Where was Valya the cat born. Little hero of the big war: how Valya Kotik became a real eaglet
Times do not choose, says the well-known wisdom. Someone gets a childhood with pioneer camps and waste paper collection, someone - with game consoles and social media accounts ...
A military secret
The generation of children of the 1930s got a cruel and terrible war that took away relatives, friends, and childhood itself. And instead of children's toys, the most persistent and courageous took rifles and machine guns in their hands. They took it to take revenge on the enemy and fight for the Motherland.
War is not a child's business. But when she comes to your house, the usual ideas change dramatically.
In 1933, the writer Arkady Gaidar wrote "The Tale of the Military Secret, Malchish-Kibalchish and his firm word." This work by Gaidar, written eight years before the start of the Great Patriotic War, was destined to become a symbol of memory for all the young heroes who fell in the fight against the Nazi invaders.
Valya Kotik
Valya Kotik, like all Soviet boys and girls, of course, heard the tale of Malchish-Kibalchish. But he hardly thought that he would have to be in the place of the brave hero Gaidar.
He was born on February 11, 1930 in Ukraine, in the village of Khmelevka, Kamenetz-Podolsk region, into a peasant family.
Valya had the usual childhood of a boy of that time, with the usual pranks, secrets, sometimes bad grades. Everything changed in June 1941, when the war broke into the life of the sixth grader Valya Kotik.
Desperate
The swift Nazi blitzkrieg of the summer of 1941, and now Valya, who by that time lived in the city of Shepetovka, was already in the occupied territory with his family.
The victorious power of the Wehrmacht inspired fear in many adults, but did not frighten Valya, who, together with his friends, decided to fight the Nazis. To begin with, they began to collect and stash weapons left at the battlefields that were in full swing around Shepetovka. Then they became bolder to the point that they began to steal machine guns from the gaping Nazis.
And in the fall of 1941, a desperate boy committed a real sabotage - setting up an ambush by the road, he blew up a car with the Nazis with a grenade, destroying several soldiers and the commander of a field gendarmerie detachment.
The underground learned about Vali's affairs. It was almost impossible to stop the desperate boy, and then he was attracted to underground work. He was instructed to collect information about the German garrison, put up leaflets, act as a messenger.
For the time being, the smart guy did not arouse suspicion among the Nazis. However, the more successful actions became on the account of the underground, the more attentively the Nazis began to look for their assistants among the local residents.
The young partisan saved the detachment from the punishers
In the summer of 1943, the threat of arrest loomed over Vali's family, and he, along with his mother and brother, went into the forest, becoming a fighter in the Karmelyuk partisan detachment.
The command tried to take care of the 13-year-old guy, but he was eager to fight. In addition, Valya showed himself to be a skilled scout and a person who is able to find a way out of the most difficult situation.
In October 1943, Valya, who was on partisan patrol, ran into punishers who were preparing to attack the base of the partisan detachment. The boy was tied up, but, having decided that he did not pose a threat and could not provide valuable intelligence, they left him under guard here, at the edge of the forest.
Valya himself was wounded, but managed to get to the forester's hut, who was helping the partisans. After recovery, he continued to fight in the detachment.
Valya participated in undermining six enemy echelons, destroying the strategic communications cable of the Nazis, as well as in a number of other successful actions, for which he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree".
Vali's last fight
On February 11, 1944, Valya turned 14 years old. The front was rapidly rolling to the West, and the partisans, as best they could, helped the regular army. Shepetovka, where Valya lived, had already been liberated, but the detachment moved on, preparing for its last operation - the assault on the city of Izyaslav.
After her, the detachment was to be disbanded, the adults were to join the regular units, and Valya was to return to school.
The battle for Izyaslav on February 16, 1944 turned out to be hot, but it was already ending in favor of the partisans, when Valya was seriously wounded by a stray bullet.
Soviet troops burst into the city to help the partisans. The wounded Valya was urgently sent to the rear, to the hospital. However, the wound turned out to be fatal - on February 17, 1944, Vali Kotik died.
Valya was buried in the village of Khorovets. At the request of his mother, the ashes of his son were transferred to the city of Shepetovka and reburied in the city park.
A large country that survived a terrible war could not immediately appreciate the feats of all those who fought for its freedom and independence. But over time, everything fell into place.
For the heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1958, Kotik Valentin Alexandrovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In history, he never became Valentine, remaining just Valya. The youngest Hero of the Soviet Union.
His name, like the names of other pioneer heroes, whose exploits were told to Soviet schoolchildren of the post-war period, was subjected to defamation in the post-Soviet period.
But time puts everything in its place. A feat is a feat, and betrayal is a betrayal. Valya Kotik, in a difficult time of trial for the Motherland, turned out to be more courageous than many adults, who to this day are looking for excuses for their cowardice and cowardice. Eternal glory to him!
He defended the country no worse than adults and was eager to fight without fear of difficulties. He has dozens of successful sabotage to his credit. February 11, 1930 was born Valya Kotik, the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. He devoted his short life to the fight against Nazism.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Valya Kotik was only 11. The city of Shepetovka, where his family moved shortly before the start of the war from the village of Khmelevka, was occupied by the Germans in July 1941.
Needless to say, with their arrival, childhood for Valya Kotik, as well as for many boys and girls, ended. Instead of carefree games - dangerous underground work, instead of school - active assistance to the partisans.
Yesterday's fifth grader collected and hid the weapons left in the battlefields around Shepetovka, drew and pasted caricatures of the Germans at night.
In underground circles, they learned about the young defender after he set up an ambush and blew up a car with the head of the Nazi field gendarmerie with a grenade.
So, in 1942, the pioneer Valya Kotik became a scout for the Shepetovskaya underground party organization. Thanks to him, the underground knew about the exact locations of German posts, the order of the changing of the guards, and received the weapons and ammunition they got.
For a long time, the boy did not arouse suspicion among the invaders, but the more successful sabotage was on the account of the underground, the more dangerous the position of their assistants among the townspeople became.
And so, in the summer of 1943, when a threat loomed over the family of Valya Kotik, he left Shepetovka with his mother and brother and became a scout for the Karmelyuk partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Muzalev.
The partisans tried to protect the boy from dangers, but Valya could not be stopped. Smart, brave and resolute, he rushed into battle without fear and fought as best he could. But he did it no worse than adults.
Thanks to him, an underground telephone cable was blown up, through which the invaders kept in touch with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw.
On account of the young partisan undermining a warehouse, six railway echelons, as well as other equally daring and dangerous acts of sabotage.
October 29, 1943 Valya Kotik was on patrol. Noticing the Nazis planning a raid on the detachment, he killed an enemy officer and raised the alarm. This made it possible to prevent the partisans from being taken by surprise.
On February 16, during the assault on Izyaslav, the young partisan was seriously wounded. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors fought for his life for days. February 17, 1944 Valya Kotik died.
During his service, the heroic boy was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree".
He also received the main award of the country - in June 1958, Valya Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
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Patriotic stories. Children of war. Valya Kotik
Valya Kotik (or Valentin Alexandrovich Kotik) was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka (Ukraine) into a peasant family. By the beginning of the war, he had only moved to the sixth grade, but from the first days he began to fight the invaders. In the autumn of 1941, together with his comrades, he killed the head of the field gendarmerie near the city of Shepetovka, throwing a grenade at the car in which he was traveling. Since 1942, he took an active part in the partisan movement on the territory of Ukraine. At first he was a liaison of the Shepetovskaya underground organization, then he participated in the battles.
When the Germans occupied the Shepetovsky region, Valya Kotik was only 11 years old. The official biography says that he immediately took part in the collection of ammunition and weapons, which were then sent to the front. Together with friends, Valya collected weapons abandoned at the scene of clashes, which were transported to the partisans in hay carts. Also, the young hero independently made and pasted caricatures of the Nazis around the city.
In 1942, he was accepted into the ranks of the Shepetovskaya underground organization as an intelligence officer. Further, his military biography was replenished with participation in the exploits of a partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev (1943). In October of the same year, Valya Kotik accomplished his first high-profile feat - he managed to find an underground telephone cable at the headquarters of the German command, which was then safely blown up by partisans.
On the combat account of the courageous pioneer there are other feats - the successful blowing up of six warehouses and railway echelons, as well as numerous ambushes in which he took part. The duties of Valya Kotik also included obtaining information about the location of German posts and the procedure for changing their guard.
Another feat that saved the lives of many of his adult comrades, the young hero accomplished on October 29, 1943. On that day, the guy was on duty, when suddenly he was attacked by the Nazi punishers. The boy managed to shoot the enemy officer, and thereby raise the alarm. This made it possible to prevent the partisans from being taken by surprise.
For his heroism, courage and repeatedly accomplished feats, pioneer Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the Order of Lenin, as well as the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 2nd degree.
On February 16, 1944, the 14-year-old hero was mortally wounded in the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav Kamenetz-Podolsky. He died the next day, February 17, and was buried in the central park of Shepetovka.
According to another version of the biography of Vali Kotik, from the direct participant in the battles for the city of Izyaslav, veteran of the Great Patriotic War Murashov, the boy was wounded at first non-lethally, in the shoulder. The narrator's brother (who was with him on a mission) dragged him to the nearby Gorin valley and bandaged him. On the second day, during the evacuation of the wounded to the partisan hospital in Strigany, the carts with the cart, on which Kotik was, were subjected to German bombardment. The young hero received mortal wounds, from which he died on the way.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1958, Valentin Alexandrovich Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the Soviet years, every schoolchild knew about this brave pioneer and his exploits. The name of the courageous guy was called numerous streets, both in Russia and in Ukraine, pioneer squads, detachments and camps. A monument to Valya Kotik was erected in front of the school where he studied, another monument stood at VDNKh. One ship was also named after him.
The biography of the pioneer Valya Kotko formed the basis of a feature film about Valya Kotko, which was released in 1957 under the title "Eaglet". The film tells about the struggle of the young pioneer Vali with the fascist invaders who occupied his hometown. The boy helps his partisan detachment to spy on the enemy and get weapons. One day, being surrounded by the Nazis, the schoolboy performs a feat by blowing himself up with a grenade.
In Soviet times, the name of the pioneer hero Valya Kotik was familiar to every schoolchild. It was associated, first of all, with patriotism, loyalty and courage. The youngest Hero of the Soviet Union, who did not spare his life for the sake of his beloved Motherland, was an example for many boys and girls. On February 11, Valentin Kotik would have turned 84 years old. To this date, we recall his military exploits.
Valentin Kotik was born in the small Ukrainian village of Khmelevka on February 11, 1930. His father Alexander Fedoseevich was a carpenter, his mother Anna Nikitichna was a collective farmer. Valik was the youngest child, he always tried to imitate his older brother Vita. It suffices to give an example. When Vita was 7 years old, his parents sent him to school. Valya also wanted to become a first-grader, but his father took pity on the boy, who still had a whole year left. So that Valya would not be upset, his mother bought him a pen and a notebook, and when his older brother came home from school, they studied together. Valya repeated after Vitya everything that the teacher asked. And three months later he could not stand it and came to school, like Tolstoy Filipok. The teacher allowed him to study with everyone. Valya became one of the best students in the class and at the end of the year received a commendable diploma.
In the summer of 1937, the Kotikov family moved to Shepetovka. When the mother determined the sons to school, the director was at a loss: the youngest was only 7 years old, and he was already applying for the second grade - nevertheless, Valya was accepted. At the end of elementary school, he was presented with a book by N. Ostrovsky "How Steel Was Tempered". Her hero Pavka Korchagin became an idol for Valentine.
On November 7, 1939, on the anniversary of the October Revolution, Valik was accepted as a pioneer. At the solemn gathering, he took an oath in an adult way, in which there were such lines:“...I promise to love my Motherland passionately. Live, study and fight as the great Lenin bequeathed, as the Communist Party teaches. It is sacred to observe the Laws of the Pioneers of the Soviet Union" , that is, to be an example for the younger ones, to be equal to the heroes of struggle and labor, to prepare to become the defender of the Motherland, to honor the memory of the dead, to be an honest comrade.And Valik was very sensitive to someone else's grief. When a classmate's father died at the front of the Soviet-Finnish War, the boy offered the guys to buy boots for him in a pool.
When the Great Patriotic War began, people began to evacuate from Shepetovka. The Kotikov family was no exception. Before leaving home, Valik decided to release his pet squirrel into the forest. And when he said goodbye to the animal, he noticed four immaculately dressed "policemen" who spoke German. Valya took off running. On the outskirts of the city, he met the Red Army, who tied the German saboteurs.
The Kotikov family failed to evacuate - the escape routes were cut off; and they returned home. Shepetovka, where the Nazis ran, looked terrible: the house-museum of N. Ostrovsky was burned to the ground, a stable was made from the school, all Jews were herded into the ghetto and were not allowed to leave this territory of the city. The heart of the young pioneer was overflowing with hatred for those who committed atrocities on his land.
Valik thought about how he could be useful not only to partisans, but also to ordinary people. When Soviet planes flew over Shepetovka and dropped leaflets, appeals, Valik collected them and pasted them around the city. And then a strange man Stepan Didenko settled with Kotikov, who, as it turned out later, escaped from captivity. He created an underground organization in Shepetovka, which included Vitya Kotik and his close friends Kolya and Styopa, and later Valya joined, becoming a liaison for the Shepetov underground.
Together with other guys, he collected ammunition and weapons at the site of recent battles, hid them in a cache, made inquiries about the location of German troops, posts, wrote down the time of changing guards, found out where their food and ammunition depots were, kept records of their tanks and guns. A light machine gun was buried at the meat processing plant. Valik dug it up, took it apart, put it in a basket, and on a bicycle transported it through the whole city to the forest. On another occasion, he was assigned to escort sixteen Polish prisoners of war who had escaped from the camp to a partisan detachment.
Together with other underground workers, Valya participated in the mining of the highway connecting Shepetovka with Slavuta. But when a peaceful peasant died on the road, the demolition work was stopped. The guys ambushed the policemen. Once, the chief of the Shepetovskaya gendarmerie, Lieutenant Fritz König, drove along the highway himself, an incredibly cruel man, whose name alone caused hatred. Such an opportunity - to destroy the main enemy of the city - the guys could not miss. It was Valya who crawled like a snake to the road and threw a grenade at the car.
The death of Koenig at the hands of the underground seriously worried the Nazis, and although they arrested several partisans, the underground did not stop its work. Roller with his comrades, having disarmed the guards, plundered the German food warehouse and set fire to the building. And another time, the guys let the red rooster go at the oil depot and lumberyard.
Every day it became more and more dangerous to stay in Shepetovka. Didenko took all the underground workers and their families to the partisans, from where women with children were sent to the rear. And Valik, who was only 12, flatly refused big prospects, believing that it was his job to defend the Motherland, mercilessly take revenge on the enemy. He was accepted into the partisan detachment. He had to take “tongues”, and mine roads, and blow up bridges. Six echelons with ammunition, equipment, and manpower of the enemy were derailed by a pioneer. And once he cut the telephone cable connecting the minister of the eastern lands, von Rosenberg, with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw. Communication was paralyzed for a whole week.
Valya Kotik received his first medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, II degree, for not only destroying several Nazis in a fight with punishers, but also covering his commander with his chest, and received a gunshot wound in the chest. And when he recovered, he got back on track. In the detachment he was called a Korchaginian, and he proudly bore this title, risking his life, every day looking into the face of danger, completely without thinking about the praise of his senior comrades in arms. And once Valik fell into the hands of the punishers, but he was not at a loss and threw a grenade at the enemies - he killed the traitors and informed the partisans about the danger.
V.V. Yudin. Illustration for the book by G. Najafarov "Valya Kotik"When Valik turned 14, the Soviet Army liberated Shepetovka. He could return to his native city, but he refused - the neighboring city of Izyaslav was still under the rule of the Nazis. But Valya Kotik was not destined to return home - in the hot battles for Izyaslav, guarding the ammunition depot and shooting the enemy, he was mortally wounded in the stomach.
V.V. Yudin. Illustration for the book by G. Najafarov "Valya Kotik"The young partisan was buried in the garden in front of Shepetovskaya school No. 4. Valya Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. In the city park of Shepetovka and in Moscow, at VDNKh, monuments to the pioneer hero were erected.
Monuments to Valya Kotik in Moscow(left) and in Shepetovka(on right)Motor ships, schools, pioneer squads, streets, etc. were named after him. Valya Kotik became one of the prototypes of Valya Kotko's hero from the film The Eaglet (1957).
And the Soviet poet Mikhail Svetlov dedicated poems to the young partisan:We remember the recent battles,
They accomplished more than one feat.
He entered the family of our glorious heroes
Brave boy - Kotik Valentin.
He, as in life, boldly asserts:
"Immortal youth,
Our cause is immortal!
Valya Kotik
In the small Ukrainian village of Khmelevka, the Kotikov family once lived. Alexander Feodosievich was a carpenter, Anna Nikitichna worked on a collective farm. They had two sons - Vitya and Valya. Parents went to work in the morning, leaving the house and household to their sons. And at that time, in the summer of 1936, they were still boys - Vitya was eight. Valik went seventh. The guys grazed the heifer Musya in the meadow, swarmed in the garden or ran into the forest for berries and mushrooms. Sometimes Valik climbed into Uncle Afanasy's room. He was attracted here by a bookcase with books. Roller lay down on the floor, leafing through books, looking at photographs and drawings on agronomy.
When Uncle Athanasius found out about this, he brought him several children's books with colorful drawings from Shepetovka:
- It is for you. Don't touch mine!
Oh, and Valik was delighted with the gift!
Once Anna Nikitichna worked in the field. Suddenly he sees - Roller is walking, carrying a bundle in his hand.
- Roller, how are you so far away? Anna Nikitichna was alarmed. Why did Victor let you go?
- Mom, do not scold Vitya. I brought you food...
It turns out that the boys noticed that the mother did not take food with her. They thought she was hungry. Yes, they did not know that a field canteen was opened on the collective farm.
In the fall, Vitya was taken to first grade. Roller also asked to go to school.
- Grow up for now. Come next year! - answered the father.
Valik sobbed in resentment. Anna Nikitichna bought him notebooks and a pen - let him, they say, play school. And Valik "played" seriously. As soon as Vitya sat down for lessons, he sat down next to him. Vitya writes something - Valik looks into his notebook and writes the same thing in his. Vitya memorizes a rhyme - Valik listens and remembers it before him.
One winter Roller appeared on the threshold of the class. He tilted his forehead and looked at the teacher with lively brown eyes from under his brows. His high cheekbones and large ears burned with frost.
- Whose will you be? the teacher was surprised.
“That’s my brother,” Vitya answered. - Why did you come, Valik?
“I want to study,” Valik sniffled.
The teacher looked at his frail, chilled figure, smiled and allowed him to sit down at the desk.
Soon Valik became the best student and graduated from the first grade with a commendable diploma.
In the summer Kotiki moved to Shepetivka. Here the boys immediately made new friends - Kolya Trukhan and Styopa Kishchuk.
At school No. 4, where Anna Nikitichna brought her sons, they did not know what to do with Val and Kon. By age, Roller was not suitable for the first class, but he entered the second. And yet the director accepted him. And two years later, Valik was presented with a book by Nikolai Ostrovsky “How the Steel Was Tempered” for excellent studies. The book captured Valik. It turns out that Nikolai Ostrovsky is his countryman! The events described in the book took place here, in Shepetovka! Quiet, green Shepetivka has become even dearer and dearer to Valik.
On November 7, 1939, at a solemn gathering dedicated to the October Revolution, Valik was accepted as a pioneer. On the same day, Valik wrote to his father about this.
Alexander Feodosievich joined the Red Army in the summer, participated in the liberation of Western Ukraine, and then fought with the White Finns.
The cats were very worried about their father - he had not received letters for a long time. Is there anything that could have happened? Recently, the family of Valik's classmate Leni Kotenko received a funeral. Valik felt sorry for his friend. He suggested that the guys fold up and buy him new shoes. Lyonya was touched by the attention and kindness of his comrades.
Father returned unexpectedly, in May 1940.
A year later, when Valik graduated from the fifth grade with a diploma, his father gave him a bicycle. Wow, how Vitya, Kolya Trukhan and Styopa Kishchuk envied Valik! But Valik was not greedy, he allowed everyone to ride. Sometimes the guys in a crowd went to the forest or to the lakes to swim and go fishing.
... Valik had just left the house to ride a bicycle, when he immediately returned frightened and pale.
- What, or jumped on someone? the father asked.
- War! The Germans have attacked! Valik blurted out.
Alexander Feodosievich left to fight again.
The radio brought bad news. No matter how our fighters fought, the iron, fiery avalanche of fascist armies moved eastward, occupied one city after another. Through Shepetovka, a large railway station, refugees from captured cities and villages went east. Soon the evacuation of Shepetovka began.
Valik had a fluffy squirrel. He picked her up in the woods when she was very young. Sheltered, fed. The squirrel became attached to Valik, climbed into his bed or into his bosom. Now Valik decided to release the squirrel. In the forest, he noticed four policemen. They had a new uniform. Roller hid behind a tree. German speech reached him. Roller began to run at full speed. On the outskirts of the city, he met the Red Army.
- Uncle ... there ... the Germans! Run, I'll show you!
A gunfight broke out in the forest. One of the "policemen" was killed. The rest are connected. They turned out to be German saboteurs.
In the morning, the Kotikov family left Shepetovka. But they didn't get far. The Germans broke through and cut off the path to the east. I had to go back with other refugees.
Roller walked around the city, and tears choked him. The Germans burned the house-museum of Nikolai Ostrovsky, set up a camp for prisoners of war near the forest, turned the school into a stable, herded the Jews into the “ghetto” - a wire-enclosed area of the city, forced them to clean the latrines, collect manure in hats.
Valik thought about Pavlik Korchagin from the book How the Steel Was Tempered, wanted to be like him. But what could Valik do alone? And there is no one to consult. Kolya and Styopa avoided him - he was still small. Vitya, as always, was silent. They went to work at a lumber mill. But Valik did not waste time in vain.
Sometimes Soviet planes flew over the city dropping leaflets. Roller collected them, then imperceptibly pasted them around the city.
A tenant, Stepan Didenko, has moved in with the Kotikovs. Valik hated him. I thought he was working for the Germans. Yes, he did not know that Didenko was not Didenko at all, but Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev, a former prisoner of war. The director of the sawmill, Ostap Andreyevich Gorbatyuk, helped him escape, got a fake passport and got him a job at a sugar factory. Gorbatyuk and Didenko created an underground organization in Shepetovka.
Vitya, Kolya and Styopa also became members of the underground. Didenko kept an eye on Valik and wanted him to help the underground. Yes, I was afraid. Firstly, Valik is only 12 years old, and secondly, he is too hot and direct - he does not know how to hide his hatred of the Nazis.
In the fall, the Nazis opened a school. The policeman forcibly rounded up the students. The guys were forced to pick berries, cones, medicinal herbs, cut firewood and memorize prayers for the speedy victory of Germany. Valik flatly refused to go to such a school. Once Didenko came late when Valik was sleeping. Didenko saw Valik's leaky boot and decided to fix it. There were leaflets in the shoe.
In the morning, Didenko asked Valik:
“So you stick them around the city?”
- Well, I! Valik answered defiantly.
- Still small ... You will disappear for nothing.
- Pavka Korchagin was also small! Valik growled.
From that day on, Valik began to fulfill the orders of the underground organization. Together with other guys, he collected ammunition and weapons at the site of recent battles, took them to a hiding place, clarified the location of German troops, their weapons and food depots, counted how many tanks and guns they had. A light machine gun was buried at the meat processing plant. Roller dug it up, took it apart, put it in a basket and transported it on a bicycle through the whole city to the forest. On another occasion, Valik was assigned to escort sixteen Polish prisoners of war who had escaped from the camp into the forest. There, in the forest, a teacher from the neighboring town of Strigan, Anton Zakharovich Odukha, was gathering a partisan detachment.
Cars and trucks of the Germans were constantly rushing along the Slavutskoe highway. On the advice of Didenko, the guys mined the highway. Their mines blew up several vehicles with soldiers and food, a tank of gasoline. But somehow a cart with a peasant ran over a mine. The horse was blown to pieces, and the peasant was thrown out by the blast wave onto the road.
Didenko ordered to stop mining. Then Valik suggested that his friends set up an ambush.
... For the third hour they have been sitting in the bushes by the road. But, unfortunately, nothing suitable. And suddenly Valik saw a car. She rushed from Shepetovka. She was followed by two trucks full of soldiers.
- Shall we? Valik asked.
- A lot of them ... Grab! Styopa hesitated.
“Lie down, lads, they will notice us,” Kolya said.
The guys lay down and watched the road from behind the bushes. Cars are getting closer and closer. Here are the faces. In the passenger car next to the driver ... So this is ...
- Ginger! Valik screamed.
The boys looked at each other in confusion. “How to be? asked their looks. “After all, this is the head of the Shepetovskaya gendarmerie, Lieutenant Fritz König!”
His name alone was terrifying. Unbelievable things were told about his cruelty. Miss this opportunity? The roller briskly crawled up to the road. “Just don’t miss, just don’t miss!” he repeated to himself. Now he has forgotten about everything in the world: both the fact that there are a lot of soldiers, and the fact that they can seize him ... The whole being of Valik was seized by an irresistible desire: to kill Koenig!
The car was moving at top speed. The paved roadbed flew towards. Koenig stared intently ahead of him. He hurried to the village, where the partisans were captured. Suddenly he noticed that three teenagers jumped out into the road. They threw something and quickly disappeared into the bushes.
Everything happened instantly: the brakes screeched, three blinding explosions rang out. Yellow circles swam before König's eyes, and everything went out...
Not having time to slow down, the truck ran into a mutilated, overturned passenger car and dragged it for several meters. The soldiers poured out onto the road and scribbled through the bushes...
The desperate sabotage of Vali and his cronies alarmed the Nazis. They grabbed all the suspicious, arrested several underground workers, but the underground continued to operate.
A group of underground workers, and with them Valik, attacked the food warehouse, disarmed the guards, loaded the car to the top with food, and set fire to the warehouse.
A week later, Didenko and Valik set fire to the tank farm. A little later, the lumberyard caught fire.
But soon, on the denunciation of a traitor, the Nazis attacked the trail of an underground organization. Gorbatyuk was arrested. The underground wanted to arrange an escape for him, but failed. Gorbatyuk died in the cell from torture.
It was dangerous to stay in Shepetovka. Didenko led the underground workers, their wives and children into the forest. This multi-day trip to the Belarusian Polesie was long and difficult, where the Odukhi camp was located in the village of Dubnitsky. From here, from the partisan airfield, all women and children were sent to the mainland. Valik refused to go. He was summoned by Oduha and the secretary of the underground regional committee Oleksenko.
- What is your name? Oleksenko asked.
- Kotik Valentin Alexandrovich!
- And how old are you?
- Fourteen ... coming soon.
- So ... Why don't you want to leave, Valentin Alexandrovich? Go learn. They'll manage without you. War, brother, is a man's business.
- Male! Valik frowned. She is universal!
Valya sniffed and ran his sleeve over his wet eyes. Oleksenko pressed Valik to his chest, kissed him warmly and said softly:
- Go, son!
A few days later, the partisan detachment of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev set off on a distant raid on Shepetovshchina. The youngest in the detachment was Valya Kotik.
The kind, attentive, caring Roller became a cruel, ruthless avenger. He captured "tongues", mined railways, blew up bridges.
Once, returning from reconnaissance, Valik noticed a telephone cable sticking out of the ground near the Tsvetokha station. The roller cut it and disguised it. And this was a direct wire connecting the Reich Minister of the Eastern Lands von Rosenberg with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw. The bastards couldn't talk!
Once the partisans stumbled upon a detachment of punishers. Roller lay down next to Muzalev and scribbled from a machine gun. Suddenly he noticed a soldier who was sneaking from behind the trees to Muzalev.
- Uncle Ivan! Behind! .. - Valya shouted and shielded Muzalev with himself.
He quickly turned around. Shots rang out at the same time. Valya grabbed his chest and fell. The German also collapsed. Valya groaned, opened his eyes, and quietly asked:
- Ivan Alekseevich ... Alive? .. - And he lost consciousness.
For several months, Valik lay in the forester's lodge, and when he recovered, he returned to the detachment again. For courage and courage, Valik was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree.
On February 11, 1944, Valik turned 14 years old. On this day, great joy awaited him: the Soviet Army liberated Shepetovka! Muzalev invited Valik to return home, but Valik refused - the detachment was to help the Soviet Army liberate the neighboring city of Izyaslav.
“Let’s take Izyaslav, then I’ll go,” said Roller.
But it happened differently.
At dawn on February 17, the partisans silently approached Izyaslav and lay down. Waiting for the attack to begin. The roller was lying on the snow, looking at the vague outlines of the city and thinking about Shepetovka. Today after the fight he will go home. Maybe mom is back? Oh, if only the day would come, such a long-awaited, such a happy day in his life!
A roar broke the silence: attack! The partisans broke into the city, chasing the retreating Nazis. Roller ran, stopped, fired. He felt hot, he threw off his earflaps.
They took over the armory. Muzalev ordered Valya and several other partisans to guard the trophies.
Roller stood at his post, listening to the noise of battle. Everything around was filled with the whistle of bullets, the howling of mines, the chirping of machine guns and machine guns. Somewhere very near, several bullets whistled, and Valik felt a blunt blow to his stomach. Legs immediately weakened. There was blood on the white camouflage robe. The roller leaned against the wall and began to slowly slide down.
The orderlies carefully laid him on the cart. Roller asked in a weakening voice:
“Pick me up… I want to see… I want to stand… Like this… good… how good… Tanks!.. Ours!..
The dead body of a boy hung on the hands of an orderly ...
... Valya Kotik was buried in the garden in front of the school where he studied. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR posthumously awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Monuments were erected in Shepetovsky Park and in Moscow, at VDNKh, Vale Kotik.
Valya Kotik will always live in the memory of people as a brave and courageous boy in a soldier's overcoat - the way he was in those distant years of the war.
The famous poet, Lenin Prize laureate Mikhail Svetlov dedicated poems to the young partisan:
We remember the recent battles,
They accomplished more than one feat.
He entered the family of our glorious heroes
A brave boy - Kotik Valentine.
He, as in life, boldly asserts:
“Youth is immortal, our cause is immortal!”
By a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, one of the ships of the Soviet fleet was named after Valya Kotik.
