Lessons of the partisan school under a pine tree. School in the partisan region. T. Kot., From the book “Children-heroes Presentation of a school in a partisan region

From the first days of the occupation of the territory of our republic by the Nazi invaders, whole villages and families, with old people, women and children, went to the Belarusian forests and thickets to fight the enemy. Of course, the partisan detachments could not accept everyone who wanted to, as they led a predominantly nomadic life and had a small economy at the bases, a limited amount of food. However, a solution was soon found in the creation of so-called family camps. They were equipped by the people themselves under the leadership and with the direct participation of the people's avengers, as a rule, in the depths of forests and swamps, between lakes, along the edges of which partisan detachments were usually located. Small groups of partisans were assigned to guard these camps.

Preschool children and school age, who were in family camps, along with adults, endured the hardships and hardships of difficult partisan everyday life. In front of the eyes of kids and teenagers, many memorable events took place for a lifetime: seeing off partisans (among whom were close relatives of children) to dangerous combat missions, and bitter scenes of farewell to the dead, and the suffering of the wounded in unequal battles with the invaders. It was especially hard for the children in the winter months, when frosts, snow blizzards were added to all the hardships of forest life, the lack of proper warm clothes and shoes also affected, forced displacement from a habitable place to another base due to German raids and persecution.

During the war years, forest partisan schools, unique in scale and nature of activity, operated in many family camps in Belarus. As a prominent organizer recalled partisan movement in Belarus Kirill Trofimovich Mazurov in the book “Unforgettable”, “despite the difficulties, the creation of schools in the forests was in full swing. The first to pick up the call for the creation of schools for the education of children in partisan zones (in villages and forest camps for the population) were Komsomol members of the Polessky region. The initiative later spread to Minsk, Pinsk and other regions. The creation of Soviet schools behind enemy lines ... served not only to unite and educate children, but also instilled people's faith in the inevitable expulsion of the Nazis.

Only in the Brest region on May 1, 1944, 490 children studied in such schools. All forest schools were primary, with only the first four grades of education. They, as a rule, were placed in dugouts, various structures built from wicker and other improvised materials. Partisan activists, teachers, parents, and children themselves took part in their organization. The work of forest schools proceeded in incredibly difficult conditions - there were no textbooks, notebooks, writing paper, visual aids, normal adapted rooms for classes. However, as always, the people's ingenuity and wisdom of the partisans helped out. So, when making writing materials, partisans cut letters for the alphabet for first-graders from oak bark, made cool abacus from twigs, and prepared pieces of birch bark for writing. Craftsmen found a way to make ink: they made a decoction of oak acorns, threw a rusty nail or a piece of iron into it. For some time, this mixture was settled and ink was obtained. Often study guides were obtained from the local population, as well as through messengers and intelligence officers in settlements.

There were no blackboards; instead, students wrote with planed sticks on the ground and sand. Often, cartridge cases were used for counting. Due to the lack of textbooks and notebooks, pens and pencils, children wrote on the margins of newspapers and wrapping paper, on the reverse side of German leaflets, or even simply with sticks on birch bark or in the sand. Letters carved from birch bark served as the alphabet, and cones and acorns served as counting material. The partisans equipped the children with adapted rooms for classes, made desks and blackboards, and provided schools with notebooks and pens. Due to the lack of textbooks and programs, partisan teachers taught children according to the political literature available in the detachments. Often teachers used orders with children Supreme Commander, texts from newspapers, brochures or leaflets-summaries of the Sovinformburo.

Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War as one of the most valuable wartime relics, a letter dated November 22, 1942 from the secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol K.T. Mazurov to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Belarus M.V. Zimyanin on the work of forest schools is kept. Here are excerpts from it. Due to the lack of writing materials and students, “the Komsomol detachment of Nikolai Rozov went to different villages on these issues and collected 150 pencils, several textbooks, several dozen notebooks. In the Oktyabrsky district, on September 14, a conference of teachers was held, and on September 15, a parent meeting. On September 16, schools began work. The number of students in them is 271 people. Karpilovskaya school - 47 children, Rudobelskaya - 10, Rudnitskaya - 20, Staro-Dubrovskaya - 26, Novo-Dubrovskaya - 52.

Some brigades even had pioneer organizations. From the memoirs of a former student of school No. 2 at the partisan detachment named after M.I. Kalinin of the brigade named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky T.K. Kot, who after the war began to work as a teacher in schools in the Brest region. “The command of the detachment,” she recalled, “allowed us to sew pioneer uniforms from parachute fabric. We also made ourselves pioneer ties. The pioneer banner was embroidered with particular care and attention by the whole team. Soon, in a solemn atmosphere, 28 more children were accepted as pioneers. After that, they elected the headquarters of the pioneer squad.

The Belgosmuseum houses the wall newspapers "Our Study" and "Pioneer" of the pioneer organizations of the partisan brigades of the Brest region. They contain the life of young pioneers, studies and social work.

In addition to teaching children to write, read and count, teachers did a lot of political and educational work with them, instilled in them labor skills. IN free time camouflaged camps, carried out work on their improvement, harvested berries, mushrooms, firewood.

According to the surviving memoirs of former students and teachers, classes often began with reports from the Sovinformburo, which were received by partisan radio operators. According to the reports, the children wrote dictations, studied geography.

In the poem "Classes under a pine tree", written in January 1944 by M.V. Shlyakhtenko, there are such uncomplicated lines:

Only the sun rises above the earth
And the gray fog will dissipate
Under curly green
pine
Children of families study
partisans.

Forest schools are most widespread in the Brest and Baranovichi regions. Here, with partisan detachments and formations, about twenty partisan schools worked. It is reliably known that the first forest school in the Brest region was organized in the fall of 1943 under the M.I. Kalinin detachment, where 50 elementary school children studied in three classes. At the family camp of the detachment named after A.A. Zhdanov of the brigade. Ya.M. Sverdlov initial education 38 children were included.

One of the detachments in the Brest forests was commanded by Lieutenant Evgeny Georgievich Makarevich, the initiator of the creation of a forest school, where 98 children studied. After the death of E.G. Makarevich in June 1943, a detachment of the brigade named after. Ya.M. Sverdlov was named after the commander. The Belarusian State Museum keeps a report on the educational work among school-age children of the 4th family camp of this detachment for June 1944. The report states that “46 children attend school in the family camp, of which 24 are in the 1st grade, 13 in the 2nd grade, and 9 in the 3rd grade. The following subjects are studied at the lessons: Russian language, arithmetic, singing. The children memorized the poems “A combat rocket has taken off”, “The peoples are fighting”, “Our glorious land”. During extracurricular hours, talks were held on "About the actions of the partisans", "About the assistance of the population to the partisans", "About the heroic actions of the partisan Tanya". In physical education in the 2nd and 3rd grades, the topics "Building in a line and column", "Turns on the spot and in motion", "Failure" were studied.

In addition, classes were held with children in sprinting, long jumps, pull-ups on the horizontal bar, exercises in grenade throwing, studying the device of a rifle, and training with models of small arms.

Proudly organizer educational work informs in the report that in the forest school a circle of amateur art activities, a circle of children's works systematically worked (the boys carved toys for preschoolers, models of weapons from wood and bark, girls learned to knit and sew). The children took care of the school garden, collected medicinal herbs: during the season they collected lily of the valley flowers - 0.5 kg, fern leaves - 6 kg, chamomile flowers - 1 kg, valerian roots - 4 kg, lime blossom - 1.5 kg.

In the school notebook, placed in the “Partisan Camp” of our museum, the report of the teacher Polina Yasnovskaya on the educational work of the forest school of the detachment named after. A.A. Zhdanov brigade them. Ya.M. Sverdlov from May 12 to July 12, 1944. The detachment operated in the Drogichinsky district of the Brest region. Here, 58 children were enrolled in training - 23 boys and 35 girls of primary school age. As can be seen from the report, the school day here was set at 4 lessons of 45 minutes each. The breaks between lessons are as follows: small breaks of 10 minutes, a big break of 30 minutes. Classes were held at the school in 2 shifts. A curriculum was drawn up school schedule. By the way, here, in addition to the items mentioned earlier, there were items of natural history and needlework.

We read with interest today about the concern of teachers for the production of visual aids. With the help of partisan craftsmen, teachers and the children themselves, they made: a cardboard split alphabet, a multiplication table, manuals for the development of oral and written speech, in sections of spelling, history, geography.

The students did well. At the end of the academic year, final classes and exams were held in the presence of the commander of the partisan detachment, the commissar, the secretary of the Komsomol organization and a teacher from another detachment. At the end of school, students were given special certificates. One of these is kept in the Belgosmuseum. It was issued following the results of the 1943/44 academic year to Danilkovich Elena, a student of the 3rd grade of the forest school of the detachment named after. M.I.Kalinina (the museum also has a photo of a forest school student). The certificate was signed by the commander F. Belyaev and the head teacher of the school, teacher P. Ivanovskaya.

Classes in the forest schools were taught by teachers who lived in the places of deployment of the people's avengers or invited by them from other settlements, sometimes former high school students from among the partisans were involved in working with children. They were selfless people, infinitely loving their work, who were united by one thing - to bring up a worthy replacement, real citizens of their native Fatherland, who possessed the knowledge, as well as the skills of partisan life and the ability to defend the Motherland. These are teachers such as M.S. A.A. Zhdanov brigade them. Ya.M. Sverdlova and others. Often, teachers with weapons in their hands lagged behind their camps along with their husbands, older partisan brothers. In July 1944, mentors M.V. Shlyakhtenko and L.A. Gritsova - partisans of the detachment named after. S.M.Kirov of the Brest region - died heroically in an unequal battle with the German invaders.

Forest partisan schools brought up children in the spirit of hatred for the enemy, love and devotion to their homeland. This is their undeniable value and their feasible contribution to the common Great Victory.

Nikolai SHEVCHENKO, Assistant Head of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War

Getting bogged down in a swampy swamp, falling and rising again, we went to our own - to the partisans. The Germans were raging in their native village.
And for a whole month the Germans bombed our camp. “The partisans have been destroyed,” they finally sent a report to their high command. But invisible hands again derailed trains, blew up weapons depots, destroyed German garrisons.
Summer was over, autumn was already trying on its motley, crimson outfit. It was hard for us to imagine September without school.
- Here are the letters I know! - eight-year-old Natasha Drozd once said and drew a round "O" on the sand with a stick and next to it - an uneven gate "P". Her friend drew some numbers. The girls played school, and neither one nor the other noticed how sadly and warmly the commander of the partisan detachment Kovalevsky was watching them. In the evening, at the council of commanders, he said:
- The children need a school ... - and added quietly: - You can’t deprive them of their childhood.
On the same night, Komsomol members Fedya Trutko and Sasha Vasilevsky went on a combat mission, with Pyotr Ilyich Ivanovsky with them. They returned a few days later. Pencils, pens, primers, problem books were taken out of pockets, from the bosom. Peace and home, great human concern wafted from these books here, among the swamps, where there was a mortal battle for life.
- It's easier to blow up the bridge than to get your books, - Pyotr Ilyich gleefully flashed his teeth and took out ... a pioneer bugle.
None of the partisans said a word about the risk they were exposed to. There could be an ambush in every house, but it never occurred to any of them to abandon the task, return with empty handed. ,
Three classes were organized: first, second and third. School ... Stakes driven into the ground, intertwined with willows, a cleared area, instead of a board and chalk - sand and a stick, instead of desks - stumps, instead of a roof over your head - a disguise from German aircraft. In cloudy weather, mosquitoes overwhelmed us, sometimes snakes crawled in, but we paid no attention to anything.
How the children valued their school-glade, how they caught every word of the teacher! Textbooks accounted for one, two per class. In some subjects there were no books at all. Much was remembered from the words of the teacher, who sometimes came to the lesson directly from combat mission, with a rifle in his hands, belted with cartridges.
The soldiers brought everything they could get for us from the enemy, but there was not enough paper. We carefully removed the birch bark from fallen trees and wrote on it with coals. There was no case that someone did not comply homework. Only those guys who were urgently sent to reconnaissance missed classes.
It turned out that we had only nine pioneers, the remaining twenty-eight guys had to be accepted as pioneers. From the parachute donated to the partisans, we sewed a banner, made a pioneer uniform. The partisans accepted the pioneers, the commander of the detachment himself tied the ties to the newly arrived. The headquarters of the pioneer squad was immediately elected.
Without stopping classes, we were building a new dugout school for the winter. A lot of moss was needed to insulate it. They pulled him out so that his fingers hurt, sometimes they tore off his nails, painfully cut his hands with grass, but no one complained. No one demanded excellent studies from us, but each of us made this demand on ourselves. And when the heavy news came that our beloved comrade Sasha Vasilevsky had been killed, all the pioneers of the squad took a solemn oath: to study even better.
At our request, the squad was given the name dead friend. On the same night, in revenge for Sasha, the partisans blew up 14 German vehicles and derailed the train. The Germans threw 75 thousand punishers against the partisans. The blockade began again. Everyone who knew how to handle weapons went into battle. Families retreated into the depths of the marshes, and our pioneer team also retreated. Our clothes were frozen, we ate flour boiled in hot water once a day. But as we retreated, we seized all our textbooks. Classes continued at the new location. And we kept the oath given to Sasha Vasilevsky. During the spring examinations, all the pioneers answered without hesitation. Strict examiners - the commander of the detachment, the commissar, the teachers - were pleased with us.
As a reward, the best students were given the right to participate in shooting competitions. They fired from the squad leader's pistol. It was the highest honor for the guys.

From the book "Children-Heroes", compiled by I.K. Goncharenko, N.B. Makhlin
Brave partisan.

Motorcyclists in black helmets, with dust-grey service jackets rolled up high, like those of butchers, burst into the hushed green street of Shepetovka with a deafening crash; in shorts, as if they were going not to fight, but to sunbathe on the beach. And behind them, an avalanche of cars, wagons, soldiers poured through the city. In a few days, the Nazis robbed and desecrated the hometown of Vali Kotik.

... At the edge of the sidewalk, looking back every now and then, three children made their way: Valya Kotik, Kolya Turukhan and Natasha Gorbatyuk.

The guys suddenly stopped, closely clinging to the cold wall of the building, on which recently (still a trace is still visible) there was a sign “City Council”, and now a fascist flag hung.

A long black limousine screeched to a halt outside the building. A fascist officer, the Shepetovsky gebitskommissar Vorbs, climbed out of it slowly, importantly.

With a contemptuous empty look, he glided over a gray-eyed, fair-haired boy in torn trousers, with bare feet knocked down to blood, who at that moment involuntarily stepped back from the wall. He slipped a glance and walked with a wooden soldier's gait to the gebitskommissariat. But if the fascist had fixed his gaze on the boy's face for a few moments, he would have seen irreconcilable hatred in his eyes.

If Worbs knew who this lad would soon, very soon become, then if Worbs knew that his life was in the hands of this lad, he would give the order to seize, torture, kill the pioneer in a voice full of anger.

Vorbs was so deeply convinced that here, in Shepetovka, everyone is only capable of bending their backs to every fascist, that half an hour later he did not even believe some corporal Otto Schultz, who reported that his weapons had been stolen.

You, Schultz, lost your machine gun somewhere, - Vorbs pounced on him. - Remember where they requisitioned eggs and bacon, look there!

He could not have known that at that very moment two boys and one girl had rolled head over heels into a crater from a shell far from the Gebi Commissariat. These were the same guys who had been rubbing themselves near the Gebietskommissariat half an hour ago, and in their hands they were holding Corporal Schultz's machine gun.

Natasha and Kolya, still breathing heavily from the fast run and the excitement they had experienced, looked at the machine gun with a magazine, probably full of cartridges.
- How do I do it, eh? - Roller said, his eyes gleaming fervently, recalling all the details of what had happened.

It was Valya who first noticed the machine near one of the gates. In the depths of the yard, the voice of a Fritz was heard. Natasha and Kolya did not immediately guess why Valik suddenly whispered to them hastily:
- Hurry to the next yard!

As soon as they jumped over the fence, a machine gun fell into the grass next to them, Valik jumped after him.
- Let's run!
- Where to put it now? - asked Natasha.
- In the "piggy bank", of course, - said Valik, - I'm going home now for a bicycle and a basket.

The beginning of what the guys called the “piggy bank” was laid the day before.

The children swam in the river. The roller dived and hit his hand on something metal.
- Kolya, there's some iron, come here, we'll pull it out! he called a friend.

"Iron" turned out to be a rifle. The roller dived again. The catch turned out to be even richer.

Never before had neither Valik nor Kolya Turukhan had to dive so much even on a dare. Their eyes turned red, like those of rabbits. Ears hurt. But on the shore, in the dense thickets of willows, there was a whole arsenal: rifles, a pistol, even a machine gun.

It's a pity there are no cartridges, - Valik lamented.

And where to be cartridges? It can be seen that the fighters, who were surrounded here, fired all the cartridges at the enemy, and then threw the weapon that had become unnecessary into the water so that the Germans would not get it.

The weapon was so hidden that no one could find it. This warehouse was called by the guys “piggy bank”. Now there was added another machine gun with cartridges.

For whom did the guys collect weapons? Frankly speaking, Valik did not yet know this for sure. He Kolya Turukhan told Natasha and Kolya:
- We will give it to those who will fight against the Nazis. And we ourselves are no longer small, right?

... Valya Kotik, an eleven-year-old pioneer from Voroshilov Street, has long been watched by the sharp, attentive, invisible eyes of the underground.

They like the brave boy who took away a machine gun from under the Fritz's nose, discovered and dragged, together with his friends, rifles and even a machine gun disassembled into parts behind the barn. And all in front of the Germans, in a basket tied to the trunk of a bicycle.

Soon, very soon, the pioneer will pass the test, and the underground workers, as an equal, will take him into their family, they will say to him:
“We believe in you, pioneer Valya Kotik, we believe that you will be able to complete any of our tasks, no matter how dangerous it may be!”

Leaflets

With short, frequent beeps, one of the numerous telephone sets on the desk of the Gebietskommissar rang - a device connected to the direct cable of the German General Staff Warsaw - Berlin.

“Do they already know about it?” - with fear he thought, picking up the phone.

Indeed, from Berlin, from the office of the chief of the Gestapo himself, they asked what measures were taken to punish unknown persons who derailed a train with selected Nazi soldiers at night.

What measures? Worbs had nothing to report. Do not report that it is already a day after the crash, and the rescue teams are still continuing to pull out the corpses of soldiers and officers from under the wreckage of the cars. For almost a day now, as from Shepetovka to the east, not a single echelon can go to the front.

Traces of the partisans were taken to the forest and lost there. So the warriors sent to search for the partisans reported to Vorbs. They were simply afraid to poke their head into the depths of the forest, they knew that they couldn’t take their legs out of there.

Nearly midnight, and Worbs still does not leave his office, leafing through the denunciations of the policemen, interrogating the traitorous elders. But they can't tell a fascist about anything either. They, too, like the Nazis, are afraid to stick their nose out of the villages.

In the middle of the night, an inaudible shadow crept up to the doors of the Gebietskommissariat. And just as the sentry came around the corner of the house, another white sheet of paper appeared on the door, next to the announcement of the reception hours. The sentry paid no attention to him.

And the shadow silently glided on, from house to house. And on the walls, now in one place, then in another, there was a white rectangle of paper. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, and then it became clear that the quick shadow was the figure of a boy. So he turned the corner, looked around and, in order not to creak the gate, jumped straight over the fence into the yard in front of a small house.

Through a tightly curtained window in one place, a tiny bit of light made its way.
“Not sleeping,” the boy thought, and carefully pressed the latch of the front door.
In the corridor, he bent down, slipped the remaining pieces of paper in his hands into his shoe, and then stepped into the room.

The mother was waiting for her son.
- Where were you, Valik?
Yes, I was walking.

Mother sighed. Walking ... Since the invaders came, the son became somehow secretive, he had secrets, secrets from her, mother. Only once was the veil slightly opened over the affairs of her son unknown to her.

Valya brought home several pieces of paper one evening.

In the room sat the owner of the hut, Radchuk, and even Stratkov and Lukashenko, whom the underground workers supplied with fake certificates of early release from captivity. Both of them were now resting, recovering from long months of hard labor and hunger strikes.

Radchuk clutched tenaciously at one of the sheets.

What is this?
“Look carefully for yourself,” said Roller.

They were leaflets dropped from an airplane, carefully selected by Valik. Valya thought that Radchuk would also be delighted with the news from big land how delighted Lukashenka and Stratkov, who eagerly read the leaflet from beginning to end.

But Radchuk did not read, he kept trying to find out where he got the leaflets from, how many of them, and where he hid them.

Roller became alert, fell silent. He also drew a caricature of Hitler next to the text, then put the leaflet in his pocket and went to bed.

How could Valya have imagined that the scoundrel Radchuk would run to the police in the morning to report on the leaflets, that he would report there that Valya was drawing a caricature of Hitler?

But, apparently, Valik has already begun to develop the flair of a real underground worker. Early in the morning, when the sun had just risen, when Radchuk had not yet woken up, he left the house and hid a substantial bundle of leaflets in a secluded place.

At noon, the police came. They turned everything upside down in the apartment and took the mother in for questioning. Until the evening they tortured her there, but then they released her. But Vasya Lukashenko failed to escape from the police. He was arrested and sent to hard labor in Germany.

Since then, Valik has become even more withdrawn into himself. And no matter how hard Radchuk tried to sniff out something about his affairs in order to finish off the pioneer and his mother, he did not manage to find out anything.

Leaflets continued to appear on the walls of houses in Shepetivka. And Valik's mother, Anna Nikitichna, had only to guess that this case did not take place without the participation of her son.

The unknown person sticking the leaflets worked more and more boldly. The next morning there was a scandal in the Gebietskommissariat. All Shepetovka laughed at the unlucky invaders, who even the doors of their own office could not save from leaflets. How could they fight the partisans, who derailed the echelons.

And Valik, thrusting his hands into his pockets, paced opposite side streets and watched with pleasure how the policemen were running around, having received a scolding from Worbs for their mouthlessness, how a hefty fellow was scraping off a firmly stuck leaflet with a dagger.

The police hurriedly ran past a swirling gray-eyed boy. They were not up to it. They could not even imagine that the daredevil who pasted leaflets on the doors of the Gebits Commissariat, the daredevil, in search of whom they lost their feet, here he is, walking nearby.

Valya is needed by the partisans

A certain Stepan Didenko, who was released from captivity ahead of schedule, settled with Kotikov. At first, Valik did not like the new tenant.

Firstly, he tried to live in peace and harmony with everyone, even with the policemen, in whose huts Valik and his friends broke windows at night. Secondly, every evening he went to the main street of the city. But now there was a cinema only for the Germans, and a cafe only for them. No self-respecting person would go for a walk in the evening on the main street of the city, once so beautiful and comfortable. And Didenko dressed up in a beautiful suit, walked and returned home late.

Didenko obviously interfered with Valya. What if he is the same as Radchuk, and is waiting for an opportunity to sniff out about the leaflets that Valik kept in his boots?

Once, when Valik was already asleep, Stepan, as always, came late. Looking at Valik's worn-out shoes, he decided to fix them. He took a dagger, a hammer, cloves, adjusted the shoe on the corner of the table, and then he felt that something had fallen out of the shoe on his knees.

They were flyers.

Didenko said nothing to Anna Nikitichna. He mended his shoes, put the flyers back under the insoles, and placed them next to Valik's bed.

In the morning, Didenko, as always, left for some business.

And Valik? How excited he was when he saw his mended boots! After all, if Didenko turns out to be the one for whom he took him, he will not escape the dungeon. Why should he - his mother and brother will end up in the dungeon ...

Didenko actually told his friends about the leaflets. His friends were underground workers of Shepetovka. Until today, Valik did not need to know about this at all.

Finally, there was someone, - said Didenko, - who puts up leaflets at night. We thought that an underground group unknown to us, and this is Valya Kotik.

And then a serious, long conversation took place between Valik and Stepan, after which Didenko said to Anna Nikitichna:
- Anna Nikitichna, we need your son ...

To whom "we", Valik's mother did not ask. Anna Nikitichna knew that Didenko was a partisan. After all, the communist Gorbatyuk recommended him to live with her. Through Anna Nikitichna, Gorbatyuk more than once conveyed to Didenko the information he received from his true friends. Didenko's friend, Uncle Vanya Nishenko, an outwardly harmless, elderly, round-shouldered man with a cane, often visited her. But this is only outwardly. At night he changed. Uncle Vanya's gait became light and elastic. He could lie for long hours, without moving, by the railroad tracks, watching the movement of the echelons, so that later on the radio, without fear that the Nazis could find direction, transmit encrypted reports to the partisan headquarters.

Yes, Anna Nikitichna understood very well what the words “we need your son” meant. This meant both for Valik and for her entire small family the beginning of another life full of dangers. But she only said to Stepan:
- Fine. Since you partisans need it, it means that the Motherland needs it. Just… take care of him, Stepan. He is still small, hot ...

And Valya Kotik became a liaison for the Shepetov underground.

The weapons, which the guys so carefully collected and hid, migrated to the forest, to the partisan detachment, on wagons with hay.

But more and more machine guns, rifles, and explosives were needed, because more and more people came to the partisans, they unfolded their fight against the invaders more and more widely. Shepetivka underground helped groups of prisoners of war escape from behind the barbed wire of the camps. And the liberated fighters and commanders went into the forest, to the partisans, in order to take revenge on the enemies, to help their native Soviet army.

Hunting for weapons sometimes brought Valya Kotik to the most unexpected places.

Once the ensemble “Fünf cylinder” came to Shepetovka from Germany.

“Only for Germans!” the posters said.

But Valik managed to quietly enter the former cinema, where the visiting troupe gave their performance. The hall was packed. The soldiers applauded endlessly for the five girls in short skirts, black stockings, and shiny top hats with puffy hairdos. They shouted: “Bis, bravo!” and stamped their feet in delight.

But Valik was not at all interested in what was happening on the stage. Hiding behind the curtain, he cautiously looked around.

No, no one seems to be following him.

The German, who was standing very close to him in the aisle, did not have enough space for the poor fellow - a revolver handle was peeking out of an unbuttoned holster ... The Germans, carried away by the performance, did not notice how the boy separated from the curtain, how the revolver migrated from the holster into his pocket.

Half an hour later, Stepan Didenko was weighing weapons in his palm:
- Good "gun"! Pavluk just doesn't have a suitable weapon. Let's give him the revolver. Agree?

Of course, Valya agreed. He was very pleased that the revolver immediately fell into the hands of one of the bravest underground workers in Shepetovka.

Shepherds

Anna Nikitichna began to notice that for some time now Valentin had become addicted to herding a cow.

But he drove her not to the forest, where lush grass grew, but to the wasteland - the German food warehouses that supplied the front.

The guys - Valya, Natasha, Kolya - were naughty, jumping near the cow. The sentries were so accustomed to the boys that they did not even drive them away from the wire that surrounded the warehouses. Only when they got too close did the sentry threateningly raise his machine gun, and the guys instantly flew off at a decent distance.

Harmless company... And Stepan Didenko and Gorbatyuk every day accumulated more and more information about the location of the posts, the time of the changing of the guards, the number of cars entering and leaving the warehouse. All this was transmitted by the guys, vigilantly following every movement of the Germans.

And then one evening a truck pulled up to the warehouse. The guard had just changed, and the Germans were sitting quietly in the duty room. Some played harmonicas, others played cards.

From the cab of the truck jumped a dapper German officer and went to the guard. The Germans who were sitting there jumped up to greet the officer, and so they remained standing with their hands up. The muzzle of a machine gun was staring at them.

In the purest German, the partisans in officer's uniform told the guards that if one of them decided to move, the machine gun would start talking, and then it was unlikely that any of the guards would be able to go on a visit to the fatherland.

Disguised partisans followed the officer into the territory of the warehouse. They brought cans of kerosene disguised in cardboard boxes. Among the partisans, the guards were surprised to see the same boys who grazed a cow near the warehouses. The boys led the partisans as if they had lived in this warehouse all their lives, showing:

Here is the food, here is the uniform...

A few minutes later, a heavily laden truck sped away from the blazing warehouse. And the guards continued to sit in the guardroom, because a sign dangled on the doors: “Mined”. Valya put up this sign just before leaving.

After this operation, Styopa and Kolya left for the detachment. Valya still remained in Shepetovka.

The raid on huge warehouses, located just a hundred meters from the gendarmerie, guarded by dozens of sentries, seriously alarmed the Germans.

But soon another surprise awaited them.

Again, disguised as a shepherdess, Valik walks. But now beyond Shepetovka, in a small forest. The cow is grazing for herself, and Valya is digging holes in one place or another with a small sapper spatula.

The partisans knew that through Shepetovka somewhere far to the west, to Berlin, there was a communication line. But how to detect a carefully camouflaged cable in the ground? Several reconnaissance groups were ordered to look for him. I was looking for a cable and roller.

The little forest where Valya pastured the cow, he knew inside and out. Sometime before the war, in the summer, the guys picked berries here, in the fall, mushrooms ... Valik felt that something had changed in the forest. But what? Have the trees gotten bigger, thicker? No, on the contrary, a clearing cut through the forest. It didn't exist before. This clearing has changed the forest so much. But why did the Germans build it? Maybe…

Valya looked around and, making sure that there was no one here, began to dig the ground. Soon the shovel hit a brick. How can there be bricks here in the forest, in the earth? Valya tore the ground wider. Not one, but a whole row of bricks went somewhere underground from east to west along the clearing. Valya lifted the brick. A gray snake of a thick lead-lined cable was stretching somewhere in the stone bed. With the sharp end of the shoulder blade, Valya began to hit the lead snake with all his might.

At this time, the gebitskommissar held near his ear the handset of the same telephone that was connected to this cable. He was preparing to inform his boss that he had developed a brilliant plan for the destruction of the partisans, that in order to carry out this plan, he personally leaves for Slavuta one of these days ...

But it was not possible to talk: there was a crack in the receiver, and the excited voice of the telephone operator said:
- Damage on the line.

And Valya, having cut the cable, put a brick in place, carefully leveled the ground, laid the place where he was digging with green turf.

Let them try, look for a place to break! And the Nazis had to look for a cable break for more than a week. For more than a week there was no communication with Warsaw and Berlin.

The grenade reached its target

No, the gebitskommissar could no longer put off a punitive expedition against the partisans. He had to go to Slavuta in order to defeat them as soon as possible and finally report to the chief about at least one victory over the invisible, elusive, formidable partisans.

And the partisans became aware that the gebitskommissar was going to Slavuta.

Stepan Didenko gave the task to Valik:
- Follow the gebitskommissar.

With Valik, his friend Styopa Kishchuk went on a mission. Valya took an anti-tank grenade, and Styopa - a captured machine gun.

The guys lay down in the woods at the turn of the road.
An armored car full of soldiers appeared in the distance, and an open black limousine of the gebitskommissar.

And then a swirling gray-eyed boy rose to his full height from the roadside bushes. His eyes were dark with anger, hatred for the fascist, the culprit of so many deaths of innocent people. The boy has a grenade in his hands.

Vorbs leaned back in the corner of the car. Oh, now he would recognize this boy among thousands of others! But at that moment, the explosion blew both the car and the gebi commissar to pieces.

In Shepetovka raid after raid began. The Germans went out of their way to find the perpetrators of the daring attacks.

Clouds began to gather over the underground. In Slavuta, a provocateur betrayed Dr. Mikhailov, one of the leaders of the underground. The tentacles of the German secret police got to Gorbatyuk. He died from torture in the office of the head of the criminal police, the traitor Neiman, but did not betray anyone.

Natasha and her mother had to go into the forest. The Germans, of course, would not have left a communist wife and daughter free.

But the reprisals did not help. Trains on railway increasingly flew downhill.

One Saturday evening, a conventional knock sounded at Valik's window. Didenko came. Now he increasingly had to change safe houses.

Get ready, - he said, - your arrest is scheduled for Monday.

Anna Nikitichna, Valik and older brother Viktor left on time. An hour after they left, the police raided the apartment ...

Guerrilla Scout

In front of the formation, several people who have newly arrived in the detachment. On the left flank, the smallest is Valya Kotik. He is also armed. In his hands he has a submachine gun, one of several dozen German submachine guns he has obtained.

Following Commissar Kuzovkov, Valya pronounces the words of the partisan oath:
- I swear that I would rather die in a fierce battle with enemies than give myself, my relatives and the entire Soviet people into slavery to bloody fascism ...
- We swear! We swear! - repeat all the partisans. Thus began for Valya Kotik life in the partisan
Hero's squad Soviet Union Anton Zakharovich Odukha. Valya was assigned as a scout in the Logutenko detachment.

Pioneer Vali Kotik has six echelons. Six echelons with ammunition, equipment, and manpower of the enemy were derailed by a pioneer.

And how much courage and endurance was needed to calmly pass German sentries in Slavuta and Izyaslav, in Polonny and Maidan-Vil during reconnaissance, wherever the partisans had turnouts, wherever there were large German garrisons, military depots; to calmly walk past the Nazis when you have leaflets or reports sewn into the lining of your jacket to the partisan “Center”, the underground regional committee!

The messenger had to act quickly and accurately. And in case of failure, be silent, be silent until the end. This is the law of the partisans. And Roller fearlessly walked towards countless dangers. Valik and his friends in the partisan unit were called Korchagins. And this high rank, invented by no one knows who, filled the heart of the pioneer with pride. After all, his favorite book is “How the Steel Was Tempered” by Nikolai Ostrovsky. Roller did not part with her even in the partisan detachment. When he was in school, he dreamed of being at least a little like his favorite hero. And the word “Korchaginian” spoke of the fact that his comrades in the detachment highly valued his merits.

How many times did Valya risk his life, how many wonderful things did he do? It is difficult to answer this question, because the pioneer risked his life every day, because the partisans considered the most remarkable deeds to be the most ordinary combat work. So did Valya. And, having completed the task, he briefly reported this to the commander, and then - that's all, he didn't tell anyone else about it. And time erased the memories of many of the exploits of the pioneer.

... Valya received a new task: to go on reconnaissance to the village of Bolotin, to check if there were Germans there.

The boy carefully rode his horse through the thicket. Here is Bolotin. The forest approaches the very huts. But what is this noise in the village, the clucking of chickens, the squealing of pigs?

Valya left his horse in the bushes and made his way very close to the only street that crossed the village. And then he almost burst out laughing.

There were two wedges on the street. And around the yards, arms outstretched, almost a whole platoon of Nazis was chasing chickens and piglets.

Now you will have such triggers! - Whispered Roller and threw two grenades one after another.

In a few leaps he was already in the bushes, by the horse. And the Nazis, having decided that a whole detachment was attacking them, fled from the village.

... Once a group of Logutenko, which included Valya, was instructed to deal with the German garrison of one of the villages in the region. For several hours in a row, the partisans moved through the thickets of the forest.

Halt, - finally commanded the commander.

The squad halted, exposing secrets all around. Became on post and Valik.

He peered sharply into the forest thicket. Everything seemed to be calm around. But suddenly someone heavy, rude pulled the boy under him, twisted his arms, took away the machine gun. These were punishers following in the footsteps of the detachment.

Lie! - ordered Valik through an interpreter. The Germans tried to ask him where he came from, who gave him weapons, where his comrades were. But Valik only pointed to the sky. They threw it out, they say; with a parachute of his one. Leaving two sentries near him, the punishers cautiously began to move deep into the forest, towards the detachment.

Roller was lying on the ground and feverishly thinking about how to inform the partisans about the deadly threat hanging over them. He stirred, something round, ribbed pressed into his leg.

Grenade! The Nazis forgot to take away the grenade from him in the confusion! He cautiously pulled his hand up, put it in his pocket, took off the ring, jumped up and, throwing a grenade at the feet of the guards sitting on a stump, jumped to the side.

The partisans heard an explosion. The Nazis failed to take them by surprise.
And Valya?
Wounded by grenade fragments, he crawled through the forest for several kilometers and, finally, exhausted, fell in the forester's hut.

The forester was an assistant to the partisans, he picked up the pioneer and took him to a remote village to the paramedic, and then informed the partisans about this.

Two weeks later, Valya returned to the detachment. There was still a white bandage on his head, he never aged the prescribed time, did not wait until his wounds healed.

And here he stands in a line of festively dressed, smart partisans. The commander of the Oduha formation reads the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding the partisans of the formation with medals.
- “For courage and resourcefulness shown in the performance of command assignments behind enemy lines, award the partisan Valentin Kotik with the medal “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War”.
I serve the Soviet Union! - rapped Valik.

... Forty-fourth year. February. Valya will soon be fourteen years old.

Only fourteen?! - the partisans are surprised. Everyone is accustomed to consider him senior. In the partisan detachment, Valya grew up and matured. His gray eyes stare with childish seriousness. Yes, early the Nazis took away his childhood. It was they who forced the boy to take up arms instead of books, notebooks, toys.
- Just fourteen! - the comrades are surprised, who saw how he rushes on a horse, how he shoots from a machine gun, how he blows up trains.
- It's already fourteen, - Valik frowns. He wants to look older.

He was repeatedly offered to fly by plane to mainland, to the rear to go to school there. They told him: "You are still small."

How much cunning and perseverance the pioneer had to apply in order to remain in the detachment! No, there was no way he could leave the detachment while the Nazis trampled on his native land.

The Germans retreated under the blows of the Soviet Army. The front was getting closer and closer to Shepetovka. The partisan unit received an order from the command of the Soviet Army to storm the city of Izyaslav, through which the Nazis sent all their echelons to the rear. Before the start of the operation, the commander called the boy to him:

In this battle, you will remain at the disposal of the headquarters.
- Launch the attack! This is probably our last attack!
- No, - Myzalev answered firmly. - You heard: yesterday they took Shepetovka. A school will open soon. You must return alive and healthy, that yes. I don't want to be in this last fight something happened to you.

The raid on Izyaslav was a complete surprise for the Germans. After a short battle, the city was taken. But the partisans knew that the Nazis would soon recover and try to recapture the city again. He meant too much to them. And Valya watched from the side as the partisan battalions were digging in.

But now he, finally, received the task - to guard the ammunition depot abandoned by the Germans. The roller lay at the warehouse. Now he won't step aside from here!

Tanks thundered from the west. The Germans threw "tigers" at the city. And the partisans do not have a single anti-tank gun! Closer, closer to the warehouse, shells and mines began to explode. The Nazis slowly pressed the partisan units. Now the Germans are very close to the warehouse, which is entrusted to protect Vale Kotika. He threw himself on the ground and began to send cartridge after cartridge towards the enemies.

And suddenly a thunderous “hurrah” came from afar. It was the troops of the Soviet Army who went to the aid of the partisans. Valya got up, threw a grenade at the retreating fascists and immediately collapsed to the ground, hit by a fascist bullet.

Pioneer hero

Centuries-old trees rustle quietly in the city park. Under their shadow, next to the graves of the soldiers of the Soviet Army who died for the liberation of Shepetovka, there is a monument to Valya Kotik, a partisan pioneer. There are always flowers near the monument. The guys keep the memory of the hero. His name is entered in the Book of Honor of the Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. The school where he studied is named after Vali Kotik. The best students of the school are now sitting at the desk on which he was sitting. The name of the Ukrainian pioneer hero became known far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. On the seas and oceans under the Soviet flag, the ocean-going ship "Valya Kotik" floats.
Posthumously Valya Kotik awarded the order Patriotic War I degree, and June 27, 1958 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
S. CHUMAKOV

167 DECREE OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE SUPERIOR COUNCIL OF THE USSR ON AWARDING THE POSTUMUTIVE TITLE OF HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION TO PIONEER-PARTISAN KOTIK V. A.

FOR SHOWING COURAGE AND HEROISM IN BATTLE AGAINST THE GERMAN-FASCIST INVADERS DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR ASSIGNED TO A PIONEER-PARTISAN
CAT VALENTIN ALEKSANDROVICH
TITLE OF HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR K. Voroshilov Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M. Georgadze
Moscow, Kremlin, June 27, 1958

Chapter IV.
PUBLIC AND HOME LIFE OF THE POPULATION ON THE TERRITORY OF PARTISAN TERRITORIES AND ZONES

4. SOVIET SCHOOLS BEHIND ENEMY LINES

A remarkable page in the annals of the nationwide struggle against Hitlerism and its most reactionary ideology was the activity of Soviet schools behind enemy lines.

The German fascist invaders, who were striving to turn our country into their colony and the Soviet people into slaves of German imperialism, reduced the network of public education institutions to a minimum: not only all higher educational establishments but even high schools. Only in the settlements where the fascist garrisons stood, or in the immediate vicinity of them, the Nazis left a certain amount primary schools intending to use them in the interests of the spiritual enslavement of our people.

The fascist nationalist "Belarusskaya Gazeta", admiring the fascist so-called "new order", reported that in the 1943/44 academic year, 5 progymnasiums worked on the territory of Belarus. And this is on the territory of the republic, where even before the war a universal elementary education, where in the 1940/41 academic year there were 2562 seven-year schools. In order to deceive the working people, the Nazis wrote in the newspapers during the three years of the occupation that they would open some higher educational institutions in Belarus, but, of course, they did not open them that way.

The main task that the Nazi invaders set for the schools under their control was the spread of the imperialist misanthropic slave-colonial ideology, the struggle against the Soviet, communist ideology. In his order on a temporary school order, the Gauleiter of Belarus Kube stated: "Every Bolshevik influence that comes from the school will be punished by death ..."

In those schools that the Nazis allowed to open, they demanded the upbringing of children in the spirit of obedience and complete submission to the Nazi invaders. In elementary school programs, 30 percent of the teaching time was devoted to studying German language, a little time - arithmetic, reading and physical education. There was almost no time left for the study of the native language and other general educational disciplines. The teaching of the Russian language in Ukrainian, Belarusian schools and schools in other Union republics was completely prohibited. The same Kube openly stated in his newspaper "Minsker Zeitung" that the goal of the German "school policy is the German orientation (i.e., one-labeling. - A. 3.) of Belarusian youth." The occupiers demanded from teachers to hammer in children the idea of ​​a dominant role Nazi Germany. Teachers were charged with the duty to explain to the children every day before the start of classes for 30 minutes who Hitler was, what “good” the occupational “new order” brought to the people, what successes the German army achieved in the war with the Soviet Union. Pursuing the same goal - "the fight against Bolshevik influence", the occupation authorities categorically forbade the use of Soviet textbooks. The Nazis soon brought the schools that were under their control to such a state that not only there were no textbooks at all, but even the most necessary manuals. In one of its articles, the nationalist fascist "Belarusskaya Gazeta" was forced to admit that there is no paper in schools, no visual aids.

The servants of the German fascists, Belarusian bourgeois nationalists, made an attempt to raise the issue of publishing their textbooks, poisoned by the poison of anti-Soviet ideology. But, as it turned out, the invaders announced the need to consider this issue only in Berlin. In this regard, the Belarusian national traitors began a lackey correspondence with their masters, which lasted until the complete expulsion of the Nazi occupiers from the Soviet land. From this correspondence it is clear that the Nazi occupiers did not want to provide textbooks even to those schools in which Belarusian bourgeois nationalists were in charge. Yes, this is understandable. Such a school policy of the Nazis was fully consistent with their desire to prevent the spread of education in the Soviet territories they occupied.

Should it be proven that Soviet people, who fell under the foreign fascist yoke, reacted sharply with hostility to the school policy of the Nazi occupiers. The Communist Party and its underground organizations behind enemy lines helped the working people to correctly orient themselves in the policy of spiritual oppression and enslavement pursued by the German fascists. Not wanting the occupiers to defile the consciousness of the younger generation with their misanthropic ideology, parents most often did not let their children go to schools that were under the control of the fascist occupation authorities. Yes, and the children did not want to attend such schools. The obvious failure of the occupiers' policy in school affairs on the territory of Ukraine was noted even by one of the fascist newspapers, stating that in many classes of the schools that were working at that time, students "there were only 10-12-15 and even less, while according to the norm in each class there were should have been at least 30."

Many residents of the territory occupied by the Nazis kept pre-war school textbooks in order to use them again to teach their children in the Soviet spirit, if possible. In places threatened by frequent attacks by Hitler's punitive expeditions, local residents buried Soviet textbooks in the ground and hid them in other places. When in October 1944, after the expulsion of the Nazi invaders from Belarus, a seven-year school resumed its work in the village of Orekhovno, Ushachsky district, Vitebsk region, many students had preserved pre-war Soviet textbooks in their hands. One textbook accounted for 5-6 students. This is quite a lot, considering that from the bombing and during the enemy blockade, most of the houses in the village were burned.

To the credit of the army of thousands of Soviet teachers who found themselves in the territory occupied by the enemy, it should be said that the vast majority of them, together with the whole people, actively protested the school policy of the fascist occupiers and fought against the spiritual enslavement of our youth. Many teachers not only did not go to work in schools that were under the control of the Nazi occupation authorities, but tried in every possible way to disrupt the work of such schools. Soviet teachers hid school equipment and textbooks from the Nazis. Even the nationalist "Belarusskaya Gazeta", speaking of local teachers, was forced to admit that they "are not without many remnants of the Bolshevik ideology in their minds." Recalling his stay in the Bryansk forests, A. Saburov says that in the fall of 1941, the occupying authorities decided to open a school for the entire large district only in the village of Krasnaya Sloboda. The mayor himself undertook to pick up the teachers. When teacher M. Gutareva asked the burgomaster what textbooks to use with children, he at first began to say that some pages should be torn out of old textbooks, but then he stopped fidgeting and frankly declared: “Teach without any textbooks. It is not necessary for village children to be able to read, write, count. The main thing is to gain confidence in them and ask in detail about their parents: what they say, what they do, what they breathe. The burgomaster ordered the teacher to report to him personally about everything. For divulging this conversation, he threatened to be shot. But Hitler's henchman failed to carry out his insidious plans. The Soviet patriot M. Gutareva did not work for the invaders. She joined the ranks of the people's avengers. And the rapid growth of the partisan movement in the Bryansk forests made it impossible for the fascist occupation authorities to open a "school" in Krasnaya Sloboda, as well as in a number of other settlements.

Patriotically minded teachers, often risking their lives, in defiance of the fascist authorities, taught children in accordance with the programs of Soviet schools. Despite the categorical orders of the invaders, which forbade the use of Soviet textbooks and books for teaching children, teachers continued to use them illegally. V. Silina, a teacher in the village of Yatsina, Putivl district, Sumy region, continued, on the advice of the partisans, to teach the history of the USSR under the guise of grammar. In many cities and villages of Ukraine, even in schools opened by the occupiers, anti-fascist underground groups were created. Teachers secretly held student meetings dedicated to revolutionary dates. Unable to work in a school, some Soviet teachers taught children in various other places. Hero of the Soviet Union G. Artozeev tells about his book “Partisan Reality”, that in his native village of Mashev, Semenovsky district, Chernihiv region, the old teacher F. L. Popravko, hiding from the invaders, taught children in the forest in the summer.

Anna Iosifovna Pashkevich, a young teacher in the village of Kaleevtsy, Vileika region, showed great resourcefulness and dedication. Throughout the war, she worked alone at a school where the children of the village of Kaleevtsy and neighboring villages came. Despite the fact that a large garrison of the Nazis stood a few kilometers from the village, the patriot taught children according to Soviet programs and textbooks. When the Nazis arrived in the village, the guys quickly hid their Soviet textbooks in a hiding place arranged between the stove and the wall, and the teacher took out old magazines from the closet and laid them out on desks, old magazines published back in bourgeois Poland. There was not a single textbook on the history of the USSR left in the school, and Anna Iosifovna replaced it with her lively story about the past hard life under the bourgeois system, about the liberation of the working people of Western Belarus in 1939 by the Red Army, about the need to fight against the fascist invaders. The children of this school studied their native language not only from textbooks, which were very few, but also from partisan newspapers and leaflets.

During classes, older students placed their guards on the approaches to the school, the guys, together with the teacher, prepared firewood for the winter and heated their school. The teacher often provided nutritional assistance to the most needy children. AI Pashkevich did this with all four classes until the end of the fascist occupation. In the 1943/44 academic year, the village of Kaleevtsy was in the partisan zone. Final exams in the spring of 1944, students of the 4th grade kept in the presence of two partisan commanders who were sitting at the table with the teacher.

But the desire of children to learn from Soviet textbooks, in the spirit of Soviet socialist traditions, in those schools that were near the fascist garrisons, did not always end so well. The Nazis often burned down schools, killed teachers, and abused children. Here is what the former secretary of the underground district committee A. Semyonov tells about the work of the Korostovets school in the Kletnyansky district. The following incident occurred in the Korostovets school during the Russian language lesson. The teacher told the students to come up with an exclamatory sentence. The boy, whose father had gone to the front, shouted: "Long live the Red Army!" The teacher stopped the children and said that now it is forbidden to speak like that, they need to find more suitable examples. Then one boy said: "I came up with! .. Death to Hitler and all fascists!" Upon learning of this, the commandant of the district center Kletni ordered the Korostovets school to be burned down.

A completely different situation developed on the territory of the partisan territories. In the schools that worked there, no one could prevent teachers from studying with children according to Soviet programs and textbooks. However, the incessant fascist punitive expeditions, blockades, and air bombardments made it impossible to organize the work of schools on a large scale. Nevertheless, Soviet schools existed in many partisan regions. Already in the autumn of 1941 in the partisan region, formed on the territory of Dedovichsky, Belebelkovsky and neighboring regions Leningrad region, 53 schools began to work. local teachers and partisan teachers, with the help of Komsomol and pioneer organizations, got tables, desks, blackboards, textbooks and visual aids, gathered the children and began classes with them.

In the deep autumn of the same 1941, 8 schools were opened in the Ashevsky district of the Kalinin region, which, together with the districts of the Leningrad region mentioned above, was part of one partisan region. Schools also worked in the first military winter on the territory of the partisan region of the Bryansk forests.

In the second academic year of the war period, in connection with the expansion of the partisan movement, Soviet schools began to work on the territories of other regions located behind enemy lines. Such schools were opened on the territory of the Smolensk region. The restoration of schools was preceded by the work that was carried out by the party organizations of the partisan regions with teachers. As early as April-May 1942, two district conferences of teachers were held in the Elninsk district of this region. Particularly energetic was the restoration of schools in the 1942/43 academic year on the territory of the Oktyabrsko-Lyuban partisan region of Belarus. Here this important and serious work was started on the initiative of the Central Committee of the LKSMB. At the suggestion of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Belarus K. T. Mazurov, who was in the partisan region, a meeting of deputy commissars of the partisan detachments for the Komsomol was convened, who were instructed to lead the restoration of schools in the villages and villages of the partisan region. Representatives of the Komsomol Central Committee, together with the Minsk Underground Regional Committee, selected teachers who fought in the ranks of the people's avengers. On September 1, 1942, about 20 Soviet schools began to operate in the distant enemy rear on the territory of the Oktyabrsky and Lyubansky regions of Belarus. The Nazis savagely bombed partisan schools and burned buildings. In the conditions of the intensified struggle against the enemy, the education of children on the territory of this partisan region in the first months of 1943 ceased.

In the 1943/44 academic year, schools began to work again in the new partisan territories of the Leningrad Region and Belarus. On February 20, 1944, the newspaper of the Leningrad regional committee of the Komsomol "Change" placed on its pages a letter from the students of the Sofronogorsk school of the Strugo-Krasnensky district, located in the partisan region, to the students of Leningrad. In their letter, the schoolchildren talked about the conditions of study behind enemy lines.

Here is the letter.

“Dear Leningraders!

Until very recently, our area was a deep German rear. Now, every day, units of the Red Army are coming closer and closer to us, and we are impatiently counting the days when the Germans will roll back from us as far as they have now rolled back from the city of Lenin.

Dear Guys! It's hard for you to imagine our life. We know that it was hard for you in Leningrad, surrounded by the Germans. But you still lived freely all the time, and the Nazis could not mock you. Schools have been open for you all the time. You had notebooks, textbooks, pencils, pens. You could say what you wanted, sing our Soviet songs.

But we lived in a completely different way. For two whole years our area was under the rule of the accursed Nazis, and they mocked us as much as they wanted. Of course, we couldn't study. We didn't have schools. Yes, even if there was a school, then during this time we were so cut off that there would still be nothing to go to study.

If not for the partisans, the Nazis would still continue to mock us. But guerrilla fighters occupied our village, and now our entire area is called "Partisan Territory." Brave partisans protect us from the Germans. They not only fight the enemy, but also take care of us guys. Now the partisans have opened a school for us and help us in our studies as much as they can. But it's not easy for us to learn. We do not have notebooks and we write on old wallpaper, which we tear off the walls of houses destroyed by the Nazis. We don't have ink, pens or pencils either. The Germans burned textbooks. But we managed to hide a few textbooks from them, so we are working on them. Now there are already 42 students in our school, and almost every day more and more new children come to us. We all look forward to the time when our native Red Army will come to our places and when we will forever be delivered from fascist tyrants. With regards - students of the 3rd and 4th grades of the Sofronogorsk school.

Of great interest is the history of Soviet schools in the Brest region. About twenty partisan schools worked there. They were created in family detachments, formed from local residents in partisan detachments and formations. Only in the partisan brigade named after Sverdlov there were 9 family units. The people included in these detachments lived with their families with old people and children among forests and swamps, between the lakes Chernoye and Sporovskoye in the Berezovsky district. The working conditions of the partisan schools in the forest family detachments were very difficult.

The first of the forest partisan schools in the Brest region began to be created in September 1943. Some schools were opened here in the last 4-5 months of the Nazis' stay on Belarusian soil. The Soviet people firmly believed that the year 1944 would last year the hated Nazi occupation. On the territory of the Brest region, partisan schools existed until the expulsion of the Nazi invaders, that is, until the second half of July 1944.

All of these schools were primary, with only the first four grades of education. The classes were taught by teachers who lived in the places of deployment of the people's avengers or invited by them from other settlements. They were selfless people, infinitely loving their work. All teaching was imbued with a deep ideological, political sharpness. Teachers brought up children in the spirit of hatred for the enemy, love and devotion to their socialist homeland, unshakable faith in our victory. Pioneer organizations were created in all forest schools in the Brest region, a lot of extracurricular work was carried out: the children participated in amateur art activities, helped adults in many chores related to the improvement of forest camps.

Until now, many former students and teachers of partisan schools in the Brest region live in Belarus - witnesses and participants in one of the heroic pages in the history of the people during the Great Patriotic War. For a more specific description of the conditions in which these schools worked, we will cite some moments from the memoirs of a former student of school No. 2 under the partisan detachment named after M. I. Kalinin of the F. Dzerzhinsky brigade T. K. Kot, who after the war began to work as a teacher in schools Brest region.

Tanya Kot's father since 1942 was in a partisan detachment. In this regard, the family living in the village was persecuted at every step by the German fascists and their agents. When it became completely impossible to live at home, the Cat family also decided to join the detachment. “It was in June 1943. We drove all day. I thought, - recalls T.K. Kot, - that we would fall into a large impenetrable forest, but I saw a continuous swamp with small islands on which partisan detachments were located ...

They met us as long-awaited and long-known people, although they saw us for the first time. The island we arrived at was beautiful. A vine grew all around, and the crowns of trees were densely intertwined at the top. At dusk, it seemed to us that we had entered some kind of park. The huts covered with hay seemed to us, the children, also beautiful and cozy. Two days after our arrival, the island was bombed. Enemy planes descended very low and scribbled through the bushes with machine guns. This went on for over a month. We had to lie in the swamp for days on end, where there were a lot of frogs and snakes.

It soon became clear that there were 9 pioneers among us. The Komsomol members of the partisan detachment decided to organize a pioneer detachment in our family camp and open a school. The party organization and command supported this initiative. The Komsomol member Pyotr Ilyich Ivanovsky, who could not see well, was appointed as our leader. It was hard for him to participate in combat missions, but he took up the work with the pioneers and the organization of the school very willingly. The command of the detachment allowed us to sew pioneer uniforms from parachute fabric. We also made ourselves pioneer ties. The pioneer banner was embroidered with particular care and attention by the whole team. Soon, in a solemn atmosphere, 28 more children were accepted as pioneers. After that, they elected the headquarters of the pioneer squad.

The school was opened on September 17, 1943. Komsomol partisans took out textbooks and paper. Everyone took an active part in organizing the school. To do this, they cleared the site, put logs instead of benches, poured yellow sand, which was very difficult to get here. All this was camouflaged from above from aircraft. It turned out that we will have three classes. Faina Petrovna Karabetyanova became our teacher. At her suggestion, we had a fixed daily routine: getting up at 7 o'clock in the morning, physical exercises, toilet and breakfast. While classes are going on in one class, the rest are preparing lessons and doing homework. After classes - the implementation of work on the camp and preparation for the training camp. At 10 pm, a lineup, which briefly summed up the results of the day and outlined tasks for tomorrow ...

There was not enough paper, pencils and ink. Therefore, I had to write on birch bark with coals. Chalkboard was not, instead we wrote with a stick in the sand. There were only one textbook, two per class.

The command decided to build a winter camp by November 7th. We took an active part in this work: we helped to cut logs, tore moss, brought different materials. A winter school was built for us in the form of a log hut with three windows, each with one piece of glass. They covered the school with spruce bark, masked it and insulated it with dry grass, leaves, and moss. The school was heated with an iron stove. We also made benches from boards here.

We also liked to gather at our school after classes. People who flew in from Moscow came to talk to us here. They told a lot of interesting things about the capital. Our school was also visited by a representative of the Central Committee of the Komsomol and a correspondent from one of the Moscow newspapers. Along with ammunition, Soviet pilots parachuted magazines, newspapers, and paper onto us. We were very pleased with these gifts from Moscow. Pioneers and schoolchildren prepared various amateur performances, which they performed both in their camp and in the partisan detachment.

Together with the people's avengers, the inhabitants of the civilian forest camp, including children, had to endure a severe fascist blockade in the spring of 1944. We were forced to leave for ten days in a swamp, where we took our textbooks and paper with us. Then they returned to the camp and continued their studies. The students did well. At the end of the academic year, final classes and exams were held in the presence of the commander of the partisan detachment, the commissar, the secretary of the Komsomol organization and a teacher from another detachment. On July 24, 1944, the Red Army liberated us.”

These are some of the features of the work of only one of the schools in the Brest region behind enemy lines. And how many original, unique, interesting things were in the life of other such schools. The very fact of the existence of these, although not numerous, schools was a vivid manifestation of the vitality of Soviet traditions in the life of our people, which continued to exist and strengthen even under the most difficult conditions of fascist occupation.

T. Cat. , From the book "Children-Heroes",
Getting bogged down in a swampy swamp, falling and rising again, we went to our own - to the partisans. The Germans were raging in their native village.
And for a whole month the Germans bombed our camp. “The partisans have been destroyed,” they finally sent a report to their high command. But invisible hands again derailed trains, blew up weapons depots, destroyed German garrisons.
Summer was over, autumn was already trying on its motley, crimson outfit. It was hard for us to imagine September without school.
- Here are the letters I know! - eight-year-old Natasha Drozd once said and drew a round "O" on the sand with a stick and next to it - an uneven gate "P". Her friend drew some numbers. The girls played school, and neither one nor the other noticed how sadly and warmly the commander of the partisan detachment Kovalevsky was watching them. In the evening, at the council of commanders, he said:
- The children need a school ... - and added quietly: - You can’t deprive them of their childhood.
On the same night, Komsomol members Fedya Trutko and Sasha Vasilevsky went on a combat mission, with Pyotr Ilyich Ivanovsky with them. They returned a few days later. Pencils, pens, primers, problem books were taken out of pockets, from the bosom. Peace and home, great human concern wafted from these books here, among the swamps, where there was a mortal battle for life.
- It's easier to blow up the bridge than to get your books, - Pyotr Ilyich gleefully flashed his teeth and took out ... a pioneer bugle.
None of the partisans said a word about the risk they were exposed to. There could be an ambush in every house, but it never occurred to any of them to refuse the task, to return empty-handed. ,
Three classes were organized: first, second and third. School ... Stakes driven into the ground, intertwined with willows, a cleared area, instead of a board and chalk - sand and a stick, instead of desks - stumps, instead of a roof over your head - a disguise from German aircraft. In cloudy weather, mosquitoes overwhelmed us, sometimes snakes crawled in, but we paid no attention to anything.
How the children valued their school-glade, how they caught every word of the teacher! Textbooks accounted for one, two per class. In some subjects there were no books at all. Much was remembered from the words of the teacher, who sometimes came to the lesson directly from a combat mission, with a rifle in his hands, belted with cartridges.
The soldiers brought everything they could get for us from the enemy, but there was not enough paper. We carefully removed the birch bark from fallen trees and wrote on it with coals. There was no case that someone did not do their homework. Only those guys who were urgently sent to reconnaissance missed classes.
It turned out that we had only nine pioneers, the remaining twenty-eight guys had to be accepted as pioneers. From the parachute donated to the partisans, we sewed a banner, made a pioneer uniform. The partisans accepted the pioneers, the commander of the detachment himself tied the ties to the newly arrived. The headquarters of the pioneer squad was immediately elected.
Without stopping classes, we were building a new dugout school for the winter. A lot of moss was needed to insulate it. They pulled him out so that his fingers hurt, sometimes they tore off his nails, painfully cut his hands with grass, but no one complained. No one demanded excellent studies from us, but each of us made this demand on ourselves. And when the heavy news came that our beloved comrade Sasha Vasilevsky had been killed, all the pioneers of the squad took a solemn oath: to study even better.
At our request, the squad was given the name of a deceased friend. On the same night, in revenge for Sasha, the partisans blew up 14 German vehicles and derailed the train. The Germans threw 75 thousand punishers against the partisans. The blockade began again. Everyone who knew how to handle weapons went into battle. Families retreated into the depths of the marshes, and our pioneer team also retreated. Our clothes were frozen, we ate flour boiled in hot water once a day. But as we retreated, we seized all our textbooks. Classes continued at the new location. And we kept the oath given to Sasha Vasilevsky. During the spring examinations, all the pioneers answered without hesitation. Strict examiners - the commander of the detachment, the commissar, the teachers - were pleased with us.
As a reward, the best students were given the right to participate in shooting competitions. They fired from the squad leader's pistol. It was the highest honor for the guys. 3123