The history of the “Young Guard” is undoubtedly one of the most mythologized pages of our past. Although a myth is not always untrue. Often this is a simplified version of the truth that is easy to understand.

A set of cliches: “friends and foes”, “leaflets”, “feat”, “betrayal”, “pit”, “immortality”. Stamps replace living people, impoverish and devalue their history. That's probably why it's around "Young Guard"“There is so much speculation, speculation, controversy, doubt.

Meanwhile, there are sources of information that can, in many cases, dot the i's in these disputes. These are archival documents.

The archives of the SBU Directorate in the Luhansk region contain a significant amount of documentary materials relating to the activities of the Young Guard, including the earliest that have come down to us and dating back to the 20th of February 1943.

We are talking about materials from the investigation of the crimes of the executioners and traitors of the Young Guard, who were detained by the NKVD literally immediately after the Germans left Krasnodon. The interrogation reports of these individuals may not contain any special sensations, but they can dispel many speculations. For example, the doubts of some of our contemporaries as to whether this organization existed in principle. It turns out that there was. At least for representatives of German special forces and occupation authorities, this was a real anti-fascist organization, and not a gang of hooligans.

Beginning of the investigation

Krasnodon was liberated from the fascist invaders on February 14, 1943, and already on February 16, the NKVD began arresting people involved in the death of the underground organization.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that this happened so quickly: the Soviet state security agencies prepared in advance for work in the territories liberated from the Nazis and by this time they had already developed an algorithm of actions that made it possible to very quickly identify agents and official employees of intelligence, counterintelligence and punitive agencies enemy, study their activities, detain active collaborators. For this purpose, operational groups were created to service areas occupied by the enemy. The groups were located near the assigned territories and, by the time they were liberated, accumulated operational materials (mainly due to the testimony of Soviet citizens who crossed the front line, as well as operational sources operating in the occupied territory), which were subsequently used in practical work.

The groups entered the liberated areas with the advanced units of the Red Army and immediately began work. Thus, in Voroshilovgrad, an operational group of 42 people under the leadership of the deputy chief UNKVD V.A. Koroba She started work the very next day after her release.

What the Nazis were doing in the occupied territories by the beginning of 1943 was well known. But even against this background, what happened in Krasnodon attracted attention due to the massive scale and cruelty of the massacre of local youth. Hence the special scrupulousness of the investigation.

The search and arrest of Nazi criminals who participated in these bloody events continued both during and after the war. For example, Walter Eichhorn, which in 1942-1943 as part of the gendarme group, he directly participated in punitive actions and murders of members of the “Young Guard” and other participants in the anti-fascist Resistance in the Voroshilovgrad region, was found in Thuringia (Germany)), where he worked... at a doll factory. Similarly searched for and detained in Germany Ernst-Emil Renatus- musician, former head of the German district gendarmerie in Krasnodon. They and other Nazi criminals who participated in the defeat of the Krasnodon underground were tried in Moscow.

The interrogation protocols of these individuals are still kept in the archives. Their monotonous dialogues with investigators are also a story about the Krasnodon events 70 years ago. But from an unusual point of view - on behalf of the executioners. What gives credibility to this story is that it is difficult to blame the executioners for wanting to create a “heroic myth” about the “Young Guard”. Here are excerpts from some of the minutes.

"I followed these directives"

From the testimony Eichhorn(9.III.1949):

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

From the testimony Renatus a (VII.1949):

Arriving in July 1942 as part of a gendarme team in the city of Stalino, I participated in a meeting of officers of the “Einsatzkommando Gendarmerie”... At this meeting, the head of the team, Lieutenant Colonel Ganzo g gave us instructions to first of all focus on the arrests of communists, Jews and Soviet activists. At the same time, Gantsog emphasized that the arrest of these persons does not require any action against the Germans. At the same time, Gantzog explained that all communists and Soviet activists should be exterminated and only as an exception imprisoned in concentration camps. Having been appointed head of the German gendarmerie in the city. Krasnodon, I followed these directives..."

« Artes Lina(translator - Yu.E.) told me that Zons And Solikovsky arrestees are tortured. Zons especially loved to torture arrested people ( chief of gendarmes. – Yu.E.) . It was a great pleasure for him to summon prisoners after dinner and subject them to torture. Zons told me that he only brings prisoners to confession through torture. Artes Lina asked me to release her from work in the gendarmerie due to the fact that she could not be present during the beatings of those arrested.”

Death of 32 Krasnodon miners

In September 1942, Krasnodon was shocked by the massacre of more than 30 communists by the invaders, who were mostly miners of local mines.

It was the shock of what happened that prompted many young people to become members of the anti-fascist underground. In 1947, during interrogations at the MGB Renatus informed the investigation that, on his instructions, the head of the Krasnodon police Solikovksy identified communists, Komsomol members and other persons unreliable for the Germans.

From the testimony of Renatus (12.XI.1947):

“Having received a list of 32 local communists, I summoned Solikovsky and Statsenkov, who confirmed to me that all these persons are active supporters of Soviet power. For me, this was quite enough to shoot these people. On September 28, 1942, I ordered Solikovsky to destroy the arrested communists, without limiting him in the methods of destruction. The next day Solikovsky reported to me that my order had been carried out.”

From the testimony of a policeman Lukyanova(11.XI.1947):

“The first time I participated in the mass execution of Soviet patriots was at the end of September 1942 in the Krasnodon city park... At night, a group of German gendarmes led by an officer arrived in the Krasnodon police in cars Kozak. After a short conversation Kozak with Solikovsky and Orlov According to a pre-compiled list, the police began to take the arrested people out of their cells. In total, more than 30 people were selected, mainly communists... Having announced to the arrested that they were being transported to Voroshilovgrad, they were taken out of the police building and driven to the Krasnodon city park. Upon arrival at the park, the arrested were tied by the hands in groups of five and taken into a pit that had previously served as a refuge from German air raids and there they were shot. ... Some of those shot were still alive, and therefore the gendarmes who remained with us began to shoot those who still showed signs of life. However, the gendarmes soon got tired of this activity, and they ordered to bury the victims, among whom there were still living ones...”

Krasnodon underground and its defeat

Not much is said about the activities of the Young Guard in the materials of criminal cases.

Much more about her death. And how much did an organization that existed for only a few months and which included almost children manage to accomplish? We assembled and installed 4 radios. Several hundred leaflets were produced and distributed. On the night of November 6-7, 1942, red flags were hung in Krasnodon. They collected a considerable arsenal - according to some sources, up to 15 machine guns and 30 rifles, over 13 thousand cartridges and 10 pistols (the weapons were collected at the “warehouse” of the Young Guard in the city bathhouse). They planned to establish contact with the active partisan detachments and gradually arm the organization in order to go into the forests with the onset of spring for partisan struggle against the Nazis.On the night of December 5-6, a fire was started at the German labor exchange. In principle, these documents are about something else. They are about executioners and traitors.

The beginning of the collapse of the youth underground was the theft of New Year's gifts for soldiers from a German car on the night of December 30-31, 1943.

From the testimony Kuleshova– senior investigator of the Krasnodon police, written by him in his own hand (20.ІІ.1943 and 7.ІІІ.1943):

“On December 31 or January 1, the head of the gendarmerie summoned me and Solikovsky and demanded that we find the culprits. Then Solikovsky called all the police officers and gave them the task of finding the culprits by any means. He himself went to restaurants, and some of the police officers went to the market. Solikovsky found 5 packs of cigarettes from the owner of the restaurant, which he bought from one woman. They tried to find the woman, but nothing happened . Zakharov, deputy the chief of police, managed to get on the trail of the thieves through one boy. The managers were arrested. club named after Gorky Moshko in, head string circle Tretyakevi h and a number of others. As a result of the searches, part of the stolen goods was discovered..."

Here they remembered the denunciation that had been received by the police a little earlier, but for some reason was not given serious attention.

From Kuleshov’s testimony:

“On December 24 or 25, 1942, I went into the office of the commandant of the Krasnodonsky district, who is also the chief of police of this region, Vasily Aleksandrovich Solikovsky, where I saw on his desk a statement addressed to the head of mine No. 1 bis “Sorokino” Zhukov from Gennady Prokofievich Pocheptsov. Below is the verbatim text of the statement:

“To the Head of Mine No. 1 bis Mr. Zhukov

from Mr. Pocheptsov Gennady Prokofievich

statement

Mr. Zhukov, an underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” was organized in Krasnodon, of which I became an active member. I ask you to come to my apartment in your free time and I will tell you in detail about this organization and its members. My address: st. Chkalova, house 12, entrance No. 1, apartment of Gromov D.G.

20.XII.1942 Pocheptsov.”

...During the interrogation of Gennady Pocheptsov, the latter betrayed the entire Pervomaisk organization, led by its leader Popov Anatoly».

“The police had such an order that first of all the arrested person was brought to Solikovsky, he brought him to consciousness, and ordered the investigator to interrogate him. Pocheptsov was called to the police. He said that he was indeed a member of an underground youth organization existing in Krasnodon and its environs. He named the leaders of this organization, or rather, the city headquarters, namely: Tretyakevich, Zemnukhov, Lukashov, Safonov and Koshevoy. Pocheptsov named Tretyakevich as the head of the citywide organization. He himself is a member of the Pervomaisk organization, whose leader is Anatoly Popov. The May Day organization consisted of 11 people, including Popov, Glavan, Zhukov, Bondarevs (two), Chernyshov and a number of others. He said that the headquarters had weapons at its disposal: Popov had a rifle, Nikolaev and Zhukov had machine guns, Chernyshov had a pistol. He also said that in one of the quarries in the pit there was a weapons warehouse. There used to be a Red Army warehouse there, which was blown up during the retreat, but the youth found a lot of ammunition there. The organizational structure was as follows: headquarters, Pervomayskaya organization, organization in the village of Krasnodon and city organization. He did not name the total number of participants. Before I was removed from my job, up to 30 people were arrested. Personally, I interrogated 12 people, incl. Pocheptsov, Tretyakevich, Lukashov, Petrov, Vasily Pirozhka and others. Of the members of the headquarters of this organization, Kosheva and Safonov were not arrested, because they disappeared.

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

From the testimony of Guriy Fadeev, an agent of German special forces:

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

Way of the Cross

From the testimony of the head of the Rovenkovo ​​district police, Orlov (XI 14, 1943)

“Oleg Koshevoy was arrested at the end of January 1943 by a German gendarme and a railway policeman at a crossing 7 km from the city of Rovenki and brought to my police station. During the arrest, a revolver was confiscated from Koshevoy, and during a second search at the Rovenkovo ​​police, a revolver was found in his possession. a seal of the Komsomol organization and some two blank forms. I interrogated Koshevoy and received testimony from him that he is the leader of the Krasnodon underground organization.”

From the testimony of a district police investigator Cherenkova:

“I interrogated members of the Young Guard organization, Komsomol members Ulyana Gromova, two Ivanikhin sisters, brother and sister Bondarevs, Maya Peglivanova, Antonina Eliseenko, Nina Minaeva, Viktor Petrov, Klavdiya Kovaleva, Vasily Pirozhok, Anatoly Popov, about 15 people in total... Using torture and bullying of the “Young Guards,” we established that soon after the Germans arrived in the Donbass, the youth of Krasnodon, mostly Komsomol members, organized themselves and waged an underground struggle against the Germans... I admit that during interrogations I beat the arrested members of the underground Komsomol organization Gromov and Ivanikhin.”

From the testimony of a policeman Bautkina:

“At the beginning of January 1943, I arrested and brought to the police a member of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard”, discovered by the police in Krasnodon... Dymchenko, who lived at mine No. 5. She was tortured by the police and, along with her other underground friends, was shot by the Germans... I arrested a “Young Guard” who lived at mine No. 2-4 (I don’t remember his last name) from whose apartment, during a search, we found and seized three notebooks with prepared texts anti-fascist leaflets."

From the testimony Orlova– Chief of the Rovenkovsky district police:

“Shevtsova was required to indicate the storage location of the radio transmitter that she used to communicate with the Red Army. Shevtsov but categorically refused, stating that she did not Lyadsk I called us monsters. The next day, Shevtsova was handed over to the gendarmerie department and shot.”

At the pit

From the testimony Renatus:

"…In February Wenner and Sons They reported to me that my order to shoot the Krasnodon Komsomol members had been carried out. Some of those arrested... were shot in Krasnodon in mid-January, and the other part, due to the approach of the front line to Krasnodon, was taken from there and shot in the mountains. Rovenki."

From the testimony of a policeman Davidenko:

“I admit that I took part in the executions of the “Young Guards” three times and with my participation about 35 Komsomol members were shot... In front of the “Young Guards”, first 6 Jews were shot, and then one by one all 13 “Young Guards”, whose corpses were thrown into the pit shaft No. 5 is about 80 meters deep. Some were thrown into the mine pit alive. To prevent shouting and proclamation of Soviet patriotic slogans, girls' dresses were lifted and twirled over their heads; in this state, the doomed were dragged to the mine shaft, after which they were shot and then pushed into the mine shaft.”

Execution in Rovenki

From the testimony Schultz

“At the end of January, I took part in the execution of a group of members of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard,” among whom was the leader of this organization, Koshevoy. ...I remember him especially clearly because I had to shoot him twice. After the shots, all those arrested fell to the ground and lay motionless, only Koshevoy stood up and, turning around, looked in our direction. This greatly angered Fromme and he ordered the gendarme Drewitz to finish him off. Drewitz approached the lying Koshevoy and shot him in the back of the head.

...Before escaping from Rovenki on February 8 or 9, 1943, Fromme ordered me, Drewitz and other gendarmes to shoot a group of Soviet citizens held in the Rovenki prison. These victims included five men, a woman with a three-year-old child, and active Young Guard member Shevtsova. Having delivered the arrested to the Rovenkovsky city park, Fromme ordered me to shoot Shevtsova. I led Shevtsova to the edge of the pit, walked away a few steps and shot her in the back of the head, but the trigger mechanism on my carbine turned out to be faulty and it misfired. Then Hollender, who was standing next to me, shot at Shevtsova. During the execution, Shevtsova behaved courageously, standing on the edge of the grave with her head held high, her dark shawl slid over her shoulders and the wind ruffled her hair. Before the execution, she did not utter a word about mercy...”

From the testimony Geista– gendarme of the German district gendarmerie in Rovenki:

“...I took part, together with... other gendarmes, in the execution in Rovenkovsky Park of Komsomol members arrested in Krasnodon for underground work against the Germans. Of the executed members of the Young Guard organization, I remember only Shevtsova. I remember her because I interrogated her. In addition, she attracted attention with her courageous behavior during the execution...”

Vore

From the testimony of a policeman Kolotovich:

“Arriving at the mother of Young Guard member Vasily Bondarev, Davidenko and Sevastyanov told her that the police were sending her son to work in Germany, and he was asking her to give him things. Bondarev's mother gave Davidenko gloves and socks. The latter took gloves for himself upon leaving, and gave Sevastyanov socks and said: “There is a start!”

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

Afterword

On September 19, 1943, in Krasnodon, by the verdict of the Military Tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovgrad region, they were publicly shot Kuleshov, Gromov and Pocheptsov, recognizedresponsible for the death of the Young Guard.

In the 40s, almost all the other executioners of the Young Guard - both policemen and German punitive forces - were sentenced to 25 years in prison or 25 years in a camp. In the mid-50s, German prisoners were handed over to the GDR government as criminals and served their sentences in Germany. There is no data in the archives of the USBU about whether any of them lived to see liberation.

Prepared by the head of the press service of the SBU Directorate in the Lugansk region, Yulia Eremenko, especially for

“But even when we are dead, we will live in a piece of your great happiness, because we have invested our lives in it...”

Since April 2014, the long-suffering Ukrainian Krasnodon has been under the control of the Lugansk People's Republic. In the context of military operations in Ukraine, Russians know this city as the Krasnodon center for volunteer assistance to Donbass. But 72 years ago there was already a war here, which turned this place into evidence of one of the most brutal reprisals of the German fascists against the Soviet people. Krasnodon is the birthplace of the legendary “Young Guard”, which amazed the world with the indestructible fortitude and piercing heroism of its young members.

They were 16-19 years old. They distributed anti-fascist leaflets, hung red flags, blew up fascist objects, and rescued captured Soviet soldiers. They were killed with inhuman cruelty - “eyes were gouged out, breasts were cut out, genitals were cut out, and those arrested were beaten half to death with whips” (from the Special message of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR V.T. Sergienko to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (B) N.S. Khrushchev dated March 31 1943).
We don’t know much about what the fascists did on Ukrainian soil. Fadeev felt sorry for the readers, and Gerasimov for the viewers: neither the novel nor the film showed all the torture that the Young Guards endured. Neither paper nor film could convey what really happened in the winter of 1943 in Krasnodon...

The novel “The Young Guard” (1946) was the second most published work of children’s literature in the USSR for the years 1918-1986 (in first place was “War and Peace”). The tragic and noble story of the Young Guards, described by Alexander Fadeev, shocked the world. Soviet people dreamed of being like the brave Krasnodon residents and vowed to avenge their death. “In the images of the Young Guards, I wanted to show the heroism of all Soviet youth, their enormous faith in victory and the rightness of our cause. Death itself - cruel, terrible in torture and torment - could not shake the spirit, will, and courage of the young men and women. They died, surprising and even frightening their enemies,” said the author of the novel “The Young Guard.”

The film “The Young Guard,” directed by Sergei Gerasimov based on the novel by Fadeev, became the box office leader in 1948, and the leading actors - unknown VGIK students Vladimir Ivanov, Inna Makarova, Nonna Mordyukova, Sergei Gurzo and others - immediately received the title of laureates of the Stalinist awards. The scene of the execution of the Young Guard at the end of the film was filmed in Krasnodon - near the pit where real young underground fighters were shot. Local residents gathered to film this scene, including those who personally knew the guys and their surviving relatives. They say that when Vladimir Ivanov, who played Oleg Koshevoy, made his dying speech, some of the parents of the Young Guard members fainted.…

The website “Young Guard: Dedicated to the Heroes of Krasnodon” (www.molodguard.ru), created in 2004 by patriot Dmitry Shcherbinin, contains a collection of miraculously preserved unique photographs and documents related to the activities and execution of members of the underground Komsomol organization. When looking at the transcripts of the testimony of policemen and interpreters who were present at the fascist interrogations, you close your eyes from the inability to accept information about the inhuman suffering that the Krasnodon boys endured.…

Ulyana Gromova, 19 years old
“A five-pointed star is carved on the back, the right arm is broken, the ribs are broken” (KGB Archives of the USSR Council of Ministers). “Ulyana Gromova was hung up by her hair, a five-pointed star was cut out on her back, her breasts were cut off, her body was burned with a hot iron, her wounds were sprinkled with salt, and she was placed on a hot stove. The torture continued for a long time and mercilessly, but she was silent...” (From the book by A.F. Gordeev “Feat in the Name of Life”, Dnepropetrovsk, 2000)

Lyuba Shevtsova, 18 years old
“The girl was beaten, then she was thrown into a cold cell. Lyuba’s strong-willed disposition, cheerfulness and composure infuriated the fascists. Exhausted, she still found the strength to sing songs in her cell and encourage her comrades” (Document from the archives of the Moscow School Museum No. 312). “After a month of torture, she was shot in the Thunderous Forest near the city along with Oleg Koshev, Semyon Ostapenko, Dmitry Ogurtsov and Viktor Subbotin.” “Several stars were carved on Lyuba Shevtsova’s body, her face was disfigured by an explosive bullet. Semyon Ostapenko’s skull was crushed by a blow from a butt, Viktor Subbotin’s limbs were twisted, Oleg Koshevoy’s eye was gouged out, there were traces of blows on his face” (From the book by P.F. Dontsov “Memorial Museum “In Memory of the Dead”: a guide”, Donetsk, 1987) .

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

Maya Peglivanova, 17 years old
“Maya’s corpse was disfigured: her breasts were cut off, her legs were broken. All outer clothing has been removed” (RGASPI. F. M-1. Op. 53. D. 331). “She was lying in a coffin without lips, with her arms twisted.”

Serezha Tyulenin, 17 years old
“On January 27, 1943, Sergei was arrested. Soon they took my father and mother and confiscated all my things. The police severely tortured Sergei in the presence of his mother, confronted him with a member of the Young Guard, Viktor Lukyanchenko, but they did not recognize each other... On January 31, Sergei was tortured for the last time, and then he, half-dead, was taken to the pit with other comrades mine No. 5..." "At the end of January 1943, Solikovsky and Zakharov brought Sergei for another interrogation. According to former police investigator Cherenkov, “he was mutilated beyond recognition, his face was covered in bruises and swollen, and blood was oozing from open wounds. Three Germans immediately entered and after them Burgardt (translator) appeared, summoned by Solikovsky. One German asked Solikovsky who the man was who was beaten like that. Solikovsky explained. The German, like an angry tiger, knocked Sergei off his feet with a blow of his fist and began to torment his body with forged German boots. With terrible force he struck him in the stomach, back, face, trampled and tore his clothes and body into pieces. At the beginning of this terrible execution, Tyulenin showed signs of life, but soon he fell silent, and he was dragged dead from the office. Usachev was present at this terrible massacre of a defenseless young man.” Tyulenin’s extraordinary stamina, fearlessness and endurance infuriated the Nazis and made them feel powerless and confused. The former head of the Krasnodon gendarme post, Otto Shen, admitted during the investigation that “Tyulenin behaved with dignity during interrogation, and we were surprised how such a strong will could be developed in a still young man. Apparently, contempt for death gave rise to strength of character in him. During the torture, he did not utter a word about mercy and did not betray any of the Young Guards” (From the book “Feat in the Name of Life” by A.F. Gordeev, Dnepropetrovsk, 2000).

Evgeniy Shepelev, 19 years old
“...Evgeniy’s hands were cut off, his stomach was torn out, his head was broken...” (RGASPI. F. M-1. Op. 53. D. 331)

Oleg Koshevoy, 16 years old
“My son Oleg,” Elena Nikolaevna Koshevaya wrote in her “Letter to Youth,” published in the Rovenkovo ​​regional newspaper “Forward,” “the Nazis smashed the back of his head, pierced his cheek with a bayonet, and knocked out his eye. And the head of the 17-year-old boy was white with gray hair from the horrors suffered by the Gestapo" (From the book by P.F. Dontsov, “Memorial Museum “In Memory of the Victims”: a guide,” Donetsk, 1987).

Volodya Zhdanov, 17 years old
“He was extracted with a laceration in the left temporal region, his fingers were broken and twisted, there were bruises under the nails, two strips three centimeters wide and twenty-five centimeters long were cut out on his back, his eyes were gouged out and his ears were cut off” (Young Guard Museum, f. 1, d .36).

Klava Kovaleva, 17 years old
“The right breast was pulled out swollen, the right breast was cut off, the feet were burned, the left arm was cut off, the head was tied with a scarf, traces of beatings were visible on the body. Found ten meters from the trunk, between the trolleys, she was probably thrown alive” (Young Guard Museum, f. 1, no. 10).

Lida Androsova, 18 years old
“She was taken out without an eye, an ear, a hand, with a rope around her neck, which cut heavily into the body. You can see baked blood on the neck” (Young Guard Museum, f. 1, no. 16).

Ivan Zemnukhov, 19 years old
“When I entered the office, Solikovsky was sitting at the table. In front of him lay a set of whips: thick, thin, wide, belts with lead tips. Vanya Zemnukhov, mutilated beyond recognition, stood by the sofa. His eyes were red, his eyelids were very inflamed. There are abrasions and bruises on the face. All of Vanya’s clothes were covered in blood, the shirt on his back stuck to his body, and blood was seeping through it” (From the memoirs of Maria Borts, case materials No. 20056, FSB archive). “Trying to learn something from him, they tortured him: they hung him by his legs from the ceiling and left him, he lost consciousness. They drove shoe needles under the nails” (From the memoirs of Nina Zemnukhova, case materials No. 20056, FSB archive).

We are not publishing these lines to tickle your nerves. Many modern Russians need the truth about German fascism as a vaccine against indifference and connivance. This truth is especially relevant now - against the backdrop of Nazism revived in neighboring Ukraine, terrifying torchlight processions, slogans “Bandera is a hero!” and “Ukraine above all”, burning people alive in Odessa... It’s unlikely that today’s 18-20 year old Kyiv neo-fascists, the same age as their brutally tortured fellow countrymen, have read “The Young Guard” and heard the details of their brutal execution.
Alas, the famous words of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant: “Two things always fill the soul with new and ever stronger wonder and awe, the more often and longer we reflect on them - this is the starry sky above me and the moral law in me” and “Do this, so that you always treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, just as an end, and never treat it only as a means” - and did not become a moral imperative either for the German fascists of the last century, or especially for the neo-fascists of modern Europe.
On the monument to the Young Guards in the Thundering Forest in Rovenki, the famous words of Julius Fucik are carved: “But even the dead we will live in a piece of your great happiness, because we have invested our lives in it...”. Will we maintain our great happiness in the turbulent and treacherous 21st century?

Prepared by Erbina Nikitina.

A. Druzhinina, student of the Faculty of History and Social Sciences, Leningrad State Regional University. A. S. Pushkin.

Victor Tretyakevich.

Sergei Tyulenin.

Ulyana Gromova.

Ivan Zemnukhov.

Oleg Koshevoy.

Lyubov Shevtsova.

The “Oath” monument on the Young Guard Square in Krasnodon.

A corner of the museum dedicated to the Young Guards displays the banner of the organization and the sleds on which they carried weapons. Krasnodon.

Anna Iosifovna, the mother of Viktor Tretyakevich, waited for the day when her son’s honorable name was restored.

Having spent three years studying how the “Young Guard” arose and how it worked behind enemy lines, I realized that the main thing in its history is not the organization itself and its structure, not even the feats it accomplished (although, of course, everything done by the guys causes immense respect and admiration). Indeed, during the Second World War, hundreds of such underground or partisan detachments were created in the occupied territory of the USSR, but the “Young Guard” became the first organization that became known almost immediately after the death of its participants. And almost everyone died - about a hundred people. The main thing in the history of the Young Guard began precisely on January 1, 1943, when its leading troika were arrested.

Now some journalists write with disdain that the Young Guards did not do anything special, that they were generally OUN members, or even just “the Krasnodon lads.” It’s amazing how seemingly serious people cannot understand (or don’t want to?) that they - these boys and girls - accomplished the main feat of their lives precisely there, in prison, where they experienced inhuman torture, but to the end, until death from a bullet at the abandoned pit, where many were thrown while still alive, they remained people.

On the anniversary of their memory, I would like to remember at least some episodes from the life of the Young Guard and how they died. They deserve it. (All facts are taken from documentary books and essays, conversations with eyewitnesses of those days and archival documents.)

They were brought to an abandoned mine -
and pushed out of the car.
The guys led each other by the arm,
supported at the hour of death.
Beaten, exhausted, they walked into the night
in bloody scraps of clothing.
And the boys tried to help the girls
and even joked like before...

Yes, that’s right, most of the members of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard”, which fought against the Nazis in the small Ukrainian town of Krasnodon in 1942, lost their lives near an abandoned mine. It turned out to be the first underground youth organization about which it was possible to collect fairly detailed information. The Young Guards were then called heroes (they were heroes) who gave their lives for their Motherland. A little over ten years ago, everyone knew about the Young Guard. The novel of the same name by Alexander Fadeev was studied in schools; while watching Sergei Gerasimov's film, people could not hold back their tears; Motor ships, streets, hundreds of educational institutions and pioneer detachments were named after Young Guards. More than three hundred Young Guard museums were created throughout the country (and even abroad), and the Krasnodon Museum was visited by about 11 million people.

Who knows about the Krasnodon underground fighters now? The Krasnodon museum has been empty and quiet in recent years, out of three hundred school museums in the country only eight remain, and in the press (both in Russia and Ukraine) young heroes are increasingly called “nationalists”, “unorganized Komsomol lads”, and some then he denies their existence altogether.

What were they like, these young men and women who called themselves Young Guards?

The Krasnodon Komsomol youth underground included seventy-one people: forty-seven boys and twenty-four girls. The youngest was fourteen years old, and fifty-five of them never turned nineteen. The most ordinary guys, no different from the same boys and girls of our country, the guys made friends and quarreled, studied and fell in love, ran to dances and chased pigeons. They participated in school clubs and sports clubs, played stringed musical instruments, wrote poetry, and many drew well.

We studied in different ways - some were excellent students, while others had difficulty mastering the granite of science. There were also a lot of tomboys. We dreamed about our future adult life. They wanted to become pilots, engineers, lawyers, some were going to go to a theater school, and others to a pedagogical institute.

The “Young Guard” was as multinational as the population of these southern regions of the USSR. Russians, Ukrainians (there were also Cossacks among them), Armenians, Belarusians, Jews, Azerbaijanis and Moldovans, ready to come to each other’s aid at any moment, fought the fascists.

The Germans occupied Krasnodon on July 20, 1942. And almost immediately the first leaflets appeared in the city, a new bathhouse began to burn, already ready for German barracks. It was Seryozhka Tyulenin who began to act. One.

On August 12, 1942 he turned seventeen. Sergei wrote leaflets on pieces of old newspapers, and the police often found them in their pockets. He began to collect weapons, not even doubting that they would definitely come in handy. And he was the first to attract a group of guys ready to fight. At first it consisted of eight people. However, by the first days of September, several groups were already operating in Krasnodon, not connected with one another - in total there were 25 people in them. The birthday of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” was September 30: then a plan for creating a detachment was adopted, specific actions for underground work were outlined, and a headquarters was created. It included Ivan Zemnukhov, the chief of staff, Vasily Levashov, the commander of the central group, Georgy Arutyunyants and Sergei Tyulenin, members of the headquarters. Viktor Tretyakevich was elected commissioner. The guys unanimously supported Tyulenin’s proposal to name the detachment “Young Guard”. And at the beginning of October, all the scattered underground groups were united into one organization. Later, Ulyana Gromova, Lyubov Shevtsova, Oleg Koshevoy and Ivan Turkenich joined the headquarters.

Nowadays you can often hear that the Young Guards did nothing special. Well, they posted leaflets, collected weapons, burned and contaminated grain intended for the occupiers. Well, they hung several flags on the day of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, burned the Labor Exchange, and rescued several dozen prisoners of war. Other underground organizations have existed longer and done more!

And do these would-be critics understand that everything, literally everything, these boys and girls did was on the brink of life and death. Is it easy to walk down the street when warnings are posted on almost every house and fence that failure to surrender weapons will result in execution? And at the bottom of the bag, under the potatoes, there are two grenades, and you have to walk past several dozen police officers with an independent look, and anyone can stop you... By the beginning of December, the Young Guards already had 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, about 15 thousand cartridges in their warehouse, 10 pistols, 65 kilograms of explosives and several hundred meters of fuse.

Isn’t it scary to sneak past a German patrol at night, knowing that you will be shot if you appear on the street after six in the evening? But most of the work was done at night. At night they burned the German Labor Exchange - and two and a half thousand Krasnodon residents were spared from German hard labor. On the night of November 7, the Young Guards hung out red flags - and the next morning, when they saw them, people experienced great joy: “They remember us, we are not forgotten by ours!” At night, prisoners of war were released, telephone wires were cut, German vehicles were attacked, a herd of 500 head of cattle was recaptured from the Nazis and dispersed to nearby farms and villages.

Even leaflets were posted mainly at night, although it happened that they had to do this during the day. At first, leaflets were written by hand, then they began to be printed in their own organized printing house. In total, the Young Guards issued about 30 separate leaflets with a total circulation of almost five thousand copies - from them Krasnodon residents learned the latest reports from the Sovinformburo.

In December, the first disagreements appeared at the headquarters, which later became the basis of the legend that still lives and according to which Oleg Koshevoy is considered the commissar of the Young Guard.

What happened? Koshevoy began to insist that from all the underground fighters a detachment of 15-20 people be allocated, capable of operating separately from the main detachment. This is where Kosheva was supposed to become commissar. The guys did not support this proposal. And yet, after the next admission of a group of youth to the Komsomol, Oleg took temporary Komsomol tickets from Vanya Zemnukhov, but did not give them, as always, to Viktor Tretyakevich, but issued them to the newly admitted ones himself, signing: “Commissar of the partisan detachment “Hammer” Kashuk.”

On January 1, 1943, three Young Guard members were arrested: Evgeny Moshkov, Viktor Tretyakevich and Ivan Zemnukhov - the fascists found themselves in the very heart of the organization. On the same day, the remaining members of the headquarters urgently gathered and made a decision: all Young Guards should immediately leave the city, and the leaders should not spend the night at home that night. All underground workers were notified of the headquarters’ decision through liaison officers. One of them, who was a member of the group in the village of Pervomaika, Gennady Pocheptsov, upon learning about the arrests, chickened out and wrote a statement to the police about the existence of an underground organization.

The entire punitive apparatus came into motion. Mass arrests began. But why did most of the Young Guards not follow the orders of headquarters? After all, this first disobedience, and therefore the violation of the oath, cost almost all of them their lives! Probably, the lack of life experience had an effect. At first, the guys did not realize that a catastrophe had happened and their leading three would no longer get out of prison. Many could not decide for themselves: whether to leave the city, whether to help those arrested, or voluntarily share their fate. They did not understand that the headquarters had already considered all the options and took the only correct one. But the majority did not fulfill it. Almost everyone was afraid for their parents.

Only twelve Young Guards managed to escape in those days. But later, two of them - Sergei Tyulenin and Oleg Koshevoy - were nevertheless arrested. The city's four police cells were packed to capacity. All the boys were terribly tortured. The office of the police chief Solikovsky looked more like a slaughterhouse - it was so spattered with blood. So that the screams of the tortured would not be heard in the yard, the monsters started up a gramophone and turned it on at full volume.

The underground members were hung by the neck from a window frame, simulating execution by hanging, and by the legs from a ceiling hook. And they beat, beat, beat - with sticks and wire whips with nuts at the end. Girls were hanged by their braids, and their hair could not stand it and broke off. The Young Guards had their fingers crushed by the door, shoe needles were driven under their fingernails, they were placed on a hot stove, and stars were cut out on their chests and backs. Their bones were broken, their eyes were knocked out and burned out, their arms and legs were cut off...

The executioners, having learned from Pocheptsov that Tretyakevich was one of the leaders of the Young Guard, decided to force him to speak at any cost, believing that then it would be easier to deal with the others. He was tortured with extreme cruelty, he was mutilated beyond recognition. But Victor was silent. Then a rumor was spread among those arrested and in the city: Tretyakevich had betrayed everyone. But Victor’s comrades did not believe it.

On the cold winter night of January 15, 1943, the first group of Young Guards, among them Tretyakevich, was taken to the destroyed mine for execution. When they were placed on the edge of the pit, Victor grabbed the deputy chief of police by the neck and tried to drag him along with him to a depth of 50 meters. The frightened executioner turned pale with fear and hardly resisted, and only a gendarme who arrived in time and hit Tretyakevich on the head with a pistol saved the policeman from death.

On January 16, the second group of underground fighters was shot, and on the 31st, the third. One of this group managed to escape from the execution site. It was Anatoly Kovalev, who later went missing.

Four remained in prison. They were taken to the city of Rovenki, Krasnodon region, and shot on February 9, along with Oleg Koshev, who was there.

Soviet troops entered Krasnodon on February 14. The day of February 17 became mournful, full of crying and lamentations. From the deep, dark pit, the bodies of tortured young men and women were taken out in buckets. It was difficult to recognize them; some of the children were identified by their parents only by their clothes.

A wooden obelisk was placed on the mass grave with the names of the victims and the words:

And drops of your hot blood,
Like sparks, they will flash in the darkness of life
And many brave hearts will be lit!

The name of Viktor Tretyakevich was not on the obelisk! And his mother, Anna Iosifovna, never took off her black dress again and tried to go to the grave later so as not to meet anyone there. She, of course, did not believe in her son’s betrayal, just as most of her fellow countrymen did not believe, but the conclusions of the commission of the Komsomol Central Committee under the leadership of Toritsin and Fadeev’s artistically remarkable novel that was subsequently published had an impact on the minds and hearts of millions of people. One can only regret that in respecting historical truth, Fadeev’s novel “The Young Guard” did not turn out to be just as wonderful.

The investigative authorities also accepted the version of Tretyakevich’s betrayal, and even when the true traitor Pocheptsov, who was subsequently arrested, confessed to everything, the charge against Victor was not dropped. And since, according to the party leaders, a traitor cannot be a commissar, Oleg Koshevoy, whose signature was on the December Komsomol tickets - “Commissar of the partisan detachment “Hammer” Kashuk”, was elevated to this rank.

After 16 years, they managed to arrest one of the most ferocious executioners who tortured the Young Guard, Vasily Podtynny. During the investigation, he stated: Tretyakevich was slandered, but despite severe torture and beatings, he did not betray anyone.

So, almost 17 years later, the truth triumphed. By decree of December 13, 1960, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR rehabilitated Viktor Tretyakevich and awarded him the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (posthumously). His name began to be included in all official documents along with the names of other heroes of the Young Guard.

Anna Iosifovna, Victor’s mother, who never took off her black mourning clothes, stood in front of the presidium of the ceremonial meeting in Voroshilovgrad when she was presented with her son’s posthumous award. The crowded hall stood and applauded her, but she seemed no longer happy about what was happening. Perhaps because the mother always knew: her son was an honest person... Anna Iosifovna turned to the comrade who was rewarding her with only one request: not to show the film “The Young Guard” in the city these days.

So, the mark of a traitor was removed from Viktor Tretyakevich, but he was never restored to the rank of commissar and was not awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which was awarded to the other dead members of the Young Guard headquarters.

Concluding this short story about the heroic and tragic days of the Krasnodon residents, I would like to say that the heroism and tragedy of the “Young Guard” are probably still far from being revealed. But this is our history, and we have no right to forget it.

"Young guard"

The heroic history of the underground organization of Krasnodon boys and girls who fought against the Nazis and laid down their lives in this fight was known to every Soviet person. Now this story is remembered much less often...

The famous novel played a huge role in glorifying the feat of the Young Guards Alexandra Fadeeva and the film of the same name Sergei Gerasimov. In the 90s of the last century, they began to forget about The Young Guard: Fadeev’s novel was removed from the school curriculum, and the story itself was declared almost an invention of Soviet propagandists.

Meanwhile, in the name of the freedom of their Motherland, the boys and girls of Krasnodon fought against the German occupiers, showing steadfastness and heroism, withstood torture and bullying and died very young. Their feat cannot be forgotten, says Doctor of Historical Sciences Nina PETROVA– compiler of the collection of documents “The True History of the Young Guard.”

Almost everyone died...

– Did the study of the heroic history of the Krasnodon Komsomol underground begin during the war?

– In the Soviet Union, it was officially believed that 3,350 Komsomol and youth underground organizations operated in the temporarily occupied territory. But we don’t know the history of each of them. For example, practically nothing is still known about the youth organization that arose in the city of Stalino (now Donetsk). And the Young Guards really found themselves in the spotlight. It was the largest organization in terms of numbers, almost all of whose members died.

Soon after the liberation of Krasnodon on February 14, 1943, Soviet and party authorities began collecting information about the Young Guard. Already on March 31, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR Vasily Sergienko reported on the activities of this organization to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks) Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev brought the information received to the attention of Joseph Stalin, and the story of the “Young Guard” received wide publicity and people started talking about it. And in July 1943, based on the results of a trip to Krasnodon, the deputy head of the special department of the Komsomol Central Committee Anatoly Toritsyn(later Major General of the KGB) and Central Committee instructor N. Sokolov prepared a memorandum on the emergence and activities of the Young Guard.

– How and when did this organization arise?

– Krasnodon is a small mining town. Mining villages grew up around it - Pervomaika, Semeykino and others. At the end of July 1942, Krasnodon was occupied. It is officially recognized that the Young Guard arose at the end of September. But we must keep in mind that small underground youth organizations appeared not only in the city, but also in the villages. And at first they were not related to each other.

I believe that the process of forming the Young Guard began at the end of August and was completed by November 7. The documents contain information that in August an attempt was made to unite the youth of Krasnodon Sergey Tyulenin. According to the recollections of his teachers, Sergei was a very proactive young man, thoughtful and serious. He loved literature and dreamed of becoming a pilot.

In September appeared in Krasnodon Victor Tretyakevich. His family came from Voroshilovgrad (now Lugansk). Tretyakevich was left underground by the regional committee of the Komsomol and immediately began to play a leading role in the activities of the Krasnodon underground organization. By that time he had already fought in a partisan detachment...

– Disputes about how responsibilities were distributed at the organization’s headquarters have not subsided for more than 70 years. Who led the Young Guard - Viktor Tretyakevich or Oleg Koshevoy? As far as I understand, even the few surviving Young Guards expressed different opinions on this matter...

– Oleg Koshevoy was a 16-year-old boy , joined the Komsomol in 1942. How could he create such a fighting organization when there were older people nearby? How could Koshevoy seize the initiative from Tretyakevich, having come to the Young Guard later than him?

We can confidently say that the organization was led by Tretyakevich, a member of the Komsomol since January 1939. Ivan Turkenich, who served in the Red Army, was much older than Koshevoy. He managed to avoid arrest in January 1943, spoke at the funeral of Young Guards and managed to talk about the activities of the organization without delay. Turkenich died during the liberation of Poland. From his repeated official statements it followed that Koshevoy appeared in the Young Guard on the eve of November 7, 1942. True, after some time Oleg actually became the secretary of the Komsomol organization, collected membership fees, and took part in some actions. But he was still not the leader.

– How many people were part of the underground organization?

– There is still no consensus on this. In Soviet times, for some reason it was believed that the more underground workers, the better. But, as a rule, the larger the underground organization, the more difficult it is to maintain secrecy. And the failure of the Young Guard is an example of this. If we take official data on the number, they range from 70 to 100 people. Some local researchers talk about 130 Young Guards.

Promotional poster for the film “Young Guard”, directed by Sergei Gerasimov. 1947

In addition, the question arises: who should be considered members of the Young Guard? Only those who worked there constantly, or also those who helped occasionally, performing one-time assignments? There were people who sympathized with the Young Guards, but personally did nothing within the organization or did very little. Should those who wrote and distributed only a few leaflets during the occupation be considered underground workers? This question arose after the war, when it became prestigious to be a Young Guard member and people whose participation in the organization was previously unknown began to ask to confirm their membership in the Young Guard.

– What ideas and motivations underlay the activities of the Young Guards?

– Boys and girls grew up in families of miners, were educated in Soviet schools, and were brought up in a patriotic spirit. They loved literature – both Russian and Ukrainian. They wanted to convey to their fellow countrymen the truth about the true state of affairs at the front, to dispel the myth of the invincibility of Hitler's Germany. That's why they distributed leaflets. The guys were eager to do at least some harm to their enemies.

– What damage did the Young Guards cause to the invaders? What do they get credit for?

“The Young Guards, without thinking about what their descendants would call them and whether they were doing everything right, simply did what they could, what was within their power. They burned the building of the German labor exchange with lists of those who were going to be driven to Germany. By decision of the Young Guard headquarters, over 80 Soviet prisoners of war were released from a concentration camp, and a herd of 500 head of cattle was captured. Bugs were introduced into grain that was being prepared for shipment to Germany, which led to the spoilage of several tons of grain. The young men attacked motorcyclists: they obtained weapons in order to begin an open armed struggle at the right moment.

SMALL CELLS WERE CREATED IN DIFFERENT PLACES OF KRASNODON AND IN THE SURROUNDING VILLAGES. They were divided into fives. The members of each five knew each other, but they could not know the composition of the entire organization

Members of the Young Guard exposed the disinformation spread by the invaders and instilled in the people faith in the inevitable defeat of the invaders. Members of the organization wrote leaflets by hand or printed leaflets in a primitive printing house and distributed Sovinformburo reports. In leaflets, the Young Guards exposed the lies of fascist propaganda and sought to tell the truth about the Soviet Union and the Red Army. In the first months of the occupation, the Germans, calling on young people to work in Germany, promised everyone a good life there. And some succumbed to these promises. It was important to dispel illusions.

On the night of November 7, 1942, the guys hung red flags on school buildings, the gendarmerie and other institutions. The flags were hand-sewn by the girls from white fabric, then painted scarlet - a color that symbolized freedom for the Young Guard. On New Year's Eve 1943, members of the organization attacked a German car carrying gifts and mail for the invaders. The guys took the gifts with them, burned the mail, and hid the rest.

Unconquered. Hood. F.T. Kostenko

– How long did the Young Guard operate?

- The arrests began immediately after Catholic Christmas - at the end of December 1942. Accordingly, the period of active activity of the organization lasted about three months.

Young Guards. Biographical sketches about members of the Krasnodon party-Komsomol underground / Comp. R.M. Aptekar, A.G. Nikitenko. Donetsk, 1981

The true history of the “Young Guard” / Comp. N.K. Petrova. M., 2015

Who really betrayed?

– Various people were blamed for the failure of the Young Guard. Is it possible today to draw final conclusions and name who betrayed the underground fighters to the enemy and is responsible for their deaths?

– He was declared a traitor in 1943 Gennady Pocheptsov, whom Tretyakevich accepted into the organization. However, 15-year-old Pocheptsov had no relation to the governing bodies and was not even very active in the Young Guard. He could not know all its members. Even Turkenich and Koshevoy did not know everyone. This was prevented by the very principle of building an organization proposed by Tretyakevich. Small cells were created in different places in Krasnodon and in surrounding villages. They were divided into fives. The members of each five knew each other, but they could not know the composition of the entire organization.

A former lawyer of the Krasnodon city government, who collaborated with the Germans, testified against Pocheptsov. Mikhail Kuleshov- During the occupation, a district police investigator. He claimed that on December 24 or 25 he went into the office of the commandant of the Krasnodon region and the head of the local police, Vasily Solikovsky, and saw Pocheptsov’s statement on his desk. Then they said that the young man allegedly handed over a list of Young Guard members to the police through his stepfather. But where is this list? Nobody saw him. Pocheptsov's stepfather, Vasily Gromov, after Krasnodon’s release, he testified that he did not take any list to the police. Despite this, on September 19, 1943, Pocheptsov, his stepfather Gromov and Kuleshov were publicly shot. Before his execution, a 15-year-old boy rolled on the ground and shouted that he was not guilty...

– Is there now an established point of view about who the traitor was?

– There are two points of view. According to the first version, Pocheptsov betrayed. According to the second, the failure did not occur because of betrayal, but because of poor conspiracy. Vasily Levashov and some other surviving Young Guard members argued that if not for the attack on the car with Christmas gifts, the organization could have survived. Boxes of canned food, sweets, biscuits, cigarettes, and other things were stolen from the car. All this was carried home. Valeria Borts I took a raccoon coat for myself. When the arrests began, Valeria's mother cut the fur coat into small pieces, which she then destroyed.

Young underground workers were caught smoking cigarettes. I sold them Mitrofan Puzyrev. The police were also led on the trail by candy wrappers that the guys threw anywhere. And so the arrests began even before the new year. So, I think, the organization was ruined by non-compliance with the rules of secrecy, the naivety and gullibility of some of its members.

Everyone was arrested before Evgenia Moshkova- the only communist among the Young Guards; he was brutally tortured. On January 1, Ivan Zemnukhov and Viktor Tretyakevich were captured.

After the release of Krasnodon, rumors spread that Tretyakevich allegedly could not stand the torture and betrayed his comrades. But there is no documentary evidence of this. And many facts do not fit with the version of Tretyakevich’s betrayal. He was one of the first to be arrested and until the very day of his execution, that is, for two weeks, he was cruelly tortured. Why if he has already named everyone? It is also unclear why the Young Guards were taken in groups. The last group was captured on the night of January 30-31, 1943 - a month after Tretyakevich himself was arrested. According to the testimony of Hitler’s accomplices who tortured the Young Guard, the torture did not break Victor.

The version of his betrayal also contradicts the fact that Tretyakevich was thrown into the mine first and still alive. It is known that at the last moment he tried to drag the chief of police Solikovsky and the chief of the German gendarmerie Zons into the pit with him. For this, Victor received a blow to the head with the butt of a pistol.

During the arrests and investigations, policemen Solikovsky, Zakharov, as well as Plokhikh and Sevastyanov tried their best. They mutilated Ivan Zemnukhov beyond recognition. Yevgeny Moshkov was doused with water, taken outside, then put on the stove, and then again taken for interrogation. Sergei Tyulenin had a wound on his hand cauterized with a hot rod. When Sergei’s fingers stuck into the door and closed it, he screamed and, unable to bear the pain, lost consciousness. Ulyana Gromova was suspended from the ceiling by her braids. The guys had their ribs broken, their fingers cut off, their eyes gouged out...

Ulyana Gromova (1924–1943). The girl’s suicide letter became known thanks to her friend Vera Krotova, who, after the release of Krasnodon, went through all the cells and discovered this tragic inscription on the wall. She copied the text onto a piece of paper...

“There was no party underground in Krasnodon”

– Why were they tortured so brutally?

“I think that the Germans wanted to go into the party underground, that’s why they tortured me like that. But there was no party underground in Krasnodon. Having not received the information they needed, the Nazis executed members of the Young Guard. Most of the Young Guards were executed at mine No. 5-bis on the night of January 15, 1943. 50 members of the organization were thrown into the pit of a mine 53 meters deep.

–In print you can find the number 72...

– 72 people is the total number of people executed there, that’s how many corpses were raised from the mine. Among the dead were 20 communists and captured Red Army soldiers who had no relation to the Young Guard. Some Young Guard members were shot, others were thrown into a pit alive.

However, not everyone was executed that day. Oleg Koshevoy, for example, was detained only on January 22. On the road near the Kartushino station, police stopped him, searched him, found a pistol, beat him and sent him under escort to Rovenki. There he was searched again and under the lining of his coat they found two forms of temporary membership cards and a homemade Young Guard seal. The police chief recognized the young man: Oleg was the nephew of his friend. When Koshevoy was interrogated and beaten, Oleg shouted that he was the commissar of the Young Guard. Lyubov Shevtsova, Semyon Ostapenko, Viktor Subbotin and Dmitry Ogurtsov were also tortured in Rovenki.

Funeral of Young Guards in the city of Krasnodon on March 1, 1943

Koshevoy was shot on January 26, and Lyubov Shevtsova and all the others were shot on the night of February 9. Just five days later, on February 14, Krasnodon was liberated. The bodies of the Young Guards were taken out of the mine. On March 1, 1943, a funeral took place in the Lenin Komsomol Park from morning to evening.

– Which of the Young Guards survived?

“The only one who escaped on the way to the place of execution was Anatoly Kovalev. According to recollections, he was a brave and courageous young man. Little has always been said about him, although his story is interesting in its own way. He signed up for the police, but only served there for a few days. Then he joined the Young Guard. Was arrested. Mikhail Grigoriev helped Anatoly escape, who untied the rope with his teeth. When I was in Krasnodon, I met Antonina Titova, Kovalev’s girlfriend. At first, the wounded Anatoly was hiding with her. Then his relatives took him to the Dnepropetrovsk region, where he disappeared, and his further fate is still unknown. The Young Guard’s feat was not even noted with the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” because Kovalev served as a policeman for several days. Antonina Titova waited for him for a long time, wrote memoirs, collected documents. But she never published anything.

ALL DISPUTES ON SPECIFIC ISSUES AND ABOUT THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE IN THE ORGANIZATION SHOULD NOT THROW A SHADOW ON THE GREATNESS OF THE FEAT accomplished by the young underground fighters of Krasnodon

The survivors were Ivan Turkenich, Valeria Borts, Olga and Nina Ivantsov, Radik Yurkin, Georgy Arutyunyants, Mikhail Shishchenko, Anatoly Lopukhov and Vasily Levashov. I will especially say about the latter. On April 27, 1989, employees of the Komsomol Central Archive held a meeting with him and Tretyakevich’s brother Vladimir. A tape recording was made. Levashov said that he fled near Amvrosyevka, to the village of Puteynikova. When the Red Army arrived, he declared his desire to go to war. In September 1943, during an inspection, he admitted that he was in the temporarily occupied territory in Krasnodon, where he was abandoned after graduating from intelligence school. Not knowing that the story of the Young Guard had already become famous, Vasily said that he was a member of it. After the interrogation, the officer sent Levashov to the barn, where a young man was already sitting. They started talking. At that meeting in 1989, Levashov said: “Only 40 years later, I realized that it was an agent of that security officer when I compared what he asked and what I answered.”

As a result, they believed Levashov and he was sent to the front. He liberated Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Chisinau and Warsaw, and took Berlin as part of the 5th Shock Army.

Roman Fadeeva

– Work on the book “Young Guard” Alexander Fadeev started in 1943. But the original version of the novel was criticized for not reflecting the leadership of the Communist Party. The writer took the criticism into account and revised the novel. Has historical truth suffered from this?

– I believe that the first version of the novel was successful and was more in line with historical realities. In the second version, a description of the leading role of the party organization appeared, although in reality the Krasnodon party organization did not manifest itself in any way. The remaining communists in the city were arrested. They were tortured and executed. It is significant that no one made any attempts to recapture the captured communists and Young Guards from the Germans. The boys were taken home like kittens. Those who were arrested in the villages were then transported in sleighs over a distance of ten kilometers or more. They were accompanied by only two or three policemen. Has anyone tried to fight them off? No.

Only a few people left Krasnodon. Some, like Anna Sopova, had the opportunity to escape, but did not take advantage of it.

Alexander Fadeev and Valeria Borts, one of the few surviving members of the Young Guard, at a meeting with readers. 1947

- Why?

“They were afraid that their relatives would suffer because of them.”

– How accurately did Fadeev manage to reflect the history of the Young Guard and in what ways did he deviate from the historical truth?

– Fadeev himself said about this: “Although the heroes of my novel have real names and surnames, I did not write the real history of the Young Guard, but a work of art in which there is a lot of fiction and even there are fictitious persons. Roman has the right to this." And when Fadeev was asked whether it was worth making the Young Guards so bright and ideal, he replied that he wrote as he saw fit. Basically, the author accurately reflected the events that took place in Krasnodon, but there are also discrepancies with reality. So, in the novel the traitor Stakhovich is written out. This is a fictional collective image. And it was written from Tretyakevich - one to one.

Relatives and friends of the victims began to loudly express their dissatisfaction with the way certain episodes of the history of the Young Guard were shown in the novel immediately after the book was published. For example, the mother of Lydia Androsova addressed Fadeev with a letter. She claimed that, contrary to what was written in the novel, her daughter's diary and other notes were never given to the police and could not have been the reason for the arrests. In a response letter dated August 31, 1947 to D.K. and M.P. Androsov, Lydia’s parents, Fadeev admitted:

“Everything that I wrote about your daughter shows her as a very devoted and persistent girl. I deliberately made it so that her diary allegedly ended up with the Germans after her arrest. You know better than me that there is not a single entry in the diary that speaks about the activities of the Young Guard and could be of benefit to the Germans in terms of revealing the Young Guard. In this regard, your daughter was very careful. Therefore, by allowing such fiction in the novel, I do not put any stain on your daughter.”

“My parents thought differently...

- Certainly. And most of all, the residents of Krasnodon were indignant at the role assigned by the writer Oleg Koshevoy. Koshevoy’s mother claimed (and this was included in the novel) that the underground gathered at their home on Sadovaya Street, 6. But the Krasnodon residents knew for sure that German officers were quartered with her! This is not Elena Nikolaevna’s fault: she had decent housing, so the Germans preferred it. But how could the headquarters of the Young Guard meet there?! In fact, the headquarters of the organization gathered with Harutyunyants, Tretyakevich and others.

Koshevoy's mother was awarded the Order of the Red Star in 1943. Even Oleg’s grandmother, Vera Vasilievna Korostyleva, was awarded the medal “For Military Merit”! The stories in the novel about her heroic role look anecdotal. She did not perform any feats. Later, Elena Nikolaevna wrote the book “The Tale of a Son.” More precisely, other people wrote it. When the regional committee of the Komsomol asked her if everything in the book was correct and objective, she replied: “You know, writers wrote the book. But from my story."

- Interesting position.

– What’s even more interesting is that Oleg Koshevoy’s father was alive. He was divorced from Oleg’s mother and lived in a neighboring city. So Elena Nikolaevna declared him dead! Although the father came to his son’s grave and mourned him.

Koshevoy's mother was an interesting, charming woman. Her story greatly influenced Fadeev. It must be said that the writer did not hold meetings with the relatives of all the dead Young Guards. In particular, he refused to accept Sergei Tyulenin’s relatives. Access to the author of The Young Guard was regulated by Elena Nikolaevna.

Another thing is noteworthy. Parents and grandmothers strive to preserve drawings and notes made by their children and grandchildren at different ages. And Elena Nikolaevna, being the head of the kindergarten, destroyed all of Oleg’s diaries and notebooks, so there is no way to even see his handwriting. But the poems written by Elena Nikolaevna’s hand have been preserved, which she declared to belong to Oleg. There were rumors that she had composed them herself.

We must not forget about the main thing

– The surviving Young Guards could bring clarity to controversial issues. Did they get together after the war?

– All together – not even once. In fact, there was a split. They did not agree on the question of who should be considered the commissar of the Young Guard. Borts, Ivantsov and Shishchenko considered him Koshevoy, and Yurkin, Arutyunyants and Levashov considered Tretyakevich. Moreover, in the period from 1943 to the end of the 1950s, Tretyakevich was considered a traitor. His older brother Mikhail was relieved of his post as secretary of the Lugansk regional party committee. Another brother, Vladimir, an army political worker, was punished by the party and demobilized from the army. Tretyakevich’s parents also experienced this injustice hard: his mother was ill, his father was paralyzed.

In 1959, Victor was rehabilitated, his feat was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. However, in May 1965, only Yurkin, Lopukhov and Levashov from the Young Guard came to the opening of a monument to Tretyakevich in the village of Yasenki, Kursk region, where he was born. According to Valeria Borts, the Komsomol Central Committee in the 1980s gathered the surviving members of the Krasnodon underground organization. But there are no documents about this meeting in the archives. And the disagreements between the Young Guards were never eliminated.

Monument "Oath" on the central square of Krasnodon

– What impression did films about young underground fighters make on you? After all, the story of the “Young Guard” has been filmed more than once.

– I like Sergei Gerasimov’s film. The black and white film accurately and dynamically conveyed that time, the state of mind and experiences of the Soviet people. But on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, veterans and the whole country received a very strange “gift” from Channel One. The series “Young Guard” was announced as the “true story” of an underground organization. On the basis of what this supposedly true story was created, they did not bother to explain to us. The heroes of The Young Guard, whose images were captured on the screen, were probably rolling over in their graves. The creators of historical films need to carefully read documents and works that truly reflect the bygone era.

– Roman Fadeev, who was part of the school curriculum for many decades, has long been excluded from it. Do you think it might be worth bringing it back?

– I like the novel, and I advocate that it be included in the school curriculum. It correctly reflects the thoughts and feelings of young people of that time, and truthfully depicts their characters. This work rightfully entered the golden fund of Soviet literature, combining both documentary truth and artistic comprehension. The educational potential of the novel continues to this day. In my opinion, it would be good to re-release the novel in its first version, not corrected by Fadeev himself. Moreover, the publication should be accompanied by an article that would briefly outline what we were talking about. It must be emphasized that the novel is a novel, and not the story of the Young Guard. The history of the Krasnodon underground must be studied from documents. And this topic is not closed yet.

At the same time, we must not forget about the main thing. All disputes on specific issues and the role of individual people in the organization should not cast a shadow on the greatness of the feat accomplished by the young underground fighters of Krasnodon. Oleg Koshevoy, Viktor Tretyakevich and other Young Guards gave their lives for the freedom of the Motherland. And we have no right to forget about this. And further. Speaking about the activities of the Young Guard, we must remember that this is not a feat of individuals. This is a collective feat of Krasnodon youth. We need to talk more about the contribution of each Young Guard member to the struggle, and not argue about who held what position in the organization.

The reason for the arrest of a group of Young Guards was the fact of the looting (expropriation) of the same car with New Year's gifts for German soldiers, which Valeria Borts pointed out. Having learned about the disappearance of the gifts, the police realized that they had to look for clues at the bazaar. The assumption was correct. A policeman saw a teenager selling cigarettes at the market. When asked where he got them, he replied that the club director Evgeniy Moshkov gave him. It so happened that the boy saw the guys taking bags of gifts from the car and a pack of cigarettes fell out of one. Moshkov gave it to the boy and ordered him not to tell anyone. I thought that cigarettes would save them, but it turned out the opposite: they gave them away. The boy took the cigarettes to the market.

The arrests began with Moshkov. Having learned about Moshkov's arrest, Sergei Tyulenin ran to warn Viktor Tretyakevich. He suggested that Victor hide. But he refused to run. Victor understood: if he left, his father and mother would be captured, and the main thing was to help the guys hold on! I decided that I had to answer for what I had done myself. He is not a simple member of the underground, but a leader, a commissar. In the evening, many of those whom Sergei warned left the city.

The investigation into the gifts case was coming to an end. The chief of police, Solikovsky, had already decided to give the rod to the “expropriators” and send them home, when suddenly the matter took a new, more serious turn. According to the investigation, guardmaster Zons from the district gendarmerie gave Solikovsky a statement from Gennady Pocheptsov, written in the name of the head of mine No. 1 BIS. According to the former police investigator, the statement said: “Mr. Zhukov, in the city of Krasnodon, an underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard” was organized, of which I became an active member. I ask you to come to my apartment in your free time and I will tell you in detail To you about this organization and its members. My address: Chkalova street, building 12, entrance No. 1, apartment of V. G. Gromov, December 20, 1942, Pocheptsov." His stepfather Vasily Gromov, who served as a secret agent of the Gestapo, suggested him to write this letter. Soon Pocheptsov was arrested. At the police station, he compiled a list of Young Guards he knew. After this, mass arrests and interrogations of underground workers began.

The interrogations were carried out with partiality and were accompanied by cruel torture using medieval instruments of torture. But the Young Guards held firm. Communist Yevgeny Moshkov was killed during torture. The punitive forces treated the leader of the underground organization, Viktor Tretyakevich, especially cruelly and inhumanely. They twisted his fingers, burned him with a knee iron, hung him by his legs from the ceiling, beat him with whips and a double-twisted telephone wire.

Here are the data of Luhansk journalist O. Trachuk, a special correspondent for the newspaper "Fakty", who familiarized himself with the testimony of German war criminals, policemen and traitors involved in the Young Guard case at the office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Lugansk region. The testimony was published by Trachuk on May 14, 1999.

“Captain Ernst Emil Renatus, who arrived in Donbass as part of a gendarme team from Magdeburg and headed the Krasnodon district gendarmerie, said:

In November 1942, when I was in Krasny Luch, I received reports that acts of sabotage were taking place in Krasnodon - the labor exchange building was set on fire, leaflets were being posted, a red flag was hung on the coal directorate building. When I arrived in Krasnodon, Zons informed me that he had already arrested eight people, but none of them had confessed. By the end of December, about 35 people had been arrested.

After New Year's gifts intended for German soldiers were stolen in December 1942, appropriate measures were taken, as follows from the testimony of former Krasnodon policeman Fyodor Lukyanov. “Their result was the detention at the bazaar of a boy selling German cigarettes, which, apparently, were stolen from New Year’s parcels. In addition, Ivan Zemnukhov and several other people who worked at the Gorky club were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.

Due to the betrayal of Gennady Pocheptsov, one of the members of the Young Guard, the organization was exposed. But during the hearing, Pocheptsov justified his action:

Someone I knew came to me and said that the Nazis had arrested Tretyakevich and Zemnukhov. Fearing that I would also be captured, I wrote a statement addressed to Zhukov, the head of the mine, in which I said that I knew the underground Komsomol organization and could report it. On January 5, I was summoned for interrogation, where I spoke about all the people I knew from the Young Guard and pointed out what they did as underground members.

In addition to Pocheptsov, Olga Lyadskaya also testified against the Young Guards, as follows from the interrogation materials of Vasily Statsenko:

Over 70 people were arrested for involvement in the Young Guard in Krasnodon and surrounding areas alone. The first person to be interrogated in early January 1943 was Anastasia Mashchenko, a resident of the village of Novosvetlovka. The fact is that during a search she was found to have letters from Olga Lyadskaya, in which she expressed some dissatisfaction with the actions of the Germans. For this, both were accused of collaborating with the Young Guard. Lyadskaya admitted that she knew from Mashchenko about the existence of the organization, but she herself was not a member. A. Mashchenko named seven or eight Young Guards who lived in Krasnodon, including Zemnukhov and Tretyakevich. After which Zons confronted Zemnukhov and Tretyakevich with Lyadskaya and Mashchenko. After the confrontation, Zemnukhov and Tretyakevich began to demonstratively testify that they were the leaders of the Young Guard, but did not betray others.

V.P. Shevchenko, who was arrested along with the Young Guard, later told how Solikovsky acted after the confrontation. On January 10, 1943, in the office of the chief of police Solikovsky, from 40 to 70 young people from all cells were lined up in a “square” shape. Solikovsky asked:

Which one of you is the commissioner of the organization?

Witty jokes rained down from the ranks:

Why a commissioner?

We are all commissioners!

We don't need commissioners!

Viktor Tretyakevich emerged from the line.

I'm the commissioner! - he declared proudly.

But Solikovsky made him stand in line and asked again:

So who is the commissioner?

Everything happened again. Viktor Tretyakevich broke ranks again and said:

I am the commissioner!

Then Solikovsky asked a new question:

Who is your commander?

Viktor Tretyaksvich literally jumped out of the ranks and declared:

I am the commander!

This happened repeatedly. And every time Viktor Tretyaksvich broke ranks and proudly declared:

I am the commander!

Everyone in the ranks laughed. The chief of police realized that he would achieve nothing from the Young Guards, and ordered everyone to be taken to the cells.

In the face of death, the Young Guards demonstrated strong unity and great courage. Viktor Tretyakevich once again demonstrated the outstanding quality of a leader, taking upon himself full responsibility for the management and activities of the organization.

Let us give further testimony from witnesses. O.I. Ivantsova, answering questions from Yu. Petrov’s commission in 1965, said: “I’ll say what my mother told me.” Victor Tretyakevich is my classmate. My mother was in the police station when they were arrested. She told me: “Olya, don’t trust anyone. Victor was tortured just like everyone else. He was always brought to the cell in a semi-conscious state, he behaved especially steadfastly, was impudent, and was rude. For this they made him a traitor.” My mother said that Sokolova told her (she was sitting with Sokolova at that time): “Anna Ivanovna, if you remain alive, tell everyone that no one here was a traitor.” When there was a commission by Toritsin, we told all this.

Before the New Year, 1943, the Gestapo carried out a search at the Kudryavtsevs’ apartment in Voroshilovgrad, where the Tretyakevichs had previously lived. They were looking for Viktor Tretyakevich. And at the beginning of January, an important Gestapo employee who had arrived from Voroshilovgrad came to see the chief of police of the city of Krasnodon.

“We have information that Viktor Tretyakevich is hiding in Krasnodon,” he told Solikovsky. - He must be found immediately.

Solikovsky was quick to report that Tretyakevich had already been found, he was in his cell

Oh, this is an important political criminal. We need to deal with him as soon as possible.

Solikovsky And his assistants tried. The interrogations and torture of the young men did not stop. The Gestapo also took part in them. Former deputy chief of police Podtynny testified during the investigation that he once came with a report to Solikovsky and saw the following picture. Having wound the end of the wire passed through the window handle around his hand, Solikovsky pulled it towards himself. The other end of the wire was wrapped around Tretyakevich's neck. Victor's body was already almost hanging in the air. Tears were rolling down his face. Turning towards the knock, the police chief let go of the wire.

Viktor Tretyakevich courageously withstood all the hellish tortures of the fascist executioners, and remained faithful to his Fatherland to the end.

The fate of those arrested was predetermined. The first group of Young Guards was executed on January 15. When the guys were placed on the edge of the pit, Viktor Tretyakevich behaved like a hero here too. He grabbed the punishers, trying to throw them into the pit.

Former investigator of the Krasnodon police I.M. Cherenkov testified:

After escaping from Krasnodon, Zakharov once told me that when Tretyakevich was taken to the pit of mine No. 5 to be shot, he grabbed him, Zakharov, and Solikovsky by the clothes and wanted to rush with them, but Solikovsky managed to hit him on the head with a pistol. Tretyakevich lost consciousness. He was thrown unconscious into a pit.

The Commissioner was the first to be thrown into the 53-meter pit of mine No. 5 in Krasnodon. After him, other young men and women were shot and thrown into the pit. There are 49 Young Guards in total."

Eric Schur read 38 volumes of the investigative file in the security service archives. In his publication in the newspaper "Top Secret" No. 3 for 1999, he cites a number of excerpts from them.

From the materials of case No. 20056:

"Maria Borts: "When I entered the office, Solikovsky was sitting at the table. In front of him lay a set of whips: thick, thin, wide, belts with lead tips. Vanya Zemnukhov, mutilated beyond recognition, stood by the sofa. His eyes were red and his eyelids were inflamed. There are abrasions and bruises on the face. Vanya’s clothes were all covered in blood, the shirt on his back was stuck to his body, and blood was seeping through it.”

Nina Zemnukhova: “From Krasnodon resident Lensky Rafail Vasilyevich, who was kept in the same cell with Vanya, I learned that the executioners took Vanya to the police yard and beat him until he lost consciousness in the snow.

Zhenya Moshkov was taken to the Kamenka River, frozen in an ice hole and then thawed in a stove in a nearby hut, after which they were again taken to the police for interrogation.

Volodka Osmukhin had a bone broken in his arm, and every time during interrogation they twisted his broken arm..."

Tyulenina (Sergei’s mother): “On the third day after my arrest, I was summoned for interrogation, they beat me with whips until I lost consciousness. And when I woke up, in my presence they began to cauterize Seryozha’s right hand wound with a hot rod. They placed the fingers under the doors and pressed them until complete death. Needles were driven under the nails and hung on ropes. The air in the room where the torture was carried out was filled with the smell of burnt meat.

In the cells, policeman Avsetsin did not give us water for whole days in order to at least slightly moisten the blood clotted in our mouth and throat.”

Cherenkov (police investigator): “I conducted a confrontation between Gromova, Ivanikhina and Zemnukhov. At that moment Solikovsky and his wife entered the office. Having put Gromova and Ivanikhina on the floor, I began to beat them, Solikovsky, egged on by his wife, snatched it from me from his hands the whip and began to deal with the arrested himself.

Since the prison cells were filled with young people, many, like Olga Ivantsova’s mother, were simply lying around in the corridor.”

Maria Borts: “...Solikovsky, Zakharov, Davidenko forced the girls to strip naked, and then they began to mock them, accompanied by beatings.

Sometimes this was done in the presence of Solikovsky’s wife, who usually sat on the sofa and burst into laughter.

Ulya Gromova was hung up by her braids... Her breasts were trampled under boots.

Policeman Bautkin beat Popov with a whip and forced him to lick up the blood that splashed on the wall with his tongue.”

The decision to execute at mine No. 5 bis was made by police chief Solikovsky and burgomaster Statsenko. The place was checked, Krasnodon residents had already been shot there.

In the case, the “Young Guards” were taken out for execution in four stages. The first time, on January 13, there were thirteen girls, to whom six Jews were placed. First, the Jews were shot and thrown into the pit of mine No. 5-bis. And then the girls started shouting that they were not to blame for anything. The police began to lift and tie the girls' dresses over their heads. And some were thrown into the mine alive.

The next day, sixteen more people were taken to the mine on three carts, including Moshkov and Popov.

Tretyakevich was thrown into the mine alive because he managed to grab police investigator Zakharov and tried to drag him along with him. So decide for yourself what Viktor Tretyakevich really was like, about whom not a single writer wrote a single line for twenty years after his execution.

The third time, on January 15, seven girls and five boys were taken out on two carts. And for the last time, in early February, Tyulenin and four others were taken out on one cart. Then the execution almost fell through. Kovalev and Grigoriev managed to untie each other’s hands. Grigoriev was killed by the translator Burgart, and Kovalev was only wounded - then they found his coat, pierced by a bullet. The rest were hastily shot and thrown into the mine."

Dear writers and journalists of Luhansk region, Donbass, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and other countries, former republics of the Soviet Union... Have you read these lines from journalist Shur? After all, the words of reproach apply to each of you. It was then said that for twenty years after the execution not a single writer wrote a single line. A lot of time has passed, almost 65 years. But we almost never see works of art by our writers about the heroic feat of the actual, not fake, Young Guard, and about its organizer and commissar, the people's hero-martyr Viktor Tretyakevich.