TODAY IN THE ISSUE: From the Soviet Information Bureau. - Operational summary for September 12 and 13 (1 page). Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1-2 pages). Captain A. Alexandrov. - In the Nizhyn direction (2 pages). Major P. Olender. - In the Priluki direction (2 pages). Captain F. Kostikov. - Battles west of Stalino (2 pages). IMMORTAL FEAT OF YOUNG PATRIOTS. - A. Erivansky. - Brave underground fighters. - Semyon Kirsanov. - Glory to the sons of the Komsomol! (3 pages). Major P. Troyanovsky. - On the right bank of the Desna (3 pages). Ilya Erenburg. - Victorious retreat (4 pages). K. Hoffman. - After the capitulation of Italy (4 pages). Terms of the armistice with Italy (4 pages).
Today, the Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarding orders to members of the Komsomol organization “Young Guard”, which operated during the German occupation in the Voroshilovgrad region, are being published. The miners' children - members of the underground organization "Young Guard" - showed themselves to be selfless patriots of the fatherland, forever inscribing their names in the history of the sacred struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi occupiers.
Neither cruel terror nor inhuman torture could stop young patriots in their desire to fight with all their might for the liberation of the Motherland from the yoke of hated foreigners. They decided to fully fulfill their duty to their homeland. In the name of fulfilling their duty, most of them died the death of heroes.
In the dark autumn nights of 1942, the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” was created. It was headed by a 16-year-old boy Oleg Koshevoy. His immediate assistants in organizing the underground struggle against the Germans were 17-year-old Sergei Tyulenin, 19-year-old Ivan Zemnukhov, 18-year-old Ulyana Gromova and 18-year-old Lyubov Shevtsova. They united around themselves the best representatives of the miners' youth. Acting boldly, courageously, and cunningly, members of the Young Guard soon became a threat to the Germans. Leaflets and slogans appeared at the doors of the German commandant's office. On the anniversary of the October Revolution in the city of Krasnodon, on the building of the Voroshilov school, on the highest tree in the park, on the hospital building, red flags were raised, made from a fascist banner stolen from a German club. Several dozen German soldiers and officers were killed by members of an underground organization led by Oleg Koshev. Through their efforts, the escape of Soviet prisoners of war was organized. When the Germans tried send the city's youth to forced labor in Germany, Oleg Koshevoy and his comrades set fire to the labor exchange building and thereby disrupted the German event. Each of these feats required enormous courage, perseverance, endurance, composure. However, the glorious representatives of the Soviet youth found enough strength in themselves to do so in order to skillfully and prudently resist the enemy and inflict cruel, devastating blows on him.
When the Germans managed to uncover the underground organization and arrest its participants, Oleg Koshevoy and his comrades endured inhuman torture, but did not give up, did not lose heart, and with the great fearlessness of true patriots accepted martyrdom. They fought and struggled like heroes, and went to their graves as heroes!
Before joining the underground organization “Young Guard,” each of the young people took a sacred oath: “I swear to take merciless revenge for the burned and devastated cities and villages, for the blood of our people, for the martyrdom of 30 miners. And if this revenge requires my life, I will give it without a moment’s hesitation. If I break this sacred oath under torture or because of cowardice, then may my name and my family be cursed forever, and may I myself be punished by the harsh hand of my comrades. Blood for blood, death for death!
Oleg Koshevoy and his friends fulfilled their oath to the end. They died, but their names will shine in eternal glory. The youth of our country will learn from them the great and noble art of fighting for the holy ideals of freedom, for the happiness of the fatherland. The youth of all countries enslaved by the German occupiers will learn about their immortal feat, and this will give them new strength to accomplish feats in the name of liberation from oppression.
The people that give birth to such sons and daughters as Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova and Ulyana Gromova are invincible. All the strength of our people was reflected in these young people, who absorbed the heroic traditions of their Motherland and did not disgrace their native land in times of difficult trials. Glory to them!
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Elena Nikolaevna Koshevaya, the mother of Oleg Koshevoy, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree. She raised a hero, she blessed him to accomplish high and noble deeds - glory to her!
The Germans came to our land as uninvited guests, but here they encountered a great people, filled with unshakable courage and readiness to defend their fatherland with boundless fury and anger. Young Oleg Koshevoy is a vivid symbol of the patriotism of our people.
The blood of heroes was not shed in vain. They contributed their share to the common great cause of defeating the Nazi occupiers. The Red Army is driving the Germans to the west, liberating Ukraine from them.
Sleep well, Oleg Koshevoy! We will bring the victory that you and your comrades fought for to the end. We will mark the road to our victory with enemy corpses. We will avenge your martyrdom to the full extent of our wrath. And the sun will forever shine over our Motherland and our people will live in glory and greatness, being an example of courage, courage, valor and devotion to duty for all humanity!
________________________________________ _
("Pravda", USSR)**
("Pravda", USSR) **
THIS IS HOW HEROES DIE
The “Young Guard” was preparing to realize its cherished dream of a decisive armed attack on the Krasnodon garrison of the Germans.
The vile betrayal interrupted the combat activities of the youth.
As soon as the arrests of the Young Guard began, the headquarters gave the order to all members of the Young Guard to leave and make their way to the Red Army units. But, unfortunately, it was already too late. Only 7 people managed to escape and stay alive - Ivan Turkenich, Georgy Arutyunyants, Valeria Borts, Radiy Yurkin, Olya Ivantsova, Nina Ivantsova and Mikhail Shishchenko. The remaining members of the Young Guard were captured by the Nazis and imprisoned.
Young underground fighters were subjected to terrible torture, but none of them backed down from their oath. The German executioners went crazy, beating and torturing the Young Guards for 3 or 4 hours straight. But the executioners could not break the spirit and iron will of the young patriots.
The Gestapo beat Sergei Tyulenin several times a day with whips made of electrical wires, broke his fingers, and drove a hot ramrod into the wound. When this did not help, the executioners brought the mother, a 58-year-old woman. In front of Sergei, they stripped her and began to torture her.
The executioners demanded that he tell about his connections in Kamensk and Izvarino. Sergei was silent. Then the Gestapo in the presence of the mother.
The Young Guards knew that the time for execution was coming. In their last hour they were just as strong in spirit. A member of the Young Guard headquarters, Ulyana Gromova, transmitted in Morse code to all cells:
The last order from headquarters... The last order... we will be taken to execution. We will be led through the city streets. We will sing Ilyich's favorite song...
Exhausted and mutilated, young heroes left prison on their final journey. Ulyana Gromova walked with a star carved on her back, Shura Bondareva - with her breasts cut off. Volodya Osmukhin's right hand was cut off.
The Young Guards walked on their last journey with their heads held high. Their song sang solemnly and sadly:
“Tortured by heavy bondage,
You died a glorious death,
In the fight for the workers' cause
You put your head down honestly..."
The executioners threw them alive into a fifty-meter pit in the mine.
In February 1943, our troops entered Krasnodon. A red flag hoisted over the city. And watching him rinse in the wind, the residents again remembered the Young Guards. Hundreds of people headed to the prison building. They saw bloody clothes in the cells, traces of unheard-of torture. The walls were covered with inscriptions. Above one of the walls is a heart pierced by an arrow. There are four surnames in the heart: “Shura Bondareva, Nina Minaeva, Ulya Gromova, Angela Samoshina.” And above all the inscriptions across the entire width of the bloody wall there is a signature: “Death to the German occupiers!”
This is how the glorious students of the Komsomol, young heroes whose feat will survive centuries, lived, fought and died for their fatherland.
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Brave underground fighters
In the city of Krasnodon, Voroshilovgrad region, the Germans felt like they were on a volcano. Everything was seething around. Soviet leaflets appeared on the walls of houses every now and then, and red flags fluttered on the roofs. Loaded vehicles disappeared, as if grain warehouses were catching fire like gunpowder. Soldiers and officers lost machine guns, revolvers, and cartridges.
Someone acted very boldly, smartly and deftly. The cleverly placed German traps remained empty. There was no end to the German fury. They scoured alleys, houses, and attics in vain. And the grain warehouses caught fire again. The police found the proclamations in their own pockets. Then the police themselves were found hanged in abandoned mine adits.
On the night of December 5-6, the labor exchange building caught fire. The lists of people to be sent to Germany were lost in the fire. Thousands of residents, who were awaiting with horror the black day when they would be taken into captivity, took heart. The fire infuriated the occupiers. Special agents were called from Voroshilovgrad. But the traces were mysteriously lost in the crooked streets of the mining town. In which house do those who set fire to the labor exchange live? Under every roof. The special agents spent a lot of effort, but they left with nothing.
The underground Komsomol organization acted more widely and boldly. Insolence has become a habit. The experience of conspiracy accumulated, combat skills became a profession.
Quite a bit of time has passed since that memorable September day when the first organizational meeting took place at number 6 on Sadovaya Street in the apartment of Oleg Koshevoy. There were thirty young people here who knew each other from their school years, from working together in the Komsomol, and from fighting the Germans. They decided to call the organization “Young Guard”. The headquarters included: Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin, Lyubov Shevtsova, Ulyana Gromova and others. Oleg was appointed commissar and elected secretary of the Komsomol organization.
There was no experience of underground work, there was no knowledge, there was only an ineradicable, burning hatred of the occupiers and a passionate love for the Motherland. Despite the danger that threatened the Komsomol members, the organization grew quickly. More than a hundred people joined the Young Guard. Each took an oath of allegiance to the common cause, the text of which was written by Vanya Zemnukhov and Oleg Koshevoy.
We started with leaflets. At this time, the Germans began recruiting those who wanted to go to Germany. Leaflets appeared on telegraph poles and fences, exposing the horrors of fascist hard labor. The recruitment failed. Only three people agreed to go to Germany.
They installed a primitive radio at Oleg’s house and listened to the “latest news.” A short record of the latest news was distributed in the form of leaflets.
With the expansion of the underground organization, its “five”, created for conspiracy, appeared in nearby villages. They published their own leaflets there. Now the underground fighters had four radios.
Komsomol members also created their own primitive printing house. They collected letters from the fire of the district newspaper building. We made the frame for selecting the font ourselves. The printing house printed not only leaflets. Temporary Komsomol tickets were also issued there, on which it was written: “Valid for the duration of the Patriotic War.” Komsomol tickets were issued to newly admitted members of the organization.
The Komsomol organization disrupted literally all the activities of the occupation authorities. The Germans failed neither the first, so-called “voluntary” recruitment, nor the second, when they wanted to forcibly take all the residents of Krasnodon they selected to Germany.
As soon as the Germans began to prepare to export grain to Germany, the underground, on instructions from the headquarters, set fire to grain stacks and warehouses, and infected some of the grain with mites.
The Germans requisitioned livestock from the surrounding population and drove it in a large herd of 500 heads to their rear. Komsomol members attacked the guards, killed them, and drove the cattle into the steppe.
So every initiative of the Germans was thwarted by someone’s invisible, powerful hand.
The most senior among the staff members was Ivan Zemnukhov. He was nineteen years old. The youngest was the commissar. Oleg Koshevoy was born in 1926. But both of them acted like mature, experienced people, seasoned in secret work.
Oleg Koshevoy was the brains of the entire organization. He acted wisely and slowly. True, sometimes youthful enthusiasm took over, and then he participated, despite the prohibition of the headquarters, in the most risky and daring operations. Either with a box of matches in his pocket, he sets fire to huge stacks under the very noses of the police, then, wearing a policeman’s bandage or taking advantage of the darkness of the night, he pastes leaflets on gendarmerie and police buildings.
But these enterprises are not reckless. Having put on a policeman's bandage and going out at night, Oleg knew the password. In the villages and villages of the region, Oleg planted his agents, who carried out only his personal instructions. He received regular information about everything that was happening in the area. Moreover, Oleg also had his own people in the police. Two members of the organization worked there as police officers.
In this way, the plans and intentions of the police authorities became known to the headquarters in advance, and the underground could quickly take their countermeasures.
Oleg also created the organization’s monetary fund. It was made up of monthly 15-ruble membership fees. In addition, in case of need, members of the organization paid one-time contributions. This money was used to provide assistance to the needy families of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. These funds were used to purchase food to send parcels to Soviet people languishing in a German prison. Products were also given to prisoners of war who were in the concentration camp.
Each operation, be it an attack on a passenger car, when the Young Guards exterminated three German officers, or the escape of twenty prisoners of war from the Pervomaisk hospital, was developed by the headquarters under the leadership of Oleg Koshevoy in every detail and detail.
Sergei Tyulenin conducted all dangerous combat operations. He carried out the most risky missions and was known as a fearless fighter. He personally killed ten fascists. It was he who set fire to the labor exchange building, hung red flags, and led a group of guys who attacked the guards of the herd that the Germans were driving away to Germany. The Young Guard was preparing for an open armed offensive, and Sergei Tyulenin led the group to collect weapons and ammunition. Over the course of three months, they collected and stole 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, more than 15 thousand cartridges, pistols, and explosives from the Germans and Romanians on the former battlefields.
On instructions from the headquarters, Lyuba Shevtsova traveled to Voroshilovgrad to establish contact with the underground. She's been there several times. At the same time, she showed exceptional resourcefulness and courage. She told German officers that she was the daughter of a major industrialist. Lyuba stole important documents and obtained secret information.
One night, on instructions from headquarters, Lyuba snuck into the post office building, destroyed all the letters from German soldiers and officers, and stole several letters from former residents of Krasnodon who were at work in Germany. These letters, not yet censored, were distributed throughout the city like leaflets on the second day.
In the hands of Ivan Zemnukhov, appearances, passwords, and direct communication with agents were concentrated. Thanks to the skilful methods of conspiracy of the Komsomol members, the Germans were unable to pick up the trail of the organization for more than five months.
Ulyana Gromova participated in the development of all operations. She got her girls jobs in various German institutions. Through them she carried out numerous acts of sabotage.
She also organized assistance to the families of Red Army soldiers and tortured miners, the transfer of parcels to prison, and the escape of Soviet prisoners of war. The Young Guards were liberated from a concentration camp.
The Nazis managed to get on the trail of the organization. In the dungeons of the Gestapo, young men and women were tortured in the most brutal ways. The executioners repeatedly threw a noose around Lyuba Shevtsova’s neck and hung her from the ceiling. She was beaten until she lost consciousness. But the brutal torture of the executioners did not break the will of the young patriot. Having achieved nothing, the city police sent her to the district gendarmerie department. There Lyuba was tortured using godly sophisticated methods: .
The Germans subjected other young patriots to the same terrible torture and inhuman torment. But they did not extract a single word of recognition from the lips of the Komsomol members. The Germans threw the tortured, bloodied, half-dead Komsomol members into the shaft of an old mine.
Immortal is the feat of the Young Guards! Their fearless and irreconcilable struggle against the German occupiers, their legendary courage will shine for centuries as a symbol of love for their motherland! // A. Erivansky.
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“Long live our liberator, the Red Army!”
One of the Young Guard leaflets
« Read it and pass it on to your friend.
Comrades Krasnodon residents!
The long-awaited hour of our liberation from the yoke of Hitler's bandits is approaching. The troops of the Southwestern Front have broken through the defense line. Our units November 25, .
The movement of our troops to the west continues rapidly. The Germans are running in panic, throwing down their weapons! The enemy, retreating, robs the population, taking food and clothing.
Comrades! Hide everything you can so that Hitler’s robbers don’t get it. Sabotage the orders of the German command, do not succumb to false German propaganda.
Death to the German occupiers!
Long live our liberator - the Red Army!
Long live the free Soviet homeland!
"Young guard".
Over the course of 6 months, the Young Guard issued more than 30 leaflets in Krasnodon alone, with a circulation of over 5,000 copies.
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GLORY TO THE SONS OF THE Komsomol!
You see,
comrade, -
affairs of Krasnodon residents
a little light
are illuminated
glory rays.
In the deep darkness
soviet sun
for their young ones
stood
shoulders.
For the happiness of Donbass
they carried out
and hunger and torture,
and cold and torment,
and the verdict on the Germans
they carried out
and lowered
a harsh hand.
Not the rattle of torture,
no cunning detective
break the Komsomol members
enemies
failed!
Arose in the darkness
immortal spark,
and explosions
again
thundered across Donbass.
And with life
fearlessly
they parted
they were dying** (“Red Star”, USSR)
** ("Red Star", USSR)
During the Great Patriotic War, many underground organizations operated in the Soviet territories occupied by Germany and fought the Nazis. One of these organizations worked in Krasnodon. It consisted not of experienced military personnel, but of boys and girls who were barely 18 years old. The youngest member of the Young Guard at that time was only 14.
What did the Young Guard do?
Sergei Tyulenin started it all. After the city was occupied by German troops in July 1942, he single-handedly began collecting weapons for fighters, posting anti-fascist leaflets, helping the Red Army resist the enemy. A little later, he assembled a whole detachment, and already on September 30, 1942, the organization consisted of more than 50 people, led by the chief of staff, Ivan Zemnukhov.
Oleg Koshevoy, Ulyana Gromova, Ivan Turkenich and others also became members of the Komsomol group.
Young Guards carried out sabotage in the electromechanical workshops of the city. On the night of November 7, 1942, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Young Guards hoisted eight red flags on the tallest buildings in the city of Krasnodon and its surrounding villages.
On the night of December 5-6, 1942, on the Constitution Day of the USSR, Young Guards set fire to the building of the German labor exchange (people dubbed it the “black exchange”), where lists of people (with addresses and completed work cards) intended to be stolen for forced labor were kept. work to Nazi Germany, thereby about two thousand boys and girls from the Krasnodon region were saved from forced deportation.
The Young Guards were also preparing to stage an armed uprising in Krasnodon in order to defeat the German garrison and join the advancing units of the Red Army. However, shortly before the planned uprising, the organization was discovered.
On January 1, 1943, three Young Guard members were arrested: Evgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Ivan Zemnukhov - the fascists found themselves in the very heart of the organization.
On the same day, the remaining members of the headquarters urgently gathered and made a decision: all Young Guards should immediately leave the city, and the leaders should not spend the night at home that night. All underground workers were notified of the headquarters’ decision through liaison officers. One of them, who was a member of the group in the village of Pervomaika, Gennady Pocheptsov, upon learning about the arrests, chickened out and wrote a statement to the police about the existence of an underground organization.
Massacre
One of the jailers, the defector Lukyanov, who was later convicted, said: “There was a continuous groan in the police, as during the entire interrogation the arrested people were beaten. They lost consciousness, but they were brought to their senses and beaten again. At times it was terrible for me to watch this torment.”
They were shot in January 1943. 57 Young Guards. The Germans never obtained any “sincere confessions” from Krasnodon schoolchildren. This was perhaps the most powerful moment, for the sake of which the entire novel was written.
Viktor Tretyakevich - “the first traitor”
The Young Guards were arrested and sent to prison, where they were subjected to severe torture. Viktor Tretyakevich, the organization's commissioner, was treated with particular cruelty. His body was mutilated beyond recognition. Hence the rumors that it was Tretyakevich, unable to withstand the torture, who betrayed the rest of the guys. Trying to establish the identity of the traitor, the investigative authorities accepted this version. And only a few years later, on the basis of declassified documents, the traitor was identified; it turned out to be not Tretyakevich at all. However, at that time the charge against him was not dropped. This will happen only 16 years later, when the authorities arrest Vasily Podtynny, who participated in torture. During interrogation, he admitted that Tretyakevich had indeed been slandered. Despite the most severe torture, Tretyakevich stood firm and did not betray anyone. He was rehabilitated only in 1960, awarded a posthumous order.
However, at the same time, the Komsomol Central Committee adopted a very strange closed resolution: “There is no point in stirring up the history of the Young Guard, redoing it in accordance with some facts that have become known recently. We believe that it is inappropriate to revise the history of the Young Guard when appearing in the press, lectures, or reports. Fadeev’s novel was published in our country in 22 languages and in 16 languages of foreign countries... Millions of young men and women are and will be educated on the history of the Young Guard. Based on this, we believe that new facts that contradict the novel “The Young Guard” should not be made public.
Who is the traitor?
At the beginning of the 2000s, the Security Service of Ukraine for the Lugansk region declassified some materials on the Young Guard case. As it turned out, back in 1943, a certain Mikhail Kuleshov was detained by the army counterintelligence SMERSH. When the city was occupied by the Nazis, he offered them his cooperation and soon took up the position of field police investigator. It was Kuleshov who led the investigation into the Young Guard case. Judging by his testimony, the real reason for the failure of the underground was the betrayal of the Young Guard Georgy Pocheptsov. When the news arrived that three Young Guards had been arrested, Pocheptsov confessed everything to his stepfather, who worked closely with the German administration. He convinced him to confess to the police. During the first interrogations, he confirmed the authorship of the applicant and his affiliation with the underground Komsomol organization operating in Krasnodon, named the goals and objectives of the underground activities, and indicated the location of storage of weapons and ammunition hidden in the Gundorov mine N18.
As Kuleshov testified during an interrogation by SMERSH on March 15, 1943: “Pocheptsov said that he was indeed a member of an underground Komsomol organization existing in Krasnodon and its environs. He named the leaders of this organization, or rather, the city headquarters, namely: Tretyakevich, Lukashov, Zemnukhov, Safonov, Koshevoy. Pocheptsov named Tretyakevich as the head of the citywide organization. He himself was a member of the Pervomaisk organization, the leader of which was Anatoly Popov, and before that Glavan.” The next day, Pocheptsov was again taken to the police and interrogated. On the same day, he was confronted with Moshkov and Popov, whose interrogations were accompanied by brutal beatings and cruel torture. Pocheptsov confirmed his previous testimony and named all members of the organization known to him.
From January 5 to January 11, 1943, based on the denunciation and testimony of Pocheptsov, most of the Young Guards were arrested. This was shown by the former deputy chief of the Krasnodon police, V. Podtyny, who was arrested in 1959. The traitor himself was released and was not arrested until the liberation of Krasnodon by Soviet troops. Thus, the information of a secret nature that Pocheptsov had and which became known to the police turned out to be enough to eliminate the Komsomol-youth underground. This is how the organization was discovered, having existed for less than six months.
After the liberation of Krasnodon by the Red Army, Pocheptsov, Gromov (Pocheptsov’s stepfather) and Kuleshov were recognized as traitors to the Motherland and, according to the verdict of the USSR military tribunal, were shot on September 19, 1943. However, the public learned about the real traitors for an unknown reason many years later.
Was there no betrayal?
At the end of the 1990s, one of the surviving Young Guard members, Vasily Levashov, in an interview with one of the well-known newspapers, said that the Germans got on the trail of the Young Guard by accident - due to poor conspiracy. There was supposedly no betrayal. At the end of December 1942, Young Guards robbed a truck loaded with Christmas gifts for the Germans. This was witnessed by a 12-year-old boy who received a pack of cigarettes from members of the organization for his silence. With these cigarettes, the boy fell into the hands of the police and told about the robbery of the car.
On January 1, 1943, three Young Guards who participated in the theft of Christmas gifts were arrested: Evgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Ivan Zemnukhov. Without knowing it, the fascists found themselves in the very heart of the organization. During interrogations, the guys were silent, but during a search in Moshkov’s house, the Germans accidentally discovered a list of 70 members of the Young Guard. This list became the reason for mass arrests and torture.
It must be admitted that Levashov’s “revelations” have not yet been confirmed.
The FSB Central Archive provided us with the opportunity to study Case No. 20056 - twenty-eight volumes of investigation materials on charges of policemen and German gendarmes in the massacre of the underground organization “Young Guard”, which operated in the Ukrainian city of Krasnodon in 1942.
Let us recall that the novel “The Young Guard,” which we have not re-read for a long time, tells in detail about these events. The writer Fadeev made a special trip to Krasnodon after his release and wrote an essay for Pravda, and then a book.
Oleg Koshevoy, Ivan Zemnukhov, Ulyana Gromova, Sergei Tyulenin and Lyubov Shevtsova were immediately awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
After this, not only the dead, but even the surviving “Young Guards” no longer belonged to themselves, but to Fadeev. In 1951, at the insistence of the Central Committee, he introduced communist mentors into his book. Here and in real life, kilometers of dissertations were written about their role in the leadership of the Krasnodon youth underground. And not the writer from eyewitnesses, but real participants in the events began to ask the writer: what was the Young Guard really doing? Who led it? Who betrayed her? Fadeev replied: “I wrote a novel, not a story.”
The investigation was hot on the trail when not all the witnesses and accused had yet read the novel, which quickly became a classic. This means that in their memory and testimony, the well-known underground book heroes have not yet managed to replace the completely real boys and girls executed by the Krasnodon police.
The “Young Guard” was invented twice. First at the Krasnodon police. Then Alexander Fadeev. Before a criminal case was opened regarding the theft of New Year's gifts at a local bazaar, SUCH an underground youth organization that we have known about since childhood did not exist in Krasnodon.
Or did it still exist?
So, the facts.
FROM CASE MATERIALS No. 20056:
Valya Borts:
“I joined the Young Guard through my school friend Seryozha Safonov, who introduced me to Sergei Tyulenin in August 1942. At that time the organization was small and was called the “Hammer” detachment. Took the oath.
The commander was Viktor Tretyakevich, the commissar was Oleg Koshevoy, and the members of the headquarters were Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin and Ulyana Gromova. Later the headquarters was expanded to include Lyuba Shevtsova.”
Korostylev, engineer of the Krasnougol trust : “One day at the beginning of October 1942, I handed over a radio receiver to the Young Guard. The reports they recorded were multiplied and then distributed throughout the city.”
Valya Borts:“...On November 7, red flags were hung on the buildings of the coal directorate and the club of mine No. 5-bis. The labor exchange was burned, in which lists of Soviet citizens subject to deportation to Germany were kept. Shevtsova, Lukyanchenko and Tyulenin set fire to the labor exchange.”
That's all, perhaps. Of course, it is not for us to judge whether this is a lot or a little when it comes to life and death, but even the gendarmes and police officers involved in Case No. 20056, just three years after the Krasnodon events, had difficulty remembering the Young Guard. They were never able to say how many people it consisted of or what it actually did. At first, they didn’t even understand why, out of everything they managed to do during the war, the investigation was interested in this short episode with teenagers.
In fact, only twenty-five gendarmes were left to support the Ordnung of the Germans in the entire area. Then five more were seconded. They were led by a fifty-year-old German - the head of the gendarmerie Renatus, a member of the NSDAP since 1933. And for every thirty Germans in the area there were four hundred police officers. And the competition for a position in the police was such that they hired only on recommendation.
“On the facts of arson at the labor exchange and hanging flags,” the police reported the next day: eight people were arrested. The head of the gendarmerie without hesitation ordered everyone to be shot.
In the Case there is a mention of only one victim of police reporting - the daughter of the collective farm manager Kaseev, who admitted to hanging the flags. It is absolutely known that Kaseeva was never a “Young Guard” and is not on the list of heroes.
The “culprit” of posting leaflets was also found immediately. The wife of a coal directorate engineer was just solving family problems. And, in order to get rid of her husband, she reported to the police: there was an engineer here who was in contact with the partisans. The "poster" was miraculously saved by his neighbor next door, burgomaster Statsenko.
Where did the myth about a huge, branched underground organization that poses a terrible threat to the Germans come from?
On the night of December 25-26, 1942, near the Krasnodon district government building, a German car containing mail and New Year's gifts for German soldiers and officers was robbed.
The driver of the car reported this to the Krasnodon gendarmerie.
The head of the Krasnodon police, Solikovsky, gathered all the police, showed a pack of cigarettes of the same brand as the stolen ones, and ordered them to immediately go to the local bazaar and bring to the police anyone who would sell such cigarettes.
Soon, the translator Burgart and a German in civilian clothes walking with him through the bazaar managed to detain twelve-year-old Alexander Grinev (aka Puzyrev). The boy admitted that Evgeny Moshkov gave him the cigarettes. Eight boxes of cigarettes and cookies were found in Moshkov’s apartment.
So the head of the club Moshkov, head. string circle Tretyakevich and some others.
And then they took Olga Lyadskaya.
In fact, she was arrested completely by accident. They came to Tosa Mashchenko in search of the “robber” Valya Borts, who by that time was already walking towards the front line. The policeman liked Tosya's tablecloth and decided to take it with him. Under the tablecloth lay an unsent letter from Lyadskaya to her acquaintance Fyodor Izvarin.
She wrote that she did not want to go to Germany for “SLAVERY”. That's right: in quotes and in capital letters.
Investigator Zakharov promised to hang Lyadskaya at the market for her capital letters in quotation marks, if he did not immediately name others dissatisfied with the new order. She asked: who is already in the police? The investigator cheated and named Tosya Mashchenko, who had been released by him by that time. Then Lyadskaya showed that Mashchenko was unreliable.
The investigator didn't expect anything more. But Lyadskaya was hooked and named a couple more names - those she remembered from active Komsomol work before the war, who had nothing to do with the Young Guard.
FROM CASE MATERIALS No. 20056:
Lyadskaya:“I named the people whom I suspected of partisan activity: Kozyrev, Tretyakevich, Nikolaenko, because they once asked me if there were partisans on our farm and if I was helping them. And after Solikovsky threatened to beat me up, I betrayed Mashchenko’s friend Borts...”
And eighty more people.
Even according to post-war lists, there were about seventy members of the organization.
For a long time, in addition to Lyadskaya, the “Young Guard” Pocheptsov was considered an “official” traitor. Indeed, investigator Cherenkov recalls that Gennady Pocheptsov, the nephew of the former chief of the Krasnodon police, handed over the group in the village of Pervomaisky to Solikovsky and Zakharov in writing. And he issued the MG headquarters in this order: Tretyakevich (chief), Lukashev, Zemnukhov, Safonov and Koshevoy. He also named the commander of his “five” - Popov.
Brought to the police, Tosya Mashchenko admitted that she had distributed leaflets. And she extradited Tretyakevich, who had been extradited for the third time since the New Year.
Tretyakevich betrayed Shevtsov and began calling “Young Guards” entire villages.
The circle of suspects expanded so much that chief Solikovsky even managed to get the son of burgomaster Statsenko into the police force. And, judging by the post-war testimony of the pope, Zhora told everything he knew about his friends whispering behind their backs. His father rescued him, just like the engineer who had been arrested “for leaflets” before. By the way, he also came running and reported that Oleg Koshevoy’s radio was being listened to illegally in his apartment.
Indeed, the “Young Guard” Gennady Pocheptsov, who after the war was made “an official traitor to the Young Guard,” betrayed on his own initiative. But he no longer told Solikovsky anything new.
The documents mention the Chinese Yakov Ka-Fu as a traitor to the Young Guard. Investigator Zakharov told investigator Orlov already in Italy, at the very end of the war, that this Chinese man betrayed the organization. The post-war investigation was able to establish only one thing: Yakov could have been offended by the Soviet government, because before the war he was removed from work due to his poor knowledge of the Russian language.
Imagine how the offended Chinese Ka-Fu betrayed the underground organization. How he answered the investigators' questions in detail - probably on his fingers. It is strange that the list of “Young Guards” did not include, if not all of China, then at least the entire Krasnodon region “Shanghai”.
For decades there has been a debate about how the real history of the Young Guard differs from that written by Fadeev. It turns out that the argument was pointless. Case
No. 20056 that the book embellished not life, but a myth already created before the writer. At first, the exploits of the youth underground were multiplied by the Krasnodon police themselves.
For what? Let's not forget that the Krasnodon policemen did not fall from the moon and did not come from the Third Reich. To report to your superiors, uncovering an ordinary robbery is much less significant than an entire underground organization. And once opened, it was not difficult for the former Soviets to believe in it. For former Soviets - on both sides of the front.
But all this was just the prehistory of the Young Guard. The story begins only now.
FROM CASE MATERIALS No. 20056:
Maria Borts:“...When I entered the office, Solikovsky was sitting at the table. In front of him lay a set of whips: thick, thin, wide, belts with lead tips. Vanya Zemnukhov, mutilated beyond recognition, stood by the sofa. His eyes were red, his eyelids were very inflamed. There are abrasions and bruises on the face. All of Vanya’s clothes were covered in blood, the shirt on his back was stuck to his body, and blood was seeping through it.”
Nina Zemnukhova:“From a resident of Krasnodon, Lensky Rafail Vasilyevich, who was kept in the same cell with Vanya, I learned that the executioners took Vanya, naked, into the police yard and beat him in the snow until he lost consciousness.
... Zhenya Moshkov was taken to the Kamenka River, frozen in an ice hole and then thawed in a stove in a nearby hut, after which they were again taken to the police for interrogation...
...Volodya Osmukhin had a bone broken in his arm, and every time during interrogation they twisted his broken arm..."
Tyulenina (Sergei's mother):“On the third day after my arrest, I was summoned for questioning where Seryozha was. Solikovsky, Zakharov and Cherenkov forced me to strip naked, and then beat me with whips until I lost consciousness. And when I woke up, in my presence they began to burn Seryozha’s right hand wound with a hot rod. The fingers were placed under the doors and squeezed until they were completely dead. Needles were driven under the nails and hung on ropes. The air in the room where the torture was carried out was filled with the smell of burnt meat.
...In the cells, policeman Avsetsin did not give us water for whole days in order to at least slightly moisten the blood that had dried in our mouth and throat.”
Cherenkov (police investigator):“I conducted a confrontation between Gromova, Ivanikhina and Zemnukhov. At that moment, Solikovsky and his wife entered the office. Having laid Gromova and Ivanikhin on the floor, I began to beat them. Solikovsky, egged on by his wife, snatched the whip from my hands and began to deal with the arrested himself.
... Since the prison cells were filled with young people, many, like Olga Ivantsova’s mother, were simply lying around in the corridor.”
Maria Borts:“...Solikovsky, Zakharov, Davidenko forced the girls to strip naked, and then they began to mock them, accompanied by beatings.Sometimes this was done in the presence of Solikovsky’s wife, who usually sat on the sofa and burst into laughter.
...Ulya Gromova was hung up by her braids... Her chest was trampled under boots.
...Policeman Bautkin beat Popov with a whip and forced him to lick up the blood that splashed on the wall with his tongue.”
In 1948, Sergei Gerasimov filmed his film “The Young Guard”. The whole city gathered to film the scene of the execution of underground workers at the mine. And Krasnodon roared loudly when the actor playing Oleg Koshevoy, Alexander Ivanov, was the first to go to the pit... It is unlikely that, knowing that Koshevoy was not shot at the mine, they would have cried less.
The decision to execute at mine No. 5-bis was made by the police chief Solikovsky and burgomaster Statsenko. The place was checked, Krasnodon residents had already been shot there.
According to the Case, the “Young Guards” were taken to execution in four stages. The first time, on January 13, there were thirteen girls in a truck, with six Jews attached to them. First, the Jews were shot and thrown into the pit of mine No. 5-bis. And then the girls started shouting that they were not guilty of anything. The police began to lift and tie the girls' dresses over their heads. And some were thrown into the mine alive.
The next day, sixteen more people were taken to the mine on three carts, including Moshkov and Popov.
Tretyakevich was thrown into the mine alive because he managed to grab police investigator Zakharov and tried to drag him along with him. So decide for yourself what Viktor Tretyakevich really was like, about whom not a single writer wrote a single line for twenty years after his execution.
The third time - on January 15 - seven girls and five boys were taken out on two carts. And for the last time, in early February, Tyulenin and four others were taken out on one cart. Then the execution almost fell through. Kovalev and Grigorenko managed to untie each other's hands. Grigorenko was killed by the translator Burgart, and Kovalev was only wounded - then they found his coat, pierced by a bullet. The rest were hastily shot and thrown into the mine.
For almost a week, Oleg Koshevoy hid from persecution in the villages, dressed in a woman’s dress. Then he lay down for three days - under a bed in a relative’s apartment.
Koshevoy thought that the Krasnodon police were looking for him as a commissar of the Young Guard. In fact, he was caught as a participant in the robbery of a car with New Year's gifts. But they took me for neither one nor the other - simply because in the front-line zone they grabbed and searched all the young people.
Koshevoy was taken to the Rovno district gendarmerie to investigator Orlov. Oleg knew: this is the same Ivan Orlov who once called in for questioning and raped the teacher. And the Germans even had to “meet the population halfway” and remove Orlov from Krasnodon here, to Rovenki.
Koshevoy shouted to Orlov: I am an underground commissar! But the investigator didn’t listen about the Young Guard: how could real partisans pretend to be so stupid? But the young man irritated the investigator so much that during six days of interrogation Oleg turned gray.
The Germans from the firing squad testified about how Koshevoy died. They hardly remembered how, during breakfast, the chief of the gendarmerie Fromme came into the dining room and said: hurry up, there is work. As usual, they took the prisoners into the forest, divided them into two parties, and placed them facing the pits...
But they clearly remembered that after the volley one gray-haired boy did not fall into the hole, but remained lying on the edge. He turned his head and simply looked in their direction. Gendarme Drewitz could not stand it, he approached and shot him in the back of the head with a rifle.
For the Germans, neither the name of Oleg Koshevoy nor the “Young Guard” existed. But even a few years after the war, they did not forget the look of the gray-haired boy lying on the edge of the pit...
After the liberation of Krasnodon, on March 1, 1943, forty-nine corpses of the dead were placed in coffins and transported to the park named after. Komsomol. It snowed, immediately turning into mud. The funeral lasted from morning until late evening.
In 1949, Lyadskaya asked to be given the opportunity to independently complete the 10th grade program, because she had been in prison since the age of seventeen. Olga Lyadskaya was rehabilitated in the mid-nineties on the grounds that she was not a member of the Young Guard youth Komsomol organization, and therefore could not extradite her.
In 1960, Viktor Tretyakevich was included in the lists of the “Young Guard” and was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
The editors express their gratitude to the leadership of the Central Election Commission of the FSB.
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The period of modern Russian history, called “perestroika,” has taken its toll not only on the living, but also on 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 from the underground members of the Young Guard organization. The “debunkers of Soviet myths” poured 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 fascists was so insignificant that it is not worth talking about.
Got it more than others Oleg Koshevoy, who in Soviet historiography was called the organization's commissar. Apparently, the reason for the special hostility towards him on the part of the “whistleblowers” was precisely his status as a “commissar”.It was even argued that in Krasnodon itself, where the organization operated, no one knew about Koshevoy, that his mother, who had been a wealthy woman even before the war, was making money from her son’s posthumous fame, that for this reason she identified the corpse of an old man instead of Oleg’s body...
Elena Nikolaevna Koshevaya, Oleg’s mother, was not the only one who was wiped out in the late 1980s. In the same tone and almost the same words they insulted Lyubov Timofeevna Kosmodemyanskaya- mother of two Heroes of the Soviet Union who died during the war - Zoe and Alexandra Kosmodemyansky.
Those who trampled on the memory of heroes and their mothers still work in the Russian media, hold high degrees of candidates and doctors of historical sciences and feel excellent...
“Hands were twisted, ears were cut off, a star was carved on the cheek...”
Meanwhile, the real history 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 Young Guards raised from the pit of mine No. 5. And these protocols best speak of what the young anti-fascists had to endure before their death.
The shaft of the mine where members of the underground organization “Young Guard” were executed by the Nazis. Photo: RIA Novosti
« Ulyana Gromova, 19 years old, a five-pointed star carved on his back, his right arm was broken, his ribs were broken...”
« Lida Androsova, 18 years old, taken out without an eye, ear, hand, with a rope around her neck, which cut heavily into her body. Dried blood is visible on the neck.”
« Angelina Samoshina, 18 years. Signs 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 was disfigured: breasts, lips were cut off, legs were broken. All outer clothing has been removed."
« Shura Bondareva, 20 years old, taken out without the head and right breast, the whole body was beaten, bruised, black in color.”
« Victor Tretyakevich, 18 years. He was pulled out without a face, with a black and blue back, with crushed arms.” Experts found no traces of bullets on the body of Viktor Tretyakevich - 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 Thundering 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 was called Voroshilovgrad.
At the turn of the 1930s and 1940s, many working-class youth, brought up in the spirit of Soviet ideology, lived in Krasnodon. 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 were formed independently of each other, which were joined by Red Army soldiers who found themselves in Krasnodon and escaped 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 joined the headquarters of the Young Guard was Oleg Koshevoy.
An exemplary student and a good friend
Oleg Koshevoy was born in the city of Pryluky, Chernihiv region, on June 8, 1926. Then Oleg’s family moved to Poltava, and later to Rzhishchev. Oleg's parents separated, 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 example to follow. He studied well, was fond of drawing, wrote poetry, played sports, and danced well. In the spirit of that time, Koshevoy was engaged in shooting and fulfilled the standard for receiving the Voroshilov Shooter badge. After learning to swim, he began helping others and soon began working as 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 behind, sometimes taking five people in tow 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 “Crocodile” 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 Koshevoy’s 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 do otherwise...
Oleg Koshevoy, who turned 16 in June 1942, was not supposed to stay in Krasnodon - just before the Nazis occupied the city, he was sent for evacuation. However, it was not possible to go far, since 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, depressed and silent, did not know what to put his hands to. What was happening around was no longer astonishing, but was crushing my son’s soul with terrible anger,” recalled Oleg’s mother Elena Nikolaevna.
During perestroika times, some “tearers of the veil” put forward the following thesis: those who before the war declared loyalty to communist ideals, during the years of severe trials thought only about 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 hide and try not to attract attention to himself. In reality, everything was different - Koshevoy, having experienced the first shock of seeing his city in the hands of the invaders, begins to assemble a group from his friends to fight the fascists. In September, the group assembled by Koshev becomes part of the Young Guard.
Oleg Koshevoy was involved in planning the operations of the Young Guards, he himself participated in the actions, and was responsible for communications with other underground groups operating in the vicinity of Krasnodon.
Still from the film “Young Guard” (directed by Sergei Gerasimov, 1948). The scene before the execution. Photo: Still from the film
Red banner over Krasnodon
The activities of the Young Guard, which consisted of about 100 people, may indeed not seem the most impressive to some. During their work, the Young Guards produced and distributed about 5 thousand leaflets with calls to fight the fascists and with messages about what was happening at the fronts. In addition, they carried out a number of acts of sabotage, such as destroying grain prepared for export to Germany, dispersing a herd of cattle that was intended for the needs of the German army, and blowing up a passenger car with German officers. One of the most successful actions of the Young Guard was the arson of the Krasnodon labor exchange, as a result of which the lists of those whom the Nazis intended to steal 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, Young Guards hung 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 residents, but also by the Nazis themselves, who intensified the search for underground fighters.
The “Young Guard” consisted of young Komsomol members who had no experience in conducting 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 cars with New Year's gifts for German soldiers. The underground members intended to use the gifts for their own purposes. On January 1, 1943, two members of the organization, Evgeniy Moshkov And Victor Tretyakevich, were arrested after bags stolen from German cars were found in their possession.
German counterintelligence, seizing on this thread and using previously obtained data, within a few days uncovered almost the entire underground network of the Young Guards. Mass arrests began.
Koshevoy was given a Komsomol card
Mother of the Hero of the Soviet Union, partisan Oleg Koshevoy Elena Nikolaevna Koshevaya. Photo: RIA Novosti / M. Gershman
To those who were not arrested immediately, 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 a commissar of the Young Guard, detained Oleg’s mother and grandmother. During interrogations, Elena Nikolaevna Kosheva’s spine was damaged and her teeth were knocked out...
As already mentioned, no one prepared the Young Guards for underground work. This is largely why most of those who managed to escape from Krasnodon were unable to cross the front line. Oleg, after an unsuccessful attempt on January 11, 1943, returned to Krasnodon to go to the front line again the next day.
He was detained by field gendarmerie near the city of Rovenki. Koshevoy was not known by sight, and he could well have avoided exposure if not for a mistake that was completely impossible for a professional illegal intelligence officer. During the search, they found a Komsomol card sewn into his clothes, as well as several other documents incriminating him as a member of the Young Guard. According to the requirements of the conspiracy, Koshevoy had to get rid of all the documents, but boyish pride for Oleg turned out to be higher than considerations of common sense.
It’s easy to condemn the mistakes of the Young Guard, but we are talking about very young boys and girls, almost teenagers, and not seasoned professionals.
“They had to shoot him twice...”
The occupiers showed no leniency towards the members of the Young Guard. The Nazis and their collaborators subjected the underground members to sophisticated torture. Oleg Koshevoy did not escape this fate either.
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 Young Guard commissar was shot on February 9, 1943. From the testimony Schultz- 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 whom was the leader of this organization Koshevoy... I remember him especially clearly because I had to shoot at him twice. After the shots, all those arrested fell to the ground and lay motionless, only Koshevoy stood up and, turning around, looked in our direction. This made me very angry Fromme and he ordered the gendarme Drewitz finish him off. Drewitz approached the lying Koshevoy and killed him with a shot in the back of the head...”
Schoolchildren at the pit of mine No. 5 in Krasnodon - the place of execution of Young Guards. Photo: RIA Novosti / Datsyuk
Oleg Koshevoy died just five days before the city of Krasnodon was liberated by Red Army units.
The Young Guard became widely known in the USSR because the history of its activities, unlike many other similar organizations, was documented. Those who betrayed, tortured and executed the Young Guard were identified, exposed and convicted.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 13, 1943, the Young Guard Ulyana Gromova, Ivan Zemnukhov, Oleg Koshevoy, Sergei 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, 1st degree, 6 — the Order of the Red Star, 66 — the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 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 a mortar battery of the 163rd Guards Rifle Regiment.
In the ranks of the Red Army, he went from Krasnodon further to the west, to take revenge on the Nazis for his killed 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 nominated him for 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
Oath of 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. To keep everything related to my work in the Young Guard in the deepest secrecy.I swear to take revenge mercilessly for the burned, devastated cities and villages, for the blood of our people, for the martyrdom of thirty miner 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 and my family be cursed forever, and may I myself be punished by the harsh hand of my comrades.
Blood for blood! Death for death!
Oleg Koshevoy continued his war against the Nazis even after his death. Aircraft of the squadron of the 171st Fighter Wing, 315th Fighter Division under the command of Captain Ivana Vishnyakova bore on their fuselages the inscription “For Oleg Koshevoy!” The squadron pilots destroyed several dozen fascist aircraft, and Ivan Vishnyakov himself was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The “Oath” monument in Krasnodon, dedicated to members of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard”. Photo: RIA Novosti / Tyurin
Novaya Gazeta completes a series of publications about the legendary underground organization “Young Guard”, which was created exactly 75 years ago. And about how people live today in the Lugansk region, where the active phase of the last hostilities ended in March not in 1943, but in 2015, 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” (“LPR”).
After studying the party archives stored in Lugansk, Novaya special correspondent Yulia POLUKHINA returned to Krasnodon. Based on archive materials, in previous publications we were able to talk about how the underground Komsomol organization of Krasnodon was created in September 1942, what role in its work was played by connections with partisan detachments and underground regional committees of Voroshilovograd (as Lugansk was called during the war) and Rostov-on-Don. 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, suffered during the wave of struggle against Soviet mythology: they began to talk about him, too, as a collective image that Fadeev “drew” to please the party leadership.
Perhaps, neither the Krasnodon nor Lugansk archives make it possible to say unambiguously who was the leader of the Young Guard, exactly how many large and small feats (or, in modern terms, special operations) it had to its credit, and which of the guys already captured by the police , gave a confession 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 talk about this tragedy in the last publication of the series about the Krasnodon residents, relying on the memories of the relatives of the Young Guard, the stories of their descendants, as well as interrogation reports of policemen and gendarmes involved in torture and executions.
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 Guard members and many members of the underground party organization were first arrested and then executed, began to disappear in the first days after the liberation of the city by the Red Army. The more valuable is each unit of the scientific funds of the Young Guard Museum. The museum staff introduces 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 named after. Gorky, the microphones were connected to speakers on the street, 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 the chief custodian of the funds, Lyubov Viktorovna. 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 covered in dust. At that time there was no such law in Ukraine, but such conversations were already underway.”
Decommunization really overtook Krasnodon, which ceased to exist because in 2015 it was renamed Sorokino. However, this is not felt at all in the museum, and none of the local residents would even think of calling themselves Sorokinites.
“Look at this photo. On the walls of the cells in which the Young Guard members were kept after their 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, a photojournalist for the 51st Army newspaper “Son of the Fatherland.” By the way, he was the first to film not only the story about the Young Guards, but also the Adzhimushkai quarries and the Bagerovo 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 then rehabilitated. So, according to Yablonsky, when the Red Army soldiers 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 pictures and decided that he would return in the morning. But when I came in the morning, there was nothing there, not a single inscription. And who erased it, not the fascists? 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 Young Guard member Gennady Pocheptsov, was initially entrusted with leading the work of extracting the bodies of those executed from the pit of mine No. 5. Under the Germans, Gromov was a secret police agent and was directly related to at least the arrests of underground fighters. Therefore, of course, he did not want bodies with traces of inhuman torture to be brought to the surface.
This is how this moment is described in the memoirs of Maria Vintsenovskaya, the mother of the deceased Yuri Vintsenovsky:
“For a long time he tormented us with his slowness. Either he doesn’t know how to remove it, or he doesn’t know how to install the winch, or he just delayed extraction. His miner parents told him what and how to do. Finally, everything was ready. We hear Gromov’s voice: “Who voluntarily agrees to go down into 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. Such silence that you could hear your own heartbeat. Here comes the tub. Shouts of “Girl, girl” can be heard. It was Tosya Eliseenko. She was one of the first batch dropped. The corpse was placed on a stretcher, covered with a sheet and taken to the pre-mine bathhouse. Snow was laid out along all the walls in the bathhouse, 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, who was also shot in the first batch and also hung 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 difference does it make, if not the fourth, then the fifth will be Yuri. The third was Misha Grigoriev, the fourth was Yura Vintsenovsky, the fifth was V. Zagoruiko, Lukyanchenko, Sopova and the subsequent Seryozha Tyulenin.<…>Meanwhile, evening came, there were no more corpses in the mine. Gromov, after consulting with the doctor Nadezhda Fedorovna Privalova, who was present here, announced that he would no longer remove corpses, since the doctor said that cadaveric poison is lethal. There will be a mass grave here. Work to remove the corpses was stopped. The next morning we were back at the pit, now we were allowed to go into the bathhouse. Each mother tried to recognize her own in the corpse, but it 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 ( Some of the Young Guards were taken from Krasnodon to the Gestapo, they were executed already in Rovenki. — Yu.P.) passed a message there for him, walked calmly around the corpses. Suddenly a terrible cry, fainting. She saw a familiar patch on the fifth corpse's trousers; 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 we noticed that a man was sitting just above the abyss of the pit and smoking.<…>It was Androsov, the father of Androsova Lida. “It’s good for you, they found the body of your son, but I won’t find the body of my daughter. Corpse poison is lethal. I may die from the poison of my daughter's corpse, but I must get her. Just think, it's a tricky thing to manage the extraction. I’ve been working in the mine for twenty years, I have a lot of experience, there’s nothing tricky about it. I’ll go to the city party committee and ask permission to direct the extraction.” And the next day, having received permission, Androsov got to work.”
And here is a fragment of the memoirs of Makar Androsov himself. He is a hard worker, a miner, and he describes the most terrible moments of his life casually, like work:
“The medical examination has arrived. Doctors said that the bodies could be removed, but special rubber clothing was needed. Many parents of the Young Guard knew me as a career 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, deep into the pit, but I couldn’t. A suffocating, corpse-like smell came from the mine. 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, crying and screaming. The bodies were taken to the mine bathhouse. The cement floor of the bathhouse was covered with snow, and the bodies were placed directly on the floor. A doctor was on duty at the pit and revived the parents, who were losing consciousness. The corpses were disfigured 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 “go wrong.” Many bodies were found without arms or legs. Rescue operations took 8 days. Daughter Lida was removed from the pit on the third day. I recognized her by her clothes and the green cloaks that her neighbor sewed. She was arrested wearing these burkas. Lida had a string around her neck. They probably shot him in the forehead, because there was a large wound on the back of the head and a smaller one on the forehead. One arm, leg, and eye were missing. The cloth skirt was torn and was held only by the waist; the jumper was also torn. When they took out Lida’s body, I fainted. A.A. Startseva said that she recognized Lida even 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 bloodied. In total, 71 corpses were taken out of the pit. Coffins were made from old boards from dismantled houses. On February 27 or 28, we brought the bodies of our children from Krasnodon to the village. The coffins were placed in one row at the village council. The coffin of Lida and Kolya Sumsky was placed in the grave next to each other.”
Tyulenin and his five
Sergey Tyulenin When you read these “sick” memories of the parents, although recorded after years, you understand what exactly eludes during disputes about the historical truth in the history of the “Young Guard”. That they were children. They were involved in a big adult nightmare and, although they perceived it with absolute, even deliberate seriousness, it was still perceived as a kind of game. And who at 16 years old would believe in an imminent 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. This was also facilitated by the principle of secrecy: the Young Guards, as you know, were divided into fives, and ordinary underground fighters knew only members of their own group. Most often, the fives included boys and girls 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. One can argue endlessly about who in the Young Guard was a commissar and who was a commander, but I am confident: the leader, without whom there would be no legend, is Tyulenin.
In the archives of the Young Guard Museum there is his biography:
“Sergei Gavrilovich Tyulenin was born on August 25, 1925 in the village of Kiselevo, Novosilsky district, Oryol region, into a working-class family. In 1926, his entire family moved to live in the city of Krasnodon, where Seryozha grew up. There were 10 children in the family. 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, hiking, and Seryozha especially loved war games. His dream was to become a pilot. Having completed seven classes, Sergei is trying to enter a flight school. For health reasons, he was considered quite fit, but was not enrolled due to his age. I had to go to school again: eighth grade.<….>The war begins, and Tyulenin voluntarily joins 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, it was called the “Young Guard”...
Tyulenin was one of the members of the Young Guard headquarters and took part in most military operations: distributing leaflets, setting fire to stacks of bread, collecting weapons.
November 7th was approaching. Sergei's group received the task of hoisting a flag at school No. 4. ( Tyulenin, Dadyshev, Tretyakevich, Yurkin, Shevtsova studied at this school. —Yu.P.). This is what Radiy Yurkin, a 14-year-old participant in the operation, recalls:
“On the long-awaited night before the holiday, we set off to complete the task.<…>Seryozha Tyulenin was the first to climb the creaky ladder. We are behind him with grenades at the ready. We looked around and immediately got to work. Styopa Safonov and Seryozha climbed onto the roof using wire fastenings. Lenya Dadyshev stood at the dormer window, peering and listening to see if anyone had sneaked up on us. I attached the banner towel to the pipe. All is ready. “Senior miner” Stepa Safonov, as we later called him, declared that the mines were ready.<…>Our banner flies proudly in the air, and below in the attic lie anti-tank mines attached to the flagpole.<…>In the morning a lot of people gathered near the school. Enraged policemen rushed to the attic. But now they came back, confused, muttering something about mines.”
This is what the second loud and successful action of the Young Guard looks like in Yurkin’s memoirs: the arson of the labor exchange, which allowed two and a half thousand Krasnodon residents to avoid being sent to forced labor in Germany, including many of the Young Guards who had received summonses the day before.
“On the night of December 5-6, Sergei, Lyuba Shevtsova, Viktor Lukyanchenko quietly snuck into the attic of the exchange, scattered pre-prepared incendiary cartridges and set the exchange on fire.”
And here the ringleader was Tyulenin.
One of Sergei'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 woman. They moved to Krasnodon in 1940. Nadezhda Dadysheva, Leonid Dadyshev’s younger sister, described these months in her memoirs:
“Sergei Tyulenin studied with his brother, and we lived next door to him. Obviously, this was the impetus for their future friendship, which was not interrupted until the end of his short but bright life.<…>Lenya loved music. He had a mandala, and he could sit for hours and play Russian and Ukrainian folk melodies on it. My favorite songs were about the heroes of the Civil War. There were also abilities in the field of drawing. His favorite themes in his drawings were warships (destroyers, battleships), cavalry in battle, and portraits of commanders. (During the search during the arrest of my brother, the police took a lot of his drawings.)<…>One day my brother asked me to bake some homemade crumpets. He knew that a column of Red Army prisoners of war would be escorted through our city, and, wrapping donuts in a bundle, he set off with his comrades to the main highway. The next day, his comrades said that Lenya threw a bundle of food into the crowd of prisoners of war, and also threw his winter hat with earflaps, and he himself wore a cap in the severe frost.”
The ending of Nadezhda Dadysheva’s memoirs takes us back to the pit of mine No. 5.
“On February 14, the city of Krasnodon was liberated by units of the Red Army. That 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 executed Red Army prisoners of war, covered with straw on top. My mother and I went into the former police station: all the doors were wide open, broken chairs and broken dishes were lying on the floor. And on the walls of all the cells were written arbitrary words and poems of the dead. In one cell, the entire wall was written in large letters: “Death to the German occupiers!” On one door was scratched with something metal: “Lenya Dadash sat here!” Mom cried a lot, and 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 shaft No. 5. The corpses were disfigured, but each mother recognized her son and daughter, and with each winch lifting upward, heartbreaking screams and cries of exhausted mothers could be 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 cannot hear the words from the song “Eaglet” without emotion: I don’t want to think about death, believe me, at the age of 16 as a boy”... My brother died at the age of 16.”
The Dadyshevs’ mother died soon; she could not survive the death of her son. They took Leonid out of the pit, all blue because he had been whipped, with his right hand severed. 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 serious health condition, she spends the last years of her life in a Krasnodon hospice.
Policemen and traitors
Gennady Pocheptsov The museum's scientific collection 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, fearful of arrests, wrote a statement on the advice of his stepfather, indicating the names of his comrades.
From the protocol of interrogation of Vasily Grigorievich Gromov 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 else was at home. But from the words of his wife, I learned that Gennady’s comrades came and smoked. Then I asked my son if there were any members of an underground youth organization among those arrested for theft. The son replied that indeed some of the organization's members had been arrested for stealing German gifts. In order to save my son’s life, and also so that the blame for belonging to my son’s organization would not fall on me, I suggested that Pocheptsov (my step-son) immediately write a statement to the police that he wanted to extradite the members of the underground youth organization. The son promised to fulfill my proposal. When I soon asked him about this, he said that he had already written a statement to the police; I didn’t ask which one he wrote.”The police investigation into the Krasnodon case was headed by senior investigator Mikhail Kuleshov. According to archive documents, before the war he worked as a lawyer, but his career did not work out; he had a criminal record and was known for his systematic drinking. Before the war, he often received party-line reprimands from Mikhail Tretyakevich, the elder brother of the Young Guard Tretyakevich, who was later exposed as a traitor, for “everyday corruption.” And Kuleshov felt personal hostility towards him, which he later took out on Viktor Tretyakevich.
Policemen Solikovsky (on the left), Kuleshov (on the right in the central photo) and Melnikov (on the far right of the photo in the foreground). The latter’s “betrayal” became known only from the words of Kuleshov, who was interrogated by the NKVD. Viktor Tretyakevich became the only Young Guard member whose name was deleted from the award lists; worse, on the basis of Kuleshov’s testimony, the conclusions of the “Toritsyn commission” were formed, based on the materials of which Fadeev wrote his novel.
From the protocol of interrogation of former investigator Ivan Emelyanovich Kuleshov dated May 28, 1943 .
“...The police had such an order that first of all the arrested person was brought to Solikovsky, he brought him “to consciousness” and ordered the investigator to interrogate him, draw up a report 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 a statement out of his pocket and asked if he wrote it. Pocheptsov answered in the affirmative, after which Solikovsky again hid this statement in his pocket.<…>Pocheptsov said that he is indeed a member of an underground youth organization existing 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, called the police and Zakharov and began making arrests. He ordered me to take Pocheptsov and interrogate him and present him with the interrogation protocols. During my interrogation, Pocheptsov said that the headquarters had weapons at its disposal<…>. After this, 30-40 members of the underground youth organization were arrested. I personally interrogated 12 people, including Pocheptsov, Tretyakevich, Levashov, Zemnukhov, Kulikov, Petrov, Vasily Pirozhok and others.”
From the protocol of interrogation of Gennady Prokofievich Pocheptsov dated April 8, 1943 and June 2, 1943.
“...On December 28, 1942, the police chief Solikovsky, his deputy Zakharov, the Germans and the police arrived on a sleigh at Moshkov’s house (he lived next to me). They searched Moshkov’s apartment, found some kind of bag, put it on a sled, put Moshkov in and left. My mother and I saw it all. Mother asked if Moshkov was from our organization. I said no, because I didn’t know about Moshkov’s membership in the organization. After some time, Fomin came to see me. He said that on Popov’s instructions he went to the center to find out which of the guys had been arrested. He said that Tretyakevich, Zemnukhov and Levashov were arrested. We began to discuss what we should do, where to run, who to consult, but made no decision. After Fomin left, I thought about my situation and, not finding another solution, showed cowardice and decided to write a statement to the police saying that I knew an underground youth organization.<…>Before writing a statement, I myself went to the Gorky club and saw what was going on 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 contained a number of other names. I said that I don’t know Tyulenin. He went home and at home decided to hand over 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 several days of interrogation, the police chief ordered: “Whip the thieves and drive them out.” At this time, Pocheptsov, summoned by Solikovsky, came to the police. He pointed out those he knew, primarily from the village of Pervomaika, in whose group Pocheptsov himself was. 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 mechanical workshops where their cell operated were monitored by Zons agents ( Deputy Chief of the Krasnodon Gendarmerie. — Yu.P.). Zons was shown lists of arrested underground workers, which included only children 16-17 years old, and then Zons ordered the arrest of Lyutikov and 20 other people, whom his agents had been closely monitoring for a long time. Thus, more than 50 people who had one connection or another with the “Young Guard” and underground communists ended up in the cells.
Testimony of police officer Alexander Davydenko.“In January, I went into the office of the police secretary, it seems, to receive my salary, and through the open door I saw in the office of the police chief Solikovsky the arrested members of the Young Guard Tretyakevich, Moshkov, Gukhov (inaudible). The police chief, Solikovsky, who was there, interrogated him, his deputy Zakharov, the translator Burkhard, a German whose last name I don’t know, and two policemen - Gukhalov and Plokhikh. The Young Guard members were interrogated about how and under what circumstances they stole gifts from cars intended for German soldiers. During this interrogation, I also went into Solikovsky’s office and saw the entire process of this interrogation. During the interrogation of Tretyakevich, Moshkov and Gukhov, they were subjected to beatings and torture. They were not only beaten, but hung on a rope from the ceiling, imitating execution by hanging. When the Young Guards began to lose consciousness, they were taken down and doused with water on the floor, bringing them to their senses.”
Victor Tretyakevich Viktor Tretyakevich was interrogated with particular passion by Mikhail Kuleshov.
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 publicly 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 complete confiscation of property. Her further fate is unknown, but in 1991, the effect of Art. 1 of the Law of the Ukrainian SSR “On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression in Ukraine.” Due to the lack of evidence confirming the validity of prosecution, she was exonerated.
Policeman Solikovsky managed to escape and was never found. Although he was the main one among the direct perpetrators of the execution of the Young Guards in Krasnodon.
From the interrogation protocol of gendarme Walter Eichhorn dated November 20, 1948.“Under the force of torture and abuse, testimonies were obtained from those arrested about their involvement in an underground Komsomol organization operating in the city. Krasnodon. About these arrests, Master Shen ( head of the gendarme post of Cransodon. — Yu.P.) reported on command to his boss Wenner. Later an order was received to shoot the youth.<…>They began to bring out into our yard one by one the arrested people, prepared to be sent to be shot; besides us, the gendarmes, there were five policemen. One car was accompanied by Commandant Sanders, and with him in the cockpit was Zons ( Deputy Chief Shen. — Yu.P.), and I stood on the step of the car. The second car was accompanied by Solikovsky, and the head of the criminal police, Kuleshov, was there.<…>About ten meters from the mine, the cars stopped and were cordoned off by gendarmes and police officers who escorted them to the place of execution<…>. I personally was close to the place of execution and saw how one of the policemen one by one took the arrested from their cars, undressed them and brought them to Solikovsky, who shot them at the mine shaft and threw the corpses into the pit of the mine ... "Initially, the case of the Young Guards was handled 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 became involved in the case. Some of the Young Guards were taken there because the Red Army was already advancing on Krasnodon. Oleg Koshevoy managed to escape, but was arrested in Rovenki.
Oleg Koshevoy Later, this created the basis 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 living on false documents.
Similar stories are known, for example, if we recall the Krasnodon executioners, then not only Solikovsky, but also policemen Vasily Podtynny and Ivan Melnikov managed to escape. Melnikov, by the way, was directly related not only to the torture of 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 as part of the Wehrmacht, was captured in Moldova, and in 1944 was drafted into the Red Army. He fought with dignity and was awarded medals, but in 1965 he was exposed as a former policeman and subsequently shot.
The fate of policeman Podtynny developed in a similar way: he was tried many years after the crime was committed, but in Krasnodon, in public. By the way, during the trial and investigation, Podtynny testified that Viktor Tretyakevich was not a traitor and that investigator Kuleshov slandered him for reasons of personal revenge. After this, Tretyakevich was rehabilitated (but Stakhevich in Fadeev’s novel remained a traitor).
However, all these analogies do not apply to Koshevoy. The archives contain protocols of interrogations of direct participants and eyewitnesses of his execution in Rovenki.
From the interrogation protocol of Ivan Orlov, a Rovenki police officer:
“I first learned about the existence of the Young Guard at the end of January 1943 from Komsomol member Oleg Koshevoy, who was arrested in Rovenki. Then people who came to Rovenki at the beginning of 1943 told me about this organization. Krasnodon police investigators Usachev and Didik, who took part in the investigation into the Young Guard case.<…>I remember that I asked Usachev whether Oleg Koshevoy was involved in the Young Guard case. Usachev said that Koshevoy was one of the leaders of the underground organization, but he disappeared from Krasnodon and cannot be found. In this regard, I told Usachev that Koshevoy was arrested in Rovenki and shot by the gendarmerie.”
From the interrogation protocol of Otto-August Drewitz, an employee of the Rovenki gendarmerie :
Question: They show you a slide with the image of the leader of the illegal Komsomol organization “Young Guard” 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 Fromme gendarmerie unit to prepare for the execution of arrested Soviet citizens. In the courtyard I saw police guarding nine arrested people, among whom was also the identified Oleg Koshevoy. By order of Fromme, we led 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 hole dug in advance in the park and shot everyone on Fromme’s orders. Then I noticed that Koshevoy was still alive, he was only wounded, I came closer to him and shot him straight in the head. When I shot Koshevoy, I was returning with other gendarmes who participated in the execution back to the barracks. Several policemen were sent to the execution site to bury the corpses.”
Protocol of 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 among them, except Pocheptsov.
The story of the life and death of the Young Guard immediately began to become overgrown with 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 fighters of Krasnodon as a result of interrogations and executions at the pit of mine No. 5 and in the Thunderous Forest of Rovenki. January-February 1943. (Archive of the Young Guard Museum.)
The certificate was compiled on the basis of the act of investigating 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. Barakov Nikolai Petrovich, 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 cut 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. He was pulled out with a crushed skull, a smashed face, and a crushed arm.
4. Lyutikov Philip Petrovich, born in 1891. He was thrown into the pit alive. 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. She was among the last to be pulled out with her head crushed. The body is bruised, there is a knife wound on the chest.
6. Yakovlev Stepan Georgievich, born in 1898. He was extracted with a crushed head and a dissected back.
7. Androsova Lidiya Makarovna, born in 1924. She was taken out without an eye, ear, hand, with a rope around her neck, which cut heavily into the body, baked blood is visible on her neck.
8. Bondareva Alexandra Ivanovna, born in 1922. The head and right mammary gland were removed. The whole body is beaten, bruised, and black.
9. Vintsenovsky Yuri Semenovich, born in 1924. He was taken out with a swollen face, without clothes. There were no wounds on the body. Apparently he was dropped alive.
10. Glavan Boris Grigorievich, born in 1920. It was recovered from the pit, severely mutilated.
11. Gerasimova Nina Nikolaevna, born in 1924. The victim's head was flattened, her nose was depressed, her left arm was broken, and her body was beaten.
12. Grigoriev Mikhail Nikolaevich, born in 1924. The victim had a laceration on his temple resembling a five-pointed star. The legs were cut, covered with scars and bruises: the whole body was black, the face was disfigured, the teeth were knocked out.
Ulyana Gromova 13. Ulyana Matveevna Gromova, born in 1924. A five-pointed star was carved on her back, her right arm was broken, and her ribs were broken.
14. Gukov Vasily Safonovich, born in 1921. Beaten beyond recognition.
15. Dubrovina Alexandra Emelyanovna, born in 1919. She was pulled out without a skull, there were puncture wounds on her back, her arm was broken, her leg was shot.
16. Dyachenko Antonina Nikolaevna, born in 1924. There was an open fracture of the skull with a patchy wound, striped bruises on the body, elongated abrasions and wounds resembling imprints of narrow, hard objects, apparently from blows with a telephone cable.
17. Eliseenko Antonina Zakharovna, born in 1921. The victim had traces of burns and beatings on her body, and there was a trace of a gunshot wound on her temple.
18. Zhdanov Vladimir Alexandrovich, born in 1925. He was extracted with a laceration in the left temporal region. The fingers are broken, which is why they are twisted, and there are bruises under the nails. Two stripes 3 cm wide and 25 cm long were cut out on the back. Eyes were gouged out and ears were cut off.
19. Zhukov Nikolay Dmitrievich, born in 1922. Extracted without ears, tongue, teeth. An arm and a foot were severed.
20. Zagoruiko Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1927. Recovered without hair, with a severed hand.
21. Zemnukhov Ivan Alexandrovich, born in 1923. He was taken out beheaded and 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 victim's eyes were gouged out, her head was bandaged with a scarf and wire, and her breasts were cut out.
23. Ivanikhina Liliya Aleksandrovna, born in 1925. The head was removed and the left arm was severed.
24. Kezikova Nina Georgievna, born in 1925. She was pulled out with her leg torn off at the knee, her arms twisted. There were no bullet wounds on the body; apparently, she was thrown out alive.
25. Evgenia Ivanovna Kiikova, born in 1924. Extracted without the right foot and right hand.
26. Klavdiya Petrovna Kovaleva, born in 1925. The right breast was pulled out swollen, the right breast was cut off, the feet were burned, the left breast was cut off, the head was tied with a scarf, traces of beatings were visible on the body. Found 10 meters from the trunk, between the trolleys. Probably dropped alive.
27. Koshevoy Oleg Vasilievich, 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 radius bone of the left hand was broken. The fall caused dislocations in the hip joints and both legs were broken. One is in the femur and the other is in the knee area. The skin on my right leg was all torn off. No bullet wounds were found. Was dropped alive. They found him crawling far away from the crash site with his mouth full of dirt.
29. Lukashov Gennady Alexandrovich, born in 1924. The victim was missing a foot, his hands showed signs of being beaten with an iron rod, and his face was disfigured.
30. Lukyanchenko Viktor Dmitrievich, born in 1927. Extracted without hand, eye, nose.
31. Minaeva Nina Petrovna, born in 1924. She was pulled out with broken arms, a missing eye, and something shapeless was carved on her chest. The entire body is covered with dark blue stripes.
32. Moshkov Evgeniy 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 entire body of the extracted man was dissected, his tongue was cut out.
34. Ogurtsov Dmitry Uvarovich, born in 1922. In the Rovenkovo prison he was subjected to inhuman torture.
35. Ostapenko Semyon Makarovich, born in 1927. Ostapenko's body bore signs of cruel torture. The blow of the butt crushed the skull.
36. Osmukhin Vladimir Andreevich, born in 1925. During interrogations, the right hand was cut off, the right eye was gouged out, there were burn marks on the legs, and 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 my head is crushed. Blood is visible on the leg; he was removed with his shoes off.
38. Maya Konstantinovna Peglivanova, born in 1925. She was thrown into the pit alive. She was pulled out without eyes or lips, her legs were broken, lacerations were visible on her leg.
39. Petlya Nadezhda Stepanovna, born in 1924. The victim's left arm and legs were broken, her 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 woman bore traces of inhuman torture, and was removed without a hand.
41. Petrov Viktor Vladimirovich, born in 1925. A knife wound was inflicted in the chest, fingers were broken at the joints, ears and tongue were cut off, and the soles of the feet were burned.
42. Pirozhok Vasily Makarovich, born in 1925. He was pulled out of the pit beaten. The body is bruised.
43. Polyansky Yuri Fedorovich - born in 1924. Extracted without left arm and nose.
44. Popov Anatoly Vladimirovich, born in 1924. The fingers of the left hand were crushed and the foot of the left foot was severed.
45. Rogozin Vladimir Pavlovich, born in 1924. The victim's spine and arms were broken, his teeth were knocked out, and his eye was gouged out.
46. Samoshinova Angelina Tikhonovna, 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, and the braid was torn out.
48. Startseva Nina Illarionovna, born in 1925. She was pulled out with a broken nose and broken legs.
49. Subbotin Viktor Petrovich, born in 1924. The beatings on the face and twisted limbs were visible.
50. Sumskoy Nikolay Stepanovich, born in 1924. The eyes were blindfolded, there was a trace of a gunshot wound on the forehead, there were signs of lashing on the body, traces of injections under the nails were visible on the fingers, the left arm was broken, the nose was pierced, the left eye was missing.
51. Tretyakevich Viktor Iosifovich, born in 1924. The hair was torn out, the left arm was twisted, the 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 the torture, he received a through gunshot wound on his left hand, which was burned with a hot rod, his fingers were placed under the door and squeezed until the limbs of his hands were completely necrosis, needles were driven under his nails, and he was hung on ropes. When extracted from the pit, the lower jaw and nose were knocked to the side. The spine is broken.
53. Fomin Dementy Yakovlevich, born in 1925. Removed from a pit with a broken head.
54. Shevtsova Lyubov Grigorievna, born in 1924. Several stars are carved on the body. Shot in the face by an explosive bullet.
55. Shepelev Evgeny Nikiforovich, born in 1924. Boris Galavan was removed from the pit, bound face to face with barbed wire, his hands were cut off. The face is disfigured, the stomach is ripped open.
56. Shishchenko Alexander Tarasovich, born in 1925. Shishchenko had a head injury, knife wounds on his body, and his ears, nose and upper lip were torn off. The left arm was broken at the shoulder, elbow and hand.
57. Shcherbakov Georgy Kuzmich, born in 1925. The man's face was bruised and his spine was broken, as a result of which the body was removed in parts.