A. A. Fadeev
Under the scorching sun of July 1942, they walked along the Donetsk steppe with their carts, artillery, tanks, the retreating units of the Red Army, children’s homes and gardens, cattle, trucks, refugees… They crossed Donetsk no longer had time: the parts of the German army came to the river. And all this mass of people poured back. Among them were Vanya Zemnukhov, Hula Gromov, Oleg Koshevoy, Zhora Harutyunyants.
But not everyone left Krasnodon. Employees of the hospital, in which there were more than one hundred wounded wounded, placed fighters in the apartments of local residents. Philip Petrovich Lyutikov, left secretary of the underground district committee, and his comrade in the underground Matvey Shulga quietly settled in the safe houses. Komsomolets Seryozha Tyulenin returned home from digging trenches. It so happened that he took part in the battles, he himself killed two Germans and was determined to kill them in the
The Germans entered the city during the day, and at night the German headquarters was burnt. It was set on fire by Sergei Tyulenin. Oleg Koshevoi returned from the Donets together with the director of the mine No. 1 bis Valko and on the way asked him to help contact the underground. Valko himself did not know who was left in the city, but he was sure that he would find these people. The Bolshevik and the Komsomol member agreed to keep in touch.
Koshevoy soon became acquainted with Tyulenin. The guys quickly found a common language and worked out a plan of action: to look for ways to the underground and simultaneously independently create a youth underground organization.
In the meantime, in order to divert his eyes, Lyutikov began to work with the Germans in electromechanical workshops. He came to the family of Osmukhins who had long known him – to call for work Volodya. Volodya was eager to fight and recommended to Lyutikov for the underground work of his comrades Tolia Orlov, Zhora Arutyunyants and Ivan Zemnukhov. But when the question of armed resistance came with Ivan Zemnukhov, he immediately
began to ask permission to draw in the group and Oleg Koshevoy.
The decisive meeting took place in the “weeds under the barn” of Oleg. A few more meetings – and finally all the links of the Krasnodar underground were closed. A youth organization was formed, called the “Young Guard”.
Protsenko at this time was already in the partisan detachment, which was based on the other side of the Donets. Initially, the detachment acted, and acted well. Then I got surrounded. In a group that was supposed to cover the withdrawal of the bulk of the people, Protsenko, among others, sent the Komsomol member Stakhovich. But Stakhovich was scared, ran away through Donets and left for Krasnodon. Having met Osmukhin, his schoolmate, Stakhovich informed him that he had fought in a partisan detachment and was officially sent by the headquarters to organize a partisan movement in Krasnodon.
Shulgu immediately gave the owner of the apartment, a former kulak and a hidden enemy of the Soviet government. The appearance where Valko was hiding fell through accidentally, but the policeman Ignat Fomin, who was conducting the search, immediately recognized Valko. In addition, almost all the members of the Bolshevik Party who were not able to evacuate, Soviet workers, public men, many teachers, engineers, noble miners and some of the military were arrested in the city and in the district. Many of these people, including Valko and Shulga, were executed by the Germans, buried alive.
Love Shevtsova in advance was put at the disposal of the partisan headquarters for use in the rear of the enemy. She graduated from the airborne courses, and then the courses of radio operators. Having received a signal that he must go to Voroshilovgrad and was bound by the discipline of the Young Guard, she reported her departure to Koshevoi. Nobody, except Osmukhin, did not know with whom of the underground members of the underground Oleg is connected. But Lyutikov knew perfectly well why Lyubka was left in Krasnodon, with whom he was connected in Voroshilovgrad. So the “Young Guard” went to the headquarters of the partisan movement.
Bright outwardly, funny and sociable, Lyubka vengeance now got acquainted with the Germans, appearing as the daughter of a miner repressed by the Soviet regime, and through the Germans extracted various intelligence data.
Young guards started to work. They pasted subversive leaflets and issued Sovinformburo summaries. Hung polizeai Ignat Fomin. They liberated a group of Soviet prisoners of war who worked in the felling of the forest. They collected weapons in the area of fighting in the Donets and stole it. Ulya Gromova was in charge of the work against the recruitment and hijacking of young people in Germany. The labor exchange was set on fire, and with it the lists of people that the Germans were about to steal to Germany burned. On the roads of the district and beyond, three permanent fighting groups of the “Young Guard” operated. One attacked mainly on passenger cars with German officers. Viktor Petrov was in charge of this group. The second group was engaged in tank cars. This group was led by Zhenya Moshkov, a lieutenant of the Soviet Army liberated from captivity. The third group – the group Tyulenin – operated everywhere.
At this time – November, December 1942 – the battle was over at Stalingrad. In the evening on December 30, the guys found a German car, laden with New Year gifts for the soldiers of the Reich. The car was cleaned, and some of the gifts were decided to be put on the market right away: the organization needed money. On this trail and went to the underground for a long time looking for them the police. First they took Moshkov, Zemnukhov and Stakhovich. Upon learning of the arrest, Lyutikov immediately gave the order – to leave the city to all members of the staff and those who are close to the arrested. It was necessary to hide in the village or try to cross the front line. But many, including Gromov, for young carelessness were left or could not find a reliable refuge and had to return home.
The order was given at a time when, under torture, Stakhovich began to give evidence. Arrests began. Few could leave. Stakhovich did not know through whom Kosheva was in contact with the district committee, but accidentally remembered a coherent one, and eventually the Germans went to Lyutikov. In the hands of the executioners was a group of adult underground members led by Lyutikov and members of the Young Guard. No one confessed to belonging to the organization and did not show to his comrades. Oleg Koshevoy was taken as one of the last – he ran into the gendarmes in the steppe. During the search he was found a Komsomol ticket. During interrogation in the Gestapo, Oleg reported that he was the leader of the Young Guard, one is responsible for all of its actions, and then remained silent even under torture. The enemies could not find out that Lyutikov was the head of the underground Bolshevik organization, but they felt that,
All the young guards were terribly beaten and tortured. Uli Gromova on the back was carved a star. Half lying on her side, she tapped into the next cell: “Be strong… Anyway, our go…”
Lyutikov and Koshevoy were interrogated in Rovenky and also tortured, “but we can say that they already felt nothing: their spirit soared immeasurably high, as soon as the great creative spirit of man can soar. ” All the arrested underground were executed: they were thrown into the mine. Before their death they sang revolutionary songs.
On February 15, Soviet tanks entered Krasnodon. In the funeral of the young guards, a few surviving members of the Krasnodon underground took part.