On September 28, 1942, in Krasnodon, young underground fighters united into the Young Guard organization.

Novel and film "hot on the heels".

In 1946, the novel by writer Alexander Fadeev, “The Young Guard,” was published in the Soviet Union, dedicated to the struggle of young underground fighters against the fascists. Fadeev’s novel was destined to become a bestseller for several decades to come: “The Young Guard” went through more than 270 editions during the Soviet period with a total circulation of over 26 million copies.
The Young Guard was included in the school curriculum, and there was not a single Soviet student who had not heard of Oleg Koshev, Lyuba Shevtsova and Ulyana Gromova.
In 1948, Alexander Fadeev’s novel was filmed - a film of the same name “The Young Guard” was directed by Sergei Gerasimov, involving students from the acting department of VGIK. The path to stardom for Nonna Mordyukova, Inna Makarova, Georgy Yumatov, Vyacheslav Tikhonov began with “Young Guard”...

Both the book and the film had an amazing feature - they were created not just based on real events, but literally “hot on the heels”. The actors came to the places where everything happened and talked with the parents and friends of the dead heroes. Vladimir Ivanov, who played Oleg Koshevoy, was two years older than his hero. Nonna Mordyukova was only a year younger than Ulyana Gromova, Inna Makarova was a couple of years younger than Lyuba Shevtsova. All this gave the picture incredible realism.
Years later, during the collapse of the USSR, the efficiency of creating works of art will become an argument with which they will prove that the history of the underground organization “Young Guard” is a fiction of Soviet propaganda. Why did the young underground fighters from Krasnodon suddenly get so much attention? There were, after all, much more successful groups that did not receive a little fame and recognition from the Young Guard?

Mine number five.

No matter how cruel it sounds, the popularity of the Young Guard was predetermined by its tragic ending, which occurred shortly before the liberation of the city of Krasnodon from the Nazis.
In 1943, the Soviet Union was already carrying out systematic work to document Nazi crimes in the occupied territories. Immediately after the liberation of cities and villages, commissions were formed whose task was to record cases of massacres of Soviet citizens, establish the burial places of victims, and identify witnesses to crimes.
On February 14, 1943, the Red Army liberated Krasnodon. Almost immediately, local residents became aware of the massacre committed by the Nazis against young underground fighters.
The snow in the prison yard still contained traces of their blood. In the cells on the walls, relatives and friends found the last messages of the Young Guards who were leaving to die. The place where the bodies of those executed were located was also not a secret. Most of the Young Guards were thrown into the 58-meter pit of the Krasnodon mine No. 5.

The work of lifting bodies was hard both physically and psychologically. The executed Young Guards were subjected to sophisticated torture before their deaths.
The protocols for examining corpses speak for themselves:
“Ulyana Gromova, 19 years old, a five-pointed star carved on her back, her right arm broken, broken ribs...”
“Lida Androsova, 18 years old, was taken out without an eye, ear, hand, with a rope around her neck, which cut heavily into her body. Dried blood is visible on the neck.”
“Angelina Samoshina, 18 years old. Signs of torture were found on the body: arms were twisted, ears were cut off, a star was carved on the cheek...”
“Maya Peglivanova, 17 years old. The corpse was disfigured: breasts, lips were cut off, legs were broken. All outer clothing has been removed."
“Shura Bondareva, 20 years old, was taken out without her head and right breast, her whole body was beaten, bruised, black in color.”
“Viktor Tretyakevich, 18 years old. He was pulled out without a face, with a black and blue back, with crushed arms.”

"I may die, but I have to get her"

In the process of studying the remains, another terrible detail became clear - some of the guys were thrown into the mine alive and died as a result of falling from a great height.
A few days later, work was suspended - due to the decomposition of the bodies, lifting them became dangerous for the living. The bodies of the others were much lower and it seemed that they could not be raised.
The father of the deceased Lida Androsova, Makar Timofeevich, an experienced miner, said: “Even if I die from the poison of my daughter’s corpse, but I have to get her.”

The mother of the deceased Yuri Vintsenovsky recalled: “A gaping abyss around which small parts of our children’s clothes were lying: socks, combs, felt boots, bras, etc. The wall of the waste heap is all splattered with blood and brains. With a heart-rending cry, each mother recognized the expensive things of her children. Moans, screams, fainting... The corpses that could not fit in the bathhouse were laid out on the street, in the snow under the walls of the bathhouse. A terrible picture! In the bathhouse, around the bathhouse there are corpses, corpses. 71 corpses!
On March 1, 1943, Krasnodon saw off the Young Guard on their last journey. They were buried with military honors in a mass grave in the Komsomol Park.

Comrade Khrushchev reports...

Soviet investigators fell into the hands of not only material evidence of the massacre, but also German documents, as well as Hitler’s accomplices who were directly related to the death of the Young Guard.
It was not possible to quickly understand the circumstances of the activities and deaths of other underground groups due to a lack of information. The uniqueness of the “Young Guard” was that, as it seemed, everything about it became known at once.
In September 1943, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Nikita Khrushchev wrote a report on the activities of the Young Guard based on established data: “The Young Guard began their activities with the creation of a primitive printing house. Students in grades 9-10 - members of an underground organization - made a radio receiver on their own. After some time, they were already receiving messages from the Soviet Information Bureau and began publishing leaflets. Leaflets were posted everywhere: on the walls of houses, in buildings, on telephone poles. Several times the Young Guard managed to stick leaflets on the backs of police officers... Members of the Young Guard also wrote slogans on the walls of houses and fences. On religious holidays, they came to church and stuffed handwritten leaflets into the pockets of believers with the following content: “As we lived, so we will live, as we were, so we will be under the Stalinist banner,” or: “Down with Hitler’s 300 grams, give me a Stalinist kilogram.” On the day of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, a red banner hoisted by members of an underground organization hoisted over the city...
The Young Guard did not limit itself to propaganda work; it made active preparations for an armed uprising. For this purpose, they collected: 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 300 grenades, more than 15,000 rounds of ammunition and 65 kg of explosives. By the beginning of the winter of 1942, the organization was a cohesive, fighting detachment with experience in political and military activities. The underground members thwarted the mobilization of several thousand residents of Krasnodon to Germany, burned the labor exchange, saved the lives of dozens of prisoners of war, recaptured 500 head of cattle from the Germans and returned them to the residents, and carried out a number of other acts of sabotage and terrorism.”

Operational award.

Khrushchev further suggests: “To perpetuate the memory of the victims and popularize their heroic deeds, I ask:
1. To assign /posthumously/ to Oleg Vasilievich KOSHEV, Ivan Alexandrovich ZEMNUKHOV, Sergei Gavrilovich TYULENIN, Ulyana Matveevna GROMOVA, Lyubov Grigorievna SHEVTSOVA the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, as the most outstanding organizers and leaders of the “Young Guard”.
2. Award 44 active members of the “Young Guard” with the Order of the USSR for their valor and courage in the fight against the German invaders behind enemy lines / of which 37 people were posthumously /.”
Stalin supported Khrushchev's proposal. The note addressed to the leader was dated September 8, and already on September 13, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued on awarding Young Guards.
No unnecessary feats were attributed to the boys and girls from the Young Guard - they managed to do a lot for untrained amateur underground fighters. And this is the case when there was no need to embellish anything.

What was corrected in the film and book?

And yet, there are things that are still debated. For example, about the contribution to the common cause of each of the leaders. Or about whether it is legal to call Oleg Koshevoy a commissioner of the organization. Or about who was responsible for the failure.
For example, one of the Nazi collaborators stated at the trial that Viktor Tretyakevich betrayed the Young Guard, unable to withstand torture. Only 16 years later, in 1959, during the trial of Vasily Podtynny, who served as deputy chief of the Krasnodon city police in 1942-1943, it became known that Tretyakevich had become a victim of a slander, and the real informer was Gennady Pocheptsov.
Pocheptsov and his stepfather Vasily Gromov were exposed as Nazi collaborators back in 1943, and were shot by a tribunal. But Pocheptsov’s role in the death of the Young Guard was revealed much later.
Due to new information, in 1964 Sergei Gerasimov even re-edited and partially re-scored the film “The Young Guard”.
Alexander Fadeev had to rewrite the novel. And not because of inaccuracies, which the writer explained by the fact that the book was fiction and not documentary, but because of the special opinion of Comrade Stalin. The leader did not like the fact that the youth in the book acted without the help and guidance of their older communist comrades. As a result, in the 1951 version of the book, Koshevoy and his comrades were already guided by wise party members.

Patriots without special training.

Such additions were then used to denounce the Young Guard as a whole. And some people are ready to present the relatively recently discovered fact that Lyuba Shevtsova completed a three-month NKVD course as a radio operator as proof that the Young Guards are not patriotic schoolchildren, but seasoned saboteurs.
In reality, there was neither a leading role of the party nor sabotage preparation. The guys did not know the basics of underground activities, improvising on the go. Under such conditions, failure was inevitable.
It is enough to remember how Oleg Koshevoy died. He managed to avoid detention in Krasnodon, but did not succeed in crossing the front line as he had planned.
He was detained by field gendarmerie near the city of Rovenki. Koshevoy was not known by sight, and he could well have avoided exposure if not for a mistake that was completely impossible for a professional illegal intelligence officer. During the search, they found a Komsomol card sewn into his clothes, as well as several other documents incriminating him as a member of the Young Guard.

Their courage amazed their enemies.

The desire to keep a Komsomol card in such a situation is a crazy act, life-threatening boyishness. But Oleg was a boy, he was only 16 years old... He met his last hour on February 9, 1943 with steadfastness and courage. From the testimony of Schultz, a gendarme of the German district gendarmerie in the city of Rovenki: “At the end of January, I participated in the execution of a group of members of the underground Komsomol organization “Young Guard”, among whom was the leader of this organization Koshevoy... I remember him especially clearly because the shooting I had to go into it twice. After the shots, all those arrested fell to the ground and lay motionless, only Koshevoy stood up and, turning around, looked in our direction. This greatly angered Fromme and he ordered the gendarme Drewitz to finish him off. Drewitz approached the lying Koshevoy and killed him with a shot in the back of the head...”
His comrades also died fearlessly. SS man Drewitz spoke during interrogation about the last minutes of Lyuba Shevtsova’s life: “Of those shot in the second batch, I remember Shevtsova well. She attracted my attention with her appearance. She had a beautiful, slender figure and a long face. Despite her youth, she behaved very courageously. Before the execution, I brought Shevtsova to the edge of the execution pit. She did not utter a word about mercy and calmly, with her head raised, accepted death.”
“I didn’t join the organization to then ask for your forgiveness; I only regret one thing, that we didn’t have time to do enough!” Ulyana Gromova threw it in the face of the Nazi investigator.

“Bandera’s myth”: how Young Guards were registered as Ukrainian nationalists...

During the years of independent Ukraine, a new misfortune befell the Young Guard - it was suddenly declared... an underground organization of Ukrainian nationalists.
This version is recognized by all historians who have studied documents related to the Young Guard as complete nonsense. It must be said that the city of Krasnodon, adjacent to the modern Russian-Ukrainian border, has never belonged to the territory where the positions of nationalists are strong.
The author of the “stuffing” is US citizen Evgeniy Stakhov. A veteran of the Bandera movement in the early 1990s, he began to introduce himself in interviews as the organizer of the nationalist underground in the Donbass, to which he “joined” the Young Guard. Stakhov’s revelations were refuted not only by the real facts in which he was confused, but also by the statements of those Young Guards who survived and lived until the 1990s. However, to this day in Ukraine and in Russia you can sometimes hear about the “Bandera trace” of the Young Guard.
After Euromaidan in Ukraine, the desecration of the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War became the norm. The Young Guard members are lucky - the city of Krasnodon is located on the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic, where the memory of the patriots who gave their lives for their Motherland is still sacred.

Alexander Fadeev. Why did the famous Soviet writer shoot himself? What secrets does his novel “The Young Guard” keep? And how did Fadeev’s work influence the residents of the city of Krasnodon? prepared a special report.

And the cartridge is waiting in the barrel

In the house of Alexander Fadeev there is the usual midday bustle - the table is being set. The writer's son, eleven-year-old Mikhail, is sent to call his father for dinner. He does not have time to reach his office when suddenly a shot is heard. Unexpectedly for everyone, the famous writer committed suicide.

The next day, newspapers will print only a meager obituary about Fadeev’s death. The cause of suicide will be stated as alcoholism, but few will believe this. Why did Fadeev shoot himself? His death is still shrouded in myth, just like the story of his last novel, The Young Guard.

Winter 1945. The Second World War is going on. Alexander Fadeev lives in Peredelkino, near Moscow. Having barely finished the first chapters of his new work, he hurries to test what he has written on his listeners. So he reads to his neighbors a few pages of The Young Guard, a novel that will become fatal for him.

Playwright Alexander Nilin has just returned from his dacha in Peredelkino. The country's best writers lived in this village for many years. There he once met Alexander Fadeev.

“For the rest of my life I remembered how he read it. At the same time, of course, they drank vodka, war, such red canned food, and Fadeev kept laughing and blushing. But this was a purely author’s reading, when a person still does not know whether there will be success, there will be no success, that is, there was excitement,” says Alexander Nilin.

Fadeev is worried like a schoolboy, although at that time he was already a recognized writer. His first success was brought to him by the novel “Destruction”, after which Stalin himself wanted to meet him personally. The writer's career has since risen sharply.

He rose to the post of chairman of the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR and... stopped writing. It took him 20 years to write his second novel, The Young Guard. Then the family will remember how he often jumped up at night and sat down to write. He wrote and cried, cried over the suffering of his heroes. After publication, all-Union fame and accusations of falsification will fall upon him. But could this lead to suicide?

“Krasnodon does not have any strategic significance, there were no partisans or party members there, and the children did all this at their own peril and risk. And, perhaps, Fadeev was fascinated by such a topic that young people, children, remembered something from their youth. He is also a very early man. He was a delegate to the Tenth Congress, that’s when the Kronstadt rebellion took place. And he suppressed this rebellion, he was wounded. He was such a person. Something was close to him there,” says Nilin.

There really is no extreme accuracy in the novel The Young Guard. And this is still a matter of debate. So what is Fadeev accused of? What exactly did he do wrong? What could have pushed him to take the extreme step? The youth organization existed in the Ukrainian city of Krasnodon for four months, from September 1942 to January 1943. Most of the underground fighters were caught and brutally executed.

Elena Mushkina remembers the effect the appearance of the novel had. They read it avidly. She will even dedicate her thesis to him. And Fadeev’s book was typed by her mother, a typist at a major literary magazine.

“The novel was going off the rails, it had to be done in time, the end of the war was already approaching. It was Stalin who kept his hand on the pulse. And my mother typed like crazy,” recalls publicist Elena Mushkina.

Travel to Krasnodon

Fadeev took up this story after a small note appeared in the newspaper: when the Nazis began to retreat in Ukraine, a Soviet photojournalist ended up in liberated Krasnodon. He witnessed how the dead Young Guard guys were taken out of the mine, where the Nazis threw them while still alive.

“Stalin realized that he couldn’t limit himself to just one. And he called Fadeev and told him: “Find a talented writer and urgently send him on a business trip to Krasnodon,” to which Fadeev said: “I’ll go to Krasnodon myself,” says Elena Mushkina.

For the duration of the war, Fadeev was relieved of his duties as chairman of the Writers' Union. He, along with his other colleagues, works at the front - writes messages for the Sovinformburo. When a writer arrives in Krasnodon, he is accommodated in the house of Elena Kosheva, the mother of one of the Young Guards.

She is considered the most educated in the mining town - she works as a teacher in a kindergarten. This distribution will play a key role in the fate of Fadeev and in the fate of his novel. Elena quickly realizes that her son can become a hero of the country along with Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

The Russian Archive of Socio-Political History stores documents. Koshevaya describes her version of events in detail, almost minute by minute. Access to these folders has only recently been made available to journalists.

“I was writing a diploma, and we tried, my mother told him: “Lena is writing a diploma, but she doesn’t know much, she’s a university graduate, maybe Alexander Alexandrovich, you’ll meet her, tell her something?” At first he: “Okay, okay , there’s no time yet.” But I had a diploma, deadlines. And then he refused. So the meeting never happened. And then we were very offended, my mother was very offended by him: “Shame on him, we’ve been working together for so many years!” But then , when all this was revealed...”, says Elena Mushkina.

Monument to the heroes of the Young Guard in Krasnodon Photo: TASS/Vladimir Voitenko

When everything is revealed, it will become clear why Fadeev avoided communication. He knew back in 1947 that his story was falling apart.

Nikita Petrov discovered this fact in the FSB archives. At one time, he was allowed to access closed files on the Young Guards case. What he managed to find out undermines the very basis of the myth about the underground. So what became an unpleasant discovery and disappointment for Fadeev at one time? What led to depression and then suicide?

“The Soviet regime built such, I would say, reference points for patriotic education. Such examples were needed. And Fadeev in this case was very proud and said that “my novel is built on facts.” And this was his kind of trump card. But this is what began to happen later, it, of course, broke both the framework of the literary narrative and our understanding of what really happened in Krasnodon,” says historian Nikita Petrov.

Based on Fadeev’s novel, the Young Guard members, under conditions of information blockade, secretly listened to the radio and wrote leaflets. The Nazis tore them from the pillars, but the news managed to scatter. And when on November 7, 1942, a red flag began to flutter over the roof of a local school in honor of the October Revolution, it became quite obvious to the enemy that an underground group was operating in the town.

"They did not perform a number of feats that were attributed to the guys. The mine administration, the so-called directorate, in fact, they did not burn it, it was burned by the retreating Soviet troops. The Labor Exchange Administration, where, it would seem, according to the novel, lists of young people who should were sent to Germany to work, they didn’t burn them either, it’s not their merit either. And moreover, Oleg Koshevoy’s mother actually made friends with the Germans, and German officers lived in her apartment,” says Nikita Petrov.

But for years it was believed that it was in the Koshevs’ house that the headquarters of the Young Guards was deployed. Here they gathered secretly in the evenings, and Oleg’s grandmother sold pies on the street and, seeing the Nazis, began to sing ditties, thereby signaling the guys to leave. A pack of cigarettes that will be found in the market of one boy will destroy the Young Guard.

The day before, a German convoy carrying New Year's gifts was robbed. The police walk around angry and wary. They were given orders to look for those who would sell stolen goods at the local bazaar. This is how the brother of one of the underground fighters comes across.

“We were brought up on the images of heroes, we raised patriotism in us and we in our children. That’s where it went from there. But when I graduated from school and entered the history department, my dad said: “Are you sure that everything was as in the novel?” “Well, of course, I was sure. He says: “Look at the documents.” That’s how it went,” says historian Nina Petrova.

Still from the film "Young Guard"

Myths of the Young Guard

Nina Petrova is from those places herself. Her father is the party organizer of the mine, Konstantin Petrov, the same one who made Alexei Stakhanov famous by convincing him to set a record for coal mining. Subsequently, Konstantin became a major party official. He knew firsthand how Soviet propaganda worked and how it crippled people’s lives.

His daughter has been collecting documents about the Young Guard from archives for many years. She is well aware of the details of the biggest Soviet myth. How was he born? And why did Fadeev fall for him so easily?

“This issue of indignation in general began a long time ago, as soon as the novel appeared, we have documents, the first letters appeared, people there simply rebelled, they organized actions of rejection of this material,” says Nina Petrova.

Fadeev, who proudly sent the first copies to Krasnodon, is stunned: Moscow accepts the novel with delight, and the families of the Young Guards, whom he glorified throughout the country, grumble. A doubt crept in that something was wrong here.

But he was already spinning. He is awarded the Stalin Prize. Director Sergei Gerasimov begins filming the film. The capital's theaters stage performances based on the novel one after another. Some heroes are awarded posthumously. It would seem a success. But in moments of depression, which will wash over the writer shortly before death, in helpless despair he will remember something else.

“After all this hell, all the parents of the dead Young Guards were somehow united in their grief. They were all touched by this grief - the execution of their children. And the parents were not aware of the matter, they were semi-literate, it was some kind of village, you know, and then they didn’t even know. It was a conspiracy among the kids. No one from the parents delved into the details, and they were worried together,” explains Elena Mushkina.

“Firstly, they began to have drama, discord - why is your son on the list, it’s not just like a work of art, but at the end, if you remember, he lists the list of those killed, and that’s why your son is on this list too why is there a lot about him in the novel, although I know that he didn’t do anything? And why is my son, my daughter, why aren’t they? And here the question began: is this artistic? Fadeev tried not to even justify himself, but to explain what it is namely a work of art, and that therefore he has the right to some changes. But, you know, change is different," says Elena Mushkina.

Fadeev changed the story, but indicated the real names of the Young Guards. Only a traitor passes under a fictitious name. In the novel he is named Stakhovich, but based on certain biographical facts, readers and relatives quickly guess Viktor Tretyakevich in him.

When the investigation becomes aware that it was he, and not Oleg Koshevoy, who was the leader of the underground organization, it will be too late. The life of his family has already been crippled forever, and passersby literally spit in the faces of Victor’s parents.

“Of course, it is not right for a writer, having collected people’s opinions, to then claim that the novel is based on facts, but in the end, when Fadeev prepared the canonical version of the novel in 1951, he never spoke about facts again. He was very worried, by the way speaking, he initially clung to the original version of the novel, but in a conversation he explained to Ehrenburg that Stalin demanded this, and in this case he obediently carried out his will. This, by the way, ruined Fadeev himself,” says Nikita Petrov.

The scandal surrounding Stalin's favorite

Natalya Ivanova works in the very magazine where Fadeev was published. He is friends with his family. The son of a famous writer avoids communicating with the press. In literary circles they know what it cost Mikhail to forget that terrible day when his father passed away. As a journalist, Natalya is also aware of the scandal that erupted around Stalin’s favorite.

“As it turns out, at that moment Stalin didn’t read The Young Guard, he didn’t have time. And Fadeev was awarded the Stalin Prize. Stalin watched the movie, and after he watched the film, the first version, he really didn’t like the fact that The role of the party is not reflected there in any way, that Komsomol members act there on their own.

Almost the next week after this viewing, a large article appeared in the Pravda newspaper, and this was 1949, which severely criticized the film and the novel precisely because of the lack of a guiding, inspiring, organizing role of the Communist Party in the underground of the city of Krasnodon,” - says Natalya Ivanova.

Fadeev takes on the second edition of the novel. In conversations with friends, he admits: “I’m remaking the Young Guard into the old one.” Gerasimov has to finish filming the film. It turns out that the writer added so many scenes with party members that the film turned out to be a two-part film. Episodes with the traitor are shortened, and his name is re-voiced.

By that time, researchers believe that another Young Guard member surrendered to the underground. The low-profile role of Stakhovich is played by actor Yevgeny Morgunov, who would later become the star of Gaidaev’s films. And he will be the only young artist who will not receive an award for this film.

Film critic Kirill Razlogov notes that Gerasimov’s propaganda based on Fadeev’s novel still has artistic value. The State Film Fund is now trying to restore the first version of the film.

“In 1948, a picture was released that already corresponded to the second version of the novel and corresponded to what Stalin demanded. Since then there was a period of little film, there were almost no films, and it is natural that a picture on such a theme would be a national and national sensation, which it became But, in addition, it was a meeting of very young, very talented people, some were older, like Sergei Bondarchuk, and Nona Mordyukova, Slava Tikhonov, this generation came straight from VGIK,” says Kirill Razlogov.

The scene of the massacre of the Young Guard is the most terrible in the film. It was filmed at the same place where everything happened, just a couple of years after the execution. Thousands of people, friends and relatives of the victims, came to the mine. When the actor who played the role of Oleg Koshevoy delivered his monologue, the parents lost consciousness. For a long time it was believed that the organization consisted of about a hundred people. Most were caught and died.

Nina Petrova recently discovered the first list of Young Guards, which was compiled immediately after the liberation of Krasnodon. There are 52 names here. Fadeev is unlikely to have seen this document. This would be contrary to party propaganda and would reduce the scale of the tragedy. By the way, Kosheva’s surname is listed along with everyone else.

“I want to say that Koshevaya is very interesting. Nikolaevna told Fadeev a lot, she was a bright, colorful woman, he was carried away by her, came there twice, stayed in the apartment twice. She shared what she knew. And what did she know? For participation in the underground She was introduced to the young organization, awarded, and the grandmother was also awarded the corresponding government award.

Why was the grandmother introduced? The motivation was that she was an active member of the Young Guard, and that she notified the underground organization of impending arrests. She didn't do anything, she didn't notify anyone. And the first to leave the underground organization were Oleg Koshevoy, Valeria Borts, the Ivantsovs, and the rest escaped as best they could,” says Nina Petrova.

Unknown facts

Documents of captain of the Soviet Army Vladimir Tretyakevich, brother of Victor, the same one whom Fadeev identified as a traitor in the novel. At first, Vladimir tries to justify Victor, collecting signatures and stories in his favor. But in the end, many, under pressure from party officials, will retract their words. Vladimir himself will have to do the same under the threat of a tribunal.

Years later, in the mid-60s, the chief researcher at the Institute of History, Georgy Kumanev, as part of a special commission from Moscow, went to Krasnodon. He will find there temporary Komsomol tickets signed by Tretyakevich, and from the local KGB officers he will learn the real story of his death.

“Everyone who was arrested in Krasnodon or in its area was taken to the pit of the mine. The deepest abyss. Their hands were tied behind them with barbed wire or just wire. Among them was a German officer who decided to see what it was there.

He approached this cliff and began to look there. Viktor Tretyakevich noticed this, rushed at him with his hands bandaged behind him and pushed him there. But he, falling, managed to grab onto some kind of hook, or something sticking out.

They ran and pulled him out, and Tretyakevich was the first to be pushed there, and a trolley with stones, coal and other things was overturned on him,” says Georgy Kumanev, head of the Center for Military History of Russia at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Did Fadeev know about this? When he reworks the novel, he will only add episodes with party workers. The main line will not change. All attempts by the residents of Krasnodon to break through to the author, to convey what he is wrong about, will not be crowned with success.

The Kosheva will slam the door in front of each visitor with the words: “Don’t disturb, the writer is working!” But shortly before his death, he will answer several letters from the parents of the Young Guard, as if dotting the i’s before his departure.

“In the first edition of the novel, Fadeev wrote that Lida Androsova’s diary got to the Germans, and it was from this diary that they were able to find the entire organization. And when her mother read it, she wrote a letter to which he did not even respond.

She, illiterate, wrote a letter: “You didn’t even ask us about our daughter. We were so happy that such a writer came to us, but what we read, maybe someone told you something bad about us. And The diary was kept in the Kizikova family."

He replied: “Yes, I know that the Germans did not have the diary, because it is now on my table, I used it when I was working on the novel, and I will return it to you. But I deliberately decided to exaggerate and I came up with this idea so that your daughter’s bright role in this organization would be more visible,” says Elena Mushkina.

The writer will later be told how a group of comrades from Moscow came to Krasnodon to calm the rebellious city. People in civilian clothes entered houses and advised residents to adhere to Fadeev’s interpretation of events. Those who did not have the novel were given their own copies. By the time a full-scale investigation begins, former Young Guard members and relatives of the victims will begin to testify as if it were written.

“That is, they begin to believe in this or it is more convenient for them to believe in what the author attributed to them. But that was not so bad. If we look at those who dealt with the young guys based on the materials of the criminal case, we will see that, in general, - as an organization, this is how Fadeev described it, none of this happened.

Yes, there were young people, they listened to the radio, someone distributed leaflets, someone wrote something, someone finally robbed a car with Christmas gifts, which is actually why the story began to unfold. But the police gave this story a slightly different sound,” says historian Nikita Petrov.

Was there a "Young Guard"?

The police gave it a different sound to embellish their work. It’s one thing to catch a lone thief, another thing to uncover the conspirators fighting against the Hitler regime. Fadeev was informed in 1947 that doubts were emerging about the existence of the Young Guard organization.

This happens after the Minister of State Security Abakumov is reported on the testimony of the arrested policemen. They don’t understand why they are being tortured. They only remember executed young people who were caught in company with a thief of New Year's gifts and one blond guy who turned gray from their beatings.

He was found during a routine search of a house on the outskirts of Krasnodon, dressed in a woman’s dress. He immediately said that he was an underground worker, but they remembered him because he did not turn away during the execution. The policeman didn’t even forget his last name - Koshevoy.

“19 people were arrested, including two Germans, and this process must be done without fail. But Abakumov already had one clear idea. What became clear both during the investigation and in the process of collecting materials? Firstly, a number of feats that were attributed to the guys , they did not commit. That is, it turned out that in general these facts could not be heard at an open trial.

But Abakumov made a very important note. He left all these facts outside the investigation and there will be no talk about this at the open trial. That is, no contradictions with the novel will be made public,” says Nikita Petrov.

Abakumov’s note, which he sends to Stalin, worries Fadeev. But it had no consequences for the writer’s career. So what was really behind his suicide?

“A work of art does not have as its task the exact embodiment of any realities. This is the task of historians, the task of scientists who can really change their points of view under the influence of new archival documents and republish their works with references to the fact that they previously thought so, now they think so. If you subject the novel “War and Peace” or the novel “Young Guard” to such processing, you get quite a lot of absurdities,” says Kirill Razlogov.

Fadeev also understood that without him no one would have known about the organization. And perhaps this thought consoled him in difficult times. There were many such underground groups throughout the country, some of them consisted of up to a thousand people, and all of them died.

“Then he drank shamelessly, and this greatly influenced him. But to say that it seems difficult, he was forced to rewrite this historical novel twice, and he went and was unable to withstand all these wishes to redo everything and so on, all this writing of his, he shot himself. Apparently, there were some other reasons, but I named one reason," says Georgy Kumanev.

Another reason could indeed be alcoholism. Fadeev always drank, had a weakness for alcohol, and then he simply began to disappear into the local shalman, as the pub was called in Peredelkino. But still, the writer’s friends did not agree, which ruined his addiction to alcohol. Three months before his death, he did not drink at all. So what was happening to him?

“He loved a wide lifestyle, he could wander from Peredelkin in such a state, a drunken state, to Vnukov, and, in general, this sometimes lasted three weeks. According to legend, Stalin once asked Fadeev, and Fadeev was not there for the next once. And he asked what was happening to him. They told him that he had this kind of illness, he was on a drinking binge. Stalin asked: “How long has this been going on for him?” - “Three weeks, Joseph Vissarionovich.” - “Isn’t it possible?” ask comrade Fadeev to let this last two weeks, no more?” says Natalya Ivanova.

Why did the writer Fadeev shoot himself?

Fedor Razzakov is getting ready to work. Before starting to write the biography of his next hero, he listens to the music of that era. What he managed to find out about Fadeev is enough for a book. The life of the author of The Young Guard, despite the laurels and favor of the leader of the peoples, is a continuous drama. Having become a high-flying bird, he could no longer write. Even before the fatal shot was fired, he committed literary suicide.

“For Stalin, apparently, this duality in Fadeev’s character caused such irony, but, in general, he treated him with respect, otherwise he would not have kept him in the secretary post for so long. This is a rather responsible position, because it’s just So Stalin would not have appointed him to such a responsible position, because he represented not only Soviet writers within the country, he also began to travel abroad after the war,” says writer Fyodor Razzakov.

Stalin's location means a lot to Fadeev. When the Secretary General died in 1953, it would become a personal tragedy for the writer. Afterwards, at the 20th Party Congress, the cult of personality of the leader will be exposed. It’s as if the ground will disappear from under Fadeev’s feet. The ideals he had believed in all his life would crumble. In three months, he himself will be gone.

“Now such things are called a project. So I believe that Comrade Stalin had the best ideological project to make Fadeev the writer’s minister. Not a single person in this post was loved so much, although he may have brought more harm than subsequent ministers.

But subsequent ministers were not such interesting people. Fadeev himself is much more interesting than what he wrote. Someone might have been expelled, and he was in favor, and then he could give him money. Everyone understood that he was fulfilling some kind of higher will,” says Alexander Nilin.

At the same 20th Party Congress, which will take place in February 1956, Fadeev will also be openly accused from the rostrum of repressing writers. By this time, many of them, arrested in 1937, will have already been rehabilitated. Soon, in his absence, the Minister of Writers will be removed from his post as Chairman of the Board of the Union of Writers of the USSR.

“He was removed precisely for this, because he was a man who expressed this time. Not Stalin’s alter ego, this is too loudly said, but, nevertheless, when Khrushchev came to power, who could not replace the entire composition of that time, but in literature, it seemed to him that here he would displace Fadeev, and something, they say, would change. And he, in general, missed the mark, and this ruined Fadeev. Suddenly, in this new time, he did not see a use for himself, "says Nilin.

Fadeev no longer has influence. His idol was gone. His colleagues turn away from him, and, in fact, his whole life goes downhill. Writers who only yesterday were loyal to Stalin are beginning to publicly condemn the former leader of the peoples. They re-publish their books, erasing his name. Directors hastily re-edit their films, cutting out all the footage of the Generalissimo.

“The majority renounced Stalin. Fadeev was not one of this number, he would never have considered himself one of them, so they started hitting him, from the point of view of knocking the foundation out from under him. Some kind of compromising story had to be invented, to knock out Fadeev.

And therefore, in my opinion, this whole story with the trip there, raising this case, with betrayal and so on - because this is the only thing that could be seriously presented to Fadeev in his novel - is that he unfairly slandered an honest man Tretyakevich ", says Fedor Razzakov.

Death message

He leaves for Peredelkino. Stops communicating with friends. At the same time, his mother dies. Once Fadeev admits that he loved and feared two people - his mother and Stalin.

“This is all exactly what led him to suicide. People who meant something to him left, and the general environment left with them. There was no family life as such at that time either, because the actress Angelina Stepanova, he wrote wonderful things about her, a good wife and so on, but she did not become his friend or comrade.

Then he had a mistress, whom he fell in love with deeply, but she lived with Kataev and did not want to leave him. That is, there were no people or any events that could have delayed him in this life at that time, in 1956, in the month of May, when he decided to commit suicide,” says Razzakov.

On top of everything else, he felt that he had disappeared as a writer. The novel “Ferrous Metallurgy,” which he began writing at the request of the party during Stalin’s lifetime, did not go well at all, and then turned out to be of no use to anyone.

“He never finished it. Suddenly, after Stalin’s death, it became clear that this was all fake, in modern terms, that these were all some kind of exaggerated and completely incomprehensible achievements. And, in the end, in 1956 he left a suicide note , which, in general, reveals everything to us,” says Nikita Petrov.

It turns out there are several reasons for his depression. And he decides to take a desperate step, even realizing that he is leaving behind his little son who adored him, who will remember that he has never seen his father drunk. He apparently tried to stay in front of him. The child did not understand why the newspapers wrote about his father’s alcoholism. He had no idea about his suicide letter. But Fadeev still tried to explain his action to those around him.

“Indeed, he had not drunk for several months before, and I think that this was an attempt to discredit Fadeev, of course. But the letter that he left, it was hidden, I think, solely out of short-sightedness and, dare I say, the narrow-mindedness of our authorities. Therefore that the letter is absolutely in the spirit of the 20th Congress, in the spirit of Khrushchev’s changes, that our literature was ruined by the wrong instructions of the party.

Returning to Fadeev’s contradictions, if he really understood and realized all this, in fact, he killed himself because he thought, and he was right in this, that he was such a switchman, to put it mildly, of this government, that he was used in all of this that he actually ruined himself as a writer completely in vain,” says Natalya Ivanova.

In his suicide letter there are no such murderous words that would reflect his condition. It is even more strange that the note was made public only 35 years later.

“He could not have had repentance. There could have been grief that he had reached a dead end, that he had neither one nor the other, and seemed to have no strength and no new ideas - yes, I believe that. And that he repented... Firstly , and to whom was he guilty? That he endorsed the lists? But they wouldn’t have arrested him? Was he in the KGB, or something? Well, it was supposed that another organization was approving. Therefore, this is really depression, really a logical dead end," - says Alexander Nilin.

Quote from Fadeev’s suicide letter, which was made public only in 1990: “My life as a writer is losing all meaning. And with great joy, as a deliverance from this vile existence, where meanness, lies, slander fall upon you, I am leaving this life "The last hope was to at least say this to the people who rule the state, but for the past three years, despite my requests, they cannot even accept me."

“And this will always worry. The books will be forgotten, but this story will always be interesting, why, how, what he thought. How my friend had a physical education teacher at school, and he asked him: “Listen, why did Fadeev shoot himself?” The guy was from a literary family, he says: “Well, I don’t know.” “What about his apartment there, was it normal?” He didn’t imagine any big difficulties, there wasn’t an apartment. But in general, there’s something about it there is. He was restless at that moment. There was an apartment, and there was a dacha, but he couldn’t find any place for himself in this situation,” says Nilin.

The story of Alexander Fadeev is similar to the American dream. A talented boy who came to conquer the capital from the Far East. He achieved fame, wealth and friendship with those in power. But one day he had to pay for it. Fadeev became a victim of the system he canonized. And as soon as he turned out to be objectionable, this system destroyed him as a writer and as a person.

MY COMMENT

It is very interesting to read works of that time.
What is written there is not at all what you think, but what actually happened in a generalized artistic form. An aesthetic illusion of reality, sometimes quite virtual.
If censorship and propaganda have worked in a work, these artifacts are easily recognized and reality can be easily restored from them.

The Krasnodonsky district of the Voroshilovgrad region of the Ukrainian SSR was occupied by the Germans, Romanians and Italians from July 1942 to February 1943. Before the war, about 80,000 miners lived here (20,000 of them in Krasnodon itself) and collective farmers; not all of them were able to evacuate. Those dissatisfied with the “New Order” were dragged to the police, tortured, and killed. According to the ChGK, 242 people were killed, 3,471 were taken to Germany, and 532 were missing. In Krasnodon, on September 28, 1942, the Nazis buried 32 miners alive in a park for refusing to work for the invaders, for participating in extermination squads and partisan activities. The very next day, the underground organization “Young Guard” was created (it included individual resistance groups and newcomers), so about a hundred boys and girls from 14 to 25 years old decided to take revenge on the occupiers. Their actions attracted the attention of the Germans, but the reasons for their failure remain a mystery to this day. According to the version of the Krasnodon trial, the traitor Pocheptsov reported to the police, and in January 1943, most of the members of the underground, after terrible torture, were shot at the pit, all the wounded and killed were thrown into the mine.

Much has been written and filmed about the struggle and death of the Young Guard. Little is known about their killers, who were tried in four trials. About 70 people took part in the interrogations, torture and executions of the Young Guard: Germans from the field commandant’s office and Soviet traitors from the auxiliary police (their role in the atrocities was the main one). In hot pursuit, only three of those involved were caught.

Member of the “Young Guard” G. Pocheptsov was afraid of arrest and decided to write a denunciation - on the advice of his experienced stepfather V. Gromov (a secret German informant under the nickname “Vanyusha”). Their testimony was accepted by senior police investigator M. Kuleshov, who also participated in the interrogation of the Young Guards through torture (as Voroshilovgradskaya Pravda wrote: “With the hatred of the Soviet regime and our people inherent in a seasoned enemy, Kuleshov was especially furious while conducting an investigation into the case.” Young Guard." On his instructions, "impressive" interrogations of the Young Guard were carried out." In an effort to whitewash themselves, the traitors blamed the Young Guard commissar V. Tretyakovich, allegedly he could not stand the torture (gouging out eyes, etc.) and told everything.

The investigation into the case of the traitors lasted five months - confrontations, testimony of witnesses. The Krasnodon trial itself lasted three days, August 15-18, but not all sessions were open. Residents of Krasnodon came as spectators and acted as witnesses, appealed, appealed to the court with a request to impose a harsh sentence. The military tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovgrad region tried without a defense, the materials of the trial were not published, local newspapers wrote about it only after the fact and in general terms. Kuleshov, Pocheptsov and Gromov were shot in public; about 5,000 residents of Krasnodon were present.

Unfortunately, the commission of the Komsomol Central Committee believed the slander of traitors and the name of the innocent V. Tretyakevich (whose eyes were even gouged out during torture) was crossed out from award sheets and newspapers, this suspicion was reinforced by A. Fadeev in the novel “The Young Guard”, portraying him as a traitor Stakhovich. The hero was rehabilitated only in 1959.

After the war, 13 executioners were found, including the initiator of the execution, gendarmerie captain E. Renatus. Minister of State Security V. Abakumov planned to hold an open trial against them in Krasnodon from December 1 to 10, 1947, in the wake of other trials. To do this, on November 18, 1947, he sent memo No. 3428/A to I. Stalin, V. Molotov and Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. Kuznetsov. Their reaction is unknown, but the process took place in a closed manner. The sentence for the murderers turned out to be lighter than for the traitors: from 15 to 25 years in the camps (after Stalin’s death, German war criminals were sent home). All materials were secret, even for the relatives of the dead Young Guards.

Other executioners skillfully disguised themselves. Policeman V. Podtynny fled from Krasnodon with the Wehrmacht, corrected his passport data, ended up in the Red Army, had a combat wound and awards. After the war, he returned to Donbass, started a family, became chairman of the village council and a member of the CPSU. In 1959, a fellow countryman recognized Podtynny - he was arrested. A year later, he was openly tried in Lugansk and sentenced to death.

Policeman I. Melnikov personally gouged out the eyes of the Young Guard. He also forged documents, fought in the Red Army, and received the medal “For Courage.” Then he hid on a collective farm in the Odessa region. Found, convicted at an open trial in Krasnodon on December 14-16, 1965, shot in 1966.

Some executioners were never found. For example, police chief V. Solikovsky hid in Austria and Germany, lived in New York until 1967, then moved to the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where he died in the 1970s.

Only a small part of the court materials from 1943-1965. was published. Perhaps this is why the story of the Young Guard is still controversial. In Ukraine, things have reached the incredible - since the 1990s, there has been a version that the “Young Guard” was a “national communist” cell of the OUN that hated Hitler and Stalin! OUN member E. Stakhiv called himself in interviews and books the same Stakhovich from A. Fadeev’s “Young Guard”. All this directly contradicts the facts.

Testimony about torture

Source: Glazunov G. It was in Krasnodon / Inevitable retribution. M.: Voenizdat, 1979 .

<…>Alexandra Vasilievna Tyulenina told in court how the police mocked her:

“Two days after my arrest, on Zakharov’s orders, the police undressed me and laid me face down on the floor. They began to beat me with whips. They beat me for a long time. At this time someone said: “Bring him here, now he will tell everything.” My son Sergei was brought into the room. His face was bruised. I was asked about partisans and weapons. I replied that I knew nothing about the partisans, and there were no weapons in our house and there were never any. After such an answer, they began to torture their son. One of the gendarmes put Sergei’s fingers in the door frame and began to close it. A hot rod was threaded through the gunshot wound on the son's arm. Needles were driven under the nails. Then they hung him on ropes. They beat me again, after which they poured water on me... I repeatedly lost consciousness.

According to Maria Andreevna Borts, on January 1, 1943, gendarmes raided their apartment, and policeman Zakharov demanded that Maria Andreevna tell where her daughter Valya was hiding and with whom she left. Having received a negative answer, he turned white with anger. His small, quickly moving eyes were bloodshot. Zakharov pulled out a revolver, brought it closer to the woman’s face and, pushing her with his foot, shouted: “I’ll shoot you, you bastard!” After a search of the apartment, Maria Andreevna was taken to the police as a hostage, searched, and filled out a form. Then they took him to Solikovsky for interrogation. On the table in front of him lay a set of whips: thick, thin, wide, with lead tips. Vanya Zemnukhov, mutilated beyond recognition, stood by the sofa, with inflamed red eyes and bruises on his face. His clothes were covered in blood. There were red pools of blood on the floor next to him. Solikovsky, a tall man with a strong build, sluggishly rose from the table. A black hat is pulled down over his forehead. The voice is authoritative and loud. He asked: “Where is my daughter?” Bortz replied that she knew nothing. Then he shouted: “And you also don’t know anything about grenades and mail?” - and began to hit her in the face with terrible force. Davidenko, who was standing right there, jumped up to Maria Andreevna and also began beating her. Barely able to stand, she was thrown into a cell located opposite Solikovsky’s office. With bated breath, she listened to the screams and moans coming from the office, the terrible swearing and the clanging of iron. Policemen were running along the corridor. They dragged one victim after another for interrogation. This continued until the morning.

—Which of the Young Guards were you in the cell with? - the presiding officer asked Maria Andreevna.

She replied that she was with Lyuba Shevtsova, Ulyana Gromova, Shura Bondareva, Tonya Ivanikhina (Lilia Ivanikhina’s sister), Nina Minaeva, Klavdiya Kovaleva and Tosya Mashchenko. The girls were repeatedly tortured by the police; they were brought out of interrogations half-dead. They suffered not only physical suffering. Ulyana Gromova said that it was easier to endure physical pain than the humiliation to which the executioners subjected her. The girls were stripped naked and mocked. Solikovsky’s wife was sometimes here, who usually sat on the sofa and burst into laughter.

Letter from parents of Young Guard members to the military tribunal

Source: Journal “Socialist Legality”, No. 3, 1959, P. 60. Cited. by: Young Guard. Documents, memories / comp. V.N. Borovikova, I.I. Grigorenko, V.I. Potapov. Donetsk: Publishing House "Donbass", 1969.

August 1943.

COMRADES JUDGES OF THE MILITARY TRIBUNAL!

You are now examining, during a judicial investigation, the facts of crimes committed by a group of traitors to our Motherland.

We, the parents of our children who died at the hands of the fascist executioners and their accomplices, who are currently sitting in the dock, cannot listen without shuddering when these fascist scoundrels tell you how they, with the cold-blooded hand of brutal executioners, killed our children who gave their lives for our Motherland, for liberation from the fascist hordes. These fascist mercenaries did not escape the hands of Soviet justice.

We, the parents of our dead children, add our voice of revenge to the damned executioners and ask the tribunal to pass a severe sentence on these scoundrels and carry out the death penalty in the square so that all the people of Krasnodon can see that these scoundrels got what they deserved.

And let those fascist henchmen who are hiding somewhere, see what kind of retribution awaits those who betray our Soviet Motherland and its people.

Source: Koshevaya E. The Tale of a Son. M, 1947.

Article in a regional newspaper about the trial

Source: Newspaper “Voroshilovgradskaya Pravda”, No. 136 (8275), August 29, 1943. Quoted. by: Young Guard. Documents, memories / comp. V.N. Borovikova, I.I. Grigorenko, V.I. Potapov. Donetsk: Publishing House "Donbass", 1969.

COURT OF THE PEOPLE

Krasnodon. The other day, the trial of traitors to the Motherland, vile Judases who betrayed many members of the underground Komsomol youth organization “Young Guard”, ended here. Members of the Young Guard organization, whose work was repeatedly written about by Voroshilovgradskaya Pravda, waged a tireless struggle against the Nazi invaders and their accomplices during the occupation of the region. Young patriots wrote and distributed leaflets that exposed false fascist propaganda, accepted messages from the Soviet Information Bureau about military operations on the fronts of the Patriotic War, and brought the Bolshevik truth to the people who temporarily fell under the yoke of Hitler’s thugs. Detachments of the “Young Guard” physically destroyed soldiers and officers of the German army and their accomplices - traitors to the Motherland.

Temporary Komsomol card issued to a member of the underground organization “Young Guard”

Is it a myth or reality on the pages of the history of the Soviet Union? Many still believe that this is a fiction. But unfortunately, this whole story is the true and bitter truth. February...

Is it a myth or reality on the pages of the history of the Soviet Union? Many still believe that this is a fiction. But unfortunately, this whole story is the true and bitter truth.

February 1943 liberation of the town of Krasnodon, Donetsk region, from the German occupiers. Soviet soldiers retrieved dozens of brutally mutilated bodies from mine No. 5 near the village. These were the bodies of teenagers from a local town who, while in the occupied territory, were active participants in the illegal association “Young Guard”. Near the forgotten mine, most of the members of the illegal Komsomol organization “Young Guard” saw sunlight for the last time. They were killed.

Young Komsomol members, starting in 1942, resisted the fascists in the small town of Krasnodon, which is located on the territory of Ukraine. Previously, there was very little information about such organizations. And “Young Guard” is the first youth society about which we managed to find a lot of detailed data. The Young Guards, as they were called from now on, were true patriots who, at the cost of their lives, fought for the freedom of their homeland. Just recently, everyone knew about these guys without exception.

The feat of these guys is captured in the book by A. Fadeev, in the film by S. Gerasimov, ships, schools, pioneer detachments, and so on were named in their honor. Who are these heroic guys?

The Komsomol youth organization of Krasnodon included 71 participants: 47 of them were boys and 24 girls. The youngest of them was 14 years old, and most of them never celebrated their nineteenth birthday. These were simple guys of their country, they were characterized by the most ordinary human feelings, they lived the most ordinary life of a Soviet person.

The organization did not know national boundaries, they did not divide into their own and not very much. Each of them was ready to come to the aid of the other even at the cost of his life.

The capture of Krasnodon took place on July 20, 1942. The Germans immediately encountered partisan activity. Sergei Tyulenin, a seventeen-year-old boy, began the underground struggle alone. Sergei was the first to unite young people to fight the Germans.

At the beginning there were only 8 of them. September 30 became the day from which the date of creation of the organization should be considered. A project for the formation of a society was established, certain actions were planned, and a headquarters was founded. Everyone unanimously agreed to name the organization “Young Guard”.

Already in October, small autonomous illegal groups united into one organization. Ivan Zemnukhov was appointed chief of staff, Vasily Levashov - commander of the central group, Georgy Arutyunyants and Sergey Tyulenin became members of the headquarters. Viktor Tretyakevich was elected commissioner.

Today you can often hear that these guys did absolutely nothing heroic. Leaflets, collecting weapons, arson - all this did not solve anything in the fight against the fascists. But those who say this don’t know what it’s like to first print leaflets, and then go paste them in the night, when for this they can be shot on the spot, or carry a couple of grenades in a bag, for which death is also inevitable. They set fires, hung red flags, freed prisoners, and took away livestock. The guys did all this clearly realizing that any of these actions would result in death.

Alas, December was marked by the first infighting. It was because of them that in the future Oleg Koshevoy was considered the commissar of the Young Guards. And this happened because Koshevoy wanted one and a half to two dozen people to be singled out from among the members of the underground who would act autonomously from everyone else, and Koshevoy himself would be their commissar. He was not supported. But Koshevoy did not calm down and signed temporary Komsomol cards for the newly admitted guys, instead of Tretyakevich.

On the very first day of 1943, E. Moshkov, V. Tretyakevich and I. Zemnukhov were arrested. The remaining members of the underground, having learned about the arrest, decided to leave the city. But the notorious human factor. One of the Young Guards, G. Pocheptsov, having heard about the arrests, behaved like a coward and made a denunciation to the police about the underground.

The punitive forces are on the move. Arrests followed one after another. Many of those who were not arrested were hesitant to leave the city. In fact, they violated the decision of the headquarters to leave Krasnodon. Only 12 guys took the plunge and disappeared. However, this did not save Tyulenin and Koshevoy; they were captured anyway.

Mass monstrous and inhuman torture of captured Young Guards began. The fascists, having learned that Tretyakevich was the leader of the Young Guard, tortured him with particular cruelty; they needed his testimony, but this did not help. They spread gossip around the city that Victor had told everything. Everyone who knew him did not believe it.

On January 15, 1943, the first Young Guards were executed, including Tretyakevich. They were thrown into an old mine.

January 31 - the third group was shot. Allegedly, A. Kovalev was lucky enough to escape, but then there was no information about him.

Only four of the underground guys remained, among them Koshevoy. On February 9 in Rovenki they were killed and shot.

On February 14, soldiers of the Soviet Union army came to the city. From now on, February 17 will forever be mournful and filled with grief. On this day, the bodies of the Young Guards were taken out. A monument was erected at the grave with the names of those killed; Tretyakevich’s name is not on it. His mother spent the rest of her life in mourning. Many refused to believe in the betrayal of the head of the organization, but the commission did not confirm her innocence.

After 16 years, it was possible to detain the most brutal executioner; it was he who subjected the young guys, V. Podtynny, to sophisticated torture. During interrogations they finally found out that Tretyakevich had been slandered.

It took 17 long years for his good name to be restored, to be rewarded, his mother waited until her son’s name was cleared. As a result, the label of a traitor was removed from V. Tretyakevich, but the title of commissar was not returned and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, like the others, was not awarded.

The fourth myth is based on the fact that Alexander Fadeev was not the first historiographer of the Young Guard, but “stole” this patriotically beneficial topic from others... Alexander Alexandrovich never hid the fact that he was far from the first in discovering the truth about the Young Guard . It has already been noted that the first information about the feat and tragedy of the Young Guard became known after an article in the front-line newspaper of the Southwestern Front. Unfortunately, some “historians” boldly, and nothing more, clarify that the first notes appeared in the newspaper of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, apparently forgetting that this front itself appeared only in October 1943...

And regarding Fadeev’s creativity on the “given topic” it is worth revealing some secret, as if it were a simply forgotten secret. After the first publication in the army newspaper of the front “Son of the Fatherland,” slightly more expanded information about the Young Guards was published by the newspaper of the Voroshilovgrad regional committee of the CPSU (b) of Ukraine “Voroshilovgradskaya Pravda,” which had just begun publishing. But she also did not give a complete and accurate answer to the question - what kind of organization “Young Guard” was it?

And only two months later, the war correspondents of Komsomolskaya Pravda provided more or less complete material showing the advancing Soviet troops how heroically the Soviet Komsomol youth underground fought during the occupation. These correspondents were Vladimir Georgievich Lyaskovsky and Mikhail Ivanovich Kotov. But their touch on the history of the Young Guard was far from accidental. Front-line fate, even before the occupation of Krasnodon, brought two military officers to a modest house on Sadovaya Street, 10, where the Koshevys lived.

In the few days they spent in the city, they managed to make friends with the son of the owner of the house, Oleg, and his friends - Ulyana Gromova, Lyuba Shevtsova, Ivan Zemnukhov and, of course, the charming owner of the house - Oleg's mother Elena Nikolaevna Kosheva. It was then that they learned from the young guys that there would be no quiet life for the invaders in Krasnodon. That is why Lyaskovsky and Kotov could not help but arrive in Krasnodon when, in February 1943, an army newspaper caught their eye. Front-line correspondents, who had seen a lot, personally took part in raising the bodies of dead patriots from the pit of the mine. And soon their long essay appeared in Komsomolskaya Pravda, from which the whole country learned about the Young Guard. It was after this that Alexander Fadeev received the “Stalinist task” to write a novel about the Young Guards, work on which the venerable writer began with a trip to Krasnodon, where, on the advice of Lyaskovsky and Kotov, he settled in a house on Sadovaya Street. In the meantime, Fadeev was working on a fiction book, front-line journalists prepared a documentary and journalistic story about young underground heroes, “Hearts of the Brave,” published in 1944 as a separate book.

Fifth myth, the most widespread and constantly “sprayed” with all sorts of rumors, is based on the fact that in “Brave Hearts” and in the novel “The Young Guard” (first and second editions) there are many historical inaccuracies, errors, distortions and insults addressed to the underground, due to why real heroes (like Viktor Tretyakevich) were called traitors. Unfortunately, this myth has a certain basis, but only to a small extent.

Both Lyaskovsky and Kotov, and Fadeev wrote their works in a hurry, this was the real need, so they had no time to double-check or additionally study the facts carried out by the surviving underground workers. The correspondents and Fadeev, unfortunately, made tragic mistakes. In the documentary-historical story “Hearts of the Brave,” Olga Lyadskaya, a Gestapo agent with the nickname “Tit,” was named a traitor. The book contains these lines: “Lyadskaya was detained when she wanted to become a waitress in the canteen of a military unit. She had in her hands a Komsomol card and a certificate stating that she, Ldyaskaya, had languished in the dungeons of the Gestapo for a month. “Tit” posed as a “victim of German terror” and, breaking her fingers, spoke of how she was “tortured and beaten” in a dark cell in the Krasnodon prison. During interrogation by the investigator, Lyadskaya confessed to all her crimes. The miners cursed her name..." But most of all the criticism was caused by the name of the traitor Stakhevich in the novel by Alexander Fadeev. Viktor Tretyakevich was brought out under Stakhevich, unfairly called a traitor by some of the surviving underground fighters, which led to such a terrible accusatory plot in the novel. Also, the mark of traitors until 1959 hung on both Zinaida Vyrikova and Sima Polyanskaya. And only after sixteen long years they were all rehabilitated, although the names of the real traitors Gennady Pocheptsov, Vasily Gromov and Mikhail Kuleshov were known back in September 1943...

Other untruths caused no less criticism. For example, the description in “Brave Hearts” that the body of Oleg Koshevoy was discovered in the Krasnodon prison, although it later became known that he and part of the underground were shot in the Thunderous Forest. Or the introduction in the new edition of the novel “The Young Guard” of the image of the main underground fighter Krasnodon and the mentor of the youth underground - the communist Lyutikov Philip Petrovich.

Philip Petrovich Lyutikov

Regarding the veracity of the story, it is worth saying that Lyutikov’s personality is real, just as his activities in the communist underground of Krasnodon and his death together with the Young Guards in the pit are real. And the fact that in the new edition of the novel Alexander Fadeev was “persuaded” to insert a plot about the party leadership is more related to the history of that time than to the activities of the “Young Guard” and F.P. Lyutikova.

The book “Hearts of the Brave” is also criticized for the fact that it falsely indicates the arrest of Oleg Koshevoy - “Soon the city learned about the fate of Oleg Koshevoy. The relative with whom he hid on a farm turned out to be a traitor and handed Oleg over to the Gestapo,” although in reality Oleg, with a pistol and a Komsomol card, was arrested while trying to cross the front line. There are other errors in the stories and novels. But…

The sources of all the recorded, all the most varied information taken as the basis for writing the story and books were fresh memories and stories of relatives, classmates, teachers and, of course, surviving members of the underground. And, perhaps, this tragic burden turned out to be the heaviest for them, since their relatives and comrades died, and they were all looking for the one who betrayed them, not believing that only the denunciations of Pocheptsov and Gromov (the namesake of Ulyana Gromova’s family) and the punitive the work of the head of the criminal police Kuleshov “stopped” the hearts of the brave...

Sixth myth is connected with the fact that, supposedly, everyone involved in the initial disclosure of the activities of the Young Guard became enemies of each other. It is based on the fact that the pioneers of the “Young Guard” were offended by Alexander Fadeev for the rest of their lives, criticized him for numerous mistakes (although they themselves made them), which allegedly ultimately led to the tragic end of the venerable Soviet writer.

On the one hand, of course, there could be no personal offense, because there was a specific “pointer” from Stalin that the heroism of the “Young Guard” should be described by a famous Soviet writer with a name and significant works. On the other hand, when the choice fell on Fadeev, Lyaskovsky and Kotov were “strongly recommended” not only to give all their work to Fadeev and all the addresses of the relatives of the underground workers, but also to provide all possible assistance in working on the novel. Vladimir Lyaskovsky, for example, unequivocally refused such an offer and moved on along front-line roads. After the war he returned to his native Odessa, where he continued his writing and journalistic work. In Odessa, everyone loved him for his sharp words, his wonderful essays and stories, and his appropriate humor. By the way, he was one of the few journalists and writers who made three ocean voyages on a whaling flotilla. Vladimir Georgievich died in his native Odessa on May 28, 2002.

The fate of the second discoverer of the Young Guard, Mikhail Ivanovich Kotov, turned out quite differently, who accepted the offer to assist the “master” in writing the novel and became Alexander Fadeev’s full-time assistant. After the publication of the novel and film, Mikhail Kotov becomes the permanent executive secretary of the Soviet Peace Committee (until his death in 1995).

However, it was precisely at the initial stage of the triumphant march across the country of The Young Guard (both the novel and the film of the same name) that there was tension in the creative relationship between Lyaskovsky and Fadeev, but they were not made public.

Vladimir Lyaskovsky and Alexander Fadeev

More recently, the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History made public two little-known documents previously stored in the Center for the Storage of Documents of Youth Organizations (formerly the Central Archives of the Komsomol). These documents are worth citing in full, since they shed light on some details, and also reveal the essence of the relationship between the “parents” of the historical and literary Young Guards.

LETTER Al. FADEEVA M.A. SUSLOV WITH A COMPLAINT AGAINST A JOURNALIST

V.G. LYASKOVSKY

Dear Mikhail Andreevich!

A certain journalist from Odessa, V. Lyaskovsky, sends letters to various organizations regarding the article known to you by Comrade. Gaevoy, secretary of the Voroshilovgrad Regional Committee of the CPSU(b) about working during the Nazi occupation in the city. Krasnodon Bolshevik underground organization and its leadership of the Young Guard organization. (The article was published in the magazine “Znamya” No. 8 for 1950). In view of the fact that in his last letter to the editor of the Znamya magazine, V. Lyaskovsky also refers to his letter to you, I consider it necessary to refute some of his “fictions”.

Article by Comrade Gaevoy’s story was not published in Literaturnaya Gazeta, of course, not for fear of shaking Fadeev’s “authority.” The article was simply great for a newspaper and, in its historical content, was of a magazine nature. Having learned about the existence of this article, I wrote to Comrade. Gaev, the editors of the magazine “Znamya” sent to Comrade. Gaevoy his employee to coordinate some editorial amendments, and the article appeared in the Znamya magazine. Of course, I did not receive any “materials” either personally from V. Lyaskovsky or through comrade M.I. Kotov (now the secretary of the Soviet Peace Committee) and could not promise him, V. Lyaskovsky, any “payment” for the materials, because he had never even seen him. Apparently, this is a typical newspaper businessman, extortionist.

For clarity, I am sending you: a copy of V. Lyaskovsky’s letter to me dated 5/II-50, my correspondence with comrade. Gaev, a copy of V. Lyaskovsky’s letter to Znamya, in which he mentions his letter to you.

Greetings, A. Fadeev

LETTER OF JOURNALIST V.G. LYASKOVSKY A.A. FADEEEV

ABOUT THE ARTICLE A.I. GAYEVOY ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE KRASNODON UNDERGROUND

Dear Alexander Alexandrovich!

I read your speech at the plenum, and it seemed to me that what you said now did not sound sincere. And that's why. On instructions from Literaturnaya Gazeta, I went to Voroshilovgrad and brought back a very interesting article by Comrade. Gaevoy "On the organizers and leaders of the Krasnodon underground." The article by the secretary of the regional party committee very correctly talks about many things that were not covered in your novel and through no fault of yours. To do this, you need to read the article by Comrade. Gaevoy. I am very surprised that you banned this article. In any case, that’s what they told me in Literaturnaya Gazeta. The sycophants from Lit. newspapers judged that this article was a blow to Fadeev. What can I say to this?

I love Fadeev more than all these idiots who think of protecting his authority in this way. I am a friend of Arkady Gaidar and Alexey Nedogonov. I say this from the bottom of my heart. And I think that our people need Gayev’s article now, and I, a Russian journalist, will be proud that my work will somehow help my favorite writer in his work. I am proud that you used some of my articles in 1943. If they were rubbish, you would, of course, not pay attention to them. By the way, last year (before you received your dissertation from Voroshilovgrad) I sent Comrade Kotov a lot of material about the party leadership. Did you receive?

With sincere greetings

V. Lyaskovsky

Odessa, Deribasovskaya (…)

Lyaskovsky Vladimir Georgievich

It is difficult to understand Fadeev’s words that « A certain journalist from Odessa, V. Lyaskovsky, sends letters to various organizations...”, after all, he himself pointed out in his article “Immortality”, published in Pravda in June 1943 about the feat of the Young Guards, that the military correspondents Lyaskovsky and Kotov were the first to reveal the essence of the heroism of the young patriots of Donbass. On the other hand, it is not difficult to understand Lyaskovsky himself, who not only wanted to remind of his initial discovery, but also to provide some assistance in correcting some errors and making certain corrections. But they were not and could not be enemies, although Lyaskovsky’s further creative connection with his longtime friend Kotov ceased in 1944...

As for the tragic end of Alexander Fadeev and the main role of the “Young Guard” in it, these are only fictions, not confirmed by facts. And Alexander Alexandrovich himself repeatedly pointed out that he wrote the first edition of The Young Guard as a purely artistic work with a certain allowance for artistic addition and reflection. Just as he argued that the “Young Guard” was created by the Komsomol members themselves, but the power of the party order was so strong that the second edition of the “Young Guard”, where changes were made regarding the role of the party leadership, he jokingly called the “Old Guard” . Hinting that the true youthful impulse of despair and courage was replaced by the skillful leadership of the older generation, because, according to Stalin, a youth organization without party leadership could not exist and effectively fight the enemy in the occupied territory.

(To be continued)