Who is Valya the cat pioneer hero. Little hero of the big war: how Valya Kotik became a real eaglet

Valya Kotik

In the small Ukrainian village of Khmelevka there once lived a family of Kotik. Alexander Feodosievich worked as a carpenter, Anna Nikitichna worked on a collective farm. They had two sons - Vitya and Valya. Parents went to work in the morning and left the house and household to their sons. And at that time, in the summer of 1936, they were still kids - Vita turned eight. Valik went seventh. The guys grazed Musya's heifer in the meadow, pottered around in the garden or ran into the forest to pick berries and mushrooms. Sometimes Valik climbed into Uncle Afanasy's room. He was drawn here by the bookcase with books. The roller lay down on the floor, leafed through books, looked at photographs and drawings on agronomy.

When Uncle Afanasy found out about this, he brought him from Shepetovka several children’s books with colorful drawings:

- It is for you. Don't touch mine!

Oh, and Valik was delighted with the gift!

Once Anna Nikitichna was working in the field. Suddenly he sees Valik walking, carrying a bundle in his hand.

- Valik, how are you going so far? – Anna Nikitichna was alarmed. - Why did Vitya let you go?

- Mom, don’t scold Vitya. I brought you some food...

It turns out that the boys noticed that their mother did not take food with her. They thought she was hungry. They didn’t know that a field canteen had been opened on the collective farm.

In the fall, Vitya was sent to first grade. The roller also asked to go to school.

- Grow up for now. On next year you'll go! - answered the father.

Valik sobbed with insult. Anna Nikitichna bought him notebooks and a pen - let him play at school. And Valik “played” seriously. As soon as Vitya sat down for his lessons, he sat down next to him. Vitya writes something - Valik looks into his notebook and writes the same thing in his own. Vitya is memorizing a poem - Valik listens and remembers it before him.

One winter, Valik appeared on the threshold of the classroom. He bowed his forehead and looked from under his brows at the living teacher. brown eyes. His high cheekbones and large ears were glowing from the cold.

-Whose will you be? – the teacher was surprised.

“That’s my brother,” Vitya answered. - Why did you come, Valik?

“I want to study,” Valik sniffed.

The teacher looked at his frail, chilled figure, smiled and allowed him to sit at his desk.

Soon Valik became the best student and graduated from first grade with a certificate of merit.

In the summer, the Kitties moved to Shepetivka. Here the boys immediately made new friends - Kolya Trukhan and Styopa Kishchuk.

At school No. 4, where Anna Nikitichna brought her sons, they did not know what to do with Val and Kon. Valik’s age was not suitable for the first grade, but he entered the second. And yet the director accepted him. And two years later, Valik was given Nikolai Ostrovsky’s book “How the Steel Was Tempered” for his excellent studies. The book captured Valik. It turns out that Nikolai Ostrovsky is his fellow countryman! The events described in the book took place here in Shepetivka! Quiet, green Shepetivka became even closer and dearer to Valik.

November 7, 1939 at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to October revolution, Valik was accepted into the pioneers. On the same day, Valik wrote to his father about this.

Alexander Feodosievich joined the Red Army in the summer and participated in the liberation Western Ukraine, and then fought with the White Finns.

The cats were very worried about their father - they had not received letters from him for a long time. Who knows what could happen? Recently, the family of Valik’s classmate Lenya Kotenko received a funeral certificate. Valik felt sorry for his friend. He invited the guys to join forces and buy him new shoes. Lenya was touched by the attention and kindness of her comrades.

Father returned unexpectedly in May 1940.

A year later, when Valik graduated from the fifth grade with a certificate of merit, his father gave him a bicycle. Wow, how jealous Vitya, Kolya Trukhan and Styopa Kishchuk were of Valik! But Valik was not greedy, he allowed everyone to travel. Sometimes the kids went out in droves into the forest or lakes to swim and fish.

...Valik had just left the house to ride his bike when he immediately returned, frightened and pale.

- What, or did you run into someone? - asked the father.

- War! The Germans have attacked! – Valik blurted out.

Alexander Feodosievich went to fight again.

The radio brought hard news. No matter how hard our soldiers fought, an iron, fiery avalanche fascist armies moved east, occupied one city after another. Through Shepetivka, a large railway station, refugees from captured cities and villages fled to the east. Soon the evacuation of Shepetivka began.

Valik had a fluffy squirrel. He picked her up in the forest when she was very young. She sheltered and fed. The squirrel became attached to Valik and climbed into his bed or into his bosom. Now Valik decided to release the squirrel. In the forest he noticed four policemen. They were wearing new form. The roller hid behind a tree. German speech reached him. Valik started running at full speed. On the outskirts of the city he met Red Army soldiers.

- Uncle... there... there are Germans! Run, I'll show you!

A shootout broke out in the forest. One of the “policemen” was killed. The rest are connected. They turned out to be German saboteurs.

In the morning, the Kotik family left Shepetivka. But we couldn't get far. The Germans broke through and cut off the path to the east. I had to go back with other refugees.

Roller walked around the city, and his tears choked him. The Germans burned the house-museum of Nikolai Ostrovsky, set up a camp for prisoners of war near the forest, turned the school into a stable, drove the Jews into the “ghetto” - an area of ​​the city surrounded by wire, forced them to clean latrines and collect manure in hats.

Valik thought about Pavlik Korchagin from the book “How the Steel Was Tempered”, he wanted to be like him. But what could Valik do alone? And there is no one to consult with. Kolya and Styopa avoided him - he was still small. Vitya was silent as always. They went to work at a timber mill. But Valik didn’t waste any time.

Sometimes they flew over the city soviet planes, dropped leaflets. The roller collected them, then discreetly posted them around the city.

A tenant, Stepan Didenko, has moved in with the Kotiki. Valik hated him. I thought he was working for the Germans. But he didn’t know that Didenko was not Didenko at all, but Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev, a former prisoner of war. The director of the timber mill, Ostap Andreevich Gorbatyuk, helped him escape, got him a fake passport and got him a job at a sugar factory. Gorbatyuk and Didenko created an underground organization in Shepetivka.

Vitya, Kolya and Styopa also became members of the underground. Didenko looked closely at Valik and wanted him to help the underground. Yes, I was afraid. Firstly, Valik is only twelve years old, and secondly, he is too hot-headed and direct - he does not know how to hide his hatred of the Nazis.

In the fall, the Nazis opened a school. The police forcibly rounded up the students. The boys were forced to pick berries, pine cones, medicinal herbs, sawing wood and memorizing prayers for a speedy victory for Germany. Valik flatly refused to go to such a school. One day Didenko came late when Valik was sleeping. Didenko saw Valik’s leaky shoe and decided to fix it. There were leaflets in the shoe.

In the morning Didenko asked Valik:

“So you’re the one posting them around the city?”

- Well, I! – Valik answered defiantly.

- You’re still young... You’ll never get lost.

– Pavka Korchagin was little too! - Valik muttered.

From that day on, Valik began to carry out orders for the underground organization. Together with other guys, he collected cartridges and weapons at the site of recent battles, took them to a hiding place, and specified the location German troops, their weapons and food depots, counted how many tanks and guns they had. A light machine gun was buried in the meat processing plant. Roller dug it up, took it apart, put it in a basket and transported it on a bicycle across the city to the forest. Another time, Valik was tasked with escorting sixteen Polish prisoners of war who had escaped from the camp into the forest. There, in the forest, a teacher from the neighboring town of Strigan Anton Zakharovich Odukha collected partisan detachment.

German cars and trucks were constantly rushing along the Slavutskoye Highway. On Didenko’s advice, the guys mined the highway. Their mines blew up several vehicles with soldiers and food, and a tank with gasoline. But somehow a cart with a peasant ran over a mine. The horse was blown to pieces, and the peasant was thrown onto the road by the blast wave.

Didenko ordered to stop mining. Then Valik suggested that his friends set up an ambush.

...They have been sitting in the bushes by the road for three hours now. But, as luck would have it, nothing suitable. And suddenly Valik saw a car. She was rushing from Shepetivka. She was followed by two trucks with soldiers.

- Shall we? – asked Valik.

- There are a lot of them... They'll grab them! – Styopa hesitated.

“Get down, boys, they’ll notice us,” said Kolya.

The guys lay down and watched the road from behind the bushes. The cars are getting closer and closer. The faces are already visible. In a car next to the driver... So this is...

- Ginger! – Valik screamed.

The boys looked at each other in confusion. “What should I do? – their glances asked. “After all, this is the head of the Shepetovka gendarmerie, Chief Lieutenant Fritz König!”

His name alone was terrifying. Incredible things were told about his cruelty. Miss this opportunity? The roller quickly crawled up to the road. “Just don’t miss, just don’t miss!” - he repeated to himself. Now he forgot about everything in the world: both the fact that there are many soldiers, and the fact that he could be captured... Valik’s entire being was overcome by an irresistible desire: to kill Koenig!

The car was rushing at top speed. The paved road surface was flying towards them. Koenig looked ahead tensely. He hurried to the village where the partisans were captured. Suddenly he noticed that three teenagers jumped out onto the road. They threw something and quickly disappeared into the bushes.

Everything happened instantly: the brakes squealed, three dazzling explosions thundered. Yellow circles swam before Koenig’s eyes, and everything went dark...

Without having time to brake, the truck ran into a mutilated passenger car turned over on its side and dragged it several meters. The soldiers poured out onto the road and scattered through the bushes...

The desperate sabotage of Vali and his friends alarmed the Nazis. They grabbed everyone suspicious, arrested several underground members, but the underground continued to operate.

A group of underground workers, and with them Valik, attacked a food warehouse, disarmed the guards, loaded the car to the top with food, and set the warehouse on fire.

A week later, Didenko and Valik set fire to the oil depot. A little later, the lumber yard burst into flames.

But soon, following a denunciation from a traitor, the Nazis picked up the trail of the underground organization. Gorbatyuk was arrested. The underground wanted to arrange his escape, but they failed. Gorbatyuk died in his cell from torture.

It was dangerous to stay in Shepetovka. Didenko took the underground fighters, their wives and children into the forest. This multi-day trek was long and difficult. Belarusian Polesie, where Odukha’s camp was located in the village of Dubnitskoye. From here, from the partisan airfield, all women and children were sent to Mainland. Valik refused to go. He was summoned by Odukha and the secretary of the underground regional committee, Oleksenko.

- What is your name? – Oleksenko asked.

- Kitty Valentin Alexandrovich!

- And how old are you?

- Fourteen... coming soon.

- So... Why don’t you, Valentin Alexandrovich, want to leave? Go and study. They can manage this without you. War, brother, is a man's business.

- Male! – Valik frowned. - She’s a national figure!..

Valya sniffed and ran his sleeve over his wet eyes. Oleksenko pressed Valik to his chest, kissed him deeply and said quietly:

- Go, son!

A few days later, the partisan detachment of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev set off on a distant raid on Shepetovshchina. The youngest in the squad was Valya Kotik.

The kind, attentive, caring Valik became a cruel, merciless avenger. He captured the "tongues", mined railways, blew up bridges.

Once, returning from reconnaissance, Valik noticed a telephone cable sticking out of the ground near the Tsvetokha station. The roller cut it and disguised it. And this was a direct line connecting the Reich Minister of the Eastern Lands von Rosenberg with Hitler’s headquarters in Warsaw. The bastards failed to talk!

One day the partisans came across a squad of punitive forces. Roller lay down next to Muzalev and scribbled from a machine gun. Suddenly he noticed a soldier sneaking from behind the trees towards Muzalev.

- Uncle Ivan! Behind!.. – Valya shouted and shielded Muzalev with himself.

He quickly turned around. The shots rang out simultaneously. Valya grabbed his chest and fell. The German also collapsed. Valya groaned, opened his eyes, and quietly asked:

- Ivan Alekseevich... Alive?.. - And lost consciousness.

For several months Valik lay in the forester's lodge, and when he recovered, he returned to the detachment. For his courage and bravery, Valik was awarded the Partisan medal. Patriotic War» II degree.

On February 11, 1944, Valik turned 14 years old. On this day, great joy awaited him: the Soviet Army liberated Shepetivka! Muzalev invited Valik to return home, but Valik refused - the detachment had to help the Soviet Army liberate the neighboring city of Izyaslav.

“Let’s take Izyaslav, then I’ll go,” said Valik.

But it happened differently.

At dawn on February 17, the partisans silently approached Izyaslav and lay down. We were waiting for the attack to begin. Roller lay in the snow, looked at the vague outlines of the city and thought about Shepetovka. Today after the fight he will go home. Maybe mom has already returned? Oh, I wish the day would come soon, such a long-awaited, such a happy day in his life!

A roar broke the silence: attack! The partisans burst into the city and pursued the retreating fascists. Valik ran, stopped, and shot. He felt hot and took off his earflaps.

A weapons depot was seized. Muzalev ordered Valya and several other partisans to guard the trophies.

Valik stood at his post, listening to the noise of the battle. Everything around was filled with the whistling of bullets, the howl of mines, the chatter of machine guns and machine guns. Several bullets whizzed past somewhere very close, and Valik felt a dull blow to his stomach. My legs immediately became weak. There was blood on the white camouflage robe. The roller leaned against the wall and began to slowly slide down.

The orderlies carefully laid him on the cart. Valik asked in a weakening voice:

- Lift me up... I want to see... I want to stand... Like this... good... so good... Tanks!.. Ours!..

Dead body the boy hung in the arms of the orderly...

...Valya Kotik is buried in the kindergarten in front of the school where he studied. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the Presidium Supreme Council The USSR posthumously awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Monuments to Valya Kotik were erected in Shepetovsky Park and in Moscow, at VDNKh.

Valya Kotik will always live in the memory of people as a brave and courageous boy in soldier's overcoat- the way he was in those distant years of the war.

Famous poet, laureate Lenin Prize Mikhail Svetlov dedicated poems to the young partisan:

We remember the recent battles,

More than one feat was accomplished in them.

Joined the family of our glorious heroes

Brave boy- Kitty Valentin.

He, as in life, boldly asserts:

“Youth is immortal, our work is immortal!”

By decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, one of the ships of the Soviet fleet was named after Valya Kotik.

USSR USSR

Valya Kotik (Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik; February 11 - February 17) - pioneer hero, young partisan reconnaissance officer, the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union. At the time of his death he was 14 years old. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously.

Biography

Born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk (from 1954 to the present - Khmelnitsky) region of Ukraine in the family of an employee.

By the beginning of the war, he had just entered the sixth grade of school No. 4 in the city of Shepetivka, but from the first days of the war he began to fight the German occupiers. In the fall of 1941, together with his comrades, he killed the head of the field gendarmerie near the city of Shepetovka, throwing a grenade at the car in which he was driving. Since 1942, he took an active part in the partisan movement in Ukraine. At first he was a liaison for the Shepetovsky underground organization, then he took part in battles. Since August 1943 - in the partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk under the command of I. A. Muzalev, he was wounded twice. In October 1943, he discovered an underground telephone cable, which was soon undermined, and the connection between the invaders and Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw ceased. He also contributed to the destruction of six railway trains and a warehouse.

On October 29, 1943, while on patrol, I noticed punitive forces about to raid the detachment. Having killed the officer, he raised the alarm; Thanks to his actions, the partisans managed to repel the enemy.

In the battle for the city of Izyaslav on February 16, 1944, he was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in the center of the park in the city of Shepetivka. In 1958, Valentin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union (June 27, 1958);
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree;
• Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree.

Memory

• Streets were named after Valya Kotik (in the cities of Bor, Donetsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Kyiv, Krivoy Rog, Korosten, Nizhny Novgorod, Onatskovtsy, Rovno, Starokonstantinov, Shepetovka), pioneer squads, schools (in Yekaterinburg), a motor ship, pioneer camps (in Tobolsk, Berdsk and Nizhny Novgorod).
• In 1957, the film “Eaglet”, dedicated to Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei, was shot at the Odessa Film Studio.
• Monuments to the hero were erected:
  • in Moscow in 1960 on the territory of the Exhibition of Achievements National economy(now the All-Russian Exhibition Center) there is a bust installed at the entrance to pavilion No. 8 (sculptor N. Kongisern);
  • in Shepetivka in 1960 (sculptors L. Skiba, P. Flit, I. Samotos);
  • in the city of Bor;
  • in the village of Yagodnoye near Tolyatti, the territory of the former pioneer camp “Scarlet Sails”;
  • in Simferopol on the Alley of Heroes in the Children's Park.
• In Tashkent, before the collapse of the USSR, there was a park named after Vali Kotik; after the declaration of independence of Uzbekistan, it was renamed the Zafar Diyor Park.
• He was the prototype for the character in the Russian-Japanese-Canadian animated fantasy film “The First Squad”.

see also

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Notes

Literature

• Heroes of the Soviet Union. Brief biographical dictionary. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1987. - T. 1.
• Anna Kotik."Last Stand".
• Kotik A. N. He was a pioneer. Mother's story. - M., 1958 (reprint 1980).
• Najafov G. D. The brave do not die. - M., 1968.
• Najafov G. D. . - M.: Malysh, 1980. - 300,000 copies.
• Krivoruchko M. G. et al. In memory immortal feat. - M., 1972.
• Vladimov M. V., Yanvarev E. I. From the Dnieper to the Danube. - Kyiv, 1977.
• Bugai E. M., Makukhin M. E. From the cohort of courageous ones. - Lvov: Kamenyar, 1978.
• Palmov V.V. Stormtroopers over the Dnieper. - Kyiv: Politizdat, 1984.
• Pride and glory of Podolia. - Lvov, 1985.
• Pecherskaya A. N. Children-heroes of the Great Patriotic War: stories. - M.: Bustard-Plus, 2005. - 60 p.

Links

An excerpt characterizing Kotik, Valentin Alexandrovich

At the guardhouse where Pierre was taken, the officer and soldiers who took him treated him with hostility, but at the same time with respect. There was also a sense of doubt in their attitude towards him about who he was (isn’t it very important person), and hostility due to their still fresh personal struggle with him.
But when, on the morning of another day, the shift came, Pierre felt that for the new guard - for the officers and soldiers - it no longer had the meaning that it had for those who took him. And indeed, in this big, fat man in a peasant’s caftan, the guards of the next day no longer saw that living man who so desperately fought with the marauder and with the escort soldiers and said a solemn phrase about saving the child, but saw only the seventeenth of those being held for some reason, by by order of the highest authorities, the captured Russians. If there was anything special about Pierre, it was only his timid, intently thoughtful appearance and French, in which, surprisingly for the French, he spoke well. Despite the fact that on the same day Pierre was connected with other suspected suspects, since separate room, which he occupied, was needed by an officer.
All the Russians kept with Pierre were people of the lowest rank. And all of them, recognizing Pierre as a master, shunned him, especially since he spoke French. Pierre heard with sadness the ridicule of himself.
The next evening, Pierre learned that all of these prisoners (and probably himself included) were to be tried for arson. On the third day, Pierre was taken with others to some house where they were sitting French general with white mustaches, two colonels and other Frenchmen with scarves on their hands. Pierre, along with others, was asked questions about who he was, with the precision and certainty with which defendants are usually treated, which supposedly exceeded human weaknesses. where he was? for what purpose? and so on.
These questions, leaving aside the essence of the life case and excluding the possibility of disclosing this essence, like all questions asked in courts, were intended only to substitute the groove along which the judges wanted the defendant’s answers to flow and lead him to the desired goal, that is to the accusation. As soon as he began to say something that did not satisfy the purpose of the accusation, they took a groove, and the water could flow wherever it wanted. In addition, Pierre experienced the same thing that a defendant experiences in all courts: bewilderment as to why all these questions were asked of him. He felt that this trick of inserting a groove was used only out of condescension or, as it were, out of politeness. He knew that he was in the power of these people, that only power had brought him here, that only power gave them the right to demand answers to questions, that sole purpose This meeting was to accuse him. And therefore, since there was power and there was a desire to accuse, there was no need for the trick of questions and trial. It was obvious that all answers had to lead to guilt. When asked what he was doing when they took him, Pierre answered with some tragedy that he was carrying a child to his parents, qu"il avait sauve des flammes [whom he saved from the flames]. - Why did he fight with the marauder? Pierre answered, that he was defending a woman, that protecting an insulted woman is the duty of every person, that... He was stopped: this did not go to the point. Why was he in the yard of the house on fire, where witnesses saw him? He answered that he was going to see what was happening in the building? Moscow. They stopped him again: they didn’t ask him where he was going, and why he was near the fire? They repeated the first question to him, to which he said he didn’t want to answer. Again he answered that he couldn’t say that. .
- Write it down, this is not good. “It’s very bad,” the general with a white mustache and a red, ruddy face told him sternly.
On the fourth day, fires started on Zubovsky Val.
Pierre and thirteen others were taken to Krymsky Brod, to the carriage house of a merchant's house. Walking through the streets, Pierre was choking from the smoke, which seemed to be standing over the entire city. WITH different sides fires were visible. Pierre did not yet understand the significance of the burning of Moscow and looked at these fires with horror.
Pierre stayed in the carriage house of a house near the Crimean Brod for four more days, and during these days the conversation French soldiers I learned that everyone kept here expected the marshal’s decision every day. Which marshal, Pierre could not find out from the soldiers. For the soldier, obviously, the marshal seemed to be the highest and somewhat mysterious link in power.
These first days, until September 8th, the day on which the prisoners were taken for secondary interrogation, were the most difficult for Pierre.

X
On September 8, a very important officer entered the barn to see the prisoners, judging by the respect with which the guards treated him. This officer, probably a staff officer, with a list in his hands, made a roll call of all the Russians, calling Pierre: celui qui n "avoue pas son nom [the one who does not say his name]. And, indifferently and lazily looking at all the prisoners, he ordered the guard the officer should properly dress and clean them up before leading them to the marshal. An hour later, a company of soldiers arrived, and Pierre and the other thirteen were taken to the Maiden's Field. The day was clear, sunny after the rain, and the air was unusually clear. the day when Pierre was taken out of the guardhouse of Zubovsky Val; smoke rose in pillars; clean air. The flames of the fires were nowhere to be seen, but columns of smoke rose from all sides, and all of Moscow, everything that Pierre could see, was one conflagration. On all sides one could see vacant lots with stoves and chimneys and occasionally the charred walls of stone houses. Pierre looked closely at the fires and did not recognize familiar quarters of the city. In some places, surviving churches could be seen. The Kremlin, undestroyed, loomed white from afar with its towers and Ivan the Great. Nearby, the dome of the Novodevichy Convent glittered merrily, and the bell of the Gospel was especially loudly heard from there. This announcement reminded Pierre that it was Sunday and the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. But it seemed that there was no one to celebrate this holiday: everywhere there was devastation from the fire, and among the Russian people there were only occasionally ragged, frightened people who hid at the sight of the French.

Pioneer hero Valya Kotik, who would have turned 80 today, blew up six German trains during the Great Patriotic War and died in battle with the Germans when he was only 14 years old. Not so long ago, his name was known in all corners of the Soviet Union, and every schoolchild could retell the story of his feat by heart.

The youngest Hero of the Soviet Union Valya Kotik - Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik - was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk (now Khmelnitsky) region of Ukraine. Ukrainian pioneer studied at high school V district center- the city of Shepetivka - up to fifth grade.

When the war began, Valya Kotik was only 11 years old. His native Shepetovsky district was occupied Nazi troops. As Valya’s official biography stated, from the first days of the war the boy worked to collect weapons and ammunition, which were then transported to the partisans, drew and posted caricatures of the Nazis, according to the website “Heroes of the Country”.

In 1942, he joined the Shepetivka underground party organization and carried out its intelligence assignments. In August 1943, the young intelligence officer was a fighter in the Shepetovsky partisan detachment named after. Karmelyuk under the leadership of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev, according to the website biogr.ru.

In October 1943, a young partisan scouted the location of the underground telephone cable of Hitler's headquarters, which was soon blown up. He also participated in the bombing of six railway trains and a warehouse. He has many successful ambushes to his credit.

On October 29, 1943, while at his post, Valya Kotik noticed that the punitive forces had staged a raid on the detachment. Having killed a fascist officer with a pistol, he raised the alarm, and the partisans managed to prepare for battle.

On February 16, 1944, in the battle for the city of Izyaslav Kamenets-Podolsk, a partisan intelligence officer, who had just turned 14 years old, was mortally wounded. The next day he died. He was buried in the center of the park in the city of Shepetivka.

Already at the time of his death, Valya Kotik wore on his chest the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree. Such awards would honor even the commander partisan unit, write "Arguments and Facts".

June 27, 1958 to Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik for his heroism in the fight against German fascist invaders By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was posthumously awarded.

Everyone knew about the hero of the pioneer Valya Kotik soviet child. His name was given not only to pioneer detachments, squads and schools, but also to the ship. A monument to the young hero was erected in front of the school where he studied, and in Moscow - at VDNKh. Streets in Russian and Ukrainian cities bear his name.

In addition, Valya Kotik became one of the prototypes of the hero Valya Kotko from the film "Eaglet", released in 1957. Another prototype screen image There was a Belarusian schoolboy, Marat Kazei, who went to join the partisans during the war when he was just over 13 years old.

Marat was also young scout: made his way to enemy garrisons, looked out for where German posts, headquarters, and ammunition depots were located. He blew up bridges and derailed enemy trains. In May 1944, when Soviet army was already very close, the teenager was ambushed. He fired back to the last bullet, and when he had only one grenade left, he let the enemies get closer and pulled the pin. Marat Kazei became a Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965 - also posthumously.

According to the plot feature film"Eaglet" during the Great Patriotic War, the Germans occupy a small Ukrainian town. Pioneer Valya Kotko, nicknamed Eaglet by the partisans, helps the detachment monitor the Germans and obtain weapons. Surrounded by fascists, he blows himself up with a grenade.

It must be said that by the time the film was released in 1957, the nickname “Eaglet” was already a common noun for any young hero. This is the meaning the words are coming from a song written before the war by composer Viktor Bely and poet Yakov Shvedov, business card which is also the song "Smuglyanka".

The song "Eaglet" ("Eaglet, little eaglet, fly higher than the sun...") was written in 1936 for the play "Khlopchik", staged at the Mossovet Theater. The hero of the play Khlopchik was not a partisan, he was a young student a shoemaker from Belarus and helped the Red Army. And when the White Poles occupied the city, Khlopchik did not betray the underground fighters during interrogation, for which he was sentenced to death.

The boy survived - the Reds who returned to the city managed to free him. But while awaiting execution, he spends the night in prison, where, according to the script, he sings a farewell song.

As writer Leonid Kaganov writes in the magazine "Idea X", according to the poet's granddaughter Yulia Goncharova, Shvedov explained the appearance of the "eagle" in the song by the fact that the episode in the dungeon is similar to Pushkin's poem "The Prisoner", where the hero looks at freedom, turning to the eagle . But if an adult prisoner had " sad comrade"eagle, then a 16-year-old boy should have his own "faithful comrade" - an eaglet.

The material was prepared by the online editors of www.rian.ru based on information from open sources

Soviet ideology was too rigid and sometimes too intrusive. But what was most harmful about it was that some facts were either made up or embellished. And in the case of the pioneer children, too, much was unclear, but the children of the Soviet Union needed an example, they needed a guideline of honor and conscience, courage and bravery. And that is the only reason why children of the war years were especially celebrated. Nowadays, with our humanity and tolerance, people are increasingly reading old stories or stories about such heroes with disapproval. “You have to fight like that at the age of 14!!! Can't be!!!" - you can hear indignant exclamations. Yes, today's children are hardly capable of feats for the sake of their Motherland. But there was this Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik (Valya Kotik).

He was born in Ukraine on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenets-Podolsk (from 1954 to the present - Khmelnytsky) region of Ukraine in the family of an employee, in the very country where today they hate everything that he loved. He actually fought there and was mortally wounded there. By the way, he was buried there in the city of Shepetovka. Now everything Soviet there is being destroyed, so it is quite possible that his grave will be razed to the ground. So, Kotik was the youngest of those who were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Receiving such a title at the age of 14 is very honorable. But he didn’t see it himself; the award was given posthumously. So what is this award for? Can you imagine that a boy, together with the partisans, could kill the head of the gendarmerie? He did this by throwing a grenade at the head's car. Further, the boy was a liaison in the Shepetovsky underground organization (oh, how he would be cursed now!), and participated in battles. It was he who deprived Hitler’s headquarters of communication with Warsaw by completely accidentally discovering an underground telephone cable. And he also participated in the bombing of trains with military equipment, blew up warehouses.

Especially in Soviet time, celebrated his feat, which he accomplished in the fall of 1943. Then, while on patrol, he noticed punitive forces who were clearly heading towards the partisans. And now attention: Valya Kotik not only raised the alarm, but killed the officer, causing a fuss. The partisans naturally came to his aid and repulsed the enemy. In this case, everything seems a little “far-fetched”: the boy unmistakably chose the officer from the entire squad and killed him. By the way, from what? He couldn't run up to him and shoot? Did the guy really have a sniper rifle?

Awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union (June 27, 1958);
• The order of Lenin;
• Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree;
• Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" II degree.

Memory

• Streets were named after Valya Kotik (in the cities of Bor, Donetsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Kyiv, Krivoy Rog, Korosten, Nizhny Novgorod, Onatskovtsy, Rovno, Starokonstantinov, Shepetovka), pioneer squads, schools (in Yekaterinburg), a motor ship, pioneer camps (in Tobolsk, Berdsk and Nizhny Novgorod).
• In 1957, the film “Eaglet”, dedicated to Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei, was shot at the Odessa Film Studio.
• Monuments to the hero were erected:
  • in Moscow in 1960, on the territory of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (now the All-Russian Exhibition Center) at the entrance to pavilion No. 8, a bust was installed (sculptor N. Kongisern);
  • in Shepetivka in 1960 (sculptors L. Skiba, P. Flit, I. Samotos);
  • in the city of Bor;
  • in the village of Yagodnoye near Togliatti, the territory of the former pioneer camp"Scarlet Sails";
  • in Simferopol on the Alley of Heroes in the Children's Park.
• In Tashkent, before the collapse of the USSR, there was a park named after Vali Kotik; after the declaration of independence of Uzbekistan, it was renamed the Zafar Diyor Park.
• He was the prototype for the character in the Russian-Japanese-Canadian animated fantasy film “The First Squad”.

Valya Kotik is one of the teenage heroes who fought against the German occupiers during the years. Valentin glorified his name as courageous defender their land and faithful son Motherland.

Valya Kotik biography briefly

Valentin came from a simple peasant family. He was born in the Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine. When the Germans occupied in 1941 Ukrainian land Valya was a simple schoolboy. At that time the boy was eleven years old.

The young pioneer immediately took an enthusiastic part in helping Soviet front. Together with his classmates, Valya collected ammunition: grenades, rifles, pistols that remained on the battlefields and transported all these weapons to the partisans.

The children hid weapons in haystacks and transported them quite freely, because it did not occur to the Germans that children were also assistants to the partisans.

In 1942, Valya was accepted into the number of intelligence officers of the underground Soviet organization, and the following year, 1943, the boy became a full member. Valentin Kotik went through a long and difficult two and a half years of war; he died from mortal wounds received in battle in February 1944.

Description of the exploits of Valentin Kotik

The hero Valentin Kotik was immediately remembered by his comrades for his courage and ingenuity. The boy accomplished his most famous feat in the fall of 1943: he discovered a secret radio line of the Germans, which they carefully concealed (later the partisans destroyed this line, leaving the Nazis without communication). Valentin took part in many partisan operations: he was a good demolitionist, signalman and fighter. He went on reconnaissance missions, and once in 1943 he saved the entire detachment.

It happened this way: Valentin was sent on reconnaissance, he noticed in time the Germans who had begun a punitive operation, shot one of the senior commanders of this operation and made a noise, thereby warning his comrades of the danger that threatened them. The story of the death of Valentin Kotik has two main versions. According to the first of them, he received mortal wound in battle and died the next day. According to the second, the slightly wounded Valentin died during German shelling of evacuees. Soviet soldiers. The young hero was buried in the city of Shepetivka.

Posthumous fame

After the war, the name Valentin Kotik became a household name. The boy was awarded with orders and partisan medals. And in 1958 he was awarded the title of Hero. Streets, parks and public gardens were named after Vali Kotik. Monuments were erected to him throughout Soviet Union. The most famous of all the monuments is the sculptural monument erected in 1960 in the center of Moscow.

Another monument is still located in the city of Simferopol on the Alley of Heroes, where there are sculptures of adults and children who heroically defended their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War. Valentin's feat was glorified in the feature film about the war "Eaglet", in which main character— the courageous young man blew himself up with a grenade to avoid being captured by the Nazis.