SOVIET CHILDREN — HEROES OF THE WAR
The teacher: M.V. Uramova
The student: Rinat Ibragimov, 11 grade
Zainsk
2014
People!
While your hearts are beating, Remember!
The price of our happiness, Remember, please!..
In the war against the fascist invaders Soviet children had their own accounts
to settle with the enemy. Fascist troops killed their fathers and mothers, brothers
and sisters, ruined their houses and schools and left thousands of children without
families, homes and food.
The Soviet Government, people and public organizations were making really
great efforts to save these children. Special homes, hospitals and schools were
opened for them throughout the country. The majority of the children were
evacuated in good time from the occupied and front-line areas.
Throughout the war children in villages and towns helped the grown-ups.
The Soviet people are grateful to their children, the young citizens of their land,
who also fought to win the victory over fascism.
From the very first hour of the war 12—15-year-old children besieged
induction stations all over the Soviet Union, ready to fight the fascists. They
wanted to go to the front. Many Soviet children ran away from their homes to the
front. They were brought back to their mothers. It was not just war excitement and
wish for adventure. Little boys and girls in occupied areas gave refuge to the
wounded Red Army soldiers and at the risk to their lives brought them through
forest paths to our units.
Here is one of the examples how children did their best to help the Army.
Vanya Andrianov, a fourteen-year-old boy from the village of NovoMikhailovka, helped a Soviet Army unit to capture an important point without loss
of life. This is how f it happened.
The front line was not far from the village. Early in the morning the villagers
heard artillery fire coming from the east. Vanya watched the German fascist
soldiers from the window of his house. He remembered that many hitlerites had
left the village the day before, but in every house they had left from five to ten
men. Vanya saw how the fascist soldiers were making holes in the walls of some
houses and put their machine-guns there.
“The fascists are preparing to fire at the approaching Soviet troops,” he
thought.
In the morning the artillery fire stopped and Vanya got nervous, because he
was afraid the Soviet Army would not come long. All the time he kept watching at
the window. His house was at the edge of the village and Vanya could see the road
running through the snow and across the frozen river. Suddenly he saw that men in
white appeared at a large distance. They were coming up quickly on skis. They
were Soviet Army men.
Vanya thought, “In a few minutes they will be near the village and the
fascists will meet them with machine-gun fire and kill them all.”
He put on his coat and fur cap, jumped out of the house and ran towards the
river. He shouted: “Stop!” but no one could hear his weak voice.
The hitlerites saw him running and understood what his plan was. They
opened fire at him, but Vanya did not turn back. The small figure fell to the
ground. Vanya was not dead, he had fooled the fascists and rolled down the bank
of the river. He crawled across the snow until he reached the Soviet Army men.
“Take care, comrades!” he shouted. “There are machine guns not far away!”
The boy was taken to the commander of the Soviet unit and told the Soviet
officer all he knew about the enemy nr chine-guns. Vanya led the Soviet troops
round the village and showed them the houses where the fascists had put their ma
chine-guns. The enemy did not expect an attack from the rear. Nearly all the
fascists were destroyed.
Soon after the battle ended General Efremov on behalf of the Soviet
Government awarded Vanya with the Order of the Red Star for bravery.
“Weren’t you afraid to run under the enemy fire?” asked the general.
“I don’t know,” Vanya replied, “there was no time to be afraid. Soviet
soldiers could fall into a trap.”
Children in Moscow, Leningrad and other Soviet cities extinguished
Incendiary bombs, built barricades, and dug trenches; the brave little boys and girls
of other Motherland crawled across the front line to pass important information to
the Soviet troops.
Many of them were awarded by the Soviet Government with orders and
medals. Hundreds of Soviet children gave their lives for their Motherland.
Together with all Soviet people Soviet children fought for their happiness and won
it.