The perfidious offensive of the Nazi invaders began in the early morning of June 22, 1941, and on June 20 the last graduation parties were held in the capital. Until lunch, all four-plus million ordinary residents and guests of the capital of the USSR did not even suspect that the most bloody war in history had begun at night.
Start of war
For the first few months, Soviet citizens believed in the slogans of a quick victory over the aggressor, but it soon became clear that hostilities would drag on for a long time. The occupied territory expanded, and the citizens realized that liberation depended not only on the authorities, but also on themselves.
Millions of Soviet citizens were subject to mobilization, and large-scale training in medical and military affairs was launched in the rear. Many young men who did not have time to finish school rushed to the front, and girls who did not reach the age of majority hid their return in order to go to the forefront of hostilities as nurses. Komsomol members, heroes of the Patriotic War, also distinguished themselves.
Alexander Matrosov
From the biography of the Komsomol hero Alexander Matrosov, two facts are known for sure: the date of his birth, as well as the place of death. Alexander was born on February 5, 1924 in Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk, and now the Dnieper), and died on February 27, 1943 near the village of Chernushki (now the territory of the Pskov region) at the age of nineteen.
According to one of the versions, the real Komsomol hero Matrosov was called Shakiryan Yunusovich Mukhamedyanov, and the place of his birth was a deep village in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. But he himself called himself Matrosov. The boy was brought up in orphanages and a labor colony. After school, he worked there as an assistant.
After the outbreak of hostilities, Matrosov asked to be sent to war. In September 1942, he was drafted into the army, and the very next year he went to the Kalinin Front.
According to the common version, Matrosov's battalion - a Komsomol member, a war hero - received an order to attack a stronghold near the village of Chernushki. Soviet soldiers came under enemy fire, attempts to suppress it were unsuccessful.
Pyotr Ogurtsov and Alexander Matrosov crawled towards one of the surviving bunkers. On the outskirts, Peter was badly wounded, then Alexander decided to complete the operation on his own. From the flank, he threw two grenades. Matrosov covered the embrasure with his body. So, at the cost of his own life, a Komsomol hero contributed to the accomplishment of a combat mission.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya
The name of the Komsomol hero Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in the USSR became a symbol of the fight against fascism. About the feat of the youngThe country learned the partisans from the story "Tanya" by war correspondent Pyotr Lidov, which was published in the Pravda newspaper in January 1942. It was about a partisan girl who was captured by the Germans, survived the brutal abuse of the Nazis and steadfastly accepted death.
In October 1942, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, along with other Komsomol members (far from all of them became heroes of the Great Patriotic War), enrolled in a detachment for sabotage behind enemy lines. The girl recently experienced an acute form of meningitis and suffered from a “nervous disease”, but convinced the commission to accept her into the squad.
In November 1941, the fateful order came. The group was supposed to drive the Nazis out into the cold in the field, smoke them out of their shelters. The commanders were given the task of burning ten villages occupied by the Germans.
Near one of the villages, the detachment of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya stumbled upon an ambush, was scattered during the confrontation. Some fighters died on the spot, others were captured. The girl survived and became part of a small group led by Boris Krainov.
Zoya was captured by the Germans while trying to set fire to the house. After a short interrogation, the Komsomol member was taken to execution. In hot pursuit, Peter Lidov went to that village. Then he just met a partisan who knew Zoya. It was he who identified the girl's body, indicating that she called herself Tanya. The identity was finally confirmed only in February 1942 at the identification arranged by a special commission.
Lenya Golikov
The boy was only fifteen years old when the war came to the country. Komsomolets-the hero of the Great Patriotic War worked at the plant after finishing seven classes. When the Nazis captured his city, Lenya joined the partisans. The command appreciated the brave and determined young man.
Leonid Golikov accounted for 78 destroyed Germans, 28 operations, several bridges destroyed behind enemy lines, 10 trains delivering ammunition. When in the summer of 1942 the detachment blew up the car in which the high-ranking German military leader Richard von Wirtz was riding, Leonid was able to obtain important papers about the offensive, the attack was thwarted, and the Komsomol member was assigned the title of Hero of the USSR.
Zina Portnova
Born and graduated from Zoya Portnova's school in Leningrad. But military operations found her on the territory of Belarus. The pioneer came there for the holidays. A sixteen-year-old girl joined an underground organization in 1942 and distributed anti-fascist leaflets in the occupied territories.
Zina got a job in the dining room, where she cooked for German officers. There she carried out several diversions. The courage of the pioneer, who was not captured by the enemies, was surprised even by experienced military men.
Zina was captured by the Germans through the efforts of defectors. She was interrogated and severely tortured, but the young partisan was silent, did not betray her. During one of the interrogations, she grabbed a pistol from the table and shot three Nazis. After that, Zina Portnova was shot.
Young Guard
The underground organization operating in modern Lugansk, numbered more than a hundred people. The youngest participant wasonly fourteen years old.
Youth underground organization was formed immediately after the occupation by German troops. The "Young Guard" included both experienced military personnel, who were far from the main units, and local young people. The most famous participants are such Komsomol heroes as Sergey Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova, Oleg Koshevoy, Vasily Levashov, Ulyana Gromova and others.
Young Guards issued leaflets and committed acts of sabotage. Once they disabled a tank repair shop, burned down the stock exchange, where they kept lists of people whom the Germans planned to bring to Germany for forced labor.
"Young Guard" was exposed because of the traitors. The Nazis tortured and shot more than 70 people. Their feat is immortalized in one of A. Fadeev's books and a film with the same name.
Elizaveta Chaikina
From October 1941 until the day of her death, the girl fought in partisan detachments on the territory of the modern Tver region. Once a Komsomol member was given the task of reconnoitering the number of enemy troops. The former kulak noticed her and informed the Nazis. The Nazis took Liza Chaikina to Peno. She was brutally tortured, trying to find out where the partisans were. The courageous partisan was shot in November 1941.
Nikolai Gastello
Nikolai Frantsevich was a German who lived in Russia for a long time. The young man took part in air battles during the Soviet-Finnish war. Back to topthe German offensive, Nikolai was already a squadron commander. In air battles in Belarus, commander Gastello and his crew destroyed most of the column of German armored vehicles, but they themselves died. This is the official version that Nikolai's son, Victor Gastello, told the Russian media many times. In the nineties, versions appeared that in fact it was not Nikolai, but the pilot of the second aircraft, who accomplished the feat, and Gastello ejected. This was due to the published data on the exhumation of the remains from the alleged grave of the hero in 1951. At the place where, according to assumptions, Gastello's plane crashed, personal belongings of his colleagues were found, including the commander of another crew, A. A. Maslov.
