About the pioneer hero Vale Kotik. Valya Kotik - Pioneer Hero

Valya Kotik is one of the pioneer heroes who matured early and, at the cost of his life, brought Victory closer in a cruel war.

Until recently, any schoolboy could tell his biography, he was an example for thousands of Soviet boys, they looked up to him and tried to be, like him, brave, fearless and truly love their homeland.

Vali Kotik's family

He was born in the Ukrainian village of Khmelevka in 1930. Parents were simple peasants. Mother worked on a collective farm, father was a carpenter. Brother Victor was a year older than him.

Soon the family moved to Shepetovka, where the future hero went to school, was accepted into the pioneers and finished 5 classes. At the end of the 5th grade, and he finished it with a commendable diploma, his father, who had returned home from the Finnish war by that time, gave the boy a bicycle.

But Valya did not really have time to travel around his “iron horse”, this summer his childhood ended, trouble came to his native land ... war.

From underground to scout

The Vali family, like hundreds of other families, did not have time to evacuate, and ended up in the occupied territory. The looting of the city, the destruction of people by the Nazis made the boy a real avenger. He put up leaflets and cartoons on his own, collected weapons and ammunition with friends.

Acquaintance with Muzalev Ivan Alekseevich became a fateful turn in his life path. Now he became an underground worker and carried out the instructions of the organization:

• Collection of weapons and ammo
• Gathering information about the location of enemy troops
• Counting fascist military equipment - tanks, guns
• He took a light machine gun into the forest (having dismantled it on his own)
• Escorted the escaped Polish prisoners of war to the partisans
• Mined the highway.

Since 1943, he became a scout for a partisan detachment and took a direct part in the battles.

The exploits of the pioneer hero

It was with the help of him that the telephone connection of the enemies with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw was severed. He was able to locate an underground cable, which was later safely blown up. Successful explosions of railway echelons, six warehouses, including a timber warehouse, an oil depot, a food warehouse.

Valya Kotik feat is immortal photo

Standing at the post, at the time of the attack of enemies, he managed to quickly raise the alarm, which saved his comrades.

Death February 11, 1944 (his birthday)

The Soviet Army completely drove the enemy out of Shepetovka. But the 14-year-old guy was not going to stop, their detachment was preparing to help the Red Army soldiers liberate the city of Izyaslav, which was located near his native Shepetovka. On February 16, the last attack for him began. In the battles for Izyaslav, the young scout was mortally wounded and died of his wounds the next day.

Young Hero Awards

For courage and numerous feats, he was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree; Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - posthumously. Valya Kotik will never become Valentin Alexandrovich, in the history of the country he will forever remain a mischievous, young and brave boy, whom friends and relatives lovingly called Valik.

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Patriotic stories. Children of war. Valya Kotik

Valya Kotik (or Valentin Alexandrovich Kotik) was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka (Ukraine) into a peasant family. By the beginning of the war, he had only moved to the sixth grade, but from the first days he began to fight the invaders. In the autumn of 1941, together with his comrades, he killed the head of the field gendarmerie near the city of Shepetovka, throwing a grenade at the car in which he was traveling. Since 1942, he took an active part in the partisan movement on the territory of Ukraine. At first he was a liaison of the Shepetovskaya underground organization, then he participated in the battles.

When the Germans occupied the Shepetovsky region, Valya Kotik was only 11 years old. The official biography says that he immediately took part in the collection of ammunition and weapons, which were then sent to the front. Together with friends, Valya collected weapons abandoned at the scene of clashes, which were transported to the partisans in hay carts. Also, the young hero independently made and pasted caricatures of the Nazis around the city.

In 1942, he was accepted into the ranks of the Shepetovskaya underground organization as a scout. Further, his military biography was replenished with participation in the exploits of a partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev (1943). In October of the same year, Valya Kotik accomplished his first high-profile feat - he managed to find an underground telephone cable at the headquarters of the German command, which was then safely blown up by partisans.

On the combat account of the courageous pioneer there are other feats - the successful blowing up of six warehouses and railway echelons, as well as numerous ambushes in which he took part. The duties of Valya Kotik also included obtaining information about the location of German posts and the procedure for changing their guard.

Another feat that saved the lives of many of his adult comrades was accomplished by the young hero on October 29, 1943. On that day, the guy was on duty, when suddenly he was attacked by the Nazi punishers. The boy managed to shoot the enemy officer, and thereby raise the alarm. This made it possible to prevent the partisans from being taken by surprise.

For his heroism, courage and repeated feats, pioneer Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the Order of Lenin, as well as the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 2nd degree.

On February 16, 1944, the 14-year-old hero was mortally wounded in the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav Kamenetz-Podolsky. He died the next day, February 17, and was buried in the central park of Shepetovka.

According to another version of the biography of Vali Kotik, from the direct participant in the battles for the city of Izyaslav, veteran of the Second World War Murashov, the boy was wounded at first non-lethally, in the shoulder. The narrator's brother (who was with him on a mission) dragged him to the nearby Gorin valley and bandaged him. On the second day, during the evacuation of the wounded to the partisan hospital in Strigany, the carts with the cart, on which Kotik was, were subjected to German bombardment. The young hero received mortal wounds, from which he died on the way.

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

In the Soviet years, every schoolchild knew about this brave pioneer and his exploits. The name of the courageous guy was called numerous streets, both in Russia and in Ukraine, pioneer squads, detachments and camps. A monument to Valya Kotik was erected in front of the school where he studied, another monument stood at VDNKh. One ship was also named after him.

The biography of the pioneer Valya Kotko formed the basis of a feature film about Valya Kotko, which was released in 1957 under the title "Eaglet". The film tells about the struggle of the young pioneer Vali with the fascist invaders who occupied his hometown. The boy helps his partisan detachment to spy on the enemy and get weapons. One day, being surrounded by the Nazis, the schoolboy performs a feat by blowing himself up with a grenade.

Valya Kotik

In the small Ukrainian village of Khmelevka, the Kotikov family once lived. Alexander Feodosievich was a carpenter, Anna Nikitichna worked on a collective farm. They had two sons - Vitya and Valya. Parents went to work in the morning, leaving the house and household to their sons. And at that time, in the summer of 1936, they were still boys - Vitya was eight. Valik went seventh. The guys grazed the heifer Musya in the meadow, swarmed in the garden or ran into the forest for berries and mushrooms. Sometimes Valik climbed into Uncle Afanasy's room. He was attracted here by a bookcase with books. Roller lay down on the floor, leafing through books, looking at photographs and drawings on agronomy.

When Uncle Athanasius found out about this, he brought him several children's books with colorful drawings from Shepetovka:

- It is for you. Don't touch mine!

Oh, and Valik was delighted with the gift!

Once Anna Nikitichna worked in the field. Suddenly he sees - Roller is walking, carrying a bundle in his hand.

- Roller, how are you so far away? Anna Nikitichna was alarmed. Why did Victor let you go?

- Mom, do not scold Vitya. I brought you food...

It turns out that the boys noticed that the mother did not take food with her. They thought she was hungry. Yes, they did not know that a field canteen was opened on the collective farm.

In the fall, Vitya was taken to first grade. Roller also asked to go to school.

- Grow up for now. Come next year! - answered the father.

Valik sobbed in resentment. Anna Nikitichna bought him notebooks and a pen - let him, they say, play school. And Valik "played" seriously. As soon as Vitya sat down for lessons, he sat down next to him. Vitya writes something - Valik looks into his notebook and writes the same thing in his. Vitya memorizes a rhyme - Valik listens and remembers it before him.

One winter Roller appeared on the threshold of the class. He tilted his forehead and looked at the teacher with lively brown eyes from under his brows. His high cheekbones and large ears burned with frost.

- Whose will you be? the teacher was surprised.

“That’s my brother,” Vitya answered. - Why did you come, Valik?

“I want to study,” Valik sniffled.

The teacher looked at his frail, chilled figure, smiled and allowed him to sit down at the desk.

Soon Valik became the best student and graduated from the first grade with a commendable diploma.

In the summer Kotiki moved to Shepetovka. Here the boys immediately made new friends - Kolya Trukhan and Styopa Kishchuk.

At school No. 4, where Anna Nikitichna brought her sons, they did not know what to do with Val and Kon. By age, Roller was not suitable for the first class, but he entered the second. And yet the director accepted him. And two years later, Valik was presented with a book by Nikolai Ostrovsky “How the Steel Was Tempered” for excellent studies. The book captured Valik. It turns out that Nikolai Ostrovsky is his countryman! The events described in the book took place here, in Shepetovka! Quiet, green Shepetivka has become even dearer and dearer to Valik.

On November 7, 1939, at a solemn gathering dedicated to the October Revolution, Valik was accepted as a pioneer. On the same day, Valik wrote to his father about this.

Alexander Feodosievich joined the Red Army in the summer, participated in the liberation of Western Ukraine, and then fought with the White Finns.

The cats were very worried about their father - he had not received letters for a long time. Is there anything that could have happened? Recently, the family of Valik's classmate Leni Kotenko received a funeral. Valik felt sorry for his friend. He suggested that the guys fold up and buy him new shoes. Lyonya was touched by the attention and kindness of his comrades.

Father returned unexpectedly, in May 1940.

A year later, when Valik graduated from the fifth grade with a diploma, his father gave him a bicycle. Wow, how Vitya, Kolya Trukhan and Styopa Kishchuk envied Valik! But Valik was not greedy, he allowed everyone to ride. Sometimes the guys in a crowd went to the forest or to the lakes to swim and go fishing.

... Valik had just left the house to ride a bicycle, when he immediately returned frightened and pale.

- What, or jumped on someone? the father asked.

- War! The Germans have attacked! Valik blurted out.

Alexander Feodosievich left to fight again.

The radio brought bad news. No matter how our fighters fought, the iron, fiery avalanche of fascist armies moved eastward, occupied one city after another. Through Shepetovka, a large railway station, refugees from captured cities and villages went east. Soon the evacuation of Shepetovka began.

Valik had a fluffy squirrel. He picked her up in the woods when she was very young. Sheltered, fed. The squirrel became attached to Valik, climbed into his bed or into his bosom. Now Valik decided to release the squirrel. In the forest, he noticed four policemen. They had a new uniform. Roller hid behind a tree. German speech reached him. Roller began to run at full speed. On the outskirts of the city, he met the Red Army.

- Uncle ... there ... the Germans! Run, I'll show you!

A gunfight broke out in the forest. One of the "policemen" was killed. The rest are connected. They turned out to be German saboteurs.

In the morning, the Kotikov family left Shepetovka. But they didn't get far. The Germans broke through and cut off the path to the east. I had to go back with other refugees.

Roller walked around the city, and tears choked him. The Germans burned the house-museum of Nikolai Ostrovsky, set up a camp for prisoners of war near the forest, turned the school into a stable, herded the Jews into the “ghetto” - a wire-enclosed area of ​​the city, forced them to clean the latrines, collect manure in hats.

Valik thought about Pavlik Korchagin from the book How the Steel Was Tempered, wanted to be like him. But what could Valik do alone? And there is no one to consult. Kolya and Styopa avoided him - he was still small. Vitya, as always, was silent. They went to work at a lumber mill. But Valik did not waste time in vain.

Sometimes Soviet planes flew over the city dropping leaflets. Roller collected them, then imperceptibly pasted them around the city.

A tenant, Stepan Didenko, has moved in with the Kotikovs. Valik hated him. I thought he was working for the Germans. Yes, he did not know that Didenko was not Didenko at all, but Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev, a former prisoner of war. The director of the sawmill, Ostap Andreyevich Gorbatyuk, helped him escape, got a fake passport and got him a job at a sugar factory. Gorbatyuk and Didenko created an underground organization in Shepetovka.

Vitya, Kolya and Styopa also became members of the underground. Didenko kept an eye on Valik and wanted him to help the underground. Yes, I was afraid. Firstly, Valik is only 12 years old, and secondly, he is too hot and direct - he does not know how to hide his hatred of the Nazis.

In the fall, the Nazis opened a school. The policeman forcibly rounded up the students. The guys were forced to pick berries, cones, medicinal herbs, cut firewood and memorize prayers for the speedy victory of Germany. Valik flatly refused to go to such a school. Once Didenko came late when Valik was sleeping. Didenko saw Valik's leaky boot and decided to fix it. There were leaflets in the shoe.

In the morning, Didenko asked Valik:

“So you stick them around the city?”

- Well, I! Valik answered defiantly.

- Still small ... You will disappear for nothing.

- Pavka Korchagin was also small! Valik growled.

From that day on, Valik began to fulfill the orders of the underground organization. Together with other guys, he collected ammunition and weapons at the site of recent battles, took them to a hiding place, clarified the location of German troops, their weapons and food depots, counted how many tanks and guns they had. A light machine gun was buried at the meat processing plant. Roller dug it up, took it apart, put it in a basket and transported it on a bicycle through the whole city to the forest. On another occasion, Valik was assigned to escort sixteen Polish prisoners of war who had escaped from the camp into the forest. There, in the forest, a teacher from the neighboring town of Strigan, Anton Zakharovich Odukha, was gathering a partisan detachment.

Cars and trucks of the Germans were constantly rushing along the Slavutskoe highway. On the advice of Didenko, the guys mined the highway. Their mines blew up several vehicles with soldiers and food, a tank of gasoline. But somehow a cart with a peasant ran over a mine. The horse was blown to pieces, and the peasant was thrown out by the blast wave onto the road.

Didenko ordered to stop mining. Then Valik suggested that his friends set up an ambush.

... For the third hour they have been sitting in the bushes by the road. But, unfortunately, nothing suitable. And suddenly Valik saw a car. She rushed from Shepetovka. She was followed by two trucks full of soldiers.

- Shall we? Valik asked.

- A lot of them ... Grab! Styopa hesitated.

“Lie down, lads, they will notice us,” Kolya said.

The guys lay down and watched the road from behind the bushes. Cars are getting closer and closer. Here are the faces. In the passenger car next to the driver ... So this is ...

- Ginger! Valik screamed.

The boys looked at each other in confusion. “How to be? asked their looks. “After all, this is the head of the Shepetovskaya gendarmerie, Lieutenant Fritz König!”

His name alone was terrifying. Unbelievable things were told about his cruelty. Miss this opportunity? The roller briskly crawled up to the road. “Just don’t miss, just don’t miss!” he repeated to himself. Now he has forgotten about everything in the world: both the fact that there are a lot of soldiers, and the fact that they can seize him ... The whole being of Valik was seized by an irresistible desire: to kill Koenig!

The car was moving at top speed. The paved roadbed flew towards. Koenig stared intently ahead of him. He hurried to the village, where the partisans were captured. Suddenly he noticed that three teenagers jumped out into the road. They threw something and quickly disappeared into the bushes.

Everything happened instantly: the brakes screeched, three blinding explosions rang out. Yellow circles swam before König's eyes, and everything went out...

Not having time to slow down, the truck ran into a mutilated, overturned passenger car and dragged it for several meters. The soldiers poured out onto the road and scribbled through the bushes...

The desperate sabotage of Vali and his cronies alarmed the Nazis. They grabbed all the suspicious, arrested several underground workers, but the underground continued to operate.

A group of underground workers, and with them Valik, attacked the food warehouse, disarmed the guards, loaded the car to the top with food, and set fire to the warehouse.

A week later, Didenko and Valik set fire to the tank farm. A little later, the lumberyard caught fire.

But soon, on the denunciation of a traitor, the Nazis attacked the trail of an underground organization. Gorbatyuk was arrested. The underground wanted to arrange an escape for him, but failed. Gorbatyuk died in the cell from torture.

It was dangerous to stay in Shepetovka. Didenko led the underground workers, their wives and children into the forest. This multi-day trip to the Belarusian Polesie was long and difficult, where the Odukhi camp was located in the village of Dubnitsky. From here, from the partisan airfield, all women and children were sent to the mainland. Valik refused to go. He was summoned by Oduha and the secretary of the underground regional committee Oleksenko.

- What is your name? Oleksenko asked.

- Kotik Valentin Alexandrovich!

- And how old are you?

- Fourteen ... coming soon.

- So ... Why don't you want to leave, Valentin Alexandrovich? Go learn. They'll manage without you. War, brother, is a man's business.

- Male! Valik frowned. She is universal!

Valya sniffed and ran his sleeve over his wet eyes. Oleksenko pressed Valik to his chest, kissed him warmly and said softly:

- Go, son!

A few days later, the partisan detachment of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev set off on a distant raid on Shepetovshchina. The youngest in the detachment was Valya Kotik.

The kind, attentive, caring Roller became a cruel, ruthless avenger. He captured "tongues", mined railways, blew up bridges.

Once, returning from reconnaissance, Valik noticed a telephone cable sticking out of the ground near the Tsvetokha station. The roller cut it and disguised it. And this was a direct wire connecting the Reich Minister of the Eastern Lands von Rosenberg with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw. The bastards couldn't talk!

Once the partisans stumbled upon a detachment of punishers. Roller lay down next to Muzalev and scribbled from a machine gun. Suddenly he noticed a soldier who was sneaking from behind the trees to Muzalev.

- Uncle Ivan! Behind! .. - Valya shouted and shielded Muzalev with himself.

He quickly turned around. Shots rang out at the same time. Valya grabbed his chest and fell. The German also collapsed. Valya groaned, opened his eyes, and quietly asked:

- Ivan Alekseevich ... Alive? .. - And he lost consciousness.

For several months, Valik lay in the forester's lodge, and when he recovered, he returned to the detachment again. For courage and courage, Valik was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree.

On February 11, 1944, Valik turned 14 years old. On this day, great joy awaited him: the Soviet Army liberated Shepetovka! Muzalev invited Valik to return home, but Valik refused - the detachment was to help the Soviet Army liberate the neighboring city of Izyaslav.

“Let’s take Izyaslav, then I’ll go,” said Roller.

But it happened differently.

At dawn on February 17, the partisans silently approached Izyaslav and lay down. Waiting for the attack to begin. The roller was lying on the snow, looking at the vague outlines of the city and thinking about Shepetovka. Today after the fight he will go home. Maybe mom is back? Oh, if only the day would come, such a long-awaited, such a happy day in his life!

A roar broke the silence: attack! The partisans broke into the city, chasing the retreating Nazis. Roller ran, stopped, fired. He felt hot, he threw off his earflaps.

They took over the armory. Muzalev ordered Valya and several other partisans to guard the trophies.

Roller stood at his post, listening to the noise of battle. Everything around was filled with the whistle of bullets, the howling of mines, the chirping of machine guns and machine guns. Somewhere very near, several bullets whistled, and Valik felt a blunt blow to his stomach. Legs immediately weakened. There was blood on the white camouflage robe. The roller leaned against the wall and began to slowly slide down.

The orderlies carefully laid him on the cart. Roller asked in a weakening voice:

“Pick me up… I want to see… I want to stand… Like this… good… how good… Tanks!.. Ours!..

The dead body of a boy hung on the hands of an orderly ...

... Valya Kotik was buried in the garden in front of the school where he studied. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR posthumously awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Monuments were erected in Shepetovsky Park and in Moscow, at VDNKh, Vale Kotik.

Valya Kotik will always live in the memory of people as a brave and courageous boy in a soldier's overcoat - the way he was in those distant years of the war.

The famous poet, Lenin Prize laureate Mikhail Svetlov dedicated poems to the young partisan:

We remember the recent battles,

They accomplished more than one feat.

He entered the family of our glorious heroes

A brave boy - Kotik Valentine.

He, as in life, boldly asserts:

“Youth is immortal, our cause is immortal!”

By a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, one of the ships of the Soviet fleet was named after Valya Kotik.

Valya Kotik is one of the teenage heroes who fought during the Great Patriotic War against the German invaders. Valentine glorified his name as a courageous defender of his land and a faithful son of the Motherland.

Valya Kotik biography briefly

Valentine came from a simple peasant family. He was born in the Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine. When the Germans occupied the Ukrainian land in 1941, Valya was a simple schoolboy. At that time the boy was eleven years old.

The young pioneer immediately took an ardent part in helping the Soviet front. Together with his classmates, Valya collected ammunition: grenades, rifles, pistols left on the battlefields and shipped all these weapons to the partisans.

Children hid weapons in haystacks and transported them quite freely, because it did not occur to the Germans that children were also partisan helpers.

In 1942, Valya was accepted into the ranks of the intelligence officers of the underground Soviet organization, in the next 1943 the boy became a full member of the partisan detachment. Valentin Kotik went through a long and difficult two and a half years of the war, he died from mortal wounds received in battle in February 1944.

Description of the exploits of Valentin Kotik

The hero Valentin Kotik was immediately remembered by his comrades for his courage and ingenuity. The boy accomplished his most famous feat in the fall of 1943: he discovered the secret radio line of the Germans, which they carefully concealed (later the partisans destroyed this line, leaving the Nazis without communication). Valentin participated in many partisan operations: he was a good demolition man, signalman and fighter. He went to reconnaissance, and once in 1943 he saved the entire detachment.

It happened in this way: Valentine was sent to reconnaissance, he noticed the Germans in time, who launched a punitive operation, shot one of the top commanders of this operation and made a fuss, thereby warning his comrades of the danger that threatened them. The story of the death of Valentin Kotik has two main versions. According to the first of them, he was mortally wounded in battle and died the next day. According to the second, the slightly wounded Valentin died during the German shelling of the evacuated Soviet soldiers. The young hero was buried in Shepetovka.

Posthumous glory

After the war, the name of Valentin Kotik became a household name. The boy was awarded orders and partisan medals. And in 1958 he was awarded the title of Hero. Pioneer detachments, streets, parks and squares were named after Valya Kotik. Monuments were erected to him throughout the Soviet Union. The most famous of all the monuments is a sculptural monument erected in 1960 in the center of Moscow.

Another monument is still located in the city of Simferopol on the Alley of Heroes, where there are sculptures of adults and children who heroically defended their homeland during the Great Patriotic War. Valentine's feat was glorified in the feature film about the war "Eaglet", in which the main character, a courageous young pioneer, blew himself up with a grenade so as not to be captured by the Nazis.

February 11, 1930 in Ukraine, in the village of Khmelevka, Kamenetz-Podolsk region, the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union was born into a peasant family

Times do not choose, says the well-known wisdom. Someone gets a childhood with pioneer camps and waste paper collection, someone with game consoles and social media accounts.

A military secret

The generation of children of the 1930s got a cruel and terrible war that took away relatives, friends, and childhood itself. And instead of children's toys, the most persistent and courageous took rifles and machine guns in their hands. They took it to take revenge on the enemy and fight for the Motherland.

War is not a child's business. But when she comes to your house, the usual ideas change dramatically.

In 1933 the writer Arkady Gaidar wrote "The Tale of the Military Secret, Malchish-Kibalchish and his firm word." This work by Gaidar, written eight years before the start of the Great Patriotic War, was destined to become a symbol of memory for all the young heroes who fell in the fight against the Nazi invaders.

Like all Soviet boys and girls, of course, I heard the tale of Malchish-Kibalchish. But he hardly thought that he would have to be in the place of the brave hero Gaidar.

Valya Kotik. Photo: Public Domain

He was born on February 11, 1930 in Ukraine, in the village of Khmelevka, Kamenetz-Podolsk region, into a peasant family.

Valya had the usual childhood of a boy of that time, with the usual pranks, secrets, sometimes bad grades. Everything changed in June 1941, when the war broke into the life of sixth grader Valya Kotik.

Desperate

The swift Nazi blitzkrieg of the summer of 1941, and now Valya, who by that time lived in the city of Shepetovka, was already in the occupied territory with his family.

The victorious power of the Wehrmacht inspired fear in many adults, but did not frighten Valya, who, together with his friends, decided to fight the Nazis. To begin with, they began to collect and stash weapons left at the battlefields that were in full swing around Shepetovka. Then they became bolder to the point that they began to steal machine guns from the gaping Nazis.

And in the fall of 1941, a desperate boy committed a real sabotage - setting up an ambush along the road, he blew up a car with the Nazis with a grenade, destroying several soldiers and the commander of a field gendarmerie detachment.

The underground learned about Vali's affairs. It was almost impossible to stop the desperate boy, and then he was attracted to underground work. He was instructed to collect information about the German garrison, put up leaflets, act as a messenger.

For the time being, the smart guy did not arouse suspicion among the Nazis. However, the more successful actions became on the account of the underground, the more attentively the Nazis began to look for their assistants among the local residents.

The young partisan saved the detachment from the punishers

In the summer of 1943, the threat of arrest loomed over Vali's family, and he, along with his mother and brother, went into the forest, becoming a fighter in the Karmelyuk partisan detachment.

The command tried to take care of the 13-year-old guy, but he was eager to fight. In addition, Valya showed himself to be a skilled scout and a person who is able to find a way out of the most difficult situation.

In October 1943, Valya, who was on partisan patrol, ran into punishers who were preparing to attack the base of the partisan detachment. The boy was tied up, but, having decided that he did not pose a threat and could not provide valuable intelligence, they left him under guard here, at the edge of the forest.

Valya himself was wounded, but managed to get to the forester's hut, who was helping the partisans. After recovery, he continued to fight in the detachment.

Valya participated in undermining six enemy echelons, destroying the strategic communications cable of the Nazis, as well as in a number of other successful actions, for which he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree".

Vali's last fight

On February 11, 1944, Valya turned 14 years old. The front was rapidly rolling to the West, and the partisans, as best they could, helped the regular army. Shepetovka, where Valya lived, had already been liberated, but the detachment moved on, preparing for its last operation - the assault on the city of Izyaslav.

After it, the detachment was to be disbanded, the adults were to join the regular units, and Valya was to return to school.

The battle for Izyaslav on February 16, 1944 turned out to be hot, but it was already ending in favor of the partisans, when Valya was seriously wounded by a stray bullet.

Soviet troops burst into the city to help the partisans. The wounded Valya was urgently sent to the rear, to the hospital. However, the wound turned out to be fatal - on February 17, 1944, Valya Kotik died.

Valya was buried in the village of Khorovets. At the request of his mother, the ashes of his son were transferred to the city of Shepetovka and reburied in the city park.

A large country that survived a terrible war could not immediately appreciate the feats of all those who fought for its freedom and independence. But over time, everything fell into place.

For the heroism shown 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.

In history, he never became Valentine, remaining just Valya. The youngest Hero of the Soviet Union.

His name, like the names of other pioneer heroes, whose exploits were told to Soviet schoolchildren of the post-war period, was subjected to defamation in the post-Soviet period.

But time puts everything in its place. A feat is a feat, and betrayal is a betrayal. Valya Kotik, in a difficult time of trial for the Motherland, turned out to be more courageous than many adults, who to this day are looking for excuses for their cowardice and cowardice. Eternal glory to him!