Human exploits. Heroes of our time - the exploits of ordinary people
We present to your attention the most heroic domestic deeds performed by our children. These are stories about child heroes who, sometimes, at the cost of their lives and health, without hesitation rushed to the rescue of those who needed help.
Zhenya Tabakov
Most young hero Russia. A Real Man who was only 7 years old. The only seven-year-old recipient of the Order of Courage. Unfortunately, posthumously.
The tragedy took place on the evening of November 28, 2008. Zhenya and his twelve-year-old older sister Yana were alone at home. An unknown man rang the doorbell and introduced himself as a postman who allegedly brought a registered letter.
Yana did not suspect anything was wrong and allowed him to come in. Entering the apartment and closing the door behind him, the “postman” took out a knife instead of a letter and, grabbing Yana, began to demand that the children give him all the money and valuables. Having received an answer from the children that they did not know where the money was, the criminal demanded that Zhenya look for it, and he dragged Yana into the bathroom, where he began to tear off her clothes. Seeing how he was tearing off his sister’s clothes, Zhenya grabbed kitchen knife and in desperation thrust it into the criminal's lower back. Howling in pain, he loosened his grip, and the girl managed to run out of the apartment for help. In a rage, the would-be rapist, tearing the knife out of himself, began to thrust it into the child (eight puncture wounds incompatible with life were counted on Zhenya’s body), after which he fled. However, the wound inflicted by Zhenya, leaving a trail of blood behind, did not allow him to escape the pursuit.
By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of January 20, 2009. For the courage and dedication shown in the performance of civic duty, Evgeniy Evgenievich Tabakov was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. The order was received by Zhenya’s mother Galina Petrovna.
On September 1, 2013, a monument to Zhenya Tabakov was unveiled in the school yard - a boy driving a kite away from a dove.
Danil Sadykov
A 12-year-old teenager, a resident of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, died while saving a 9-year-old schoolboy. The tragedy occurred on May 5, 2012 on Entuziastov Boulevard. At about two o'clock in the afternoon, 9-year-old Andrei Churbanov decided to get plastic bottle, fell into the fountain. Suddenly he was electrocuted, the boy lost consciousness and fell into the water.
Everyone shouted “help,” but only Danil, who was passing by on a bicycle at that moment, jumped into the water. Danil Sadykov pulled the victim onto the side, but he himself received a severe electric shock. He died before the ambulance arrived.
Thanks to the selfless act of one child, another child survived.
Danil Sadykov was awarded the Order of Courage. Posthumously. For the courage and dedication shown in saving a person in extreme conditions. The award was presented by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Instead of his son, the boy’s father, Aidar Sadykov, received it.
Maxim Konov and Georgy Suchkov
In the Nizhny Novgorod region, two third-graders saved a woman who had fallen into an ice hole. When she was already saying goodbye to life, two boys passed by the pond, returning from school. A 55-year-old resident of the village of Mukhtolova, Ardatovsky district, went to the pond to draw water from the Epiphany ice hole. The ice hole was already covered with an edge of ice, the woman slipped and lost her balance. Wearing heavy winter clothes, she found herself in icy water. Having caught on the edge of the ice, the unfortunate woman began to call for help.
Fortunately, at that moment two friends Maxim and Georgy were passing by the pond, returning from school. Having noticed the woman, they, without wasting a second, rushed to help. Having reached the ice hole, the boys took the woman by both hands and pulled her onto the strong ice. The guys walked her home, not forgetting to grab a bucket and sled. Arriving doctors examined the woman, provided assistance, and she did not require hospitalization.
Of course, such a shock did not pass without a trace, but the woman never tires of thanking the guys for staying alive. She gave soccer balls and cell phones to her rescuers.
Vanya Makarov
Vanya Makarov from Ivdel is now eight years old. A year ago, he saved his classmate from the river, who fell through the ice. Looking at this little boy– height is just over a meter and weight is only 22 kilograms – it’s hard to imagine how he alone could pull the girl out of the water. Vanya grew up in an orphanage with his sister. But two years ago he ended up in the family of Nadezhda Novikova (and the woman already had four children of her own). In the future, Vanya plans to go to cadet school and then become a rescuer.
Kobychev Maxim
A fire broke out in a private residential building in the village of Zelveno, Amur Region, late in the evening. Neighbors discovered the fire very late when thick smoke poured out of the windows of the burning house. Having reported the fire, residents began to extinguish the flames by dousing it with water. By that time, things and the walls of the building were burning in the rooms. Among those who came running to help was 14-year-old Maxim Kobychev. Having learned that there were people in the house, he, without being confused, difficult situation, entered the house and pulled out Fresh air a disabled woman born in 1929. Then, risking his own life, he returned to the burning building and carried out a man born in 1972.
Kirill Daineko and Sergei Skripnik
In the Chelyabinsk region, two friends of 12 years showed real courage, saving their teachers from destruction caused by the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite.
Kirill Daineko and Sergei Skripnik heard their teacher Natalya Ivanovna calling for help from the cafeteria, unable to knock down the massive doors. The guys rushed to save the teacher. First, they ran into the duty room, grabbed a reinforcement bar that came to hand and broke out the window into the dining room with it. Then, through the window opening, they carried the teacher, wounded by glass fragments, to the street. After this, the schoolchildren discovered that another woman needed help - a kitchen worker, who was overwhelmed by utensils that had collapsed from the impact of the blast wave. Having quickly cleared the rubble, the boys called adults for help.
Lida Ponomareva
The medal “For saving the dead” will be awarded to a sixth grade student in Ustvash high school Leshukonsky district (Arkhangelsk region) by Lidia Ponomareva. The corresponding Decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports the press service of the Regional Government.
In July 2013, a 12-year-old girl saved two seven-year-old children. Lida, ahead of the adults, jumped into the river first after the drowning boy, and then helped the girl, who was also carried away by the current far from the shore, to swim out. One of the guys on land managed to throw a life jacket to the drowning child, after which Lida pulled the girl to the shore.
Lida Ponomareva, the only one of the surrounding children and adults who found themselves at the scene of the tragedy, without hesitation, threw herself into the river. The girl doubly risked her own life, because she was seriously ill injured hand. When the next day after saving the children, mother and daughter went to the hospital, it turned out that it was a fracture.
Admiring the girl’s courage and bravery, the governor of the Arkhangelsk region, Igor Orlov, personally thanked Lida over the phone for her courageous act.
At the suggestion of the governor, Lida Ponomareva was nominated for a state award.
Alina Gusakova and Denis Fedorov
During terrible fires in Khakassia, schoolchildren saved three people.
That day, the girl accidentally found herself near the house of her first teacher. She came to visit a friend who lived next door.
I heard someone screaming, I said to Nina: “I’ll come now,” Alina says about that day. - I see through the window that Polina Ivanovna is shouting: “Help!” While Alina was saving the school teacher, her house, where the girl lives with her grandmother and older brother, burned to the ground.
On April 12, in the same village of Kozhukhovo, Tatyana Fedorova and her 14-year-old son Denis came to visit their grandmother. It's a holiday after all. As soon as the whole family sat down at the table, a neighbor came running and, pointing to the mountain, called to put out the fire.
We ran to the fire and started extinguishing it with rags,” says Rufina Shaimardanova, Denis Fedorov’s aunt. “When we put out most of it, a very sharp, strong wind blew, and the fire came towards us. We ran to the village and ran into the nearest buildings to hide from the smoke. Then we hear - the fence is cracking, everything is on fire! I couldn’t find the door, my skinny brother ducked through the crack and then came back for me. But together we can’t find a way out! It's smoky, scary! And then Denis opened the door, grabbed me by the hand and pulled me out, then his brother. I am in panic, my brother is in panic. And Denis reassures: “Calm down Rufa.” When we walked, I couldn’t see anything at all, the lenses in my eyes melted from the high temperature...
This is how a 14-year-old schoolboy saved two people. He not only helped me get out of a house engulfed in flames, but also took me to a safe place.
The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia Vladimir Puchkov presented departmental awards to firefighters and residents of Khakassia who distinguished themselves in eliminating massive fires at fire station No. 3 of the Abakan garrison of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. The list of awarded 19 people includes firefighters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, firefighters from Khakassia, volunteers and two schoolchildren from the Ordzhonikidze district - Alina Gusakova and Denis Fedorov.
This is only a small part of the stories about brave children and their unchildish actions. One post cannot contain stories about all the heroes. Not everyone is awarded medals, but this does not make their actions any less significant. The most important reward is the gratitude of those whose lives they saved.
Before the war, these were the most ordinary boys and girls. They studied, helped their elders, played, raised pigeons, and sometimes even took part in fights. But the hour of difficult trials came and they proved how huge an ordinary little child’s heart can become when a sacred love for the Motherland, pain for the fate of one’s people and hatred for enemies flares up in it. And no one expected that it was these boys and girls who were capable of accomplishing a great feat for the glory of the freedom and independence of their Motherland!
Children left in destroyed cities and villages became homeless, doomed to starvation. It was scary and difficult to stay in enemy-occupied territory. 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 risk, which was truly fatal.
"Fedya Samodurov. Fedya is 14 years old, he is a graduate of a motorized rifle unit, commanded by Guard Captain A. Chernavin. Fedya was picked up in his homeland, in a destroyed village in the Voronezh region. Together with the unit, he took part in the battles for Ternopil, with machine-gun crews he kicked the Germans out of the city. When almost the entire crew was killed, the teenager, together with the surviving soldier, took up the machine gun, firing long and hard, and detained the enemy. Fedya was awarded the medal "For Courage".
Vanya Kozlov, 13 years old,he was left without relatives and has been in a motorized rifle unit for two years now. At the front, he delivers food, newspapers and letters to soldiers in the most difficult conditions.
Petya Zub. Petya Zub chose an equally difficult specialty. He decided long ago to become a scout. His parents were killed, and he knows how to settle accounts with the damned German. Together with experienced scouts, he reaches the enemy, reports his location by radio, and the artillery, at their direction, fires, crushing the fascists." ("Arguments and Facts", 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 using magnetic mines. Of course, girls attracted much less attention from German guards and policemen than teenage boys or adult men. But the girls were just right to play with dolls, and they fought with Wehrmacht soldiers!
Thirteen-year-old Lida often took a basket or bag and went to the railway tracks to collect coal, obtaining intelligence about German military trains. If the guards stopped her, she explained that she was collecting coal to heat the room in which the Germans lived. Olya’s mother and little sister Lida were captured and shot by the Nazis, and Olya continued to fearlessly carry out the partisans’ tasks.
The Nazis promised a generous reward for the head of the young partisan Olya Demesh - land, a cow and 10 thousand marks. Copies of her photograph were distributed and sent to all patrol officers, policemen, wardens 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 trains, conducted reconnaissance, participated in the “rail war”, and in the destruction of German punitive units.
Children of the Great Patriotic War
What happened to the children during this terrible time? During the war?
The guys worked for days in factories, factories and factories, standing at 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, and assembled gas masks. Worked in agriculture, grew vegetables for hospitals.
In school sewing workshops, pioneers sewed underwear and tunics for the army. The girls knitted warm clothes for the front: mittens, socks, scarves, and sewed tobacco pouches. The guys helped the wounded in hospitals, wrote letters to their relatives under their dictation, staged performances for the wounded, organized concerts, bringing a smile to war-weary adult men.
Row objective reasons: teachers leaving for the army, evacuation of the population from the western regions to the eastern, inclusion of students in labor activity In connection with the family's breadwinners leaving for the war, the transfer of many schools to hospitals, etc., prevented the deployment in the USSR during the war of universal seven-year compulsory education, which began in the 30s. In the remaining educational institutions training was carried out in two, three, and sometimes four shifts.
At the same time, the children were forced to store firewood for the boiler houses themselves. There were no textbooks, and due to a shortage of paper, they wrote on old newspapers between the lines. However, new schools were also opened, additional classes. Boarding schools were created for evacuated children. For those youth who left school at the beginning of the war and were employed in industry or agriculture, schools for working and rural youth were organized in 1943.
There are still many little-known pages in the chronicles of the Great Patriotic War, for example, the fate of kindergartens. “It turns out that in December 1941, in besieged MoscowKindergartens operated in bomb shelters. When the enemy was repulsed, they resumed their work faster than many universities. By the fall of 1942, 258 kindergartens had opened in Moscow!
From the memories of Lydia Ivanovna Kostyleva’s wartime childhood:
“After the death of my grandmother, I was assigned to kindergarten, older sister at school, mother at work. I went to kindergarten alone, by tram, when I was less than five years old. Once I got seriously ill with mumps, I was lying at home alone with high temperature, there was no medicine, in my delirium I imagined a piglet running under the table, but everything turned out okay.
I saw my mother in the evenings and on rare weekends. The children were raised on the street, we were friendly and always hungry. WITH early spring They ran to the mosses, since there were forests and swamps nearby, and picked berries, mushrooms, and various early grasses. The bombings gradually stopped, Allied residences were located in our Arkhangelsk, this brought a certain flavor to life - we, the children, sometimes received warm clothes and some food. Mostly we ate black shangi, potatoes, seal meat, fish and fish oil, and on holidays we ate “marmalade” made from algae, tinted with beets.”
More than five hundred teachers and nannies dug trenches on the outskirts of the capital in the fall of 1941. Hundreds worked in logging operations. The teachers, who just yesterday were dancing with the children in a round dance, fought in the Moscow militia. Natasha Yanovskaya, a kindergarten teacher in the Baumansky district, died heroically near Mozhaisk. The teachers who remained with the children did not perform any feats. They simply saved children whose fathers were fighting and whose mothers were at work.
Most kindergartens became boarding schools during the war; children were there day and night. And in order to feed children in half-starvation, protect them from the cold, give them at least a modicum of comfort, occupy them with benefit for the mind and soul - such work required great love for children, deep decency and boundless patience." (D. Shevarov " World of News", No. 27, 2010, p. 27).
Children's games have changed, "... a new game has appeared - hospital. They played hospital before, but not like this. Now the wounded are real people for them. But they play war less often, because no one wants to be a fascist. This role is played by "They are performed by trees. They shoot snowballs at them. We have learned to provide assistance to victims - those who have fallen or been bruised."
From a boy’s letter to a front-line soldier: “We used to often play war, but now much less often - we’re tired of the war, it would sooner end so that we could live well again...” (Ibid.).
Due to the death of their parents, many homeless children appeared in the country. The Soviet state, despite the difficult war time, still fulfilled its obligations to children left without parents. To combat neglect, a network of children's reception centers and orphanages was organized and opened, and employment of teenagers was organized.
Many families of Soviet citizens began to take in orphans to raise them., where they found new parents. Unfortunately, not all teachers and heads of children's institutions were distinguished by honesty and decency. Here are some examples.
"In the autumn of 1942, in the Pochinkovsky district of the Gorky region, children dressed in rags were caught stealing potatoes and grain from collective farm fields. It turned out that the pupils of the district orphanage. And they did this not at all out of a good life. Upon further investigation, local police discovered a criminal group, or, in fact, a gang, consisting of employees of this institution.
In total, seven people were arrested in the case, including the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev, accountant Sdobnov, storekeeper Mukhina and other persons. During the searches, 14 children's coats, seven suits, 30 meters of cloth, 350 meters of textiles and other illegally appropriated property, allocated with great difficulty by the state during this harsh wartime, were confiscated from them.
The investigation established that by not delivering the required quota of bread and food, these criminals stole seven tons of bread, half a ton of meat, 380 kg of sugar, 180 kg of cookies, 106 kg of fish, 121 kg of honey, etc. during 1942 alone. The orphanage workers sold all these scarce products on the market or simply ate them themselves.
Only one comrade Novoseltsev received fifteen portions of breakfast and lunch every day for himself and his family members. The rest of the staff also ate well at the expense of the pupils. The children were fed “dishes” made from rotten vegetables, citing poor supplies.
For the entire 1942, they were only given one piece of candy once, for the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution... And what is most surprising, the director of the orphanage Novoseltsev, in the same 1942, received a certificate of honor from the People's Commissariat of Education for excellent educational work. All these fascists were deservedly sentenced to long terms of imprisonment." (Zefirov M.V., Dektyarev D.M. “Everything for the front? How victory was actually forged,” pp. 388-391).
At such a time, the whole essence of a person is revealed.. Every day we face a choice - what to do.. And the war showed us examples of great mercy, great heroism and great cruelty, great meanness.. We must remember this!! For the sake of the future!!
And no amount of time can heal the wounds of war, especially children’s wounds. “These years that once were, the bitterness of childhood does not allow one to forget...”
During the Great Patriotic War, heroism was the norm of behavior of Soviet people; the war revealed the fortitude and courage of 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, during the storming of Berlin and in other battles - and immortalized their names. Women and children fought alongside men. Home front workers played a big role. People who worked, exhausting themselves, to provide the soldiers with food, clothing and, at the same time, a bayonet and a shell.
We will talk about those who gave their lives, strength and savings for the sake of Victory. These are the great people of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Doctors are heroes. Zinaida Samsonova
During the war, more than two hundred thousand doctors and half a million paramedical personnel worked at the front and in the rear. And half of them were women.
The working day of doctors and nurses in medical battalions and front-line hospitals often lasted several days. During 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 “sailors” who, saving the wounded, covered them with their bodies from bullets and shell fragments.
Without sparing, as they say, their belly, they raised the spirit of the soldiers, raised the wounded from their hospital beds 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 mention the name of Hero of the Soviet Union Zinaida Aleksandrovna Samsonova, who went to the front when she was only seventeen years old. Zinaida, or, as her fellow soldiers sweetly called her, Zinochka, was born in the village of Bobkovo, Yegoryevsky district, Moscow region.
Just before the war, she entered the Yegoryevsk Medical School to study. When the enemy entered 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 line. Zina was a sanitary instructor for a rifle battalion. The soldiers loved her for her smile, for her selfless assistance to the wounded. Zina went through the most terrible battles with her fighters, this Battle of Stalingrad. She fought on the Voronezh Front and on other fronts.
Zinaida Samsonova In the fall of 1943, she participated in the landing operation to capture a bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper near the village of Sushki, Kanevsky district, now Cherkasy region. Here she, together with her fellow soldiers, managed to capture this bridgehead.
Zina carried more than thirty wounded from the battlefield and transported them to the other side of the Dnieper. There were legends about this fragile nineteen-year-old girl. Zinochka was distinguished by her courage and bravery.
When the commander died near the village of Kholm in 1944, Zina, without hesitation, took command of the battle and raised the soldiers to attack. In this fight last time Her fellow soldiers heard her amazing, slightly hoarse voice: “Eagles, follow me!”
Zinochka Samsonova died in this battle on January 27, 1944 for the village of Kholm in Belarus. She was buried in a mass grave in Ozarichi, Kalinkovsky district, Gomel region.
For her perseverance, courage and bravery, Zinaida Aleksandrovna 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 for Soviet foreign intelligence officers was associated with the Great Patriotic War. Already at the end of June 1941, the newly created State Committee Defense of the USSR considered the issue of the work of foreign intelligence and clarified its tasks. They were subordinated to one goal - the speedy defeat of the enemy. For exemplary performance of special tasks behind enemy lines, nine career foreign intelligence officers were awarded high rank 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 talk about one of the scout-heroes - Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov.
From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was enrolled in the fourth directorate of the NKVD, whose main task was to organize reconnaissance and sabotage activities behind enemy lines. After numerous trainings and studying the morals and life of the Germans in a prisoner of war camp, under the name of Paul Wilhelm Siebert, Nikolai Kuznetsov was sent behind enemy lines along the line of terror. At first, the special agent conducted his secret activities in the Ukrainian city of Rivne, where the Reich Commissariat of Ukraine was located. Kuznetsov communicated closely with enemy intelligence officers and the Wehrmacht, as well as local officials. All information obtained was transferred to the partisan detachment. One of the remarkable exploits of the USSR secret agent 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 was built eight kilometers from the Ukrainian Vinnitsa.
In November 1943, Kuznetsov managed to organize the kidnapping of German Major General M. Ilgen, who was sent to Rivne to destroy partisan formations.
The last operation of intelligence officer Siebert in this post was the liquidation 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 preparation of 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 to go to Lviv along with the retreating fascist troops to continue his sabotage activities. Scouts Jan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov were sent to help Agent Siebert. Under the leadership of Nikolai Kuznetsov, several occupiers were destroyed in Lviv, for example, the head of the government chancellery Heinrich Schneider and Otto Bauer.
From the first days of the occupation, boys and girls began to act decisively, and a secret organization “Young Avengers” was created. The guys fought against the fascist occupiers. They blew up a water pumping station, which delayed the sending of ten fascist trains to the front. While distracting the enemy, the Avengers destroyed bridges and highways, blew up a local power plant, and burned down a factory. Having obtained information about the actions of the Germans, they immediately passed it on to the partisans.
Zina Portnova was assigned increasingly complex tasks. According to one of them, the girl managed to get a job in a German canteen. After working there for a while, she carried out an effective operation - she poisoned food for 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.
Zina Portnova In 1943, traitors appeared who revealed secret information and handed our guys over 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 captured the 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 came to the window. And Zina, rushing to the table, grabbed the pistol. Apparently catching the rustle, the officer turned around impulsively, 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 one, 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, she pulled the trigger. Rushing to the exit, Zina pulled the door open, jumped out into the next room and from there onto the porch. There she shot at the sentry almost point-blank. Running out of the commandant’s office building, Portnova rushed like a whirlwind down the path.
“If only I could run to the river,” the girl thought. But from behind there was the sound of a chase... “Why don’t they shoot?” The surface of the water already seemed very close. And beyond the river the forest turned black. She heard the sound of machine gun fire and something spiky pierced her leg. Zina fell on river sand. She still had enough strength to rise slightly and shoot... She saved the last bullet for herself.
When the Germans got very close, she decided it was all over and pointed the gun at her chest and pulled the trigger. But there was no shot: it misfired. The fascist knocked the pistol out of her weakening hands.”
Zina was sent to prison. The Germans brutally tortured the girl for more than a month; they wanted her to betray her comrades. But having taken an oath of allegiance to the Motherland, Zina kept it.
On the morning of January 13, 1944, a gray-haired and blind girl was taken out to be executed. She walked, stumbling with her bare feet in the snow.
The girl withstood all the torture. She truly loved our Motherland and died for it, 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 sent their husbands, brothers and sons to the front took their place at the machine, mastering professions unfamiliar to them. “Everything for the front, everything for victory!” Children, old people and women gave all their strength, gave themselves for the sake of victory.
This is how the collective farmers’ call sounded in one of the regional newspapers: “... we must give the army and the working people more bread, meat, milk, vegetables and agricultural raw materials for industry. We, the state farm workers, must hand over this together with the collective farm peasantry.” Only from these lines can one judge how obsessed the home front workers were with thoughts of victory, and what sacrifices they were willing to make to bring this long-awaited day closer. Even when they received a funeral, they did not stop working, knowing that it was The best way to take revenge on the hated fascists for the death of their relatives and friends.
On December 15, 1942, Ferapont Golovaty gave all his savings - 100 thousand rubles - to purchase an aircraft for the Red Army, and asked to transfer the aircraft to the pilot Stalingrad Front. In a letter addressed to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, he wrote that, having escorted his two sons to the front, he himself wanted to contribute to the cause of victory. Stalin responded: “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." The initiative was given serious attention. The decision about who exactly would get the plane was made by the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front. The combat vehicle was awarded to one of the best - the commander of the 31st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Major Boris Nikolaevich Eremin. The fact that Eremin and Golovaty were fellow countrymen also played a role.
Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved through superhuman efforts of both front-line soldiers and home front workers. And we need to remember this. Today's generation should not forget their feat.
Modernity with its measure of success in the form monetary units gives birth to far more heroes of scandalous gossip columns than true heroes, whose actions evoke pride and admiration.
Sometimes it seems that real heroes remain only on the pages of books about the Great Patriotic War.
But at any time there remain those who are ready to sacrifice what is most dear to them in the name of loved ones, in the name of the Motherland.
On Defender of the Fatherland Day, we will remember five of our contemporaries who accomplished feats. They did not seek fame and honor, but simply fulfilled their duty to the end.
Sergey Burnaev
Sergey Burnaev was born in Mordovia, in the village of Dubenki on January 15, 1982. When Seryozha was five years old, his parents moved to the Tula region.
The boy grew and matured, and the era changed around him. His peers were eager to go into business, some into crime, and Sergei dreamed of a military career, wanted to serve in the Airborne Forces. After graduating from school, he managed to work at a rubber shoe factory, and then was drafted into the army. However, he ended up not in the landing force, but in the special forces detachment of the Vityaz Airborne Forces.
Serious physical exercise, training did not scare the guy. The commanders immediately drew attention to Sergei - stubborn, with character, a real special forces soldier!
During two business trips to Chechnya in 2000-2002, Sergei established himself as a true professional, skillful and persistent.
On March 28, 2002, the detachment in which Sergei Burnaev served conducted a special operation in the city of Argun. The militants turned a local school into their fortification, placing an ammunition depot in it, as well as breaking through an entire system of underground passages under it. The special forces began to examine the tunnels in search of the militants who had taken refuge in them.
Sergei walked first and came across bandits. A battle ensued in a narrow and dark space dungeons. During the flash from the machine gun fire, Sergei saw a grenade rolling on the floor, thrown by a militant towards the special forces. The explosion could have injured several soldiers who did not see this danger.
The decision came in a split second. Sergei covered the grenade with his body, saving the rest of the soldiers. He died on the spot, but diverted the threat from his comrades.
A bandit group of 8 people was completely eliminated in this battle. All of Sergei’s comrades survived this battle.
For courage and heroism shown during the performance of a special task in conditions involving risk to life, by decree of the President Russian Federation dated September 16, 2002 No. 992, Sergeant Burnaev Sergei Aleksandrovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).
Sergei Burnaev is forever included in the lists of his military unit of the Internal Troops. In the city of Reutov, Moscow region, on the Alley of Heroes of the military memorial complex “To all Reutov residents who died for the Fatherland,” a bronze bust of the hero was installed.
Denis Vetchinov
Denis Vetchinov was born on June 28, 1976 in the village of Shantobe, Tselinograd region of Kazakhstan. I spent an ordinary childhood as a schoolboy of the last Soviet generation.
How is a hero raised? Probably no one knows this. But at the turn of the era, Denis chose a career as an officer, after military service he entered the military school. Maybe it was also due to the fact that the school from which he graduated was named after Vladimir Komarov, a cosmonaut who died during a flight on the Soyuz-1 spacecraft.
After graduating from college in Kazan in 2000, the newly minted officer did not run from difficulties - he immediately ended up in Chechnya. Everyone who knew him repeats one thing - the officer did not bow to bullets, took care of the soldiers and was a real “father to the soldiers” not in words, but in essence.
In 2003, the Chechen war ended for Captain Vetchinov. Until 2008, he served as deputy battalion commander for educational work in the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, and in 2005 he became a major.
Life as an officer is not easy, but Denis did not complain about anything. His wife Katya and daughter Masha were waiting for him at home.
Major Vetchinov was predicted to have a great future and general's shoulder straps. In 2008, he became deputy commander of the 135th motorized rifle regiment of the 19th motorized rifle division of the 58th army for educational work. The war in South Ossetia found him in this position.
On August 9, 2008, the marching column of the 58th Army on the approach to Tskhinvali was ambushed by Georgian special forces. Cars were shot from 10 points. The commander of the 58th Army, General Khrulev, was wounded.
Major Vetchinov, who was in the column, jumped from an armored personnel carrier and entered the battle. Having managed to prevent chaos, he organized a defense, suppressing Georgian firing points with return fire.
During the retreat, Denis Vetchinov was seriously wounded in the legs, however, overcoming the pain, he continued the battle, covering with fire his comrades and the journalists who were with the column. Only a new serious wound to the head could stop the major.
In this battle, Major Vetchinov destroyed up to a dozen enemy special forces and saved the lives of Komsomolskaya Pravda war correspondent Alexander Kots, VGTRK special correspondent Alexander Sladkov and Moskovsky Komsomolets correspondent Viktor Sokirko.
The wounded major was sent to the hospital, but died on the way.
On August 15, 2008, for the courage and heroism shown in the performance of military duty in the North Caucasus region, Major Denis Vetchinov was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).
Aldar Tsydenzhapov
Aldar Tsydenzhapov was born on August 4, 1991 in the village of Aginskoye, in Buryatia. The family had four children, including Aldara's twin sister Aryuna.
My father worked in the police, my mother was a nurse in a kindergarten - simple family, leading ordinary life residents of the Russian hinterland. Aldar graduated from school in his native village and was drafted into the army, ending up in the Pacific Fleet.
Sailor Tsydenzhapov served on the destroyer “Bystry”, was trusted by the command, and was friends with his colleagues. There was only a month left before demobilization, when on September 24, 2010, Aldar took up duty as a boiler room crew operator.
The destroyer was preparing for a combat voyage from the base in Fokino in Primorye to Kamchatka. Suddenly, a fire broke out in the ship's engine room due to a short circuit in the wiring when the fuel pipeline broke. Aldar rushed to plug the fuel leak. A monstrous flame raged around, in which the sailor spent 9 seconds, managing to eliminate the leak. Despite the terrible burns, he got out of the compartment on his own. As the commission subsequently established, the prompt actions of sailor Tsydenzhapov led to the timely shutdown of the ship’s power plant, which otherwise could have exploded. In this case, both the destroyer itself and all 300 crew members would have died.
Aldar, in critical condition, was taken to the Pacific Fleet hospital in Vladivostok, where doctors fought for the hero’s life for four days. Alas, he died on September 28.
By Decree of the President of Russia No. 1431 of November 16, 2010, sailor Aldar Tsydenzhapov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
Sergei Solnechnikov
Born on August 19, 1980 in Germany, in Potsdam, in a military family. Seryozha decided to continue the dynasty as a child, without looking back at all the difficulties of this path. After the 8th grade he entered a cadet boarding school in Astrakhan region, then without exams he was admitted to the Kachin Military School. Here he was caught by another reform, after which the school was disbanded.
However, this did not turn Sergei away from a military career - he entered the Kemerovo Higher Military Command School of Communications, from which he graduated in 2003.
A young officer served in Belogorsk, on Far East. “A good officer, real, honest,” friends and subordinates said about Sergei. They also gave him the nickname “battalion commander Sun”.
I didn’t have time to start a family - I spent too much time on service. The bride waited patiently - after all, it seemed that there was still a whole life ahead.
On March 28, 2012, routine exercises on throwing the RGD-5 grenade, which are part of the training course for conscript soldiers, took place at the unit’s training ground.
19-year-old private Zhuravlev, getting excited, threw a grenade unsuccessfully - it hit the parapet and flew back where his colleagues were standing.
The confused boys looked in horror at the death lying on the ground. Battalion commander Sun reacted instantly - throwing the soldier aside, he covered the grenade with his body.
The wounded Sergei was taken to the hospital, but from numerous injuries he died on the operating table.
On April 3, 2012, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Major Sergei Solnechnikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously) for heroism, courage and dedication shown in the performance of military duty.
Irina Yanina
"War has no woman's face" - a wise phrase. But it just so happened that in all the wars that Russia waged, women found themselves next to men, enduring all the hardships and hardships equally with them.
Born in Taldy-Kurgan, Kazakh SSR on November 27, 1966, the girl Ira did not think that war would enter her life from the pages of books. School, medical school, a position as a nurse in a tuberculosis clinic, then in a maternity hospital - a purely peaceful biography.
Everything was turned upside down by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russians in Kazakhstan suddenly became strangers and unnecessary. Like many, Irina and her family left for Russia, which had its own problems.
The husband of the beautiful Irina could not stand the difficulties and left the family in search of an easier life. Ira was left alone with two children in her arms, without normal housing and a corner. And then there was another misfortune - my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, from which she quickly faded away.
Even men break down from all these troubles and go on a drinking binge. Irina did not break down - after all, she still had her son Zhenya, the light in the window, for whom she was ready to move mountains. In 1995, she entered service in the Internal Troops. Not for the sake of heroic deeds - they paid money there and gave rations. Paradox modern history- in order to survive and raise her son, the woman was forced to go to Chechnya, into the thick of it. Two business trips in 1996, three and a half months as a nurse under daily shelling, in blood and dirt.
Nurse of the medical company of the operational brigade of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia from the city of Kalach-on-Don - in this position, Sergeant Yanina found herself in her second war. Basayev's gangs were rushing to Dagestan, where local Islamists were already waiting for them.
And again the battles, the wounded, the dead - daily routine medical service in war.
“Hello, my little, beloved, most beautiful son in the world!
I really miss you. Write to me how you are doing, how is school, who are your friends? Aren't you sick? Don't go out late in the evenings - there are a lot of bandits now. Stay near the house. Don't go anywhere alone. Listen to everyone at home and know that I love you very much. Read more. You are already a big and independent boy, so do everything right so that you don’t get scolded.
Waiting for your letter. Listen to everyone.
Kiss. Mother. 08/21/99"
Irina sent this letter to her son 10 days before her last fight.
On August 31, 1999, a brigade of internal troops, in which Irina Yanina served, stormed the village of Karamakhi, which terrorists had turned into an impregnable fortress.
That day, Sergeant Yanina, under enemy fire, assisted 15 wounded soldiers. Then she drove to the line of fire three times in an armored personnel carrier, taking another 28 seriously wounded from the battlefield. The fourth flight was fatal.
The armored personnel carrier came under heavy enemy fire. Irina began to cover the loading of the wounded with return fire from a machine gun. Finally, the car managed to move back, but the militants set the armored personnel carrier on fire with grenade launchers.
Sergeant Yanina, while she had enough strength, pulled the wounded out of the burning car. She did not have time to get out herself - the ammunition in the armored personnel carrier began to explode.
On October 14, 1999, medical service sergeant Irina Yanina was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously), she was forever included in the lists personnel your military unit. Irina Yanina became the first woman awarded the title of Hero of Russia for fighting in the Caucasian wars.
79-year-old Elena Golubeva was the first to come to the aid of the victims of the Nevsky Express crash. She gave all her blankets and clothes to the victims
Students of the Iskitim branch of the Novosibirsk Assembly College - 17-year-old Nikita Miller and 20-year-old Vlad Volkov - became real heroes of the Siberian town. Of course: the guys captured an armed robber who was trying to rob a grocery kiosk.
In Bashkiria, a first-grader saved a three-year-old child from icy water.
When Nikita Baranov from the village of Tashkinovo, Krasnokamsk region, accomplished his feat, he was only seven. Once, while playing with friends on the street, a first-grader heard a child crying coming from a trench. They installed gas in the village: the dug holes were filled with water, and three-year-old Dima fell into one of them. There were no builders or other adults nearby, so Nikita himself pulled the choking boy to the surface
Schoolchildren from the Krasnodar region Roman Vitkov and Mikhail Serdyuk saved an elderly woman from a burning house. While heading home, they saw a building on fire. Running into the yard, the schoolchildren saw that the veranda was almost completely engulfed in fire. Roman and Mikhail rushed into the barn to get a tool. Grabbing a sledgehammer and an ax, breaking out the window, Roman climbed into the window opening. An elderly woman was sleeping in a smoky room. They managed to get the victim out only after breaking the door.
And in the Chelyabinsk region, priest Alexey Peregudov saved the life of the groom at a wedding. During the wedding, the groom lost consciousness. The only one who was not at a loss in this situation was Priest Alexey Peregudov. He quickly examined the man lying down, suspected cardiac arrest and provided first aid, including chest compressions. As a result, the sacrament was successfully completed. Father Alexey noted that he had only seen chest compressions in movies.
And in the village of Ilyinka-1, Tula region, schoolchildren Andrei Ibronov, Nikita Sabitov, Andrei Navruz, Vladislav Kozyrev and Artem Voronin pulled a pensioner out of a well. 78-year-old Valentina Nikitina fell into a well and could not get out on her own. Andrei Ibronov and Nikita Sabitov heard the cries for help and immediately rushed to save the elderly woman. However, three more guys had to be called in for help - Andrei Navruz, Vladislav Kozyrev and Artem Voronin. Together the guys managed to pull an elderly pensioner out of the well.
“I tried to climb out, the well is shallow - I even reached the edge with my hand. But it was so slippery and cold that I couldn’t grab the hoop. And when I raised my arms, ice water poured into my sleeves. I screamed, called for help, but the well is located far from residential buildings and roads, so no one heard me. How long this lasted, I don’t even know... Soon I began to feel sleepy, with the last of my strength I raised my head and suddenly saw two boys looking into the well!” – said the victim.
A veteran distinguished himself in Mordovia Chechen war Marat Zinatullin, who saved an elderly man from a burning apartment. Having witnessed the fire, Marat acted like a professional firefighter. He climbed up the fence onto a small barn, and from there climbed onto the balcony. He broke the glass, opened the door leading from the balcony to the room, and got inside. The 70-year-old owner of the apartment was lying on the floor. The pensioner, who was poisoned by smoke, could not leave the apartment on his own. Marat, opening front door from the inside, carried the owner of the house into the entrance
A housing and communal services employee saved a fisherman who had fallen through the ice. It all happened a year ago - November 30, 2013. A fisherman fell through the ice on the Chernoistochinsky pond. An employee of the housing and communal services emergency service, Rais Salakhutdinov, who was also fishing on the pond and heard cries for help, came to his aid.
A man in the Moscow region saved his 11-month-old son from death by cutting the boy’s throat and inserting the base of a fountain pen there so that the choking baby could breathe. “An 11-month-old baby’s tongue sunk in and he stopped breathing. The father, realizing that seconds were counting, took a kitchen knife, made an incision in his son’s throat and inserted into it a tube he had made from a pen,”
Shielded my brother from bullets. The story took place at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In Ingushetia, it is customary for children to congratulate friends and relatives in their homes at this time. Zalina Arsanova and her younger brother were leaving the entrance when shots were heard. In a neighboring yard, an attempt was made on the life of one of the FSB officers. When the first bullet pierced the facade of the nearest house, the girl realized that it was shooting, and younger brother is in the line of fire, and covered him with herself.
The girl with a gunshot wound was taken to Malgobek Clinical Hospital No. 1, where she underwent surgery. Internal organs Surgeons had to assemble the 12-year-old child literally piece by piece. Fortunately, everyone survived
