The period of recent national history, called "perestroika", went like a skating rink not only through the living, but also through the heroes of the past.

The debunking of the heroes of the revolution and the Great Patriotic War in those years was put on stream. This cup has not passed and the underground workers from the Young Guard organization. "Debunkers of Soviet myths" poured out a huge amount of slop on the young anti-fascists who were 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- the mother of two Heroes of the 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, hold high degrees of candidates and doctors of historical sciences and feel great...

“Arms are twisted, ears are cut off, a star is carved on the cheek ...”

Meanwhile, the real story of the "Young Guard" is captured 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 “veil breakers” 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 of the German army, and the explosion of a 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 last actions of the "Young Guard" was a raid on vehicles 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

Novaya Gazeta is completing a cycle of publications about the legendary underground organization Young Guard, which was created exactly 75 years ago. And about how people live today in the Luhansk region, where the active phase of the last hostilities ended in March 2015, not 1943, and where there is still a front line. It is also the demarcation line established by the Minsk agreements between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the formations of the self-proclaimed "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LNR").

After studying the party archives stored in Lugansk, the special correspondent of the "New" Yulia POLUKHINA returned to Krasnodon. Based on the materials of the archives, in previous publications we managed to tell about how the underground Komsomol organization of Krasnodon was created in September 1942, what role the connection with partisan detachments and underground regional committees of Voroshilovograd (as Lugansk was called during the war) and Rostov- on-Don and why the commissar of the "Young Guard" was first Viktor Tretyakevich (the prototype of the "traitor" Stakhevich in Fadeev's novel), and then Oleg Koshevoy. And both suffered posthumously for ideological reasons. Tretyakevich was branded a traitor, although even the author of The Young Guard himself said that Stakhevich was a collective image. Koshevoy, on the contrary, got it during the wave of struggle with Soviet mythology: they began to talk about him, too, as a collective image that Fadeev “painted” to please the party leadership.

Perhaps, neither the Krasnodon nor Luhansk archives make it possible to unambiguously say who was the leader of the Young Guard, how many big and small feats (or, in modern terms, special operations) she has on her account, and which of the guys already captured by the police confessed under torture.

But the fact is that the Young Guard is not a myth. It united living young people, almost children, whose main feat, accomplished against their will, was martyrdom.

We will tell about this tragedy in the last publication of the cycle about the Krasnodontsy, based on the memories of the native Young Guards, the stories of their descendants, as well as the protocols of interrogation of policemen and gendarmes involved in torture and executions.

The boys play football at the memorial to the executed young guards. Photo: Yulia Polukhina / Novaya Gazeta

Genuine, material evidence of what happened in Krasnodon in the first two weeks of 1943, when the Young Guards and many members of the underground party organization were first arrested and then executed, began to disappear already in the first days after the liberation of the city by the Red Army. The more valuable each unit of scientific funds of the museum "Young Guard". Museum staff introduce me to them.

“Here we have materials on policemen Melnikov and Podtynov. I remember how they were tried in 1965. The trial took place in the Palace of Culture. Gorky, the microphones were brought to the speakers outside, it was winter, and the whole city stood and listened. Even today we cannot reliably say how many of these policemen there were, one was caught in 1959, and the second in 1965, ”says Lyubov Viktorovna, chief custodian of the funds. For her, as for most museum workers, “The Young Guard is a very personal story. And this is the main reason that in the summer of 2014, despite the approach of hostilities, they refused to evacuate: “We even started putting everything in boxes, what to send first, what to send second, but then we made a joint decision that we would not go anywhere . As part of decommunization, we were not ready to lie on the shelves and become overgrown with dust. At that time, there was no such law in Ukraine, but such conversations were already going on.

Decommunization really overtook Krasnodon, which ceased to exist, because in 2015 it was renamed Sorokino. However, this is not felt in the museum, and it would never occur to any of the local residents to call themselves Sorokinets.

“Look at this photo. On the walls of the cells in which the young guards were kept after the arrest, inscriptions are clearly visible - Lyubov Viktorovna shows me one of the rarities. And explains what its value is. - These photos were taken by Leonid Yablonsky, photojournalist of the newspaper of the 51st army "Son of the Fatherland". By the way, he was the first to film not only the story about the Young Guards, but also the Adzhimushkay quarries, and the Bagerov ditch, where the bodies of the executed residents of Kerch were dumped after mass executions. And the photo from the Yalta conference is also his. This, by the way, did not prevent Yablonsky from being repressed in 1951 for allegedly disrespectful statements about Stalin, but after the death of the leader, the photographer was released and later rehabilitated. So, according to Yablonsky, when the Red Army entered Krasnodon, it was already dark. Everything in the cells was scratched with inscriptions, both the window sills and the walls. Yablonsky took a few shots and decided that he would return in the morning. But in the morning he came - there was nothing, not a single inscription. And who rubbed, not the Nazis? This was done by local residents, we still don’t know what the guys wrote there, and which of the locals erased all these inscriptions.

“Children were identified by their clothes”

The pit of mine No. 5 is a mass grave of the Young Guards. Photo: RIA Novosti

But it is known that Vasily Gromov, the stepfather of the Young Guard Gennady Pocheptsov, was initially entrusted with leading the work of extracting the bodies of the executed from the pit of mine No. 5. Under the Germans, Gromov was an unspoken police agent and was directly related at least to the arrests of the underground. Therefore, of course, he did not want the bodies with traces of inhuman torture to be raised to the surface.

Here is how this moment is described in the memoirs of Maria Vintsenovsky, the mother of the deceased Yuri Vintsenovsky:

“For a long time he tormented us with his slowness. Either he doesn’t know how to extract, or he doesn’t know how to install a winch, or he simply delayed the extraction. Parents-miners told him what to do and how to do it. Finally, everything was ready. We hear Gromov's voice: "Who voluntarily agrees to go down in the tub?" - "I! I!" - we hear. One was my 7th grade student Shura Nezhivov, the other was a worker, Puchkov.<…>We, the parents, were allowed to take a seat in the front row, but at a decent distance. There was absolute silence. It was so quiet that you could hear your own heartbeat. Here comes the tub. Shouts are heard: "Girl, girl." It was Tosya Eliseenko. She was dropped by one of the first batch. The corpse was put on a stretcher, covered with a sheet and taken to the pre-mine bathhouse. Snow was laid out along all the walls in the bath, and corpses were laid on the snow. The tub descends again. This time the guys shouted: "And this is a boy." It was Vasya Gukov, also shot in the first game and also hanging on a protruding log. Third fourth. “And this naked one, he probably died there, his hands are folded on his chest.” Like an electric current went through my body. "Mine, mine!" I screamed. Words of consolation were heard from all sides. "Calm down, this is not Yurochka." What, in fact, is the difference, not the fourth, so the fifth will be Yuri. Grigoriev Misha was taken out third, Vintsenovsky Yura was the fourth, Zagoruiko V., Lukyanchenko, Sopova and the next Tyulenin Serezha were the fifth.<…>In the meantime, evening came, there were no more corpses in the mine. Gromov, after consulting with the doctor Nadezha Fedorovna Privalova, who is present here, announced that he would no longer extract corpses, since the doctor said that cadaveric poison was fatal. There will be a mass grave here. Work on the extraction of corpses was stopped. The next morning we were again at the pit, now it was already allowed to go into the bathhouse. Each mother tried to recognize her own in the corpse, but this was difficult, because. the children were completely disfigured. For example, I recognized my son only by signs on the fifth day. Zagoruika O.P. I was sure that my son Volodya was in Rovenki ( part of the Young Guard was taken away from Krasnodon to the Gestapo, they were already executed in Rovenki. — Yu. P.) passed a transmission there for him, walked calmly around the corpses. Suddenly a terrible scream, fainting. At the fifth corpse on his trousers, she saw a familiar patch, it was Volodya. Despite the fact that the parents identified their children, they went to the pit several times during the day. I went too. One evening my sister and I went to the pit. From a distance they noticed that a man was sitting over the very abyss of the pit and smoking.<…>It was Androsov, the father of Androsova Lida. “It’s good for you, they found the corpse of their son, but I won’t find the corpse of my daughter. Cadaveric poison is deadly. Let me die from the poison of my daughter's corpse, but I must get her. Just think, it's a tricky business to manage the extraction. I have been working in the mine for twenty years, I have a lot of experience, there is nothing tricky. I will go to the city committee of the party, I will ask permission to lead the extraction. And the next day, having received permission, Androsov set to work.

And here is a fragment of the memoirs of Makar Androsov himself. He is a hard worker, a miner, and casually describes the most terrible moments of his life as work:

“The medical examination has arrived. The doctors said that the bodies can be removed, but special rubber clothing is needed. Many parents of the Young Guard knew me as a professional miner, so they insisted that I be appointed responsible for rescue work.<…>Residents volunteered to help. The bodies were removed by mountain rescue workers. Once I tried to drive with them to the end, into the depths of the pit, but I could not. A suffocating stench wafted from the shaft. Rescuers said that the mine shaft was littered with stones and trolleys. Two corpses were placed in a box. After each extraction, the parents rushed to the box, cried, screamed. The bodies were taken to the mine bath. The cement floor of the bathhouse was covered with snow, and the bodies were laid directly on the floor. A doctor was on duty at the pit and revived the parents, who were losing consciousness. The bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. Many parents recognized their children only by their clothes. There was no water in the mine. The bodies retained their shape, but began to "disorder". Many bodies were found without arms and legs. Rescue work was carried out for 8 days. Daughter Lida was removed from the pit on the third day. I recognized her by her clothes and green cloaks that a neighbor sewed. In these cloaks she was arrested. Lida had a string around her neck. They probably shot in the forehead, because there was a big wound on the back of the head, and less on the forehead. One arm, leg, eye was missing. The cloth skirt was torn and kept only on the belt, the jumper was also torn. When they took out Lida's body, I fainted. A.A. Startseva said that she even recognized Lida by her face. There was a smile on his face. A neighbor (who was present when the corpses were removed) says that Lida's entire body was covered in blood. In total, 71 corpses were taken out of the pit. Coffins were made from old boards of dismantled houses. On February 27 or 28, we brought the bodies of our children from Krasnodon to the village. The coffins were placed at the council in one row. The coffin of Lida and Kolya Sumsky was placed in a grave nearby.

Tyulenin and his five

Sergei Tyulenin

When you read these "sick" memoirs of your parents, though recorded over the years, you understand what exactly escapes during the debate about the historical truth in the history of the "Young Guard". That they were children. They got involved in a big adult nightmare and, although they took it with absolute, even deliberate seriousness, it was still perceived as a kind of game. And who, at the age of 16, will believe in a close tragic ending?

Most of the parents of the Young Guard had no idea what they were doing with their friends in the city occupied by the Germans. The principle of conspiracy also contributed to this: the Young Guard, as you know, were divided into fives, and ordinary underground workers knew only members of their group. Most often, the fives included young men and women who were friends or simply knew each other well before the war. The first group, which later became the most active five, was formed around Sergei Tyulenin. You can argue endlessly about who was the commissar in the Young Guard and who was the commander, but I got the confidence: the leader, without whom there would be no legend, is just Tyulenin.

His biography is in the archives of the Young Guard Museum:

“Sergey Gavrilovich Tyulenin was born on August 25, 1925 in the village of Kiselevo, Novosilsky district, Oryol region, in a working class family. In 1926, his entire family moved to live in the city of Krasnodon, where Serezha grew up. The family had 10 children. Sergei, the youngest, enjoyed the love and care of his older sisters. He grew up as a very lively, active, cheerful boy who was interested in everything.<…>Seryozha was sociable, gathered all his comrades around him, loved excursions, hikes, and Seryozha especially loved military games. His dream was to become a pilot. After graduating from seven classes, Sergei is trying to enter the flight school. For health reasons, he was recognized as quite fit, but not enlisted by age. I had to go back to school: in the eighth grade.<….>The war begins, and Tyulenin voluntarily leaves for the labor army - to build defensive structures.<…>At this time, at the direction of the Bolshevik underground, a Komsomol organization was created. At the suggestion of Sergei Tyulenin, she was named the "Young Guard" ...

Tyulenin was one of the members of the headquarters of the "Young Guard", took part in most military operations: in the distribution of leaflets, in setting fire to stacks of bread, collecting weapons.

November 7th was approaching. Sergey's group received the task to hoist the flag at school number 4. ( Tyulenin, Dadyshev, Tretyakevich, Yurkin, Shevtsova studied at this school. —Yu. P.). Here is what Radiy Yurkin, a 14-year-old participant in the operation, recalls:

“On the long-awaited night before the holiday, we went to carry out the task.<…>Serezha Tyulenin was the first to climb the creaky ladder. We are behind him with grenades at the ready. They took a look and immediately got to work. Styopa Safonov and Seryozha climbed onto the very roof using the fasteners on the wire. Lenya Dadyshev stood at the dormer window, peering and listening to see if anyone had crept up on us. I attached the banner towel to the pipe. All is ready. The "senior miner" of the steppe Safonov, as we later called him, said that the mines were ready.<…>Our banner proudly flies in the air, and below in the attic are anti-tank mines attached to the flagpole.<…>In the morning, a lot of people gathered near the school. Enraged police officers rushed to the attic. But immediately they returned back, confused, mumbling something about mines.

This is how Yurkin’s memoirs look like the second high-profile and successful action of the “Young Guard”: the arson of the labor exchange, which made it possible to avoid sending two and a half thousand Krasnodontsy to forced labor in Germany, including many “Young Guards” who received summons the day before.

“On the night of December 5-6, Sergey, Lyuba Shevtsova, Viktor Lukyanchenko quietly made their way to the attic of the exchange, scattered pre-prepared incendiary cartridges and set fire to the exchange.”

And here Tyulenin was the ringleader.

One of Sergey's closest friends was Leonid Dadyshev. Leonid's father, an Azerbaijani of Iranian origin, came to Russia to look for his brother, but then married a Belarusian. They moved to Krasnodon in 1940. Nadezhda Dadysheva, the younger sister of Leonid Dadyshev, described these months in her memoirs as follows:

“Sergei Tyulenin studied with his brother, and we lived next door to him. Obviously, this was the impetus for their future friendship, which was no longer interrupted until the end of his short but bright life.<…>Lenya loved music. He had a mandalin, and he could sit for hours and perform Russian and Ukrainian folk melodies on it. Favorite were songs about the heroes of the Civil War. There were abilities in the field of drawing. The favorite subject of his drawings were warships (destroyers, battleships), cavalry in battle, portraits of generals. (During the search during the brother's arrest, the police took away a lot of his drawings.)<…>One day my brother asked me to bake homemade donuts. He knew that a column of Red Army prisoners of war would be led through our city, and, wrapping donuts in a bundle, went with his comrades to the main highway. The next day, his comrades said that Lenya threw a bundle of food into a crowd of prisoners of war, and also threw his winter hat with earflaps, and he himself walked in a cap in severe frost.

The finale of Nadezhda Dadysheva's memories brings us back to the pit of mine No. 5.

“On February 14, the city of Krasnodon was liberated by units of the Red Army. On the same day, my mother and I went to the police building, where we saw a terrible picture. In the police yard we saw a mountain of corpses. These were shot Red Army prisoners of war, covered with straw on top. With my mother, I went into the premises of the former police: all the doors were wide open, broken chairs and broken dishes lay on the floor. And on the walls of all the cells were written arbitrary words and poems of the dead. In one cell, it was written all over the wall in large letters: “Death to the German occupiers!” On one door was scrawled with something metallic: “Dadash Lenya was sitting here!” Mom cried a lot, it took me a lot of effort to take her home. Literally a day later, they began to remove the corpses of the dead young guards from the shaft of mine No. 5. The corpses were disfigured, but each mother recognized her son and daughter, and with each rise of the winch, heart-rending cries and weeping of exhausted mothers were heard for a long time.<…>More than forty years have passed since then, but it is always painful and disturbing to remember those tragic events. I can’t hear the words from the song “Eaglet” without excitement: I don’t want to think about death, believe me, at 16 boyish years “... My brother died at 16.”

The Dadyshevs' mother died soon after, she could not survive the death of her son. From the pit of Leonid they took out everything blue, because they were flogged with whips, with a severed right hand. Before being thrown into the pit, he was shot.

And Dadyshev's sister Nadezhda is still alive. True, it was not possible to talk to her, because due to her poor health, she spends the last years of her life in the Krasnodon hospice.

Policemen and traitors

Gennady Pocheptsov

The scientific fund of the museum contains not only memories of heroes and victims, but also materials about traitors and executioners. Here are excerpts from the interrogations of investigative case No. 147721 from the archives of the VUCHN-GPU-NKVD. It was investigated against police investigator Mikhail Kuleshov, agent Vasily Gromov and his stepson Gennady Pocheptsov, a 19-year-old Young Guard who, frightened of arrests, wrote a statement on the advice of his stepfather, indicating the names of his comrades.

From the protocol of interrogation of Gromov Vasily Grigorievich dated June 10, 1943.“... When, at the end of December 1942, young people robbed a German car with gifts, I asked my son: was he involved in this robbery and did he receive a share of these gifts? He denied. However, when I came home, I saw that someone from outsiders was at home. But from the words of his wife, he learned that Gennady's comrades came and smoked. Then I asked my son if there were members of an underground youth organization among those arrested for the theft. The son replied that indeed some of the members of the organization had been arrested for stealing German gifts. In order to save my son's life, and also so that the guilt of belonging to my son's organization would not fall on me, I suggested that Pocheptsov (my step-son) immediately write to the police a statement that he wants to extradite the members of the youth underground organization. The son promised to fulfill my proposal. When I soon asked him about it, he said that he had already written a statement to the police, which one he had written, I did not ask.

The police investigation into the Krasnodon case was headed by senior investigator Mikhail Kuleshov. According to the documents of the archives, before the war he worked as a lawyer, but his career did not develop, he was convicted and distinguished by systematic drinking. Before the war, he often received reprimands along the party line from Mikhail Tretyakevich - the elder brother of the young guard Tretyakevich, who was later exposed as a traitor - for "domestic decay." And Kuleshov had a personal dislike for him, which he later took out on Viktor Tretyakevich.

Policemen Solikovsky (left), Kuleshov (standing on the right in the central photo) and Melnikov (on the far right, the photo in the foreground).

About the "betrayal" of the latter became known only from the words of Kuleshov, who was interrogated by the NKVD. Viktor Tretyakevich became the only Young Guard whose name was deleted from the award lists, worse, on the basis of Kuleshov’s testimony, the conclusions of the “Toritsyn commission” were formed, on the basis of which Fadeev wrote his novel.

From the protocol of the interrogation of the former investigator Kuleshov Ivan Emelyanovich dated May 28, 1943 .

“... There was such order in the police that the first person arrested was brought to Solikovsky, he brought him “to consciousness” and ordered the investigator to interrogate, draw up a protocol that must be handed over to him, i.e. Solikovsky, for viewing. When Davidenko brought Pocheptsov to Solikovsky's office, and before that, Solikovsky took out a statement from his pocket and asked if he had written it. Pocheptsov answered in the affirmative, after which Solikovsky again hid this statement in his pocket.<…>Pocheptsov said that he really is a member of an underground youth organization that exists in Krasnodon and its environs. He named the leaders of this organization, or rather, the city headquarters. Namely: Tretyakevich, Levashov, Zemnukhov, Safonov, Koshevoy. Solikovsky wrote down the named members of the organization for himself, called the policemen and Zakharov, and began to make arrests. He ordered me to take Pocheptsov and interrogate him and present him with the protocols of the interrogation. During interrogation, Pocheptsov told me that the headquarters had weapons at their disposal.<…>. After that, 30-40 members of the underground youth organization were arrested. I personally interrogated about 12 people, including Pocheptsov, Tretyakevich, Levashov, Zemnukhov, Kulikov, Petrov, Vasily Pirozhok, and others.”

From the protocol of interrogation of Pocheptsov Gennady Prokofievich dated April 8, 1943 and June 2, 1943.

“... On December 28, 1942, police chief Solikovsky, his deputy Zakharov, Germans and policemen drove up to Moshkov’s house (he lived next to me) on a sleigh. They searched Moshkov's apartment, found some kind of bag, put it on a sled, put Moshkov in a seat and left. My mother and I saw it all. Mother asked if Moshkov was from our organization. I said no, because I did not know about Moshkov's affiliation with the organization. After a while, Fomin came to see me. He said that, on behalf of Popov, he went to the center to find out which of the guys had been arrested. He said that Tretyakevich, Zemnukhov and Levashov had been arrested. We started discussing what to do, where to run, who to consult, but no decision was made. After Fomin left, I thought about my situation and, finding no other solution, showed cowardice and decided to write a statement to the police that I knew an underground youth organization.<…>Before writing a statement, I myself went to the Gorky Club and looked at what was being done there. Arriving there, I saw Zakharov and the Germans. They were looking for something in the club. Then Zakharov came up to me and asked if I knew Tyulenin, while he was looking at some kind of list, which included a number of other names. I said that I don't know Tyulenin. He went home and at home decided to extradite the members of the organization. I thought the police already knew everything…”

But in fact, it was Pocheptsov's "letter" that played a key role. Because the guys were initially taken as thieves, and there was no evidence against them. After a few days of interrogation, the chief of police ordered: "To flog the thieves and kick them out in the neck." At this time, Pocheptsov, summoned by Solikovsky, came to the police. He pointed out those whom he knew, primarily from the village of Pervomaika, in the group of which was Pocheptsov himself. From January 4 to 5, arrests began in Pervomaika. Pocheptsov simply did not know about the existence of underground communists Lyutikov, Barakov and others. But the machine shops where their cell operated were monitored by agents of Zons ( Deputy Chief of the Krasnodon Gendarmerie. — Yu. P.). Zons was shown lists of arrested underground workers, where there were only children of 16-17 years old, and then Zons ordered the arrest of Lyutikov and 20 other people, who had been closely monitored by his agents for a long time. So in the cells there were more than 50 people who had one or another relation to the "Young Guard" and the underground communists.

Testimony of police officer Alexander Davydenko.“In January, I went into the office of the secretary of police, it seems, to receive a salary, and through the open door I saw in the office of the chief of police Solikovsky the arrested members of the “Young Guard” Tretyakevich, Moshkov, Gukhov (inaudible). The chief of police Solikovsky, who was there, interrogated him, his deputy Zakharov, the translator Burkhard, a German whose last name I do not know, and two policemen, Gukhalov and Plokhikh. The young guards were interrogated about how and under what circumstances they stole gifts from cars, destined for German soldiers. During this interrogation, I also went into Solikovsky's office and saw the entire process of the said interrogation. During the interrogation of Tretyakevich, Moshkov and Gukhov, they were beaten and tortured. They were not only beaten, but hung on a rope from the ceiling, staging an execution by hanging. When the Young Guards began to lose consciousness, they were removed and poured on the floor with water, bringing them to their senses. Viktor Tretyakevich

Viktor Tretyakevich was interrogated by Mikhail Kuleshov with particular passion.

On August 18, 1943, in an open court hearing in the city of Krasnodon, the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovograd region sentenced Kuleshov, Gromov and Pocheptsov to capital punishment. The next day, the sentence was carried out. They were shot in public in the presence of five thousand people. Pocheptsov's mother Maria Gromova, as a member of the family of a traitor to the motherland, was exiled to the Kustanai region of the Kazakh SSR for a period of five years with a complete confiscation of property. Her further fate is unknown, but in 1991, Art. 1 of the law of the Ukrainian SSR "On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression in Ukraine". Due to the lack of a body of evidence confirming the validity of bringing to justice, she was rehabilitated.

Policeman Solikovsky managed to escape, he was never found. Although he was the main one among the direct executors of the execution of the Young Guard in Krasnodon.

From the protocol of the interrogation of gendarme Walter Eichhorn dated November 20, 1948.“Under the force of torture and bullying, testimonies were obtained from those arrested about their involvement in an underground Komsomol organization operating in the mountains. Krasnodon. About these arrests, Master Shen ( head of the gendarmerie post Cransodon. — Yu. P.) reported on command to his boss Venner. Later, an order was received to shoot the youth.<…>They began to bring out to our courtyard one by one the arrested, prepared to be sent to execution, besides us, the gendarmes, there were five policemen. Commandant Sanders escorted one car, and Sons was in the cockpit with him ( Deputy Chief Shen. — Yu. P.), and I stood on the running board of the car. The second car was accompanied by Solikovsky, and there was the head of the criminal police Kuleshov.<…>About ten meters from the mine, the cars stopped and were cordoned off by gendarmes and policemen, who escorted them to the place of execution<…>. I personally was close to the place of execution and saw how one of the policemen took the arrested people one by one from the vehicles, undressed them and brought them to Solikovsky, who shot them at the shaft, dumped the corpses into the mine pit ... "

Initially, the case of the Young Guard was conducted by the Krasnodon police, because they were accused of a banal criminal offense. But when a clear political component emerged, the gendarmerie of the city of Rovenki joined the case. Part of the Young Guard was taken there, because the Red Army was already advancing on Krasnodon. Oleg Koshevoy managed to escape, but he was arrested in Rovenki.

Oleg Koshevoy

Later, this created grounds for speculation that Koshevoy was allegedly an agent of the Gestapo (according to another version, a member of the OUN-UPA, an organization banned in Russia), and for this reason he was not shot, but went with the Germans to Rovenki and then disappeared, starting a new one. life on false papers.

Similar stories are known, for example, if we recall the Krasnodon executioners, then not only Solikovsky managed to escape, but also the policemen Vasily Podtynny and Ivan Melnikov. Melnikov, by the way, was directly related not only to the torture of the Young Guards, but also to the executions of miners and communists buried alive in the Krasnodon city park in September 1942. After the retreat from Krasnodon, he fought in the Wehrmacht, was captured in Moldova, and in 1944 was drafted into the Red Army. He fought with dignity, was awarded medals, but in 1965 he was exposed as a former policeman and subsequently shot.

The fate of policeman Podtynny was similar: he was tried many years after the crime, but in Krasnodon, publicly. By the way, during the trial and investigation, Podtynny testified that Viktor Tretyakevich was not a traitor and that the investigator Kuleshov slandered him on the grounds of personal revenge. After that, Tretyakevich was rehabilitated (but Stakhevich remained a traitor in Fadeev's novel).

However, all these analogies are inapplicable to Koshevoy. The archives contain records of interrogations of direct participants and eyewitnesses of his execution in Rovenki.

From the transcript of the interrogation of Ivan Orlov, a Rovenkov police officer:

“I first learned about the existence of the Young Guard at the end of January 1943 from Oleg Koshevoy, a Komsomol member arrested in Rovenki. Then I was told about this organization by those who arrived at the beginning of 1943 in Rovenki st. investigators of the Krasnodon police Usachev and Didik, who took part in the investigation of the Young Guard case.<…>I remember that I asked Usachov if Oleg Koshevoy was involved in the Young Guard case. Usachev said that Koshevoy was one of the leaders of the underground organization, but he had escaped from Krasnodon and could not be found. In this regard, I told Usachov that Koshevoy had been arrested in Rovenki and shot by the gendarmerie.

From the protocol of interrogation of Otto-August Drewitz, a member of the Rovenky gendarmerie :

Question: You are shown a slide showing the head of the illegal Young Guard organization operating in Krasnodon, Oleg Koshevoy. Isn't this the young man you shot? Answer: Yes, this is the same young man. I shot Koshevoy in the city park in Rovenki. Question: Tell us under what circumstances you shot Oleg Koshevoy. Answer: At the end of January 1943, I received an order from the deputy commander of the gendarmerie unit Fromme to prepare for the execution of arrested Soviet citizens. In the yard, I saw police officers who were guarding nine arrested persons, among whom was also Oleg Koshevoy, who was identified. On Fromme's order, we took those sentenced to death to the place of execution in the city park in Rovenki. We placed the prisoners on the edge of a large pit dug in advance in the park and shot them all on Fromme's orders. Then I noticed that Koshevoy was still alive, he was only wounded, I went closer to him and shot him right in the head. When I shot Koshevoy, I was returning with the other gendarmes who had taken part in the execution back to the barracks. Several policemen were sent to the place of execution to bury the corpses.” Record of the interrogation of the gendarme from Rovenky Drevnitsa, who shot Oleg Koshevoy

It turns out that Oleg Koshevoy was the last of the Young Guards to die, and there were no traitors, except for Pocheptsov, among them.

The story of the life and death of the Young Guard immediately began to acquire myths: first Soviet, and then anti-Soviet. And much is still unknown about them - not all archives are in the public domain. But be that as it may, for modern Krasnodon residents the history of the Young Guard is very personal, regardless of the name of the country in which they live.

Krasnodon

document. 18+ (description of torture)

Information about the atrocities of the Nazi invaders, about the injuries inflicted on the underground workers of Krasnodon as a result of interrogations and execution at the pit of mine No. 5 and in the Thundering Forest of the city of Rovenka. January-February 1943. (Archive of the Young Guard Museum.)

The certificate was compiled on the basis of an act on the investigation of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the Krasnodon region, dated September 12, 1946, on the basis of archival documents of the Young Guard Museum and documents of the Voroshilovograd KGB.

1. Nikolai Petrovich Barakov, born in 1905. During interrogations, the skull was broken, the tongue and ear were cut off, the teeth and left eye were knocked out, the right hand was chopped off, both legs were broken, and the heels were cut off.

2. Daniil Sergeevich Vystavkin, born in 1902, traces of severe torture were found on his body.

3. Vinokurov Gerasim Tikhonovich, born in 1887. Extracted with a crushed skull, a broken face, a crushed hand.

4. Lyutikov Philip Petrovich, born in 1891. He was thrown into the pit alive. The cervical vertebrae were broken, the nose and ears were cut off, there were wounds on the chest with torn edges.

5. Sokolova Galina Grigorievna, born in 1900. Extracted among the last with a smashed head. The body is bruised, there is a knife wound on the chest.

6. Yakovlev Stepan Georgievich, born in 1898. Extracted with a smashed head, excised back.

7. Androsova Lidia Makarovna, born in 1924. Extracted without an eye, ear, hand, with a rope around the neck, which cut hard into the body, baked blood is visible on the neck.

8. Bondareva Alexandra Ivanovna, born in 1922. Removed without head, right mammary gland. The whole body is beaten, bruised, has a black color.

9. Vintsenovsky Yuri Semenovich, born in 1924. Extracted with a swollen face, without clothes. There were no wounds on the body. Apparently he was dropped alive.

10. Glavan Boris Grigoryevich, born in 1920. Removed from the pit heavily mutilated.

11. Gerasimova Nina Nikolaevna, born in 1924. The extracted head was flattened, the nose was pressed in, the left hand was broken, the body was beaten.

12. Grigoriev Mikhail Nikolaevich, born in 1924. The extracted one had a lacerated wound on the temple, resembling a five-pointed star. The legs were cut, covered with scars and bruises: the whole body was black, the face was mutilated, the teeth were knocked out.

Ulyana Gromova

13. Uliana Matveevna Gromova, born in 1924. A five-pointed star was carved on her back, her right arm was broken, her ribs were broken.

14. Gukov Vasily Safonovich, born in 1921. Beaten beyond recognition.

15. Alexandra Emelyanovna Dubrovina, born in 1919. Extracted without a skull, stab wounds on the back, the arm is broken, the leg is shot through.

16. Dyachenko Antonina Nikolaevna, born in 1924. There was an open fracture of the skull with a patchy wound, banded bruises on the body, oblong abrasions and wounds resembling prints of narrow, hard objects, apparently from blows with a telephone cable.

17. Eliseenko Antonina Zakharovna, born in 1921. The extracted body had traces of burns and beatings, there was a trace of a gunshot wound on the temple.

18. Zhdanov Vladimir Aleksandrovich, born in 1925. Extracted with a lacerated wound in the left temporal region. The fingers are broken, which is why they are twisted, there are bruises under the nails. Two strips 3 cm wide and 25 cm long are carved on the back. Eyes gouged out, ears cut off.

19. Zhukov Nikolai Dmitrievich, born in 1922. Extracted without ears, tongue, teeth. A hand and foot were cut off.

20. Zagoruiko Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1927. Extracted without hair, with a severed hand.

21. Zemnukhov Ivan Alexandrovich, born in 1923. Extracted decapitated, beaten. The whole body is swollen. The foot of the left leg and the left arm (at the elbow) are twisted.

22. Ivanikhina Antonina Aeksandrovna, born in 1925. The eyes of the extracted woman were gouged out, her head was tied with a scarf and wire, her breasts were cut out.

23. Ivanikhina Liliya Alexandrovna, born in 1925. Removed headless, left arm severed.

24. Kezikova Nina Georgievna, born in 1925. Extracted with a leg torn off at the knee, arms twisted. There were no bullet wounds on the body, apparently, it was dropped alive.

25. Evgeniya Ivanovna Kiykova, born in 1924. Extracted without the right foot and right hand.

26. Klavdia Petrovna Kovaleva, born in 1925. The right breast was taken out swollen, cut off, the feet were burned, the left breast was cut off, the head was tied with a handkerchief, there were signs of beatings on the body. Found 10 meters from the trunk, between the trolleys. Probably dropped alive.

27. Koshevoy Oleg Vasilyevich, born in 1924. The body bore traces of inhuman torture: there was no eye, there was a wound in the cheek, the back of the head was knocked out, the hair on the temples was gray.

28. Levashov Sergey Mikhailovich, born in 1924. The extracted one had a broken radius bone of the left hand. During the fall, dislocations were formed in the hip joints and both legs were broken. One in the thigh bone and the other in the knee area. The skin on the right leg is all torn off. No bullet wounds were found. Was dropped alive. Found far crawled from the crash site with a mouthful of earth.

29. Lukashov Gennady Alexandrovich, born in 1924. The man who was taken out had no foot, his hands showed signs of being beaten with an iron rod, his face was mutilated.

30. Lukyanchenko Viktor Dmitrievich, born in 1927. Extracted without a hand, eye, nose.

31. Minaeva Nina Petrovna, born in 1924. Extracted with broken arms, an eye gouged out, something shapeless was carved on her chest. The whole body is covered with dark blue stripes.

32. Moshkov Evgeny Yakovlevich, born in 1920. During interrogations, his legs and arms were broken. The body and face are blue-black from beatings.

33. Nikolaev Anatoly Georgievich, born in 1922. The extracted body was excised, the tongue was cut out.

34. Ogurtsov Dmitry Uvarovich, born in 1922. In Rovenkovskaya prison he was subjected to inhuman torture.

35. Ostapenko Semyon Makarovich, born in 1927. Ostapenko's body bore traces of cruel torture. The skull was shattered by a butt blow.

36. Osmukhin Vladimir Andreevich, born in 1925. During interrogations, the right hand was cut off, the right eye was gouged out, there were traces of burns on the legs, the back of the skull was crushed.

37. Orlov Anatoly Alekseevich, born in 1925. He was shot in the face with an explosive bullet. The entire back of the head is shattered. Blood is visible on the leg, it was taken out with shoes on.

38. Peglivanova Maya Konstantinovna, born in 1925. She was thrown into the pit alive. Extracted without eyes, lips, legs are broken, lacerated wounds are visible on the leg.

39. Loop Nadezhda Stepanovna, born in 1924. The extracted left arm and legs were broken, the chest was burned. There were no bullet wounds on the body, she was dropped alive.

40. Petrachkova Nadezhda Nikitichna, born in 1924. The body of the extracted person bore traces of inhuman tortures, extracted without a hand.

41. Petrov Viktor Vladimirovich, born in 1925. A stab wound was inflicted on the chest, fingers were broken at the joints, ears and tongue were cut off, and feet were burned.

42. Pirozhok Vasily Makarovich, born in 1925. Removed from the pit beaten. Body in bruises.

43. Polyansky Yuri Fedorovich - 1924 year of birth. Removed without left arm and nose.

44. Popov Anatoly Vladimirovich, born in 1924. The fingers of the left hand were crushed, the foot of the left leg was cut off.

45. Rogozin Vladimir Pavlovich, born in 1924. The extracted man's spine, arms were broken, his teeth were knocked out, his eye was gouged out.

46. ​​Angelina Tikhonovna Samoshinova, born in 1924. During interrogations, his back was cut with a whip. The right leg was shot in two places.

47. Sopova Anna Dmitrievna, born in 1924. Bruises were found on the body, a scythe was torn out.

48. Nina Illarionovna Startseva, born in 1925. Extracted with a broken nose, broken legs.

49. Subbotin Viktor Petrovich, born in 1924. The beatings on the face were visible, the limbs were twisted.

50. Sumy Nikolai Stepanovich, born in 1924. His eyes were blindfolded, there was a trace of a gunshot wound on his forehead, there were traces of beatings with a whip on his body, traces of injections under the nails were visible on his fingers, his left arm was broken, his nose was pierced, his left eye was missing.

51. Tretyakevich Viktor Iosifovich, born in 1924. Hair was torn out, the left arm was twisted, lips were cut off, the leg was torn off along with the groin.

52. Tyulenin Sergey Gavrilovich, born in 1924. In the police cell, they tortured him in front of his mother, Alexandra Tyulenina, during torture he received a through gunshot wound on his left hand, which was burned with a red-hot rod, fingers were placed under the door and clamped until the limbs of the hands were completely dead, needles were driven under the nails, hung on ropes. When extracting from the pit, the lower jaw and nose were knocked to the side. Broken spine.

53. Fomin Dementy Yakovlevich, born in 1925. Removed from the pit with a broken head.

54. Shevtsova Lyubov Grigorievna, born in 1924. Several stars are carved on the body. Shot with an explosive bullet in the face.

55. Evgeny Nikiforovich Shepelev, born in 1924. They pulled him out of the pit face to face, tied with Boris Galavan with barbed wire, cut off his hands. The face is disfigured, the stomach is ripped open.

56. Shishchenko Alexander Tarasovich, born in 1925. Shishchenko had a head injury, stab wounds on his body, his ears, nose and upper lip were torn off. The left arm was broken in the shoulder, elbow and hand.

57. Shcherbakov Georgy Kuzmich, born in 1925. The face of the person extracted was bruised, the spine was broken, as a result of which the body was removed in parts.

Bibliographic description:

Nesterova I.A. Young Guard [Electronic resource] // Educational encyclopedia site

In the light of modern attempts to remake history, to devalue the exploits of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War, it is necessary to preserve the people's memory of the thousands of Soviet citizens tortured by fascist monsters. So that no one wants to apologize to the Bundeswehr for the fate of the "unfortunate" Nazis. The Young Guard is an example of courage and patriotism. Everyone should know about their fate.

The emergence of the Young Guard

Officially, during the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, the existence of 3,350 underground Komsomol and youth organizations that carried out anti-fascist activities in the temporarily occupied territories was recognized. Among these organizations is called the "Young Guard".

is a youth underground organization. She acted in the rear of the Nazis on the territory of Donetsk Krasnodon.

It cannot be said that in young guard included only Russians or Ukrainians. It was multinational: Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Belarusians, Jews, an Azerbaijani and a Moldavian.

After the Great Patriotic War began and the city was occupied, scattered groups of teenagers began to carry out active anti-fascist activities in Krasnodon. However, for greater effectiveness of anti-fascist attacks, it was necessary to create a single underground organization with a common controlled center.

Ulyana Gromova

Date of formation Young Guard is September 30, 1942. The backbone of the organization included Ivan Zemnukhov as chief of staff, Vasily Levashov as commander of the central group, Georgy Arutyunyants and Sergei Tyulenin as ordinary members of the headquarters. Viktor Tretyakevich was elected Commissar of the Young Guard. Later, Uliana Gromova, Lyubov Shevtsova, Oleg Koshevoy and Ivan Turkenich joined the headquarters. Number of Young Guard According to official figures, it ranged from 70 to 100 people. Some local researchers speak of 130 Young Guards.

Activities of the Young Guard

In recent years, exclamations have been heard with renewed vigor that the Young Guard is a propaganda legend, that teenagers have not done anything important, and so on. However, we must not forget that the Young Guards are just teenagers. The youngest of them was 14 years old. They organized very dangerous sorties. Literally on the verge of life and death. They successfully distributed anti-fascist leaflets and information from the Soviet Information Bureau. Ukrainian traitors who worked as policemen for the Nazis often found leaflets of the Young Guards in their pockets.

In list exploits of the Young Guard we can safely call the raising of red flags over the school, hospital and park of the occupied Krasnodon. This happened on the anniversary of the October Revolution. The flags were made from a Nazi banner stolen from a German club.

The Germans tried to send the city's young, able-bodied residents to Germany as a labor force. However, the Young Guard set fire to the building of the labor exchange, thereby preventing the citizens of Krasnodon from being sent into fascist slavery.

In addition to the above-mentioned exploits of the Young Guard, the guys also helped the local population with food, burned the barns of the Nazis and poisoned their bread and water, freed prisoners of war. In addition, they took weapons from warehouses from the Nazis. By the beginning of December 1942, the Young Guards had accumulated 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, about 15 thousand rounds of ammunition, 10 pistols, 65 kilograms of explosives and several hundred meters of Fickford cord in the warehouse.

Arrest and execution of the Young Guards

On January 1, 1943, Yevgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Ivan Zemnukhov were arrested. This was followed by a series of arrests of other members of the underground organization. There are two versions according to which the Nazis managed to arrest members of the Young Guard:

1. Betrayal
2. Lack of proper confidentiality.

The version of betrayal was not fully confirmed, although the suspects were shot.

There were so many members of the Young Guard operating in Krasnodon that the city's prison was overcrowded with teenagers. They were brutally tortured. The city jail looked like a slaughterhouse. The blood of the Young Guards is splattered everywhere. In order not to hear loud screams in the prison, a gramophone was turned on at full power.

The arrested young guards were severely beaten, they were cut with knives, their bones were broken and crushed, their eyes were gouged out, but none of them told anything of what the fascists and Ukrainian traitors, who had gone over to the side of the enemy, asked about.

During the arrests and investigations, policemen Solikovsky, Zakharov, as well as Plokhikh and Sevastyanov tried their best. They mutilated Ivan Zemnukhov beyond recognition. Yevgeny Moshkov was doused with water, taken out into the street, then put on the stove, and then again taken for interrogation.

After the most severe torture, the young guards, barely alive, were ordered to be shot. in the area of ​​the old mine. The first group of members of the Young Guard underground was shot on January 15, 1943. The second group of guys was killed in the same place, but already on January 16th. The third group was shot on January 31, 1943. The last four guys, including Oleg Koshevoy, were shot on February 9, 1943 in the town of Rovenky, Krasnodonsky district.

Among the first group of those shot was Viktor Tretyakevich. When they took him and put him on the edge of the pit, he managed to grab the deputy chief of police by the neck. He tried to drag him along with him to a depth of 50 meters. However, he was prevented by other fascists.

Ivan Turkenich, Valeria Borts, Olga and Nina Ivantsov, Radik Yurkin, Georgy Arutyunyants, Mikhail Shishchenko, Anatoly Lopukhov and Vasily Levashov managed to escape. Levashov managed to escape on his way to the execution. For a while he hid with his girlfriend.

On February 14, 1943, the city of Krasnodon was liberated from the Nazis by the troops of the Red Army. On February 17, the bodies of the Young Guards began to be removed from a deep mine.

After the liberation of the city, during the investigation, rumors spread that during interrogation Tretyekevich could not stand it and handed over his comrades. Only in 1959 this version was refuted. Decree of December 13, 1960 of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR rehabilitated Viktor Tretyakevich and awarded him the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree.

The role of the feat of the Young Guard

Feat of the Young Guard was of great importance for the country, both during the Great Patriotic War and after it. It was the Young Guards who, by their actions, supported the morale of the soldiers and the mood to fight among the population of the occupied territories. Pain and suffering from hunger faded against the background of what the young guards suffered before their death. People remembered their exploits and created their own for the good of the motherland.

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1944: "Glory to the Heroes-Komsomol members of the Young Guard of the city of Krasnodon!".

The history of the Young Guard gained fame thanks to the book by Alexander Fadeev "The Young Guard". Films were made about the Young Guards, they wrote in newspapers. They were set as an example to the rising post-war generation.

Now feat of the Young Guard not forgotten. Museums dedicated to the Young Guard operate throughout Russia, Soviet monuments to the Young Guard are being restored, and lessons dedicated to their feat are held in schools.

Literature

1. "Young Guard" [Electronic resource] // Journal "Historian" - Access mode: https://historian.rf/journal/young-guard/
2. Who are they - "Young Guards"? A terrible story that should not be forgotten [Electronic resource] // "Out of town". - Access mode:

In the Soviet years, ships and schools were named after these guys and girls, monuments were erected to them, books, songs and films dedicated to their feat. Their actions were cited as an example of the mass heroism of the Komsomol youth in the Great Patriotic War.

Then, in the wake of the post-reform boom of "glasnost", many lovers of "revise" the merits of young heroes before the fatherland surfaced. Active myth-making has done its job: today a considerable number of modern people associate the word “Young Guards” rather with the youth wing of a popular political party than with the dead Komsomol members of the Great Patriotic War. And in the homeland of heroes, in general, part of the population raises the names of their executioners to the flag ...

Meanwhile, every honest person should know the true story of the feat and the true tragedy of the death of the “Young Guards”.

School hobby group. In a Cossack costume - Seryozha Tyulenin, the future underground worker.

"Young Guard" - an underground anti-fascist Komsomol organization that operated during the Great Patriotic War from September 1942 to January 1943 in the city of Krasnodon, Voroshilovgrad region of the Ukrainian SSR. The organization was created shortly after the beginning of the occupation of the city of Krasnodon by the troops of Nazi Germany, which began on July 20, 1942.

The first youth groups of underground workers to fight the fascist invasion arose in Krasnodon immediately after its occupation by German troops in July 1942. The core of one of them was the soldiers of the Red Army, who, by the will of military fate, found themselves surrounded in the rear of the Germans, such as soldiers Yevgeny Moshkov, Ivan Turkenich, Vasily Gukov, sailors Dmitry Ogurtsov, Nikolai Zhukov, Vasily Tkachev.

At the end of September 1942, underground youth groups united into a single organization "Young Guard", the name of which was proposed by Sergei Tyulenin.

Ivan Turkenich was appointed commander of the organization. The members of the headquarters were Georgy Arutyunyants - responsible for information, Ivan Zemnukhov - chief of staff, Oleg Koshevoy - responsible for conspiracy and security, Vasily Levashov - commander of the central group, Sergey Tyulenin - commander of the combat group. Later, Ulyana Gromova and Lyubov Shevtsova were brought into the headquarters. The vast majority of the Young Guard were members of the Komsomol, temporary Komsomol certificates for them were printed in the organization's underground printing house along with leaflets.

The younger guys aged 14-17 were liaisons and scouts. The Krasnodon Komsomol youth underground included about 100 people, more than 70 were very active. According to the lists of underground workers and partisans arrested by the Germans, forty-seven young men and twenty-four girls appear in the organization. The youngest of the prisoners was fourteen years old, and fifty-five of them never turned nineteen ...

Lyuba Shevtsova with friends (pictured first on the left in the second row)

The most ordinary, no different from the same boys and girls of our country, the guys were friends and quarreled, studied and fell in love, ran to dances and chased pigeons. They were engaged in school circles, sports clubs, played stringed musical instruments, wrote poetry, many of them were good at drawing. They studied in different ways - someone was an excellent student, and someone with difficulty overcame the granite of science. There were also a lot of tomboys. Dreamed of a future adult life. They wanted to become pilots, engineers, lawyers, someone was going to enter the theater school, and someone - to the pedagogical institute ...

The “Young Guard” was as multinational as the population of these southern regions of the USSR. Russians, Ukrainians (there were Cossacks among them), Armenians, Belarusians, Jews, Azerbaijanis and Moldavians, ready to help each other at any moment, fought against the Nazis.

The Germans occupied Krasnodon on July 20, 1942. And almost immediately the first leaflets appeared in the city, a new bathhouse, already ready for the German barracks, was on fire. It was Serezha Tyulenin who began to act. So far, one...
On August 12, 1942, he turned seventeen. Sergei wrote leaflets on pieces of old newspapers, and the police often found them even in their pockets. He began to slowly carry weapons from the policemen, not even doubting that they would definitely come in handy. And he was the first to attract a group of guys ready to fight. It initially consisted of eight people. However, by the first days of September, several groups were already operating in Krasnodon, practically unrelated to one another - in total there were about 25 people in them.

The birthday of the underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard" was September 30: then a plan was adopted to create a detachment, specific actions for underground work were outlined, a headquarters was created, the organization's assets were divided into combat fives. For the purpose of conspiracy, each member of the five knew only his comrades and the commander, being unaware of the full composition of the headquarters.

The "Young Guards" put up leaflets - first handwritten, then they took out a printing press and opened a real printing house. 30 series of leaflets were issued with a total circulation of about 5,000 copies. The content is mainly calls for sabotage of forced labor and fragments of reports from the Soviet Information Bureau, received thanks to a secretly stored radio.

On occasion, Komsomol members stole weapons from the Germans and policemen - at the time of the defeat of the organization, 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, about 15 thousand rounds of ammunition, 10 pistols, 65 kilograms of explosives and several hundred meters of Fickford cord had already been accumulated in its secret warehouse. With this arsenal, Oleg Koshevoy was going to arm the Komsomol partisan detachment "Hammer", which he intended to soon separate from the organization and relocate outside the city to openly fight the enemy, but these plans were no longer destined to come true ...
The guys burned a barn with bread, taken by the Germans by force from the population. On the day of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, red flags were hung around the city of Krasnodon, which the girls had sewn the day before from the red curtains of the stage of the former House of Culture. Several dozen prisoners of war were rescued from the camp.

Most of the actions of the "Young Guard" were held at night. And by the way, there was a curfew in Krasnodon during the entire period of occupation, and a simple walk around the city after six in the evening was punishable by arrest followed by execution. The Komsomol members also tried to establish contact with the partisan detachments operating in the Rostov region. True, it was not possible to reach the Voroshilovgrad partisans and underground fighters. First of all, because the partisans conspired well in the forests, and in the city the underground had already been defeated by the enemy and actually ceased to exist.

This is where the first myth arises, created back in the era of work on the famous novel by the writer Alexander Fadeev. As if the Komsomol members of Krasnodon fought against fascism exclusively as messengers and saboteurs under the leadership of an underground party organization led by Nikolai Barakov and Philip Lyutikov. Senior comrades develop a plan of operation - Komsomol members, risking their lives, carry it out ...

By the way, in the first edition of Fadeev's novel there is no mention of the "adult" communist underground. Only by the second edition did the author "strengthen" the ties between the Komsomol and the "adult" underground and introduced a scene of joint preparation of sabotage at one of the mines that the Germans wanted to launch.

In fact, communist miners Barakov and Lyutikov really planned to disrupt the launch of the mine. But - completely independent of the "Young Guard". The guys were also preparing a sabotage - on their own - and it was they who carried it out.
For the Nazis, coal was a strategic raw material, so they sought to put into operation at least one of the Krasnodon mines. Using the labor of prisoners of war and the force of driven local residents, the Germans prepared Sorokin Mine No. 1 for launch.

But literally on the eve of the start of work at night, an underground Komsmol member Yuri Yatsinovsky penetrated into the pile driver and spoiled the cage lift: he misaligned the mechanism and cut the lifting ropes. As a result, when the lift was started, a cage with a mining tool, in which there were also German foremen, and policemen with weapons, and forced slaughterers, and several strikebreaker workers who voluntarily agreed to work for the enemy, collapsed into the shaft of the mine. It is a pity for the dead slaves of fascism. But the launch of the mine was disrupted, until the end of the occupation, the Germans failed to raise the cage and clean the shaft shaft from the collapsed parts of the lift. As a result, for half a year of their rule, the Germans were not able to take out a ton of coal from Krasnodon.

The Krasnodon Komsomol members also thwarted the mass deportation of their peers to Germany. The "Young Guard" introduced one of the underground workers to the labor exchange, who copied the list of young people compiled by the Germans. Having learned about the number and timing of sending the echelon of "Ostarbeiters", the guys burned the stock exchange with all the documentation, and potential laborers were warned about the need to flee the city. This action infuriated the policemen and the German commandant's office, and almost two thousand Krasnodon residents were delivered from German hard labor.

Even such a seemingly purely demonstration action as hanging red flags and congratulations to residents on the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution by November 7 was of great importance for the occupied city. Impatiently awaiting release, the residents understood: “We are remembered, we are not forgotten by ours!”.

Oleg Koshevoy

In addition, the “Young Guards” recaptured more than 500 heads of livestock confiscated from the population from the police officers. To whom they could, they returned the livestock, the rest of the cows, horses and goats were simply distributed to the population of the surrounding farms, who were very poor after being robbed by German marauders. How many peasant families were saved from starvation thanks to such a “partisan gift” is now even difficult to calculate.

A real military operation was the organization, jointly with the partisans, of a mass escape of prisoners of war from a temporary camp organized by the occupiers outside the city in the open. Those of the Red Army who were not yet completely exhausted from wounds and beatings joined the partisan detachment. Those who were unable to hold weapons were sheltered in their homes by the villagers - and everyone came out. Thus, the lives of almost 50 people were saved.

Breaks in the German telephone wire were regularly made. Moreover, the restless Serezha Tyulenev came up with or read somewhere about a tricky method: the wire was cut with a thin knife in two places along. Then, with a crochet hook, a section of the copper core was removed between the incisions. Outwardly, the wire looked intact until you felt along the entire length - you simply did not find these thinnest cuts. Therefore, it was not easy for the German signalmen to eliminate the communication gap - most often they were forced to lay the line again.

Basically, the guys acted secretly, the only armed action of the underground took place on the eve of the New Year 1943 - the Young Guards made a daring raid on German vehicles with New Year's gifts for soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht. The cargo was confiscated. In the future, German gifts, which consisted mainly of food and warm clothes, were planned to be distributed to Krasnodon families with children. Cigarettes, which were also in gifts, the Komsomol members decided to slowly sell at the local flea market, and use the proceeds for the needs of the organization.

Isn't that what killed the young underground workers? In 1998, one of the surviving "Young Guards" Vasily Levashov put forward his version of the disclosure of the organization. According to his recollections, some of the cigarettes were given to a 12-13-year-old boy familiar with the underground, who went to the market to change tobacco for food. During the raid, the guy was caught, he did not have time to throw off the goods. They began to interrogate him, moreover, with cruelty. And the teenager "split" under the beatings, confessing that his older friend, Genka Pocheptsov, gave him cigarettes. On the same day, the Pocheptsovs were searched, Gennady himself was arrested and also tortured.

According to Levashov's version, it was Gennady, who was tortured in the presence of his named father - Vasily Grigoryevich Gromov, head of mine No. 1-bis and part-time secret agent of the Krasnodon police - on January 2, 1943, began to admit to participating in the underground. The Germans pulled out of the guy all the information that he possessed, and the commandant's office became aware of the names of those underground workers whose group operated in the Pervomayka area.

Then the Germans took up the search for the partisans seriously, and after a few days two high school students were arrested, who did not have time to safely hide the bags with gifts. The names of these guys, as well as the younger friend of Gena Pocheptsov, Levashov did not name.

One can doubt Levashov's version, because, according to his memoirs, Gena Pocheptsov began to speak on January 2. And on the first day, the Germans took three "Young Guards" - Yevgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Vanya Zemnukhov. Most likely, this was the result of an investigation that the Germans conducted after the Komsomol attack on a convoy with Christmas gifts.

On the day of the arrest of three members of the Young Guard headquarters, a secret meeting of Komsomol members took place. And it was decided that all the "Young Guards" should immediately leave the city, and the leaders of the combat groups should not spend the night at home that night. All underground workers were informed about the decision of the headquarters through messengers. But the whole apparatus of punishers has already set in motion. Mass arrests have begun...

Why did most of the "Young Guards" not follow the order of the headquarters? After all, this first disobedience cost almost all of them their lives? There can be only one answer: during the days of mass arrests, the Germans spread information around the city that they knew the full composition of the “bandit partisan gang”. And that if any of the suspects leave the city, their families will be shot without exception.

The guys knew that if they ran away, their relatives would be arrested instead of them. Therefore, they remained faithful children to the end and did not try to protect themselves by the death of their parents, surviving underground worker Vladimir Minaev later said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda journalists.

Only twelve "Young Guards" at the insistence of their relatives managed to escape in those days. But later, two of them - Sergei Tyulenin and Oleg Koshevoy - were nevertheless arrested. The four cells of the city's police prison were packed to capacity. In one they kept girls, in the other three - boys.

No matter how much they write about the "Young Guard" earlier, as a rule, researchers spare the feelings of readers. They write carefully - about the fact that Komsomol members were beaten, sometimes, following Fadeev, they talk about bloody stars carved on the body. The reality is even worse... But none of the popular publications give the names of the torturers in detail - only general phrases: "fascist fiends, occupiers and accomplices of the occupiers." However, the documents of the regional department of state security show that the mass tortures and executions were by no means carried out by ordinary soldiers of the Wehrmacht. For the role of executioners, the Germans used either special SS units - Einsatzgruppen, or police units recruited from the local population.

The SS Einsatzgruppen arrived in the Lugansk region in September 1942, the headquarters was located in Starobilsk, the SS Brigadeführer Major General Max Thomas commanded a special squad of executioners. However, he, a professional torturer, preferred to put his fighters in the cordon of the prison, sending only three hefty soldiers to punish the prisoners with rubber whips. And, in fact, the massacre of the underground was repaired, mainly, by the policemen of the local Krasnodon branch. Cossacks, as they called themselves...

Leaflet "Young Guard"

What these monsters did to the young partisans - both the SS men and their local henchmen - is even scary to read. But we have to. Because without this it is impossible to fully understand either the horrors of fascism or the heroism of the one who dared to oppose himself to it.

Almost immediately after the massacre of teenagers, Krasnodon was liberated from the Nazi invaders - in February 1943. Two days later, NKVD investigators began arresting people involved in the death of the underground organization. As a result, lists of people directly involved in the crimes were compiled - both Germans and local Nazi minions. Hence the special scrupulousness of the investigation and the search for criminals.

Lidia Androsova was arrested on January 12. According to Pocheptsov's denunciation. It was the policemen who took it - and according to the testimony of the girls' parents, during the search, they mercilessly robbed the house, not disdaining even women's underwear. The girl spent five days in the police ... When Lida's body was removed from the pit of the mine, where she was executed, her relatives identified her daughter only by the remnants of her clothes. The girl's face was mutilated, one eye was cut out, her ears were cut off, her hand was chopped off with an ax, her back was slashed with whips so that ribs were visible through the cut skin. A piece of a rope loop, with which Lida was dragged to execution, remained around her neck.

Lida Androsova

Kolya Sumsky, whom friends considered Lida's first friend and even boyfriend, was taken on January 4 at the mine, where he selected coal crumbs from the waste heap. Ten days later they were sent to Krasnodon, and four days later they were executed. The teenager's body was also mutilated: traces of beatings, broken arms and legs, cut off ears...

Alexandra Bondaryova and her brother Vasily were arrested by the same police officers on January 11. The torture began on the very first day. Brother and sister were kept in different cells. On January 15, Vasya Bondarev was taken to be executed. He was not allowed to say goodbye to his sister. The young man was thrown alive into the same pit of mine No. 5, where Lida Androsova was killed. On the evening of January 16, Shura was also taken to the execution. Before pushing the girl into the mine, the police beat her again with rifle butts until she fell to the snow. Vasya and Shura's mother Praskovya Titovna, when she saw the bodies of her children raised from the mine, almost died of a heart attack.

Shura Bondareva

Seventeen-year-old Nina Gerasimova was executed on January 11. From the protocol of identification of the body by relatives: “A girl of 16-17 years old, thin build, was thrown into a pit almost naked - in her underwear. Broken left arm the whole body, and especially the chest, are black from beatings, the right side of the face is completely mutilated ”(RGASPI Fund M-1, inventory 53, item 329.)

Close friends Borya Glavan and Zhenya Shepelev were executed together - they were tied face to face with barbed wire. Under torture, Boris's face was smashed with a rifle butt, the hands of both hands were cut off, and they were stabbed in the stomach with a bayonet. Yevgeny's head was pierced, his hands were also cut with an ax.

Borya Glavan

Mikhail Grigoriev tried to escape on January 31 on the way to the place of execution. Pushing the guard away, he rushed across the virgin snow into the darkness ... The policemen quickly overtook the teenager, exhausted by the beatings, nevertheless they dragged him to the mine and threw him alive into the pit. The women who went to the waste heap for coal chips later heard for several days that Misha remained alive for a long time, groaning in the trunk, but they could not help in any way - the pit was guarded by a police patrol.

Vasily Gukov, who was executed on January 15, was identified by his mother by a scar on his chest. The young man's face was trampled by police boots, his teeth were knocked out, his eyes were cut out.

Seventeen-year-old Leonid Dadyshev was tortured for ten days. He was mercilessly flogged with whips, and the hand on his right hand was cut off. Lenya was shot with a pistol and thrown into a pit on January 15th.

Zhenya Shepelev

Maya Peglivanova experienced such tortures before her death that no inquisitor would have imagined. The girl's nipples were cut off with a knife, both legs were broken.

Maya's friend Shura Dubrovina probably could even escape - the Germans failed to prove her connection with the underground. In prison, the girl took care of the wounded Maya to the last and was literally forced to carry her friend to execution in her arms. Policemen also cut Alexandra Dubrovina's chest with knives, and then, right next to the mine shaft, they killed the girl with a rifle butt.

Zhenya Kiykova, who was arrested on January 13, gave her family a note from prison. “Dear mommy, don’t worry about me - I’m fine. Kiss grandfather for me, have pity on yourself. Your daughter is Zhenya. This was the last letter - at the next interrogation, the girl broke all her fingers. For five days in the police, Zhenya turned gray like an old woman. She was executed together with her friend Tosya Dyachenko, who had been arrested the day before - bound. The friends were later buried in the same coffin.

Maya Peglivanova

Antonina Eliseenko was arrested on January 13 at two in the morning. The police broke into the room where Antonina was sleeping and ordered her to get dressed. The girl refused to dress in front of men. The police were forced to leave. The girl was executed on January 18. Antonina's body was disfigured, with excised genitals, eyes, ears...

"Tosya Eliseenko, 22 years old, was executed in a pit. During torture, she was forced to sit on a red-hot potbelly stove, the body was removed from the pit with 3rd and 4th degree burns on her thighs and buttocks."

Tosya Eliseenko

Vladimir Zhdanov was taken home on January 3rd. He also handed over a note to his family, hiding it in the bloody linen being taken out for washing: “Hello, dear ones ... I am still alive. My fate is unknown. For the rest, I don't know anything. I sit separately from everyone in solitary confinement. Farewell, they will probably kill me soon ... I kiss you tightly. On January 16, Vladimir, along with other Young Guardsmen, was taken to the pit. The area was cordoned off by the police. 2-3 people were brought to the place of execution, they shot the prisoners in the head and threw them into the mine. Bound and severely beaten with a rubber whip and a Cossack whip, Vovka Zhdanov at the last moment tried to shove his head into the pit of the chief of police, Solikovsky, who was watching the execution. Fortunately for the executioner, he stood on his feet, and the executioners immediately began to torture Vovka himself, then they shot him. When the body of the young man was lifted from the mine, the parents fainted: “Volodya Zhdanov, 17 years old, was taken out with a lacerated wound in the left temporal region from point-blank shooting, the fingers of both hands were broken and twisted, there were bruises under the nails, two strips three centimeter, twenty-five centimeters long, eyes gouged out and ears cut off ”(Museum“ Young Guard ”, f. 1, d. 36).

In early January, Kolya Zhukov was also arrested. After being tortured, on January 16, 1943, the guy was shot and thrown into the pit of mine No. 5: “Nikolai Zhukov, 20 years old, was removed without ears, tongue, teeth, an arm was cut off at the elbow and a foot” (Museum “Young Guard”, f. 1, d. 73).

Vladimir Zagoruiko was arrested on January 28. The chief of police Solikovsky personally participated in the arrest. On the way to the prison, the chief policeman was sitting in a cart, Vladimir was walking through the snowdrifts, bound, barefoot, in his underwear, in minus 15 degrees Celsius. worked in a dance ensemble! During the torture, Volodya's arms were twisted on the rack at the shoulders and hung up by his hair. They threw him into the hole alive.

Vova Zhdanov

Antonina Ivanikhina was arrested on 11 January. Until the last hour, the girl looked after her comrades who had weakened after torture. Execution - 16 January. “Tonya Ivanikhina, 19 years old, was taken out of the mine without eyes, her head was tied with a scarf, under which a wreath of barbed wire was tightly put on her head, her breasts were cut out” (The Young Guard Museum, f. 1, d. 75).

Antonina's sister Lilia was arrested on January 10, and was also executed on the 16th. The surviving third sister, Lyubasha, who was very small during the war, recalled: “Once our distant relative, the wife of a policeman, came to us and said:“ My husband was appointed as a watchman near mine number 5. I don’t know if yours are there or not there, but my husband found combs, combs ... Look at the things, maybe you will find your own. Most likely, do not look for daughters, probably yours are there, in the pit. When they were shooting, the grandfather, who was collecting coal, was forced to leave. But he climbed onto the waste heap and saw from above: some girls jumped themselves, not wanting to be touched by the hands of the executioners, some friends or lovers jumped embracing, the guys sometimes resisted - they spat at the police, scolded them with their last words, shoved, tried to drag them into the trunk mines behind them ... When the Red Army men later dismantled the mine, they brought the dead sisters. Lily's hand was cut off, her eyes were tied with wire. Tonya is also mutilated. Then they brought coffins, and our Ivanikhins were put in one coffin.

Tonya Ivanikhina

Klavdia Kovaleva was arrested in early January and executed on the 16th: “Klavdia Kovaleva, 17 years old, was taken out swollen from beatings. The right breast was cut off, the feet were burnt, the left hand was cut off, the head was tied with a scarf, black marks of beatings were visible on the body. The girl’s body was found ten meters from the trunk, between the trolleys, she was probably thrown alive and was able to crawl away from the pit” (Museum “Young Guard”, f. 1, d. 10.)

Antonina Mashchenko was executed on 16 January. Antonina's mother, Maria Alexandrovna, recalled: “As I later found out, my beloved child was also executed by terrible torture. When the corpse of Antonina was removed from the pit along with other young guards, it was difficult to identify my girl in it. There was barbed wire in her braids, and half of her luxuriant hair was missing. My daughter was hung up and tortured by animals.”

Klava Kovaleva. Fragment of a family portrait with mother and uncle

Nina Minaeva was executed on 16 January. The brother of the underground worker Vladimir recalled: “... My sister was recognized by woolen leggings - the only clothes that remained on her. Nina's arms were broken, one eye was knocked out, there were shapeless wounds on her chest, her whole body was in black stripes ... "

Nina Minaeva

Policemen Krasnov and Kalitventsev led Yevgeny Moshkov bound around the city all night. There were severe frosts. The policemen brought Zhenya to the water intake well and began to dip it on a rope. Into ice water. Dropped several times. Then Kalitventsev froze and brought everyone to his home. Moshkov was put in front of the stove. They even let me smoke. They drank the moonshine themselves, warmed themselves and took them out again... Zhenya was tortured all night, by dawn he could no longer move independently. The twenty-two-year-old "Young Guard", a communist, nevertheless, having chosen a good moment during the interrogation, hit the policeman. Then the fascist beasts hung Moshkov by his legs and kept him in that position until blood gushed from his nose and throat. He was taken down and interrogated again. But Moshkov only spat in the face of the executioner. The enraged investigator who tortured Moshkov hit him with a backhand. Exhausted by torture, the communist hero fell, hitting the back of his head on the door frame, and lost consciousness. They threw him into the pit unconscious, perhaps - he had already died.

Zhenya Moshkov with friends (left)

Sister Lyudmila identified Vladimir Osmukhin, who spent ten days in the hands of the policemen, by the remnants of his clothes: “When I saw Vovochka, disfigured, almost without a head, without his left arm to the elbow, I thought I would go crazy. I didn't believe it was him. He was in one sock, and the other leg was completely bare. Instead of a belt, a warm scarf is worn. No outerwear. Head is broken. The back of the head fell out completely, only the face remained, on which only the teeth remained. Everything else is ruined. The lips are twisted, the mouth is torn, the nose is almost completely absent ... "

Viktor Petrov was arrested on 6 January. On the night of January 15-16, he was thrown alive into a pit. Victor's sister Natasha recalls: “When Vitya was taken out of the pit, he could have been given about 80 years old. A gray-haired, emaciated old man ... There was no left ear, nose, both eyes, teeth were knocked out, hair remained only on the back of the head. There were black stripes around the neck, apparently, traces of strangulation in the noose, all the fingers on the hands were finely broken, the skin on the soles of the feet rose up in a bubble from the burn, on the chest there was a large deep wound inflicted by a cold weapon. Obviously, it was inflicted while still in prison, because the tunic and shirt were not torn.

Shura Dubrovina

Anatoly Popov was born on January 16th. On his birthday, January 16, he was thrown alive into a pit. The last meeting of the headquarters of the "Young Guard" was held at the apartment of Anatoly Popov. From the report of the examination of the body of a young man: “He was beaten, fingers and a foot on the right leg were cut off on the left hand” (RGASPI F-1 Op.53 D.332.)

Angelina Samoshina was executed on 16 January. From the protocol of examination of the body: “Traces of torture were found on Angelina’s body: arms were twisted, ears were cut off, a star was carved on her cheek” (RGASPI. F. M-1. Op. 53. D. 331.). Geli's mother Anastasia Emelyanovna wrote: “She sent a note from prison, where she wrote that many products should not be passed on, that she was fine here, “like in a resort.” On January 18, they did not accept the parcel from us, they said that they were sent to a concentration camp. My mother, Nina Minaeva, and I went to the camp in Dolzhanka, where they were not there. Then the policeman warned us not to go and look. But rumors spread that they were thrown into the pit of mine No. 5, where they were found. That's how my daughter died...

Gel Samoshin

Anna Sopova's parents - Dmitry Petrovich and Praskovya Ionovna - witnessed the torture of their daughter. Parents were specifically forced to look at this, in the expectation that the older generation would persuade the young partisans to confess and betray their comrades. The old miner recalled: “They began to ask my daughter who she knew, with whom she had a connection, what did she do? Silent. They ordered her to undress - naked, in front of the policemen and her father ... She turned pale - and did not move. And she was beautiful, her braids were huge, lush, to the waist. They tore off her clothes, wrapped her dress over her head, laid her on the floor and began to whip her with a wire whip. She screamed terribly. And then, as they began to beat on the hands, head, could not stand it, poor thing, asked for mercy. Then she fell silent again. Then Plokhikh, one of the main executioners of the police, hit her in the head with something ... ”Anya was lifted from the pit, half bald - a girl, in order to torment her more, hung on her own braid and pulled out half of her hair.

Anya Sopova with her friends by the sea (second from left)

Viktor Tretyakevich was among the last to be raised from the mine. His father, Iosif Kuzmich, in a thin patched coat stood day after day, grabbing a post, not taking his eyes off the pit. And when they recognized his son - without a face, with a black-and-blue back, with shattered hands - he, as if knocked down, fell to the ground. No traces of bullets were found on Victor's body, which means they threw him alive ...

Nina Startseva was removed from the pit on the third day after the execution - the girl almost did not live to see the liberation of the city. Mom recognized her by her hair and the embroidery on her shirt sleeve. They drove needles under Nina's fingers, cut strips of skin on her chest, her left side was burned with a red-hot iron. Before being thrown into the pit, the girl was shot in the back of the head.

Demyan Fomin, who had a sketch of a leaflet during the search, was subjected to especially cruel torture and was executed by decapitation. Before his death, the guy was cut off all the skin from his back in narrow strips. When asked what he was, Dyoma's mother Maria Frantsevna answered: “A kind, gentle, sympathetic son. He was fond of technology, he dreamed of driving trains.

Alexander Shishchenko was arrested on January 8, executed on the 16th: “The nose, ears, lips were cut off, the arms were twisted, the whole body was cut, shot in the head ...”

Ulyana Gromova kept a diary until her execution, managing to carry the notebook even into the dungeons. An entry in it dated November 9, 1942: “It is much easier to see how heroes die than to listen to the cries of some coward for mercy. Jack London". Executed on 16 January. “Ulyana Gromova, 19 years old, a five-pointed star was carved on her back, her right arm was broken, her ribs were broken”

Ulya Gromova

In total, at the end of January, the occupiers and policemen, alive or shot, threw 71 people into the pit of mine No. 5, among whom were both “Young Guards” and members of the underground party organization. Other members of the "Young Guard", including Oleg Koshevoy, were shot on February 9 in the city of Rovenki in the Rattlesnake Forest.
In the liberated city of Krasnodon, there are many living witnesses of both the struggle of the “Young Guards” and their death.

Uli's letter from prison

The first document of the declassified archival criminal case is a statement by Mikhail Kuleshov addressed to the leadership of the regional department of the NKVD dated February 20, 1943, says Vasily Shkola. - Then the first investigative actions were carried out. The facts of brutal torture of young people, whose bodies were removed from the pit of mine No. 5, have been established. In the materials of interrogations of members of the organization who were still alive at that time and who were tortured, there is a description of the office of the policeman of the city of Krasnodon Solikovsky. - We are talking about the presence of whips, heavy objects, including wooden ones.

From the testimony of Captain Emil Renatus, who commanded the district Krasnodon gendarmerie during the occupation: “The arrested, suspected of criminal activity and refusing to testify, were laid on a bench and beaten with rubber lashes until they confessed. If previous measures failed, they were transferred to a cold room, where they were supposed to lie on an ice floor. The same arrested persons were tied behind their backs with their hands and feet, in this position they were hung face to the ground and held until the arrested person confessed. Moreover, all these executions were accompanied by regular beatings.

Nina Ganochkina, a resident of Krasnodon, said: “Two other women and I, on the orders of the police, cleaned the girls’ cell. They themselves could not do the cleaning, as they were constantly taken for interrogation, and after being tortured they could not even get up. I once saw Ulya Gromova being interrogated. Ulya did not answer questions accompanied by abuse. Policeman Popov hit her on the head so that the comb holding the scythe broke. He shouts: “Pick it up!” She bent down, and the policeman began to beat her in the face and anywhere. I was already cleaning the floor in the corridor, and Ulya had just finished torturing her. She, who had lost consciousness, was dragged along the corridor and thrown into a cell.”

Oleg Koshevoy

As shown during interrogation after the war, in 1949, the burgomaster of Krasnodon Vasily Statsenkov, within a few days, over 70 people were arrested for involvement in the Young Guard in Krasnodon and adjacent areas alone.

Walter Eichhorn, who, as part of a gendarmerie group, was directly involved in the beatings and executions of members of the Young Guard, was found in Thuringia, where he worked ... at a doll factory. They also found and arrested in Germany Ernst-Emil Renatus, the former head of the German district gendarmerie in Krasnodon, who also tortured the "Young Guards" and ordered the police to gouge out the eyes of the guys.

From the testimony of Eichhorn (9.3.1949):
“While still in Magdeburg, before being sent to the occupied Soviet territory, we received a number of instructions regarding the establishment of a“ new order ”in the East, which said that the gendarmes should see a communist partisan in every Soviet citizen, and therefore, with all composure, each of we are obliged to exterminate peaceful Soviet citizens as their opponents.

From the testimony of Renatus (VII.1949):
Arriving in July 1942 as part of a gendarmerie team in the city of Stalino, I participated in a meeting of officers of the "Einsatzkommando gendarmerie" ... At this meeting, the head of the team, Lieutenant Colonel Gantsog, instructed us to first of all deal with the arrests of communists, Jews and Soviet activists. At the same time, Gantsog emphasized that the arrest of these persons does not require any action against the Germans at all. At the same time, Gantsog explained that all communists and Soviet activists should be destroyed and only as an exception imprisoned in concentration camps. As the appointed head of the German gendarmerie in the mountains. Krasnodon, I followed these directives…”

“Artes Lina, a translator, told me that Zons and Solikovsky are torturing the arrested. He especially liked to torture the arrested Zons. It was a great pleasure for him after dinner to call the arrested and subject them to torture. Zons told me that it is only through torture that he brings those arrested to confession. Artes Lina asked me to release her from work in the gendarmerie due to the fact that she could not be present at the beatings of those arrested.

From the testimony of the district police investigator Cherenkov:

“I interrogated members of the Young Guard organization, Komsomol members Ulyana Gromova, two Ivanikhin sisters, Bondarev brother and sister, Maya Peglivanova, Antonina Eliseenko, Nina Minaeva, Viktor Petrov, Claudia Kovalev, Vasily Pirozhok, Anatoly Popov, about 15 people in total ... Using special measures of influence (torture and bullying), we found that soon after the arrival of the Germans in the Donbass, the youth of Krasnodon, mostly Komsomol members, organized and led an underground struggle against the Germans ... I admit that during interrogations I beat the arrested members of the underground Komsomol organization Gromova and the Ivanikhin sisters ".

Volodya Osmukhin

From the testimony of policeman Lukyanov (11.XI.1947):
“The first time I participated in the mass execution of Soviet patriots at the end of September 1942 in the Krasnodon city park ... At night, a group of German gendarmes led by officer Kozak arrived in the Krasnodon police in cars. After a short conversation between Kozak and Solikovsky and Orlov, according to a list drawn up in advance, the police began to take the arrested people out of their cells. In total, more than 30 people were selected, mainly communists ... Having announced to the arrested that they were being transported to Voroshilovgrad, they took them out of the police building and drove them to the Krasnodon city park. Upon arrival at the park, the arrested were tied by the hands of five people and led into a pit that had previously served as a refuge from German air raids and shot there. ... Some of the shot were still alive, in connection with which the gendarmes who remained with us began to shoot those who still showed signs of life. However, the gendarmes soon got tired of this occupation, and they ordered to bury the victims, among whom were still alive ... ".

Among the recently declassified documents of the investigation is a statement written by Gennady Pocheptsov. According to Levashov - under torture, according to the parents of the executed - voluntarily. ..

"To the head of mine No. 1 bis, Mr. Zhukov
from Mr. Pocheptsov Gennady Prokofievich
Statement
Mr. Zhukov, an underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard" was organized in the city of Krasnodon, in which I became an active member. I ask you to come to my apartment in your free time and I will tell you in detail about this organization and its members. My address: st. Chkalova, house 12 entrance number 1, Gromov D.G.
20.XII.1942 Pocheptsov.

From the testimony of Gury Fadeev, an agent of the German special forces:
“There was such an order in the police that the first person arrested was brought to Solikovsky, he brought him back to consciousness, and ordered the investigator to interrogate him. Pocheptsov was called to the police. He said that he really is a member of an underground youth organization that exists in Krasnodon and its environs. He named the leaders of this organization, or rather, the city headquarters, namely: Tretyakevich, Zemnukhov, Lukashov, Safonov and Koshevoy. Pocheptsov called Tretyakevich the head of the citywide organization. He himself is a member of the May Day organization, headed by Anatoly Popov. The May Day organization consisted of 11 people, including Popov, Glavan, Zhukov, Bondarevs (two), Chernyshov and a number of others. He said that the headquarters had weapons, Popov had a rifle, Nikolaev and Zhukov had submachine guns, and Chernyshov had a pistol. He also said that in one of the quarries in the pit there is a storehouse of weapons. There used to be a warehouse of the Red Army, which was blown up during the retreat, but the youth found a lot of cartridges there. The organizational structure was as follows: headquarters, May Day organization, an organization in the village of Krasnodon and a city organization. He did not name the total number of participants. Up to 30 people were arrested before I was fired. Personally, I interrogated 12 people, incl. Pocheptsov, Tretyakevich, Lukashov, Petrov, Vasily Pirozhok, and others. Of the members of the headquarters of this organization, Koshevoy and Safonov were not arrested, because. they fled.

As a rule, preliminary interrogations were carried out personally by Solikovsky, Zakharov and the gendarmerie with the use of whips, fists, etc. Even investigators were not allowed to be present during such “interrogations”. Such methods have no precedent in the history of criminal law.

After I was recruited by the police to identify those who were distributing Young Guard leaflets, I met Zakharov, deputy chief of the Krasnodon police, several times. At one of the interrogations, Zakharov asked me the question: “Which of the partisans recruited your sister Alla?” I, knowing about this from the words of my mother Fadeeva M.V., gave Zakharov Vanya Zemnukhov, who really made my sister an offer to join an underground anti-fascist organization. I told him that Korostyleva's sister Elena Nikolaevna Koshevoy and her son Oleg Koshevoy were listening to radio broadcasts from Moscow in Korostylev's apartment, who was recording the messages of the Sovinformburo "...

From the testimony of the head of the Rovenkovsky district police, Orlov (14.XI.1943)
“Oleg Koshevoi was arrested at the end of January 1943 by a German gendarme and a railway policeman at a junction 7 km from the city of Rovenka and brought to my police station. During the arrest, a revolver was confiscated from Koshevoy, and during a second search in the Rovenkovskaya police, a seal of the Komsomol organization and some two blank forms were found on him. I interrogated Koshevoy and received evidence from him that he was the head of the Krasnodon underground organization.”

From the testimony of police officer Bautkin:
“In early January 1943, I arrested and brought to the police a member of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” discovered by the police in Krasnodon ... Dymchenko, who lived at mine No. 5. She was tortured by the police and, among her other friends in the underground, was shot by the Germans ... I arrested the "Young Guard" who lived in mine No. anti-fascist leaflets.

From the testimony of Renatus:
“... In February, Venner and Sons reported to me that my order to execute the Krasnodon Komsomol members had been fulfilled. Part of those arrested ... were shot in Krasnodon in mid-January, and the other part, in connection with the approach of the front line to Krasnodon, was taken out of there and shot in the mountains. Rovenki.

From the testimony of policeman Davidenko:
“I admit that I participated in the executions of the “Young Guards” three times and about 35 Komsomol members were shot with my participation ... In front of the “Young Guards”, 6 Jews were first shot, and then in turn all 13 “Young Guards”, whose corpses were thrown into the pit mine No. 5 with a depth of about 80 meters. Some were thrown into the mine shaft alive. To prevent the shouting and proclamation of Soviet patriotic slogans, the girls' dresses were raised and twisted over their heads; in this state, the doomed were dragged to the shaft of the mine, after which they were shot at and then pushed into the shaft of the mine.

From the testimony of Schultz, a gendarme of the German district gendarmerie in Rovenki:
“At the end of January, I participated in the execution of a group of members of the underground Komsomol organization Young Guard, including 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 greatly annoyed Fromme and he ordered the gendarme Drevitz to finish him off. Drevitz went up to the lying Koshevoy and shot him in the back of the head.

... Before fleeing from Rovenki on February 8 or 9, 1943, Fromme ordered me, Drevitz and other gendarmes to shoot a group of Soviet citizens held in Rovenkov prison. Among these victims were five men, a woman with a three-year-old child, and an active young guard Shevtsova. Having delivered the arrested people to the Rovenkovsky city park, Fromme ordered me to shoot Shevtsova. I led Shevtsova to the edge of the pit, stepped back a few steps and shot her in the back of the head, but the trigger mechanism of my carbine turned out to be faulty and a misfire occurred. Then Hollender, who was standing next to me, shot at Shevtsova. During the execution, Shevtsova behaved courageously, stood on the edge of the grave with her head held high, a dark shawl slipped over her shoulders and the wind ruffled her hair. Before the execution, she did not utter a word about mercy ... ".

From the testimony of Geist, a gendarme of the German district gendarmerie in Rovenki:
“... I took part, along with ... other gendarmes, in the execution in Rovenkovsky Park of Komsomol members arrested in Krasnodon for underground work against the Germans. Of the executed members of the Young Guard organization, I remember only Shevtsova. I remember her because I interrogated her. In addition, she drew attention to herself by her courageous behavior during the execution ... ".

From the testimony of policeman Kolotovich:
“Having arrived at the mother of the young guard Vasily Bondarev, Davidenko and Sevastyanov told her that the police were sending her son to work in Germany, and he asked to give him things. Bondarev's mother gave Davidenko gloves and socks. The latter, when leaving, took gloves for himself, and gave Sevastyanov socks and said: “There is an initiative!”

Then we went to the house of the young guard Nikolaev. Entering Nikolaev's house, Davidenko, turning to Nikolaev's sister, said that the police were sending her brother to work in Germany, asking for food and things on the way. Nikolaev's sister apparently knew that he had been shot, so she refused to give any things or food. After that, Davidenko and Sevastyanov, a policeman (I don’t know my last name) and I forcibly took away a man’s coat and a sheep from her. Then we went to another Young Guard (I don’t know the last name) and they also forcibly took four pieces of lard and a man’s shirt from the mother of the latter. Having put the fat in the sleigh, we went to the family of the young guard Zhukov. In this way, Davidenko, Sevastyanov and others robbed the families of the Young Guards.

Vanya Turkenich

From the testimony of Orlov, the head of the Rovenkovsky district police:
“Shevtsova was required to indicate the location of the radio transmitter, which she used to communicate with the Red Army. Shevtsova categorically refused, saying that she was not Lyadskaya, and called us monsters. The next day, Shevtsova was handed over to the gendarmerie and shot "...

It's time to talk about another myth related to the history of the "Young Guard". In Fadeev's novel, written in hot pursuit after the liberation of the city, the collapse of the underground is explained by betrayal. The names of informers are called - a certain Stakhovich, Vyrikova, Lyadskaya and Polyanskaya.

Where did the writer get these "traitors" from? The fact is that literally immediately after the arrest of three representatives of the headquarters, the Germans started a rumor that Viktor Tretyakevich “split during interrogation. The writer, who was lodging while working on the book with the mother of Oleg Koshevoy, allegedly received a note in which an unknown local resident named the names of the scammers ...

The version does not stand up to scrutiny. Fadeev wrote the book hastily, he did not even have time to meet with the relatives of many of the Young Guards, for which many Krasnodon residents later reproached him. Meanwhile, the parents of many young guards - L. Androsova, G. Harutyunyanyants, V. Zhdanova. O. Koshevoy, A. Nikolaev, V. Osmukhin, V. Petrov, V. Tretyakevich - not only knew about the underground activities of their sons and daughters, but also helped them in every possible way in equipping a printing house, storing weapons, radios, collecting medicines, making leaflets , red flags...

The note itself has not been preserved, perhaps that is why researchers have not yet been able to establish the authorship of the forged document. But for a long time there was a rumor in Krasnodon that Viktor Tretyakevich was bred under the name of Stakhovich in Fadeev's novel. Until 1990, the Tretyakevich family was stigmatized as "relatives of a traitor." For many years they collected eyewitness accounts and documents about Victor's innocence ...

Olga Lyadskaya is a real person. The girl was only 17 years old when the Germans captured her for the first time. The young beauty liked the deputy chief of police Zakharov, who had a separate office for intimate meetings. A few days later, her mother managed to ransom her daughter from the concubines for moonshine and warm clothes. But the stigma of "police litter" for Olya remained. The frightened girl, whom the policeman promised to hang if she did not return to him, and whom all the neighbors blamed for her connection with the punisher, was even afraid to leave the house. Isn't that why Lyuba Shevtsova said at one of the interrogations the words "I'm not Lyadskaya to you!"?

After the release of Krasnodon, Olga first appeared as a witness in the case of the atrocities of the policemen, but later told the SMERSH investigator that she was taken to face-to-face confrontations with the arrested “Young Guards”. They asked: “Do you know someone like that?”. And she, seeing that her peers were being cruelly tortured, said that she studied at school with some of the guys, danced in an ensemble with someone, made gliders with someone in the House of Pioneers ... Lyadskaya allegedly did not say anything about the underground because I just didn't know about it. But nevertheless, in the materials of the investigation there is a confession personally signed by Olya in cooperation with the occupiers and the police. Most likely, a girl with a broken will by Zakharov, considered that for cohabitation with a policeman, all the more - forced, in the worst case, she would simply be exiled. And to live a few years away from shame, even in Siberia, she saw as not the worst outcome of the case ... But as a result, Olga received ten years in Stalin's camps ...

And after the publication of the novel "The Young Guard", the investigation into the case of "the betrayal of Lyadskaya" was resumed, a show trial was being prepared. True, it did not take place: Olga fell ill with tuberculosis and was released, and there was clearly little evidence “from the book” for Soviet justice. She managed to recover, even unlearn at the institute, get married, give birth to a son ... Later, Olga Lyadskaya, through the prosecutor's office, applied for additional investigation - herself. And all accusations of betrayal of the "Young Guard" were dropped after a thorough study of the materials of her case.

Zina Vyrikova and Serafima Polyanskaya, released from the police as "not involved in a partisan gang", also went into exile in Bugulma after the city was liberated. SMERSH arrested them even before the publication of Fadeev's book. Subsequently, Zinaida Vyrikova also got married, changed her surname and left for another city, but until her death she was afraid that she would be recognized as a “traitor” and arrested ... By the way, neither Zina nor Sim could extradite any of the “Moldoguards” - their own knowledge of the composition and activities of the underground was limited to rumors that "boys from our school are planting leaflets."

For Vitya Treryakevich, who died in the fascist dungeons, slandered by German henchmen, his parents stood up. They wrote right up to the Central Committee of the Komsomol, they sought the truth. Only 16 years after the war, it was possible to arrest one of the most ferocious executioners who tortured the Young Guards - policeman Vasily Podtynny. During the investigation, he stated: Tretyakevich was slandered. They wanted to “set an example for other partisans” in this way - they say, your leader has already spoken, it's time for you to untie your tongue! A special state commission created after the trial of the policeman established that Viktor Tretyakevich was the victim of a deliberate slander, and “one of the members of the organization, Gennady Pocheptsov, was identified as a real traitor.”

Levashov, a survivor of the underground, confirmed that his father was arrested three times in order to find out where his son was hiding. Levashov Sr. sat with Tretyakevich in the same cell, where he saw how the latter was brought from interrogations completely crippled, which, according to Levashov's father himself, was clear evidence that "... Victor still did not split."

By the way, the fate of Gennady Pocheptsov himself, who was released from the police three days after the denunciation, was cruel but fair: after the Red Army liberated the city of Krasnodon, Gena Pocheptsov, as well as police agents Gromov and Kuleshov, were put on trial.

The investigation into the case of traitors of the Young Guard lasted for 5 months. On August 1, 1943, Pocheptsov and Gromov were indicted. After reviewing him, Pocheptsov said: “I fully admit my guilt in the charge against me, namely, that, being a member of the underground youth organization Young Guard, I betrayed its members to the police, named the leaders of this organization and told the policeman about the presence of weapons " .

After the approval of the indictment by the head of the operational group of the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR, Lieutenant Colonel of State Security Bondarenko, the case on charges of Pocheptsov and his stepfather was considered by the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovgrad (now Luhansk) region, whose offsite meetings were held in Krasnodon from August 15 to August 18, 1943. When Gromov, contrary to previous his testimony, began to assert that he did not advise his stepson to betray the underground, the latter asked for the floor and said "Gromov is not telling the truth, he advised me to file a complaint with the police against members of the youth organization, telling me that by doing this I would save my life and the life of my family, We have never quarreled with him on this matter." In his last speech, Pocheptsov, addressing the court, stated: "I am guilty, I have committed a crime against the Motherland, I have betrayed my comrades, judge me as the law requires."

Funeral of the "Young Guards"

Having found Gromov and Pocheptsov guilty of treason, the Military Tribunal sentenced them to capital punishment - execution by firing squad with confiscation of personal property.

On September 9, 1943, the question of the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops was discussed at the Military Council of the Southwestern Front. Its resolution, signed by the Front Commander General of the Army R.Ya. crime scene in public.

Having familiarized themselves with the verdict of the Military Tribunal, Gromov and Pocheptsov appealed to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a petition for pardon. Pocheptsov wrote, “I consider the verdict of the tribunal to be correct: I filed a complaint with the police as a member of an underground youth organization, saving my life and the life of my family. But the organization was disclosed for other reasons. My statement did not play an appropriate role, because it was written later than the organization was revealed. And therefore I ask the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union to save my life, since I am still young. I ask you to give me the opportunity to wash away the black spot that has fallen on me. I ask you to send me to the front line."
However, the petitions of the convicts were rejected, the sentence of the Military Tribunal was carried out on September 19, 1943. A native of Krasnodon, Igor Cherednichenko, who studied the history of the organization, cited in one of his articles the words of his godfather, who witnessed the execution:

“Gromov stood terrified as chalk, white. His eyes ran around, hunched over, he was trembling like a hunted animal. Pocheptsov first fell, a crowd of residents leaned on him, they wanted to tear him to pieces, but the soldiers at the last moment managed to pull him out of the crowd. And Kuleshov stood near the side of the car with his head up and it seemed that this did not concern him.He died with indifference on his face ... Pocheptsova was even going to shoot her own mother, but someone held her, although she roared and demanded to give her rifle. By the way, his mother was a very respected person in the city. She sheathed everyone at the lowest prices, she did not refuse anyone. "

So almost 17 years later, the truth triumphed. By decree of December 13, 1960, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR rehabilitated Viktor Tretyakevich and awarded him the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree (posthumously). His name began to be included in all official documents, along with the names of other heroes of the Young Guard.

Anna Iosifovna, Victor's mother, who never took off her mourning black clothes until the end of her life, stood in front of the presidium of the solemn meeting in Voroshilovgrad when she was presented with her son's posthumous award. The crowded hall, standing up, applauded her. Anna Iosifovna turned to the friend who rewarded her with only one request: not to show the film “The Young Guard”, filmed by the brilliant director Gerasimov based on the novel by Fadeev, these days in the city ...

By the decision of the Presidium of the Lugansk Regional Court, which, in fulfilling the Law of Ukraine of April 17, 1991 "On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions in Ukraine", on December 9, 1992, considered the conclusion of the Luhansk Regional Prosecutor's Office on criminal cases on charges of Gromov and Pocheptsov, it was recognized that these citizens were convicted justified and not subject to rehabilitation.

So another myth collapsed. And the feat will remain for centuries ...

The pit of mine No. 5, where the heroes were executed, became part of the memorial park

One of the mythologized pages of the history of the USSR, which, unfortunately, is perceived by many now, but which has always been true. In mid-February 1943, after the liberation of Donetsk Krasnodon by Soviet troops, several dozen corpses of teenagers tortured by the Nazis, who during the occupation period were in the underground organization "Young Guard" were removed from the pit of mine N5 located near the city ...
At an abandoned mine, most members of the underground Komsomol organization Young Guard, which fought against the Nazis in the small Ukrainian town of Krasnodon, died in 1942. It turned out to be the first underground youth organization about which it was possible to collect quite detailed information. The Young Guards were then called heroes (they were heroes), who gave their lives for their homeland. Just over twenty years ago, everyone knew about the Young Guard.
The novel of the same name by Alexander Fadeev was studied in schools; at the screening of Sergei Gerasimov's film, people could not hold back their tears; motor ships, streets, hundreds of educational institutions and pioneer detachments were named after the Young Guards. What were they like, these young men and women who called themselves Young Guardsmen?
The Krasnodon Komsomol youth underground included seventy-one people: forty-seven boys and twenty-four girls. The youngest was fourteen, and fifty-five of them never turned nineteen. The most ordinary, no different from the same boys and girls of our country, the guys were friends and quarreled, studied and fell in love, ran to dances and chased pigeons. They were engaged in school circles, sports clubs, played stringed musical instruments, wrote poetry, many of them were good at drawing.
They studied in different ways - someone was an excellent student, and someone with difficulty overcame the granite of science. There were also a lot of tomboys. Dreamed of a future adult life. They wanted to become pilots, engineers, lawyers, someone was going to enter the theater school, and someone - to the pedagogical institute.

The “Young Guard” was as multinational as the population of these southern regions of the USSR. Russians, Ukrainians (there were Cossacks among them), Armenians, Belarusians, Jews, Azerbaijanis and Moldavians, ready to help each other at any moment, fought against the Nazis.
The Germans occupied Krasnodon on July 20, 1942. And almost immediately the first leaflets appeared in the city, a new bathhouse, already ready for the German barracks, was on fire. It was Seryozhka Tyulenin who began to act. One.
On August 12, 1942, he turned seventeen. Sergey wrote leaflets on pieces of old newspapers, and the policemen often found them in their pockets. He began to collect weapons, not even doubting that they would definitely come in handy. And he was the first to attract a group of guys ready to fight. It initially consisted of eight people. However, by the first days of September, several groups were already operating in Krasnodon, not connected with one another - in total there were 25 people in them.
The birthday of the underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard" was September 30: then the plan for creating a detachment was adopted, specific actions for underground work were outlined, and a headquarters was created. It included Ivan Zemnukhov - chief of staff, Vasily Levashov - commander of the central group, Georgy Arutyunyants and Sergey Tyulenin - members of the headquarters.
Viktor Tretyakevich was elected commissar. The guys unanimously supported Tyulenin's proposal to name the detachment "Young Guard". And in early October, all the scattered underground groups were united into one organization. Later, Uliana Gromova, Lyubov Shevtsova, Oleg Koshevoy and Ivan Turkenich joined the headquarters.
Now you can often hear that the Young Guards did nothing special. Well, they put up leaflets, collected weapons, burned and contaminated the grain intended for the invaders. Well, they hung out several flags on the day of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, burned the Labor Exchange, saved several dozen prisoners of war. Other underground organizations have existed longer and done more!

And do these unfortunate critics understand that everything, literally everything, these boys and girls committed on the verge of life and death. Is it easy to walk down the street when warnings are posted on almost every house and fence that if you don’t hand over your weapon, you will be shot. And at the bottom of the bag, under the potatoes, there are two grenades, and you have to walk past several dozen policemen with an independent air, and everyone can stop ... By the beginning of December, the Young Guard already had 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, about 15 thousand rounds of ammunition, 10 pistols, 65 kilograms of explosives and several hundred meters of Fickford cord.
Isn't it scary to sneak past the German patrol at night, knowing that for appearing on the street after six in the evening there is a threat of execution? But most of the work was done at night. At night, they burned the German Labor Exchange - and two and a half thousand Krasnodon residents were delivered from German hard labor. On the night of November 7, the Young Guards hung out red flags - and the next morning, when they saw them, people experienced great joy: “We are remembered, we are not forgotten by ours!” At night, prisoners of war were released, telephone wires were cut, German vehicles were attacked, a herd of cattle of 500 heads was recaptured from the Nazis and dispersed to the nearest farms and settlements.
Even leaflets were pasted mostly at night, although it happened that they had to do it during the day. At first, leaflets were written by hand, then they began to be printed in the same organized printing house. In total, the Young Guards issued about 30 separate leaflets with a total circulation of almost five thousand copies - from which Krasnodon residents learned the latest reports from the Sovinformburo.

In December, the first disagreements appeared at the headquarters, which later became the basis of the legend that still lives on and according to which Oleg Koshevoy is considered the commissar of the Young Guard.
What happened? Koshevoy began to insist that a detachment of 15-20 people be singled out from all the underground workers, capable of operating separately from the main detachment. It was in him that Koshevoy was supposed to become a commissar. The guys did not support this proposal. Nevertheless, Oleg, after another admission to the Komsomol of a youth group, took temporary Komsomol tickets from Vanya Zemnukhov, but did not give them, as always, to Viktor Tretyakevich, but issued them to the newly accepted ones himself, signing: “Commissar of the Molot partisan detachment Kashuk.”
On January 1, 1943, three young guards were arrested: Yevgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Ivan Zemnukhov - the Nazis fell into the very heart of the organization. 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.

The entire punitive apparatus was set in motion. Mass arrests began. But why didn't the majority of the Young Guards follow the order of the headquarters? After all, this first disobedience, and hence the violation of the oath, cost almost all of them their lives! Probably due to the lack of life experience.
At first, the guys did not realize that a catastrophe had happened and their leading trio could no longer get out of prison. Many could not decide for themselves: whether to leave the city, whether to help the arrested, or voluntarily share their fate. They did not understand that the headquarters had already considered all the options and took the only correct one into action. But most of them didn't do it. Almost everyone was afraid for their parents.
Only twelve young guards managed to escape in those days. But later, two of them - Sergei Tyulenin and Oleg Koshevoy - were nevertheless arrested. Four cells of the city police were packed to capacity. All the guys were terribly tortured. The office of the chief of police, Solikovsky, looked more like a slaughterhouse - it was so spattered with blood. In order not to hear the screams of the tortured in the yard, the monsters started the gramophone and turned it on at full volume.
Underground workers were hung by the neck to the window frame, simulating execution by hanging, and by the legs, to the ceiling hook. And they beat, beat, beat - with sticks and wire whips with nuts on the end. The girls were hung by braids, and the hair could not stand it, it broke off. The Young Guards were crushed by the door with fingers, shoe needles were driven under the nails, they were put on a hot stove, stars were cut out on the chest and back. Their bones were broken, their eyes were gouged out and burnt out, their arms and legs were cut off…

The executioners, having learned from Pocheptsov that Tretyakevich was one of the leaders of the Young Guard, decided at all costs to force him to speak, believing that then it would be easier to cope with the rest. He was tortured with extreme cruelty, he was mutilated beyond recognition. But Victor remained silent. Then a rumor was spread among the arrested and in the city: Tretyakevich had betrayed everyone. But Victor's comrades did not believe it.
On a cold winter night on January 15, 1943, the first group of Young Guardsmen, including Tretyakevich, was taken to the ruined mine for execution. When they were put on the edge of the pit, Victor grabbed the deputy chief of police by the neck and tried to drag him along with him to a depth of 50 meters. The frightened executioner turned pale with fear and almost did not resist, and only the gendarme arrived in time, hitting Tretyakevich on the head with a pistol, saved the policeman from death.
On January 16, the second group of underground workers was shot, on the 31st - the third. One of this group managed to escape from the place of execution. It was Anatoly Kovalev, who later went missing.
Four remained in prison. They were taken to the city of Rovenki in the Krasnodon region and shot on February 9 along with Oleg Koshev, who was there.

On February 14, Soviet troops entered Krasnodon. February 17 became a day of mourning, full of weeping and lamentations. From a deep, dark pit, the bodies of tortured young men and women were taken out with a bucket. It was difficult to recognize them; some of the children were identified by their parents only by their clothes.
A wooden obelisk was placed on the mass grave with the names of the dead and with the words:
And drops of your hot blood,
Like sparks flare up in the darkness of life
And many brave hearts will be lit!
The name of Viktor Tretyakevich was not on the obelisk! And his mother, Anna Iosifovna, never took off her black dress again and tried to go to the grave later so as not to meet anyone there. She, of course, did not believe in her son's betrayal, just as most of her fellow countrymen did not, but the conclusions of the commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League under the leadership of Toritsin and the subsequently remarkable novel by Fadeev, which was published in artistic terms, had an impact on the minds and hearts of millions of people. One can only regret that Fadeev's novel The Young Guard did not turn out to be equally remarkable in respecting historical truth.
The investigating authorities also accepted the version of Tretyakevich's betrayal, and even when the true traitor Pocheptsov, who was subsequently arrested, confessed to everything, the charge was not removed from Viktor. And since, according to party leaders, a traitor cannot be a commissar, Oleg Koshevoy was elevated to this rank, whose signature was on the December Komsomol tickets - “Commissar of the Molot partisan detachment Kashuk.”
After 16 years, one of the most ferocious executioners who tortured the Young Guards, Vasily Podtynny, was arrested. During the investigation, he stated: Tretyakevich was slandered, but he, despite severe torture and beatings, did not betray anyone.
So almost 17 years later, the truth triumphed. By decree of December 13, 1960, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR rehabilitated Viktor Tretyakevich and awarded him the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree (posthumously). His name began to be included in all official documents, along with the names of other heroes of the Young Guard.

Anna Iosifovna, Victor's mother, who never took off her mourning black clothes, stood in front of the presidium of the solemn meeting in Voroshilovgrad when she was presented with her son's posthumous award.
The crowded hall, standing up, applauded her, but it seemed that what was happening no longer pleased her. Maybe because her mother always knew that her son was an honest man... Anna Iosifovna turned to her comrade, who was rewarding her, with only one request: not to show the film "Young Guard" in the city these days.
So, the stigma of a traitor was removed from Viktor Tretyakevich, but he was never restored to the rank of commissar and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which was awarded to the rest of the dead members of the Young Guard headquarters, was not honored.
Finishing this short story about the heroic and tragic days of the Krasnodon people, I would like to say that the heroism and tragedy of the Young Guard are probably still far from being revealed. But this is our history, and we have no right to forget it.

Crimea, Feodosia, August 1940. Happy young girls. The most beautiful, with dark braids - Anya Sopova.
On January 31, 1943, after severe torture, Anya was thrown into the pit of mine No. 5. She was buried in a mass grave of heroes in the central square of the city of Krasnodon.
... now "Young Guard" is on television. I remember how we loved this picture as a child! They dreamed of being like the brave Krasnodontsy... vowed to avenge their deaths. What can I say, the tragic and beautiful story of the Young Guards shocked the whole world at that time, and not just the immature children's minds.
The film became the leader of the box office in 1948, and the leading actors, unknown students of VGIK, immediately received the title of Laureates of the Stalin Prize - an exceptional case. "Woke up famous" - it's about them.
Ivanov, Mordyukova, Makarova, Gurzo, Shagalova - letters from all over the world came to them in bags.
Gerasimov, of course, took pity on the audience. Fadeev - readers.
What really happened that winter in Krasnodon, neither paper nor film could convey.

Uliana Gromova, 19 years old
"... a five-pointed star is carved on the back, the right arm is broken, the ribs are broken" (KGB Archive under the USSR Council of Ministers).

Lida Androsova, 18 years old
"... extracted without an eye, an ear, a hand, with a rope around the neck, which strongly cut into the body. Baked blood is visible on the neck" (Museum "Young Guard", f. 1, d. 16).

Anya Sopova, 18 years old
"They beat her, hung her by her scythes ... They lifted Anya from the pit with one scythe - the other broke off."

Shura Bondareva, 20 years old
"... extracted without a head and right breast, the whole body is beaten, bruised, has a black color."

Lyuba Shevtsova, 18 years old (in the photo, first from the left in the second row)

Lyuba Shevtsova, 18 years old
On February 9, 1943, after a month of torture, she was shot in the Thundering Forest near the city, along with Oleg Koshev, S. Ostapenko, D. Ogurtsov and V. Subbotin.

Angelina Samoshina, 18 years old.
"Traces of torture were found on Angelina's body: her arms were twisted, her ears were cut off, a star was carved on her cheek" (RGASPI. F. M-1. Op. 53. D. 331)

Shura Dubrovina, 23 years old
“Two images stand before my eyes: a cheerful young Komsomol member Shura Dubrovina and a mutilated body raised from a mine. I saw her corpse only with a lower jaw. Her friend Maya Peglivanova lay in a coffin without eyes, without lips, with her arms twisted ... "

Maya Peglivanova, 17 years old
"Maya's corpse is disfigured: her breasts are cut off, her legs are broken. All outer clothing has been removed." (RGASPI. F. M-1. Op. 53. D. 331) In the coffin she lay without lips, with twisted arms.

Tonya Ivanikhina, 19 years old
"... extracted without eyes, the head is tied with a scarf and wire, the breasts are cut out."

Serezha Tyulenin, 17 years old
"On January 27, 1943, Sergei was arrested. Soon his father and mother were taken away, all his belongings were confiscated. In the police, Sergei was severely tortured in the presence of his mother, they confronted Viktor Lukyancheiko, a member of the Young Guard, but they did not recognize each other.
On January 31, Sergei was tortured for the last time, and then, half-dead, he, along with other comrades, was taken to the pit of mine No. 5 ... "

The funeral of Sergei Tyulenin

Nina Minaeva, 18 years old
"... My sister was recognized by woolen leggings - the only clothes that remained on her. Nina's hands were broken, one eye was knocked out, there were shapeless wounds on her chest, her whole body was in black stripes ..."

Tosya Eliseenko, 22 years old
"The corpse of Tosi was disfigured, torturing her, they put her on a red-hot stove."

Victor Tretyakevich, 18 years old
"... Among the latter, Viktor Tretyakevich was raised. His father, Iosif Kuzmich, in a thin patched coat, stood every day, clutching a pole, did not take his eyes off the pit. And when they recognized his son, - without a face, with a black with a blue back, with shattered arms, - he, as if knocked down, fell to the ground. No traces of bullets were found on Victor's body - which means they threw him alive ... "

Oleg Koshevoy, 16 years old
When arrests began in January 1943, he made an attempt to cross the front line. However, he is forced to return to the city. Near the railway station Kortushino was captured by the Nazis and sent first to the police, and then to the district office of the Gestapo in Rovenka. After terrible torture, together with L.G. Shevtsova, S.M. Ostapenko, D.U. Ogurtsov and V.F. Subbotin, on February 9, 1943, he was shot in the Thundering Forest near the city.

Boris Glavan, 22 years old
"From the pit, he was taken face to face with barbed wire connected with Yevgeny Shepelev, his hands were cut off. His face was mutilated, his stomach was ripped open."

Evgeny Shepelev, 19 years old
"...Eugene's hands were cut off, his stomach was pulled out, his head was smashed...." (RGASPI. F. M-1. Op. 53. D. 331)

Volodya Zhdanov, 17 years old
"Extracted with a lacerated wound in the left temporal region, the fingers are broken and twisted, there are bruises under the nails, two strips three centimeters wide, twenty-five centimeters long are cut on the back, the eyes are gouged out and the ears are cut off" (Museum "Young Guard", f. 1, d .36)

Klava Kovaleva, 17 years old
"... swollen, the right breast was cut off, the feet were burned, the left arm was cut off, the head was tied with a scarf, there were signs of beatings on the body. Found ten meters from the trunk, between the trolleys, it was probably thrown alive" (Museum "Young Guard", f. 1, d. 10)

Evgeny Moshkov, 22 years old (pictured left)
"... Young Communist communist Yevgeny Moshkov, having chosen a good moment during interrogation, hit the policeman. Then the fascist beasts hung Moshkov by his legs and held him in this position until blood gushed from his nose and throat. They removed him and again they began to interrogate. But Moshkov only spat in the face of the executioner. The enraged investigator who tortured Moshkov hit him with a bang. Exhausted by torture, the communist hero fell, hitting the back of his head on the door frame and died. "

Volodya Osmukhin, 18 years old
“When I saw Vovochka, disfigured, almost completely without a head, without his left arm to the elbow, I thought I would go crazy. I didn’t believe that it was him. He was in one sock, and the other leg was completely bare. warm. No outer clothing. The hungry animals took off.
Head is broken. The back of the head fell out completely, only the face remained, on which only Volodya's teeth remained. Everything else is ruined. The lips are distorted, the nose is almost completely absent. My grandmother and I washed Vovochka, dressed her, decorated her with flowers. A wreath was nailed to the coffin. Let the road rest in peace."

Ulyana Gromova's parents

Uli's last letter

The funeral of the young guards, 1943

In 1993, a press conference was held in Lugansk by a special commission to study the history of the Young Guard. As Izvestiya wrote then (05/12/1993), after two years of work, the commission gave its assessment of the versions that had excited the public for almost half a century. The conclusions of the researchers were reduced to several fundamental points.
In July-August 1942, after the capture of the Luhansk region by the Nazis, many underground youth groups spontaneously arose in the mining Krasnodon and the surrounding villages. They, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, were called "Star", "Sickle", "Hammer", etc. However, there is no need to talk about any party leadership. In October 1942, Viktor Tretyakevich united them into the Young Guard.
It was he, and not Oleg Koshevoy, who, according to the findings of the commission, became the commissioner of the underground organization. There were almost twice as many members of the "Young Guard" as later recognized by the competent authorities. The guys fought like a partisan, risky, suffering heavy losses, and this, as was noted at a press conference, ultimately led to the failure of the organization.
“…. Blessed memory to these girls and boys… who were infinitely stronger… all of us, millions, combined.…”