The true story of Valya Kotik (5 photos).

(1944-02-17 ) (14 years old) Place of death Affiliation

USSR USSR

Years of service Battles/wars Awards and prizes

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. Title of Hero Soviet Union 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 accepted active participation in the partisan movement on the territory of 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 launch a raid on 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”.

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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 of an 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

“Yes, yes, exactly pink,” said Natasha, who now also seemed to remember what was said in pink, and in this she saw the main unusualness and mystery of the prediction.
– But what does this mean? – Natasha said thoughtfully.
- Oh, I don’t know how extraordinary all this is! - Sonya said, clutching her head.
A few minutes later, Prince Andrei called, and Natasha came in to see him; and Sonya, experiencing an emotion and tenderness she had rarely experienced, remained at the window, pondering the extraordinary nature of what had happened.
On this day there was an opportunity to send letters to the army, and the Countess wrote a letter to her son.
“Sonya,” said the countess, raising her head from the letter as her niece walked past her. – Sonya, won’t you write to Nikolenka? - said the countess in a quiet, trembling voice, and in the look of her tired eyes, looking through glasses, Sonya read everything that the countess understood in these words. This look expressed pleading, fear of refusal, shame for having to ask, and readiness for irreconcilable hatred in case of refusal.
Sonya went up to the countess and, kneeling down, kissed her hand.
“I’ll write, maman,” she said.
Sonya was softened, excited and touched by everything that happened that day, especially by the mysterious performance of fortune-telling that she just saw. Now that she knew that on the occasion of the renewal of Natasha’s relationship with Prince Andrei, Nikolai could not marry Princess Marya, she joyfully felt the return of that mood of self-sacrifice in which she loved and was accustomed to living. And with tears in her eyes and with the joy of the consciousness of committing a generous deed, she, interrupted several times by tears that clouded her velvet black eyes, wrote that touching letter, the receipt of which so amazed Nikolai.

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 the separate room 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 a house where a French general with a white mustache, two colonels and other Frenchmen with scarves on their hands were sitting. Pierre, along with others, was asked questions about who he was with the precision and certainty with which defendants are usually treated, supposedly exceeding human weaknesses. where was he? for what purpose? etc.
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 the only purpose of 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 he learned from the conversation of the French soldiers 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.

Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik (Valya Kotik) was born on February 11, 1930 - a young partisan intelligence officer. partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, who operated in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kamenets-Podolsk region of the Ukrainian SSR; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union.

You don’t choose times, says the well-known wisdom. Some people experience a childhood with pioneer camps and collecting waste paper, others with game consoles and accounts on social networks.

The generation of children of the 1930s suffered a cruel and terrible war, which took away relatives, loved ones, friends and childhood itself. And instead of children's toys, the most persistent and courageous took rifles and machine guns into their hands. They took it to take revenge on the enemy and fight for the Motherland.

War is not a child's business. But when she comes to your house, the usual ideas change radically.

In 1933, writer Arkady Gaidar wrote “The Tale of Military secret, Malchishe-Kibalchish and his firm word" This work by Gaidar, written eight years before the start of the Great Patriotic War, was destined to become a symbol of memory of all the young heroes who died in the fight against the Nazi invaders.

Valya Kotik, like all Soviet boys and girls, of course, heard the fairy tale about Malchish-Kibalchish. But he hardly thought that he would have to be in the place of the brave hero Gaidar.

Valya Kotik was born on February 11, 1930 in Ukraine, in the village of Khmelevka, Kamenets-Podolsk region, into a peasant family.

Valya had ordinary childhood boys of that time, with the usual pranks, secrets, and sometimes bad grades. Everything changed in June 1941, when war broke into the life of sixth-grader Valya Kotik.

The rapid Hitlerite blitzkrieg of the summer of 1941, and now Valya, who by that time lived in the city of Shepetivka, together with his family was already in the occupied territory.

The victorious power of the Wehrmacht instilled fear in many adults, but did not frighten Valya, who, together with his friends, decided to fight the Nazis. To begin with, they began to collect and hide weapons that remained at the sites of battles that raged around Shepetivka. Then they grew bolder to the point that they began to steal machine guns from unwary Nazis.

And in the fall of 1941, a desperate boy committed real sabotage - setting up an ambush near the road, he used a grenade to blow up a car with Nazis, killing several soldiers and the commander of a field gendarmerie detachment.

The underground members learned about Valya's affairs. It was almost impossible to stop the desperate boy, and then he was involved in underground work. He was tasked with collecting information about the German garrison, posting leaflets, and acting as a liaison.

For the time being, the nimble boy did not arouse suspicion among the Nazis. However, the more successful actions became on the account of the underground, the more carefully the Nazis began to look for their assistants among the local residents.

In the summer of 1943, the threat of arrest hung over Valya’s family, and he, along with his mother and brother, went into the forest, becoming a fighter in the Karmelyuk partisan detachment.

The command tried to take care of the 13-year-old boy, but he was eager to fight. In addition, Valya showed himself to be a skilled intelligence officer and a person capable of finding a way out of the most difficult situation.

In October 1943, Valya, who was on a partisan patrol, ran into punitive forces preparing to attack the base of a partisan detachment. They tied up the boy, but, deciding that he did not pose a threat and could not provide valuable intelligence, they left him under guard right there, on the edge of the forest.

Valya himself was wounded, but managed to get to the hut of the forester who was helping the partisans. After recovery, he continued to fight in the detachment.

Valya participated in the undermining of six enemy echelons, the destruction of the Nazi strategic communications cable, as well as in a number of other successful actions, for which he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree.”

On February 11, 1944, Valya turned 14 years old. The front was rapidly moving to the West, and the partisans helped as best they could regular army. Shepetovka, where Valya lived, had already been liberated, but the detachment moved on, preparing for its last operation - the assault on the city of Izyaslav.

After it, the detachment had to be disbanded, the adults had to join the regular units, and Valya had to return to school.

The battle for Izyaslav on February 16, 1944 turned out to be hot, but it was already ending in favor of the partisans when Valya was seriously wounded by a stray bullet.

They broke into the city to help the partisans Soviet troops. The wounded Valya was urgently sent to the rear, to the hospital. However, the wound turned out to be fatal - on February 17, 1944, Valya Kotik died.

Valya was buried in the village of Khorovets. At the request of his mother, the son’s ashes were transferred to the city of Shepetivka and reburied in the city park.

A big country that has experienced terrible war, could not immediately appreciate the exploits of all who fought for her freedom and independence. But over time, everything fell into place.

For his heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1958, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In history, he never became Valentin, remaining simply Valya. The youngest Hero of the Soviet Union.

His name, like the names of other pioneer heroes, whose feats were told to Soviet schoolchildren in the post-war period, was subjected to defamation and mockery in the post-Soviet period.

But time puts everything in its place. A feat is a feat, and betrayal is betrayal. Valya Kotik, in a difficult time of testing for the Motherland, turned out to be more courageous than many adults, who to this day are looking for justification for their cowardice and cowardice.

Eternal memory to him!

Soviet children, pioneers and others, who fought along with adults for the freedom of our country, who died in the fight against the enemy, who lived to see the Victory - they are all in the Immortal Regiment of a thousand years of Russian history.

Valya the cat, 14 years old, Hero of the Soviet Union.

Participant partisan movement in Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War.

Valya Kotik was born on February 11, 1930 in a peasant family. Since 1937 he lived in the city of Shepetovka. When the war began, he had just entered the sixth grade. From the first days of the occupation of Shepetivka, Valya began to fight against the Nazis.

Once, together with his comrades, he threw a grenade at the car in which the head of the Shepetivka gendarmerie was riding. Hitler's executioner was killed.

In 1942, Valya established permanent contact with the Shepetivka underground organization and, on its instructions, collected weapons and distributed leaflets.

In the summer of 1943, he became a partisan in the Karmalyuk detachment. In the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav, the boy was mortally wounded. He died in the arms of his adult partisan comrades.

Awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and a medal.

Valya Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously.

The name Kotik was given to the ship and schools.

In the city of Shepetivka in 1960, a monument to Valya Kotik was erected.

“The Last Battle” is a story written by Valya’s mother, Anna Kotik.

Last Stand.

A line of new arrivals formed at the forest edge, and among them were my sons, Valya and Victor. Both have captured machine guns. They are accepted into the partisan detachment only with weapons, and my sons fulfilled this requirement, and also got weapons not only for themselves.

Standing in front of the line partisan commander Anton Zakharovich Odukha and Commissioner Ignatius Vasilievich Kuzovkin. The Commissioner slowly, phrase by phrase, reads the words of the partisan oath. And the newcomers repeat after him in solemn silence:

“For the burned cities and villages, for the death of our wives and children, for the torment and violence against my people, I swear to take revenge on the enemy mercilessly and tirelessly.

Blood for blood!

Death for death!

I swear that I would rather die in a brutal battle with enemies than give myself, my family and the entire Soviet people into slavery to bloody fascism...”

That day my sons became partisan fighters.

One day, Valina’s group was tasked with defeating a German garrison stationed in a neighboring village.

The partisans made their way along forest paths. There is reconnaissance in front, and combat security on the sides and in the rear. The detachment had been pursued by punitive forces the day before, but now it seemed that it had already broken away from them. It's quiet in the forest. Only the birds sing and the trees rustle above.

Halt! - the commander ordered. - Roller, it’s your turn to guard.

“I obey,” Valya saluted and disappeared behind the trees.

His post was located several hundred meters from the resting place. The boy sat down in the bushes in front of the forest edge.

There is silence all around.

But what is it? A flock of birds took off from the tree. Through the noise of the forest, Valya heard a loud crunch of branches under his feet. He grabbed the machine gun and rushed to the ground, but... Someone's rude strong hands snatched his weapon. These were punitive forces.

Where are you from? - the translator asked menacingly.

“What to do, how to warn the squad about the danger, how to delay time?” - drilled the brain disturbing thought. A sharp blow - and again the same question:

Where?

Valya points to the sky:

From an airplane.

Who else is with you? Where are they?

The Nazis forced Valya to lie down and ordered him not to move. And he thought feverishly:

“Another ten minutes and the enemies will attack the squad. What to do?"

As soon as he moved, a threatening shout from the fascist was heard:

Ligen!

Suddenly Valya felt that the ribbed surface of a lemon grenade had dug into his side.

He had to be very careful so that the punishers wouldn’t notice, pull his hand under himself, remove the ring...

Valya quickly jumped up, threw a grenade at the feet of his guards, and rushed into the bushes. But can you run so far in three seconds without being overtaken by fragments? Something burned his legs and back. Valya fell, but then crawled deeper into the forest.

The detachment heard an explosion, and when the punitive forces approached the resting place, they, of course, did not find anyone.

What happened to Valya?

He survived, crawled to the forester's hut, who bandaged his wounds and notified the partisans...

The winter of 1944 has arrived. Under the blows of the Red Army, fascist troops rolled back to the west. The partisans helped the front, and in order to remain behind enemy lines, they had to “retreat” along with the Nazis.

One January day, the partisans stormed Slavuta and established there Soviet power. And when the advanced units of the front reached Slavuta, the partisans received orders to prepare for the assault on Izyaslav.

Muzalev’s detachment, where Valya was, was located about seven kilometers from the city. As soon as we stopped, the radio operator took hold of the receiver and began to catch Moscow:

Order of the Supreme Commander...

Everyone who was free gathered around the radio. We were waiting impatiently: what will Moscow please us with today?

The announcer solemnly read:

A large railway junction has been captured - the city of Shepetivka!

Hooray! - swept through the forest.

Most of the partisans in Muzalev’s detachment were from Shepetovka. Their city had already been liberated, and the detachment was preparing for its last battle.

The day before, a liaison officer from the front headquarters arrived here. Then representatives of all detachments appeared.

After some time, Muzalev convened the platoon commanders. Immediately after a short meeting, partisan scouts in white camouflage coats disappeared into the darkness of the night.

At seven in the morning the assault on Izyaslav! - they repeated in the detachment.

Valik, during the battle you will remain at headquarters,” Muzalev ordered.

Why don’t I go on the attack? What, am I a bad shooter?

This is an order, and orders are not discussed,” Muzalev answered sternly.

Okay,” Valya frowned.

No, Muzalev couldn’t send him into the thick of it now. After all, this is last Stand. In a few days, Valya will return to Shepetovka, already Soviet, will go to school, and soon his hands will again get used to the briefcase, notebooks, pencils...

The Nazis did not expect an attack. They jumped out of houses half-naked, ran around like mad and randomly shot back. The detachment passed the first buildings. The Nazis fled the city. But the partisans knew that victory would not be easy. After all, the last echelons with equipment and soldiers were passing through Izyaslav; units defeated at Shepetovka were leaving through Izyaslav.

The partisans immediately began to dig in to gain a foothold in the city.

Valya was assigned to guard a weapons warehouse abandoned by the Nazis.

He stood on guard and thought that it was in vain that Muzalev did not allow him to go on the attack.

What will he remember later about this battle? Endless phone calls to KP Muzalev? How he wanted to rush from this checkpoint to where the bullets were whistling! But the order cannot be violated.

And suddenly Valya heard the hum of engines coming from the side where the Nazis had retreated. Tiger tanks appeared and self-propelled guns"Ferdinands". It is difficult to defeat such equipment when the squad has only a few anti-tank rifles and one anti-tank gun.

He saw from a distance how one of the partisans rose to his full height near a spotted tank and fell right under the tracks.

There was an explosion... The tank spun in place and smoke poured out of the turret.

The tanks were approaching the warehouse. Valya can already clearly distinguish the fascists running after them. He crouched to the ground and began shooting at the black figures on the white snow.

Another tank stopped. The rest turned back. The partisan “hurray” rang out over the city again. The Nazi offensive was repelled.

Valya stood up to his full height.

Suddenly a blunt blow to the stomach knocked him off his feet. A stray bullet mortally wounded the boy.

He came to consciousness when the cart shook sharply and a sharp pain pierced his whole body.

Valya was lying on the straw, covered with trophy blankets and overcoats. Muzalev walked heavily next to him all the time, holding the edge of the cart with his hand.

Only now did he realize how tired he was after the intense battle. It's all over now. Soviet troops arrived from the other flank in a timely manner. Izyaslav was released. The partisans were returning home. They fulfilled their difficult duty.

One of the most famous child heroes of the Great Patriotic War is Valya Kotik. Feat ( summary his biography and military activities are the subject of this review) this boy is probably known to every schoolchild. This work provides a description of his life and participation in battles in the partisan detachment. His personality became an example of courage and heroism Soviet people, manifested during the years of the German invasion of our Motherland. The child's fate was all the more tragic because he died at the age of fourteen, however, despite his young age, did a lot for the liberation of his native city, for which he was awarded the highest military award.

Childhood years

In 1930, Valya Kotik was born into the family of an employee. The feat (a brief summary of which will be described below) of this boy had great value not only in a practical, but also in an ideological sense, since his actions became an example to follow. He was the youngest in the family and was in the sixth grade at the time of the enemy invasion.

At first, the child began to pay attention to fascist posts and distribute propaganda leaflets calling for a fight against the invaders. Thus, the schoolboy attracted the attention of the leader of a local underground organization, who settled in his house. At first, the little hero of the big war, Valya Kotik, mistook him for an enemy spy and traitor, but after learning the truth, he became a member of his group. They began to give him small assignments: to monitor German officers, obtain and protect weapons. The capable child showed courage, quickness and ingenuity, so that he began to be given more responsible and serious assignments.

Participation in the partisan movement

The boy quickly learned how to handle weapons and explosives. He was able to mine the roads and highways along which patrols passed. One day, a child noticed the head of the local gendarmerie in a passing car, who was driving to his hometown of Shepetivka. The student threw a grenade and the car exploded.

Thus, Valya Kotik made a great contribution to the liberation of the city. Feat (summary of it military biography reflects tragic fate Many child partisans) of the boy is that he combined physical dexterity with ideological conviction, thanks to which he did not leave his detachment even at a time when he was offered to cross to safe areas of the country.

1942-1944

At first, the student served as a liaison in an underground group, but soon began to participate in battles. An important stage In his military biography, he came under the command of Lieutenant Muzalev, who led the occupied territories. The teenager actively fought on the side of the Red Army and was wounded twice.

In 1943, Valya Kotik interrupted Warsaw’s connection with the main German headquarters. The feat, a brief summary of which allows us only to approximately judge the significance of this step, facilitated the actions of the members of the underground organization in the liberation of the conquered territory. The boy also took part in undermining German trains. In addition to his powers of observation and skillful organizational skills, he also proved himself to be an excellent patrolman. One day, he, alone from the entire group of partisans, noticed an impending raid on his comrades and raised the alarm in time, thus saving all the people.

Death

Valya Kotik, a feat whose biography is compulsorily studied in all Soviet schools, fought on Ukrainian territory. As mentioned above, he was offered to move to a safer area, but he did not want to leave his home unit. He took part in the liberation operation to lift the occupation from the city of Izyaslav. According to one version, the boy was sent on reconnaissance, noticed a German patrol, raised the alarm, but was mortally wounded, after which he quickly died. Some scientists believe that the young hero's wound was minor, but he died due to shelling during the evacuation. He was buried in his hometown. Many streets in Russian cities are named after him, as well as pioneer camps, schools, and squads. Several monuments have been erected to him, including in the capital of our country. A number of films are dedicated to his life.

Confession

Among the many partisans who made a significant contribution to the victory, Valya Kotik, a pioneer hero, stands out. Heroes of Russia and the USSR have always received the highest awards and orders. So the boy initially received partisan medals, and in 1958 he was awarded the country's main honorary title. As mentioned above, a film was made about him.

According to the plot of the film, the character, a young schoolboy, sacrifices his life by blowing himself up with a grenade so as not to be captured by the enemy. It is significant that many young fighters became famous after their tragic death. In this series, Kotik occupies an honorable place, as he carried out a number of actions of strategic importance. The destruction of the connection with the headquarters was a step whose significance went beyond local success. Therefore on school lessons According to history, attention should be paid to the importance of his underground activities in the liberation of Ukraine from German occupation.

He defended the country no worse than adults and was eager to fight, not afraid of difficulties. He has dozens of successful sabotages to his credit. On February 11, 1930, Valya Kotik was born, the most young hero Soviet Union. My short life He dedicated himself to the fight against Nazism.

When the Great Patriotic War began, Valya Kotik was only 11. The city of Shepetovka, where his family moved shortly before the start of the war from the village of Khmelevka, was occupied by the Germans in July 1941.

Needless to say, with their arrival, childhood ended for Valya Kotik, as for many boys and girls. Instead of carefree games - dangerous underground work, instead of school - active assistance to partisans.

Yesterday's fifth-grader collected and hid weapons that remained at the sites of battles that raged around Shepetivka, and at night he drew and pasted up caricatures of the Germans.

In underground circles, they learned about the young defender after he set up an ambush and used a grenade to blow up a car with the head of the Nazi field gendarmerie.

So, in 1942, the pioneer Valya Kotik became an intelligence officer of the Shepetovsky underground party organization. Thanks to him, the underground fighters knew about the exact locations of German posts, the order of changing guards, and received procured weapons and ammunition.

For a long time the boy did not arouse suspicion among the occupiers, but the more successful sabotage the underground fighters carried out, the more dangerous the position of their assistants among the townspeople became.

And so, in the summer of 1943, when a threat loomed over Valya Kotik’s family, he and his mother and brother left Shepetovka and became a scout for the Karmelyuk partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Muzalev.

The partisans tried to protect the boy from danger, but Valya could not be stopped. Smart, brave and decisive, he rushed into battle without fear and fought as best he could. But he did it no worse than adults.

Thanks to him, the underground telephone cable through which the invaders kept in touch with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw was undermined.

The young partisan bombed a warehouse, six railway trains, as well as other equally daring and dangerous acts of sabotage.

On October 29, 1943, Valya Kotik was on patrol. Noticing the Nazis planning a raid on the detachment, he killed an enemy officer and raised the alarm. This made it possible to prevent the partisans from being taken by surprise.

On February 16, during the assault on Izyaslav, a young partisan was seriously wounded. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors fought for his life for days. On February 17, 1944 Valya Kotik died.

During his service, the heroic boy was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree.”