, the commander, Major P. V. Ryndin, at first turned out to accept "so small": well, what kind of partisans are they! But how much even its very young citizens can do for the Motherland! The girls were able to do what strong men could not. Dressed in rags, Lara walked around the villages, finding out where and how the guns were located, sentries were placed, what German cars were moving along the highway, what kind of trains and with what cargo they came to the Pustoshka station.

She also participated in military operations ...

The young partisan, betrayed by a traitor in the village of Ignatovo, was shot by the Nazis. In the Decree on awarding Larisa Mikheenko with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, there is a bitter word: "Posthumously."

Vasya Korobko

Ernigovshchina. The front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy. On the outskirts, covering the retreat of our units, the company held the defense. The boy brought the cartridges to the fighters. His name was Vasya Korobko.

Night. Vasya sneaks up to the school building occupied by the Nazis.

He sneaks into the pioneer room, takes out the pioneer banner and hides it securely.

Sasha Borodulin

There was a war. Above the village where Sasha lived, enemy bombers hooted angrily. The native land was trampled by an enemy boot. Sasha Borodulin, a pioneer with the warm heart of a young Leninist, could not put up with this. He decided to fight the Nazis. Got a rifle. Having killed a fascist motorcyclist, he took the first military trophy - a real German machine gun. Day after day he conducted reconnaissance. More than once he went on the most dangerous missions. A lot of destroyed cars and soldiers were on his account. For the performance of dangerous tasks, for the courage, resourcefulness and courage shown, Sasha Borodulin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in the winter of 1941.

Punishers tracked down the partisans. For three days the detachment left them, twice escaped from the encirclement, but the enemy ring closed again. Then the commander called in volunteers to cover the retreat of the detachment. Sasha stepped forward first. Five took the fight. One by one they died. Sasha was left alone. It was still possible to retreat - the forest was nearby, but every minute that delayed the enemy was so dear to the detachment, and Sasha fought to the end. He, allowing the Nazis to close a ring around him, grabbed a grenade and blew them up and himself. Sasha Borodulin died, but his memory lives on. The memory of heroes is eternal!

Vitya Khomenko

Pioneer Vitya Khomenko passed his heroic path of struggle against the Nazis in the underground organization "Nikolaev Center".

At school, in German, Vitya was "excellent", and the underground instructed the pioneer to get a job in the officer's canteen. He washed dishes, sometimes served the officers in the hall and listened to their conversations. In drunken arguments, the Nazis blurted out information that was of great interest to the "Nikolaev Center".

The officers began to send the quick, smart boy on errands, and soon made him a messenger at the headquarters. It could not have occurred to them that the most secret packages were the first to be read by the underground at the turnout ...

Volodya Kaznacheev

1941... In the spring I finished fifth grade. In the fall he joined a partisan detachment.

When, together with his sister Anya, he came to the partisans in the Kletnyansky forests, in the Bryansk region, the detachment said: “Well, replenishment! , they stopped joking (Elena Kondratyevna was killed by the Nazis).

There was a "partisan school" in the detachment. Future miners and demolition workers were trained there. Volodya perfectly mastered this science and, together with his senior comrades, derailed eight echelons. He had to cover the retreat of the group, stopping the pursuers with grenades ...

He was connected; often went to Kletnya, delivering valuable information; waiting for darkness, posting leaflets. From operation to operation he became more experienced, more skillful.

For the head of the partisan Kzanacheev, the Nazis put a reward, not even suspecting that their brave opponent was just a boy. He fought alongside adults until the very day when motherland was not freed from fascist evil spirits, and rightfully shared with adults the glory of the hero - the liberator of his native land. Volodya Kaznacheev was awarded the Order of Lenin, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.

Nadia Bogdanova

She was executed twice by the Nazis, and fighting friends for many years considered Nadya dead. She even erected a monument.

It's hard to believe, but when she became a scout in the partisan detachment of "Uncle Vanya" Dyachkov, she was not yet ten years old. Small, thin, she, pretending to be a beggar, wandered among the Nazis, noticing everything, remembering everything, and brought the most valuable information to the detachment. And then, together with partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, and mined objects.

The first time she was captured when, together with Vanya Zvontsov, she hung out a red flag on November 7, 1941 in Vitebsk, occupied by the enemy. They beat her with ramrods, tortured her, and when they brought her to the ditch - to shoot, she had no strength left - she fell into the ditch, for a moment, ahead of the bullet. Vanya died, and the partisans found Nadya alive in the ditch...

Fedyuninsky Ivan Ivanovich

van Ivanovich Fedyuninsky was born on July 17 (30), 1900 in the village of Gilevo, 36 km from Tyumen, into a working-class family.

He joined the Red Army in 1919. After graduation civil war, during which he was wounded in the leg, I.I. Fedyuninsky worked for 3 months in the military registration and enlistment office of Tyumen, from where he was sent to Omsk to take courses at a military infantry school. After successfully completing it in 1924, he chooses the Far East as his place of service.

At the new duty station, the situation was extremely turbulent due to constant conflicts on the CER. By 1929, I.I. Fedyuninsky received command of the 6th company of the 36th rifle division of the Special Far Eastern Army. It was in this post that he distinguished himself during the largest clash with Chinese troops, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In 1930, the young commander was sent to Moscow to study at the "Shot" courses, which he graduated with honors and returned to the Far East. Having risen to the rank of commander of the 24th rifle regiment of the 36th rifle division, Major I.I. Fedyuninsky in 1939, then the division was already a motorized rifle division, distinguished himself during the battles at Khalkhin Gol, for which he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In the same place, on August 20, 1939, he received a second wound in the leg. After leaving the hospital in 1939-40, he commanded the 82nd motorized rifle division in Mongolia.

In April 1941, having passed the advanced training courses for the highest commanding staff, Colonel I.I. Fedyuninsky was transferred from Far East, where under his command there was a rifle division, to the Kyiv Special Military District, leading the 15th rifle corps.

Oktyabrsky Philip Sergeevich

Filipp Sergeevich Oktyabrsky (real name Ivanov) was born on October 11 (23), 1899 in the village of Lukshino (now the Staritsky district of the Tver province) into a peasant family. He graduated from four classes of a rural school, after which in 1915 he left first for Shlisselburg, and then for St. Petersburg to work. He worked as a stoker, then as an assistant driver on steamboats that sailed along Ladoga, Svir, Neva.

In 1918, F.S. Oktyabrsky voluntarily joined the ranks Baltic Fleet. During the Civil War, he served as a sailor on the ships of the Baltic Fleet, and since 1920 - on the Northern Flotilla on the auxiliary cruiser Lieutenant Schmidt. In 1922 he graduated from courses at the Petrograd Communist University, after which he worked in the naval department of the Political Directorate of the Red Army, in the political department of the flotilla. In 1928 he completed courses at the Naval School named after M.V. Frunze. Subsequently, he commanded a division, and then a detachment and a brigade of torpedo boats on the Baltic and Pacific Fleets. In 1935, already a brigade commander, F.S. Oktyabrsky was awarded his first Order of the Red Star, which he received for mastering boats at the new maritime theater and developing methods for interacting ships with aviation, coastal defense and ground forces.

From February 1938 to August 1939, F.S. Oktyabrsky commanded the Amur military flotilla.

From August 1939 to April 1943 he commanded the Black Sea Fleet. The most difficult days of the period of the Great Patriotic War stood out for the period of his leadership.

June 22, 1941 at one in the morning by order of the People's Commissar of the Navy N.G. Kuznetsov Black Sea Fleet was put on alert. At 03:17 on the same day, aviation and air defense of the fleet, as well as anti-aircraft batteries of ships, began to repel the first air raid of the Luftwaffe. Enemy aircraft dropped not only bombs, but also mines, which were supposed to impede the actions of the fleet at sea. The organization of the fight against them became a priority for the fleet commander.

A.V. Ostrovsky

"... in a military campaign he showed courage, courage, high qualities of a submarine commander ..."

In the Soviet submarine fleet, perhaps, one cannot find an officer with such a difficult fate as Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, in whom heroism, extreme composure and many days of hard drinking, desperate courage and a disregard for the assigned work coexisted side by side. He is the first "heavyweight" among the Soviet submariners: he has four sunk vehicles weighing 42,557 gross register tons. But he also got more than anyone else: in October 1941, he was expelled from candidates for membership in the party; bringing to court a military tribunal (did not take place due to the sinking of the "Wilhelm Gustlov"); demotion in rank from captain 3rd rank to senior lieutenant; expulsion first from the submarine fleet, and then from the Navy in general.

N.G. Kuznetsov, People's Commissar and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy during the war years, who signed the order to dismiss A. I. Marinesko to the reserve in November 1945, wrote many years later: Admiral, I am quite definitely - negatively. But knowing his courage, determination and ability to achieve major military successes, I am ready to forgive him a lot and pay tribute to his services to the Motherland.

The tribute, although late, was paid: on May 5, 1990, almost 27 years after his death, A.I. Marinesko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and in Kaliningrad a monument was erected to him, which many guests of the city consider it their duty to visit.

Chuikov Vasily Ivanovich

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was born on January 31 (February 12), 1900 in the village of Serebryanyye Prudy, Venevsky district, Tula province (now Moscow region) into a peasant family. In 1911 he graduated from the four classes of the Serebryanoprudsk rural school. In 1912 he graduated from the 1st grade of the higher primary school. At the age of 12, he left home to work in St. Petersburg, where he worked in the Tselebeyev baths, and then in furnished rooms. In August 1914 he entered the spur workshop as an apprentice. In December 1916 he returned to his native village and took up peasant labor.

In December 1917, V.I. Chuikov left for Kronstadt and entered the mine squad as a cabin boy. In April 1918, he and his older brothers, who served as sailors in the Baltic Fleet, were demobilized and left for the village, but soon V.I. . After completing his courses in August 1918, he was sent to the Southern Front.

During the Civil War, V.I. Chuikov from August to November 1918 was an assistant company commander in the 1st Special Ukrainian Brigade R.F. th Infantry Division V.M. Azin in the combat unit, and then, until July 1921 - the commander of the 40th Infantry Regiment, renamed the 43rd Infantry Regiment of the 5th Infantry Division. He fought as part of various units of the Red Army against the troops of Admiral A.V. Kolchak, against the Polish troops on the Western Front. During the fighting he was wounded four times and shell-shocked twice. In 1920 and 1925 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, as well as a gold watch. After the end of the Civil War, for six months he was the head of combat section No. 4, the head of the garrison of the city of Velizh and the chairman of the commission on banditry.

In 1925 V.I. Chuikov graduated military academy named after M.V. Frunze. In the autumn of 1926, V.I. Chuikov visited China for the first time as a diplomatic courier. In November 1927 he graduated from the Oriental Faculty of the same educational institution. After graduation, he was sent to the post of head of the 1st department at the headquarters of the Moscow Military District, where he was until January 1928. Further, until September 1929, he was in China as a military adviser. In September 1929 - August 1932 he was the head of the department of headquarters of the Special Far Eastern Army (since January 1, 1930 - the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army). In its composition, he participated in military clashes in Manchuria. From August 1932 to October 1935, V.I. Chuikov was the head of the advanced training courses for intelligence officers.