Pioneer heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Vasya Korobko, from the book "Eaglets of Partisan Forests" (3 photos) Vasya Korobko pioneer hero feat

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Pioneer heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Vasya Korobko

Korobko, Vasily Ivanovich or Vasya Korobko (March 31, 1927, Pogoreltsy village, Semenovsky district, Chernihiv region - April 1, 1944) - pioneer hero, young partisan, awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War” 1 degrees.

Together with the partisans, Vasya destroyed nine trains and hundreds of Nazis. In one of the battles he was killed.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy. On the outskirts, covering the withdrawal of our units, a company held the defense. Vasya Korobko brought cartridges to the fighters.

One day, at his own peril and risk, Vasya sawed down the piles of a bridge near his home village. The very first fascist armored personnel carrier that drove onto this bridge collapsed from it and became inoperable. Then Vasya became a partisan. The partisans were convinced that Vasya could be trusted, and entrusted him with a serious task: to become a scout in the enemy’s lair.

At the fascist headquarters, he lights the stoves, chops wood, and he takes a closer look, remembers, and passes on information to the partisans. The punishers, who planned to exterminate the partisans, forced the boy to lead them into the forest. But Vasya led the Nazis to a police ambush. The Nazis, mistaking them for partisans in the dark, opened furious fire, killed all the policemen and themselves suffered heavy losses.

Vasily Korobko became an excellent demolition bomber and took part in the destruction of nine trains carrying enemy personnel and equipment.

Later he was accepted into the partisan unit of the Hero of the Soviet Union Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora... He died a hero's death in battle on April 1, 1944 while carrying out another mission.

Awards.

The exploits of Vasily Korobko were awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st degree.

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Pioneer heroes

When the Great Patriotic War began, not only adult men and women joined the fighting line. Thousands of boys and girls, your peers, rose to defend the Motherland. They sometimes did things that strong men could not do. What guided them in that terrible time? Craving for adventure? Responsibility for the fate of your country? Hatred towards the occupiers? Probably all together. They accomplished a true feat. And we cannot help but remember the names of young patriots.

Lenya Golikov

He grew up as an ordinary village boy. When the German invaders occupied his native village of Lukino, in the Leningrad region, Lenya collected several rifles from the battlefields and obtained two bags of grenades from the Nazis to give them to the partisans. And he himself remained in the partisan detachment. He fought along with adults. At just over 10 years old, in battles with the invaders, Lenya personally destroyed 78 German soldiers and officers and blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition. He participated in 27 combat operations, the explosion of 2 railway and 12 highway bridges. On August 15, 1942, a young partisan blew up a German passenger car in which there was an important Nazi general. Lenya Golikov died in the spring of 1943 in an unequal battle. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Marat Kazei

Schoolboy Marat Kazei was just over 13 years old when he went to join the partisans with his sister. Marat became a scout. He made his way into enemy garrisons, looked out for where German posts, headquarters, and ammunition depots were located. The information he delivered to the detachment helped the partisans inflict heavy losses on the enemy. Like Golikov, Marat blew up bridges and derailed enemy trains. In May 1944, when the Soviet Army was already very close and the partisans were about to unite with it, Marat was ambushed. The teenager shot back until the last bullet. When Marat had only one grenade left, he let the enemies get closer and pulled the pin... Marat Kazei posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Zinaida Portnova

In the summer of 1941, Leningrad schoolgirl Zina Portnova went on vacation to her grandmother in Belarus. There the war found her. A few months later, Zina joined the underground organization “Young Patriots”. Then she became a scout in the Voroshilov partisan detachment. The girl was distinguished by fearlessness, ingenuity and never lost heart. One day she was arrested. The enemies had no direct evidence that she was a partisan. Perhaps everything would have worked out if Portnova had not been identified by the traitor. She was tortured for a long time and cruelly. During one of the interrogations, Zina grabbed a pistol from the investigator and shot him and two other guards. She tried to escape, but the girl, exhausted from torture, did not have enough strength. She was captured and soon executed. Zinaida Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Valentin Kotik

At the age of 12, Valya, then a fifth-grader at the Shepetovskaya school, became a scout in a partisan detachment. He fearlessly made his way to the location of enemy troops, obtaining valuable information for the partisans about security posts of railway stations, military warehouses, and the deployment of enemy units. He did not hide his joy when adults took him with them to a combat operation. Valya Kotik has blown up 6 enemy trains and many successful ambushes. He died at the age of 14 in an unequal battle with the Nazis. By that time, Valya Kotik already wore on his chest the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree. Such awards would honor even the commander of a partisan unit. And here is a boy, a teenager. Valentin Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Vasily Korobko

The partisan fate of a sixth-grader from the village of Pogoreltsy, Vasya Korobko, was unusual. He received his baptism of fire in the summer of 1941, covering with fire the withdrawal of our units. Consciously remained in the occupied territory. Once, at my own risk, I sawed down the bridge piles. The very first fascist armored personnel carrier that drove onto this bridge collapsed from it and became inoperable. Then Vasya became a partisan. The detachment blessed him to work at Hitler's headquarters. There, no one could even imagine that the silent stoker and cleaner perfectly remembers all the icons on enemy maps and catches German words familiar from school. Everything that Vasya learned became known to the partisans. Once the punitive forces demanded that Korobko lead them to the forest from where the partisans were making forays. And Vasily led the Nazis to the police ambush. In the dark, the punishers mistook the police for partisans and opened fire on them, destroying many traitors to the Motherland.

Subsequently, Vasily Korobko became an excellent demolitionist and took part in the destruction of 9 echelons of enemy personnel and equipment. He died while carrying out another partisan mission. The exploits of Vasily Korobko were awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st degree.

Vitya Khomenko

Like Vasily Korobko, seventh-grader Vitya Khomenko pretended to serve the occupiers while working in the officers' canteen. I washed dishes, heated the stove, and wiped tables. And I remembered everything that the Wehrmacht officers, relaxed with Bavarian beer, talked about. The information obtained by Victor was highly valued in the underground organization “Nikolaev Center”. The Nazis noticed the smart, efficient boy and made him a messenger at headquarters. Naturally, the partisans became aware of everything contained in the documents that fell into the hands of Khomenko.

Vasya died in December 1942, tortured by enemies who became aware of the boy’s connections with the partisans. Despite the most terrible torture, Vasya did not reveal to the enemies the location of the partisan base, his connections and passwords. Vitya Khomenko was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Galya Komleva

In the Luga district of the Leningrad region, the memory of the brave young partisan Galya Komleva is honored. She, like many of her peers during the war years, was a scout, supplying the partisans with important information. The Nazis tracked down Komleva, captured her, and threw her into a cell. Two months of continuous interrogations, beatings, and abuse. They demanded that Gali name the names of the partisan contacts. But the torture did not break the girl; she did not utter a word. Galya Komleva was mercilessly shot. She was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Utah Bondarovskaya

The war found Utah on vacation with his grandmother. Just yesterday she was playing carefree with her friends, and today circumstances demanded that she take up arms. Utah was a liaison officer and then a scout in a partisan detachment that operated in the Pskov region. Dressed as a beggar boy, the fragile girl wandered around enemy lines, memorizing the location of military equipment, security posts, headquarters, and communications centers. Adults would never be able to deceive the enemy's vigilance so cleverly. In 1944, in a battle near an Estonian farm, Yuta Bondarovskaya died a heroic death along with her older comrades. Utah was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st class.

Volodya Dubinin

Legends were told about him: how Volodya led an entire detachment of Nazis tracking down partisans in the Crimean quarries by the nose; how he slipped like a shadow past reinforced enemy posts; how could he remember, down to one soldier, the number of several Nazi units located in different places at once... Volodya was the partisans’ favorite, their common son. But war is war, it spares neither adults nor children. The young intelligence officer died when he was blown up by a fascist mine while returning from his next mission. The commander of the Crimean Front, having learned about the death of Volodya Dubinin, gave the order to posthumously award the young patriot the Order of the Red Banner.

Sasha Kovalev

He was a graduate of the Solovetsky Jung School. Sasha Kovalev received his first order - the Order of the Red Star - for the fact that the engines of his torpedo boat No. 209 of the Northern Fleet never failed during 20 combat trips to sea. The young sailor was awarded the second, posthumous award - the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree - for a feat of which an adult has the right to be proud. This was in May 1944. While attacking a fascist transport ship, Kovalev’s boat received a hole in the collector from a shell fragment. Boiling water was gushing out of the torn casing; the engine could stall at any minute. Then Kovalev closed the hole with his body. Other sailors came to his aid, and the boat continued to move. But Sasha died. He was 15 years old.

Nina Kukoverova

She began her war against the Nazis by distributing leaflets in a village occupied by enemies. Her leaflets contained truthful reports from the fronts, which instilled in people faith in victory. The partisans entrusted Nina with intelligence work. She did an excellent job with all tasks. The Nazis decided to put an end to the partisans. A punitive detachment entered one of the villages. But its exact numbers and weapons were not known to the partisans. Nina volunteered to scout out the enemy forces. She remembered everything: where and how many sentries, where the ammunition was stored, how many machine guns the punishers had. This information helped the partisans defeat the enemy.

While performing her next task, Nina was betrayed by a traitor. She was tortured. Having achieved nothing from Nina, the Nazis shot the girl. Nina Kukoverova was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Marx Krotov

Our pilots, who were ordered to bomb the enemy airfield, were eternally grateful to this boy with such an expressive name. The airfield was located in the Leningrad region, near Tosno, and was carefully guarded by the Nazis. But Marx Krotov managed to get close to the airfield unnoticed and give our pilots a light signal.

Focusing on this signal, the bombers accurately attacked targets and destroyed dozens of enemy aircraft. And before that, Marx collected food for the partisan detachment and handed it over to the forest fighters.

Marx Krotov was captured by a Nazi patrol when he, together with other schoolchildren, was once again aiming our bombers at the target. The boy was executed on the shores of Lake Belye in February 1942.

Albert Kupsha

Albert was the same age and comrade of Marx Krotov, whom we have already talked about. Together with them, Kolya Ryzhov took revenge on the invaders. The guys collected weapons, handed them over to the partisans, and led the Red Army soldiers out of encirclement. But they accomplished their main feat on New Year's Eve 1942. On instructions from the partisan commander, the boys made their way to the Nazi airfield and, giving light signals, guided our bombers to the target. Enemy planes were destroyed. The Nazis tracked down the patriots and, after interrogation and torture, shot them on the shores of Lake Belye.

Sasha Kondratiev

Not all young heroes were awarded orders and medals for their courage. Many, having accomplished their feat, were not included in the award lists for various reasons. But the boys and girls did not fight the enemy for the sake of medals; they had another goal - to pay off the occupiers for their suffering Motherland.

In July 1941, Sasha Kondratyev and his comrades from the village of Golubkovo created their own squad of avengers. The guys got hold of weapons and began to act. First, they blew up a bridge on the road along which the Nazis were transporting reinforcements. Then they destroyed the house in which the enemies had set up a barracks, and soon they set fire to the mill where the Nazis ground grain. The last action of Sasha Kondratyev’s detachment was the shelling of an enemy aircraft circling over Lake Cheremenets. The Nazis tracked down the young patriots and captured them. After a bloody interrogation, the guys were hanged in the square in Luga.

Lara Mikheenko

Their destinies are as similar as drops of water. Study interrupted by the war, an oath to take revenge on the invaders until the last breath, partisan everyday life, reconnaissance raids on enemy rear lines, ambushes, explosions of trains. Except that death was different. Some were executed in public, others were shot in the back of the head in a remote basement.

Lara Mikheenko became a partisan intelligence officer. She found out the location of enemy batteries, counted the cars moving along the highway towards the front, remembered which trains and with what cargo arrived at Pustoshka station. Lara was betrayed by a traitor. The Gestapo did not make allowances for age - after a fruitless interrogation, the girl was shot. It happened on November 4, 1943. Lara Mikheenko was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Shura Kober

Nikolaev schoolboy Shura Kober, in the very first days of the occupation of the city where he lived, joined an underground organization. His task was to reconnaissance of the redeployment of Nazi troops. Shura completed every task quickly and accurately. When a radio transmitter in a partisan detachment failed, Shura was tasked with crossing the front line and contacting Moscow. What crossing the front line is, only those who have done it know: countless posts, ambushes, the risk of coming under fire from both strangers and their own. Shura, having successfully overcome all obstacles, brought invaluable information about the location of Nazi troops in the front line. After some time, he returned to the partisans, again crossing the front line. Fought. I went on reconnaissance missions. In November 1942, the boy was betrayed by a provocateur. He was one of 10 underground members who was executed in the city square.

Sasha Borodulin

Already in the winter of 1941, he wore the Order of the Red Banner on his tunic. There was a reason. Sasha, together with the partisans, fought the Nazis in open battle, participated in ambushes, and went on reconnaissance more than once.

The partisans were unlucky: the punishers tracked down the detachment and encircled them. For three days the partisans evaded pursuit and broke through the encirclement. But the punitive forces blocked their path again and again. Then the detachment commander called 5 volunteers who were supposed to cover the withdrawal of the main partisan forces with fire. At the commander’s call, Sasha Borodulin was the first to step out of formation. The brave five managed to delay the punitive forces for some time. But the partisans were doomed. Sasha was the last to die, stepping towards the enemies with a grenade in his hands.

Vitya Korobkov

12-year-old Vitya was next to his father, army intelligence officer Mikhail Ivanovich Korobkov, who was operating in Feodosia. Vitya helped his father as much as he could and carried out his military orders. It happened that he himself showed initiative: he posted leaflets, obtained information about the location of enemy units. He was arrested along with his father on February 18, 1944. There was very little time left before our troops arrived. The Korobkovs were thrown into the Old Crimean prison, and they extorted testimony from the intelligence officers for 2 weeks. But all the efforts of the Gestapo were in vain.

How many were there?

We talked about only a few of those who, before reaching adulthood, gave their lives in the fight against the enemy. Thousands, tens of thousands of boys and girls sacrificed themselves for victory.

There is a one-of-a-kind museum in Kursk, where unique information about the fate of children of war is collected. Museum staff managed to identify more than 10 thousand names of sons and daughters of regiments and young partisans. There are absolutely amazing human stories.

Tanya Savicheva. She lived in besieged Leningrad. Dying of hunger, Tanya gave the last crumbs of bread to other people, with the last of her strength she carried sand and water to the city attics so that she would have something to extinguish incendiary bombs. Tanya kept a diary in which she talked about how her family was dying of hunger, cold, and disease. The last page of the diary remained unfinished: Tanya herself died.

Maria Shcherbak. She went to the front at the age of 15 under the name of her brother Vladimir, who died at the front. She became a machine gunner in the 148th Infantry Division. Maria ended the war as a senior lieutenant, holder of four orders.

Arkady Kamanin. He was a graduate of an air regiment; at the age of 14 he first boarded a combat aircraft. He flew as a gunner-radio operator. Liberated Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna. He earned 3 orders. 3 years after the war, Arkady, when he was only 18 years old, died from wounds.

Zhora Smirnitsky. At the age of 9 he became a fighter in the Red Army and received weapons. He acted as a liaison officer and went on reconnaissance missions behind the front line. At the age of 10 he received the rank of junior sergeant, and on the eve of the victory he received his first high award - the Order of Glory, 3rd degree...

How many were there? How many young patriots fought the enemy along with adults? Nobody knows this for sure. Many commanders, in order not to get into trouble, did not enter the names of young soldiers into company and battalion lists. But this did not make the heroic mark they left on our military history any paler.

Made and sent by Anatoly Kaidalov.
_____________________

It was the harsh summer of 1941. The Red Army fought its way back to the East under the onslaught of the Nazi hordes that treacherously attacked our Motherland. One day the front came close to the village of Pogoreltsy, located among the lush fields of the Chernihiv region.
Residents of the village hid in the basements in the morning, as soon as the firefight began. The village seemed extinct.
On the very outskirts of the village, soldiers of the Soviet company held the defense. They covered our units retreating to new frontiers.
Near the trench from which the Maxim was firing at the Nazis, a thin boy appeared and disappeared. He quickly brought cartridges to the machine gunners. The mustachioed gunner, seeing him, winked approvingly every time. And the dark, blue-eyed number two, accepting boxes of ribbons, would certainly say:
- Well done, brother. Just in time...
And every time, after listening to the praise, the boy, looking pleadingly at the blue-eyed man, asked:
- Uncle, will you take me with you?
“Definitely,” the second number smiled in response. -Just grow up a little. Otherwise you won’t see anything from the trench.
But closer to noon, when another attack by the Nazis was repulsed, the blue-eyed man unexpectedly took the boy by the hand.
- What's your name? - he asked.
- Vasya. Vasya Korobko,” the boy answered.
- You should bring some water, Vasya, a bucket. You see, the equipment has overheated. “Yes, and we need to cool down,” the blue-eyed man asked and looked at the gunner.
“Exactly,” he confirmed in a deep voice and wiped his face, wet with sweat, with the sleeve of his tunic.
Vasya rushed for the bucket. And when he returned with water, the crew was no longer there.
By order of the commander, the machine gunners left their position and retreated behind the bridge to the forest.
“They sent for water on purpose,” Vasya guessed. - I was afraid that I would get stuck. But would I have interfered?”
He looked at the soldiers with a long, longing look, turned over the pile of spent cartridges remaining on the edge of the trench, hoping to find at least one whole cartridge, and, bending to the ground, ran home. Then he saw how the Nazis entered the village. How they searched the houses of collective farmers, drove the cattle out of the barns, how they settled down for the night at the school, his home school, where he only finished sixth grade two months ago.
“Now you won’t be able to get ready for the gathering and won’t be able to sing your favorite song,” Vasya thought bitterly. - It’s all wonderful! Like in a dream." And it’s true, this whole war and these fascist soldiers who were chasing chickens with loud screams, and large, dust-covered armored personnel carriers camouflaged in the garden under apple trees, were so alien that they really looked like a terrible, heavy dream. It seemed very absurd that the joyful summer holidays were suddenly cut short and the collective farm no longer existed. And Vasya had an unbearable desire to pinch himself or hit himself with his fist in order to “wake up” and disperse the nightmare visions. But this was not a dream.
"Goodbye, school. Farewell, detachment,” Vasya thought again and suddenly remembered that there, in the pioneer room where the Nazis were now located, the detachment’s banner remained.
Vasya’s heart began to beat with excitement.
“The bastards took everything: both the village and the region! And give them the banner too! Well, no! I'll take it out of you! I’ll get you out of spite!” - he decided.
However, this was not so easy to do. Vasya knew: if the Nazis caught him, they wouldn’t pat him on the head for this. And yet the thought of saving the banner did not leave him. And he began to think about how to carry out this first real combat operation in his life.
The lights in the village were not lit that night, although the people were not sleeping. Only occasionally, here and there, dogs barked angrily. But gradually their voices began to be heard less and less. Finally they calmed down too. Vasya left the house and made his way through the gardens to the school. Everything was quiet here too. Vasya stopped near the fence and began to observe. The school was dark. The windows in the classrooms were closed; near the porch, a sentry was pacing back and forth, like a pendulum. Vasya waited until he disappeared around the corner, and, like a shadow, rushed to the window of the pioneer room. There, pressed against the wall, he listened to the silence for a long time. Vasya found the pyramid by touch. But the banner was no longer there. Vasya began to feel around on the floor. His hands felt a familiar silk cloth. The banner, which he, as a standard bearer, always carried with PRIDE in front of his detachment, is again in his hands.
Now it was necessary to quietly leave the school. This turned out to be more difficult. The fascist sentry took a fancy to the steps of the porch, sat down on them and, as if on purpose, never wanted to leave. Vasya had to wait almost an hour before he was able to jump out of the window and disappear into the darkness unnoticed. Only now did he realize the danger he had put himself in. But the joy of luck was so great that everything gave way to it.
“So you need to grow up! - he remembered the playful excuse of the blue-eyed machine gunner. - Maybe if I had been bigger, I wouldn’t have climbed through the window. Still, it’s a pity that they didn’t take me with them. I would beat the fascists with them.”
He safely hid the banner and returned home. But I didn’t want to sleep. The first success inspired me. I wanted to do something else, something that would make the fascists feel that they were hated here. “Should we set the school on fire? What's the point? The Nazis will run out, and the school will burn down. This won't be built right away. Or maybe slam the sentry? But with what? You won’t shoot him with a slingshot.”
Vasya racked his brains for a long time about how else to annoy the Nazis, and couldn’t come up with anything. There were many enemies. They were well armed. And he was alone and completely unarmed.
“I won’t do anything to them with my bare hands,” he finally decided, “and in the morning they will get on their armored vehicles and tramp further, beyond the bridge, to catch up with our company.”
This thought made him feel very sick in his soul. He mentally imagined how a column of Nazis would stretch along the road and, raising dust to the sky, rush in pursuit of the company.
“Ours probably didn’t even have time to dig trenches yet. And the Nazis will already be there in the morning. How long do they have to drive cars? Just cross the bridge, and the forest is nearby.”
And suddenly Vasya was struck by a hunch. "Bridge! And if he doesn’t! Does he need much? He's old after all. No wonder they wanted to redo it again in the fall!”
He found a saw in the closet, got hold of a crowbar and, unnoticed, through the gardens, got out of the village outskirts. Then he carefully descended into the depression and approached the bridge. There was no sign of security. Vasya took advantage of this. He groped for the iron staples holding the supports together and, deftly wielding a crowbar, pulled them out one by one. He then took a saw and sawed down some piles. He was so carried away by this work that he did not notice how the horizon turned white and the cloudy streak of dawn slowly blurred over the forest. It was already too late to return to the village.
Vasya trampled the sawdust into the mud and moved away from the bridge with the bushes. Then he disguised himself and lay down. Soon the heavy hum of engines was heard from the direction of the village. The sun has risen. And a column of Nazi armored personnel carriers, trucks, and motorcycles appeared on the road. The column was quickly approaching the bridge. Several motorcycles overtook the cars, drove onto the bridge and, without stopping, flew across it as if on wings. Vasya saw this, and his heart sank painfully with excitement.
“Did I really calculate it wrong? - he thought. - Well, the bridge, dear! Don't stop! Fall! Fall!"
But the bridge stood as if nothing had happened. Now a car with soldiers thundered across its ceiling. An armored personnel carrier drove onto the bridge behind her. Behind him is the second, third. And then the central support, near which Vasya worked for a particularly long time, suddenly buckled like a knee. The bridge, which just a second ago hung like a taut string, burst in an instant and, together with those who were on it, quickly flew down. An unimaginable noise began in the column. The engines screamed. The sound of iron striking iron was heard. Several cars fell into the cliff at once. There were screams. Some car's gas tank exploded. A smoky gasoline flame shot up over the wreckage of the bridge.
It was a victory! With delight, Vasya wanted to jump to his feet and have the strength to shout “Hurray!” But he restrained himself and only said angrily in a low voice:
- This is how you, the bastards, will be greeted everywhere, wherever you go!
He shook his fist at the Nazis and, hiding his tool in the bushes, crawled away from the burning crossing.
Later, having returned to the village by a roundabout route, Vasya learned that the Nazis spent the whole day working on restoring the bridge and only the next morning were able to continue their offensive.
The Nazis established their own order in the village. They closed the school. It housed a punitive battalion. The collective farm was dissolved. The headman, assisted by policemen, began to manage all affairs in the village. Every morning they went around the village, drove old and small people out of their huts and sent them to work under escort. Even the sick were not left alone by the police. And they were raised to their feet and forced to work. The collective farmers fiercely hated the invaders. And they took revenge on them. Many of the village residents went to become partisans in those days.
Vasya Korobko also could not sit idly by. The first combat sorties showed him that it was quite possible to beat the enemy. And now he was only thinking about how to take even stronger revenge on the Nazis. But he understood that it was impossible to beat the enemy without weapons. And so the first thing I decided to do was get myself a machine gun or at least a pistol.
Chance helped him. One day one of his friends told Vasya that he had seen shells and a lot of other military equipment in the forest. Vasya pretended that all this interested him little. But the very next day he made his way into the forest and searched the entire clearing. There, in the bushes, he found a completely serviceable combat rifle and a whole jar of cartridges. Finally he had a weapon.
From that day on, shots rang out in the vicinity of the village. As soon as a car with fascists or a group of fascist soldiers appeared on the road, bullets flew at them from the forest. And although, as a rule, they did not cause damage to the enemy, the Nazis had even less peace. Now it seemed to them that a partisan ambush was waiting for them behind every tree. But the Nazis were wrong. They were fired not by the partisans, but by Vasya Korobko. Two or three weeks passed like this. And it is unknown how it would all have ended if such an incident had not happened one day.
Once, having fired at another group of fascists, Vasya was about to go deep into the forest. Suddenly someone grabbed his hands tightly. Vasya rushed. But it was too late. They took his rifle away, threw him to the ground, and someone said very angrily:
- And we are scratching our heads about what kind of warrior Anika has shown up here!
Vasya looked around and saw people in civilian clothes. Two of them seemed familiar to him.
- If I had the power, I would give you a belt, you devil! - the same voice continued.
- Let him go. This is our lad from the village of Pogoreltsy.
Vasya was released. He jumped to his feet and immediately recognized the people who had disarmed him - collective farmers from a neighboring village. In Pogoreltsy they have long said that they left to join the partisans. Vasya also recognized the man with the angry voice. This was the representative of the district party committee. Before the war, he often gave presentations on the collective farm.
On the way to headquarters, the partisans explained to Vasya that with his shooting he only frightened the fascists and thereby prevented the partisans from capturing
take them by surprise. But in general, the commissioner did not scold Vasya very much. And when he found out how the machine gunners were playing a joke on him and that it was he, Vasya, who sawed off the piles at the bridge, he stopped being angry completely. He even laughed and said:
- You are a heroic lad, Vasil. You just have to be an organized partisan. Well, now you will be given a real task.
And so it happened. A few days later, Vasya returned to his native village, and a little later he came to the school to the fascist commandant and asked to be given some kind of work. The commandant allowed Vasya to chop wood and light the stove at the school. Vasya took to the task very diligently. The work was in full swing in his hands. He completed all tasks quickly and accurately. The Nazis soon got used to the smart guy and allowed him to start cleaning the premises in which they lived. Vasya coped with this matter successfully. The Nazis began to trust him even more. And one day a Nazi officer called Vasya to his place.
- Tell me, Russian boy, how well do you know the forest behind the bridge? - he asked him.
- I've been there, Mr. Officer. “I went there to pick mushrooms more than once,” Vasya answered.
- Were you able to lead our company to the other side of the swamp? - the Nazi asked.
“It’s a simple matter, it can be done,” Vasya agreed.
- Zer gut! - the Nazi was delighted and showed Vasya the map. - This is where you should lead us. Understood?
Vasya nodded his head. Green, brown, blue spots were visible on the map, and red arrows were also drawn. Vasya didn’t know what they meant. But he understood perfectly well that the Nazis were planning to encircle and destroy the partisans.
Vasya’s heart began to beat anxiously. “This cannot be allowed! I’d rather die myself than lead these fascist bandits to the partisans!” he thought excitedly. But he did not show his excitement and calmly answered the Nazi:
- I understand everything, Mr. Officer.
- Zer gut! Zer gut! You are a very good guy! - the Nazi was even more delighted.
As soon as it got dark, a punitive company, armed with machine guns, emerged from the forest.
Vasya led the Nazis to the swamp by the shortest route. But here he unexpectedly changed his route. It was dark in the forest. The Nazis moved almost by touch and did not notice the turn. And Vasya took advantage of this and led them in a completely different direction, to where the police were hiding in ambush.
Everything that happened next happened exactly as he expected. Having stumbled upon the policemen, the Nazis in the dark mistook them for partisans and opened mad fire on them, using all machine guns and machine guns. The policemen started shouting. But the fascists did not want to listen to anything. They were sure that they were shooting at the partisans, and they shot until they killed all the policemen.
The partisans, having heard the firefight that had begun, calmly left the camp deep into the forest.
Vasya also left with them. It was no longer possible for him to return to the village, and he remained in the detachment forever.
The young hero accomplished many remarkable feats in the name of his beloved Motherland. Together with his comrades, he derailed nine enemy echelons and destroyed more than one hundred Nazi soldiers.
For these exploits he was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the partisan medal.
But one day Vasya did not return from a combat mission.
That night, the partisans decided to blow up the bridge along which trains with Nazi troops were moving towards the front. Vasya was also among the demolitions. The bridge was heavily guarded by Nazi patrols. Deftly, without any noise, the guards removed the guard. The way was open for the bombers.
The partisans successfully completed their planned operation. The Nazis realized it and opened fire, but it was too late. The partisans retreated into the forest. Vasya was in the cover group. A burst of fascist machine gun killed the young partisan. Vasya died like a hero, like a real soldier.
Vasya Korobko was born in the village of Pogoreltsy, Chernigov region, Ukrainian SSR.
The pioneers of the Pogoreltsev school sacredly honor the memory of their fellow countryman, the pioneer hero Vasya Korobko, enlisting him forever as an honorary standard-bearer of the druzhina banner that he saved.
For the courage and heroism personally shown in the fight against the Nazis, Vasya Korobko was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 1st degree.

_____________________

Recognition, identification and formatting - BK-MTGC.

Quietly closing the gate behind him, threatening Bobik with his fist, who, wagging his tail, was about to bark loudly, making his way along secret paths to the river bridge, held the saw that treacherously stuck out from under the hem of his clothes.
And here are the bridge piles, where large ide are found, the backs of which temptingly tease the fisherman...

There was no time for peaceful village fun, the enemy came to earth, armed to the teeth, with formidable equipment, unprecedented before.
“You shouldn’t be in my Pogoreltsevo,” - with all the skill and passion, at his own peril and risk, VASILY sawed down the wooden piles of the bridge, which quite recently, coming from the regional center, the Semyonovsky men exchanged for old, rotten ones.

The first fascist armored personnel carrier that drove onto this bridge collapsed from it and broke down, disrupting traffic on the road to the Semyonovsky district of the Chernigov region.
Thus, 14-year-old Vasya Korobko practically confirmed his hatred of the invaders, convincing the partisans that he could be trusted, becoming a scout in the very lair of the enemy.
When the Germans captured the village, Vasily began working at their commandant’s office (chopping wood, lighting the stove), and, meanwhile, he carefully memorized secret information and passed it on to the partisans.
Thanks to this data, they developed an operation to defeat the Germans in the village. About a hundred fascists were killed by partisans that December night, warehouses with ammunition and weapons were blown up, and 9 vehicles were disabled.
The punishers, who planned to exterminate the partisans, forced the boy to lead them into the forest.

But Vasya was fearless and elusive!
He boldly led them to a police ambush. The Nazis, mistaking them for partisans in the dark, opened furious fire, killed everyone, and suffered heavy losses themselves.

In addition to the fact that the young intelligence officer obtained important information, he also distributed leaflets with patriotic content that supported morale in the occupation village.
Soon the Germans sensed something was wrong, Vasya, on the instructions of the commander of the partisan unit, (Hero of the Soviet Union) Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora, moved into the forest to join the partisans. In the detachment, he masters mining, becomes a demolitionist and a real threat to the Nazis.
Nine trains with military equipment were derailed, hundreds of Germans were killed, many bridges were blown up.

On the blue-eyed April morning of the 44th, to the chirping of birds, so rejoicing in spring, VASILY with a detachment of partisans went on his last mission... He loved the forest since childhood, was considered a good tracker, here every clearing was familiar to him, he knew where it would turn or another path and where it will lead. Each ravine, each edge was interesting in its own way. He deeply inhaled the aromas of awakening nature, enchanted by the arrival of spring...

The group walked about a hundred kilometers through enemy territory, avoiding encounters.
The partisans' task was to destroy the bridge along which enemy convoys with infantry and tank columns were reaching Belarus. The bridge was carefully guarded: a minefield near the water, pillboxes fortified with barbed wire, and patrol boats sailed along the river itself.
All this made the task PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
It was decided to deliver explosives on rafts and detonate them directly under the bridge. At night, three rafts with dangerous cargo were launched. And only one raft reached its goal.
Vasily Ivanovich Korobko completed the task at the cost of his life...

The young partisan, scout, pioneer hero was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree, the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, the Red Banner.

"...There is no statute of limitations
for immortal soldiers,
They look from photographs
forever young faces...
I'll take it in the palm of my hand
a scattering of your rewards
And I will press them to my chest
like your particles...!

We are in the immortal regiment
let's stand in memorial formation
And in our hearts again
the pain of loss will awaken.
My memory again
a scarlet dawn will break out,
And in my soul there is a nightingale
will start to sound like a ringing trill..."

BRIGHT MEMORY,
A LOW BOW TO THE HERO OF YOUR LAND, YOUR PEOPLE.

Nadezhda Zernova

Reviews

Partisans. What’s special here, someone who doesn’t know the history of the war will say, just sit quietly in the forest. Partisans. They were not delivered weapons, provisions, or uniforms from warehouses. We had to get everything ourselves, especially weapons. But they didn’t “sit” in the forest, they fought, slowing down the German advance on the front line, blowing up trains with equipment, ammunition and fascists. Blowing up bridges, commandant's offices, warehouses. This was a headache for the Germans. And most importantly, through their military operations behind enemy lines, they gave confidence to the population that the PEOPLE were NOT BROKEN, would fight and win, and this supported the spirit and faith of the people.
Vasya Korobko. Three orders and a medal in a short time! Only a HERO could deserve such awards. There are no rewards for anything! So he fought heroically! This means he performed difficult tasks, risking his life. Like the last one during the bridge explosion, when he died. But he was a boy! Who then took this into account, both young and old stood up to defend the Fatherland. And they defended it! Many at the cost of their lives, like Vasya Korobko, a brave, decorated partisan! Happy memory to you, Vasya, and low bow for your heroism, which defeated fascism!
Thank you, Nadezhda, Valery, for telling us about the young partisan HERO!!!
Warmly, Alexey

You emphasized correctly, dear Alexey: “Both old and young stood up for defense.”
...On a blue-eyed April morning on the 44th, to the chirping of birds so happy about spring, VASILY and a detachment of partisans went on their last mission... He loved the forest since childhood, was considered a good tracker, here every clearing was familiar to him, he knew where this or that path will turn and where it will lead. Each ravine, each edge was interesting in its own way. He deeply inhaled the aromas of awakening nature, enchanted by the arrival of spring...
Now, after writing three dozen essays, every day we live with its uniqueness of events, natural phenomena, and feelings that fill it to the brim is considered such a holiday!
Everything is relative!
I am writing all this so that many will think and remember about the GIRLS and BOYS who stepped into IMMORTALITY!
Not made-up myths, as armchair historians write to me here - critics, NICKs without a name or face... Archival data confirms the feat of YOUNG HEROES who boldly stepped into IMMORTALITY!
THANK YOU, ALEXEY!

Born on March 31, 1927 in the village of Pogoreltsy, Semenovsky district, Chernigov region. He took an active part in the partisan movement in the Chernihiv region. He was a scout and messenger, and later a demolition bomber. He derailed sixteen trains with Nazi soldiers and military equipment, and disabled ten locomotives. Died in Belarus on April 1, 1944. Awarded the Order of Lenin and two Orders of the Red Banner.

THE ELUSIVE DEMOLITOR

(story by Mikhail Ratushny)

He appeared in the camp unexpectedly. He made his way through the thick bushes and appeared before the sentry.

He, clutching a rifle in his hands, looked at him warily.
-Where are you going, guy? - asked sternly.

He glanced from under his brows at a stout, middle-aged man with a wide red ribbon on his cap and hesitantly shifted from foot to foot.
- I was coming to see you. - The boy was silent. - Take me to the commander.
- Look, go straight to the commander... Why do you need him?
- I want to join the partisans. Beat the fascists.

Ha ha! - the sentry laughed. - To beat the fascists, you need to know what kind of fists?
And look at yourself: half an inch from the pot. Grow up a little... Then we'll talk...
- Take it away and that's it! - the boy insisted.

The sentry thought and looked around.
- Ivan! - he called out to a partisan passing by. “Take him to Alexander Petrovich, let him tell you what to do with him...

A minute later the boy stood in front of the commander of the partisan detachment.

Short, wearing a long coat, obviously his father’s, he kept sniffing his nose like a child and repeating imploringly:
- Take me to your squad, well, take me. You will not regret...

Alexander Petrovich Balabai looked at him carefully, paused and asked:
- What is your name?
- Vasya Korobko. From the village of Pogoreltsy... - And he added. - Before the war, I completed five classes.
By this he probably wanted to emphasize that he was no longer small. The commander smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
- What will you do in our detachment, Vasya?
- Whatever you order. I can do anything.

He saw from the commander’s face that he was already hesitating, so he declared decisively:
- If you don’t take it, I won’t go anywhere from here anyway. I will not return from the forest to the village.

That's what you are! - Balabai smiled again. - Well, okay. If so, listen carefully.
We need a good intelligence officer who would work among the enemies and inform us of all their actions and plans.
Could you become such a scout?

“I could, Alexander Petrovich,” he answered firmly.
“Then go back to your village and try to get a job in the commandant’s office.”
- Yes, comrade commander! - the boy dashingly put his hand to his hat.
“Don’t say a word to anyone about our conversation,” Balabai warned.

So Vasya Korobko, a fourteen-year-old pioneer from the village of Pogoreltsy in the Chernigov region, received his first partisan assignment, which he soon completed with honor.

Returning home, he began working in the commandant's office: he swept, washed floors, heated stoves, was at the beck and call of the policemen, and they could not find fault with anything.

Look, he’s trying,” they winked at each other. - Knows how to serve the “new order”...

But it never occurred to them that Vasya behaved this way only as a diversion. But in fact, this brave and observant boy obtained secret information about the Nazi garrison, he knew exactly where the vehicles, machine guns were located and how many there were, where the officers lived. He reported all this information to the detachment through his messengers, and sometimes he made his way into the forest himself. To do this, he asked the commandant for leave to go home for a short while and use vegetable gardens and orchards to visit the partisans.

Alexander Petrovich always rejoiced at his arrival - the young intelligence officer brought very important information.

One day I asked him:

Well, pioneer, how is it in your village? What's wrong with our leaflets?
“Everything is in order, Alexander Petrovich,” Vasya reported. - I spread everything. I even pasted one on the commandant’s office...
- Where where? - Balabai was wary.
“On the doors of the commandant’s office,” Vasya modestly clarified.

The commander became gloomy.

“But no one saw it,” the boy justified himself. - It was dark, I went slowly.
- Watch me, be careful...

In the leaflets in question, the partisan command ordered the population of the occupied villages to hide bread, livestock, vegetables, warm clothes and shoes from the enemy.

Vasya posted a lot of leaflets.

But this was not enough for him. He believed that it was time to move on to more decisive action against the enemy.
And soon he waited in the wings. Thanks to the messages that Vasya regularly transmitted to the detachment, the headquarters developed a detailed plan for the defeat of the fascist garrison in Pogoreltsy.

That cold December night, the Nazis did not expect an attack.

We went to bed calmly. Wrapping themselves in warm scarves and raising the collars of their greatcoats, the German sentries dozed at their posts.
They did not even notice how dark shadows, invisible in the darkness of the night, were silently approaching the village from four sides.
Whirling in a winter dance, white snowflakes quietly fell on the heads and shoulders of the sentries. The enemies never woke up, shackled in sweet slumber; they fell, mowed down by partisan bullets.

The blow was so unexpected and crushing that the Nazis did not even have time to come to their senses.
They ran out of the huts like crazy and, randomly shooting back, rushed wherever their eyes looked. But everywhere they were overtaken by well-aimed bullets.

Not a single enemy machine gun fired that night. Few of the Nazis managed to escape: after all, the partisans were well aware of the deployment of enemy forces and acted confidently. They destroyed more than one hundred and fifty fascists, burned German vehicles, seized weapons and ammunition.

The partisans returned to the forest with numerous trophies, rejoicing. And the night blew, covering their tracks... But, probably, the young scout rejoiced most of all. This was also his, Vasya’s, victory, his retribution against the invaders, who came to their native land with fire and sword.

Soon Vasya noticed that the Nazis were watching him, and reported this to the partisan detachment. The commander ordered to immediately move into the forest. In the detachment, Vasya was offered to become a liaison, but this did not suit him: his restless, dynamic nature demanded more. I asked to become a demolition bomber.

The commander allowed it, and soon Vasya Korobko became a threat to the Nazis.

He derailed trains with Nazis and weapons, mined roads along which German vehicles moved, blew up warehouses and bridges. The Nazis searched in vain for the young partisan - he was elusive. Courageous and fearless, Vasya always appeared where his enemies least expected him.

Meanwhile, the war was approaching a victorious end. The enemy forces melted away under the blows of the valiant Soviet troops.

Soon the territory in which the partisan detachment operated was liberated from the Nazis.
The partisans united with regular units of the Red Army.

Well, Vasek, goodbye,” his former commander firmly shook the hand of the young patriot. “Now you have enough to do at home.”
You will study, and the villages must be raised from ruins, the youth must be organized...

And Vasya Korobko stayed at home.

But he was drawn to where the cannonade of war still roared. I could not live in peace while blood was shed at the fronts and Soviet people were suffering in fascist dungeons.

Korobko asked to volunteer for the front.

Taking into account Vasya’s experience, he was enrolled in a sabotage group that was part of the First Ukrainian Partisan Division.

And soon the fascist trains were again rolling downhill, bridges were blown up into the air, blown up by the elusive Vasya Korobko.

Meanwhile, the front moved further and further to the west. The cannonade did not subside day and night. It reached the partisans from the east. For them, the front was here, in the Belarusian forests, where the enemy was regrouping forces in order to deliver a decisive blow to the advancing Soviet troops.

“Poland is coming,” the commander of the sabotage group told Vasya. - We will defeat the fascists there...

Now we need to go on reconnaissance. The three of you go, be careful not to run into an ambush. When you make your way along the narrow-gauge railway, check if the Nazis are preparing any dirty tricks there.
And he pointed out on the map the place where to go.
Vasya looked: indeed, the border was very close. And almost nearby is Brest, a Belarusian border city.
Poland... What awaits them there?

However, that’s not what Vasya was thinking about right now. He wanted to complete the task as quickly as possible.

And the forest already smelled of spring. It was dripping from the trees. Blue waves of thin fog swayed over the green pines and white birches. Wet snow, blackened by melt water, sobbed underfoot. Three scouts carefully made their way along the narrow-gauge railway, peering intently into the dark thickets of bushes.

We have already passed the railway junction. Everything matched the map. There, further ahead, is a station booth, and behind it is a bridge over the river...

You guys slowly move forward,” said the leader of the group, “and I’ll turn over there to the hillock and see if the Nazis are hiding there.” I'll catch up with you soon...

Pointing to a low hill overgrown with dense young pine trees, the elder already intended to go.

And suddenly a machine-gun burst hit from the pine forest. The bullets buzzed thinly, knocking branches from bare bushes.
Vasya fell into the snow, holding his machine gun in front of him. Out of the corner of my eye I caught one of the scouts rushing into the bushes. I also felt a sharp, burning pain that suddenly appeared in my body, and everything blurred into a fiery haze...

The heart of the young patriot stopped. It was in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the spring of forty-four.