Little-known exploits of Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. Heroes of the Great Patriotic War and their exploits Shahbazyan Heroes description of the feat

During the Great Patriotic War, heroism was the norm of behavior of Soviet people; the war revealed the fortitude and courage of Soviet people. Thousands of soldiers and officers sacrificed their lives in the battles of Moscow, Kursk and Stalingrad, in the defense of Leningrad and Sevastopol, in the North Caucasus and the Dnieper, during the storming of Berlin and in other battles - and immortalized their names. Women and children fought alongside men. Home front workers played a big role. People who worked, exhausting themselves, to provide the soldiers with food, clothing and, at the same time, a bayonet and a shell.
We will talk about those who gave their lives, strength and savings for the sake of Victory. These are the great people of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Doctors are heroes. Zinaida Samsonova

During the war, more than two hundred thousand doctors and half a million paramedical personnel worked at the front and in the rear. And half of them were women.
The working day of doctors and nurses in medical battalions and front-line hospitals often lasted several days. During sleepless nights, medical workers stood relentlessly near the operating tables, and some of them pulled the dead and wounded out of the battlefield on their backs. Among the doctors there were many of their “sailors” who, saving the wounded, covered them with their bodies from bullets and shell fragments.
Without sparing, as they say, their belly, they raised the spirit of the soldiers, raised the wounded from their hospital beds and sent them back into battle to defend their country, their homeland, their people, their home from the enemy. Among the large army of doctors, I would like to mention the name of Hero of the Soviet Union Zinaida Aleksandrovna Samsonova, who went to the front when she was only seventeen years old. Zinaida, or, as her fellow soldiers sweetly called her, Zinochka, was born in the village of Bobkovo, Yegoryevsky district, Moscow region.
Just before the war, she entered the Yegoryevsk Medical School to study. When the enemy entered her native land and the country was in danger, Zina decided that she must definitely go to the front. And she rushed there.
She has been in the active army since 1942 and immediately finds herself on the front line. Zina was a sanitary instructor for a rifle battalion. The soldiers loved her for her smile, for her selfless assistance to the wounded. With her fighters, Zina went through the most terrible battles, this is the Battle of Stalingrad. She fought on the Voronezh Front and on other fronts.

Zinaida Samsonova

In the fall of 1943, she participated in the landing operation to capture a bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper near the village of Sushki, Kanevsky district, now Cherkasy region. Here she, together with her fellow soldiers, managed to capture this bridgehead.
Zina carried more than thirty wounded from the battlefield and transported them to the other side of the Dnieper. There were legends about this fragile nineteen-year-old girl. Zinochka was distinguished by her courage and bravery.
When the commander died near the village of Kholm in 1944, Zina, without hesitation, took command of the battle and raised the soldiers to attack. In this battle, the last time her fellow soldiers heard her amazing, slightly hoarse voice: “Eagles, follow me!”
Zinochka Samsonova died in this battle on January 27, 1944 for the village of Kholm in Belarus. She was buried in a mass grave in Ozarichi, Kalinkovsky district, Gomel region.
For her perseverance, courage and bravery, Zinaida Aleksandrovna Samsonova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The school where Zina Samsonova once studied was named after her.

A special period of activity for Soviet foreign intelligence officers was associated with the Great Patriotic War. Already at the end of June 1941, the newly created State Defense Committee of the USSR considered the issue of foreign intelligence work and clarified its tasks. They were subordinated to one goal - the speedy defeat of the enemy. For exemplary performance of special tasks behind enemy lines, nine career foreign intelligence officers were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This is S.A. Vaupshasov, I.D. Kudrya, N.I. Kuznetsov, V.A. Lyagin, D.N. Medvedev, V.A. Molodtsov, K.P. Orlovsky, N.A. Prokopyuk, A.M. Rabtsevich. Here we will talk about one of the scout-heroes - Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov.

From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was enrolled in the fourth directorate of the NKVD, whose main task was to organize reconnaissance and sabotage activities behind enemy lines. After numerous trainings and studying the morals and life of the Germans in a prisoner of war camp, under the name of Paul Wilhelm Siebert, Nikolai Kuznetsov was sent behind enemy lines along the line of terror. At first, the special agent conducted his secret activities in the Ukrainian city of Rivne, where the Reich Commissariat of Ukraine was located. Kuznetsov communicated closely with enemy intelligence officers and the Wehrmacht, as well as local officials. All information obtained was transferred to the partisan detachment. One of the remarkable exploits of the USSR secret agent was the capture of the Reichskommissariat courier, Major Gahan, who was carrying a secret map in his briefcase. After interrogating Gahan and studying the map, it turned out that a bunker for Hitler was built eight kilometers from the Ukrainian Vinnitsa.
In November 1943, Kuznetsov managed to organize the kidnapping of German Major General M. Ilgen, who was sent to Rivne to destroy partisan formations.
The last operation of intelligence officer Siebert in this post was the liquidation in November 1943 of the head of the legal department of the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine, Oberführer Alfred Funk. After interrogating Funk, the brilliant intelligence officer managed to obtain information about the preparations for the assassination of the heads of the “Big Three” of the Tehran Conference, as well as information about the enemy’s offensive on the Kursk Bulge. In January 1944, Kuznetsov was ordered to go to Lviv along with the retreating fascist troops to continue his sabotage activities. Scouts Jan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov were sent to help Agent Siebert. Under the leadership of Nikolai Kuznetsov, several occupiers were destroyed in Lviv, for example, the head of the government chancellery Heinrich Schneider and Otto Bauer.

From the first days of the occupation, boys and girls began to act decisively, and a secret organization “Young Avengers” was created. The guys fought against the fascist occupiers. They blew up a water pumping station, which delayed the sending of ten fascist trains to the front. While distracting the enemy, the Avengers destroyed bridges and highways, blew up a local power plant, and burned down a factory. Having obtained information about the actions of the Germans, they immediately passed it on to the partisans.
Zina Portnova was assigned increasingly complex tasks. According to one of them, the girl managed to get a job in a German canteen. After working there for a while, she carried out an effective operation - she poisoned food for German soldiers. More than 100 fascists suffered from her lunch. The Germans began to blame Zina. Wanting to prove her innocence, the girl tried the poisoned soup and only miraculously survived.

Zina Portnova

In 1943, traitors appeared who revealed secret information and handed our guys over to the Nazis. Many were arrested and shot. Then the command of the partisan detachment instructed Portnova to establish contact with those who survived. The Nazis captured the young partisan when she was returning from a mission. Zina was terribly tortured. But the answer to the enemy was only her silence, contempt and hatred. The interrogations did not stop.
“The Gestapo man came to the window. And Zina, rushing to the table, grabbed the pistol. Apparently catching the rustle, the officer turned around impulsively, but the weapon was already in her hand. She pulled the trigger. For some reason I didn’t hear the shot. I just saw how the German, clutching his chest with his hands, fell to the floor, and the second one, sitting at the side table, jumped up from his chair and hastily unfastened the holster of his revolver. She pointed the gun at him too. Again, almost without aiming, she pulled the trigger. Rushing to the exit, Zina pulled the door open, jumped out into the next room and from there onto the porch. There she shot at the sentry almost point-blank. Running out of the commandant’s office building, Portnova rushed like a whirlwind down the path.
“If only I could run to the river,” the girl thought. But from behind there was the sound of a chase... “Why don’t they shoot?” The surface of the water already seemed very close. And beyond the river the forest turned black. She heard the sound of machine gun fire and something spiky pierced her leg. Zina fell on the river sand. She still had enough strength to rise slightly and shoot... She saved the last bullet for herself.
When the Germans got very close, she decided it was all over and pointed the gun at her chest and pulled the trigger. But there was no shot: it misfired. The fascist knocked the pistol out of her weakening hands.”
Zina was sent to prison. The Germans brutally tortured the girl for more than a month; they wanted her to betray her comrades. But having taken an oath of allegiance to the Motherland, Zina kept it.
On the morning of January 13, 1944, a gray-haired and blind girl was taken out to be executed. She walked, stumbling with her bare feet in the snow.
The girl withstood all the torture. She truly loved our Motherland and died for it, firmly believing in our victory.
Zinaida Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet people, realizing that the front needed their help, made every effort. Engineering geniuses simplified and improved production. Women who had recently sent their husbands, brothers and sons to the front took their place at the machine, mastering professions unfamiliar to them. “Everything for the front, everything for victory!” Children, old people and women gave all their strength, gave themselves for the sake of victory.

This is how the collective farmers’ call sounded in one of the regional newspapers: “... we must give the army and the working people more bread, meat, milk, vegetables and agricultural raw materials for industry. We, the state farm workers, must hand this over, together with the collective farm peasantry.” Only from these lines can one judge how obsessed the home front workers were with thoughts of victory, and what sacrifices they were willing to make to bring this long-awaited day closer. Even when they received a funeral, they did not stop working, knowing that this was the best way to take revenge on the hated fascists for the death of their family and friends.

On December 15, 1942, Ferapont Golovaty gave all his savings - 100 thousand rubles - to purchase an aircraft for the Red Army, and asked to transfer the aircraft to a pilot of the Stalingrad Front. In a letter addressed to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, he wrote that, having escorted his two sons to the front, he himself wanted to contribute to the cause of victory. Stalin responded: “Thank you, Ferapont Petrovich, for your concern for the Red Army and its Air Force. The Red Army will not forget that you gave all your savings to build a combat aircraft. Please accept my greetings." The initiative was given serious attention. The decision about who exactly would get the plane was made by the Military Council of the Stalingrad Front. The combat vehicle was awarded to one of the best - the commander of the 31st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Major Boris Nikolaevich Eremin. The fact that Eremin and Golovaty were fellow countrymen also played a role.

Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved through superhuman efforts of both front-line soldiers and home front workers. And we need to remember this. Today's generation should not forget their feat.

1) Only 30 minutes were allocated by the Wehrmacht command to suppress the resistance of the border guards. However, the 13th outpost under the command of A. Lopatin fought for more than 10 days and the Brest Fortress for more than a month.

2) At 4:25 a.m. on June 22, 1941, pilot Senior Lieutenant I. Ivanov carried out an air ram. This was the first feat during the war; awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

3) The first counterattack was carried out by border guards and units of the Red Army on June 23. They liberated the city of Przemysl, and two groups of border guards broke into Zasanje (Polish territory occupied by Germany), where they destroyed the headquarters of the German division and the Gestapo, and freed many prisoners.

4) During heavy battles with enemy tanks and assault guns, the gunner of the 76 mm gun of the 636th anti-tank artillery regiment, Alexander Serov, destroyed 18 tanks and fascist assault guns on June 23 and 24, 1941. The relatives received two funerals, but the brave warrior remained alive. Recently, the veteran was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

5) On the night of August 8, 1941, a group of Baltic Fleet bombers under the command of Colonel E. Preobrazhensky carried out the first air raid on Berlin. Such raids continued until September 4th.

6) Lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko from the 4th Tank Brigade is rightfully considered the number one tank ace. During three months of fighting in September-November 1941, he destroyed 52 enemy tanks in 28 battles. Unfortunately, the brave tankman died in November 1941 near Moscow.

7) The most unique record of the Great Patriotic War was set by the crew of senior lieutenant Zinovy ​​Kolobanov on the KV tank from the 1st Tank Division. In 3 hours of battle in the area of ​​the Voyskovitsy state farm (Leningrad region), he destroyed 22 enemy tanks.

8) In the battle for Zhitomir in the area of ​​the Nizhnekumsky farm on December 31, 1943, the crew of junior lieutenant Ivan Golub (13th Guards Tank Brigade of the 4th Guards Tank Corps.) destroyed 5 "tigers", 2 "Panthers", 5 hundreds of guns fascists.

9) The crew of an anti-tank gun, consisting of senior sergeant R. Sinyavsky and corporal A. Mukozobov (542nd Infantry Regiment, 161st Infantry Division), destroyed 17 enemy tanks and assault guns in battles near Minsk from June 22 to 26. For this feat, the soldiers were awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

10) Crew of the gun of the 197th Guards. regiment of the 92nd Guards rifle division (152 mm howitzer) consisting of the brothers of the Guard Senior Sergeant Dmitry Lukanin and the Guard Sergeant Yakov Lukanin from October 1943 until the end of the war, destroyed 37 tanks and armored personnel carriers and more than 600 enemy soldiers and officers. For the battle near the village of Kaluzhino, Dnepropetrovsk region, the fighters were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Now their 152-mm howitzer cannon is installed in the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps. (Saint Petersburg).

11) The commander of the 37 mm gun crew of the 93rd separate anti-aircraft artillery battalion, Sergeant Petr Petrov, is rightfully considered the most successful anti-aircraft gunner ace. In June-September 1942, his crew destroyed 20 enemy aircraft. The crew under the command of a senior sergeant (632nd anti-aircraft artillery regiment) destroyed 18 enemy aircraft.

12) In two years, the calculation of a 37 mm gun of the 75th Guards. army anti-aircraft artillery regiment under the command of Guards. Petty Officer Nikolai Botsman destroyed 15 enemy aircraft. The latter were shot down in the sky over Berlin.

13) Gunner of the 1st Baltic Front Klavdiya Barkhotkina hit 12 enemy air targets.

14) The most effective of the Soviet boatmen was Lieutenant-Commander Alexander Shabalin (Northern Fleet); he led the destruction of 32 enemy warships and transports (as commander of a boat, a flight and a detachment of torpedo boats). For his exploits, A. Shabalin was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

15) Over several months of fighting on the Bryansk Front, soldier of the fighter squad, Private Vasily Putchin, destroyed 37 enemy tanks with only grenades and Molotov cocktails.

16) At the height of the battles on the Kursk Bulge on July 7, 1943, machine gunner of the 1019th regiment, senior sergeant Yakov Studennikov, alone (the rest of his crew died) fought for two days. Having been wounded, he managed to repel 10 Nazi attacks and destroyed more than 300 Nazis. For his accomplished feat, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

17) About the feat of the soldiers of the 316th SD. (divisional commander, Major General I. Panfilov) at the well-known Dubosekovo crossing on November 16, 1941, 28 tank destroyers met the attack of 50 tanks, of which 18 were destroyed. Hundreds of enemy soldiers met their end at Dubosekovo. But few people know about the feat of the soldiers of the 1378th regiment of the 87th division. On December 17, 1942, in the area of ​​the village of Verkhne-Kumskoye, soldiers from the company of senior lieutenant Nikolai Naumov with two crews of anti-tank rifles, while defending a height of 1372 m, repelled 3 attacks by enemy tanks and infantry. The next day there were several more attacks. All 24 soldiers died defending the heights, but the enemy lost 18 tanks and hundreds of infantrymen.

18) In the battle of Stalingrad on September 1, 1943, machine gunner Sergeant Khanpasha Nuradilov destroyed 920 fascists.

19) In the Battle of Stalingrad, in one battle on December 21, 1942, Marine I. Kaplunov knocked out 9 enemy tanks. He knocked out 5 and, being seriously wounded, took out 4 more.

20) During the Battle of Kursk on July 6, 1943, Guard pilot Lieutenant A. Horovets took part in battle with 20 enemy aircraft, and shot down 9 of them.

21) The crew of the submarine under the command of P. Grishchenko sunk 19 enemy ships, moreover, in the initial period of the war.

22) Northern Fleet pilot B. Safonov shot down 30 enemy aircraft from June 1941 to May 1942 and became the first twice Hero of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War.

23) During the defense of Leningrad, sniper F. Dyachenko destroyed 425 Nazis.

24) The first Decree on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the war was adopted by the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces on July 8, 1941. It was awarded to pilots M. Zhukov, S. Zdorovets, P. Kharitonov for air ramming in the sky of Leningrad.

25) The famous pilot I. Kozhedub received the third Gold Star - at the age of 25, artilleryman A. Shilin received the second Gold Star - at the age of 20.

26) During the Great Patriotic War, five schoolchildren under the age of 16 received the title of Hero: Sasha Chekalin and Lenya Golikov - at 15 years old, Valya Kotik, Marat Kazei and Zina Portnova - at 14 years old.

27) Heroes of the Soviet Union were pilots brothers Boris and Dmitry Glinka (Dmitry later became a twice Hero), tankers Evsei and Matvey Vainruba, partisans Evgeniy and Gennady Ignatov, pilots Tamara and Vladimir Konstantinov, Zoya and Alexander Kosmodemyansky, brothers pilots Sergei and Alexander Kurzenkov, brothers Alexander and Pyotr Lizyukov, twin brothers Dmitry and Yakov Lukanin, brothers Nikolai and Mikhail Panichkin.

28) More than 300 Soviet soldiers covered the enemy's embrasures with their bodies, about 500 aviators used an air ram in battle, over 300 crews sent downed planes to concentrations of enemy troops.

29) During the war, more than 6,200 partisan detachments and underground groups, in which there were over 1,000,000 people's avengers, operated behind enemy lines.

30) During the war years, 5,300,000 orders and 7,580,000 medals were awarded.

31) There were about 600,000 women in the active army, more than 150,000 of them were awarded orders and medals, 86 were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

32) 10,900 times regiments and divisions were awarded the Order of the USSR, 29 units and formations have 5 or more awards.

33) During the Great Patriotic War, 41,000 people were awarded the Order of Lenin, of which 36,000 were awarded for military exploits. More than 200 military units and formations were awarded the Order of Lenin.

34) More than 300,000 people were awarded the Order of the Red Banner during the war.

35) For exploits during the Great Patriotic War, more than 2,860,000 awards were made with the Order of the Red Star.

36) The Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, was the first to be awarded to G. Zhukov; the Order of Suvorov, 2nd degree, No. 1, was awarded to Major General of Tank Forces V. Badanov.

37) The Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree No. 1, was awarded to Lieutenant General N. Galanin, the Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, 1st degree No. 1, was awarded to General A. Danilo.

38) During the war years, 340 were awarded the Order of Suvorov 1st degree, 2nd degree - 2100, 3rd degree - 300, Order of Ushakov 1st degree - 30, 2nd degree - 180, Order of Kutuzov 1st degree - 570, 2nd degree - 2570, 3rd degree - 2200, Order of Nakhimov 1st degree - 70, 2nd degree - 350, Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree - 200, 2nd degree - 1450 , 3rd degree - 5400, Order of Alexander Nevsky - 40,000.

39) The Order of the Great Patriotic War, 1st degree No. 1, was awarded to the family of the deceased senior political instructor V. Konyukhov.

40) The Order of the Great War, 2nd degree, was awarded to the parents of the deceased senior lieutenant P. Razhkin.

41) N. Petrov received six Orders of the Red Banner during the Great Patriotic War. The feat of N. Yanenkov and D. Panchuk was awarded with four Orders of the Patriotic War. Six Orders of the Red Star awarded the merits of I. Panchenko.

42) The Order of Glory, 1st degree No. 1, was received by Sergeant Major N. Zalyotov.

43) 2,577 people became full holders of the Order of Glory. After the soldiers, 8 full holders of the Order of Glory became Heroes of Socialist Labor.

44) During the war years, about 980,000 people were awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd degree, and more than 46,000 people, 2nd and 1st degrees.

45) Only 4 people - Heroes of the Soviet Union - are full holders of the Order of Glory. These are guard artillerymen senior sergeants A. Aleshin and N. Kuznetsov, infantryman foreman P. Dubina, pilot senior lieutenant I. Drachenko, who lived in Kyiv in the last years of his life.

46) During the Great Patriotic War, the medal “For Courage” was awarded to more than 4,000,000 people, “For Military Merit” - 3,320,000.

47) The military feat of intelligence officer V. Breev was awarded with six medals “For Courage”.

48) The youngest of those awarded the medal “For Military Merit” is six-year-old Seryozha Aleshkov.

49) The medal “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War”, 1st degree, was awarded to more than 56,000 people, 2nd degree - about 71,000 people.

50) 185,000 people were awarded orders and medals for their feats behind enemy lines.

Twelve of several thousand examples of unparalleled childhood courage
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War - how many were there? If you count - how could it be otherwise?! - the hero of every boy and every girl whom fate brought to war and made soldiers, sailors or partisans, then tens, if not hundreds of thousands.

According to official data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) of Russia, during the war there were over 3,500 military personnel under the age of 16 in combat units. At the same time, it is clear that not every unit commander who risked raising a son of the regiment found the courage to declare his pupil on command. You can understand how their father-commanders, who actually served as fathers to many, tried to hide the age of the little fighters by looking at the confusion in the award documents. On yellowed archival sheets, the majority of underage military personnel clearly indicate an inflated age. The real one became clear much later, after ten or even forty years.

But there were also children and teenagers who fought in partisan detachments and were members of underground organizations! And there were much more of them: sometimes whole families joined the partisans, and if not, then almost every teenager who found himself on the occupied land had someone to avenge.

So “tens of thousands” is far from an exaggeration, but rather an understatement. And, apparently, we will never know the exact number of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War. But this is no reason not to remember them.

The boys walked from Brest to Berlin

The youngest of all known little soldiers - at least according to documents stored in military archives - can be considered a graduate of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 47th Guards Rifle Division, Sergei Aleshkin. In archival documents you can find two certificates of awarding a boy who was born in 1936 and ended up in the army on September 8, 1942, shortly after the punitive forces shot his mother and older brother for connections with the partisans. The first document, dated April 26, 1943, is about awarding him the medal “For Military Merit” due to the fact that “Comrade. ALESHKIN, the favorite of the regiment,” “with his cheerfulness, love for his unit and those around him, in extremely difficult moments, inspired cheerfulness and confidence in victory.” The second, dated November 19, 1945, is about awarding students of the Tula Suvorov Military School with the medal “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”: in the list of 13 Suvorov students, Aleshkin’s name comes first.

But still, such a young soldier is an exception even for wartime and for a country where the entire people, young and old, rose up to defend the Motherland. Most of the young heroes who fought at the front and behind enemy lines were on average 13–14 years old. The very first of them were defenders of the Brest Fortress, and one of the sons of the regiment - holder of the Order of the Red Star, Order of Glory III degree and medal "For Courage" Vladimir Tarnovsky, who served in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th rifle division - left his autograph on the Reichstag wall in victorious May 1945...

The youngest Heroes of the Soviet Union

These four names - Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik - have been the most famous symbol of the heroism of the young defenders of our Motherland for over half a century. Having fought in different places and having accomplished feats of different circumstances, they were all partisans and all were posthumously awarded the country's highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Two - Lena Golikov and Zina Portnova - were 17 years old by the time they showed unprecedented courage, two more - Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei - were only 14.

Lenya Golikov was the first of the four to receive the highest rank: the decree on the assignment was signed on April 2, 1944. The text says that Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union “for exemplary execution of command assignments and demonstrated courage and heroism in battle.” And indeed, in less than a year - from March 1942 to January 1943 - Lenya Golikov managed to take part in the defeat of three enemy garrisons, in the blowing up of more than a dozen bridges, in the capture of a German major general with secret documents... And died heroically in battle near the village of Ostray Luka, without waiting for a high reward for capturing the strategically important “tongue”.

Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik were awarded the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union 13 years after the Victory, in 1958. Zina was awarded for the courage with which she conducted underground work, then served as a liaison between the partisans and the underground, and ultimately endured inhuman torment, falling into the hands of the Nazis at the very beginning of 1944. Valya - based on the totality of his exploits in the ranks of the Shepetovka partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, where he came after a year of work in an underground organization in Shepetivka itself. And Marat Kazei received the highest award only in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory: the decree conferring on him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was promulgated on May 8, 1965. For almost two years - from November 1942 to May 1944 - Marat fought as part of the partisan formations of Belarus and died, blowing up both himself and the Nazis surrounding him with the last grenade.

Over the past half century, the circumstances of the exploits of the four heroes have become known throughout the country: more than one generation of Soviet schoolchildren has grown up on their example, and even today’s children are certainly told about them. But even among those who did not receive the highest award, there were many real heroes - pilots, sailors, snipers, scouts and even musicians.

Sniper Vasily Kurka

The war found Vasya a sixteen-year-old teenager. In the very first days he was mobilized to the labor front, and in October he achieved enrollment in the 726th Infantry Regiment of the 395th Infantry Division. At first, the boy of non-conscription age, who also looked a couple of years younger than his age, was left in the wagon train: they say, there is nothing for teenagers to do on the front line. But soon the guy achieved his goal and was transferred to a combat unit - to a sniper team.

Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum

An amazing military fate: from the first to the last day, Vasya Kurka fought in the same regiment of the same division! He made a good military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant and taking command of a rifle platoon. He chalked up, according to various sources, from 179 to 200 Nazis killed. He fought from Donbass to Tuapse and back, and then further to the West, to the Sandomierz bridgehead. It was there that Lieutenant Kurka was mortally wounded in January 1945, less than six months before the Victory.

Pilot Arkady Kamanin

15-year-old Arkady Kamanin arrived at the location of the 5th Guards Attack Air Corps with his father, who had been appointed commander of this illustrious unit. The pilots were surprised to learn that the son of the legendary pilot, one of the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union, a participant in the Chelyuskin rescue expedition, would work as an aircraft mechanic in a communications squadron. But they soon became convinced that the “general’s son” did not live up to their negative expectations at all. The boy did not hide behind the back of his famous father, but simply did his job well - and strived towards the sky with all his might.

Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee

Soon Arkady achieved his goal: first he takes to the air as a flight attendant, then as a navigator on a U-2, and then goes on his first independent flight. And finally - the long-awaited appointment: the son of General Kamanin becomes a pilot of the 423rd separate communications squadron. Before the victory, Arkady, who had risen to the rank of sergeant major, managed to fly almost 300 hours and earn three orders: two of the Red Star and one of the Red Banner. And if it weren’t for meningitis, which literally killed an 18-year-old boy in the spring of 1947, perhaps Kamanin Jr. would have been included in the cosmonaut corps, the first commander of which was Kamanin Sr.: Arkady managed to enter the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy back in 1946.

Frontline intelligence officer Yuri Zhdanko

Ten-year-old Yura ended up in the army by accident. In July 1941, he went to show the retreating Red Army soldiers a little-known ford on the Western Dvina and did not have time to return to his native Vitebsk, where the Germans had already entered. So he left with his unit to the east, all the way to Moscow, from there to begin the return journey to the west.

Yuri Zhdanko. Photo: russia-reborn.ru

Yura accomplished a lot along this path. In January 1942, he, who had never jumped with a parachute before, went to the rescue of partisans who were surrounded and helped them break through the enemy ring. In the summer of 1942, together with a group of fellow reconnaissance officers, he blew up a strategically important bridge across the Berezina, sending not only the bridge deck, but also nine trucks driving along it to the bottom of the river, and less than a year later he was the only one of all the messengers who managed to break through to the encircled battalion and help it get out of the “ring”.

By February 1944, the chest of the 13-year-old intelligence officer was decorated with the medal “For Courage” and the Order of the Red Star. But a shell that exploded literally under his feet interrupted Yura’s front-line career. He ended up in the hospital, from where he was sent to the Suvorov Military School, but did not pass due to health reasons. Then the retired young intelligence officer retrained as a welder and on this “front” he also managed to become famous, having traveled almost half of Eurasia with his welding machine - building pipelines.

Infantryman Anatoly Komar

Among the 263 Soviet soldiers who covered enemy embrasures with their bodies, the youngest was 15-year-old private of the 332nd reconnaissance company of the 252nd rifle division of the 53rd army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Anatoly Komar. The teenager joined the active army in September 1943, when the front came close to his native Slavyansk. This happened to him in almost the same way as to Yura Zhdanko, with the only difference being that the boy served as a guide not to the retreating, but to the advancing Red Army soldiers. Anatoly helped them go deep into the German front line, and then left with the advancing army to the west.

Young partisan. Photo: Imperial War Museum

But, unlike Yura Zhdanko, Tolya Komar’s front-line path was much shorter. For only two months he had the opportunity to wear the shoulder straps that had recently appeared in the Red Army and go on reconnaissance missions. In November of the same year, returning from a free search behind German lines, a group of scouts revealed themselves and was forced to break through to their own in battle. The last obstacle on the way back was a machine gun, pinning the reconnaissance unit to the ground. Anatoly Komar threw a grenade at him, and the fire died down, but as soon as the scouts got up, the machine gunner began shooting again. And then Tolya, who was closest to the enemy, stood up and fell on the machine gun barrel, at the cost of his life, buying his comrades precious minutes for a breakthrough.

Sailor Boris Kuleshin

In the cracked photograph, a boy of about ten stands against the backdrop of sailors in black uniforms with ammunition boxes on their backs and the superstructure of a Soviet cruiser. His hands tightly grip a PPSh assault rifle, and on his head he wears a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Tashkent.” This is a student of the crew of the leader of the Tashkent destroyers, Borya Kuleshin. The photo was taken in Poti, where, after repairs, the ship called for another load of ammunition for the besieged Sevastopol. It was here that twelve-year-old Borya Kuleshin appeared at the Tashkent gangplank. His father died at the front, his mother, as soon as Donetsk was occupied, was driven to Germany, and he himself managed to escape across the front line to his own people and, together with the retreating army, reach the Caucasus.

Boris Kuleshin. Photo: weralbum.ru

While they were persuading the ship’s commander, Vasily Eroshenko, while they were making a decision in which combat unit to enlist the cabin boy, the sailors managed to give him a belt, a cap and a machine gun and take a photograph of the new crew member. And then there was the transition to Sevastopol, the first raid on “Tashkent” in Bori’s life and the first clips in his life for an anti-aircraft artillery machine, which he, along with other anti-aircraft gunners, gave to the shooters. At his combat post, he was wounded on July 2, 1942, when German aircraft tried to sink a ship in the port of Novorossiysk. After the hospital, Borya followed Captain Eroshenko to a new ship - the guards cruiser "Red Caucasus". And already here he received a well-deserved reward: nominated for the medal “For Courage” for the battles on “Tashkent”, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the decision of the front commander, Marshal Budyonny and member of the Military Council, Admiral Isakov. And in the next front-line photo he is already showing off in the new uniform of a young sailor, on whose head is a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Red Caucasus”. It was in this uniform that in 1944 Borya went to the Tbilisi Nakhimov School, where in September 1945 he, along with other teachers, educators and students, was awarded the medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”

Musician Petr Klypa

Fifteen-year-old student of the musical platoon of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, Pyotr Klypa, like other minor inhabitants of the Brest Fortress, had to go to the rear with the beginning of the war. But Petya refused to leave the fighting citadel, which, among others, was defended by his only relative - his older brother, Lieutenant Nikolai. So he became one of the first teenage soldiers in the Great Patriotic War and a full participant in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress.

Peter Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com

He fought there until the beginning of July, until he received an order, together with the remnants of the regiment, to break through to Brest. This is where Petya's ordeal began. Having crossed the tributary of the Bug, he, along with other colleagues, was captured, from which he soon managed to escape. I got to Brest, lived there for a month and moved east, behind the retreating Red Army, but did not reach it. During one of the overnight stays, he and a friend were discovered by police, and the teenagers were sent to forced labor in Germany. Petya was released only in 1945 by American troops, and after verification he even managed to serve in the Soviet army for several months. And upon returning to his homeland, he again ended up in jail because he succumbed to the persuasion of an old friend and helped him speculate with the loot. Pyotr Klypa was released only seven years later. For this he had to thank the historian and writer Sergei Smirnov, who piece by piece recreated the history of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and, of course, did not miss the story of one of its youngest defenders, who, after liberation, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

The war demanded from the people the greatest effort and enormous sacrifices on a national scale, revealing the fortitude and courage of the Soviet people, the ability to sacrifice themselves in the name of freedom and independence of the Motherland. During the war years, heroism became widespread and became the norm of behavior of Soviet people. Thousands of soldiers and officers immortalized their names during the defense of the Brest Fortress, Odessa, Sevastopol, Kiev, Leningrad, Novorossiysk, in the battle of Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, in the North Caucasus, the Dnieper, in the foothills of the Carpathians, during the storming of Berlin and in other battles.
For heroic deeds in the Great Patriotic War, over 11 thousand people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (some posthumously), of which 104 were awarded twice, three three times (G.K. Zhukov, I.N. Kozhedub and A.I. Pokryshkin ). The first to receive this title during the war were Soviet pilots M.P. Zhukov, S.I. Zdorovtsev and P.T. Kharitonov, who rammed fascist planes on the outskirts of Leningrad.
One of The most famous Pilots of that time is Alexey Petrovich Maresyev
Maresyev Alexey Petrovich fighter pilot, deputy squadron commander of the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, guard senior lieutenant.
Born on May 20, 1916 in the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd Region, into a working-class family. Russian. At the age of three he was left without a father, who died shortly after returning from the First World War. After graduating from the 8th grade of high school, Alexey entered the federal educational institution, where he received a specialty as a mechanic. Then he applied to the Moscow Aviation Institute, but instead of the institute, he went on a Komsomol voucher to build Komsomolsk-on-Amur. There he sawed wood in the taiga, built barracks, and then the first residential areas. At the same time he studied at the flying club. He was drafted into the Soviet army in 1937. Served in the 12th aviation border detachment. But, according to Maresyev himself, he did not fly, but “took up the tails” of the planes. He really took to the air already at the Bataysk Military Aviation School of Pilots, from which he graduated in 1940. He served as a pilot instructor there.
He made his first combat mission on August 23, 1941 in the Krivoy Rog area. On April 4, 1942, in an air battle over the Demyansky bridgehead (Novgorod region), Maresyev’s fighter was shot down. He attempted to land on the ice of a frozen lake, but released his landing gear early. The plane began to quickly lose altitude and fell into the forest.
Maresyev crawled to his side. His feet were frostbitten and they had to be amputated. However, the pilot decided not to give up. When he received prosthetics, he trained long and hard and got permission to return to duty. I learned to fly again in the 11th reserve air brigade in Ivanovo.
In June 1943, Maresyev returned to duty. He fought on the Kursk Bulge as part of the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment and was deputy squadron commander.
On August 24, 1943, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Guard Senior Lieutenant Maresyev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In July 1946, Maresyev was honorably discharged from the Air Force. In 1956, he became the executive secretary of the Soviet War Veterans Committee, and in 1983, first deputy chairman of the committee. He worked in this position until the last day of his life.
Retired Colonel A.P. Maresyev was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Red Banner, the Patriotic War, 1st degree, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of People's Friendship, the Red Star, the Badge of Honor, "For Services to the Fatherland" 3rd degree, medals, and foreign orders. He was an honorary soldier of a military unit, an honorary citizen of the cities of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Kamyshin, and Orel. A minor planet of the solar system, a public foundation, and youth patriotic clubs are named after him. He was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Author of the book "On the Kursk Bulge" (M., 1960).
Even during the war, Boris Polevoy’s book “The Tale of a Real Man” was published, the prototype of which was Maresyev (the author changed only one letter in his last name).
Died suddenly on May 18, 2001.
Many have been awardedTitle of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously:Matrosov Alexander Matveevich,Sevastyanov Alexey Tikhonovich,Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello...
Matrosov Alexander Matveevich
Sailors Alexander Matveevich - rifleman of the 2nd battalion of the 91st separate rifle brigade (22nd Army, Kalinin Front), private. Born on February 5, 1924 in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). Russian. Member of the Komsomol. Lost his parents early. He was raised for 5 years in the Ivanovo orphanage (Ulyanovsk region). Then he was brought up in the Ufa children's labor colony. After finishing 7th grade, he remained to work in the colony as an assistant teacher. In the Red Army since September 1942. In October 1942 he entered the Krasnokholmsky Infantry School, but soon most of the cadets were sent to the Kalinin Front.
In the active army since November 1942. He served in the 2nd battalion of the 91st separate rifle brigade. For some time the brigade was in reserve. Then she was transferred near Pskov to the area of ​​Bolshoi Lomovatoy Bor. Straight from the march, the brigade entered the battle.
On February 27, 1943, the 2nd battalion received the task of attacking a strong point near the village of Chernushki. As soon as our soldiers passed through the forest and reached the edge, they came under heavy enemy machine-gun fire - three enemy machine guns in bunkers covered the approaches to the village. One machine gun was suppressed by an assault group of machine gunners and armor-piercers. The second bunker was destroyed by another group of armor-piercing soldiers. But the machine gun from the third bunker continued to fire at the entire ravine in front of the village. Attempts to silence him were unsuccessful. Then Private A.M. Sailors crawled towards the bunker. He approached the embrasure from the flank and threw two grenades. The machine gun fell silent. But as soon as the fighters went on the attack, the machine gun came to life again. Then Matrosov stood up, rushed to the bunker and closed the embrasure with his body. At the cost of his life, he contributed to the accomplishment of the unit’s combat mission.
A few days later, the name of Matrosov became known throughout the country. Matrosov’s feat was used by a journalist who happened to be with the unit for a patriotic article. At the same time, the regiment commander learned about the feat from the newspapers. Moreover, the date of the hero’s death was moved to February 23, timing the feat to coincide with Soviet Army Day. Despite the fact that Matrosov was not the first to commit such an act of self-sacrifice, it was his name that was used to glorify the heroism of Soviet soldiers. Subsequently, over 300 people accomplished the same feat, but this was no longer widely publicized. His feat became a symbol of courage and military valor, fearlessness and love for the Motherland.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was posthumously awarded to Alexander Matveevich Matrosov on June 19, 1943. He was buried in the city of Velikiye Luki. On September 8, 1943, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, the name of Matrosov was assigned to the 254th Guards Rifle Regiment, and he himself was forever included (one of the first in the Soviet Army) in the lists of the 1st company of this unit. Monuments to the Hero were erected in Ufa, Velikiye Luki, Ulyanovsk, etc. The museum of Komsomol glory of the city of Velikiye Luki, streets, schools, pioneer squads, motor ships, collective farms and state farms were named after him.

Sevastyanov Alexey Tikhonovich
Aleksey Tikhonovich Sevastyanov, flight commander of the 26th Fighter Aviation Regiment (7th Fighter Aviation Corps, Leningrad Air Defense Zone), junior lieutenant. Born on February 16, 1917 in the village of Kholm, now Likhoslavl district, Tver (Kalinin) region. Russian. Graduated from the Kalinin Freight Car Building College. In the Red Army since 1936. In 1939 he graduated from the Kachin Military Aviation School.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. In total, during the war years, junior lieutenant Sevastyanov A.T. made more than 100 combat missions, shot down 2 enemy aircraft personally (one of them with a ram), 2 in a group and an observation balloon.
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously to Alexei Tikhonovich Sevastyanov on June 6, 1942.
April 23, 1942 Sevastyanov A.T. died in an unequal air battle, defending the “Road of Life” through Ladoga (shot down 2.5 km from the village of Rakhya, Vsevolozhsk region; a monument was erected in this place). He was buried in Leningrad at the Chesme Cemetery. Enlisted forever in the lists of the military unit. A street in St. Petersburg and a House of Culture in the village of Pervitino, Likhoslavl district, are named after him. The documentary "Heroes Don't Die" is dedicated to his feat.

Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello
Nikolai Frantsevich was born on May 6, 1908 in Moscow, into a working-class family. Graduated from 5th grade. He worked as a mechanic at the Murom Steam Locomotive Construction Machinery Plant. In the Soviet Army in May 1932. In 1933 he graduated from the Lugansk military pilot school in bomber units. In 1939 he took part in the battles on the river. Khalkhin - Gol and the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. In the active army since June 1941, the squadron commander of the 207th Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment (42nd Bomber Aviation Division, 3rd Bomber Aviation Corps DBA), Captain Gastello, carried out another mission flight on June 26, 1941. His bomber was hit and caught fire. He flew the burning plane into a concentration of enemy troops. The enemy suffered heavy losses from the explosion of the bomber. For the accomplished feat, on July 26, 1941, he was posthumously awarded the Title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Gastello's name is forever included in the lists of military units. At the site of the feat on the Minsk-Vilnius highway, a memorial monument was erected in Moscow.
Not only men distinguished themselves during the Second World War, but also women:
Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya (“Tanya”)
Zoya Anatolyevna ["Tanya" (09/13/1923 - 11/29/1941)] - Soviet partisan, Hero of the Soviet Union was born in Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region in the family of an employee. In 1930 the family moved to Moscow. She graduated from 9 classes of school No. 201. In October 1941, Komsomol member Kosmodemyanskaya voluntarily joined a special partisan detachment operating under assignment of the headquarters of the Western Front in the Mozhaisk direction.
Twice she was sent behind enemy lines. At the end of November 1941, while performing a second combat mission near the village of Petrishchevo (Russian district of the Moscow region), she was captured by the Nazis. Despite cruel torture, she did not reveal military secrets and did not give her name.
On November 29, she was hanged by the Nazis. Her devotion to the Motherland, courage and dedication became an inspiring example in the fight against the enemy. On February 6, 1942, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the Great Patriotic War, many were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union several times:
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub
(1920–1991), Air Marshal (1985), Three times Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War in fighter aviation, squadron commander, deputy regiment commander, conducted 120 air battles; shot down 62 planes.
Kozhedub fought one of the most memorable battles on February 19, 1945 (sometimes the date is given as February 24).

Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub also distinguished himself in the Battle of Kursk.
Kozhedub's total account does not include at least two aircraft - American P-51 Mustang fighters. In one of the battles in April, Kozhedub tried to drive away German fighters from the American “Flying Fortress” with cannon fire. The US Air Force escort fighters misunderstood the La-7 pilot's intentions and opened barrage fire from a long distance. Kozhedub, apparently, also mistook the Mustangs for Messers, escaped from under fire in a coup and, in turn, attacked the “enemy.”
He damaged one Mustang (the plane, smoking, left the battle and, having flown a little, fell, the pilot jumped out with a parachute), the second P-51 exploded in the air. Only after the successful attack did Kozhedub notice the white stars of the US Air Force on the wings and fuselages of the planes he had shot down. After landing, the regiment commander, Colonel Chupikov, advised Kozhedub to keep quiet about the incident and gave him the developed film of the photographic machine gun. The existence of a film with footage of burning Mustangs became known only after the death of the legendary pilot.
Ivan Vasilievich Panfilov
In the battles near Volokolamsk, the 316th Infantry Division of General I.V. especially distinguished itself. Panfilova. Reflecting continuous enemy attacks for 6 days, they knocked out 80 tanks and killed several hundred soldiers and officers. Enemy attempts to capture the Volokolamsk area and open the wayto Moscow from the west failed. For heroic actions, this formation was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and transformed into the 8th Guards, and its commander, General I.V. Panfilov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov, Guard Major General, commander of the 8th Guards Rifle Red Banner (formerly 316th) Division, was born on January 1, 1893 in the city of Petrovsk, Saratov Region. Russian. From the age of 12 he worked for hire, and in 1915 he was drafted into the tsarist army. In the same year he was sent to the Russian-German front. He joined the Red Army voluntarily in 1918. He was enlisted in the 1st Saratov Infantry Regiment of the 25th Chapaev Division. He took part in the civil war, fought against Dutov, Kolchak, Denikin and the White Poles.
The Great Patriotic War found Major General Panfilov at the post of military commissar of the Kyrgyz Republic. Having formed the 316th Infantry Division, he went to the front with it and fought near Moscow in October - November 1941. For military distinctions he was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner (1921, 1929) and the medal "XX Years of the Red Army".
etc.................

Many people know the exploits of heroes during the Great Patriotic War. Representatives of all post-war generations listen with pleasure and rapture to stories about the exploits performed by ordinary people to save their Motherland. Many of the characters' names are constantly heard and are often mentioned in various sources. But there are also a huge number of surnames that, for one reason or another, have not received such wide popularity.

Agashev Alexey Fedorovich

On October 15, 1942, the squad commander of a separate company of machine gunners of the 146th separate rifle brigade, junior sergeant A.F. Agashev. the order was given. According to the order, the junior sergeant with the squad entrusted to him was supposed to get behind enemy lines and organize activities there to destroy personnel from among the retreating Nazi troops. Alexei and his squad managed to recapture one of the bunkers from the enemy (destroying 10 fascists in the process) and organize a defense there.

October 16, 1942 to junior sergeant A.F. Agashev An order was received to organize covering fire for a group of reconnaissance officers. Thanks to the skillful and coordinated actions of the squad led by Alexei Agashev, it was possible to prevent the encirclement of the reconnaissance group (16 Nazis were destroyed).

On October 18, 1942, having received the task from the command to deliver the language, the squad under the control of Alexei, interacting with four intelligence officers, managed to capture and deliver two languages ​​to headquarters.

For his skillful leadership of the department's personnel and the successful completion of assigned tasks, this man was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner.

Bakirov Karim Magizovich

Squad commander of the 3rd separate rifle battalion of the 146th separate rifle brigade K.M. Bakirov. after the commander of the group of Red Army soldiers was out of action, he took command upon himself, leading the group by a strong-willed decision.

Under the leadership of Karim, the group managed to break into several German bunkers, throw grenades at them and destroy a large number of fascists (about 50 people). After this, a counterattack by German troops began. Karim managed to organize a repulse of the attack, while he personally managed to destroy 25 Nazis. Despite the serious injury he received as a result of the firefight, the sergeant continued to remain on the battlefield and lead the Red Army soldiers. Karim was on the battlefield until the Nazis were repulsed.

Thanks to his demonstrated perseverance and courage, Bakirov managed to organize and successfully repel the enemy’s counterattack. For these actions, Sergeant Bakirov Karim Magizovich was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Burak Nikolay Andreevich

Senior Lieutenant Burak N.A., commander of the fire platoon of the 3rd battery of the separate artillery battalion of the 146th separate rifle brigade, during the battle on August 15-17, 1942, he was with his platoon (consisting of two guns) in the direct fire zone of enemy guns, at a distance of 500- 600 meters from the enemy.

Thanks to the initiative, determination and personal endurance of the senior lieutenant, in three days of battle the platoon personnel managed to destroy 3 enemy bunkers (including their garrisons), 3 machine gun points, as well as an anti-tank gun.

After the infantry began to advance, Nikolai gave the order to the platoon personnel to hook onto the KV tanks and move to the front line. As a result, the guns ended up right next to the populated area occupied by the Germans, which greatly facilitated the advance of the infantry.

In the battle, Senior Lieutenant Burak's arm was torn off, however, despite this severe wound, he remained close to his guns and supervised the actions of the personnel subordinate to him. It was possible to remove him from the battlefield only by order of higher command.

This feat was noted by the command. Senior Lieutenant Burak Nikolai Andreevich was awarded a government award - the Order of the Red Banner.

This is only a small part of the feats that were accomplished by Soviet people during the war. The participation of every soldier, home front worker, and doctor in the difficult task of bringing victory over the treacherous invaders closer can already be considered a feat worthy of great rewards. But not everyone is destined to be rewarded with various government awards. Those who perform a feat sincerely, with all their hearts, devoting it to their people and fatherland, will not demand any special treatment and chase various awards.

People who did not spare their lives to defend their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War are those from whom all subsequent generations, without exception, should take an example. The exploits of these people should in no case be forgotten by the residents of our free country, which became free precisely thanks to the exploits of the Great Patriotic War.