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

Children left in the destroyed cities and villages became homeless, doomed to death by starvation. It was terrible and difficult to remain 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 deserved military orders and medals, and four: Marat Kazei, Valya Kotik, Zina Portnova, Lenya Golikov, became Heroes Soviet Union.

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

"Fedya Samodurov. Fedya is 14 years old, he is a pupil of a motorized rifle unit commanded by the Guard Captain A. Chernavin. Fedya was picked up in his homeland, in a ruined village Voronezh region... Together with the unit he participated 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, delayed the enemy. Fedya was awarded the medal "For Courage".

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

Petya Tooth. Petya Zub chose an equally difficult specialty. He has long decided to become a scout. His parents were killed, and he knows how to settle accounts with the accursed German. Together with experienced scouts, he gets to the enemy, reports his location on the radio, and artillery fires at their orders, crushing the fascists. "(Argumenty i Fakty, No. 25, 2010, p. 42).

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

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

For the head of the young partisan Oli Demesh, the Nazis promised a generous reward - land, a cow and 10 thousand marks. Copies of her photograph were distributed and sent to all patrol services, policemen, headmen and secret agents. Capture and deliver her alive - that was the order! But they failed to catch the girl. Olga destroyed 20 German soldiers and officers, derailed 7 enemy echelons, conducted reconnaissance, participated in “ 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 day and night in factories, factories and industries, standing behind the machines instead of brothers and fathers who had gone to the front. Children also worked at defense enterprises: they made fuses for mines, fuses for hand grenades, smoke bombs, colored flares, assembled gas masks. Worked in agriculture grown vegetables for hospitals.

In school sewing workshops, the pioneers sewed linen 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, causing a smile from adult men exhausted by the war.

A number of objective reasons: the departure of teachers to the army, the evacuation of the population from the western regions to the eastern, the inclusion of students in labor activity 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 training begun in the 30s. In the remaining educational institutions training was conducted in two, three, and sometimes four shifts.

At the same time, the children were forced to store firewood for the boiler rooms themselves. There were no textbooks, and due to lack of paper they wrote on old newspapers between the lines. Nevertheless, new schools were opened, additional classes were created. Boarding schools were created for the 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.

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

From the memoirs about the war childhood of Lydia Ivanovna Kostyleva:

“After the death of my grandmother, I was assigned to Kindergarten, older sister at school, mom at work. I went to kindergarten alone, on a tram, in less than five years. Once I got seriously ill with mumps, I was lying at home alone with a high fever, there was no medicine, in my delirium I fancied a pig running under the table, but nothing happened.
I saw my mother in the evenings and on rare weekends. The children were raised by the street, we were friendly and always hungry. From early spring, they ran on mosses, fortunately, the forest and swamps are nearby, they picked berries, mushrooms, and various early grass. The bombing gradually stopped, the residences of the allies were located in our Arkhangelsk, this brought a certain flavor to life - we, children, sometimes fell out of warm clothes, some food. Basically, we ate black shangi, potatoes, seal meat, fish and fish oil, on holidays - "marmalade" of seaweed, tinted with beets. "

More than five hundred educators and nannies in the fall of 1941 dug trenches on the outskirts of the capital. Hundreds of people worked in the logging area. The educators, who yesterday led a round dance with the children, fought in the Moscow militia. Natasha Yanovskaya, a kindergarten teacher in the Bauman region, heroically died near Mozhaisk. The educators who remained with the children did not perform feats. They simply rescued babies whose fathers fought, and mothers stood at the machines.

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

Children have changed their games, appeared "... new game- to the hospital. The hospital was played before, but not like that. Now the wounded are for them - real people... But war is played less often, because no one wants to be a fascist. This role is played by trees. Snowballs are shooting at them. We learned to provide assistance to the victims - the fallen, the bruised. "

From the boy's letter to the front-line soldier: “We used to play the war too often, but now much less often - we are tired of the war, it would sooner be over, so that we can live well again ...” (Ibid.).

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

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

"In the fall of 1942 in Pochinkovsky district of the Gorky region, children dressed in rags were caught stealing potatoes and grain from collective farm fields. It turned out that the inmates of the regional orphanage were" harvesting "the crops. And they did not do it out of a good life. Investigations, local police officers discovered a criminal group, and, in fact, a gang, which consisted of employees of this institution.

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

The investigation established that by not supplying the due norm of bread and food, 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 employees of the orphanage sold all these scarce products on the market or simply ate them themselves.

Only one comrade Novoseltsev received fifteen servings of breakfast and lunch for himself and his family members every day. At the expense of the pupils, the rest of the attendants also ate well. The children were fed "dishes" made from rot and vegetables, citing poor supplies.

Throughout 1942, they were given only one candy each for the 25th anniversary. October revolution... And what is most surprising, the director of the Novoseltsev orphanage in the same 1942 received an honorary diploma from the People's Commissariat of Education for excellent educational work... All these fascists were deservedly sentenced to long terms of imprisonment "(Zefirov MV, Dektyarev DM" Everything for the front? How the victory was actually forged ", pp. 388-391).

At such a time, the whole essence of man 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 future !!

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

The highest degree of distinction in the USSR was the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. It was awarded to citizens who performed a feat during military operations or distinguished themselves by other outstanding services to the Motherland. As an exception, it could have been appropriated in peacetime.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was established by the Decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of April 16, 1934. Later, on August 1, 1939, as an additional insignia for the Heroes of the USSR, the Gold Star medal was approved, in the form of a five-pointed star fixed on a rectangular block, which was issued to those awarded together with the Order of Lenin and a diploma of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces. At the same time, it was established that those who re-committed the feat worthy of the title of Hero are awarded the second Order of Lenin and the second Gold Star medal. When re-awarding him in the homeland of the hero, his bronze bust was installed. The number of awards with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was not limited.

The list of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union was opened on April 20, 1934 by polar pilots: A. Lyapidevsky, S. Levanevsky, N. Kamanin, V. Molokov, M. Vodopyanov, M. Slepnev and I. Doronin. Participants in the rescue of passengers in distress on the legendary steamer "Chelyuskin".

Eighth in the list was M. Gromov (September 28, 1934). The crew of the aircraft headed by him set a world record for the flight range along a closed curve at a distance of more than 12 thousand kilometers. The next Heroes of the USSR were the pilots: the crew commander Valery Chkalov, who together with G. Baidukov, A. Belyakov, made a long non-stop flight on the route Moscow - Far East.

It was for military exploits for the first time that 17 commanders of the Red Army became Heroes of the Soviet Union (Decree of December 31, 1936), who participated in civil war in Spain. Six of them were tankmen, the rest were pilots. Three of them, the title was awarded posthumously. Two of the awardees were foreigners: the Bulgarian V. Goranov and the Italian P. Gibelli. In total, during the battles in Spain (1936 -39), the highest distinction was awarded 60 times.

In August 1938, 26 more people were added to this list, who showed courage and heroism in defeating the Japanese invaders in the area of ​​Lake Hasan. About a year later, the first presentation of the Gold Star medal took place, which was received by 70 fighters for their exploits during battles in the area of ​​the river. Khalkhin-Gol (1939). At the same time, some of them became twice Heroes of the Soviet Union.

After the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish conflict (1939-40), the list of Heroes of the Soviet Union increased by another 412 people. Thus, before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, 626 citizens received the Hero, among whom were 3 women (M. Raskova, P. Osipenko and V. Grizodubova).

More than 90 percent of the total number of Heroes of the Soviet Union appeared in the country during the Great Patriotic War. This high title was awarded to 11 thousand 657 people, of which 3051 - posthumously. This list includes 107 fighters who became twice heroes (7 were awarded posthumously), also in total number The awardees included 90 women (49 posthumously).

The attack of Hitler's Germany on the USSR caused an unprecedented rise in patriotism. Great War brought a lot of grief, but she also opened the heights of courage and strength of character, it would seem, ordinary ordinary people.

So, who could expect heroism from the elderly Pskov peasant Matvey Kuzmin. In the very first days of the war, he came to the military registration and enlistment office, but there he was dismissed - he was too old: “go, grandfather, to your grandchildren, we'll figure it out without you.” Meanwhile, the front was moving inexorably eastward. The Germans entered the village of Kurakino, where Kuzmin lived. In February 1942, an elderly peasant was unexpectedly summoned to the commandant's office - the battalion commander of the 1st Mountain Rifle Division found out that Kuzmin was an excellent tracker who knew the area perfectly and ordered him to assist the Nazis - to lead a German detachment to the rear of the forward battalion of the Soviet 3rd Shock Army ... “If you do everything right, I'll pay well, and if not, blame yourself…”. “Yes, of course, of course, don't be so worried, your honor,” Kuzmin mocked. But an hour later the cunning peasant sent his grandson with a note to ours: "The Germans ordered to lead the detachment to your rear, in the morning I will lure them to the fork near the village of Malkino, welcome them." That evening, the fascist detachment with its guide set off. Kuzmin drove the Nazis in circles and deliberately exhausted the invaders: he forced them to climb steep hillsides and wade through dense bushes. "What can you do, your honor, well, there is no other way here ...". At dawn, the tired and frozen fascists found themselves at a fork in Malkino. "Everything, guys, have come." "How did you come !?" "And so, here we will rest and there it will be seen ...". The Germans looked around - they walked the whole night, but moved only a couple of kilometers away from Kurakino and now stood on the road in an open field, and twenty meters in front of them there was a forest, where, now they knew for sure, there was a Soviet ambush. "Oh, you ..." - the German officer pulled out a pistol and unloaded the entire clip at the old man. But at the same second a rifle volley burst out of the forest, then another one, Soviet machine guns clattered, a mortar went off. The Nazis rushed about, shouted, fired randomly in all directions, but not one of them left alive. The hero died and took 250 Nazi invaders with him. Matvey Kuzmin became the oldest Hero of the Soviet Union, he was 83 years old.

And the youngest cavalier of the highest Soviet rank, Valya Kotik, joined the partisan detachment at the age of 11. At first he was a liaison of the underground organization, then he took part in military operations. With his courage, fearlessness and firmness of character, Valya amazed his well-worn older comrades. In October 1943, the young hero rescued his detachment, noticing the approaching punishers in time, he raised the alarm and was the first to enter the battle, killing several Nazis, including a German officer. On February 16, 1944 Valya was mortally wounded in the battle. To the young hero posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was 14 years old.

All people, young and old, rose to fight the fascist infection. Soldiers, sailors, officers, even children and old people selflessly fought against the Nazi invaders. Therefore, it is not surprising that the overwhelming majority of awards with the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union occur during the war years.

In the post-war period, the title of the GSS was awarded quite rarely. But even before 1990, awards for deeds during the Great Patriotic War continued, which were not produced in due time for various reasons, intelligence officer Richard Sorge, F.A. Poletaev, the legendary submariner A.I. Marinesco and many others.

For military courage and dedication, the title of GSS was awarded to combatants who performed their international duty in North Korea, Hungary, Egypt - 15 awards, in Afghanistan 85 soldiers-internationalists received the highest distinction, 28 of them - posthumously.

Special group, rewarding test pilots of military equipment, polar explorers, participants in the development of the depths of the World Ocean - only 250 people. Since 1961, the rank of GSS has been conferred on cosmonauts; over 30 years, 84 people who have completed space flight have been awarded it. Six people were awarded for the elimination of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

It should be noted that in the post-war years a vicious tradition of conferring high military distinction for "armchair" achievements, timed to coincide with jubilee birthdays, emerged. This is how the many times noted heroes such as Brezhnev and Budyonny appeared. The Golden Stars were also awarded as friendly political gestures, due to which the list of Heroes of the USSR was supplemented by the heads of the allied states Fidel Castro, Egyptian President Nasser and some others.

Completed the list of Heroes of the Soviet Union on December 24, 1991, captain 3rd rank, underwater specialist L. Solodkov, who participated in a diving experiment on long-term work at a depth of 500 meters under water.

In total, during the existence of the USSR, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was received by 12 thousand 776 people. Of these, 154 people were awarded it twice, three times - 3 people. and four times - 2 people. The first two Heroes were military pilots S. Gritsevich and G. Kravchenko. Three times Heroes: Air Marshals A. Pokryshkin and I. Kozhedub, as well as Marshal of the USSR S. Budyonny. Four times there are only two Heroes on the list - they are Marshals of the USSR G. Zhukov and L. Brezhnev.

In history, there are cases of deprivation of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - only 72, plus 13 canceled Decrees on the assignment of this title as unreasonable.

During the Great Patriotic War, many Soviet citizens (not only soldiers) performed heroic deeds, saving other people's lives and bringing the USSR's victory over the German invaders closer. These people are rightfully considered heroes. In our article, we will recall some of them.

Heroes men

The list of heroes of the Soviet Union who became famous during the Great Patriotic War is quite extensive, therefore Let's name the most famous:

• Nikolay Gastello (1907-1941): Hero of the Union posthumously, squadron commander. After the bombing of German heavy equipment, Gastello's plane was shot down. On a burning bomber, the pilot rammed an enemy column;
• Victor Talalikhin (1918-1941): Hero of the USSR, deputy squadron commander, took part in the battle for Moscow. One of the first Soviet pilots to ram the enemy in a night air battle;
• Alexander Matrosov (1924-1943): Hero of the Union posthumously, private, shooter. In a battle near the village of Chernushki (Pskov region), he closed the embrasure of a German firing point;
• Alexander Pokryshkin (1913-1985): three times Hero of the USSR, fighter pilot (recognized as an ace), improved combat techniques (about 60 victories), went through the entire war (about 650 sorties), air marshal (since 1972);
• Ivan Kozhedub (1920-1991): three times Hero, fighter pilot (ace), squadron commander, participant Battle of Kursk, made about 330 sorties (64 victories). He became famous for his effective shooting technique (200-300 m before the enemy) and the absence of cases when the plane was shot down;
• Alexey Maresyev (1916-2001): Hero, deputy squadron commander, fighter pilot. He is famous for the fact that after the amputation of both legs, using prostheses, he was able to return to combat flights.

Rice. 1. Nikolay Gastello.

In 2010, an extensive Russian electronic database "People's Feat" was created, containing reliable information from official documents about the participants in the war, their exploits and awards.

Heroes women

Separately, it is worth highlighting the women heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
Some of them:

• Valentina Grizodubova (1909-1993): the first female pilot - Hero of the Soviet Union, instructor pilot (5 world aviation records), air regiment commander, flew about 200 combat missions (of which 132 were night missions);
• Lyudmila Pavlichenko (1916-1974): Hero of the Union, world famous sniper, instructor at a sniper school, participated in the defense of Odessa and Sevastopol. Destroyed about 309 opponents, including 36 snipers;
• Lydia Litvyak (1921-1943): Hero posthumously, fighter pilot (ace), squadron flight commander, participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, battles in the Donbass (168 sorties, 12 victories in air battles);
• Ekaterina Budanova (1916-1943): Hero Russian Federation posthumously (she was listed as missing in the USSR), fighter pilot (ace), repeatedly fought against superior enemy forces, including going into a frontal attack (11 victories);
• Ekaterina Zelenko (1916-1941): Hero of the Union posthumously, deputy squadron commander. The only Soviet female pilot who participated in the Soviet-Finnish war. The only woman in the world who rammed an enemy plane (in Belarus);
• Evdokia Bershanskaya (1913-1982): the only woman awarded the Order of Suvorov. Pilot, commander of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (1941-1945). The regiment was exclusively female. For his skill in performing combat missions he received the nickname "night witches". Particularly distinguished himself in the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, Feodosia, Belarus.

Rice. 2. Pilots of the 46th Guards Aviation Regiment.

05/09/2012 in Tomsk, the modern movement "Immortal Regiment" was born, designed to honor the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. On the streets of the city, residents carried about two thousand portraits of their relatives who participated in the war. The movement became widespread. Every year the number of participating cities is increasing, covering even other countries. In 2015, the Immortal Regiment campaign received official permission and took place in Moscow immediately after the Victory Day parade.

During the Great Patriotic War, heroism was the norm for the behavior of Soviet people, the war revealed the steadfastness and courage of the Soviet people. Thousands of soldiers and officers sacrificed their lives in the battles of Moscow, Kursk and Stalingrad, in the defense of Leningrad and Sevastopol, in the North Caucasus and the Dnieper, in the storming of Berlin and in other battles - and immortalized their names. Women and children fought alongside men. The home front workers played an important role. People who worked exhausted to provide the soldiers with food, clothing, and thus a bayonet and shell.
We will tell you about those who gave their life, strength and savings for the Victory. Here they are the great people of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Medics are heroes. Zinaida Samsonova

During the war, more than two hundred thousand doctors and half a million nurses worked at the front and in the rear. And half of them were women.
The working day of doctors and nurses of medical battalions and front-line hospitals often lasted several days. Sleepless nights, medical workers stood relentlessly near the operating tables, and some of them pulled the dead and wounded out of the battlefield on their backs. Among the doctors there were many of their own "sailors" who, saving the wounded, covered them with their bodies from bullets and shell fragments.
They did not spare, as they say, their belly, raised the spirit of the soldiers, raised the wounded from the hospital bed and sent them back into battle to defend their country, their homeland, their people, their home from the enemy. Among the large army of doctors, I would like to name the name of the Hero of the Soviet Union Zinaida Alexandrovna Samsonova, who went to the front when she was only seventeen years old. Zinaida, or, as her fellow soldiers called her, Zinochka, was born in the village of Bobkovo, Yegoryevsky district, Moscow region.
Before the war, she entered the Yegoryevsk Medical School. When the enemy stepped on her native land, and the country was in danger, Zina decided that she must definitely go to the front. And she rushed there.
She has been in the active army since 1942 and immediately finds herself on the front lines. Zina was a sanitary instructor for a rifle battalion. The soldiers loved her for her smile, for her selfless assistance to the wounded. With her fighters, Zina went through the most terrible battles, this Stalingrad battle... She fought on the Voronezh front and on other fronts.

In the fall of 1943, she participated in landing operation to capture a bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper near the village of Sushki, Kanevsky district, now the Cherkasy region. Here she, together with her fellow soldiers, managed to seize this bridgehead.
From the battlefield, Zina carried more than thirty wounded and ferried them to the other side of the Dnieper. This fragile nineteen-year-old girl was legendary. Zinochka was distinguished by her courage and courage.
When the commander died near the village of Holm in 1944, Zina, without hesitation, took command of the battle and raised the fighters to attack. In this battle, her fellow soldiers heard her amazing, slightly hoarse voice for the last time: "Eagles, follow me!"
Zinochka Samsonova died in this battle on January 27, 1944 for the village of Holm in Belarus. She was buried in a mass grave in Ozarichi, Kalinkovsky district, Gomel region.
For endurance, courage and courage, Zinaida Alexandrovna Samsonova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The school where Zina Samsonova once studied was named after her.

A special period of activity of Soviet foreign intelligence officers is associated with the Great Patriotic War. Already at the end of June 1941, the newly created State Defense Committee of the USSR considered the issue of the work of foreign intelligence and clarified its tasks. They were subordinated to one goal - the earliest possible defeat of the enemy. For exemplary performance of special missions behind enemy lines, nine cadre foreign intelligence officers were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This is S.A. Vaupshasov, I.D. Kudrya, N.I. Kuznetsov, V.A. Lyagin, D.N. Medvedev, V.A. Molodtsov, K.P. Orlovsky, N.A. Prokopyuk, A.M. Rabtsevich. Here we will tell you about one of the hero scouts - Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov.

Since the beginning of World War II, he was enrolled in the fourth department of the NKVD, whose main task was to organize reconnaissance and sabotage activities behind enemy lines. After numerous training and study in the prisoner of war camp, the customs and life of the Germans, under the name of Paul Wilhelm Siebert, Nikolai Kuznetsov was sent to the rear of the enemy along the line of terror. At first, the special agent conducted his secret activities in the Ukrainian city of Rovno, where the Reich Commissariat of Ukraine was located. Kuznetsov closely communicated with enemy officers of the special services and the Wehrmacht, as well as local officials. All the information obtained was transferred to the partisan detachment. One of the notable feats of the secret agent of the USSR was the capture of the Reichskommissariat courier, Major Gahan, who was carrying a secret map in his briefcase. After interrogating Gahan and studying the map, it turned out that a bunker for Hitler had been built eight kilometers from the Ukrainian Vinnitsa.
In November 1943, Kuznetsov managed to organize the abduction of the German Major General M. Ilgen, who was sent to Rovno to destroy partisan formations.
The last operation of the intelligence officer Siebert in this post was the elimination in November 1943 of the head of the legal department of the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine, Oberführer Alfred Funk. After interrogating Funk, the brilliant intelligence officer managed to obtain information about the preparations for the assassination of the heads of the "Big Three" of the Tehran Conference, as well as information about the enemy's attack on Kursk Bulge... In January 1944, Kuznetsov was ordered, together with the retreating fascist troops, to go to Lvov to continue his sabotage activities. Scouts Jan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov were sent to help Agent Siebert. Under the leadership of Nikolai Kuznetsov, several invaders were destroyed in Lvov, for example, the head of the government office, Heinrich Schneider and Otto Bauer.

From the first days of the occupation, boys and girls began to act decisively, a secret organization called "Young Avengers" was created. The guys fought against the fascist invaders. They blew up a pumping station, which delayed the dispatch of ten fascist echelons to the front. Distracting the enemy, the Avengers destroyed bridges and highways, blew up a local power plant, and burned down the plant. Obtaining information about the actions of the Germans, they immediately passed it on to the partisans.
Zina Portnova was entrusted with more and more difficult tasks... According to one of them, the girl managed to get a job in a German canteen. After working there for a bit, she carried out an effective operation - she poisoned food for the German soldiers. More than 100 fascists suffered from her lunch. The Germans began to blame Zina. Wanting to prove her innocence, the girl tried the poisoned soup and only miraculously survived.

In 1943, traitors appeared who disclosed secret information and betrayed our guys to the Nazis. Many were arrested and shot. Then the command of the partisan detachment instructed Portnova to establish contact with those who survived. The Nazis grabbed a young partisan when she was returning from a mission. Zina was terribly tortured. But the answer to the enemy was only her silence, contempt and hatred. The interrogations did not stop.
“The Gestapo man went to the window. And Zina, rushing to the table, grabbed a pistol. Obviously catching a rustle, the officer turned abruptly, but the weapon was already in her hand. She pulled the trigger. For some reason I didn't hear the shot. I just saw how the German, clutching his chest with his hands, fell to the floor, and the second, who was sitting at the side table, jumped up from his chair and hastily unfastened the holster of his revolver. She pointed the gun at him too. Again, almost without aiming, pulled the trigger. Rushing to the exit, Zina pulled open the door, jumped into the next room and from there onto the porch. There she fired almost point-blank at the sentry. Having run out of the building of the commandant's office, Portnova rushed down the path in a whirlwind.
"If only I could run to the river," thought the girl. But the noise of the chase was heard from behind ... "Why don't they shoot?" The surface of the water already seemed very close. And beyond the river the forest was black. She heard the sound of machine gun fire, and something prickly pierced her leg. Zina fell onto the river sand. She still had enough strength, slightly raised herself, to shoot ... She took care of the last bullet for herself.
When the Germans ran very close, she decided that it was all over, and pointed the pistol to her chest and pulled the trigger. But there was no shot: a misfire. The fascist knocked the pistol out of her weakening hands. "
Zina was sent to prison. For more than a month, the Germans brutally tortured the girl, they wanted her to betray her comrades. But having sworn an oath of loyalty to the Motherland, Zina kept it.
On the morning of January 13, 1944, a gray-haired and blind girl was taken out for execution. She walked, stumbling with bare feet, in the snow.
The girl withstood all the torture. She truly loved our Motherland and died for her, firmly believing in our victory.
Zinaida Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet people, realizing that the front needed their help, made every effort. Engineering geniuses simplified and improved production. Women who had recently escorted their husbands, brothers and sons to the front, took their place at the machine, mastering unfamiliar professions. "Everything for the front, everything for the victory!" Children, old people and women gave all their strength, gave themselves for the sake of victory.

This is how the call of collective farmers sounded in one of the regional newspapers: “... we need to give the army and the working people more bread, meat, milk, vegetables and agricultural raw materials for industry. We, the workers of the state farms, together with the collective farm peasantry must hand it over. " Only by these lines can one judge how much the home front workers were obsessed with thoughts of victory, and what sacrifices they were willing to make in order to bring this long-awaited day closer. Even receiving funerals, they did not stop working, knowing that this is the best way to take revenge on the hated fascists for the death of their loved ones.

On December 15, 1942, Ferapont Holovaty gave all his savings - 100 thousand rubles - to purchase an aircraft for the Red Army, and asked to transfer the aircraft to the pilot of the Stalingrad Front. In a letter addressed to Supreme Commander-in-Chief he wrote that, having accompanied his two sons to the front, he himself wanted to contribute to the cause of victory. Stalin answered: “Thank you, Ferapont Petrovich, for your concern for the Red Army and its Air Force... The Red Army will not forget that you gave all your savings to build a combat aircraft. Please accept my greetings. " Serious attention was paid to the initiative. The decision on who exactly will get the personalized plane was made by the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front. The combat vehicle was handed over to one of the best - the commander of the 31st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Major Boris Nikolayevich Eremin. The fact that Eremin and Holovaty were fellow countrymen also played a role.

Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved by inhuman efforts, both front-line soldiers and home front workers. And this must be remembered. Today's generation should not forget their feat.

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

It is a holiday today Great victory and I could not stand aside in preparation for such a significant day. I wrote for you a short article about people who fought against Nazism, about well-known and not so great feats, about the history of the military that surprised me, about patriotism, about the unity of the people, about a strong desire to win.

It is impossible to convey in words all that gratitude to the surviving and perished wars of our fatherland for our peaceful sky!

Eternal memory to you!

And thank you for our life!

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Lieutenant Dmitry Komarov was the first and perhaps the only one to ram an entire armored train with his tank. This happened on June 25, 1944 near Cherny Brody in western Ukraine. At that time, the tank was hit and burned, but Dmitry Komarov, by all means, decided to stop the German train. To do this, he had to ram the train at full speed in a burning T-34 tank. By some miracle, Lieutenant Komarov managed to survive when all the crew members died.

- Nikolai Sirotinin performed an incredible feat alone against a whole column of German tanks. On July 17, 1941, Nikolai and his battalion commander were to cover the retreat of their regiment. On a hillock near the bridge over the Dobrost River in Belarus, a gun was disguised right in the rye. When a column of armored vehicles appeared on the road, Nikolai skillfully knocked out the first tank in the column with the first shot, and the last one with the second shot, thereby creating a tank plug. The battalion commander was wounded, and since the task was completed, he retreated. But Nikolai refused to retreat, because there were still many unused shells left.

The battle lasted two and a half hours during which Nikolai Sirotinin destroyed 11 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers and 57 soldiers and officers of the enemy army. The Germans could not determine the location of the gun for a long time and thought that a whole battery was fighting with them. By the time Nikolai's position was discovered, he had three shells left. The Germans offered Sirotinin to surrender, but he only responded with fire from his carbine and fired back from it to the last.

When it was all over, the Nazis themselves buried the twenty-year-old Red Army man with military honors and rifle volleys, paying tribute to his heroism.

Unfortunately, Nikolai never received the Hero due to the fact that a photograph was needed to complete the documents, and after his death not a single photograph remained.

For you, I am inserting a drawing of his colleague made from memory.

Partisans - heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Konstantin Chekhovich - organizer and sole performer of one of the largest partisan sabotage during the Great Patriotic War. Constantine was drafted into the army in the first months of the war and in August 1941, as part of a sabotage group, was sent to the rear of the enemy. But unfortunately, on the front line, the group was ambushed and out of five people, only Chekhovich survived - he was captured. Two weeks later, Konstantin Chekhovich managed to escape and a week later got in touch with the partisans of the 7th Leningrad Brigade, where he was ordered to infiltrate the city of Porkhov, Pskov Region, to the Germans to carry out sabotage work.

In this city, having achieved some favor with the Germans, Chekhovich received the position of administrator at a local cinema.

It was this cinema that was blown up by Chekhovich's forces on November 13, 1943, right during a movie show, 760 German soldiers and officers were buried under the ruins. None of the Nazis could have thought that the modest administrator had been planting bombs on the supporting columns and the roof all this time, so that during the explosion, the whole structure took shape like a house of cards.

- Matvey Kuzmich Kuzmin is the oldest winner of the “Partisan of the Patriotic War” and “Hero of the Soviet Union” awards. He received the awards posthumously, but he accomplished the feat at the age of 83. The Germans captured a village in the Pskov region where Matvey Kuzmich lived, and later occupied his house, where the commander of the German battalion settled. In early February 1942, this battalion commander ordered Matvey Kuzmich to be a guide and bring the German unit to the village of Pershino occupied by the Red Army, and in return offered food. Kuzmin agreed, but after looking at the route of movement on the map, he sent his grandson Vasily to his destination to warn him Soviet troops... Matvey Kuzmich himself took the frozen Germans through the forest for a long time and confusedly and only in the morning led them out, not to the desired village, but to an ambush, where the warned Red Army soldiers had already taken up positions.

The invaders came under fire from machine-gun crews and lost about 80 prisoners and killed, along with them died the hero-guide Matvey Kuzmich Kuzmin.

Children are heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Kazei Marat Ivanovich. The Nazis broke into the village where Marat lived with his mother and sister. And very soon the boy's mother was seized by the Germans and hanged for communication with the partisans. Together with his sister, Marat went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest, Belarus. Marat became a scout, penetrated into enemy garrisons and obtained valuable information, thanks to which the partisans managed to develop an operation and defeat the fascist garrison in the city of Dzerzhinsk. Marat fearlessly participated in the battles, together with the demolitions he mined railroad... In his last battle, he participated on an equal basis with adults and fought to the last bullet, when he had only one grenade left, he let the enemies closer to him and blew them up with him. For courage and bravery, fifteen-year-old Marat was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and a monument to the young hero was erected in the city of Minsk.

- Zina Portnova came to summer holidays to the village of Zuya, Belarus, when the war began. An underground Komsomol-youth organization "Young Avengers" appeared here, where Zina joined at the beginning of the war. She helped distribute leaflets, conducted intelligence activities on the instructions of a partisan detachment. But in 1943, returning from a mission, in the village of Mostishche she was caught by the Germans on a tip from a traitor. The Nazis under torture tried to get at least some information from Zina, but in response they received only silence. During one of the interrogations, Zina, catching the moment, grabbed a pistol from the table and shot point-blank at the Gestapo. After killing two more Germans, Zina tried to escape, but could not - she was caught. After that, the Germans tortured the girl for more than a month, but she never gave up a single friend of hers. Having made an oath to the Motherland, Zina kept it.

On the morning of January 10, 1944, a gray-haired and blind girl was taken out to be shot. Zina was shot in the prison of the city of Polotsk, at that time she was 17 years old. Zina was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Women Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Ekaterina Zelenko. The only woman in the world who committed an aerial ram.

On September 12, 1941, on a Su-2 bomber, she entered into battle with the German Messers, and when her vehicle ran out of ammunition, Catherine destroyed the enemy fighter by performing an air ram. The pilot herself did not manage to survive in this battle. And only in 1990, Ekaterina Zelenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

- Manshuk Zhiengalievna Mametova voluntarily went to the front in August 1942 and died a little over a year later for honor and freedom home country... She was 20 years old.

On October 16, 1943, the battalion in which Manshuk served was ordered to repulse the enemy's counterattack. As soon as the Nazis tried to repulse the attack, they felt the fire from the machine gun of senior sergeant Mametova. The Germans retreated, leaving behind the centurion of their dead soldiers. Several more times the Germans tried to break through, but they were always met by fierce machine gun fire. At that moment, the girl noticed that two neighboring machine guns were silent - both machine gunners were killed. Then Manshuk, quickly crawling from one firing point to another, began to fire at the advancing enemies from three machine guns. Then the enemy transferred machine gun fire to the girl's position. Before her death, Manshuk managed to pour a lead shower of bullets on the Nazis and this ensured the successful advance of our units. But the girl from the distant Kazakh Urda remained lying on the hillside, still squeezing the “maxim” trigger.

In 1944, Manshuk Mametova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Written by

Barbara

Creativity, work on the modern idea of ​​world outlook and constant search for answers