Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Alexander Matrosov

Submachine gunner of the 2nd Separate Battalion of the 91st Separate Siberian Volunteer Brigade named after Stalin.

Sasha Matrosov did not know his parents. He was brought up in an orphanage and a labor colony. When the war began, he was not even 20. Matrosov was drafted into the army in September 1942 and sent to an infantry school, and then to the front.

In February 1943, his battalion attacked the Nazi stronghold, but fell into a trap, falling under heavy fire, cutting off the path to the trenches. They fired from three bunkers. Two soon fell silent, but the third continued to shoot the Red Army soldiers who lay in the snow.

Seeing that the only chance to get out of the fire was to suppress the enemy's fire, Matrosov crawled to the bunker with a fellow soldier and threw two grenades in his direction. The gun was silent. The Red Army went on the attack, but the deadly weapon chirped again. Alexander's partner was killed, and Matrosov was left alone in front of the bunker. Something had to be done.

He didn't even have a few seconds to make a decision. Not wanting to let his comrades down, Alexander closed the embrasure of the bunker with his body. The attack was successful. And Matrosov posthumously received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Military pilot, commander of the 2nd squadron of the 207th long-range bomber aviation regiment, captain.

He worked as a mechanic, then in 1932 he was called up for service in the Red Army. He got into the air regiment, where he became a pilot. Nicholas Gastello participated in three wars. A year before the Great Patriotic War, he received the rank of captain.

On June 26, 1941, the crew under the command of Captain Gastello took off to attack a German mechanized column. It was on the road between the Belarusian cities of Molodechno and Radoshkovichi. But the column was well guarded by enemy artillery. A fight ensued. Aircraft Gastello was hit by anti-aircraft guns. The shell damaged the fuel tank, the car caught fire. The pilot could eject, but he decided to fulfill his military duty to the end. Nikolai Gastello sent a burning car directly to the enemy column. It was the first fire ram in the Great Patriotic War.

The name of the brave pilot has become a household name. Until the end of the war, all the aces who decided to go for a ram were called Gastellites. According to official statistics, almost six hundred enemy rams were made during the entire war.

Brigadier scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade.

Lena was 15 years old when the war began. He already worked at the factory, having finished the seven-year plan. When the Nazis captured his native Novgorod region, Lenya joined the partisans.

He was brave and determined, the command appreciated him. For several years spent in the partisan detachment, he participated in 27 operations. On his account, several destroyed bridges behind enemy lines, 78 destroyed Germans, 10 trains with ammunition.

It was he who, in the summer of 1942, near the village of Varnitsa, blew up a car in which the German Major General of the Engineering Troops, Richard von Wirtz, was located. Golikov managed to obtain important documents about the German offensive. The enemy attack was thwarted, and the young hero for this feat was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In the winter of 1943, a significantly superior enemy detachment unexpectedly attacked partisans near the village of Ostraya Luka. Lenya Golikov died like a real hero - in battle.

Pioneer. Scout of the partisan detachment named after Voroshilov in the territory occupied by the Nazis.

Zina was born and went to school in Leningrad. However, the war found her on the territory of Belarus, where she came for the holidays.

In 1942, 16-year-old Zina joined the underground organization Young Avengers. It distributed anti-fascist leaflets in the occupied territories. Then, under cover, she got a job working in a canteen for German officers, where she committed several acts of sabotage and only miraculously was not captured by the enemy. Her courage surprised many experienced soldiers.

In 1943, Zina Portnova joined the partisans and continued to engage in sabotage behind enemy lines. Due to the efforts of defectors who surrendered Zina to the Nazis, she was captured. In the dungeons, she was interrogated and tortured. But Zina was silent, not betraying her. At one of these interrogations, she grabbed a pistol from the table and shot three Nazis. After that, she was shot in prison.

Underground anti-fascist organization operating in the area of ​​modern Luhansk region. There were over a hundred people. The youngest participant was 14 years old.

This youth underground organization was formed immediately after the occupation of the Lugansk region. It included both regular military personnel, who were cut off from the main units, and local youth. Among the most famous participants: Oleg Koshevoy, Ulyana Gromova, Lyubov Shevtsova, Vasily Levashov, Sergey Tyulenin and many other young people.

The "Young Guard" issued leaflets and committed sabotage against the Nazis. Once they managed to disable an entire tank repair shop, burn down the stock exchange, from where the Nazis drove people to forced labor in Germany. The members of the organization planned to stage an uprising, but were exposed because of the traitors. The Nazis caught, tortured and shot more than seventy people. Their feat is immortalized in one of the most famous military books by Alexander Fadeev and the film adaptation of the same name.

28 people from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment.

In November 1941, a counteroffensive against Moscow began. The enemy did not stop at nothing, making a decisive forced march before the onset of a harsh winter.

At this time, the fighters under the command of Ivan Panfilov took up a position on the highway seven kilometers from Volokolamsk, a small town near Moscow. There they gave battle to the advancing tank units. The battle lasted four hours. During this time, they destroyed 18 armored vehicles, delaying the enemy's attack and frustrating his plans. All 28 people (or almost all, here the opinions of historians differ) died.

According to legend, the political instructor of the company, Vasily Klochkov, before the decisive stage of the battle, turned to the fighters with a phrase that became known throughout the country: “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!”

The Nazi counteroffensive ultimately failed. The battle for Moscow, which was assigned the most important role during the war, was lost by the occupiers.

As a child, the future hero suffered from rheumatism, and the doctors doubted that Maresyev would be able to fly. However, he stubbornly applied to the flight school until he was finally enrolled. Maresyev was drafted into the army in 1937.

He met the Great Patriotic War at the flight school, but soon got to the front. During a sortie, his plane was shot down, and Maresyev himself was able to eject. Eighteen days, seriously wounded in both legs, he got out of the encirclement. However, he still managed to overcome the front line and ended up in the hospital. But gangrene had already begun, and the doctors amputated both of his legs.

For many, this would mean the end of the service, but the pilot did not give up and returned to aviation. Until the end of the war, he flew with prostheses. Over the years, he made 86 sorties and shot down 11 enemy aircraft. And 7 - already after amputation. In 1944, Alexei Maresyev went to work as an inspector and lived to be 84 years old.

His fate inspired the writer Boris Polevoy to write The Tale of a Real Man.

Deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment.

Victor Talalikhin began to fight already in the Soviet-Finnish war. He shot down 4 enemy planes on a biplane. Then he served in the aviation school.

In August 1941, one of the first Soviet pilots made a ram, shooting down a German bomber in a night air battle. Moreover, the wounded pilot was able to get out of the cockpit and descend by parachute to the rear of his own.

Talalikhin then shot down five more German planes. Killed during another air battle near Podolsk in October 1941.

After 73 years, in 2014, search engines found Talalikhin's plane, which remained in the swamps near Moscow.

Artilleryman of the 3rd counter-battery artillery corps of the Leningrad Front.

Soldier Andrei Korzun was drafted into the army at the very beginning of World War II. He served on the Leningrad front, where there were fierce and bloody battles.

November 5, 1943, during the next battle, his battery came under fierce enemy fire. Korzun was seriously wounded. Despite the terrible pain, he saw that the powder charges were set on fire and the ammunition depot could fly into the air. Gathering the last of his strength, Andrey crawled to the blazing fire. But he could no longer take off his overcoat to cover the fire. Losing consciousness, he made a last effort and covered the fire with his body. The explosion was avoided at the cost of the life of a brave gunner.

Commander of the 3rd Leningrad Partisan Brigade.

A native of Petrograd, Alexander German, according to some sources, was a native of Germany. He served in the army from 1933. When the war began, he became a scout. He worked behind enemy lines, commanded a partisan detachment, which terrified the enemy soldiers. His brigade destroyed several thousand fascist soldiers and officers, derailed hundreds of trains and blew up hundreds of vehicles.

The Nazis staged a real hunt for Herman. In 1943, his partisan detachment was surrounded in the Pskov region. Making his way to his own, the brave commander died from an enemy bullet.

Commander of the 30th Separate Guards Tank Brigade of the Leningrad Front

Vladislav Khrustitsky was drafted into the Red Army back in the 1920s. In the late 30s he graduated from armored courses. Since the autumn of 1942, he commanded the 61st separate light tank brigade.

He distinguished himself during Operation Iskra, which marked the beginning of the defeat of the Germans on the Leningrad front.

He died in the battle near Volosovo. In 1944, the enemy retreated from Leningrad, but from time to time made attempts to counterattack. During one of these counterattacks, Khrustitsky's tank brigade fell into a trap.

Despite heavy fire, the commander ordered to continue the offensive. He turned on the radio to his crews with the words: "Stand to the death!" - and went forward first. Unfortunately, the brave tanker died in this battle. And yet the village of Volosovo was liberated from the enemy.

Commander of a partisan detachment and brigade.

Before the war, he worked on the railroad. In October 1941, when the Germans were already standing near Moscow, he himself volunteered for a difficult operation, in which his railway experience was needed. Was thrown behind enemy lines. There he came up with the so-called "coal mines" (in fact, these are just mines disguised as coal). With the help of this simple but effective weapon, a hundred enemy trains were blown up in three months.

Zaslonov actively agitated the local population to go over to the side of the partisans. The Nazis, having learned this, dressed their soldiers in Soviet uniforms. Zaslonov mistook them for defectors and ordered them to be allowed into the partisan detachment. The path to the insidious enemy was open. A battle ensued, during which Zaslonov died. A reward was announced for living or dead Zaslonov, but the peasants hid his body, and the Germans did not get it.

The commander of a small partisan detachment.

Yefim Osipenko fought back in the Civil War. Therefore, when the enemy seized his land, without thinking twice, he joined the partisans. Together with five other comrades, he organized a small partisan detachment that committed sabotage against the Nazis.

During one of the operations, it was decided to undermine the enemy composition. But there was little ammunition in the detachment. The bomb was made from an ordinary grenade. The explosives were to be installed by Osipenko himself. He crawled to the railway bridge and, seeing the approach of the train, threw it in front of the train. There was no explosion. Then the partisan himself hit the grenade with a pole from the railway sign. It worked! A long train with food and tanks went downhill. The squad leader survived, but lost his sight completely.

For this feat, he was the first in the country to be awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War."

The peasant Matvey Kuzmin was born three years before the abolition of serfdom. And he died, becoming the oldest holder of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

His story contains many references to the history of another famous peasant - Ivan Susanin. Matvey also had to lead the invaders through the forest and swamps. And, like the legendary hero, he decided to stop the enemy at the cost of his life. He sent his grandson ahead to warn a detachment of partisans who had stopped nearby. The Nazis were ambushed. A fight ensued. Matvey Kuzmin died at the hands of a German officer. But he did his job. He was in his 84th year.

A partisan who was part of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the headquarters of the Western Front.

While studying at school, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya wanted to enter a literary institute. But these plans were not destined to come true - the war prevented. In October 1941, Zoya, as a volunteer, came to the recruiting station and, after a short training at a school for saboteurs, was transferred to Volokolamsk. There, an 18-year-old partisan fighter, along with adult men, performed dangerous tasks: she mined roads and destroyed communication centers.

During one of the sabotage operations, Kosmodemyanskaya was caught by the Germans. She was tortured, forcing her to betray her own. Zoya heroically endured all the trials without saying a word to the enemies. Seeing that it was impossible to get anything from the young partisan, they decided to hang her.

Kosmodemyanskaya steadfastly accepted the test. A moment before her death, she shouted to the assembled local residents: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it's too late, surrender!" The courage of the girl so shocked the peasants that they later retold this story to front-line correspondents. And after the publication in the Pravda newspaper, the whole country learned about the feat of Kosmodemyanskaya. She became the first woman to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.

What exploits of the Great Patriotic War do we know about? Alexander Matrosov, who closed the embrasure; Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was tortured by the Nazis; pilot Alexei Maresyev, who lost both legs, but continued to fight ... It is unlikely that anyone will be able to remember the names of other heroes. Meanwhile, there are a lot of people who have done the impossible to protect their homeland. The streets of our cities are named after them, and we do not even know who they are and what they have done. The editors decided to correct this situation - we invite you to learn about the 10 most incredible feats of the Great Patriotic War.

Nicholas Gastello

Nicholas Gastello

Nikolai Gastello was a military pilot, captain, commander of the 2nd squadron of the 207th long-range bomber aviation regiment. Before the Great Patriotic War, Gastello worked as a simple mechanic. He went through three wars, a year before the Second World War he received the rank of captain.

On June 26, 1941, the crew, commanded by Nikolai Gastello, flew out in order to hit a German mechanized column located between the Belarusian cities of Molodechno and Radoshkovichi. During the operation, Gastello's plane was hit by an anti-aircraft gun - the plane caught fire. Nikolai could have ejected, but instead he directed the burning plane at the German column. Before that, during the entire period of the Second World War, no one had done this, therefore, after the feat accomplished by Gastello, all the pilots who dared to ram were called Gastellites.

Lenya Golikov

Lenya Golikov

Lenya Golikov during the Great Patriotic War was in the Leningrad partisan brigade as a brigade scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th. When the Second World War began, he was 15 years old, he joined the partisan detachment when the Germans captured his native Novgorod region. During his stay in the partisan brigade, he managed to take part in twenty-seven operations, destroy several bridges behind enemy lines, destroy ten trains carrying ammunition, and kill more than seventy Germans.

In the summer of 1942, near the village of Varnitsa, Lenya Golikov blew up a car in which the German major general of engineering troops, Richard von Wirtz, was driving. As a result of this operation, Golikov was able to obtain important documents that spoke of the German offensive. This made it possible to thwart the impending German attack. For this feat, Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He died in battle in the winter of 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka, he was 16 years old.

Zina Portnova

Zina Portnova

Zina Portnova was a scout of the Voroshilov partisan detachment, which operated in the territory occupied by the Germans. When the war began, Zina was in Belarus on vacation. In 1942, at the age of 16, she joined the underground organization "Young Avengers", where at first she was engaged in distributing anti-fascist leaflets in the territories occupied by the Germans. Then Zina got a job in the canteen for German officers. There, she committed a series of sabotage, the Germans did not capture her only by a miracle.

In 1943, Zina joined a partisan detachment, where she continued to engage in sabotage behind enemy lines. But soon, thanks to reports from traitors who sided with the Germans, Zina was captured, where she was subjected to severe torture. However, the enemies underestimated the young girl - the torture did not force her to betray her own, and during one of the interrogations, Zina managed to grab a gun and kill three Germans. Soon after this, Zina Portnova was shot, she was 17 years old.

Young guard

Young guard

This was the name of an underground anti-fascist organization that operated in the area of ​​the modern Luhansk region. The "Young Guard" included more than a hundred participants, the youngest of whom was only fourteen years old. The most famous members of the Young Guard are Oleg Koshevoy, Ulyana Gromova, Lyubov Shevtsova, Vasily Levashov, Sergey Tyulenin and others.

Members of this underground organization issued and distributed leaflets in the German-occupied territory, and also committed acts of sabotage. As a result of one of the sabotage, they were able to disable an entire repair shop in which the Germans repaired tanks. They also managed to burn down the stock exchange, from where the Germans drove people to Germany.

The traitors handed over the members of the Young Guard to the Germans just before the planned uprising. More than 70 members of the organization were taken prisoner, tortured and then shot.

Viktor Talalikhin

Viktor Talalikhin

Victor Talalikhin was the deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment. Talalikhin took part in the Soviet-Finnish war, during which he managed to destroy four enemy aircraft. After the war, he went to serve in an aviation school. During the Second World War, in August 1941, he shot down a German bomber, going to ram him, and survived, getting out of the cockpit and parachuting down to the rear of his own.

After that, Viktor Talalikhin managed to destroy five more fascist aircraft. However, already in October 1914, the hero died while participating in another air battle near Podolsk. In 2014, the plane of Viktor Talalikhin was found in the swamps near Moscow.

Andrey Korzun

Andrey Korzun

Andrey Korzun was an artilleryman of the 3rd counter-battery artillery corps of the Leningrad Front. Korzun was drafted into the army at the very beginning of the Second World War. His battery came under heavy enemy fire on November 5, 1943. In this battle, Andrei Korzun was seriously wounded. Seeing that the powder charges were set on fire, due to which the ammunition depot could fly into the air, Korzun, experiencing severe pain, crawled towards the burning powder charges. He no longer had the strength to take off his overcoat and cover the fire with it, so he, losing consciousness, covered it with himself. As a result of this feat of Korzun, the explosion did not occur.

Alexander German

Alexander German

Alexander German was the commander of the 3rd Leningrad partisan brigade. Alexander served in the army since 1933, and when the Great Patriotic War began, he joined the scouts. Then he began to command a partisan brigade, which managed to destroy several hundred trains and cars, kill thousands of German soldiers and officers. The Germans tried for a long time to reach the partisan detachment of German, and in 1943 they succeeded: in the territory of the Pskov region, the detachment was surrounded, and Alexander German was killed.

Vladislav Khrustitsky

Vladislav Khrustitsky

Vladislav Khrustitsky was the commander of the 30th Separate Guards Tank Brigade on the Leningrad Front. Vladislav served in the army from the 1920s, at the end of the 30s he graduated from armored courses, and in the fall of 1942 he began to command the 61st separate light tank brigade. Vladislav Khrustitsky distinguished himself during Operation Iskra, which gave impetus to the future defeat of the Nazis on the Leningrad front.

In 1944, the Germans were already retreating from Leningrad, but the tank brigade of Vladislav Khrustitsky fell into a trap near Volosovo. Despite fierce fire from the enemy, Khrustitsky radioed the order "Stand to the death!", After which he was the first to go forward. In this battle, Vladislav Khrustitsky died, and the village of Volosovo was liberated from the Nazis.

Yefim Osipenko

Yefim Osipenko

Yefim Osipenko was the commander of a partisan detachment that he organized with several of his comrades immediately after the seizure of his land by the Germans. Osipenko's detachment committed anti-fascist sabotage. During one of these diversions, Osipenko had to throw an explosive made from a grenade under a German train, which he did. However, there was no explosion. Without hesitation, Osipenko found a railway sign, and hit a grenade with a stick attached to it. It exploded, the train with food and tanks for the Germans went downhill. The hero survived, but lost his sight. For this operation, Yefim Osipenko received the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War", this was the first award of such a medal.

Matvey Kuzmin

Matvey Kuzmin

Matvey Kuzmin became the oldest participant in the Second World War, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but, alas, posthumously. He was 83 years old when the Germans took him prisoner and demanded to lead them through the forest and swamps. Matvey sent his grandson ahead to warn the partisan detachment that was next to them about the approaching Germans. thus the Germans were ambushed and defeated. During the battle, Matvey Kuzmin was killed by a German officer.

The heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and their exploits are briefly described in many articles and books dedicated to that era. Quite a lot about it filmed and a variety of films. However, the meager information presented in this way cannot fully tell how big a role they played in the overall victory over fascism. But the contribution of each hero individually was simply colossal and was inherently unique. In this article, the given facts are also listed very concisely, but this does not detract from their significance in the historical aspect!

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and their exploits, briefly:

The famous feat of Matrosov was admired and applauded by virtually the whole country. His name has always figured among the most famous heroes of the USSR of that time.

After all, it was hard to imagine that this brave man would be able to take an extraordinary step at a critical moment in the battle, connected with covering the embrasure with his own body, from which the German gun fired. In fact, by this action of his, Matrosov allowed his comrades-in-arms to successfully complete the attack on German positions, but at the same time lost his own life.

In 1941, the Nazis dominated the skies, so in that period it was extremely difficult for Soviet pilots to compete with them. But, even despite this, on June 26, the crew, led by Captain Gastello, flew out on a combat mission. The purpose of this sortie was to destroy the enemy mechanized column.

However, the Nazis reliably guarded their unit and as soon as they noticed the aircraft of the enemy side, they opened heavy fire on them from anti-aircraft guns. As a result of this shelling, Gastello's aircraft was damaged - the fuel tank caught fire. Of course, even in this situation, the pilot could jump out of the parachute and land safely. However, he chose a completely different path - he sent the burning plane directly to the accumulation of German equipment.

Viktor Talalikhin

He made his first ram in August 1941, when he damaged a German bomber, but at the same time he himself managed to jump out of the plane on a parachute and thus save his life.

In the future, Victor managed to destroy 5 more German aircraft, but in October of the same year, not far from Podolsk, during the next air battle, the hero died.

He was the commander of a partisan detachment, which became a real hell for the Nazis. The partisans, led by German, were able to destroy a lot of military equipment and manpower of the opponent, derailed entire trains and smashed the German military dispositions. But in 1943, in the Pskov region, the detachment was surrounded.

And even being in such a difficult situation, Herman did not lose his temper, but ordered his fighters to break through the German positions. The guerrillas fought desperately against the superior forces of the enemy. In one of the battles, Alexander German received a mortal bullet wound, but the feat of his militia will live forever!

Khrustitsky successfully led a tank brigade and distinguished himself during Operation Iskra, which was carried out on the Leningrad Front. Thanks to this success, the German grouping in this area was subsequently completely eliminated. Fatal for Vladislav was the battle near Volosovo, which took place in 1944.

Once surrounded, Khrustitsky ordered his tank unit to counterattack the enemy troops via radio communication, after which his car was the first to go into open battle. As a result of a bloody battle, the village of Volosovo was liberated from the Nazis, but the brave commander fell in this exhausting battle.

In the Lugansk region, an underground youth organization successfully opposed the fascist regime, which included about 100 young people. The youngest member of this group was only 14 years old. Basically, this included young activists and Soviet soldiers cut off from the main units. The most famous members of the Young Guard militia were Sergey Tyulenin, Ulyana Gromova, Oleg Koshevoy, Vasily Levashov. The main activity of this organization was to distribute anti-fascist leaflets among the local population.

Massive damage to the Germans was caused when a workshop was burned down by young underground workers, in which damaged German tanks were being restored. Also, the members of the "Young Guard" managed to eliminate the exchange of invaders, from which people were massively sent to Germany for forced labor. In the future, this group planned a large-scale uprising against the Nazis, but their plans were revealed because of the traitors. The Nazis shot about 70 people, but the memory of their brave deed will live forever!

Kosmodemyanskaya was part of the Western Front and her main activity was to organize sabotage actions aimed at destroying the occupying troops. In 1941, during the next assignment, Zoya was caught by the Germans, then she was tortured for a long time in the hope of getting information from her about other members of the group. However, the 18-year-old girl steadfastly endured all the trials, without saying a single superfluous word to the Nazis regarding her sabotage activities.

Resigned to this fact, the Nazis hanged Kosmodemyanskaya. However, even before her death, Zoya, seeing that peaceful local residents came to see her execution, shouted parting words to them that the enemy would still be defeated and sooner or later retribution for the Nazis would come!

Matvey Kuzmin

It just so happened that, by the will of fate, Matvey Kuzmin accomplished a feat very similar to the well-known story about Ivan Susanin. He also had to lead a unit of invaders through the forest area. After assessing the situation, first Matvey sent his grandson ahead of him, who was supposed to notify the partisans that the enemy was approaching.

Thanks to this prudent action, the Nazis were actually trapped and a terrible mortal battle ensued. As a result of the skirmish, Kuzmin was killed by a German officer, but the feat of this elderly man, who was already 84 years old at that moment, will remain in the memory of people forever!

Osipenko led a small partisan detachment. Together with his comrades, he organized various sabotage and during one of them he had to undermine the enemy's train. To achieve this goal, Yefim Osipenko crawled under the railway bridge and threw homemade explosives under the train itself.

Initially, the explosion did not follow, but the hero was not at a loss, and managed to hit the grenade with a pole from the railway sign, after which it detonated, and the long train went downhill. Yefim miraculously survived in this situation, but completely lost consciousness from the blast wave.

In 1942, Zina Portnova handed out leaflets with anti-fascist slogans, and later, having got a job in a German canteen, she was able to commit several acts of sabotage there. Since 1943, the brave girl went to the partisan detachment, where she also continued to engage in sabotage activities against the invaders. However, the defectors surrendered Zina to the enemy, after which she was subjected to terrible torture at the hands of the Nazis, but did not submit to them.

During one of the interrogations, the girl noticed that a loaded pistol was lying on the table. Without hesitation, she grabbed a weapon and shot her three tormentors right on the spot. Realizing that her fate was already a foregone conclusion, Zina Portnova steadfastly met death in prison, where she was shot by the Nazis.

Of course, each of these feats is thoroughly imbued with the courage and fortitude of the fighters against the occupation regime of Nazi Germany. On these stories in the Soviet Union, a sense of patriotism was brought up among young people. The heroes of the Great Patriotic War were always proud and wanted to be equal to them. Children were told about them in schools in the classroom and even in kindergartens.

The heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and their exploits are briefly described in this article. The memory of those bloody events and that inexhaustible heroism that reigned in the Soviet people will live forever, since one can only admire their exploits! Even future generations, having read a book about the war or watched a movie that tells about those distant events, will be amazed at the fortitude of the spirit of their legendary ancestors! Thematic Video:

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and their exploits

The battles have long died down. The veterans leave one by one. But the heroes of the Second World War of 1941-1945 and their exploits will forever remain in the memory of grateful descendants. This article will tell about the brightest personalities of those years and their immortal deeds. Some were still quite young, while others were no longer young. Each of the characters has its own character and its own destiny. But all of them were united by love for the Motherland and a willingness to sacrifice themselves for its good.

Alexander Matrosov

Orphanage pupil Sasha Matrosov went to war at the age of 18. Immediately after the infantry school, he was sent to the front. February 1943 turned out to be "hot". Alexander's battalion went on the attack, and at some point the guy, along with several comrades, was surrounded. It was not possible to break through to our own - enemy machine guns fired too densely.

Soon Matrosov was left alone. His comrades perished under the bullets. The young man had only a few seconds to make a decision. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the last in his life. Wanting to bring at least some benefit to his native battalion, Alexander Matrosov rushed to the embrasure, covering it with his body. The fire is silent. The attack of the Red Army was ultimately successful - the Nazis retreated. And Sasha went to heaven as a young and handsome 19-year-old guy ...

Marat Kazei

When the Great Patriotic War began, Marat Kazei was only twelve. He lived in the village of Stankovo ​​with his sister and parents. In the 41st he was in occupation. Marat's mother helped the partisans, providing them with her shelter and feeding them. Once the Germans found out about this and shot the woman. Left alone, the children, without hesitation, went to the forest and joined the partisans.

Marat, who had completed only four classes before the war, helped his senior comrades as much as he could. He was even taken on reconnaissance; and he also participated in undermining the German trains. In the 43rd, the boy was awarded the medal "For Courage", for the heroism shown during the breakthrough of the encirclement. The boy was wounded in that terrible battle.

And in 1944, Kazei was returning from intelligence with an adult partisan. They were noticed by the Germans and began to fire. The older comrade died. Marat fired back to the last bullet. And when he had only one grenade left, the teenager let the Germans get closer and blew himself up along with them. He was 15 years old.

Alexey Maresyev

The name of this man is known to every inhabitant of the former Soviet Union. After all, we are talking about a legendary pilot. Alexei Maresyev was born in 1916 and dreamed of the sky since childhood. Even the transferred rheumatism did not become an obstacle on the way to the dream. Despite the prohibitions of doctors, Alexei entered the flight - they took him after several futile attempts.

In 1941, the stubborn young man went to the front. The sky was not what he dreamed of. But it was necessary to defend the Motherland, and Maresyev did everything for this. Once his plane was shot down. Wounded in both legs, Aleksey managed to land the car on the territory occupied by the Germans and even somehow get through to his own.

But time has been lost. The legs were "devoured" by gangrene, and they had to be amputated. Where to go to a soldier without both limbs? After all, she was completely crippled ... But Alexei Maresyev was not one of those. He remained in the ranks and continued to fight the enemy.

As many as 86 times the winged car with the hero on board managed to take to the skies. Maresyev shot down 11 German planes. The pilot was lucky to survive that terrible war and feel the heady taste of victory. He died in 2001. "The Tale of a Real Man" by Boris Polevoy is a work about him. It was the feat of Maresyev that inspired the author to write it.

Zinaida Portnova

Born in 1926, Zina Portnova met the war as a teenager. At that time, a native resident of Leningrad was visiting relatives in Belarus. Once in the occupied territory, she did not sit on the sidelines, but joined the partisan movement. Pasted leaflets, established contact with the underground ...

In 1943, the Germans grabbed the girl and dragged her to their lair. During the interrogation, Zina somehow managed to take a pistol from the table. She shot her tormentors - two soldiers and an investigator.

It was a heroic act that made the attitude of the Germans towards Zina even more brutal. It is impossible to convey in words the torment that the girl experienced during the terrible torture. But she was silent. Not a word could be squeezed out by the Nazis from her. As a result, the Germans shot their captive without getting anything from the heroine Zina Portnova.

Andrey Korzun

Andrei Korzun turned thirty in 1941. He was immediately called to the front, sent to the artillerymen. Korzun took part in the terrible battles near Leningrad, during one of which he was seriously wounded. It was November 5, 1943.

As he fell, Korzun noticed that the ammunition depot was on fire. It was necessary to urgently put out the fire, otherwise an explosion of enormous force threatened to take many lives. Somehow, bleeding and in pain, the gunner crawled to the warehouse. The artilleryman did not have the strength to take off his overcoat and throw it on the flame. Then he covered the fire with his body. The explosion didn't happen. Andrei Korzun failed to survive.

Leonid Golikov

Another young hero is Lenya Golikov. Born in 1926. Lived in the Novgorod region. With the outbreak of war, he left to partisan. The courage and determination of this teenager was not to take. Leonid destroyed 78 fascists, a dozen enemy trains and even a couple of bridges.

The explosion that went down in history and claimed the German General Richard von Wirtz was his doing. The car of an important rank flew into the air, and Golikov took possession of valuable documents, for which he received the star of the Hero.

A brave partisan died in 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka during a German attack. The enemy significantly outnumbered our fighters in number, and they had no chance. Golikov fought until his last breath.

These are just six of the great many stories that permeated the entire war. Everyone who passed it, who even for a moment brought victory closer, is already a hero. Thanks to such as Maresyev, Golikov, Korzun, Matrosov, Kazei, Portnova and millions of other Soviet soldiers, the world got rid of the brown plague of the 20th century. And the reward for their deeds was eternal life!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Petya Zub. Petya Zub chose a no less difficult specialty. He had long ago decided to become a scout. His parents were killed, and he knows how to pay off the accursed German. Together with experienced scouts, he gets to the enemy, reports his location on the radio, and the artillery fires at their orders, crushing the Nazis.

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

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

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

Children of the Great Patriotic War

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

The guys worked for days at factories, factories and industries, standing behind the machines instead of the brothers and fathers who had gone to the front. Children also worked at defense enterprises: they made fuses for mines, fuses for hand grenades, smoke bombs, colored signal flares, and collected gas masks. They worked in agriculture, grew vegetables for hospitals.

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

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

At the same time, the children themselves were forced to store firewood for boiler houses. There were no textbooks, and because of the lack of paper, they wrote on old newspapers between the lines. Nevertheless, new schools were opened and additional classes were created. Boarding schools were created for evacuated children. For those young people who left school at the beginning of the war and were employed in industry or agriculture, schools for working and rural youth were organized in 1943.

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

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

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

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

Most of the kindergartens during the war became boarding schools, the children were there day and night. And in order to feed the children in the half-starved time, to protect them from the cold, to give them at least a modicum of comfort, to keep them occupied for the benefit of the mind and soul - such work required great love for children, deep decency and boundless patience. "(D. Shevarov " World of News”, No. 27, 2010, p. 27).

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

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

In connection with the death of parents, many homeless children appeared in the country. The Soviet state, despite the difficult wartime, still fulfilled its obligations to children left without parents. To combat neglect, a network of children's reception centers and orphanages was organized and opened, and employment for adolescents was organized.

Many families of Soviet citizens began to take in orphans to raisewhere they found new parents. Unfortunately, not all educators and heads of children's institutions were distinguished by honesty and decency. Here are some examples.

“In the autumn of 1942, in the Pochinkovsky district of the Gorky region, children dressed in rags were caught stealing potatoes and grain from collective farm fields. investigations, local police officers uncovered a criminal group, and, in fact, a gang consisting of employees of this institution.

In total, seven people were arrested in the case, including the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev, the accountant Sdobnov, the storekeeper Mukhina and others. During the searches, 14 children's coats, seven suits, 30 meters of cloth, 350 meters of manufactory and other misappropriated property, allocated by the state with great difficulty during this harsh wartime, were seized from them.

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

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

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

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

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