From the book “Children-Heroes”, compiled by I.K. Goncharenko, N.B. Makhlin
Brave partisan.
With a deafening crash, motorcyclists in black helmets, with the sleeves of their dusty jackets rolled up high, like butchers’, burst into the quiet green street of Shepetivka; in shorts, as if they were not going to fight, but to sunbathe on the beach. And behind them an avalanche of cars, carts, and soldiers poured through the city. In a few days, the Nazis robbed and desecrated the hometown of Valya Kotik.
...Three children were making their way along the edge of the sidewalk, looking back every now and then: Valya Kotik, Kolya Turukhan and Natasha Gorbatyuk.
The guys suddenly stopped, pressed closely against the cold wall of the building, on which recently (a trace is still visible) there was a sign “City Council”, and now hung a fascist flag.
A long black limousine stopped in front of the building, its brakes squeaking. A fascist officer, Shepetovsky Gebietskommissar Worbs, climbed out slowly and importantly.
He glanced with a contemptuous empty gaze at the grey-eyed, fair-haired boy in torn trousers, with his bare feet beaten to the point of bleeding, who at that moment involuntarily moved away from the wall. He glanced over and walked with a wooden soldier’s gait to the Gebietskommissariat. But if the fascist had fixed his gaze on the boy’s face for a few moments, he would have seen irreconcilable hatred in his eyes.
If Worbs had known who this lad would soon, very soon become, if Worbs had known then that his life was in the hands of this lad, he would have given the order in a voice full of malice to seize, torture, and kill the pioneer.
Worbs was so deeply convinced that here, in Shepetovka, everyone was only capable of bending their backs in front of every fascist, that half an hour later he did not even believe some corporal Otto Schultz, who reported that his weapon had been stolen.
You, Schultz, lost your machine gun somewhere,” Worbs attacked him. “Remember where the eggs and lard were requisitioned, look there!”
He could not have known that at that very time two boys and one girl rolled head over heels into a shell crater far from the Gebietskommissariat. These were the same guys who had been hanging out near the Gebitskommissariat half an hour earlier, and in their hands they were holding Corporal Schultz’s machine gun.
Natasha and Kolya, still breathing heavily from the fast run and the excitement they had experienced, examined the machine gun with a magazine probably full of cartridges.
- How do I like it, huh? - Valik said, his eyes sparkling provocatively, remembering all the details of what happened.
It was Valya who first noticed a machine gun near one of the gates. In the depths of the courtyard the voice of some Fritz was heard. Natasha and Kolya did not immediately guess why Valik suddenly whispered to them hastily:
- Hurry to the next yard!
As soon as they jumped over the fence, a machine gun fell into the grass next to them, and Valik jumped after it.
- Let's run!
- Where to put it now? - Natasha asked.
“To the piggy bank, of course,” answered Valik, “I’ll go home now to get a bicycle and a basket.”
The beginning of what the guys called the “piggy bank” was made the previous morning.
The guys swam in the river. The roller dove and hit his hand on something metal.
- Kolka, there’s some iron there, come here, we’ll pull it out! - he called his comrade.
The “iron” turned out to be a rifle. Valik dived again. The catch turned out to be even richer.
Never before had either Valik or Kolya Turukhan had to dive so much, even on a dare. Their eyes became red, like those of rabbits. My ears hurt. But on the shore, in the dense thickets of willow, there was a whole arsenal: rifles, a pistol, even a machine gun.
It’s a pity, there are no cartridges,” Valik lamented.
Where will the cartridges come from? Apparently, the soldiers who were surrounded here fired all their cartridges at the enemy, and then threw their weapons, which had become unnecessary, into the water so that the Germans would not get them.
The weapon was so hidden that no one could find it. The guys called this warehouse “the piggy bank.” Now a machine gun with cartridges has been added there.
For whom did the guys collect weapons? Frankly speaking, Valik did not know this for sure at that time. He Kolya Turukhan said to Natasha and Kolya:
- We will give it to those who will fight the fascists. And we ourselves are no longer small, right?
...Valya Kotik, an eleven-year-old pioneer from Voroshilov Street, has long been watched by the keen, attentive, invisible eyes of the underground.
They like the brave boy who stole a machine gun from under the Fritz’s nose, who discovered and dragged, together with his friends, rifles and even a machine gun, disassembled into parts, behind the barn. And all in front of the Germans, in a basket tied to the trunk of a bicycle.
Soon, very soon, the pioneer will pass the test, and the underground, as an equal, will take him into their family and say to him:
“We trust you, pioneer Valya Kotik, we believe that you will be able to complete any of our tasks, no matter what dangers it may pose!”
Leaflets
One of the many telephones on the Gebietskommissar's desk rang with short, frequent beeps - a device connected to the direct cable of the German General Staff Warsaw - Berlin.
“Is it really already known about this there too?” - he thought with fear, picking up the phone.
That’s right, from Berlin, from the office of the Gestapo chief himself, they asked about what measures had been taken to punish unknown persons who derailed a train with selected Nazi soldiers at night.
What measures? Worbs had nothing to report. Do not report that it is almost a day after the crash, and rescue teams are still continuing to pull out the corpses of soldiers and officers from under the wreckage of the carriages. For almost a day now, not a single echelon can leave Shepetovka to the east for the front.
The partisans' tracks led into the forest and were lost there. This is how the soldiers sent to search for the partisans reported to Worbs. They were simply afraid to venture into the depths of the forest; they knew they couldn’t get out of there.
It’s almost midnight, and Worbs still doesn’t leave his office, leafing through the policemen’s denunciations, interrogating the traitorous elders. But they cannot tell the fascist anything. They, too, like the Nazis, are afraid to stick their noses out of the villages.
In the middle of the night, an inaudible shadow crept up to the doors of the Gebietskomissariat. And while the sentry went around the corner of the house, another white piece of paper appeared on the door, next to the announcement of reception hours. The sentry did not pay any attention to him.
And the shadow silently slid further, from house to house. And on the walls, in one place or another, a white rectangle of paper remained. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, and then it became clear that the quick shadow was the figure of a boy. So he turned the corner, looked around and, in order not to creak the gate, jumped straight over the fence into the yard in front of a small house.
Through the tightly curtained window, light was barely breaking through in one place.
“He’s not sleeping,” the boy thought and carefully pressed the latch of the front door.
In the corridor, he bent down, put the remaining pieces of paper in his hands into his shoe, and then stepped into the room.
The mother was waiting for her son.
- Where have you been, Valik?
- Yes, I was walking.
The mother sighed. He was walking... Since the occupiers arrived, the son became somehow secretive, he began to have secrets, secrets from her, his mother. Only once did the curtain lift slightly over her son’s unknown affairs.
One evening Valya brought home several sheets of paper.
In the room sat the owner of the hut, Radchuk, as well as Stratkov and Lukashenko, whom the underground had provided with forged certificates of early release from captivity. Both of them were now resting, recovering from long months of hard labor and hunger strike.
Radchuk tenaciously grabbed one of the sheets.
What is this?
“Take a good look for yourself,” said Valik.
These were leaflets dropped from an airplane and each and every one of them had been carefully selected by Valik. Valya thought that Radchuk would be just as happy about the news from the mainland as Lukashenko and Stratkov were, who eagerly read the leaflet from beginning to end.
But Radchuk didn’t read, he kept asking where he got the leaflets, how many there were, and where he hid them.
Valik became wary and fell silent. He also drew a caricature of Hitler next to the text, then put the leaflet in his pocket and went to bed.
Could Valya have imagined that the scoundrel Radchuk would run to the police the next morning to report the leaflets, that he would report there that Valya was drawing a caricature of Hitler?
But, apparently, Valik has already begun to develop the instincts of a real underground worker. Early in the morning, just before the sun rose, when Radchuk had not yet woken up, he left the house and hid a large stack of leaflets in a secluded place.
And at noon the police arrived. They turned everything in the apartment upside down and took the mother for questioning. They tortured her there until the evening, but then released her. But Vasya Lukashenko failed to escape from the police. He was arrested and sent to hard labor in Germany.
Since then, Valik has withdrawn even more into himself. And no matter how hard Radchuk tried to find out something about his affairs in order to finish off the pioneer and his mother, he failed to find out anything.
Leaflets continued to appear on the walls of Shepetovka houses. And Valik’s mother, Anna Nikitichna, could only guess that this matter did not take place without the participation of her son.
The unknown person pasting up the leaflets became more and more daring. The next morning there was a scandal in the Gebitskommissariat. The whole of Shepetivka laughed at the unlucky occupiers, who could not even protect the doors of their own office from leaflets. There was no way they could fight the partisans who were derailing the trains.
And Valik, with his hands in his pockets, walked along the opposite side of the street and watched with pleasure as the policemen, who had received a scolding from Worbs for their idleness, ran around, and as a burly fellow scraped off a firmly glued leaflet with a dagger.
The policemen hurriedly ran past the curly-haired, gray-eyed boy. They had no time for him. It could never have occurred to them that the daredevil who pasted the leaflets on the doors of the Gebits Commissariat, the daredevil in search of whom they had been knocked off their feet, was there, walking nearby.
The partisans need Valya
A certain Stepan Didenko, who was released early from captivity, settled with the Kotiki. At first Valik didn’t like the new tenant.
Firstly, he tried to live in peace and harmony with everyone, even with the policemen, in whose huts Valik and his friends broke the windows at night. Secondly, every evening he went to the main street of the city. But now there was a cinema only for Germans, and a cafe only for them. No self-respecting person would go for an evening walk on the main street of the city, which was once so beautiful and cozy. And Didenko dressed up in a beautiful suit, went and returned home late.
Didenko was clearly interfering with Valya. What if he is like Radchuk, and is waiting for an opportunity to get wind of the leaflets that Valik kept in his boots?
One day, when Valik was already asleep, Stepan, as always, came late. Having looked at Valik’s worn-out shoes, he decided to fix them. He took some wood, a hammer, and some nails, placed the shoe on the corner of the table, and then he felt something fall out of the shoe onto his lap.
These were leaflets.
Didenko did not say anything to Anna Nikitichna. He repaired the shoes, put the leaflets back under the insoles, and placed them near Valik’s bed.
In the morning, Didenko, as always, left for some business.
And Valik? How excited he was when he saw his repaired boots! After all, if Didenko turns out to be who he took him for, he will not escape the dungeon. What does he care - his mother and brother will end up in prison...
Didenko actually told his friends about the leaflets. His friends were underground fighters in Shepetivka. Until today, Valik didn’t need to know about this at all.
Finally, someone was found,” said Didenko, “who puts up leaflets at night.” We thought that there was an underground group unknown to us, and this was Valya Kotik.
And then a serious, long conversation took place between Valik and Stepan, after which Didenko said to Anna Nikitichna:
- Anna Nikitichna, we need your son...
Valik’s mother didn’t ask “to us”. Anna Nikitichna knew that Didenko was a partisan. After all, he was recommended to live with her by the communist Gorbatyuk. Through Anna Nikitichna, Gorbatyuk more than once conveyed to Didenko information he received from his trusted friends. Didenko’s friend, Uncle Vanya Nishenko, an outwardly harmless, elderly, stooped man with a cane, often visited her. But this is only external. At night he was transformed. Uncle Vanya's gait became light and elastic. He could lie for long hours, without moving, by the railway track, watching the movement of the trains, so that he could then transmit encrypted reports to the partisan headquarters by radio, without fear of the fact that the Nazis could take direction.
Yes, Anna Nikitichna understood very well what the words “we need your son” meant. This meant for both Valik and her entire small family the beginning of a different life, full of dangers. But she only said to Stepan:
- Fine. Since you, the partisans, need it, it means the Motherland needs it. Just... take care of him, Stepan. He's still young and hot...
And Valya Kotik became a liaison for the Shepetovsky underground fighters.
The weapons that the guys so carefully collected and hid migrated on carts of hay to the forest, to the partisan detachment.
But more and more machine guns, rifles, and explosives were needed, because more and more people came to the partisans, and they expanded their struggle against the occupiers more and more widely. Shepetivka underground fighters helped groups of prisoners of war break out from behind the barbed wire of the camps. And the liberated soldiers and commanders went into the forest, to the partisans, to take revenge on their enemies, to help their native Soviet Army.
The hunt for weapons sometimes brought Valya Kotik to the most unexpected places.
Once the ensemble “Funff Cylinder” came to Shepetivka from Germany.
“Only for Germans!” - the posters said.
But Valik managed to sneak into the former cinema unnoticed, where a visiting troupe was giving its performance. The hall was crowded. The soldiers endlessly applauded the five girls in short skirts, black stockings and shiny top hats with voluminous hairstyles. They shouted: “Encore, bravo!” and stamped their feet with delight.
But Valik was not at all interested in what was happening on stage. Hiding behind the curtain, he carefully looked around.
No, no one seemed to be following him.
The German, standing very close to him in the aisle, did not have enough space for the poor fellow - the handle of a revolver was peeking out of his unbuttoned holster... The Germans, carried away by the show, did not notice how the boy separated from the curtain, how the revolver migrated from the holster to his pocket.
Half an hour later, Stepan Didenko weighed the weapon in his palm:
- Good “gun”! Pav Luke just doesn’t have a suitable weapon. Let's give the revolver to him. Agree?
Of course, Valya agreed. He was very pleased that the revolver immediately fell into the hands of one of the bravest underground fighters in Shepetivka.
Shepherdesses
Anna Nikitichna began to notice that for some time Valentin had become addicted to grazing cows.
But he drove her not to the forest, where lush grass grew, but to the wasteland - the German food warehouses that supplied the front.
The guys - Valya, Natasha, Kolya - were playing naughty, jumping near the cow. The guards were so used to the boys that they didn’t even drive them away from the wire that surrounded the warehouses. Only when they got too close did the sentry raise his machine gun threateningly, and the guys instantly flew off to a decent distance.
A harmless company... And every day Stepan Didenko and Gorbatyuk accumulated more and more information about the location of posts, the time of changing of guards, the number of cars entering and leaving the warehouse. All this was conveyed by the guys who vigilantly followed every movement of the Germans.
Then one evening a truck pulled up to the warehouse. The guard had just changed, and the Germans were sitting calmly in the duty room. Some played harmonicas, others played cards.
A dapper German officer jumped out of the truck cab and headed towards the guard. The Germans sitting there jumped up to greet the officer, but remained standing with their hands raised in the air. The muzzle of a machine gun was looking at them.
In the purest German, a partisan in an officer's uniform informed the guards that if any of them decided to move, the machine gun would start talking, and then it was unlikely that any of the guards would be able to go on leave to Vaterland.
Following the officer, disguised partisans walked into the warehouse area. They brought cans of kerosene hidden in cardboard boxes. Among the partisans, the guards were surprised to see the same boys who were herding a cow near the warehouses. The boys led the partisans as if they had lived all their lives in this warehouse, showing:
Here is the food, here is the uniform...
A few minutes later, a car heavily loaded with food was speeding away from the warehouse engulfed in flames. And the guards continued to sit in the guardhouse, because a sign hung on the doors: “Mined.” Valya hung this sign just before he left.
After this operation, Styopa and Kolya joined the detachment. Valya still remained in Shepetovka.
The raid on huge warehouses, located just a hundred meters from the gendarmerie, guarded by dozens of sentries, seriously alarmed the Germans.
But soon another surprise awaited them.
Again, Valik walks around, masquerading as a shepherdess. But now behind Shepetivka, in a small forest. The cow grazes for itself, and Valya digs holes in one place or another with a small sapper shovel.
The partisans knew that a communication line ran through Shepetovka somewhere far to the west, to Berlin. But how to detect a carefully hidden cable in the ground? Several reconnaissance teams were ordered to search for him. I was looking for a cable and a roller.
He knew the small forest where Valya grazed the cow inside and out. Once before the war, in the summer, the guys picked berries here, mushrooms in the fall... Roller felt that something had changed in the fishing line. But what? Have the trees gotten bigger and denser? No, on the contrary, a clearing cut through the forest. It didn't exist before. This clearing changed the forest so much. But why did the Germans build it? Maybe…
Valya looked around and, making sure that there was no one here, began to dig the ground. Soon the shovel hit a brick. How can there be bricks here in the forest, in the ground? Valya dug the ground wider. Not one, but a whole row of bricks went somewhere underground from east to west along the clearing. Valya picked up the brick. A gray snake of thick leaded cable stretched somewhere in the stone bed. With the sharp end of the shovel, Valya began to hit the lead snake as hard as he could.
At this time, the Gebietskommissar was holding the receiver of the very telephone that was connected to this cable near his ear. He was preparing to inform his boss that he had developed a brilliant plan for the destruction of the partisans, and that to carry out this plan he would personally go to Slavuta the other day...
But we didn’t manage to talk: there was a crackling sound in the receiver, and the excited voice of the telephone operator said:
- Damage on the line.
And Valya, having cut the cable, put the brick in place, carefully leveled the ground, and covered the place where he was digging with green turf.
Let them try, look for the place of the break! And the Nazis had to look for a cable break for more than a week. There was no contact with Warsaw and Berlin for more than a week.
The grenade reached its target
No, the Gebietskommissar could no longer postpone the punitive expedition against the partisans. He had to go to Slavuta in order to quickly defeat them and finally report to the boss about at least one victory over the invisible, elusive, formidable partisans.
And the partisans learned that the Gebietskommissar was going to Slavuta.
Stepan Didenko gave the task to Valik:
- Follow the Gebitskommissar.
His friend Styopa Kishchuk went on the mission with Valik. Valya took an anti-tank grenade, and Styopa took a captured machine gun.
The guys lay down in the fishing line at the bend in the road.
In the distance appeared an armored car full of soldiers and an open black limousine of the State Commissioner.
And then a curly gray-eyed boy rose to his full height from the roadside bushes. His eyes were dark with anger, hatred for the fascist, the culprit of so many deaths of innocent people. The boy has a grenade in his hands.
Worbs leaned back into the corner of the car. Oh, now he would recognize this boy among thousands of others! But at that moment the explosion blew both the car and the State Commissioner to pieces.
In Shepetivka, raid after raid began. The Germans went out of their way to find the perpetrators of the daring attacks.
Clouds began to gather over the underground workers. In Slavuta, the provocateur betrayed Doctor Mikhailov, one of the leaders of the underground. The tentacles of the German secret police also reached Gorbatyuk. He died from torture in the office of the chief of the criminal police, the traitor Neumann, but did not betray anyone.
Natasha and her mother had to go into the forest. The Germans, of course, would not leave the wife and daughter of a communist free.
But the reprisals did not help. Trains on railway more and more often they went downhill.
One Saturday evening there was a knock on Valik's window. Didenko arrived. Now he increasingly had to change safe houses.
Get ready, he said, your arrest is scheduled for Monday.
Anna Nikitichna, Valik and older brother Victor left on time. An hour after they left, the police raided the apartment...
Partisan scout
In front of the line are several people who have newly arrived in the detachment. On the left flank the smallest one is Valya Kotik. He is also armed. In his hands is a machine gun, one of several dozen German machine guns he obtained.
Following Commissar Kuzovkov, Valya pronounces the words of the partisan oath:
- I swear that I would rather die in a fierce battle with enemies than give myself, my family and everything Soviet people into slavery to bloody fascism...
- We swear! We swear! - all the partisans repeat. This is how life began for Valya Kotik in the partisan
Hero's squad Soviet Union Anton Zakharovich Odukha. Valya was assigned as a scout to Logutenko’s detachment.
Pioneer Valya Kotik has six echelons to his name. Six trains with ammunition, equipment, and manpower of the enemy were derailed by the pioneer.
And how much courage and endurance was needed to calmly pass by German sentries during reconnaissance in Slavuta and Izyaslav, in Polonnoy and Maidan-Vil, wherever the partisans had presence, wherever there were large German garrisons and military warehouses; to calmly walk past the fascists when you have leaflets or reports sewn into the lining of your jacket to the partisan “Center”, the underground regional committee!
The messenger was obliged to act quickly and accurately. And in case of failure, remain silent, remain silent until the end. This is the partisan law. And Valik fearlessly walked towards countless dangers. Valik and his friends in the partisan unit were called Korchaginians. And this high title, invented by someone unknown, filled the heart of the pioneer with pride. After all, his favorite book is “How the Steel Was Tempered” by Nikolai Ostrovsky. Valik did not part with her even in the partisan detachment. When he was in school, he dreamed of being at least a little like his favorite hero. And the word “Korchaginets” indicated that his comrades in the detachment highly valued his services.
How many times did Valya risk his life, how many wonderful things did he accomplish? It is difficult to answer this question, because the pioneer risked his life every day, because the most remarkable deeds were considered by the partisans to be the most ordinary combat work. Valya thought so too. And, having completed the task, he briefly reported to the commander about it, and then - that’s it, he didn’t tell anyone else about it. And time has erased the memories of many of the pioneer’s exploits.
...Valya received a new task: to go on reconnaissance to the village of Bolotin, to check if there are Germans there.
The boy rode his horse carefully through the thicket of the forest. Here is Bolotin. The forest approaches the very huts. But what is this noise in the village, the cackling of chickens, the squealing of pigs?
Valya left his horse in the bushes and made his way very close to the only street crossing the village. And then I almost burst out laughing.
There were two wedges standing on the street. And around the courtyards, with arms outstretched, almost a whole platoon of fascists chased chickens and piglets.
Now you will have such triggers! - Valik whispered and threw two grenades one after another.
In a few leaps he was already in the bushes, near the horse. And the Nazis, deciding that they were being attacked by a whole detachment, fled from the village.
…One day, Logutenko’s group, which included Valya, was tasked with dealing with the German garrison of one of the villages in the region. The partisans moved through the forest for several hours in a row.
Halt,” the commander finally ordered.
The squad stopped, displaying secrets around them. Valik also took up post.
He peered vigilantly into the forest thicket. It seemed that everything was calm around. But suddenly someone heavy and rough crushed the boy under him, twisted his arms, and took away his machine gun. These were punishers following in the footsteps of the detachment.
Lie! - they ordered Valik through an interpreter. The Germans tried to find out from him where he was from, who gave him the weapon, where his comrades were. But Valik only pointed his finger at the sky. They threw it away, they say; with a parachute of his own. Leaving two sentries near him, the punishers carefully began to move deeper into the forest, towards the detachment.
Valik lay on the ground and feverishly thought about how to inform the partisans about the mortal threat hanging over them. He moved, something round and ribbed pressed into his leg.
Grenade! The Nazis forgot to take the grenade from him in the chaos! He carefully pulled up his hand, put it in his pocket, took off the ring, jumped up and, throwing a grenade at the feet of the sentry sitting on a stump, jumped to the side.
The partisans heard an explosion. The Nazis failed to take them by surprise.
And Valya?
Wounded by grenade fragments, he crawled through the forest for several kilometers and finally fell exhausted in the forester’s hut.
The forester was an assistant to the partisans; he picked up the pioneer and took him to a remote village to see a paramedic, and then informed the partisans about this.
Two weeks later, Valya returned to the detachment. The bandage was still white on his head; he did not wait the required time, did not wait for his wounds to heal.
And here he stands in a line of festively dressed, fit partisans. The commander of the Odukha unit reads the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding the partisans of the unit with medals.
- “For the courage and resourcefulness shown when carrying out command assignments behind enemy lines, award partisan Valentin Kotik the medal “Partisan of the Great” Patriotic War”.
I serve the Soviet Union! - Valik said.
...Forty-fourth year. February. Soon Valya will turn fourteen years old.
Only fourteen?! - the partisans are surprised. Everyone is used to considering him the eldest. Valya grew up and matured in the partisan detachment. His grey eyes They look with childish seriousness. Yes, early on the Nazis took away his childhood. It was they who forced the boy to take up weapons instead of books, notebooks, and toys.
- Only fourteen! - his comrades are surprised, having seen how he rushes on a horse, how he shoots from a machine gun, how he blows up trains.
“It’s already fourteen,” Valik frowns. He wants to seem more mature.
More than once he was offered to fly by plane to the mainland, to the rear, to study at school there. They told him: “You are still small.”
How much cunning and perseverance the pioneer had to use to stay in the detachment! No, he could not leave the detachment while the Nazis were trampling his native land.
The Germans retreated under the blows of the Soviet Army. The front was getting closer and closer to Shepetovka. The partisan unit received an order from the command of the Soviet Army to storm the city of Izyaslav, through which the Nazis sent all their echelons to the rear. Before the operation began, the commander called the boy to his place:
In this battle you will remain at the disposal of the headquarters.
- Let's attack! This is probably our last attack!
“No,” Myzalev answered firmly. “You heard: yesterday they took Shepetivka.” A school will open there soon. You must return safe and sound, yes. I don't want anything to happen to you in this last fight.
The raid on Izyaslav was a complete surprise for the Germans. After a short battle the city was taken. But the partisans knew: the Nazis would soon recover and try to recapture the city again. He meant too much to them. And Valya watched from the side as the partisan battalions dug in.
But he finally received the task of guarding an ammunition depot abandoned by the Germans. The roller lay down near the warehouse. Now he won't set foot from here!
Tanks rumbled from the west. The Germans threw “tigers” at the city. And the partisans don’t have a single anti-tank gun! Shells and mines began to explode closer and closer to the warehouse. The Nazis slowly pressed back the partisan units. Now the Germans are very close to the warehouse, which Valya Kotik is entrusted with guarding. He threw himself on the ground and began sending cartridge after cartridge towards the enemies.
And suddenly a thunderous “hurray” was heard from a distance. It was the troops of the Soviet Army who came to the aid of the partisans. Valya stood up, threw a grenade at the retreating fascists and immediately collapsed to the ground, struck by a fascist bullet.
Pioneer hero
Centuries-old trees rustle quietly in the city park. Under their shade, next to the graves of the soldiers of the Soviet Army who died for the liberation of Shepetivka, there is a monument to Valya Kotik, a pioneer partisan. There are always flowers near the monument. The guys keep the memory of the hero. His name is included in the Book of Honor of the All-Union Pioneer Organization named after V.I. Lenin. The school where he studied is named after Vali Kotika. The best students of the school are now sitting at the desk where he sat. The name of the Ukrainian pioneer hero became known far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. The ocean-going motor ship Valya Kotik floats across the seas and oceans under the Soviet flag.
Valya Kotik was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and on June 27, 1958 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
S. CHUMAKOV
167 DECREE OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE USSR ON POSTHUTOMALLY AWARDING THE TITLE OF HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION TO PIONEER-PARTIZAN V. A. KOTIK.
FOR COURAGE AND HEROISM IN THE BATTLES AGAINST THE GERMAN-FASCIST INVADERS DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR, THE PIONEER-PARTISAN WILL BE AWARDED
CAT VALENTIN ALEXANDROVICH
TITLE OF HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR K. Voroshilov Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M. Georgadze
Moscow, Kremlin, June 27, 1958
Chapter IV.
PUBLIC AND HOME LIFE OF THE POPULATION IN THE TERRITORY OF PARTIZAN TERRITORIES AND ZONES
4. SOVIET SCHOOLS BEHIND ENEMY RAINS
A remarkable page in the chronicle of the national struggle against Hitlerism and its most reactionary ideology was the activity of Soviet schools behind enemy lines.
The fascist German invaders, who sought to turn our country into their colony, and the Soviet people into slaves of German imperialism, reduced the network of public education institutions to a minimum: not only all higher education institutions did not work in the occupied territory educational establishments, but even high schools. Only in settlements where fascist garrisons stood, or in the immediate vicinity of them, did the Nazis leave a certain amount primary schools, intending to use them in the interests of the spiritual enslavement of our people.
The fascist nationalist “Belaruskaya Gazeta”, admiring the fascist so-called “new order”, reported that in the 1943/44 academic year there were 5 gymnasiums operating on the territory of Belarus. And this is on the territory of the republic, where even before the war universal elementary education, where in the 1940/41 academic year there were 2,562 seven-year schools. To deceive the working people, during the three years of occupation, the Nazis wrote in newspapers that they would open some higher educational institutions in Belarus, but, of course, they never opened them.
The main task that the Nazi occupiers set for the schools under their control was the spread of the imperialist misanthropic slave-colonialist ideology, the fight against the Soviet, communist ideology. In his order on the temporary school order, the Gauleiter of Belarus Kube stated: “Every Bolshevik influence that comes from the school will be punishable by death...”
In those schools that the Nazis allowed to open, they demanded that children be raised in a spirit of humility and complete submission to the Nazi invaders. In primary school curricula, 30 percent of instructional time was devoted to studying German language, a short time - arithmetic, reading and physical education. There was almost no time left for studying the native language and other general education disciplines. The teaching of the Russian language in Ukrainian, Belarusian schools and schools of other union republics was completely prohibited. The same Kube openly stated in his newspaper “Minsker Zeitung” that the goal of German “school policy is the German orientation (i.e., one-labeling - A. 3.) of Belarusian youth.” The occupiers demanded that teachers drill into children the idea of the dominant role of Nazi Germany. Teachers were required to explain to the children for 30 minutes every day before the start of classes who Hitler was, what “good” the occupation “new order” brought to the people, what successes the German army achieved in the war with the Soviet Union. Pursuing the same goal - “the fight against Bolshevik influence”, the occupation authorities categorically prohibited the use of Soviet textbooks. The Nazis soon brought the schools under their control to a state where they had not only no textbooks, but even the most necessary aids. In one of its articles, the nationalist fascist “Belaruskaya Gazeta” was forced to admit that there is no paper in schools, no visual aids.
The servants of the German fascists, the Belarusian bourgeois nationalists, attempted to raise the issue of publishing their textbooks, poisoned by the poison of anti-Soviet ideology. But, as it turned out, the occupiers declared the need to consider this issue only in Berlin. In this regard, the Belarusian national traitors began a lackey correspondence with their masters, which lasted until the complete expulsion of the Nazi occupiers from Soviet land. From this correspondence it is clear that the Nazi occupiers did not want to provide textbooks even to those schools run by Belarusian bourgeois nationalists. Yes, this is understandable. This school policy of the Nazis was fully consistent with their desire to prevent the spread of education in the Soviet territories they occupied.
Should it be proven that soviet people, who fell under the foreign fascist yoke, were sharply hostile to the school policy of the Nazi occupiers. The Communist Party and its underground organizations behind enemy lines helped the workers to correctly navigate the policy of spiritual oppression and enslavement pursued by the German fascists. Not wanting the occupiers to desecrate the consciousness of the younger generation with their misanthropic ideology, parents most often did not allow their children to attend schools that were under the control of the fascist occupation authorities. And the children did not want to attend such schools. The obvious failure of the occupiers’ policy in school affairs on the territory of Ukraine was even noted by one of the fascist newspapers, stating that in many classes of schools operating at that time “there were only 10-12-15 or even fewer students, while according to the norm in each class there were there had to be at least 30.”
Many residents of the territory occupied by the Nazis kept pre-war school textbooks so that, when the opportunity arises, they can again use them to teach their children in the Soviet spirit. In places that were threatened by frequent attacks by Hitler's punitive expeditions, local residents buried Soviet textbooks in the ground and hid them in other places. When in October 1944, after the expulsion of the Nazi occupiers from Belarus, a seven-year school resumed its work in the village of Orekhovno, Ushachi district, Vitebsk region, preserved pre-war Soviet textbooks appeared in the hands of many students. There was one textbook for 5-6 students. This is quite a lot, considering that most of the houses in the village were burned due to bombing and during the enemy blockade.
To the credit of the army of thousands of Soviet teachers who found themselves in territory occupied by the enemy, it should be said that the overwhelming majority of them, together with the entire people, expressed active protest against the school policies of the fascist occupiers and fought against the spiritual enslavement of our youth. Many teachers not only did not go to work in schools that were under the control of the Nazi occupation authorities, but tried in every possible way to disrupt the work of such schools. Soviet teachers hid school equipment and textbooks from the Nazis. Even the nationalist Belaruskaya Gazeta, speaking about local teachers, was forced to admit that they “are not without many remnants of Bolshevik ideology in their minds.” Recalling his stay in the Bryansk forests, A. Saburov says that in the fall of 1941, throughout the entire large district, the occupation authorities decided to open a school only in the village of Krasnaya Sloboda. The burgomaster himself undertook to select the teachers. When teacher M. Gutareva asked the burgomaster what textbooks to teach the children from, he first began to say that it was necessary to tear out some pages from old textbooks, but then he stopped fussing and frankly stated: “Teach without any textbooks. It is not necessary for village children to be able to read, write, and count. The main thing is to gain their trust and ask them in detail about their parents: what they say, what they do, what they breathe.” The burgomaster ordered the teacher to report to him personally about everything. For disclosing this conversation he threatened to be shot. But Hitler's henchman failed to carry out his insidious plans. Soviet patriot M. Gutareva did not work for the occupiers. She joined the ranks of the people's avengers. And the rapid growth of the partisan movement in the Bryansk forests did not give the fascist occupation authorities the opportunity to open a “school” in Krasnaya Sloboda, as well as in a number of other settlements.
Patriotic teachers, often risking their lives, in defiance of the fascist authorities, taught children in accordance with the programs of Soviet schools. Despite the categorical orders of the occupiers prohibiting the use of Soviet textbooks and books to teach children, teachers continued to use them illegally. A teacher in the village of Yatsina, Putivl district, Sumy region, V. Silina, on the advice of the partisans, continued to teach the history of the USSR under the guise of grammar. In many cities and villages of Ukraine, anti-fascist underground groups were created even in schools opened by the occupiers. Teachers secretly held student meetings dedicated to revolutionary dates. Unable to work in school, some Soviet teachers taught children in various other places. Hero of the Soviet Union G. Artozeev tells about his book “Partisan True” that in his native village of Mashevo, Semenovsky district, Chernigov region, the old teacher F. L. Popravko, hiding from the occupiers, taught children in the forest in the summer.
Anna Iosifovna Pashkevich, a young teacher from the village of Kaleevtsy, Vileika region, showed great resourcefulness and dedication. She worked alone throughout the war at a school where children from the village of Kaleevtsy and neighboring villages came. Despite the fact that there was a large Nazi garrison several kilometers from the village, the patriot taught the children according to Soviet programs and textbooks. When the Nazis arrived in the village, the children quickly hid their Soviet textbooks in a hiding place located between the stove and the wall, and the teacher took out old magazines published in bourgeois Poland from the closet and placed them on their desks. There was not a single textbook on the history of the USSR left at school, and Anna Iosifovna replaced it with her lively story about the past hard life under the bourgeois system, about the liberation of the working people of Western Belarus in 1939 by the Red Army, about the need to fight against the fascist occupiers. The children of this school studied their native language not only from textbooks, of which there were very few, but also from partisan newspapers and leaflets.
During classes, the older students placed their patrols on the approaches to the school, the children, together with the teacher, prepared firewood for the winter and heated their school. The teacher often provided nutritional assistance to the most needy children. This is how A.I. Pashkevich worked with all four classes until the end of the fascist occupation. In the 1943/44 academic year, the village of Kaleevtsy found itself in the partisan zone. The final exams in the spring of 1944 were held by 4th grade students in the presence of two partisan commanders who sat at the table with the teacher.
But the desire of children to study from Soviet textbooks, in the spirit of Soviet socialist traditions in those schools that were located near fascist garrisons, did not always end so successfully. The Nazis often burned schools, killed teachers, and abused children. This is what former secretary of the underground district committee A. Semenov says about the work of the Korostovets school in the Kletnyansky district. The following incident occurred in a Russian language lesson in a Korostovets school. The teacher told the students to come up with an exclamatory sentence. The boy, whose father had gone to the front, shouted: “Long live the Red Army!” The teacher stopped the children and said that it is now forbidden to speak like that, we need to find more suitable examples. Then one boy said: “I came up with an idea!.. Death to Hitler and all fascists!” Having learned about this, the commandant of the regional center of Kletny ordered the Korostovets school to be burned.
A completely different situation developed in the partisan regions. In the schools that worked there, no one could stop teachers from teaching children according to Soviet programs and textbooks. However, the incessant fascist punitive expeditions, blockades, and air bombings did not make it possible to organize the work of schools on a large scale. Nevertheless, Soviet schools existed in many partisan regions. Already in the fall of 1941, 53 schools began to operate in the partisan region, formed on the territory of Dedovichsky, Belebelkovsky and neighboring districts of the Leningrad region. Local teachers and partisan teachers, with the help of Komsomol and Pioneer organizations, obtained tables, desks, blackboards, textbooks and visual aids, gathered the children and began classes with them.
In the late autumn of the same 1941, 8 schools were opened in the Ashevsky district of the Kalinin region, which, together with the above-mentioned districts of the Leningrad region, was part of one partisan region. During the first war winter, schools also worked on the territory of the partisan region of the Bryansk forests.
In the second academic year of the war, due to the expansion of the partisan movement, Soviet schools began to operate in the territories of other regions located behind enemy lines. Such schools were opened in the Smolensk region. The restoration of schools was preceded by work carried out by party organizations of partisan regions with teachers. In the Elninsky district of this region, back in April - May 1942, two regional conferences of teachers were held. The restoration of schools was carried out especially energetically in the 1942/43 academic year on the territory of the Oktyabrsko-Lyuban partisan region of Belarus. Here this important and serious work was started on the initiative of the Central Committee of the LKSMB. At the suggestion of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Belarus K. T. Mazurov, who was in the partisan region, a meeting of the deputy commissars of the partisan detachments for the Komsomol was convened, who were tasked with leading the restoration of schools in the villages and hamlets of the partisan region. Representatives of the Komsomol Central Committee, together with the Minsk underground regional committee, selected teachers who fought in the ranks of the people's avengers. On September 1, 1942, in the distant enemy rear on the territory of the Oktyabrsky and Lyubansky regions of Belarus, about 20 Soviet schools began to operate. The Nazis barbarously bombed partisan schools and burned buildings. In conditions of intensified fight against the enemy, the education of children in the territory of this partisan region ceased in the first months of 1943.
In the 1943/44 school year, schools began to operate again in the new partisan regions of the Leningrad region and Belarus. On February 20, 1944, the newspaper of the Leningrad regional committee of the Komsomol “Smena” published on its pages a letter from students of the Sofronogorsk school of the Strugo-Krasnensky district, located in the partisan region, to students of Leningrad. In their letter, the schoolchildren talked about the conditions of study behind enemy lines.
This is the letter.
“Dear guys from Leningrad!
Until recently, our area was deep behind the German lines. Now, every day, units of the Red Army are approaching us closer and closer, and we are eagerly counting down the days when the Germans will roll back from us as far as they have now rolled back from the city of Lenin.
Dear Guys! It's hard for you to imagine our life. We know it was hard for you in Leningrad, surrounded by the Germans. But you still lived freely all the time, and the Nazis could not mock you. Schools were always open for you. You had notebooks, textbooks, pencils, pens. You could say what you wanted, sing our Soviet songs.
But we lived completely differently. For two whole years our area was under the rule of the damned Nazis, and they mocked us as much as they wanted. Of course, we couldn’t study. We didn't have schools. Yes, even if there was a school, then during this time we were so cut off that we would still have nothing to go to school with.
If it weren’t for the partisans, the Nazis would still continue to mock us. But partisan fighters occupied our village, and now our entire area is called “ Partisan region" Brave partisans protect us from the Germans. They not only fight the enemy, but also take care of us guys. Now the partisans have opened a school for us and are helping us with our studies as much as they can. But learning is not easy for us. We don’t have notebooks and we write on old wallpaper that we tear off the walls of houses destroyed by the Nazis. We also don’t have ink, pens or pencils. The Germans burned the textbooks. But we managed to hide several textbooks from them, so we study from them. Now there are already 42 students in our school, and almost every day more and more children arrive to us. We all look forward to the time when our native Red Army comes to our places and when we will forever be freed from the fascist rapists. Greetings - students of the 3rd and 4th grades of the Sofronogorsk school."
The history of Soviet schools in the Brest region is of great interest. About twenty partisan schools operated there. They were created in family units, formed from local residents in partisan detachments and formations. Only in the Sverdlov partisan brigade there were 9 family units. The people included in these detachments lived as whole families with old people and children among forests and swamps, between lakes Chernoe and Sporovskoye in the Berezovsky district. The working conditions of partisan schools in forest family detachments were very difficult.
The first of the forest partisan schools in the Brest region began to be created in September 1943. Some schools were opened here in the last 4-5 months of the Nazis’ stay on Belarusian soil. Soviet people firmly believed that 1944 would come last year the hated Nazi occupation. On the territory of the Brest region, partisan schools existed until the expulsion of the Nazi invaders, that is, until the second half of July 1944.
All of these schools were primary, with only the first four grades. The classes were taught by teachers who lived in the places where the people's avengers were stationed or who were invited by them from other populated areas. These were selfless people who had an infinite love for their work. All teaching was imbued with deep ideological and political emphasis. Teachers raised children in the spirit of hatred of the enemy, love and devotion to their socialist Motherland, and unshakable faith in our victory. Pioneer organizations were created in all forestry schools in the Brest region, and a lot of extracurricular work was carried out: the children took part in amateur performances and helped adults in many household chores related to the improvement of forest camps.
Many former students and teachers of partisan schools in the Brest region still live in Belarus - witnesses and participants in one of the heroic pages of the history of the people during the Great Patriotic War. For a more specific description of the conditions in which these schools worked, we present some moments from the memoirs of a former student of school No. 2 at the partisan detachment named after M. I. Kalinin of the brigade named after F. Dzerzhinsky T. K. Kot, who after the war began to work as a teacher in schools Brest region.
Tanya's father Kot had been in a partisan detachment since 1942. In this regard, the family living in the village was pursued at every step by the German fascists and their agents. When it became completely impossible to live at home, the Kot family also decided to join the detachment. “It was in June 1943. We drove the whole day. “I thought,” recalls T.K. Kot, “that we would end up in a large impenetrable forest, but I saw a solid swamp with small islands on which partisan detachments were located...
We were greeted as if we were long-awaited and long-familiar people, although we were seeing them for the first time. The island where we arrived was beautiful. There were vines growing all around, and the tree crowns were densely intertwined above. At dusk it seemed to us that we had entered some kind of park. The huts covered with hay seemed also beautiful and cozy to us children. Two days after our arrival, the island was bombed. Enemy planes descended very low and fired machine guns at the bushes. This went on for more than a month. We had to lie all day long in the swamp, where there were many frogs and snakes.
It soon became clear that there were 9 pioneers among us. The Komsomol members of the partisan detachment decided to organize a pioneer detachment in our family camp and open a school. The party organization and command supported this initiative. Komsomol member Pyotr Ilyich Ivanovsky, who had poor vision, was appointed our leader. It was difficult for him to participate in combat missions, but he took on the job of working with the pioneers and organizing the school very willingly. The detachment command allowed us to sew pioneer uniforms from parachute fabric. We also made pioneer ties for ourselves. The entire team embroidered the Pioneer banner especially painstakingly and carefully. Soon, in a solemn ceremony, 28 more children were accepted as pioneers. After this, the headquarters of the pioneer squad was elected.
The school was opened on September 17, 1943. Komsomol partisans took out textbooks and paper. Everyone took an active part in setting up the school. To do this, they cleared the area, put logs instead of benches, and poured yellow sand, which was very difficult to get here. All this was camouflaged from above from airplanes. It turned out that we will have three classes. Faina Petrovna Karabetyanova became our teacher. At her suggestion, we had a fixed daily routine: getting up at 7 a.m., physical exercise, toilet, and breakfast. While classes are going on in one class, the rest are preparing lessons and doing homework. After classes - work on the camp and preparation for training camps. At 10 o'clock in the evening there was a line on which the results of the day were briefly summed up and tasks for tomorrow were outlined...
There was not enough paper, pencils and ink. Therefore, I had to write on birch bark with coals. There was no chalkboard, instead we wrote in the sand with a stick. There was only one textbook, two per class.
The command decided to build a winter camp by November 7th. We took an active part in this work: we helped cut logs, pulled moss, and brought various materials. They built a winter school for us in the form of a log hut with three windows, each containing one piece of glass. They covered the school with spruce bark, camouflaged it and insulated it with dry grass, leaves, and moss. The school was heated with an iron stove. Here they made us benches from boards.
Even after classes, we really liked to gather at our school. People who flew in from Moscow came here to talk to us. They told a lot of interesting things about the capital. Our school was also visited by an authorized representative of the Komsomol Central Committee and a correspondent from one of the Moscow newspapers. Along with ammunition, Soviet pilots dropped magazines, newspapers, and paper onto us by parachute. We were very pleased with these gifts from Moscow. Pioneers and schoolchildren prepared various amateur performances, which they performed both in their camp and in the partisan detachment.
Together with the people's avengers, the inhabitants of the civilian forest camp, including children, had to endure a difficult fascist blockade in the spring of 1944. We were forced to go into the swamp for ten days, where we took our textbooks and paper with us. Afterwards we returned to the camp and continued our studies. Students performed well. At the end of the school year, final classes and exams were held in the presence of the commander of the partisan detachment, the commissar, the secretary of the Komsomol organization and a teacher from another detachment. On July 24, 1944, we were liberated by the Red Army.”
These are some of the features of the work of only one of the schools in the Brest region behind enemy lines. And how much original, unique, and interesting there was in the life of other such schools. The very fact of the existence of these, although not numerous, schools was a vivid manifestation of the vitality of Soviet traditions in the life of our people, which continued to exist and strengthen even in the most difficult conditions of the fascist occupation.
T. Cat. ,From the book “Children-Heroes”,
Getting stuck in a marshy swamp, falling and getting up again, we went to our own - to the partisans. The Germans were fierce in their native village.
And for a whole month the Germans bombed our camp. “The partisans have been destroyed,” they finally sent a report to their high command. But invisible hands again derailed trains, blew up weapons warehouses, and destroyed German garrisons.
Summer is over, autumn is already trying on its colorful, crimson outfit. It was difficult for us to imagine September without school.
- These are the letters I know! - eight-year-old Natasha Drozd once said and drew a round “O” in the sand with a stick and next to it - an uneven gate “P”. Her friend drew some numbers. The girls were playing school, and neither one nor the other noticed with what sadness and warmth the commander of the partisan detachment Kovalevsky was watching them. In the evening at the council of commanders he said:
“The kids need school...” and added quietly: “We can’t deprive them of their childhood.”
That same night, Komsomol members Fedya Trutko and Sasha Vasilevsky went out on a combat mission, with Pyotr Ilyich Ivanovsky with them. They returned a few days later. Pencils, pens, primers, and problem books were taken out of their pockets and bosoms. There was a sense of peace and home, of great human care, from these books here, among the swamps, where a mortal battle for life was taking place.
“It’s easier to blow up a bridge than to get your books,” Pyotr Ilyich flashed his teeth cheerfully and took out... a pioneer horn.
None of the partisans said a word about the risk they were exposed to. There could have been an ambush in every house, but it never occurred to any of them to abandon the task or return empty-handed. ,
Three classes were organized: first, second and third. School... Pegs driven into the ground, intertwined with wicker, a cleared area, instead of a board and chalk - sand and a stick, instead of desks - stumps, instead of a roof over your head - camouflage from German planes. In cloudy weather we were plagued by mosquitoes, sometimes snakes crawled in, but we didn’t pay attention to anything.
How the children valued their clearing school, how they hung on every word of the teacher! There were one textbook, two per class. There were no books at all on some subjects. We remembered a lot from the words of the teacher, who sometimes came to class straight from a combat mission, with a rifle in his hands, belted with ammunition.
The soldiers brought everything they could get for us from the enemy, but there was not enough paper. We carefully removed birch bark from fallen trees and wrote on it with coals. There has never been a case where someone did not comply homework. Only those guys who were urgently sent to reconnaissance skipped classes.
It turned out that we only had nine pioneers; the remaining twenty-eight guys had to be accepted as pioneers. We sewed a banner from a parachute donated to the partisans and made a pioneer uniform. Partisans were accepted into pioneers, and the detachment commander himself tied ties for new arrivals. The headquarters of the pioneer squad was immediately elected.
Without stopping our studies, we built a new dugout school for the winter. To insulate it, a lot of moss was needed. They pulled it out so hard that their fingers hurt, sometimes they tore off their nails, they cut their hands painfully with grass, but no one complained. No one demanded excellent academic performance from us, but each of us made this demand on ourselves. And when the hard news came that our beloved comrade Sasha Vasilevsky had been killed, all the pioneers of the squad took a solemn oath: to study even better.
At our request, the squad was given the name of a deceased friend. That same night, avenging Sasha, the partisans blew up 14 German vehicles and derailed the train. The Germans sent 75 thousand punitive forces against the partisans. The blockade began again. Everyone who knew how to handle weapons went into battle. Families retreated into the depths of the swamps, and our pioneer squad also retreated. Our clothes were freezing, we ate once a day brewed in hot water flour. But, retreating, we grabbed all our textbooks. Classes continued at the new location. And we kept the oath given to Sasha Vasilevsky. In the spring exams, all the pioneers answered without hesitation. The strict examiners - the detachment commander, the commissar, the teachers - were pleased with us.
As a reward, the best students received the right to participate in shooting competitions. They fired from the detachment commander's pistol. This was the highest honor for the guys. 3123
Getting stuck in a marshy swamp, falling and getting up again, we went to our own - to the partisans. The Germans were fierce in their native village.
And for a whole month the Germans bombed our camp. “The partisans have been destroyed,” they finally sent a report to their high command. But invisible hands again derailed trains, blew up weapons warehouses, and destroyed German garrisons.
Summer is over, autumn is already trying on its colorful, crimson outfit. It was difficult for us to imagine September without school.
- These are the letters I know! - eight-year-old Natasha Drozd once said and drew a round “O” in the sand with a stick and next to it - an uneven gate “P”. Her friend drew some numbers. The girls were playing school, and neither one nor the other noticed with what sadness and warmth the commander of the partisan detachment Kovalevsky was watching them. In the evening at the council of commanders he said:
“The kids need school...” and added quietly: “We can’t deprive them of their childhood.”
That same night, Komsomol members Fedya Trutko and Sasha Vasilevsky went out on a combat mission, with Pyotr Ilyich Ivanovsky with them. They returned a few days later. Pencils, pens, primers, and problem books were taken out of their pockets and bosoms. There was a sense of peace and home, of great human care, from these books here, among the swamps, where a mortal battle for life was taking place.
“It’s easier to blow up a bridge than to get your books,” Pyotr Ilyich flashed his teeth cheerfully and took out... a pioneer horn.
None of the partisans said a word about the risk they were exposed to. There could have been an ambush in every house, but it never occurred to any of them to abandon the task or return empty-handed. ,
Three classes were organized: first, second and third. School... Pegs driven into the ground, intertwined with wicker, a cleared area, instead of a board and chalk - sand and a stick, instead of desks - stumps, instead of a roof over your head - camouflage from German planes. In cloudy weather we were plagued by mosquitoes, sometimes snakes crawled in, but we didn’t pay attention to anything.
How the children valued their clearing school, how they hung on every word of the teacher! There were one textbook, two per class. There were no books at all on some subjects. We remembered a lot from the words of the teacher, who sometimes came to class straight from a combat mission, with a rifle in his hands, belted with ammunition.
The soldiers brought everything they could get for us from the enemy, but there was not enough paper. We carefully removed birch bark from fallen trees and wrote on it with coals. There was no case of anyone not doing their homework. Only those guys who were urgently sent to reconnaissance skipped classes.
It turned out that we only had nine pioneers; the remaining twenty-eight guys had to be accepted as pioneers. We sewed a banner from a parachute donated to the partisans and made a pioneer uniform. Partisans were accepted into pioneers, and the detachment commander himself tied ties for new arrivals. The headquarters of the pioneer squad was immediately elected.
Without stopping our studies, we built a new dugout school for the winter. To insulate it, a lot of moss was needed. They pulled it out so hard that their fingers hurt, sometimes they tore off their nails, they cut their hands painfully with grass, but no one complained. No one demanded excellent academic performance from us, but each of us made this demand on ourselves. And when the hard news came that our beloved comrade Sasha Vasilevsky had been killed, all the pioneers of the squad took a solemn oath: to study even better.
At our request, the squad was given the name of a deceased friend. That same night, avenging Sasha, the partisans blew up 14 German vehicles and derailed the train. The Germans sent 75 thousand punitive forces against the partisans. The blockade began again. Everyone who knew how to handle weapons went into battle. Families retreated into the depths of the swamps, and our pioneer squad also retreated. Our clothes were frozen, we ate flour boiled in hot water once a day. But, retreating, we grabbed all our textbooks. Classes continued at the new location. And we kept the oath given to Sasha Vasilevsky. In the spring exams, all the pioneers answered without hesitation. The strict examiners - the detachment commander, the commissar, the teachers - were pleased with us.
As a reward, the best students received the right to participate in shooting competitions. They fired from the detachment commander's pistol. This was the highest honor for the guys.
From the first days of occupation of the territory of our republic by the Nazi invaders, entire villages and families - with old people, women and children - went to the Belarusian forests and thickets to fight the enemy. Of course, the partisan detachments could not accept everyone, since they led a predominantly nomadic life and had a small economy at the bases and a limited amount of food. However, a solution was soon found in the creation of so-called family camps. They were equipped by the population itself under the leadership and with the direct participation of the people's avengers, as a rule, in the depths of forests and swamps, between lakes, along the edges of which partisan detachments were usually located. Small groups of partisans were assigned to guard these camps.
Children of preschool and school age who were in family camps, along with adults, endured the difficulties and deprivations of difficult partisan everyday life. Many lifelong events took place before the eyes of children and teenagers: seeing off partisans (among whom were close relatives of the children) on dangerous combat missions, bitter scenes of farewell to the dead, and the suffering of the wounded in unequal battles with the invaders. It was especially difficult for children in the winter months, when frosts and snowstorms were added to all the hardships of forest life, the lack of proper warm clothing and shoes, and forced movements from their habitable place to another base due to German raids and persecution also affected them.
During the war, forest partisan schools, unique in scale and nature of activity, operated in many family camps in Belarus. As Kirill Trofimovich Mazurov, a prominent organizer of the partisan movement in Belarus, recalled in his book “Unforgettable,” “despite the difficulties, the creation of schools in the forests was in full swing. The first to take up the call for the creation of schools to educate children in partisan zones (in villages and forest camps for the population) were Komsomol members of the Polesie region. The initiative later spread to Minsk, Pinsk and other regions. The creation of Soviet schools behind enemy lines... served not only to unite and educate children, but also instilled people’s faith in the inevitable expulsion of the Nazis.”
In the Brest region alone, as of May 1, 1944, 490 children were studying in such schools. All forest schools were primary, with only the first four grades. They, as a rule, were housed in dugouts and various structures built from wicker and other improvised materials. Partisan activists, teachers, parents, and children themselves took part in their organization. The work of forest schools took place in incredibly difficult conditions - there were no textbooks, notebooks, writing paper, visual aids, or normal equipped premises for classes. However, as always, the people's ingenuity and wisdom of the partisans came to the rescue. Thus, when making writing instruments, partisans cut out letters for the alphabet from oak bark for first-graders, made cool abacus from twigs, and prepared pieces of birch bark for writing. Craftsmen found a way to make ink: they made a decoction of oak acorns and threw a rusty nail or a piece of iron into it. This mixture sat for some time and ink was obtained. Often teaching aids were obtained from the local population, as well as through messengers and scouts in populated areas.
There were no chalkboards; instead, students wrote with planed sticks on the ground and sand. Cartridge casings were often used for counting. Due to the lack of textbooks and notebooks, pens and pencils, children wrote on the margins of newspapers and wrapping paper, the back of German leaflets, or even just with sticks on birch bark or sand. The alphabet was letters cut from birch bark, and the counting material was cones and acorns. The partisans equipped children with adapted study rooms, made desks and blackboards, and provided schools with notebooks and pens. Due to the lack of textbooks and programs, partisan teachers taught children using the political literature available in the detachments. Often teachers used orders from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, texts from newspapers, brochures or Sovinformburo leaflets when working with children.
In the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, as one of the most valuable relics of the war, a letter dated November 22, 1942 from the Secretary of the LKSMB Central Committee K.T. Mazurov to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Belarus M.V. Zimyanin about the work of forest schools is kept. Here are excerpts from it. Due to the lack of writing materials and students, “Komsomol members of Nikolai Rozov’s detachment went to different villages on these issues and collected 150 pencils, several textbooks, and several dozen notebooks. In the Oktyabrsky district, a conference of teachers was held on September 14, and on September 15, Parent meeting. Schools began work on September 16. The number of students there is 271 people. Karpilovskaya school - 47 children, Rudobelskaya - 10, Rudnitskaya - 20, Staro-Dubrovskaya - 26, Novo-Dubrovskaya - 52.”
Some brigades even had pioneer organizations. From the memoirs of a former student of school No. 2 at the partisan detachment named after M.I. Kalinin of the brigade named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky T.K. Kot, who after the war began working as a teacher in schools in the Brest region. “The command of the detachment,” she recalled, “allowed us to sew pioneer uniforms from parachute fabric. We also made pioneer ties for ourselves. The entire team embroidered the Pioneer banner especially painstakingly and carefully. Soon, in a solemn ceremony, 28 more children were accepted as pioneers. After this, the headquarters of the pioneer squad was elected.
The Belarusian State Museum contains the wall newspapers “Our Study” and “Pioneer” of the pioneer organizations of the partisan brigades of the Brest region. They cover the life of young pioneers, studies and social work.
In addition to teaching children writing, reading and arithmetic, teachers carried out extensive political and educational work with them and instilled in them work skills. IN free time They camouflaged the camps, carried out work to improve them, and prepared berries, mushrooms, and firewood.
According to the surviving memories of former students and teachers, classes often began with reports from the Sovinformburo, which were received by partisan radio operators. Based on the reports, the children wrote dictations and studied geography.
In the poem “Classes under a Pine Tree,” written in January 1944 by M.V. Shlyakhtenko, there are these simple lines:
Only the sun rises above the earth
And the gray fog will clear,
Under the curly green
pine
Children of families study
partisan
Forest schools are most widespread in the Brest and Baranovichi regions. Here, about twenty partisan schools operated under partisan detachments and formations. It is reliably known that the first forest school in the Brest region was organized in the fall of 1943 at the detachment named after M.I. Kalinin, where 50 primary school children studied in three classes. At the family camp of the detachment named after A.A. Zhdanov of the brigade named after. Y.M.Sverdlova primary education 38 children were covered.
One of the detachments in the Brest forests was commanded by Lieutenant Evgeniy Georgievich Makarevich, the initiator of the creation of a forest school, where 98 children studied. After the death of E.G. Makarevich in June 1943, a detachment of the brigade named after. Y.M. Sverdlov was named after the commander. A report on the educational work among school-age children of the 4th family camp of this detachment for June 1944 is kept in the Belarusian State Museum. The report states that “in the family camp, 46 children attend school, of which 24 are in 1st grade, 13 in 2nd grade, and 9 in 3rd grade. The following subjects are studied in the lessons: Russian language, arithmetic, singing. The children memorized the poems “The Combat Missile Soared,” “The Nations Are Leading the Battle,” and “Our Glorious Land.” During extracurricular hours, conversations were held “About the actions of the partisans”, “About the population’s assistance to the partisans”, “About the heroic actions of the partisan Tanya”. In physical education in the 2nd and 3rd grades, the topics “Formation in a line and column”, “Turns in place and in motion”, “Getting out of formation” were studied.
In addition, the children were given lessons in short-distance running, long jumping, pull-ups on the horizontal bar, exercises in grenade throwing, studying the structure of a rifle, and training with models of small arms.
Proudly organizer educational work reports in the report that at the forest school there was a systematic amateur art group and a children's work group (boys carved toys for preschool children and models of weapons from wood and bark, girls learned to knit and sew). The children looked after the school garden and collected medicinal herbs: during the season they collected 0.5 kg of lily of the valley flowers, 6 kg of fern leaves, 1 kg of chamomile flowers, 4 kg of valerian roots, 1.5 kg of linden blossoms.
The school notebook, located in the “Partisan Camp” of our museum, details the report of teacher Polina Yasnovskaya on the educational work of the forest school of the detachment named after. A.A. Zhdanov brigade named after. Y.M. Sverdlov from May 12 to July 12, 1944. The detachment operated in the Drogichinsky district of the Brest region. 58 children were enrolled here - 23 boys and 35 girls of primary school age. As can be seen from the report, the school day here was set at 4 lessons of 45 minutes each. The breaks between lessons are as follows: small breaks of 10 minutes, large breaks of 30 minutes. Classes were held at the school in 2 shifts. A curriculum and a fixed school schedule were drawn up. By the way, here, in addition to the previously mentioned subjects, there were subjects of natural history and handicrafts.
We read with interest today about teachers’ concern for the production of visual aids. With the help of partisan craftsmen, teachers and the children themselves, the following were made: a cut-out cardboard alphabet, a multiplication table, manuals for the development of oral and written speech, in the sections of spelling, history, and geography.
Students performed well. At the end of the school year, final classes and exams were held in the presence of the commander of the partisan detachment, the commissar, the secretary of the Komsomol organization and a teacher from another detachment. Upon completion of school, students were given special certificates. One of these is kept in the Belarusian State Museum. It was issued at the end of the 1943/44 academic year to Elena Danilkovich, a 3rd grade student at the forest school of the detachment named after. M.I. Kalinina (the museum also contains a photo of a forest school student). The certificate was signed by commander F. Belyaev and the head teacher of the school, teacher P. Ivanovskaya.
Classes in forest schools were taught by teachers who lived in the places where the people's avengers were deployed or were invited by them from other settlements; sometimes former high school students from among the partisans were involved in working with children. These were selfless people who loved their work infinitely, who were united by one thing - to raise a worthy replacement, real citizens of their native Fatherland, possessing knowledge, as well as the skills of partisan life and the ability to defend the Motherland. These are teachers such as M.S. Martinovich - teacher of the 123rd partisan brigade of the Polesie region, secretary of the October underground RK LKSMB, Y.A. Chernyavskaya and V.G. Osipova - teachers of the family camp of the detachment named after. A.A. Zhdanov brigade named after. Y.M.Sverdlova and others. Often, teachers with weapons in their hands left their camps along with their husbands and older partisan brothers. In July 1944, mentors M.V. Shlyakhtenko and L.A. Gritsova, partisans of the detachment named after. S.M. Kirov, Brest region - died heroically in an unequal battle with the German occupiers.
Forest partisan schools raised children in the spirit of hatred of the enemy, love and devotion to their homeland. This is their undeniable value and their feasible contribution to the common Great Victory.
Nikolai SHEVCHENKO, assistant to the head of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War
