Heroes of the Second World War and their exploits briefly. Fifty facts: the exploits of Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War

Today we want to remember 5 heroes of the Great Patriotic War, whose exploits are sometimes in the shadows ... Ekaterina Zelenko If everyone knows the feat of Talalikhin, then the name of the first woman who committed ...

Today we want to remember 5 heroes of the Great Patriotic War, whose exploits are sometimes in the shadows...

Ekaterina Zelenko

If everyone knows the feat of Talalikhin, then few know the name of the first woman who committed an aerial ramming. On September 12, 1941, Zelenko, on her Su-2 light bomber, entered into battle with the German Messers, and when her car ran out of ammunition, she destroyed an enemy fighter precisely in an air ram. In that battle, the heroine did not manage to survive.

Zelenko's husband, military pilot Pavel Ignatenko, also died in the battles of the Great Patriotic War in 1943.

Dmitry Komarov

Selfless ramming tactics are unique in modern warfare - all the more surprising when one relatively small tank goes to ram an entire armored train! The only documented case of such a feat is the story of Lieutenant Dmitry Komarov, who on June 25, 1944, at full speed on a burning T-34, rammed a German train near Chernye Brody in western Ukraine.

By some miracle, the hero in that battle survived, although almost all members of his crew died. Nevertheless, Dmitry Evlampievich, as the people say, “hurried to God”: he died heroically in the battles for Poland in the autumn of the same 1944.

Ivan Fedorov

This Hero of the Soviet Union has one of the most mysterious biographies. Undoubtedly possessing remarkable skills in air combat and having shot down more than a dozen German aircraft, Ivan Evgrafovich, however, earned himself not very corresponding to his rank.

Hero of the reputation of "Baron Munchausen" of the domestic Air Force. Being the commander of one of the aviation penal battalions, he often later boasted of greatly exaggerated or simply false "exploits".

The most ridiculous was the case when he began to tell the cadets of the Kachinsky School that he allegedly participated in the operation to rescue the crew of the Chelyuskin steamer. When it became known about Fedorov's misconduct, he only miraculously escaped the tribunal and for a long time later went under suspicion, so he received the Golden Star of the Hero relatively late.

Nikolai Sirotinin

His biography is little known and unremarkable: a simple guy from Orel, he was drafted into the army in 1940. But it is Nikolai Sirotin who, with his incredible feat, confirms the statement "And there is only one warrior in the field, if he is tailored in Russian."

On July 17, 1941, Sirotinin, together with his battalion commander, covering our retreating units, took an unequal battle with the Germans at the bridge over the Dobrost river in Belarus. The battalion commander, having been wounded, retreated, and Nikolai Sirotinin remained in the firing position, from where he only stepped straight into history.

In that battle, he single-handedly destroyed 11 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers and 57 soldiers of the enemy army, and when the shells ran out and the Germans offered to surrender, he answered them only with fire from his carbine. When it was all over, the Nazis buried the twenty-year-old Red Army soldier - with military honors, paying tribute to his heroism.

Nevertheless, the Motherland noted the feat of Sirotinin only with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and then only in 1960.

Epistinia Stepanova

How to measure heroism? How to determine who can be considered a hero and who is not? Probably the most worthy of all who could bear this proud title is she, a simple Russian woman who gave birth to 15 children - Epistinia Stepanova.

She gave the Motherland the most precious - nine sons, seven of whom never returned home from the Great Patriotic War, and two more died in the Civil War and Khalkhin Gol. The authorities awarded her the title of "Mother Heroine" and, after her death in 1974, buried her with full military honors.

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

1. Ivan Timofeevich Lyubushkin (1918-1942)

In the autumn of 1941, fierce battles were going on in the area of ​​​​the city of Orel. Soviet tankers fought off the fierce attacks of the Nazis. At the beginning of the battle, Senior Sergeant Lyubushkin's tank was damaged by an enemy shell and could not move. The crew accepted an unequal battle with fascist tanks advancing from all sides. Courageous tankers destroyed five enemy vehicles! During the battle, another shell hit Lyubushkin's car, the crew was wounded.

The tank commander continued to fire on the advancing Nazis, ordered the driver to repair the damage. Soon Lyubushkin's tank was able to move and joined his column.

For courage and courage, I. T. Lyuboshkin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on October 10, 1941.

In one of the battles in June 1942, Lyubushkin died a heroic death.

2. Alexander Matveevich Matrosov (1924-1943)

On February 23, 1943, fierce battles unfolded in one of the sections of the Kalinin Front near the village of Chernushki, north of the city of Velikie Luki. The enemy turned the village into a heavily fortified stronghold. Several times the fighters attacked the Nazi fortifications, but the destructive fire from the bunker blocked their path. Then the private of the Matrosov guard, having made his way to the bunker, closed the embrasure with his body. Inspired by the feat of Matrosov, the soldiers went on the attack and drove the Germans out of the village.

For the feat, A. M. Matrosov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Today, the regiment in which Matrosov served bears the name of a hero forever enrolled in the lists of the unit.

3. Nelson Georgievich Stepanyan (1913-1944)

During the Great Patriotic War, the commander of the assault regiment Stepanyan made 293 successful sorties to attack and bombard enemy ships.

Stepanyan became famous for his high skill, suddenness and audacity of strikes against the enemy. One day, Colonel Stepanyan led a group of planes to bombard an enemy airfield. The stormtroopers dropped their bombs and began to leave. But Stepanyan saw that several fascist planes remained intact. Then he sent his plane back, and approaching the enemy airfield, released the landing gear. The enemy anti-aircraft artillery ceased fire, thinking that a Soviet plane was voluntarily landing on their airfield. At that moment, Stepanyan gave gas, retracted the landing gear and dropped the bombs. All three aircraft that survived the first raid blazed with torches. And Stepanyan's plane landed safely at its airfield.

On October 23, 1942, for the excellent performance of command assignments, the glorious son of the Armenian people was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was posthumously awarded the second Gold Star medal on March 6, 1945.

4. Vasily Georgievich Klochkov (1911-1941)

November 1941. Moscow is declared under a state of siege. In the Volokolamsk direction, in the area of ​​​​the Dubosekovo junction, 28 soldiers of the rifle division, Major General I.V. Panfilov, led by political instructor Klochkov, stood to death.

On November 16, the Nazis threw a company of submachine gunners against them. But all enemy attacks were repulsed. On the battlefield, the Nazis left about 70 corpses. After some time, the Nazis moved 50 tanks against 28 brave men. The fighters led by the political commissar courageously entered into an unequal battle. One after another, valiant warriors fell to the ground, slain by fascist bullets. When the cartridges ran out, and the grenades were running out, political instructor Klochkov gathered around him the surviving fighters and, with grenades in his hands, went to the enemy.

At the cost of their own lives, the Panfilovites did not let the enemy tanks rushing towards Moscow. 18 wrecked and burned cars were left by the Nazis on the battlefield.

For unparalleled heroism, courage and courage, political instructor V. G. Klochkov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

After the war, a monument was erected to the Panfilov heroes at the Dubosekovo junction.

5. Alexander Mikhailovich Roditelev (1916-1966)

During the battles for Koenigsberg in April 1945, the commander of a sapper platoon, junior lieutenant Roditelev, with eight sappers, acted as part of an assault group.

With a swift throw, the assault group went to the artillery positions of the enemy. Wasting no time, Parents ordered to attack the gunners. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, he himself destroyed six fascists. Unable to withstand the onslaught of Soviet soldiers, 25 German soldiers surrendered, the rest fled, leaving behind 15 heavy guns. A few minutes later, the Nazis made an attempt to return the abandoned guns. The sappers repelled three counterattacks and held the artillery positions until the main forces marched. In this battle, a group of sappers under the command of Roditelev exterminated up to 40 Nazis and captured 15 serviceable heavy guns. The next day, April 8, Parents with twelve sappers blew up the enemy's bunker, cleared 6 blocks of the city from the Nazis and captured up to 200 soldiers and officers.

For courage and courage shown in battles with the German fascists, A. M. Roditelev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

6. Vladimir Dmitrievich Lavrinenkov (Born 1919)

Fighter pilot Lavrinenkov spent his first battle near Stalingrad. Soon on his account there were already 16 destroyed enemy aircraft. With each flight, his skill grew and strengthened. In battle, he acted decisively and boldly. The number of enemy planes shot down increased. Together with his comrades, he covered attack aircraft and bombers, repelled enemy air raids, conducting air battles - lightning battles with the enemy, from which he always emerged victorious.

By the end of the war, the communist Lavrinenkov had 448 sorties, 134 air battles, in which he personally shot down 35 enemy planes and 11 as part of a group.

The motherland twice awarded V. D. Lavrinenkov with the Gold Star medals of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

7. Viktor Dmitrievich Kuskov (1924-1983)

The mechanic of the torpedo boat Kuskov fought throughout the war on the ships of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. The boat on which he served participated in 42 combat operations, sank 3 enemy ships.

In one of the battles, a direct hit by an enemy shell in the engine compartment smashed the left engine and damaged the oil pipe of the second engine. Kuskov himself was severely shell-shocked. Overcoming the pain, he reached the motor and covered the hole in the oil line with his hands. Hot oil burned his hands, but he opened them only when the boat left the battle and broke away from the enemy.

In another battle, in June 1944, a fire broke out in the engine room from a direct hit by an enemy shell. Kuskov was seriously wounded, but continued to remain at his post, fighting the fire and the water that flooded the engine compartment. However, the ship could not be saved. Kuskov, together with foreman Matyukhin, on life belts, launched the crew members, and the seriously wounded boat commander and officer were kept in the water in their arms for two hours until our ships approached.

For fearlessness and selflessness, a high understanding of military duty and saving the life of the ship's commander, communist VD Kuskov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on July 22, 1944.

8. Rufina Sergeevna Gasheva (Born 1921)

A school, a pioneer detachment, three years of studies at Moscow State University - this ordinary biography was drastically changed by the war. 848 sorties are recorded in the summer book of Rufina Gasheva, navigator of the squadron of the 46th Guards Taman Light Bomber Regiment. More than once she had to get into the most difficult situations. In one of the battles in the Kuban, Gesheva's plane was shot down by a fascist fighter and fell behind the front line. For several days, the girl made her way through the enemy rear to her regiment, where she was already considered dead. Near Warsaw, jumping out of a burning plane with a parachute, she landed on a minefield.

In 1956, Rufina Sergeevna Gasheva was demobilized with the rank of major. She taught English at the Academy of Armored Forces named after R. Ya. Malinovsky, worked in the Military Publishing House. She has been retired in Moscow since 1972. For courage shown in battles with the enemy, Rufina Sergeevna Gasheva was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on February 23, 1945.

10. Evgenia Maksimovna Rudneva (1921-1944)

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Zhenya Rudneva, a student at Moscow State University, volunteered for the front. On the courses, she mastered the art of navigation. And then there were successful bombardments of concentrations of enemy troops, enemy equipment in the Kuban, the North Caucasus, and in the Crimea. 645 sorties were made by the navigator of the Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment, Senior Lieutenant Rudneva. In April 1944, while performing another combat mission in the Kerch region, E. M. Rudneva died heroically. On October 26, 1944, the navigator of the Guards Bomber Regiment Evgenia Maksimovna Rudneva was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

12. Manshuk Zhiengalievna Mametova (1922-1943)

The best machine gunner of the 21st Guards Rifle Division was considered a Kazakh girl Manshuk Mametova. She was an example of valor and fearlessness, the pride of the fighters of the division.

On October 15, 1943, there was a fierce battle for the city of Nevel. Manshuk supported the offensive of her unit with machine-gun fire. She was wounded in the head. Gathering the last of her strength, the girl pulled out a machine gun to an open position and began to shoot the Nazis point-blank, clearing the way for her comrades. Even dead, Manshuk clutched the handles of the machine gun...

From all over our Motherland, letters were sent to Alma-Ata, where she lived, from where Manshuk left for a great feat. And in Nevel, near the walls of which the heroine died, there is a street named after her. The courageous machine gunner was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on March 1, 1944.

13. Elena Fedorovna Kolesova (1921-1942)

On a frosty November night in 1941 near Moscow, a detachment of scout girls, headed by twenty-year-old Muscovite Komsomol member Elena Kolesova, left behind enemy lines. For the exemplary performance of this task, Lelya Kolesova was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Since April 1942, the Kolesova group has been operating in one of the districts of the Minsk region. Under the leadership of its brave commander, the group collected and transmitted information about the location of the Nazis, the transfer of enemy troops and military equipment, bypassed highways and railways, and blew up enemy trains and bridges. On September 11, 1942, in an unequal battle with punishers near the village of Vydritsa, Minsk Region, Elena Kolesova died. The name of the heroine was carried by the pioneer team of the Moscow school No. 47, where she worked as a pioneer leader and teacher. The glorious intelligence officer who gave her life for the freedom and independence of our Motherland was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on February 21, 1944.

14. Anatoly Konstantinovich Avdeev, gunner fighter anti-tank artillery regiment, born in 1925.

On July 5, 1944, Avdeev's gun crew was ordered to prevent the breakthrough of fascist troops from the encirclement in the Volma region (Belarus). Having taken an open firing position, the fighters shot the Nazis point-blank. The battle lasted 13 hours. During this time, the gun crew repulsed 7 attacks. Almost all the shells ran out, and 5 people of the gun crew died with the death of the brave. The enemy is attacking again. With a direct hit by a projectile, Avdeev's gun breaks down, and the last soldier from the calculation dies. Left alone, Avdeev does not leave the battlefield, but continues to fight with a machine gun and grenades. But now all the cartridges and the last grenade have been used up. The Komsomol member grabs an ax lying nearby and destroys four more fascists.

Mission accomplished. The enemy did not pass, leaving up to 180 corpses of soldiers and officers, 2 self-propelled guns, a machine gun and 4 vehicles on the battlefield in front of Avdeev's gun.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the glorious son of the Russian people Avdeev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

15. Vladimir Avramovich Alekseenko, deputy commander of an aviation regiment, born in 1923, Russian.

Attack aircraft pilot Alekseenko made 292 successful sorties during the war years. He stormed enemy batteries shelling Leningrad, smashed the enemy on the Karelian Isthmus, in the Baltic states and in East Prussia. Dozens of aircraft shot down and destroyed at airfields, 33 tanks, 118 vehicles, 53 railway cars, 85 wagons, 15 armored personnel carriers, 10 ammunition depots, 27 artillery pieces, 54 anti-aircraft guns, 12 mortars and hundreds of enemy soldiers and officers killed - such is the combat account of captain Alekseenko.

For 230 successful sorties for assault strikes against concentrations of enemy troops and equipment, for courage and courage, communist V. A. Alekseenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1945. On June 29, 1945, for new military exploits at the front, he was awarded the second Gold Star medal.

16. Andrey Egorovich Borovykh, aviation squadron commander, born in 1921, Russian.

During the Great Patriotic War, fighter pilot Andrei Borovoykh fought on the Kalinin Front. His combat path ran through Orel and Kursk, Gomel and Brest, Lvov and Warsaw and ended near Berlin. He flew to intercept enemy aircraft, escorted our bombers behind enemy lines, and conducted aerial reconnaissance. Only in the first two years of the war, Major Borovoy made 328 successful sorties, participated in 55 air battles, in which he personally shot down 12 enemy aircraft.

In August 1943, the communist Borovoy was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the second Gold Star medal on February 23, 1945 for another 20 enemy aircraft shot down in the next 49 air battles.

In total, during the war years, Borovoy made about 600 successful sorties.

After the Great Patriotic War, A.E. Borovoykh was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

17. Boris Aleksandrovich Vladimirov , commander of a rifle division, born in 1905, Russian.

General Vladimirov especially distinguished himself in January 1945 in the Vistula-Oder operation. As a result of a well-thought-out and skillfully organized battle, on January 14-15, his division successfully broke through the German defense in depth at the turn of the Vistula River. Pursuing the enemy, the division fought from January 16 to January 28 for about 400 km, with minor losses in personnel and military equipment. The soldiers under the leadership of General Vladimirov were among the first to enter the territory of Nazi Germany and, having made a difficult maneuver in a wooded area, with the fierce resistance of the Nazis, pushed them back from the border and defeated the five thousandth garrison of the city of Schneidemühl. In the area of ​​​​the city of Schneidemuhl, the soldiers of the division captured huge trophies, including 30 echelons with military equipment, food and military equipment.

For the skillful leadership of the division in difficult battle conditions and the personal courage and heroism shown at the same time, communist B.A. Vladimirov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

18. Alexander Borisovich Kazaev , commander of a rifle regiment, born in 1919, Ossetian.

On April 13, 1945, the rifle regiment under the command of Major Kazaev, conducting offensive battles against the fascist group on the Zemland Peninsula, approached the heavily fortified line of defense of the enemy. All attempts to break through the defenses from the front were unsuccessful. The offensive of the division was suspended. Then Major Kazaev, with a daring and unexpected maneuver, blocked the enemy's main stronghold with small forces, and with his main forces broke through the defenses from the flanks and ensured the successful offensive of the entire division.

During the offensive battles from April 13 to April 17, 1945, the regiment of Major Kazaev exterminated more than 400 and captured 600 Nazi soldiers and officers, captured 20 guns and freed 1,500 prisoners languishing in concentration camps.

For the skillful leadership of the regiment's combat operations and the shown courage, A.V. Kazaev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

21. Ermalai Grigorievich Koberidze, rifle division commander, born in 1904, Georgian, communist.

Personnel soldier, Major General E. G. Koberidze on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War - since June 1941. He especially distinguished himself in battles in July 1944. On July 27, 1944, the division commander, General Koberidze, personally with the forward detachment of the division, went to the eastern bank of the Vistula and organized its forcing. Under heavy enemy fire, the fighters, inspired by the division commander, crossed to the western coast and seized a bridgehead there. Following the forward detachment, the entire division, fighting hard, within two days completely crossed to the western bank of the river and began to consolidate and expand the bridgehead.

For the skillful management of the division in the battles for the Vistula and the personal heroism and courage shown at the same time, E. G. Koberidze was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

22. Caesar Lvovich Kunikov , commander of the landing detachment of sailors of the Novorossiysk Naval Base of the Black Sea Fleet, Russian.

On the night of February 3-4, 1943, a landing detachment of sailors under the command of Major Kunikov landed on the enemy-occupied and heavily fortified coast near Novorossiysk. With a swift blow, the landing detachment knocked the Nazis out of their stronghold and firmly entrenched themselves in the captured bridgehead. At dawn a fierce battle broke out. The paratroopers repelled 18 enemy attacks during the day. By the end of the day, the ammunition was running out. The situation seemed hopeless. Then a detachment of Major Kunikov made a sudden raid on an enemy artillery battery. Having destroyed the gun crew and seized the guns, they opened fire from them on the attacking enemy soldiers.

For seven days, the paratroopers fought off the fierce attacks of the enemy and held the bridgehead until the main forces approached. During this period, the detachment destroyed over 200 Nazis. In one of the battles, Kunikov was mortally wounded.

For courage and courage, communist Ts. L. Kunikov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

24. Kafur Nasyrovich Mammadov . On October 18, 1942, the battalion of the marines of the Black Sea Fleet, in which the sailor Mamedov also fought, fought a hard battle with superior enemy forces. The Nazi troops managed to break through and surround the command post of the company commander. Sailor Mammadov rushed to the rescue of the commander and covered him with his chest from the enemy zeros. The brave warrior saved the commander at the cost of his own life.

For courage, courage and self-sacrifice in the battle against the fascist invaders, the son of the Azerbaijani people, Komsomol member K. N. Mammadov, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

29. Maguba Huseynovna Syrtlanova , deputy commander of a squadron of night bombers, born in 1912, Tatar, communist.

Guards senior lieutenant Syrtlanova fought in the North Caucasus, the Taman Peninsula, the Crimea, Belarus, Poland and East Prussia during the Great Patriotic War. In battles, she showed exceptional courage, courage and courage, made 780 sorties. In the most difficult meteorological conditions, Syrtlanova led groups of aircraft to specified areas with great accuracy.

For the courage and courage of the Guards, Senior Lieutenant M. G. Syrtlanova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The war demanded courage from people, and heroism was massive. 5 impressive battle stories in which you can appreciate the resilience and courage of the heroes of the Second World War.

On July 13, 1941, in the battles near the city of Balti, when delivering ammunition to his company near the town of Arctic fox, the riding machine-gun company of the 389th rifle regiment of the 176th rifle division of the 9th army of the Southern Front, the Red Army soldier D. R. Ovcharenko was surrounded by a detachment of soldiers and enemy officers numbering 50 people. At the same time, the enemy managed to take possession of his rifle. However, D. R. Ovcharenko did not lose his head and, snatching an ax from the wagon, cut off the head of the officer interrogating him, threw 3 grenades at the enemy soldiers, destroying 21 soldiers. The rest fled in panic. Then he caught up with the second officer and cut off his head as well. The third officer managed to escape. After that, he collected documents and maps from the dead and, together with the cargo, arrived at the company. (A copy of the document confirming the feat of Ovcharenko is on wikipedia.org)

Unfortunately, the hero did not live to see the Victory. In the battles for the liberation of Hungary in the area of ​​​​the Sheregeyesh station, the machine gunner of the 3rd tank brigade, Private D. R. Ovcharenko, was seriously wounded. He died in hospital from wounds on January 28, 1945. Awarded the Order of Lenin.

Under the onslaught of the 4th Panzer Division of Heinz Guderian, commanded by von Langermann, units of the 13th Army retreated, and with them the Sirotinin regiment. On July 17, 1941, the battery commander decided to leave one gun with a crew of two and an ammunition load of 60 shells at the bridge over the Dobrost River on the 476th kilometer of the Moscow-Warsaw highway to cover the retreat with the task of delaying the tank column. One of the calculation numbers was the battalion commander himself; Nikolai Sirotinin volunteered second.

The gun was camouflaged on a hill in dense rye; the position allowed a good view of the highway and the bridge. When a column of German armored vehicles appeared at dawn, Nikolai knocked out the lead tank that entered the bridge with the first shot, and the armored personnel carrier closing the column with the second, thereby creating a traffic jam on the road. The battery commander was wounded and, since the combat mission was completed, he retreated towards the Soviet positions. However, Sirotinin refused to retreat, since the cannon still had a significant amount of unused shells.

The Germans made an attempt to clear the blockage by pulling the wrecked tank off the bridge with two other tanks, but they were also knocked out. The armored car, which tried to ford the river, got bogged down in the swampy bank, where it was destroyed. For a long time the Germans failed to determine the location of the well-camouflaged gun; they believed that a whole battery was fighting them. The battle lasted two and a half hours, during which time 11 tanks, 6 armored vehicles, 57 soldiers and officers were destroyed.

By the time Nikolai's position was discovered, he had only three shells left. Sirotinin refused the offer to surrender and fired from a carbine to the last.

Awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (posthumously). N. V. Sirotinin was never presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. According to the relatives, a photograph was needed to complete the documents, but the only photograph that the relatives had was lost during the evacuation.

July 7, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was surprised at his courage ... Oberst said in front of the grave that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles ... ”From the diary of Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Friedrich Hoenfeld

One of the beautiful legends of the Second World War tells about a Red Army soldier named Vataman from such an assault unit, who in 1944 killed 10 Nazi soldiers with a faulty faustpatron in hand-to-hand combat. According to one version - 10, according to another - 9, according to the third - 8, according to the fourth - so in general 13. Be that as it may, in the article "Engineering assault units of the RVGK" I. Mshchansky speaks of 10 Nazis.

Of course, like any legend, the Vataman phenomenon has critics who argue that the Faustpatron is too heavy to fight effectively, and the warhead would simply fall off from blows. There are several thoughts in the discussion on WarHistory that seem rational.

The first - in hand-to-hand combat, the fighter used the faustpatron after firing from it. That is, he actually used only a pipe that weighs several kg. Launch tube "Panzerfaust" has a diameter of 15 cm and a length of 1 m, the projectile weighs 3 kg. For hand-to-hand combat, it's a pretty good weapon.

And for a photograph after the battle, he picked up a whole faustpatron. In addition, dr_guillotin also notices that the grenade in the pipe is held by a pin by the ears - so it won't fall out in hand-to-hand combat either. In general, faustpatrons were stored separately from fuses. They were invested shortly before use, and without a fuse, you can even throw it from the third floor ...

The second thought is that the whole event did not take place in one fell swoop, as in action movies, where they scatter a bunch of enemies at once, but sequentially during the battle. After all, the fighter Vataman fought "half of Europe", and his opponents, mobilized into the militia in an emergency order, only a few days ago took up arms. And in the stupor of the first battle, they were not very formidable opponents.

But in any case, this is an impressive combat story. Yes, and Vataman himself looks like a real epic hero - his wide palms give out a natural strongman in him. In my opinion, this case can also, in principle, be classified as "one at the gun" ... In the end, the faustpatron is, although not a cannon, but a small anti-tank gun.

Yes, by the way, I can add that although the name of the daredevil remained unknown, the name of our hero speaks of his Moldovan roots.

Here we will talk not so much about an individual, but about a team - the crew of the KV-1 tank, led by Senior Lieutenant Zinovy ​​Grigorievich Kolobanov. In addition to the commander, the crew included the driver foreman N. Nikiforov, the gun commander, senior sergeant A. Usov, the machine gunner, senior sergeant P. Kiselnikov, and the junior driver, Red Army soldier N. Rodnikov.

So, this heroic crew destroyed as many as 22 enemy tanks in just three hours of battle, on August 19, 1941! This is an absolute record throughout the Great Patriotic War, and subsequent wars. No one was able to destroy 22 tanks in three hours. After the "debriefing" it turned out that the battle was carried out in accordance with all the then accepted rules of military art.

The tankers acted very cleverly: on a tank column passing along the nearest road, they shot down the "head" and "tail", after which they began methodically, as in a shooting gallery, to shoot the stuck "iron animals" of the enemy. Note that the tank of our heroes received 135 hits from German shells. At the same time, the tank continued to fight, and nothing in its design failed.

The crew of the KV-1 senior lieutenant Z. Kolobanov (center) near their combat vehicle. August 1941 (CMVS)

On October 16, 1943, the battalion in which Manshuk Mametova served was ordered to repulse the enemy's counterattack. As soon as the Nazis tried to repulse the attack, the machine gun of Senior Sergeant Mametova started working. The Nazis rolled back, leaving hundreds of corpses. Several violent attacks of the Nazis have already choked at the foot of the hill. Suddenly, the girl noticed that two neighboring machine guns fell silent - the machine gunners were killed. Then Manshuk, quickly crawling from one firing point to another, began to fire at the pressing enemies from three machine guns.

The enemy transferred mortar fire to the positions of the resourceful girl. A close explosion of a heavy mine overturned a machine gun, behind which lay Manshuk. Wounded in the head, the machine gunner lost consciousness for a while, but the triumphant cries of the approaching Nazis made her wake up. Instantly moving to a nearby machine gun, Manshuk lashed the chains of fascist warriors with a lead shower. And again the enemy attack choked. This ensured the successful advance of our units, but the girl from distant Urda remained lying on the hillside. Her fingers froze on the Maxim trigger.

On March 1, 1944, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Senior Sergeant Manshuk Zhiengaliyevna Mametova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the battles for the freedom and independence of our Motherland...

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

Army of the Young

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

It was an amazing "movement"! The boys and girls did not wait until they were "summoned" by adults - they began to act from the first days of the occupation. They risked death!

Similarly, many others began to act at their own peril and risk. Someone found leaflets scattered from airplanes and distributed them in their regional center or village. The Polotsk boy Lenya Kosach collected 45 rifles, 2 light machine guns, several baskets of cartridges and grenades at the battlefields and safely hid it all; an opportunity presented itself - he handed it over to the partisans. In the same way, hundreds of other guys created arsenals for the partisans. Twelve-year-old excellent student Lyuba Morozova, knowing a little German, was engaged in "special propaganda" among the enemies, telling them how she lived well before the war without the "new order" of the occupiers. The soldiers often told her that she was "red to the bone" and advised her to hold her tongue until it ended badly for her. Later, Lyuba became a partisan. Eleven-year-old Tolya Korneev stole a pistol with cartridges from a German officer and began to look for people who would help him reach the partisans. In the summer of 1942, the boy succeeded in this, meeting his classmate Olya Demes, who by that time was already a member of one of the detachments. And when the older guys brought 9-year-old Zhora Yuzov to the detachment, and the commander jokingly asked: “Who will babysit this little one?”, The boy, in addition to the pistol, laid out four grenades in front of him: “That's who will babysit me!”.

Seryozha Roslenko spent 13 years in addition to collecting weapons at his own peril and risk, conducted reconnaissance: there is someone to pass on information to! And found. From somewhere, the children also had the concept of conspiracy. In the fall of 1941, sixth grader Vitya Pashkevich organized a kind of Krasnodon "Young Guard" in Borisov, occupied by the Nazis. He and his team took out weapons and ammunition from enemy warehouses, helped organize the escape of prisoners of war from concentration camps to the underground, burned the enemy warehouse with uniforms with thermite incendiary grenades ...

Experienced scout

In January 1942, one of the partisan detachments operating in the Ponizovsky district of the Smolensk region was surrounded by the Nazis. The Germans, pretty battered during the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Moscow, did not dare to immediately liquidate the detachment. They did not have accurate intelligence about its numbers, so they were waiting for reinforcements. However, the ring was held tight. The partisans puzzled over how to get out of the encirclement. Food was running out. And the detachment commander asked for help from the command of the Red Army. In response, a cipher came over the radio, in which it was reported that the troops would not be able to help with active actions, but an experienced scout would be sent to the detachment.

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

Are you an experienced scout? the commander asked.

- I. And what, it doesn’t look like it? - The boy was in a uniform army pea coat, wadded pants and a hat with earflaps with an asterisk. Red Army man!

– How old are you? - the commander still could not recover from surprise.

“It will soon be eleven!” - the "experienced scout" answered importantly.

The boy's name was Yura Zhdanko. He was originally from Vitebsk. In July 1941, the ubiquitous urchin and expert on local territories showed the retreating Soviet part a ford across the Western Dvina. He could no longer return home - while he acted as a guide, Hitler's armored vehicles entered his hometown. And the scouts who were instructed to escort the boy back took him with them. So he was enrolled as a pupil of the motor reconnaissance company of the 332nd Infantry Division of Ivanovo. M.F. Frunze.

At first, he was not involved in business, but, by nature, observant, big-eyed and memory, he quickly learned the basics of front-line raid science and even dared to give advice to adults. And his abilities were appreciated. He was sent to the front line. In the villages, he, disguised, begged for alms with a bag over his shoulders, collecting information about the location and number of enemy garrisons. He managed to participate in the mining of a strategically important bridge. During the explosion, a Red Army miner was wounded, and Yura, having provided first aid, brought him to the location of the unit. For which he received his first medal "For Courage".

... The best scout to help the partisans, it seems, really could not be found.

“But you, kid, didn’t jump with a parachute ...” the head of intelligence said contritely.

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

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

- The sergeant did not allow me, I only helped lay the dome. Show me how and what to pull!

- Why did you lie? the instructor shouted at him. - He slandered the sergeant.

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

Arriving safely in the detachment, ten-year-old Vitebsk resident Yura Zhdanko did what adults could not do ... He was dressed in everything village, and soon the boy made his way into the hut where the German officer who was in charge of the encirclement was quartered. The Nazi lived in the house of a certain grandfather Vlas. A young scout came to him under the guise of a grandson from the regional center, who was given a rather difficult task - to get documents from an enemy officer with plans for the destruction of the encircled detachment. Opportunity fell only a few days later. The Nazi left the house light, leaving the key to the safe in his overcoat ... So the documents ended up in the detachment. And at the same time, Yura and grandfather Vlas brought him, convincing him that it was impossible to stay in such a situation in the house.

In 1943, Yura led a regular battalion of the Red Army out of encirclement. All the scouts sent to find the "corridor" for their comrades died. The task was entrusted to Yura. One. And he found a weak spot in the enemy ring… He became an order bearer of the Red Star.

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

Fourteen-year-old POW rescuer

14-year-old Minsk underground worker Volodya Shcherbatsevich was one of the first teenagers to be executed by the Germans for participating in the underground. They captured his execution on film and then distributed these shots throughout the city - as a warning to others ...

From the first days of the occupation of the Belarusian capital, mother and son Shcherbatsevich hid Soviet commanders in their apartment, for whom the underground from time to time organized escapes from the prisoner of war camp. Olga Fyodorovna was a doctor and provided medical assistance to the released, dressed in civilian clothes, which, together with her son Volodya, collected from relatives and friends. Several groups of the rescued have already been withdrawn from the city. But once on the way, already outside the city blocks, one of the groups fell into the clutches of the Gestapo. Issued by a traitor, the son and mother ended up in Nazi dungeons. Withstood all torture.

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

Die but take revenge

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

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

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

Great conspirator

Pavlik Titov for his eleven was a great conspirator. He partisans for more than two years in such a way that even his parents did not know about it. Many episodes of his combat biography remained unknown. Here is what is known.

First, Pavlik and his comrades rescued the wounded Soviet commander, burned in a burned-out tank - they found a reliable shelter for him, and at night they brought him food, water, and some medicinal decoctions according to grandmother's recipes. Thanks to the boys, the tanker quickly recovered.

In July 1942, Pavlik and his friends handed over to the partisans several rifles and machine guns with cartridges they had found. Tasks followed. The young scout penetrated the location of the Nazis, conducted calculations of manpower and equipment.

He was generally a slick kid. Once he brought a bale with a fascist uniform to the partisans:

- I think it will come in handy for you ... Not to wear it yourself, of course ...

- And where did you get it?

- Yes, the Fritz were swimming ...

More than once, dressed in the uniform obtained by the boy, the partisans carried out daring raids and operations.

The boy died in the autumn of 1943. Not in combat. The Germans carried out another punitive operation. Pavlik and his parents hid in a dugout. The punishers shot the whole family - father, mother, Pavlik himself and even his little sister. He was buried in a mass grave in Surazh, not far from Vitebsk.

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

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

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

"Kid" and his sisters

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

The "baby" was Alyosha Vyalov, who enjoyed special sympathy among the local partisans. And he acted as part of a family group. When the war began, he was 11, his older sisters Vasilisa and Anya were 16 and 14, the rest of the children were small and small. Alyosha and his sisters were very resourceful. They set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times, prepared the explosion of the labor exchange in order to confuse the registration of the population and save young people and other residents from being stolen into the "German paradise", blew up the passport office in the police premises ... There are dozens of sabotage on their account. And this is in addition to the fact that they were connected, distributed leaflets ...

"Kid" and Vasilisa died shortly after the war from tuberculosis ... A rare case: a memorial plaque was installed on the Vyalovs' house in Vitebsk. These children would have a monument made of gold! ..

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

Prize for the head of a young saboteur

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

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

Eleven-year-old saboteur

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

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

Little Susanin

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

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

Covering squad

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

Noticing the wagons with the Nazis that suddenly appeared, he opened fire on them. While the comrades arrived, the Germans managed to surround the boy, seriously wound him, take him prisoner and retreat. The partisans did not have the opportunity to chase the carts to beat him. For about twenty kilometers, Vanya, tied to a cart, was dragged by the Nazis along an icy road. In the village of Mezhevo, Orsha district, where the enemy garrison was stationed, he was tortured and shot.

The hero was 14 years old

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

Marat's father Ivan Kazei was arrested in 1934 as a "saboteur", and he was rehabilitated only in 1959. Later, his wife was also arrested - then, however, they were released. So it turned out the family of the "enemy of the people", which was shunned by the neighbors. Because of this, Kazei's sister, Ariadna, was not accepted into the Komsomol.

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

Marat went to reconnaissance, both alone and with a group. Participated in raids. Undermined the echelons. For the battle in January 1943, when, wounded, he raised his comrades to attack and made his way through the enemy ring, Marat received the medal "For Courage". And in May 1944, Marat died. Returning from a mission together with the intelligence commander, they stumbled upon the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to leave in an open field, and there was no possibility - Marat was seriously wounded. While there were cartridges, he kept the defense, and when the store was empty, he picked up his last weapon - two grenades, which he did not remove from his belt. He threw one at the Germans, and left the other. When the Germans came very close, he blew himself up along with the enemies.

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

boy of legend

Golikov Leonid Alexandrovich, scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade, born in 1926, a native of the village of Lukino, Parfinsky district. That's what it says on the award sheet. The boy from the legend - that's what the glory of Lenya Golikov called.

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

With peers, he once picked up several rifles at the battlefield, stole two boxes of grenades from the Nazis. All this they later handed over to the partisans. "Tov. Golikov joined the partisan detachment in March 1942, the award list says. - Participated in 27 combat operations ... He exterminated 78 German soldiers and officers, blew up 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition ... On August 15, in a new combat area of ​​​​the brigade, Golikov crashed a car in which the general was Major of the Engineering Troops Richard Wirtz, heading from Pskov to Luga. A brave partisan killed the general with a machine gun, delivered his tunic and captured documents to the brigade headquarters. Among the documents were: a description of new samples of German mines, inspection reports to the higher command and other valuable intelligence data.

Lake Radilovskoye was a rally point when the brigade moved to a new area of ​​operations. On the way there, the partisans had to engage in battles with the enemy. Punishers followed the advance of the partisans, and as soon as the forces of the brigade connected, they forced a fight on it. After the battle at Radilovsky Lake, the main forces of the brigade continued on their way to the Lyadsky forests. The detachments of Ivan the Terrible and B. Ehren-Price remained in the lake area to distract the Nazis. They never managed to connect with the brigade. In mid-November, the invaders attacked the headquarters. Defending it, many fighters died. The rest managed to retreat to the Terp-Kamen swamp. On December 25, several hundred Nazis surrounded the swamp. With considerable losses, the partisans broke out of the ring and entered the Strugokrasnensky district. Only 50 people remained in the ranks, the radio did not work. And the punishers scoured all the villages in search of partisans. We had to walk along untraveled paths. The path was paved by scouts, and among them Lenya Golikov. Attempts to establish contact with other detachments and stock up on food ended tragically. There was only one way out - to make his way to the mainland.

After crossing the Dno-Novosokolniki railway late at night on January 24, 1943, 27 hungry, exhausted partisans came out to the village of Ostraya Luka. Ahead for 90 kilometers stretched the Guerrilla Territory burned by punishers. The scouts found nothing suspicious. The enemy garrison was located a few kilometers away. The companion of the partisans - a nurse - was dying of a serious wound and asked for at least a little warmth. They occupied three extreme huts. Dozorov brigade commander Glebov decided not to exhibit, so as not to attract attention. They were on duty alternately at the windows and in the barn, from where both the village and the road to the forest were clearly visible.

Two hours later, the dream was interrupted by the roar of an exploding grenade. And immediately the heavy machine gun rattled. At the denunciation of a traitor, punishers descended. The guerrillas jumped out into the yard and vegetable gardens, shooting back, began to move in dashes towards the forest. Glebov with combat guards covered the departing with fire from a light machine gun and machine guns. Halfway down the seriously wounded chief of staff fell. Lenya rushed to him. But Petrov ordered to return to the brigade commander, and he, having closed the wound under the jacket with an individual package, again scribbled from the machine gun. In that unequal battle, the entire headquarters of the 4th partisan brigade perished. Among the fallen was the young partisan Lenya Golikov. Six managed to reach the forest, two of them were seriously injured and could not move without outside help ... Only on January 31, near the village of Zhemchugovo, exhausted, frostbite, they met with scouts of the 8th Panfilov Guards Division.

For a long time, his mother Ekaterina Alekseevna did not know anything about the fate of Leni. The war had already moved far to the west, when one Sunday afternoon a rider in military uniform stopped near their hut. Mother stepped out onto the porch. The officer handed her a large package. The old woman accepted him with trembling hands and called her daughter Valya. In the package was a letter bound in crimson leather. Here lay an envelope, opening which Valya said quietly: - This is for you, mother, from Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin himself. With excitement, the mother took a bluish sheet of paper and read: “Dear Ekaterina Alekseevna! According to the command, your son Leonid Aleksandrovich Golikov died a heroic death for his Motherland. For the heroic feat accomplished by your son in the fight against the German invaders behind enemy lines, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by Decree of April 2, 1944, awarded him the highest degree of distinction - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. I am sending you a letter from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding your son the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to keep as a memory of his heroic son, whose feat will never be forgotten by our people. M. Kalinin. - “Here he turned out to be, my Lenyushka!” the mother said softly. And there were in these words both grief, and pain, and pride for the son ...

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

The youngest hero of the Soviet Union

Valya Kotik. A young reconnaissance partisan of the Great Patriotic War in the Karmelyuk detachment, which operated in the temporarily occupied territory; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. He was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenetz-Podolsk region of Ukraine, according to one information in the family of an employee, according to another - a peasant. From the education of only 5 classes of secondary school in the district center.

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

In October 1943, the young partisan reconnoitered the location of the underground telephone cable of the Nazi headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the undermining of six railway echelons and a warehouse. On October 29, 1943, while on duty, Valya noticed that the punishers had raided the detachment. Having killed a fascist officer with a pistol, he raised the alarm, and thanks to his actions, the partisans managed to prepare for battle.

On February 16, 1944, in the battle for the city of Izyaslav, Khmelnytsky region, a 14-year-old partisan scout was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the center of the park in the Ukrainian city of Shepetovka. For his heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1958, Kotik Valentin Aleksandrovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" of the 2nd degree. A motor ship, a number of secondary schools are named after him, there used to be pioneer squads and detachments named after Valya Kotik. Monuments were erected to him in Moscow and in his hometown in 1960. There is a street named after the young hero in Yekaterinburg, Kyiv and Kaliningrad.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Of all the young heroes, both living and dead, only Zoya was and remains known to most of the inhabitants of our country. Her name became a household name just like the names of other cult Soviet heroes, such as Nikolai Gastello and Alexander Matrosov.

And before, and now, if someone among us becomes aware of the feat that was then performed by a teenager or young man killed by enemies, they say about him: "like Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya."

... The surname Kosmodemyansky in the Tambov province was worn by many clergy. Before the grandfather of the young heroine, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, about whom our story will go, Pyotr Ivanovich, the rector of the temple in their native village, Osin Gai, was his uncle Vasily Ivanovich Kosmodemyansky, and before him his grandfather, great-grandfather and so on. Yes, and Peter Ivanovich himself was born in the family of a priest.

Pyotr Ivanovich Kosmodemyansky died a martyr's death, as did his granddaughter later: in the hungry and cruel year of 1918, on the night of August 26-27, communist bandits heated up by alcohol dragged the priest out of the house, in front of his wife and three younger children they beat him to a pulp, tied by the hands to the saddle, dragged through the village and thrown into the ponds. The body of Kosmodemyansky was discovered in the spring, and, according to the testimony of all the same eyewitnesses, “it was unspoiled and had a waxy color,” which in the Orthodox tradition is an indirect sign of the spiritual purity of the deceased. He was buried in a cemetery near the Church of the Sign, in which Peter Ivanovich served in recent years.

After the death of Peter Ivanovich, the Kosmodemyanskys remained in their original place for some time. The eldest son Anatoly left his studies in Tambov and returned to the village to help his mother with younger children. When they grew up, he married the daughter of a local clerk, Lyuba. On September 13, 1923, daughter Zoya was born, and two years later, son Alexander.

Immediately after the start of the war, Zoya signed up for volunteers, and she was assigned to a reconnaissance school. The school was located near the Moscow station Kuntsevo.

In mid-November 1941, the school received an order to burn the villages in which the Germans were quartered. Created two divisions, each with ten people. But on November 22, only three scouts turned up near the village of Petrishchevo - Kosmodemyanskaya, a certain Klubkov and the more experienced Boris Krainov.

It was decided that Zoya should set fire to the houses in the southern part of the village, where the Germans lodged; Klubkov - in the north, and the commander - in the center, where the German headquarters was located. After completing the task, everyone had to gather at the same place and only then return home. Krainov acted professionally, and his houses caught fire first, then those located in the southern part flared up, in the northern part they did not catch fire. Krainov waited for his comrades almost the whole next day, but they never returned. Later, after a while, Klubkov returned ...

When it became known about the capture and death of Zoya, after the liberation of the village, partially burned by scouts, by the Soviet army, the investigation showed that one of the group, Klubkov, turned out to be a traitor.

The transcript of his interrogation contains a detailed description of what happened to Zoya:

“When I approached the buildings that I was supposed to set fire to, I saw that the sections of Kosmodemyanskaya and Krainova were on fire. As I approached the house, I broke the Molotov cocktail and threw it away, but it did not catch fire. At this time, I saw two German sentries not far from me and decided to run away into the forest, located 300 meters from the village. As soon as I ran into the forest, two German soldiers fell on me and handed me over to a German officer. He pointed a revolver at me and demanded that I reveal who had come with me to set fire to the village. I said that there were only three of us, and named the names of Krainov and Kosmodemyanskaya. The officer immediately gave some order, and after some time they brought Zoya. She was asked how she set fire to the village. Kosmodemyanskaya replied that she did not set fire to the village. After that, the officer began to beat her and demanded evidence, she was silent, and then she was stripped naked and beaten with rubber sticks for 2-3 hours. But Kosmodemyanskaya said one thing: "Kill me, I won't tell you anything." She didn't even give her name. She insisted that her name was Tanya. Then they took her away, and I never saw her again.” Klubkov was tried and shot.

Lenya Golikov (1926-1943) , brigade reconnaissance officer of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade

In the summer of 1942, near the village of Varnitsa, Lenya Golikov blew up a car in which Major General of the German Engineering Troops Richard von Wirtz was driving. Lena managed to get documents about the offensive of the enemy army, thanks to which the German attack failed. For this feat, the boy was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Golikov died in the winter of 1943, when the Nazis attacked partisans near the village of Ostraya Luka.

Photo: yelena1234.livejournal.com

Alexander Matrosov (1924-1943) , submachine gunner of the 2nd separate battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade. Stalin

In the winter of 1943, the Matrosov battalion launched an attack on the German stronghold and fell into a trap. The soldiers were fired from three wooden-earth firing points (bunker), then the firing from two stopped. Alexander and his comrade crawled up to the firing bunker and threw two grenades in his direction, the shooting stopped. The soldiers went on the attack again, but then the machine gun came to life, and Matrosov's partner died. The young man rushed to the embrasure. Thanks to this, the Red Army soldiers were able to successfully attack the enemy, and Alexander Matrosov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

Zina Portnova (1926-1944), scout partisan detachment. Voroshilov in the territory occupied by the Nazis in Belarus

As a pioneer, in 1942 Portnova joined the underground organization Young Avengers, where she distributed anti-fascist leaflets in the lands occupied by the Germans. Soon she got a job in a canteen for the Germans. There she managed to arrange several sabotage. In 1943, the girl was captured by the Nazis - she was surrendered by defectors. Zina Portnova was tortured and interrogated, during one of which she grabbed a pistol from the table and killed three Germans. She was shot in prison.

Nikolai Gastello (1907-1941), pilot, captain, commander of the 2nd squadron of the 207th long-range bomber aviation regiment

In June 1941, the crew under the command of Nikolai Gastello flew out to attack a German mechanized column. It was guarded by enemy artillery, and Gastello's plane was shot down by the Nazis from an anti-aircraft gun between the cities of Molodechno and Radoshkovichi (Belarus). The pilot had the opportunity to eject, but he sent the burning plane to the enemy column, thus making the first fire ram in the Great Patriotic War. After the feat of Nikolai Gastello, all pilots who decided to ram began to be called Gastellites.

Alexey Maresiev (1916-2001), pilot

During the Great Patriotic War, Maresyev's plane was shot down by the Nazis, and the pilot ejected. Wounded in both legs, he spent eighteen days reaching the front line. He managed to get to the hospital, but the doctors had to amputate both legs of the fighter. Alexey Maresyev began to fly with prostheses. He has 11 downed enemy planes and more than 80 sorties, most of which he made without legs.

It was the life and exploits of Maresyev that formed the basis of Boris Polevoy's The Tale of a Real Man.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923-1941), partisan, member of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the headquarters of the Western Front

In October 1941, Zoya went to a school for saboteurs, and then was sent to Volokolamsk. Here she was engaged in mining roads and destroying communication centers. During one of these sabotage Kosmodemyanskaya was captured. The Nazis tortured her for a long time, but Zoya did not say a word to them, and they decided to hang the girl. Before her death, the partisan shouted to the assembled local residents: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it's too late, surrender!

She became the first female Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.

Photo: defense.ru

Efim Osipenko (1902-1985), guerrilla commander

When the war began, Yefim Osipenko became a partisan in a detachment of six people. Yefim and his comrades decided to blow up the German train. But since there was not enough ammunition, the bomb was made from a grenade. Osipenko crawled to the railway bridge, saw that the train was approaching, and threw an explosive device, but it did not work. Then the partisans hit the bomb with an iron pole, and it exploded. The train derailed, but Osipenko himself lost his sight. He became the first to be awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War."

Alexander German (1915-1943), commander of the 3rd Leningrad partisan brigade

During the war Alexander German from Petrograd was a scout. He commanded a partisan detachment behind enemy lines. His brigade managed to destroy thousands of Nazis and hundreds of pieces of military equipment. In 1943, in the Pskov region, Herman's detachment was surrounded, where he was killed.

Vladislav Khrustitsky (1902-1944), commander of the 30th separate guards tank brigade of the Leningrad Front

In 1942, Vladislav Khrustitsky became the commander of a separate light tank brigade, in which he participated in Operation Iskra, which marked the beginning of the path to victory over the Nazis on the Leningrad Front. In 1944, during a German counterattack near Volosovo, Khrustitsky's brigade fell into a trap. He radioed his fighters the command to stand to death, and was the first to go on the attack, as a result of which he died, and Volosovo was liberated.

Konstantin Zaslonov (1909-1942), commander of a partisan detachment and brigade. Before the war, Konstantin worked on the railroad. This experience was useful to him in the fall of 1941 near Moscow. He was thrown behind enemy lines and came up with "coal mines" - mines disguised as coal, and Zaslonov also agitated the local population to go over to the side of the partisans. A reward was announced for a living or dead partisan. Upon learning that Konstantin Zaslonov was accepting locals into a partisan detachment, the Germans changed into Soviet uniforms and came to him. During this battle, Zaslonov died, and the peasants hid his body without betraying it to the enemy.

Matvey Kuzmin (1858-1942), peasant

Matvey Kuzmin met the Great Patriotic War at an advanced age - 82 years. It so happened that he had to lead a detachment of fascists through the forest. However, Kuzmin sent his grandson forward to warn the Soviet partisans who had stopped nearby. As a result, the Germans were ambushed. In the battle that began, Matvey Kuzmin died. He became the oldest person to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Victor Talalikhin (1918-1941), deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment

At the end of the summer of 1941, Viktor Talalikhin rammed a German fighter, after which, wounded, he descended to the ground by parachute. In total, he has six enemy aircraft on his account. He died in the autumn of the same year near Podolsk.

And in 2014, the remains of Talalikhin's plane were found at the bottom of a swamp in the Moscow region.

Andrei Korzun (1911-1943), artilleryman of the 3rd counter-battery artillery corps of the Leningrad Front

From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Andrei Korzun served on the Leningrad front. In November 1943, Korzun's battery came under fire. Andrei was wounded, and then he saw that powder charges were burning, and an entire ammunition depot could explode. He crawled up to the blazing charges and with the last of his strength covered them with his body. The hero died, and the explosion was prevented.

Young Guard (1942-1943), an underground anti-fascist organization

"Young Guard" operated on the territory of the occupied Luhansk region. Its participants were more than a hundred people, the youngest of whom was only 14 years old. The organization was engaged in sabotage and agitation of the population. On the account of the "Young Guard" - an enemy tank repair shop and an exchange, from where the prisoners were taken to Germany for forced labor. The uprising, organized by the members of the group, did not take place because of the traitors who betrayed them to the Nazis. As a result, more than 70 participants were tortured and shot.

The exploits of the "Young Guard" inspired the creation of the work of the same name by Alexander Fadeev.

Panfilov, a detachment of 28 people under the command of Ivan Panfilov from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment

In the autumn of 1941, during the counterattack on Moscow, the Panfilovites were near Volokolamsk. It was there that they met the German tank troops, the battle began. As a result, 18 armored vehicles were eliminated, the attack was delayed, and the Nazi counteroffensive failed. It is believed that it was then that political instructor Vasily Klochkov shouted to his fighters the famous phrase “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!”. According to the main version, all 28 Panfilovites died.

According to matveychev-oleg.livejournal.com