The period of the newest national history, called "perestroika", went like a skating rink not only through the living, but also through the heroes of the past.
Debunking the heroes of the revolution and the Great Patriotic War in those years it was put on stream. This cup has not passed and the underground workers from the Young Guard organization. "Debunkers Soviet myths"poured a huge amount of slop on the young anti-fascists destroyed by the Nazis.
The essence of the “revelations” was that no Young Guard organization supposedly existed, and if it did exist, then its contribution to the fight against the Nazis was so insignificant that it’s not worth talking about.
Got more than others Oleg Koshevoy, who in Soviet historiography was called the commissar of the organization. Apparently, the reason for the special hostility towards him on the part of the “whistleblowers” was precisely the status of the “commissar”.
It was even claimed that in Krasnodon itself, where the organization operated, no one knew about Koshevoy, that his mother, who even before the war was a wealthy woman, earned on her son’s posthumous glory, that for this she identified instead of Oleg’s body the corpse of a certain old man ...
Elena Nikolaevna Koshevaya, Oleg's mother, is not the only one who wiped their feet on in the late 1980s. In the same tone and almost with the same words they insulted Lyubov Timofeevna Kosmodemyanskaya mother of two heroes Soviet Union who died during the war, Zoe and Alexandra Kosmodemyansky.
Those who trampled on the memory of the heroes and their mothers still work in the Russian media, wear high degrees candidates and doctors historical sciences and feel great...
“Arms are twisted, ears are cut off, a star is carved on the cheek ...”
Meanwhile, real story The "Young Guard" is embodied in documents and testimonies of witnesses who survived the Nazi occupation.
Among the evidence of the true history of the "Young Guard" there are protocols for examining the corpses of the Young Guards, raised from the pit of mine No. 5. And these protocols best of all speak of what the young anti-fascists had to endure before their death.
The shaft where the Nazis executed members of the underground organization "Young Guard". Photo: RIA Novosti
« Ulyana Gromova, 19 years old, a five-pointed star is carved on the back, the right arm is broken, the ribs are broken ... "
« Lida Androsova, 18 years old, removed without an eye, ear, hand, with a rope around his neck, which cut hard into the body. Dried blood is visible on the neck.
« Angelina Samoshina, 18 years. Traces of torture were found on the body: arms were twisted, ears were cut off, a star was carved on the cheek ... "
« Maya Peglivanova, 17 years. The corpse is disfigured: cut off the chest, lips, broken legs. All outer clothing has been removed.
« Shura Bondareva, 20 years old, removed without a head and right breast, the whole body is beaten, bruised, has a black color.
« Viktor Tretyakevich, 18 years. Extracted without a face, with a black-and-blue back, with shattered hands. On the body of Viktor Tretyakevich, experts did not find traces of bullets - he was among those who were thrown into the mine alive ...
Oleg Koshevoy together with Any Shevtsova and several other young guards were executed in the Rattlesnake Forest near the city of Rovenka.
The fight against fascism is a matter of honor
Ivan Turkenich, commander of the Young Guard. 1943 Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
So what was the Young Guard organization and what role did Oleg Koshevoy play in its history?
The mining town of Krasnodon, in which the Young Guards operated, is located 50 kilometers from Lugansk, which during the war years was called Voroshilovgrad.
In Krasnodon at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s, many working youth lived, brought up in the spirit of Soviet ideology. For young pioneers and Komsomol members, participation in the fight against the Nazis who occupied Krasnodon in July 1942 was a matter of honor.
Almost immediately after the occupation of the city, several underground youth groups formed independently of each other, which were joined by Red Army soldiers who found themselves in Krasnodon and fled from captivity.
One of these Red Army soldiers was Lieutenant Ivan Turkenich, elected commander of a united underground organization created by young anti-fascists in Krasnodon and called the Young Guard. The creation of the united organization took place at the end of September 1942. Among those who entered the headquarters of the Young Guard was Oleg Koshevoy.
Exemplary student and good friend
Oleg Koshevoy was born in the city of Priluki, Chernihiv region, on June 8, 1926. Then Oleg's family moved to Poltava, and later to Rzhishchev. Oleg's parents broke up, and from 1937 to 1940 he lived with his father in the city of Anthracite. In 1940, Oleg's mother, Elena Nikolaevna, moved to Krasnodon to live with her mother. Soon Oleg also moved to Krasnodon.
Oleg, according to the testimony of most of those who knew him before the war, was a real role model. He studied well, was fond of drawing, wrote poetry, went in for sports, danced well. In the spirit of that time, Koshevoy was engaged in shooting and fulfilled the standard for receiving the Voroshilovsky shooter badge. After learning to swim, he began to help others and soon became a lifeguard.
Commissioner and member of the headquarters of the underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard" Oleg Koshevoy. Photo: RIA Novosti
At school, Oleg helped those who were lagging behind, sometimes taking “in tow” five people who were not doing well in their studies.
When the war began, Koshevoy, who, among other things, was also the editor of the school wall newspaper, began to help wounded soldiers in the hospital, which was located in Krasnodon, published the satirical newspaper Krokodil for them, and prepared reports from the front.
Oleg had a very warm relationship with his mother, who supported him in all his endeavors; friends often gathered in the Koshevs' house.
Oleg's school friends from Krasnodon School No. 1 named after Gorky became members of his underground group, which in September 1942 joined the Young Guard.
He couldn't help it...
Oleg Koshevoy, who turned 16 in June 1942, was not supposed to stay in Krasnodon - just before the occupation of the city by the Nazis, he was sent for evacuation. However, it was not possible to go far, because the Germans were advancing faster. Koshevoy returned to Krasnodon. “He was gloomy, blackened with grief. A smile no longer appeared on his face, he walked from corner to corner, oppressed and silent, did not know what to put his hands on. What was happening around no longer amazed, but crushed the son’s soul with terrible anger, ”recalled Oleg’s mother Elena Nikolaevna.
In perestroika times, some "tearers" put forward the following thesis: those who before the war declared their loyalty to communist ideals, during the years of severe trials, thought only of saving their own lives at any cost.
Based on this logic, the exemplary pioneer Oleg Koshevoy, admitted to the Komsomol in March 1942, had to lie low and try not to draw attention to himself. In reality, everything was different - Koshevoy, having survived the first shock from the spectacle of his city in the hands of the invaders, begins to assemble a group of his friends to fight the Nazis. In September, the group assembled by Koshevoy becomes part of the Young Guard.
Oleg Koshevoy was engaged in planning the operations of the Young Guard, he himself participated in the actions, was responsible for communication with other underground groups operating in the vicinity of Krasnodon.
Frame from the film "Young Guard" (directed by Sergei Gerasimov, 1948). The scene before the execution. Photo: Frame from the film
Red banner over Krasnodon
The activities of the Young Guard, which included about 100 people, may indeed not seem the most impressive to some. During their work, the Young Guards issued and distributed about 5 thousand leaflets calling for the fight against the Nazis and with messages about what was happening on the fronts. In addition, they committed a number of sabotage actions, such as the destruction of bread prepared for export to Germany, the dispersal of a herd of cattle, which was intended for the needs german army, blowing up a passenger car with German officers. One of the most successful actions of the Young Guard was the arson of the Krasnodon labor exchange, as a result of which the lists of those whom the Nazis intended to send to work in Germany were destroyed. Thanks to this, approximately 2,000 people were saved from Nazi slavery.
On the night of November 6-7, 1942, the Young Guards hung out red flags in Krasnodon in honor of the anniversary of the October Revolution. The action was a real challenge to the invaders, a demonstration that their power in Krasnodon would be short-lived.The red flags in Krasnodon had a strong propaganda effect, which was appreciated not only by the inhabitants, but also by the Nazis themselves, who stepped up the search for the underground.
The "Young Guard" consisted of young Komsomol members who had no experience in illegal work, and it was extremely difficult for them to resist the powerful apparatus of Hitler's counterintelligence.
One of the latest actions of the "Young Guard" was a raid on cars with New Year's gifts for German soldiers. The underground workers intended to use the gifts for their own purposes. January 1, 1943 two members of the organization, Evgeny Moshkov and Viktor Tretyakevich, were arrested after they were found carrying sacks stolen from German vehicles.
German counterintelligence, seizing on this thread and using previously obtained data, within a few days revealed almost the entire underground network of the Young Guard. Mass arrests began.
Koshevoy issued a Komsomol ticket
Mother of the Hero of the Soviet Union, partisan Oleg Koshevoy Elena Nikolaevna Koshevaya. Photo: RIA Novosti / M. Gershman
For those who were not immediately arrested, the headquarters gave the only order possible under these conditions - to leave immediately. Oleg Koshevoy was among those who managed to get out of Krasnodon.
The Nazis, who already had evidence that Koshevoy was the commissar of the Young Guard, detained Oleg's mother and grandmother. During interrogations, Elena Nikolaevna Koshevoy injured her spine and knocked out her teeth ...
As already mentioned, no one prepared the Young Guard for underground work. This is largely why most of those who managed to leave Krasnodon could not cross the front line. Oleg, after an unsuccessful attempt on January 11, 1943, returned to Krasnodon, in order to go back to the front line the next day.
He was detained by the field gendarmerie near the town of Rovenki. Koshevoy's face was not known, and he could well have avoided exposure, if not for a mistake that is completely impossible for a professional illegal intelligence officer. During a search, they found a Komsomol ID sewn into his clothes, as well as several other documents revealing him as a member of the Young Guard. According to the requirements of the conspiracy, Koshevoy had to get rid of all documents, but boyish pride for Oleg turned out to be higher than common sense.
It is easy to condemn the mistakes of the Young Guard, but we are talking about very young boys and girls, almost teenagers, and not about hardened professionals.
"He had to be shot twice..."
The occupiers showed no leniency towards the members of the Young Guard. The Nazis and their accomplices subjected the underground to sophisticated torture. This fate did not pass and Oleg Koshevoy.
He, as a "commissar", was tormented with special zeal. When the grave with the bodies of the Young Guards executed in the Thundering Forest was discovered, it turned out that 16-year-old Oleg Koshevoy was gray-haired ...
The commissioner of the "Young Guard" was shot on February 9, 1943. From the testimony Schultz- a gendarme of the German district gendarmerie in the city of Rovenki: “At the end of January, I participated in the execution of a group of members of the underground Komsomol organization“ Young Guard ”, among which was the head of this organization Koshevoy ... I remember him especially clearly because I had to shoot him twice. After the shots, all the arrested fell to the ground and lay motionless, only Koshevoy got up and, turning around, looked in our direction. This made me very angry Fromme and he ordered the gendarme Drevitz finish him off. Drevitz went up to the lying Koshevoy and shot him in the back of the head ... "
Schoolchildren at the pit of mine No. 5 in Krasnodon - the place of execution of the Young Guards. Photo: RIA Novosti / Datsyuk
Oleg Koshevoy died just five days before the city of Krasnodon was liberated by the Red Army.
The "Young Guard" became widely known in the USSR because the history of its activities, unlike many other similar organizations, was documented. The persons who betrayed, tortured and executed the Young Guards were identified, exposed and convicted.
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 13, 1943 to the Young Guards Uliana Gromova, Ivan Zemnukhov, Oleg Koshevoy, Sergey Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 3 members of the "Young Guard" were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 35 - the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, 6 - the Order of the Red Star, 66 - the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree.
Reproduction of portraits of the leaders of the underground Komsomol organization Young Guard. Photo: RIA Novosti
"Blood for blood! Death for death!”
The commander of the "Young Guard" Ivan Turkenich was among the few who managed to cross the front line. He returned to Krasnodon after the liberation of the city as commander of the mortar battery of the 163rd Guards Rifle Regiment.
In the ranks of the Red Army, he went from Krasnodon further to the west, to avenge the Nazis for his murdered comrades.
On August 13, 1944, Captain Ivan Turkenich was mortally wounded in the battle for the Polish city of Glogow. The command of the unit introduced him to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but it was awarded to Ivan Vasilyevich Turkenich much later - only on May 5, 1990.
"Krasnodontsy". Sokolov-Skalya, 1948 reproduction of the painting
The oath of the members of the Young Guard organization:
“I, joining the ranks of the Young Guard, in the face of my friends in arms, in the face of my native long-suffering land, in the face of all the people, solemnly swear:
Unquestioningly carry out any task given to me by a senior comrade. Keep in the deepest secrecy everything related to my work in the Young Guard.
I swear to avenge mercilessly for the burned, devastated cities and villages, for the blood of our people, for the martyrdom of thirty miners-heroes. And if this revenge requires my life, I will give it without a moment's hesitation.
If I break this sacred oath under torture or because of cowardice, then may my name, my family be forever damned, and may I myself be punished by the harsh hand of my comrades.
Blood for blood! Death for death!”
Oleg Koshevoy continued his war with the Nazis even after his death. Aircraft of the squadron of the 171st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 315th Fighter Aviation Division under the command of a captain Ivan Vishnyakova wore on their fuselages the inscription "For Oleg Koshevoy!". The pilots of the squadron destroyed several dozen Nazi aircraft, and Ivan Vishnyakov himself was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Monument "Oath" in Krasnodon, dedicated to members of the underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard". Photo: RIA Novosti / Tyurin
September 13, 1943 honorary title Heroes of the Soviet Union was posthumously awarded to the young defenders of the Motherland, members of the underground organization "Young guard", which launched its activities in the German-occupied city of Krasnodon. Later, after the War, streets, organizations, ships will be named after them, many books will be written about them, films will be made.
They were not even 20 years old, the youngest of them - Oleg Koshevoy - was only 16, when they began their struggle with the German conquerors of their native city. In the fall of 1942, the children of the miners united in the Komsomol underground organization, which they called the Young Guard.
Oleg Koshevoy's poem written during the occupation can be called his personal manifesto:
It's hard for me!.. Wherever you look
Everywhere I see Hitler's rubbish,
Everywhere a hateful form before me,
Esses badge with a dead head.
I decided that it was impossible to live like this!
Look at the pain and suffer yourself.
We must hurry before it's too late
Destroy behind enemy lines.
I made up my mind and I will do it!
I'll give my whole life for your homeland,
For our people, for our dear
Beautiful Soviet country.
Heroes of the Young Guard
Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarding orders to members of the Komsomol organization "Young Guard", which operated during German occupation in the Voroshilovgrad region. The children of miners - members of the underground organization "Young Guard" - showed themselves as selfless patriots of the fatherland, forever inscribing their names in the history of the sacred struggle Soviet people against the Nazi occupiers.
Neither cruel terror nor inhuman torture could stop the young patriots in their striving to fight with all their might for the liberation of the Motherland from the yoke of hated foreigners. They decided to fulfill their duty to the fatherland to the end. In the name of fulfilling their duty, most of them died the death of heroes.
In the dark autumn nights of 1942, the underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard" was created. It was headed by a 16-year-old boy Oleg Koshevoy. His direct assistants in organizing the underground struggle against the Germans were 17-year-old Sergei Tyulenin, 19-year-old Ivan Zemnukhov, 18-year-old Ulyana Gromova and 18-year-old Lyubov Shevtsova. They united around themselves the best representatives of the miners' youth. Acting boldly, courageously, cunningly, the members of the Young Guard soon became a thunderstorm for the Germans. Leaflets and slogans appeared at the doors of the German commandant's office. On the anniversary of the October Revolution in the city of Krasnodon, red flags made from the Fascist banner stolen from the German club were raised on the Voroshilov school building, on the highest tree in the park, on the hospital building. Several dozen German soldiers and officers were killed by members of an underground organization led by Oleg Koshev. Their efforts organized the escape of Soviet prisoners of war. When the Germans tried to send the youth of the city to forced labor in Germany, Oleg Koshevoy and his comrades set fire to the building of the labor exchange and thus disrupted the German event. Each of these feats required great courage, steadfastness, endurance, composure. However, the glorious representatives of the Soviet youth found enough strength in themselves to skillfully and prudently resist the enemy and inflict cruel, crushing blows on him.
When the Germans succeeded in uncovering the underground organization and arresting its members, Oleg Koshevoy and his comrades endured inhuman tortures, but did not give up, did not give up, and with the great fearlessness of true patriots were martyred. They fought and fought like heroes, and heroes went down to the grave!
Before joining the underground organization “Young Guard”, each of the young people took a sacred oath: “I swear to mercilessly avenge the burned and devastated cities and villages, for the blood of our people, for the martyrdom of 30 miners. And if this revenge requires my life, I will give it without a moment's hesitation. If I break this sacred oath under torture or because of cowardice, then may my name, my family be forever damned, and I myself will be punished by the harsh hand of my comrades. Blood for blood, death for death!
Oleg Koshevoy and his friends fulfilled their oath to the end. They died, but their names will shine in eternal glory. The youth of our country will learn from them the great and noble art of fighting for the holy ideals of freedom, for the happiness of the fatherland. The youth of all countries enslaved by the German invaders will learn about their immortal feat, and this will give them new strength to accomplish feats in the name of liberation from oppression.
The nation that gives birth to such sons and daughters as Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova and Ulyana Gromova is invincible. All the strength of our people was reflected in these young people, who absorbed the heroic traditions of their homeland and did not disgrace their native land in a time of difficult trials. Glory to them!
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Elena Nikolaevna Koshevoy, mother of Oleg Koshevoy, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree. She raised the hero, she blessed him to accomplish high and noble deeds - glory to her!
The Germans came to our land as uninvited guests, but here they encountered a great people full of unshakable courage and readiness to defend the fatherland with boundless fury and anger. Young Oleg Koshevoy is a vivid symbol of the patriotism of our people.
The blood of heroes has not been shed for nothing. They contributed their share to the common great cause of defeating the Nazi occupiers. The Red Army is driving the Germans to the west, liberating Ukraine from them.
Sleep well, Oleg Koshevoy! The cause of victory, for which you and your comrades fought, we will bring to the end. With enemy corpses we will mark the road of our victory. We will avenge your martyrdom to the full extent of our anger. And the sun will shine forever over our Motherland and our people will live in glory and greatness, being an example of courage, courage, valor and devotion to duty for all mankind!
During the six months that the organization existed, young men and women managed to do a lot in the fight against the Nazis. Komsomol members on their own were able to assemble a primitive printing house, where not only leaflets and small posters were printed, but also temporary Komsomol tickets.
The occupiers felt themselves in the occupied city like on a powder keg. Soviet leaflets appeared again and again on the walls of houses and at the doors of the German commandant's office.
The children received information for leaflets by listening to Oleg Koshevoy's tube radio at home, which, due to the lack of electricity, was connected to a special device. The latest news was briefly recorded, and then leaflets were compiled, which weekly informed the population about events at the front, in the Soviet rear and in the world, and reports from the Soviet Information Bureau. Even rumors were used to spread information.
Other sources were also used as leaflets. So one night Lyuba Shevtsova made her way into the post office and, destroying the letters of German soldiers and officers, stole some letters former residents Krasnodon, who were in Germany. The letters, still uncensored, were distributed around the city as leaflets describing the horrors of German hard labor. As a result, the recruitment of those wishing to go to Germany, carried out by the Nazi authorities, was thwarted.
Before the organization of the printing house, leaflets were written by hand and distributed by all members of the youth underground. The city was conditionally divided into sections, which were assigned to specific members of the organization. According to an unspoken rule, leaflets were placed in places where as many people as possible would read them: a bazaar, a water supply system, a hand mill. The guys usually went to paste up in twos - a guy and a girl, so as not to arouse suspicion. Sometimes they gathered in groups and, pretending to have fun, scattered leaflets. And Oleg Koshevoy, having tied a white armband (a distinctive sign of the policemen) on his sleeve, scattered leaflets in the park at night.
Also, thanks to the underground workers, loaded cars disappeared in the city every now and then, German soldiers lost machine guns, pistols and cartridges.
The Young Guards did not forget about the arrested communists either. With the money of the financial fund, formed from Komsomol membership fees, products were purchased and secretly transported to the Gestapo dungeons.
The Young Guards freed more than 90 of our fighters and commanders from concentration camp and organized the escape of twenty prisoners of war from the Pervomaiskaya hospital. Also, about 2,000 people were rescued after Komsomol members set fire to the building of the labor exchange, where lists of citizens intended to be sent to Germany were stored.
Along with subversive activities, Komsomol members were also preparing for the celebration of the next anniversary of the October Revolution: red flags were sewn from red-dyed white pillowcases, red scarves, and even from the German banner. On the night of November 7, when a strong wind was blowing and it was raining, forcing the police patrols to hide, the Young Guards were able to quite freely attach the flags with ropes to the pipes on all the buildings. Lyuba Shevtsova and Tosya Mashchenko attached a pole to the ceiling on the building of the regional consumer union, dismantling the tiles, and Georgy Shcherbakov and Alexander Shishchenko were able to hang flags on the hospital and on the highest tree in the park.
The German traps, cunningly placed with the aim of capturing the underground, remained empty. Cops found proclamations in their own pockets. Then the police themselves were found hanged in abandoned mine adits.
The organization was preparing for a decisive armed attack.
Despite the intelligence network organized by the Young Guard, the Germans still managed to uncover the underground. The arrests began. Only a few managed to get to the units of the Red Army. The rest of the occupation authorities were imprisoned. Inhuman torture had to be experienced by the Young Guard in last days life. Those of them who did not die after the torture were thrown alive by the Germans into the pit of an abandoned mine.
Arrested after the liberation of Donbass, the investigator of the district police M.E. Kuleshov, who led the case of the Young Guard, told during interrogations that during torture, the eyes of the arrested Young Guards were gouged out, their breasts and genitals were cut out, they were beaten half to death with whips.
From the memoirs of Vera Alexandrovna Ivanikhina, sister of Lily and Tonya Ivanikhin: |
“... In December 1942, Serezha Tyulenev, Valya Borts, Vitya Tretyakevich, Zhenya Moshkov, Oleg Koshevoy, Vanya Zimnukhov and other guys took everything out of the German car, which was “... They tortured me terribly - they put me on the stove, drove me under my nails needles carved on the skin of the star. And, in the end, they were executed - they were thrown alive into mine No. 5. Behind them, dynamite, sleepers, trolleys flew into the mine. My older sister Nina, a doctor by education, subsequently processed the bodies of the sisters herself and saw with her own eyes that there were no lumbago, but only the hair remained alive. Relatives recognized the heroes only by special signs and clothes. It was all terrible." |
Brave Undergrounders
In the city of Krasnodon, Voroshilovgrad region, the Germans felt like they were on a volcano. Everything around was seething. Soviet leaflets appeared on the walls of houses every now and then, red flags flew up on the roofs. Loaded motor vehicles disappeared, like gunpowder warehouses of grain caught fire. Soldiers and officers lost machine guns, revolvers, cartridges.
Someone acted very boldly, cleverly and deftly. Cunningly placed German traps remained empty. The fury of the Germans knew no end. They searched in vain through the lanes, houses, attics. And warehouses with grain caught fire again. The police found the proclamations in their own pockets. Then the policemen themselves were found hanged in abandoned mine adits.
On the night of December 5-6, the building of the labor exchange broke out. Lists of persons to be sent to Germany perished in the fire. Thousands of residents, who were waiting with horror for a rainy day when they were taken into captivity, perked up. The fire infuriated the invaders. Special agents were called from Voroshilovgrad. But the traces were mysteriously lost in the winding streets of the mining town. In what house do those who set fire to the labor exchange live? Hatred lived under every roof. Special agents put in a lot of effort, but they left with nothing.
The underground Komsomol organization acted more and more boldly. Insolence has become a habit. The experience of conspiracy accumulated, combat skills became a profession.
Quite a bit of time has passed since that memorable September day, when the first organizational meeting was held in Oleg Koshevoy's apartment at No. 6 on Sadovaya Street. There were thirty young people here who knew each other from school years, on joint work in the Komsomol, to fight the Germans. They decided to name the organization "Young Guard". The headquarters included: Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova, Ulyana Gromova and others. Oleg was appointed commissar and elected secretary of the Komsomol organization.
There was no experience of underground work, there was no knowledge, there was only an indestructible, burning hatred for the invaders and a passionate love for the Motherland. Despite the danger that threatened the Komsomol members, the organization grew rapidly. More than a hundred people joined the Young Guard. Everyone took an oath of allegiance common cause, the text of which was written by Vanya Zemnukhov and Oleg Koshevoy.
We started with flyers. The Germans began at this time to recruit those wishing to go to Germany. Leaflets appeared on telegraph poles and fences exposing the horrors of fascist hard labor. The recruitment broke. Only three people agreed to go to Germany.
A primitive radio was installed at Oleg's house and listened to the "breaking news". A short record of the latest news was reproduced in the form of leaflets.
With the expansion of the underground organization, its “five”, created for conspiracy, appeared in nearby villages. They published their leaflets. Now the underground workers had four radios.
Komsomol members also created their own primitive printing house. Letters they collected on the conflagration of the building of the regional newspaper. The frame for choosing the font was made by ourselves. The printing house printed not only leaflets. Temporary Komsomol tickets were also issued there, on which it was written: "Valid for the duration of the Patriotic War." Komsomol tickets were issued to newly admitted members of the organization.
The Komsomol organization frustrated literally all the activities of the occupation authorities. Neither the first, so-called "voluntary" recruitment, nor the second one, when they wanted to forcibly take away to Germany all the inhabitants of Krasnodon selected by them, failed the Germans.
As soon as the Germans began to prepare for the export of grain to Germany, the underground, on the instructions of the headquarters, organized the burning of bread stacks, warehouses, and infected some of the grain with a tick.
The Germans requisitioned livestock from the surrounding population and drove it in a large herd of 500 heads to their rear. Komsomol members attacked the guards, killed them, and drove the cattle into the steppe.
So every undertaking of the Germans was thwarted by someone's invisible, domineering hand.
Ivan Zemnukhov was the eldest among the staff members. He was nineteen years old. The youngest was the commissioner. Oleg Koshevoy was born in 1926. But both of them acted like mature, highly experienced people, hardened in secret work.
Oleg Koshevoy was the brain of the whole organization. He acted wisely and slowly. True, sometimes youthful enthusiasm prevailed, and then he participated, despite the prohibition of the headquarters, in the most risky and daring operations. Either with a box of matches in his pocket, he sets fire to huge stacks under the very noses of the policemen, then, wearing a policeman's armband or taking advantage of the darkness of the night, sticks leaflets on the buildings of the gendarmerie and police.
But these enterprises are not reckless. Putting on a police bandage and going out at night, Oleg knew the password. In the farms and settlements of the region, Oleg planted his agents. Which carried out only his personal instructions. He received regular information about everything that was happening in the area. Moreover, Oleg had his own people in the police. Two members of the organization worked there as policemen.
Thus, the plans and intentions of the police authorities became known to the headquarters in advance, and the underground could quickly take their countermeasures.
Oleg also created the financial fund of the organization. It was compiled on monthly 15-ruble membership dues. In addition, in case of need, members of the organization paid one-time contributions. With this money, assistance was provided to needy families of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. These funds were used to purchase products for the transfer of parcels. Soviet people languishing in a German prison. Products were also handed over to prisoners of war who were in a concentration camp.
Each operation, whether it was an attack on a passenger car, when the Young Guard exterminated three German officers, or the escape of twenty prisoners of war from the May Day hospital, was developed by the headquarters under the leadership of Oleg Koshevoy in every detail and detail.
Sergey Tyulenin carried out all the dangerous military operations. He performed the most risky tasks and was known as a fearless militant. He personally destroyed ten fascists. It was he who set fire to the building of the labor exchange, hung out red flags, led a group of guys who attacked the guards of the herd, which the Germans drove to Germany. The "Young Guard" was preparing for an open armed offensive, and Sergei Tyulenin led a group to collect weapons and ammunition. In three months they collected former fields battles and stole from the Germans and Romanians 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, more than 15 thousand rounds of ammunition, pistols, explosives.
On the instructions of the headquarters, Lyuba Shevtsova went to Voroshilovgrad to establish contact with the underground. She has been there several times. At the same time, she showed exceptional resourcefulness and courage. German officers oan said that she was the daughter of a major industrialist. Lyuba stole important documents, obtained secret information.
One night, on the instructions of the headquarters, Lyuba snuck into the post office, destroyed all the letters of German soldiers and officers, and stole several letters from former residents of Krasnodon who were at work in Germany. These letters, which had not yet been censored, were distributed throughout the city like leaflets on the second day.
In the hands of Ivan Zemnukhov were concentrated appearances, passwords, direct contact with agents. Thanks to the skillful methods of conspiracy of the Komsomol members, the Germans could not attack the trail of the organization for more than five months.
Ulyana Gromova participated in the development of all operations. She arranged for her girls to work in all kinds of German institutions. Through them, she carried out numerous sabotage.
She also organized assistance to the families of Red Army soldiers and tortured miners, the transfer of parcels to prison, and the escape of Soviet prisoners of war. The Young Guards released more than 90 of our fighters and commanders from the concentration camp.
The Nazis managed to get on the trail of the organization. In the dungeons of the Gestapo, young men and women were tortured in the most brutal ways. The executioners repeatedly put a noose around Lyuba Shevtsova's neck and hung her from the ceiling. She was beaten until she lost consciousness. But the cruel torture of the executioners did not break the will of the young patriot. Having achieved nothing, the city police sent her to the district gendarmerie department. There, Lyuba was tortured with more sophisticated methods: needles were driven under her nails, a star was cut out on her back, burned with a red-hot iron.
The Germans also subjected other young patriots to the same terrible tortures, inhuman torments. But they did not extract a single word of recognition from the lips of the Komsomol members. Tortured, bloody, half-dead Komsomol members, the Germans threw them into the shaft of an old mine.
Immortal is the feat of the Young Guard! Their fearless and uncompromising struggle against the German occupiers, their legendary courage will shine through the ages as a symbol of love for the Motherland!
A. Erivansky
Glory to the sons of the Komsomol!
You see, comrade, the affairs of Krasnodon
a little light is illuminated by rays of glory.
In deep darkness the Soviet sun
behind their young stood shoulders.
For the happiness of Donbass they endured
and hunger, and torture, and cold, and flour,
and they pronounced a sentence on the Germans
and lowered a stern hand.
Neither the gnash of torture, nor the cunning of the detective
Enemies failed to break the Komsomol!
In the darkness, an immortal spark arose,
and explosions again thundered across the Donbass.
And fearlessly they parted with life,
they died with in simple words,
deep underground they remained
captive city masters.
No one saw their fire and lodging for the night
in the gloomy darkness of the German rear,
but the feat of Ulyana, the heroism of Oleg
Motherland saw and illuminated.
You see, comrade, the affairs of Krasnodontsy,
they will never be forgotten by us,
immortal glory, like the eternal sun,
rises, shining, above their names.
Semyon Kirsanov
This is how heroes die
The "Young Guard" was preparing to carry out its cherished dream- a decisive armed attack on the Krasnodon garrison by the Germans.
Vile betrayal interrupted the combat activities of the youth.
As soon as the arrests of the Young Guards began, the headquarters gave the order - all members of the "Young Guard" to leave and make their way to the units of the Red Army. But, unfortunately, it was already too late. Only 7 people managed to escape and stay alive - Ivan Turkevich, Georgy Arutyunyants, Valeria Borts, Radiy Yurkin, Olya Ivantsova, Nina Ivantsova and Mikhail Shishchenko. The remaining members of the "Young Guard" were captured by the Nazis and imprisoned.
Young underground workers were subjected to terrible torture, but none of them backed down from their oath. The German executioners went berserk, for 3, 3 hours in a row they beat and tortured the Young Guards. But the executioners could not break the spirit and iron will of the young patriots.
The Gestapo beat Sergey Tyulenin several times a day with whips made of electric wires, broke his fingers, and drove a red-hot ramrod into the wound. When this did not help, the executioners brought their mother, a 58-year-old old woman. In front of Sergei, she was undressed and tortured.
The executioners demanded that he tell about his connections in Kamensk and Izvarino. Sergei was silent. Then the Gestapo, in the presence of his mother, hung Sergei in a noose from the ceiling three times, and then gouged out his eye with a red-hot needle.
The Young Guards knew that the time of execution was coming. In their last hour they were also strong in spirit. Ulyana Gromova, a member of the headquarters of the Young Guard, transmitted in Morse code to all cells:
- The last order of the headquarters ... The last order ... they will lead us to execution. We will be led through the streets of the city. We will sing Ilyich's favorite song ...
Exhausted, mutilated, they left the prison in their last way young heroes. Ulyana Gromova walked with a star carved on her back. Shura Bondareva - with cut off breasts. Volodya Osmukhin had his right hand cut off.
The Young Guards went on their last journey with their heads held high. Solemnly and sadly rushed their song:
"Tortured by heavy bondage,
You died a glorious death
In the fight for a job
You honestly folded your head ... "
The executioners threw them alive into the fifty-meter shaft of the mine.
In February 1943, our troops entered Krasnodon. A red flag hoisted over the city. And looking at how it rinses in the wind, the inhabitants again remembered the Young Guard. Hundreds of people went to the prison building. They saw bloody clothes in the cells, traces of unheard-of torture. The walls were covered with inscriptions. Above one of the walls, a heart pierced by an arrow is carved. In the heart are four surnames: "Shura Bondareva, Nina Minaeva, Ulya Gromova, Angela Samoshina." And above all the inscriptions in the entire width of the bloodied wall is the inscription: "Death to the German occupiers!"
This is how the glorious pupils of the Komsomol lived, fought and died for their fatherland, young heroes whose feat will survive the centuries.
"Long live our liberator - the Red Army!"
One of the leaflets of the "Young Guard"
“Read it and pass it on to a friend.
Comrades Krasnodontsy!
The long-awaited hour of our liberation from the yoke of the Nazi bandits is approaching. troops Southwestern Front line of defense broken. On November 25, our units, having taken the capital Morozovskaya, advanced 45 kilometers.
The movement of our troops to the west continues rapidly. The Germans are fleeing in panic, dropping their weapons! The enemy, retreating, plunders the population, taking away food and clothing.
Comrades! Hide everything you can so that the Nazi robbers do not get it. Sabotage the orders of the German command, do not succumb to false German agitation.
Death to the German invaders!
Long live our liberator - the Red Army!
Long live the free Soviet homeland!
"Young guard".
For 6 months, "Young Guard" in Krasnodon alone issued more than 30 leaflets, with a circulation of over 5,000 copies.
After the liberation, the inhabitants of the city preserved the memory of the brave young men and women who fought against the German regime, and the domestic press made their feat known to all Soviet citizens. Sergei Tyulenin, Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Lyubov Shevtsova, Ulyana Gromova became symbols of youth patriotism.
Komsomol members of Krasnodon
Not! Our youth cannot be killed
And don't kneel!
She lives and will live
Just like the great Lenin taught.
For honor, for truth, for the people,
Who is the most honest in the world,
She will go to the scaffold
Any torture will proudly meet.
And even death won't win
Her daring of the living, -
Shine brightly over the world
Star of Oleg Koshevoy.
And be pure beauty
To call for a feat from the best of the best
For the cause of the Motherland, the saint.
For what Stalin teaches us.
Not! Torture won't make us shudder!
Immortal scarlet banners
Where is the youth
Like the Komsomol members of Krasnodon!
During the Great Patriotic War, many underground organizations operated in the Soviet territories occupied by Germany, which fought against the Nazis. One of these organizations worked in Krasnodon. It consisted not of experienced military men, but of young men and women who were barely 18 years old. The youngest member of the Young Guard at that time was only 14.
What did the Young Guard do?
Sergey Tyulenin laid the foundation for everything. After the city was occupied German troops in July 1942, he single-handedly began collecting weapons for the soldiers, posting anti-fascist leaflets, helping the Red Army to counteract the enemy. A little later, he assembled a whole detachment, and already on September 30, 1942, the organization numbered more than 50 people, headed by the chief of staff, Ivan Zemnukhov. [S-BLOCK]
The Young Guard carried out sabotage in the electromechanical workshops of the city. On the night of November 7, 1942, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Young Guards hoisted eight red flags on the most tall buildings in the city of Krasnodon and adjacent villages.
On the night of December 5-6, 1942, on the Day of the Constitution of the USSR, the Young Guard set fire to the building of the German labor exchange (the people dubbed it the "black exchange"), where lists of people (with addresses and filled out work cards) were stored, destined for hijacking for compulsory work in Nazi Germany, thereby about two thousand young men and women from the Krasnodon region were saved from forcible export. [S-BLOCK]
The Young Guards were also preparing to organize an armed uprising in Krasnodon in order to defeat the German garrison and join the advancing units of the Red Army. However, shortly before the planned uprising, the organization was uncovered.
On January 1, 1943, three Young Guardsmen were arrested: Yevgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Ivan Zemnukhov - the Nazis fell into the very heart of the organization. [S-BLOCK]
On the same day, the remaining members of the headquarters urgently gathered and decided: all the Young Guards should immediately leave the city, and the leaders should not spend the night at home that night. All underground workers were informed about the decision of the headquarters through messengers. One of them, who was in the group of the village of Pervomaika, Gennady Pocheptsov, having learned about the arrests, got cold feet and wrote a statement to the police about the existence of an underground organization.
massacre
One of the jailers, later convicted defector Lukyanov, said: “There was a continuous groan in the police, because during the entire interrogation the arrested were beaten. They lost consciousness, but they were brought to their senses and beaten again. I myself was sometimes terrified to look at these torments. They were shot in January 1943. 57 young guards. The Germans did not achieve any "frank confessions" from the Krasnodon schoolchildren. This, perhaps, was the most powerful moment for which the whole novel was written.
Viktor Tretyakevich - "the first traitor"
The Young Guards were arrested and sent to prison, where they were severely tortured. Viktor Tretyakevich, the organization's commissar, was treated with particular cruelty. His body was mutilated beyond recognition. Hence the rumors that it was Tretyakevich, unable to withstand the torture, betrayed the rest of the guys. Still trying to establish the identity of the traitor, the investigating authorities accepted this version. And only a few years later, on the basis of declassified documents, the traitor was established, it turned out to be not Tretyakevich at all. However, the charges were not dropped from him at the time. This will happen only 16 years later, when the authorities arrest Vasily Podtynny, who participated in the torture. During interrogation, he confessed that Tretyakevich had indeed been slandered. Despite the most severe torture, Tretyakevich held firm and did not betray anyone. He was rehabilitated only in 1960, posthumously awarded the Order. [S-BLOCK]
However, at the same time, the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League adopted a very strange closed resolution: “There is no point in stirring up the history of the Young Guard, remaking it in accordance with some facts that have become known recently. We believe that it is inappropriate to revise the history of the "Young Guard" when appearing in the press, lectures, reports. Fadeev's novel was published in our country in 22 languages and in 16 languages foreign countries... On the history of the Young Guards, millions of young men and women are brought up and will be brought up. Based on this, we believe that new facts that contradict the novel The Young Guard should not be made public.
Who is the traitor?
At the beginning of the 2000s, the Security Service of Ukraine in the Lugansk region declassified some materials in the case of the Young Guard. As it turned out, back in 1943, a certain Mikhail Kuleshov was detained by the SMERSH army counterintelligence. When the Nazis occupied the city, he offered them his cooperation and soon took the position of field police investigator. It was Kuleshov who led the investigation into the Young Guard case. Judging by his testimony, the real reason for the failure of the underground was the betrayal of the Young Guard Georgy Pocheptsov. When the news came that three Young Guardsmen had been arrested, Pocheptsov confessed everything to his stepfather, who worked closely with the German administration. He convinced him to turn himself in to the police. During the first interrogations, he confirmed the authorship of the applicant and his affiliation with the underground Komsomol organization operating in Krasnodon, named the goals and objectives of the underground, indicated the place where weapons and ammunition were stored, hidden in Gundor mine No. 18. [S-BLOCK]
As Kuleshov testified during the SMERSH interrogation on March 15, 1943: “Pocheptsov said that he really is a member of the underground Komsomol organization that exists in Krasnodon and its environs. He named the leaders of this organization, or rather, the city headquarters, namely: Tretyakevich, Lukashov, Zemnukhov, Safonov, Koshevoy. Pocheptsov called Tretyakevich the head of the citywide organization. He himself was a member of the May Day organization, headed by Anatoly Popov, and before that Glavan. The next day, Pocheptsov was again taken to the police and interrogated. On the same day, he was confronted with Moshkov and Popov, whose interrogations were accompanied by brutal beatings and cruel torture. Pocheptsov confirmed his previous testimony and named all members of the organization known to him. [C-BLOCK] From January 5 to 11, 1943, on the denunciation and testimony of Pocheptsov, most of the Young Guards were arrested. The traitor himself was released and was not arrested until the liberation of Krasnodon by the Soviet troops. Thus, the secret information that Pocheptsov had and which became known to the police turned out to be enough to liquidate the Komsomol youth underground. This is how the organization was revealed, having existed for less than six months.
After the liberation of Krasnodon by the Red Army, Pocheptsov, Gromov (Pocheptsov's stepfather) and Kuleshov were recognized as traitors to the Motherland and, on the verdict of the USSR military tribunal, were shot on September 19, 1943. However, the public learned about the real traitors for an unknown reason many years later.
Was there any betrayal?
In the late 1990s, Vasily Levashov, one of the surviving members of the Young Guard, said in an interview with one of the well-known newspapers that the Germans got on the trail of the Young Guard by accident - because of poor conspiracy. Allegedly, there was no betrayal. At the end of December 1942, the Young Guards robbed a truck with Christmas gifts for the Germans. This was witnessed by a 12-year-old boy who received a pack of cigarettes from members of the organization for his silence. With these cigarettes, the boy fell into the hands of the police and told about the robbery of the car. [S-BLOCK]
On January 1, 1943, three young guards were arrested, participating in the theft of Christmas gifts: Yevgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Ivan Zemnukhov. Without knowing it, the Nazis got into the very heart of the organization. during interrogations, the guys were silent, but during a search in Moshkov’s house, the Germans accidentally discovered a list of 70 members of the Young Guard. This list became the reason for mass arrests and torture.
It must be admitted that Levashov's "revelations" have not yet been confirmed.
How was the fate of the surviving young guards? What do we know about them? Only eight members of the Young Guard survived the Great Patriotic War.
Arutyunyants Georgy
During the arrests of members of the underground in January 1943, George managed to leave the city. In the ranks of the Red Army, he took part in battles with the Nazi invaders.
In 1957, Arutyunyants graduated from the Military-Political Academy named after V. I. Lenin, served in the ranks of the Soviet Army. He was unusually humble and sympathetic person. V last years of his life, Colonel Arutyunyants worked as a teacher at the Lenin Academy. Graduated from graduate school. In 1969 he was awarded academic degree candidate of historical sciences.
He was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree
G. M. Arutyunyants died on April 26, 1973 after a serious and prolonged illness. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Wrestler Valeria
After the release of Krasnodon, Valeria Borts continued her studies: she passed the exams externally for high school and in August 1943 she entered the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages.
After graduating from the institute, she worked as a translator-referent of Spanish and English at the Bureau of Foreign Literature at the Military Technical Publishing House. In 1963, Valeria Davydovna was sent to Cuba as an editor of technical literature at Spanish, and in 1971 she was sent to Poland, where she continued to serve in the ranks of the Soviet Army. In 1953 she joined the CPSU. But at the end of her life - in 1994 - she left the Communist Party.
She was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, the Order of the Red Star and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree, as well as many medals for impeccable service in the ranks of the Soviet Army.
Valeria Borts - Master of Sports of the USSR in motor sports (1960). In 1957, she and her husband first became participants in official rally competitions. At the end of her life, Valeria Davydovna, a lieutenant colonel in the reserve, lived in Moscow. She died on January 14, 1996, the ashes, according to her will, were scattered over pit No. 5 in the city of Krasnodon.
In 1948, Nina Mikhailovna graduated from the Donetsk Party School, and in 1953 from the Voroshilovgrad Pedagogical Institute. She worked in the apparatus of the Voroshilovgrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
At the end of her life she was retired, she died on January 1, 1982, and was buried in Lugansk.
She was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, medals "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree, "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" and others.
Ivantsova Olga
In early January 1943, after the first arrests of the underground, Olga and her sister left the city. In February, together with units of the Red Army, they returned to Krasnodon.
Upon returning to Krasnodon, she became a Komsomol worker. Working as the second secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol, Olga Ivantsova raised funds for the Young Guard tank column and the Heroes of Krasnodon air squadron, took an active part in the creation of the Young Guard museum, in collecting exhibits for it. Olga Ivantsova was the museum's first tour guide.
In 1947, Olga Ivantsova was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR of the 2nd convocation. In 1948 she joined the ranks of the CPSU. In 1954 she graduated from the Lviv Higher Trade School. Was at party work in the city of Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk region, worked in the field of trade. She was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
Olga Ivanovna died on June 16, 2001, she was buried in Krivoy Rog.
Levashov Vasily
In August 1945, Vasily Ivanovich Levashov, lieutenant of the 1038th Infantry Regiment of the 295th rifle division, was sent to courses at the Engels Leningrad Political School, and in 1947, after graduation, to Navy. Until 1949, Vasily Ivanovich served on the Black Sea, on the cruiser Voroshilov, from 1949 to 1953 he studied at the Lenin Military-Political Academy. After graduating, he served on warships.
Red Banner Baltic Fleet: was the deputy commander of the destroyer Stoiky and the cruiser Sverdlov.
Since 1973, he worked as a senior lecturer in the department of party political work (associate professor) of the Higher naval school radio electronics named after A. S. Popov in Leningrad. He graduated from the service with the rank of captain of the 1st rank. From 1991 until the end of his life - a member of the RCWP.
On June 22, 2001, he compiled the "Appeal of the last Young Guard to the youth." He died on July 10, 2001, and was buried on July 13 at the military cemetery of Old Peterhof in St. Petersburg.
Family: wife - Ninel Dmitrievna, daughter Maria and granddaughter Nelly, named after her grandmother.
Orders:
Red Star - for participation in the liberation of Kherson.
Patriotic War 2nd degree - for the liberation of Warsaw.
Patriotic War 2nd degree - for participation in the capture of Kustrin.
Patriotic War 1-degree - for the capture of Berlin.
Medals:
"For the Liberation of Warsaw".
"For the capture of Berlin."
"For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945".
"Partisan of the Patriotic War" 2nd degree.
"For Military Merit".
Lopukhov Anatoly
In January 1943, Anatoly Lopukhov managed to avoid arrest. He left Krasnodon and hid in the mining settlements for a long time. In the Alexandrovka area, not far from Voroshilovgrad, he crossed the front line and voluntarily joined the Red Army. He took part in the battles for the liberation of Ukraine. October 10, 1943 was wounded.
After the hospital he came to his native Krasnodon. Here he took an active part in the creation of the museum "Young Guard", was its first director, carried out a lot of educational work among young people. In September 1944, Anatoly Lopukhov entered the Leningrad School of Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Upon graduation, he was a platoon commander and secretary of the bureau of the Komsomol unit, then assistant to the head of the political department of the school for work among Komsomol members. In 1948, Anatoly Vladimirovich became a member of the Communist Party. In 1955, Captain Lopukhov was admitted to the Military-Political Academy named after V.I. Lenin. After graduation, he served as a political worker in the air defense units of the Soviet Army. In subsequent years, he worked in many regions of the Soviet Union, was repeatedly elected to the city and regional Soviets of Workers' Deputies.
He was awarded the Order of the Red Star, medals "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree, "For Courage" and others.
He died on October 5, 1990 in Dnepropetrovsk, where he lived after military service.
Shishchenko Mikhail
V post-war years Mikhail Tarasovich worked as chairman of the Rovenkovsky district committee of the trade union of coal miners, assistant to the head of the Dzerzhinsky mine administration, secretary of the party organization of the Almaznyansky mine administration, deputy manager of the Frunzeugol trust. In 1961 he graduated from the Rovenkovsky Mining College. In 1970, he was appointed deputy head of the material and technical supply department of the Donbassanthracite plant. In recent years, he worked as an assistant to the director of the mine named after the XXIII Congress of the CPSU for personnel. Residents of the city of Rovenki repeatedly elected him as a deputy of the city council.
Awarded the Order of the Red Star and October revolution, medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
Died May 5, 1979. He was buried at the city cemetery in Rovenki.
Yurkin Radiy
In October 1943, the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League sent Radiy to the school for pilots of initial training, after which, in January 1945, he was assigned to the Pacific Fleet. He took part in battles with the Japanese militarists. Then he served in the Red Banner Baltic and Black Sea Fleets.
In 1950, Radiy Yurkin graduated from the Yeisk Military Aviation School. During his studies, he was elected a member of the Krasnodar Regional Committee of the Komsomol, was a delegate to the XI Congress of the Komsomol. In 1951 he became a member of the CPSU. In 1957 he was transferred to the reserve for health reasons. Lived in the city of Krasnodon. He worked as a mechanic in the Krasnodon motorcade. He devoted a lot of time and energy to the military-patriotic education of the youth, was a passionate propagandist of the unparalleled feat of his Young Guard friends. Together with other surviving Young Guards, Radiy Petrovich participated in the rehabilitation of Viktor Tretyakevich, who became the victim of a slander by one of the policemen, who claimed that Viktor could not stand the torture and betrayed his comrades. Only in 1959 was it possible to restore his honest name.
Krasnodon underground
History reference
It was 1941. Parts of the Red Army, waging stubborn battles with superior enemy forces, retreated to the east. With the approach of the front line to the Donbass, the Voroshilovgrad regional party committee, on the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, began to create a Bolshevik underground. Already by October 1, 1941, 24 underground district committees and city party committees were created in the region, uniting 735 communists.
By mid-July 1942, that is, by the time the region was occupied, 565 people were selected and left for underground work and 661 people for participation in the partisan movement. Most of them had experience of underground work since the time of foreign intervention and civil war.
In May - June 1942, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine D.S. Korotchenko came to Krasnodon several times. He met with the underground communists, talked with them for a long time.
The head of the Krasnodon underground party organization was appointed a communist of the Leninist appeal, a member of the CPSU (b) since 1924, Filipp Petrovich Lyutikov, who worked in the prewar years as the head of the Central Electromechanical Workshops, and then as the deputy head of mine No. and talented organizer.
As the front approached, the Krasnodon communists began to go underground. Turnouts, passwords were established, food and medicine bases were created. The underground party organization was given an armed partisan detachment, formed from the fighters of the extermination battalion. Baziro-
He was based in the village of Izvarino, as well as in beams and copses on the banks of the Seversky Donets River.
The city of Krasnodon was occupied by the Nazi invaders on July 20, 1942. From the very first days of the occupation, the Nazis began to introduce a "new order" in the city. Atrocious massacres and violence against civilians, the deportation of young people to hard labor, robberies, executions for the slightest disobedience. Life has become unbearable.
At the very beginning of their rule, the invaders attacked the trail of a partisan detachment. At the end of July, they shot eight patriots, among them the commander of the detachment P. D. Salfetnikov, commissioner T. N. Sarancha. Brothers Yakov and Mikhail Bekmaev were hanged in the central square of the village of Izvarino. Partisans M. B. Polyakov, A. V. Akhmetov, I. G. Parkhomenko, Shi-Ta-Fu and the eldest daughter of T. N. Sarancha, Evgenia, fell into the fascist dungeons.
The Krasnodon underground workers had to work in extremely difficult conditions. They chose the electromechanical workshops of the fascist directorate No. 10 as the center of the party underground and the main base of their activities. At risk, F.P. Lyutikov appeared in the directorate and declared his desire to work in mechanical workshops as a mechanic.
On his recommendation, a communist underground worker, mechanical engineer Nikolai Petrovich Barakov, who had previously carried out the task of the State Defense Committee to disable mines and mine equipment, was hired here as the head of the workshops and underground communist.
Taking advantage of their official position, they hired underground comrades N. Rumyantsev and N. Teluev as carpenters, G. Solovyov as a blacksmith, D. Vystavkin and A. Elshin as hammerers. Komsomol members Vladimir Osmukhin, Anatoly Orlov, Yuri Vizenovsky and Anatoly Nikolaev were also recruited.
The first thing the Bolshevik underground organization did was political agitation among the population, uniting Soviet patriots and especially young people into underground groups for active combat activities against the invaders. On one of the outskirts of the city, young people were led by Sergey Tyulenin, on Sadovaya and Pionerskaya streets - by Oleg Koshevoy, along Bankovskaya - by Ivan Zemnukhov, in the village of Pervomaika - by Ulyana Gromova, Anatoly Popov, Maya Peglivanova, in the village of Krasnodon - by Nikolai Sumskoy, Vladimir Zhdanov and Antonina Eliseenko , in the village of Novo-Aleksandrovka - Klava Kovaleva and in the village of Shevyrevka - Stepan Safonov. Komsomol members Oleg Koshevoy, Sergei Tyulenin, Ivan Zemnukhov, Valeria Borts and others were engaged in copying and distributing leaflets.
Strictly observing secrecy, the Bolshevik underground armed Komsomol members and youth, preparing them for military operations against the Nazi invaders. Soviet patriots, on their instructions, collected weapons and medicines for this purpose in places of recent battles.
Over time, the young communist Yevgeny Moshkov, a gunner-radio operator of aviation, whose plane was shot down over the occupied territory, became active underground workers; commander of the fire platoon of anti-aircraft artillery, Lieutenant Ivan Turkenich, sailors Dmitry Ogurtsov, Nikolai Zhukov, Vasily Tkachev, gunner Vasily Gukov, cavalryman Evgeny Shepelev, nurse Antonina Ivanikhina, graduates of the school of demolition radio operators Sergey and Vasily Levashov, Vladimir Zagoruiko, Lyubov Shevtsova, translator Boris Glavan . Every day the Nazis felt more and more the growing resistance of the population. The police, Gestapo agents and especially their henchmen - traitors to the motherland, the chief of police Orlov, the chief engineer of the directorate Andreev and others - understood that the vast majority of communists and Komsomol members who did not manage to evacuate were, if not organizers, then a reserve of anti-fascist resistance in Krasnodon. And they did everything to (destroy these people.
Thus, the head of the mine A. A. Valko, the party organizer of the mine N12 S. K. Beschasny, the party organizer of the mine No. 5 S. S. Klyuzov, the chairman of the district consumer union V. P. Petrov, the head of the radio center Dmitroshkovsky, the people’s investigator P. M. Mironov, head of the section of mine No. 12 Pyotr Zimin, chairman of the collective farm I. E. Shevyrev, head of the military department of the district committee of the party G. T. Vinokurov and others. After interrogations and brutal torture on the night of September 29, 1942, they, along with other Soviet patriots, were buried alive in the city park of culture and recreation.
The news of the brutal massacre quickly spread throughout the city, passed from house to house, passed from mouth to mouth. Hearts boiled with anger, hands reached for weapons. The youth reacted especially sharply to the reprisals. Revenge, mercilessly avenge the enemy! - such was the unanimous desire of the young patriots.
The day after the death of the communist miners, on the instructions of F. P. Lyutikov and N. P. Baranov, the underground communist Yevgeny Moshkov held the first organizational meeting of the leaders of the underground Komsomol groups of the city and towns. At this meeting, the headquarters of the youth organization was established. At the suggestion of Sergei Tyulenin, the underground organization was named "Young Guard". The headquarters included: Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Turkenich, Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin, Viktor Tretyakevich, Vasily Levashov. Later, Lyubov Shevtsova and Ulyana Gromova were brought into the headquarters.
Ivan Turkenich, who commanded a platoon at the front for almost a year, was appointed commander, and Oleg Koshevoy was appointed commissar.
The organizational structure of the "Young Guard" was designed for a long struggle against an insidious and dangerous enemy. Following the example of the party underground, the entire organization was divided into individual groups, personnel which was selected according to the territorial principle, taking into account the comradely relations between the members of each group.
All combat activities of the "Young Guard" took place under the direct supervision of the party organization. Every day more and more new patriots entered the struggle. In October-December, the Krasnodon underground organization numbered 92 people, among them 20 communists. In the harsh days of fascist terror, 22 Krasnodontsy joined the ranks of the Lenin Komsomol. Commissioner of the "Young Guard" Oleg Koshevoy issued "Temporary Komsomol certificates" printed in an underground printing house to those who entered, he also made notes on the payment of membership fees.
During the days of the fascist occupation, the organizational talent of F. P. Lyutikov and his associates, the communists, manifested itself with particular force. They skillfully directed a large group of underground workers to daring and daring military operations.
When it became known in Krasnodon that the Nazis under arms were forcing collective farmers to thresh the bread collected in stacks and take it to Germany, the headquarters of the "Young Guard" instructed to destroy the stacks. On dark October nights, combat detachments went to the steppe. And soon, in one place or another, the low autumn clouds reflected the glow of the conflagrations.
By the end of October, instead of stacks of bread, heaps of gray ash lay on the fields of the Krasnodon and Novosvetlovsky regions.
Fascist propaganda developed a frenzied activity in the occupied territory. In leaflets and on the radio, in a dirty pro-fascist newspaper" New life"They painted the "successes" of the Nazi troops, called about the "complete defeat" of the Red Army. In order to tell the Krasnodontsy the truth about the situation on the fronts and expose fascist propaganda, the headquarters gave the task of mounting radios.
Soon, the first leaflets appeared in the city and villages with reports from the Sovinformburo, which Moscow transmitted to partisans and underground fighters. These messages were handwritten in hundreds of copies and distributed among the population. Every time people expected them with excitement: the reports inspired hope and confidence in the imminent deliverance from Hitler's tyranny.
Rewriting leaflets by hand took a lot of time. Dozens of young guards had to be involved in the work. At the suggestion of Oleg Koshevoy, the headquarters decided to create their own underground printing house. The Young Guards collected typefaces letter by letter from the ruins of the printing house of the district newspaper. And on the night of November 7, 1942, in the house of Zhora Arutyunyants, I. Zemnukhov, V. Osmukhin, A. Orlov, V. Levashov and V. Tretyakevich produced the first printed leaflets. In total, during the occupation in Krasnodon, 30 leaflet titles were issued with a total circulation of up to 5,000 copies.
The occupiers felt an acute shortage of coal, necessary for railway transport. The leadership of the "Eastern Society for the Operation of Coal and Metallurgical Enterprises", which included the Krasnodon Directorate No. 10, demanded that coking coal be urgently provided for coking plants and blast furnaces.
F. P. Lyutikov, N. P. Barakov and other underground communists of Krasnodon organized the work of mechanical workshops in such a way that not a single mine was restored. Where restoration work came to an end, sabotage was committed. So, at the Sorokino mine No. 1, the young guard Y. Vizenovsky, on the instructions of the communist N.P. Barakov, sawed the lifting rope. The broken cage completely destroyed the mine shaft. The occupiers could not restore this mine.
Not a single wagon of fuel was taken out by the Nazis from the richest region during the entire time they were in charge in Krasnodon.
The temporary power plant, which was maintained by young mechanics Vladimir Osmukhin and Anatoly Orlov, worked with great interruptions. In the mechanisms, bearings often melted, the generator failed.
The Nazis did not know peace in Krasnodon. In November, a herd of 500 cattle proceeded towards the Dolzhanka station, guarded by Nazi soldiers. At the direction of Ivan Turkenich, Sergei Tyulenin, Vladimir Osmukhin, Demyan Fomin, Viktor Petrov and Semyon Ostapenko shot the guards outside the city, and the cattle were dispersed to nearby villages and farms.
The 25th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was approaching. Krasnodon communists and Komsomol members decided to adequately celebrate the anniversary of Soviet power. On the eve of the holiday on the night of November 7, 1942, the Young Guards hoisted eight red flags on the tallest buildings in the city and villages. Leaflets appeared on the streets and in the markets, in which the young avengers urged the population to rise up to fight against the invaders.
After the holiday, Turkenich, Popov, Fomin and Zemnukhov released twenty Soviet prisoners of war, doomed to death in the building of the May Day hospital.
On the roads leading to Krasnodon, enemy vehicles exploded and burned, weapons and documents disappeared without a trace. At the end of November, Ivan Turkenich, Anatoly Popov and Demyan Fomin threw grenades at a German staff car in the Krasnodon-Izvarino section. A combat group led by Sergei Levashov destroyed a convoy between Krasnodon and Sverdlovsk. Sergei Tyulenin and his fighting friends kept the Krasnodon-Voroshilovgrad road under control.
The ranks of the underground workers grew all the time. Gathering at the apartment became dangerous. In December, at the direction of the party leadership, the Gorky club became the center of activity for the Young Guard. On the recommendation of N. P. Barakov, Yevgeny Moshkov is appointed director of the club, Ivan Zemnukhov is the administrator, Viktor Tretyakevich is the artistic director. Most of the members of the organization were now "artists".
Participation in the work of the club gave young people the opportunity to meet without hindrance, without arousing the suspicions of fascist bloodhounds, and freed them from forced mobilization to Germany. The activities of the underground have intensified.
A labor exchange was created in Krasnodon. "Black Exchange" - as the people dubbed it. By the beginning of December, the "Bavaria Recruitment Commission" - for the general commissioner for the distribution of labor - completed preparations for sending to Germany about 2 thousand young men and women from the Krasnodon region. Lists with addresses were compiled, work cards were filled in, the day of dispatch was appointed.
By all means, to save the youth from being driven into slavery, to thwart the plans of the occupiers - this was what the Krasnodon underground workers lived in those days. But how? Armed action would have been premature, and the forces were too unequal. It was then that they made a seemingly simple, but the most correct decision - to burn the black exchange.
The headquarters instructed Sergey Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova and Viktor Lukyanchenko to carry out this military operation. On the night of December 5-6, 1942, on the Day of the Soviet Constitution, daredevils made their way into the exchange building and set it on fire. In a hot flame, all documents for Krasnodon boys and girls burned down. About two thousand doomed to hard labor were not taken to Germany.
The people sang this feat in a song:
Who's sneaking up the street?
Who doesn't sleep on a night like this?
Flyer curls in the wind
The black exchange is on fire.
In those days, fighting spirit reigned in the "Young Guard", everyone sought to contribute to the struggle for the liberation of their native land. Lida Androsova wrote in her diary that at night, performing combat missions with her friends, they listened with bated breath to the distant rumble of artillery cannonade. It was the heroes of Stalingrad who marched westward with menacing steps, bringing liberation to the enslaved peoples.
By this time, F.P. Lyutikov created a combat group of communists and prisoners of war who worked in the workshops, paid special attention to the armament of the Young Guard.
Weapons were obtained by all possible means. Lyutikov gave the task to the underground communist S. G. Yakovlev to leave Krasnodon for the Mityakinskaya village, where he should get a job at a mill in one of the farms. From time to time, S. G. Yakovlev appeared in Krasnodon. And every time after his arrival, the underground workers sent a cart with coal to the farm, and from there it returned with grain or flour, under which lay weapons. Destroying enemy vehicles, the underground took away the personal weapons of German soldiers. The most dexterous kidnapped him in clubs during dances. In the dark alleys of the city outskirts, in the workers' settlements, and often in the center of the city, the armed detachments of the underground were complete masters. The population willingly helped the young avengers, indicating the location of the gendarmerie patrols, providing shelter to those pursued by the police.
The fascist army at that time resembled a mortally wounded beast. Under the powerful blows of the Red Army, she rapidly rolled back to the west. The Nazi command hoped to delay the offensive of the Soviet troops on the banks of the Seversky Donets River. Special forces of the Gestapo were sent to Krasnodon, which carried out the order of the German command - to clear the immediate rear of the partisans Hitler's army.
On December 26, the headquarters of the "Young Guard" became aware that cars with New Year's gifts for German soldiers stopped in the city.
To inflict at least a little damage on the Nazis was the ardent desire of all young patriots. Therefore, most of the staff members took part in the "unloading" of cars. The gifts were hidden in the apartments, some of them were brought to the Gorky club.
The underground workers these days were in dire need of the money needed to bribe the police and support the most needy families of the Red Army soldiers who fought at the front. The membership fees collected earlier were spent on the ransom of the arrested Olga Ivantsova from the Kamensk police, who was sent to Kamensk to establish contact with the partisans. Rostov region.
After consulting with members of the headquarters, Yevgeny Moshkov decided with the help of teenagers to sell some of the cigarettes from New Year's fascist gifts at the market. The Gestapo demanded that the police chief Solikovsky find at all costs the persons involved in the theft of gifts. All the police were on their feet. Fascist bloodhounds were prowling everywhere. Soon one of the teenagers was caught red-handed at the market. He was taken to the police. Unable to withstand the beatings, on the night of December 31, he named the names of those who gave him cigarettes.
On the morning of January 1, 1943, when Yevgeny Moshkov was cleaning up the club's auditorium, the Germans and the police, led by Solikovsky, burst in. Bound hand and foot, beaten Yevgeny Moshkov was thrown into a sled and taken to his home, where a bag with gifts was seized during a search. Right at the apartment on the same day Viktor Tretyakevich was arrested, Ivan Zemnukhov was seized.
Sergei Tyulenin, who was on stage backstage during Moshkov's arrest, immediately reported the incident to Ivan Turkenich, Oleg Koshevoy, Anatoly Popov, Valeria Borts, Sergei and Vasily Levashov, and other Young Guardsmen. Sergey Tyulenin's sister Nadya conveyed this message to Lyutikov.
At this time, one of the police agents Vasily Gromov ( real name Nuzhdin), knowing about the existence of the "Young Guard" and that his step-son Pocheptsov belonged to it, convinced him, without waiting for arrest, to extradite the members of the organization known to him to the police. On January 1, 1943, the Honorary personally wrote a statement addressed to the active fascist accomplice Zhukov, in which he reported on the underground Komsomol organization Young Guard.
On January 2, in Pervomayka, at the apartment of Anatoly Popov, the last meeting of the headquarters took place. It was attended by II. Turkenich, O. Koshevoy, S. Tyulenin, U. Gromova, L. Shevtsova and many other members of the organization. The headquarters instructed the Young Guards to infiltrate in small groups to the front line.
On the same day, Oleg Koshevoy, Sergei Tyulenin, the Ivantsov sisters Nina and Olya, Valeria Borts and Tyulenina Nadya left the east. Safonov and Yurkin, having taken the machine gun at the Tyulenins' apartment, attacked a German car, blew it up and, having shot the soldiers, left the city. Georgy Arutyunyants, Vasily Levashov, Anatoly Lopukhov disappeared from the city. Police jn Ivan Turkenich fled.
During these days, the following communists were arrested: F. P. Lyutikov, N. P. Barakov, D. S. Vystavkin, N. G. Teluev, S. G. Yakovlev, G. M. Solovyov, M. G. Dymchenko, N. G. Sokolova.
As shown by the exposed and convicted in 1959-1960. Podtynny, deputy head of the Krasnodon police, according to Pocheptsov's denunciation, from January 5 to 11, most of the Young Guardsmen were thrown into the cells of the fascist dungeon. During the arrests of the Young Guards, general searches were carried out in the city and settlements. Those who were suspected were dragged to the station, beaten, forced to confess in connection with the partisans. Special detachments patrolled the streets around the clock. Ambushes were set up at the crossroads at night.
The office premises of the police turned into a fascist dungeon. Prisoners were beaten with whips made of rawhide belts and telephone wire, beaten on the floor, trampled underfoot, hung from the ceiling by the neck and legs, burned with red-hot iron. In order not to hear the groans of prisoners and the whistle of whips, the executioners, enraged from blood and moonshine, played the gramophone from morning to night.
The communists were the first to be interrogated and tortured. The underground workers answered the questions of the executioners with silence and contempt. Philip Petrovich Lyutikov was tormented for several days in a row. In a rage they broke his hands and legs, but the old Bolshevik did not utter a word. It was from him that the young communist Yevgeny Moshkov learned endurance. Beaten half to death, he collected last strength and, spitting blood in the face of the police investigator Kuleshov, he angrily shouted: "You can hang me! Do you hear?! Anyway, you can't block the sun that will rise over Krasnodon with my corpse."
Knowing that imminent death awaited them, the Young Guards threw words of contempt and hatred into the face of the enemy. At the confrontation between Zemnukhov and Gromova, when asked if she received instructions from Zemnukhov, Ulya exclaimed:
- Yes, I did! And I'm sorry I didn't!
It is impossible to read the last words of the communist Maria Dymchenko to the sisters without excitement:
"Dear sisters, there is no hope of returning home. We must be shot. It's a pity for the children... Ours will return soon. We will fight to the end..."
The selfless courage of the Communists and Komsomol members, who could not be broken by any torture, infuriated the Gestapo.
"Don't worry about me. I feel like a hero!" - declares Vanya Zemnukhov in a note from the fascist dungeon to his sister Nina. "I'm sitting for a revolver, for partisanism," writes Anatoly Nikolaev. "Dear mommy, if dad is alive, let him take revenge ... I won't return home. Hide the diary ..." - Klava Kovaleva asks in his suicide letter. "Thanks to everyone who helps me ..." - Anatoly Popov addresses his relatives. "Mom, I'm sorry that I make you walk a lot," - even in those unbearable conditions, Viktor Petrov took care of his loved ones. “My beloved brother, I am dying, stand strong for your Motherland,” Ulyana Gromova bequeathed to the pilot's brother Yelisey.
Not only the mean words of the notes, but also the gray, blood-splattered walls of the fascist casemates told the Soviet people about the courage and stamina of the Young Guard. Right on the gray wall, they drew the contour of the heart with blood, and in it - the names: Bondareva, Minaeva, Gromova, Samoshin. Below they wrote "Death to the German occupiers!"
On blizzard nights on January 15, 16 and 31, 1943, the Nazis took the heroes of the anti-fascist resistance to the pit of mine No. 5. With Ilyich's favorite song, "Tortured by heavy bondage," the Krasnodon underground workers left on their last journey.
Residents of the city were forbidden to leave their homes. But even through the stone walls they heard the words of a song full of sadness and courage.
The fascists and their faithful servants - the police tried to do everything so that the people would not know how courageously and steadfastly the communists and Komsomol members of the mining city behaved in the Nazi dungeons, what cruel tortures the prisoners were subjected to during interrogations.
The Koshevoy-Tyulenin group failed to cross the front line. On January 11, they were forced to return to Krasnodon again. The Ivantsov sisters hid with relatives on a farm near the city. Borts went to Voroshilovgrad to her friends and there she waited for the arrival of the Red Army. Oleg Koshevoy could not get home to himself: there was an ambush. That same night he went to Bokovo-Anthracite. Seven kilometers from Rovenky, Koshevoy was detained by field gendarmerie serving railway. During a search, they found a pistol, two blank forms for temporary Komsomol certificates and a Komsomol seal. At first, Koshevoy was kept in the Rovenkovsky police, and then he was transferred to the district Gestapo department, located in the city hospital.
Lyuba Shevtsova was kept in Krasnodon until January 31, and then, together with Viktor Subbotin, Dmitry Ogurtsov and Semyon Ostapenko, they were sent to the district gendarmerie in the city of Rovenki. Here they met with Oleg Koshev.
During interrogations, the young guards behaved exceptionally steadfastly. The translator of the chief of the district branch of the field commandant's office, a certain Thomas Geist, showed the Military Tribunal that Koshevoy, when he was beaten very hard, threw in the face of the executioners:
- All the same, you will all die, fascist bastards! Ours are close!
Geist told how one of the gendarmes, who was overly zealous during the interrogation of Lyuba, she slapped in the face and angrily shouted: "Scoundrel!"
On February 9, 1943, all the Soviet citizens who were in the cells of the Rovenkovsky district Gestapo department were shot by the Nazis in the Thundering Forest, as part of the forest park in Rovenki was called. Among those executed were the young guards O. Koshevoy, L. Shevtsova, S. Ostapenko, V. Subbotin, D. Ogurtsov.
The fascists themselves testify to the courage and steadfastness of the Young Guard, to their burning hatred for their enemies. Gendarme platoon commander Otto Drewitz testified during interrogation:
"When the arrested were placed on the edge of a previously dug hole, Koshevoy raised his head and, turning to those standing nearby, shouted loudly: "Look death straight in the eyes!" The last words muffled the shots. Then I noticed that Koshevoy was still alive and was only wounded. I approached Koshevoy, who was lying on the ground, and shot him point-blank in the head.
With what impudent cynicism does the fascist executioner tell the Military Tribunal about the death of Oleg Koshevoy, the commissar of the "Young Guard"!
And here is the testimony of translator Thomas Geist: “Lyuba Shevtsova was in the second batch of those arrested. When they were placed at the caponier to shelter cars, Lyuba looked around at the soldiers and policemen. that Lyuba tore off her coat and shawl, tore her blouse and shouted: “Shoot!” Shots rang out, she tried to say something else, but threw herself back and fell into the pit.
Sergey Tyulenin, having crossed the front line on the territory of the Glubokinsky district of the Rostov region, asked the command to send him to intelligence. His request was granted, and in the second half of January, he, still dressed in civilian clothes, together with paratroopers, broke into the city of Kamensk on a gank. But the tank was hit, and Tyulenin again ended up in the occupied territory. Vasilisa Govorukhina, a resident of the village of Volchensk, Kamensky district, where the wounded S. Tyulenin stayed, said:
"In January 1943, a guy came to our apartment, wounded in his right hand, and called himself Sergei Tyulenin. He came to us because we had no Germans. He said that during the battle for Kamensk he was again captured by the Nazis and abandoned in the basement with the Red Army. In the evening they began to be shot. Sergei was wounded in the arm, he fell, others began to fall on him. When everything calmed down, he came to his senses, got out from under the corpses and quietly left the city at night. We washed his wound, fed, and he stayed with us to spend the night. In the morning he left his address and went home to Krasnodon ... "
But the fascist bloodhounds got wind of this, and on the evening of January 27, Sergei was arrested. On this day, seven more members of the Young Guard fell into the hands of the Nazis, whom they managed to track down. Among them were: Anya Sopova, Anatoly Kovalev, Misha Grigoriev, Yuri Vizenozsky and others.
Having beaten the prisoners half to death, on January 31, the Nazis took them on a sledge to the pit of mine No. 5, where they were brutally dealt with. Anatoly Kovalev managed to escape.
On February 14, 1943, units of the 266th Infantry Division, in cooperation with the 3rd tank brigade liberated Krasnodon from the Nazi invaders. Soon rescue work began at the site of the death of the Krasnodon heroes. 71 underground workers, mutilated beyond recognition, were taken out of the mine shaft. On March 1, 1943, with military honors, the ashes of 58 people, members of the Krasnodon underground party and Komsomol organizations, were buried in the city park named after Komsomol. 13 underground members of the village of Krasnodon, at the request of their parents, were buried in the central square of their native village. Oleg Koshevoy, Lyuba Shevtsova, Dmitry Ogurtsov, Viktor Subbotin, Semyon Ostapenko, who were shot in the Thundering Forest, were buried in the center of Rovenky, in a mass grave, along with 92 victims of fascist terror. Vasily Borisov was buried in the village of Bolshoi Sukhodol, where he was shot by the Nazis. Stepan Safonov, having crossed the front line, joined the ranks of the Red Army. In the battles for the city of Kamensk, Rostov Region, on January 20, 1943, he died a hero's death.
The commander of the "Young Guard" Ivan Turkenich crossed the front line and joined the ranks of the Soviet troops. In 1944 he became a communist. Remembering the oath that he took on the grave of his fighting friends in Krasnodon, he took revenge on the Nazis, always being at the forefront. In August 1944, in the battle for the Polish city of Glogow, Ivan Turkenich was mortally wounded and died without regaining consciousness. The Polish people buried the hero in the cemetery Soviet soldiers in the city of Rzeszow. An obelisk is installed on the grave, on which the inscription "To the Hero of the" Young Guard "Ivan Turkenich - citizens of the Geneva Voivodeship" is carved in Polish and Russian.
Eight members of the underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard" survived. Until the end of the war, Anatoly Lopukhov, Vasily Levashov, Georgy Arutyunyants, Nina Ivantsova, Radiy Yurkin fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army. Valeria Borts, Mikhail Shishchenko, Olga Ivantsova made their contribution to the cause of victory over the enemy, working in the rear.
The Soviet government highly appreciated the merits of the Krasnodon underground. Five of them - Commissioner of the "Young Guard" Oleg Vasilyevich Koshevoy, members of the staff Ulyana Matveevna Gromova, Ivan Alexandrovich Zemnukhoau, Sergei Gavriilovich Tyulenin, Lyubov Grigoryevna Shevtsova - were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union, three were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 36 - the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, 6 people - the Order of the Red Star, 66 people - the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
On the 20th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany on May 10, 1965, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the leaders of the party underground Lyutikov Philip Petrovich and Barakov Nikolay Petrovich were posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin; Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree - underground communists Valko Andrei Andreevich, Vystavkin Daniil Sergeevich, Vinokurov Gerasim Tikhonovich, Dymchenko Maria Georgievna, Sarancha Tikhon Nikolaevich, Sokolova Nalina Georgievna, Yakovlev Stepan Grigorievich.
For the courage and heroism shown by Komsomol members and youth during the Great Patriotic War, and in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol, the Krasnodon city Komsomol organization was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in October 1968.
The people immortalized the memory of the heroes of Krasnodon, naming them after the cities, workers' settlements, state farms, collective farms, ships, pioneer squads and detachments.
The heroic deeds of the Young Guards are captured in works of art, literature, music, and cinema. Young people sing songs about them, epics and tales are composed among the people. Majestic monuments were erected to them in the homeland of the heroes in the miners' Krasnodon and in the cradle of the great October Revolution - Leningrad.
The heroic epic of the Communists and Komsomol members of Krasnodon is inscribed in golden letters in the annals of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany. Led by the underground communists F. P. Lyutikov, N. P. Barakov, A. A. Valko, young patriots, led by the commissioner of the "Young Guard" Oleg Koshev, commander Ivan Turkenich, serve as an example of courage and courage in the struggle for all young men and women for the cause of the party, boundless love and devotion to the motherland, to its people.
More than four million boys and girls of our country and 97 foreign countries have already visited the Museum of the "Young Guard" in the city of Krasnodon. In the guest books, they leave notes about their admiration for the exploits of young patriots, about their desire to be like them in their deeds.
A living monument to young patriots is the city of Molologvardeysk, built by the hands of young people. Here, in 1962, a patriotic movement was born to enlist the heroes of the "Young Guard" in their teams. The team of miners Fyodor Lobko from the mine "Talovskaya No. 1" enlisted the commissioner of the "Young Guard" Hero of the Soviet Union Oleg Koshevoy in its composition.
Now in the Voroshilovgrad region more than 200 youth production teams have enlisted the Young Guards into their ranks. This movement became nationwide. The heroes of Krasnodon are alive in the memory of the people. They, together with the Soviet people, melt metal, drive trains and motor ships, stand at machine tools and combines, go on slaughter and expeditions, build houses, schools, hospitals, palaces. Lyubov Shevtsova, Sergey Tyulenin, Oleg Koshevoy, Ulyana Gromova, Ivan Zemnukhov are still on the lists of students of the schools where they studied. At the roll call, the student sitting at the desk of the young guard answers:
- He died a hero's death in the fight against the Nazi invaders.
In September 1972, the youth of our Motherland widely celebrated the 30th anniversary of the creation of the "Young Guard". In all cities and districts of the Voroshilovgrad region, the days of the "Young Guard" were held at enterprises, collective farms and state farms. In Krasnodon, a rally of many thousands took place and a solemn plenum of the regional and city committees of the Komsomol was held. There were guests from many cities of the Soviet Union and people's democracies.
The exploits of the Young Guards are widely covered in A. Fadeev's novel "The Young Guard", in many other works, and in recent years in connection with lawsuits above the executioners who executed the Young Guards, the heroic deeds of the young heroes of Krasnodon appeared before us even brighter and more convincingly, instilling fear in the invaders, courageously fighting the invaders. And the further time separates us from those terrible years, the more carefully and attentively we must preserve and develop the traditions of the Young Guard.
Unfortunately, there are people who in the press and oral speeches, under the pretext of searching for something "new", irresponsibly refer to the well-known facts of the activities of the "Young Guard" and thereby distort, falsify the historical truth.
For those who have deeply and thoroughly studied archival materials, which set out the harsh truth of those years, who talked with the surviving members of the party and Komsomol underground, the general public does not have any doubts about the fact that the commander of the underground organization "Young Guard" was Ivan Turkenich, and its permanent commissar is Oleg Koshevoy. This is irrefutably evidenced by numerous documents.
In his report on the activities of the Young Guard, Ivan Turkenich wrote: “... At that moment, our primary organization of the underground was born. The initiator was Oleg Koshevoy. At the same time we decided to create a leadership headquarters. groups in the vicinity of Krasnodon was carried out by Oleg. On behalf of the headquarters, he gave them instructions, communicating directly with the senior Krasnodon, Talovskaya and other groups. "
The fact that it was Oleg Koshevoy who was the commissar of the Young Guard is also confirmed by the surviving Young Guard. Valeria Borts, a member of the Young Guard, wrote: "Everyone who joined the ranks of the underground was obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the Motherland. The text of the oath was drawn up by the commissioner of the Young Guard, Koshevoy."
Olga Ivantsova writes in her memoirs: “I remember well the exciting moment when the underground members of the Young Guard took the oath. One by one, at the call of Oleg Koshevoy, we approached the table and signed. After taking the oath, they sang the Internationale. “Word for word, - Radik Yurkin reported in his memoirs, - I repeated after Oleg the oath of the Young Guards.
Young guardsmen Nina Ivantsova, Mikhail Shishchenko and others have repeatedly written about the leading role of Oleg Koshevoy as a commissar in the activities of the underground organization "Young Guard".
But not only the friends of Oleg Koshevoy, but also the former heads of the German police and gendarmes in Krasnodon and Rovenki convicted at various times - Kuleshov, Orlov, Geist, Drevitz, Usachev, Schultz call him one of the leaders, the commissioner of the "Young Guard".
A seal and two forms of temporary Komsomol tickets, as well as preserved Komsomol tickets with the signature "Kashuk" (now stored in the Young Guard Museum in Krasnodon), found at Koshevoy during a search in the Rovenkovskaya police, directly indicate that Koshevoy was its commissar.
The former chief of the Rovenkovskaya district police, one of the punishers of the Young Guards, Orlov, during interrogation in 1946, testified: "Oleg Koshevoy was arrested at the end of January 1943 by the German gendarme and railway policeman ... He was one of the leaders of the Krasnodon Komsomol organization" Young Guard "- the commissioner and a member of the headquarters of this organization.
The traitor of the Young Guard, Pochegtsov, during interrogation said: “... Oleg Koshevoy is the commissar of the entire Young Guard organization.” Usachev, a former senior investigator of the Krasnodon district police, testified: “In Rovenki, the head of the Krasnodon Komsomol members Oleg Koshevoy was also shot.”
This and other extensive documentary material, which is at the disposal of the Young Guard museum in Krasnodon and the memorial museum in Rovenki, created in the room where the Young Guard commissar Oleg Koshevoy, staff member Lyuba Shevtsova and other Soviet patriots spent the last days and hours of their lives , do not raise any doubts about the role of Oleg Koshevoy as one of the leaders of the "Young Guard", which covered itself with unfading glory.
Our duty is to keep clean, to cherish the revolutionary, military and labor traditions, to multiply them. "... A careful attitude to revolutionary traditions is dear to us," wrote V. I. Lenin, drawing attention to their skillful use in the political enlightenment of the masses.
The unprecedented feat of the Young Guard has become a symbol of selfless service to the people for young men and women, honest people all over the world, fighting against imperialism and reaction, for peace, democracy and socialism.
Young Vietnamese patriots who visited the Young Guard Museum wrote in the guest book:
“When they began to tell us about the Soviet Union in distant Vietnam, we already knew about the heroic deed of the Young Guard. We are very delighted and promise to follow the example of the Young Guard in the struggle against the American imperialists for the independence and unification of our Motherland.”
The immortal exploits of the young heroes of Krasnodon inspire young men and women to glorious deeds, to new victories in the name of the glory and prosperity of the socialist Motherland.
Editorial team.
(From the book "Young Guard: a collection of documents"
Publishing house "Donbas", Donetsk, 1973)
