There is a city of Volokolamsk near Moscow, administrative center region of the same name. Back in 2010, by presidential decree, it was awarded the honorary title of "city of military glory." And there is nothing surprising in this. First mentioned in 1135, the ancient Russian city of Volokolamsk more than once became a real shield of the Russian capital from attacks by aggressors. During the years of the Great Patriotic War repeated. The Volokolamsk direction became one of the most important during the battle for Moscow.

The defense line stretched for more than 100 kilometers, for which the 16th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Konstantin Rokossovsky was responsible. The 16th Army included, in particular, the famous 316th Rifle Division under the command of Major General I.V. Panfilov, cavalry corps under the command of Major General L.M. Dovator, consolidated regiment cadets under the command of Colonel S.I. Infants. In turn, the Nazi command, perfectly understanding the significance of the Volokolamsk direction, threw numerous elite units at him. A total of 13 Nazi divisions, seven of which were armored, attacked the Volokolamsk direction.

The headquarters of the 16th Army and the commander, Lieutenant General Konstantin Rokossovsky, were located in Volokolamsk on October 14, 1941. A quiet and small provincial town at that time turned into a real center of hostilities. Residents of Volokolamsk were mobilized for the construction and equipment of defensive structures along the entire line of defense. Volokolamsk itself and the Volokolamsk highway were defended by the 316th Infantry Division of Major General Panfilov, a significant part of which were soldiers mobilized in the Soviet Central Asia. A lot has been written about the exploits of the Panfilovites. Superior enemy forces were thrown against the division - 2 infantry, 1 tank and 1 motorized division. But, despite such a superiority in numbers and weapons, the enemy could not break through the defenses of Volokolamsk for a very long time and suffered huge losses.

Steblevo is a very small village in the Volokolamsky district of the Moscow region, 17 km northeast of the city of Volokolamsk itself. Now administratively it is part of the Teryaevsky rural settlement, and according to official data, only 42 people live in it. 76 years ago, at the height of the Great Patriotic War, when Hitler's troops rushed to Moscow, dramatic events unfolded in Steblevo. The small village became the scene of one of the amazing feats of the Soviet people, and not soldiers or partisans, but ordinary boys, the oldest among whom were barely 16 years old.

During the advance of the Nazis, the village of Steblevo was in the zone of occupation, but on December 15, 1941, a swift throw of the detachment commanded by Colonel Porfiry Georgievich Chanchabadze (1901-1950) - the commander of the 107th motorized rifle division of the 30th Army, which defended Moscow, liberated the village from the Nazis. occupiers. The inhabitants of a small village enthusiastically met their liberators - Soviet soldiers. They did not even imagine that the Nazis could return. By the end of the day on December 15, 1941, the detachment of Colonel Chanchabadze left Steblevo. The soldiers had to move on. The locals remained in the village, and even a large number of abandoned by the Nazis, ammunition and uniforms.

Of course, the villagers hoped that they had already been finally released, but still there were certain fears that the Nazis might return. Therefore, local activists - state farm workers Vladimir Ovsyannikov and Alexander Kryltsov, who were brought up in the Teryaevsky orphanage and then remained to work here, proposed creating a squad to defend the village of Steblevo. Since there were not so many people in the village, teenagers aged 11-16 were accepted into the squad. These were Tolya Volodin, Vanya Derevyanov, Pavlik Nikanorov, Tolya Nikolaev, Vitya Pechnikov, Kolya Pechnikov, Volodya Rozanov, Vanya Ryzhov, Petya Trofimov. They also found a combat commander capable of teaching the boys how to handle weapons. It was Ivan Yegorovich Volodin - a local resident, a participant in the war with Finland, who had recently been demobilized from the ranks of the Red Army. The squad also had weapons - after all, the Germans, hastily retreating from Steblevo under the blows of the fighters of Colonel Chanchabadze, left good weapons, even machine guns were present among the trophies.

After the departure of the detachment of Colonel Chanchabadze from the village, the inhabitants of Steblevo managed to live calmly for only one night. Already on the morning of December 16, the Nazis, apparently having learned about the withdrawal of the Soviet unit, decided to re-occupy the village. Sasha Kryltsov, who was on duty at his position, heard the characteristic crackle of a motorcycle. Then a motorcyclist appeared - a Nazi. After Kryltsov fired several shots, the motorcyclist chose to drive away. It was clear that this was only a scout. In the afternoon, the defenders of the village saw that a large detachment of Nazis was moving towards Steblevo. Having dispersed in positions, a partisan detachment of teenagers opened fire on the Nazis. It must be said that the enemy, who knew perfectly well about the departure of the Chanchabadze detachment from Steblevo, did not expect that he would encounter powerful resistance from the defenders of the village. Therefore, the Nazi officers decided that a detachment of Soviet soldiers who ambushed them remained in the village. Nevertheless, it was impossible to show weakness, and the Nazis launched a new attack on Steblevo, which was also repulsed by young partisans.

Several times during the day on December 16, the Nazis tried to capture the village - and all times to no avail. However, the Nazi command abandoned the siege of the village only by noon on December 17, 1941. Shortly after the retreat of the Nazis, a Soviet detachment entered Steblevo. His commander listened with surprise to the report of local warriors about the battle that had taken place. Not only did the Steblev teenagers manage to repulse the attacks of the Nazis and hold out until the approach of “their own”, they also managed to transfer a large number of captured weapons (and it was still at a great price then, in the fall of 1941) to the Soviet detachment. Even more impressive was the fact that the young defenders of Steblevo, who fought with superior not only in numbers and weapons, but also in preparation, remained alive. Nobody even got hurt. Indeed, as if higher power they kept the boys who defended their village with weapons in their hands.

By the way, this is very symbolic, but the Teryaevsky orphanage, where the organizers of the original partisan detachment were brought up, was located on the territory of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery, founded by Joseph Volotsky himself in 1479. The monastery had to hold back the siege of the Polish-Lithuanian troops in 1611, then many prisoners were kept here - and Polish prisoners of war during Polish-Lithuanian intervention the beginning of the 17th century, and the French, who were captured in 1812, and a number of iconic figures in Russian history - from Vasily Shuisky to Maxim Grek. In 1920-1922. the monastery was closed, and its premises were transferred first to the museum, and then to the orphanage.

The feat of the young defenders of Steblevo is on a par with other heroic deeds of Soviet children and teenagers who fought shoulder to shoulder with their older comrades against the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War. Many Soviet teenagers gave their lives fighting in partisan detachments, participating in underground activities in the territories occupied by the Nazis. In the same Volokolamsky district of the Moscow region, the feat of the defenders of Steblevo is far from the only example of the unprecedented courage of very young Soviet citizens.

Volokolamsk defended with the last of its strength. Red Army soldiers and ordinary civilians showed amazing examples of courage, fought the enemy literally to the last drop of blood. But the situation at the front in the fall of 1941 was not very favorable for the defenders of Moscow. The Nazis concentrated huge forces on the Volokolamsk direction and the result was not long in coming. On October 27, 1941, the Nazis still managed to capture Volokolamsk. The small town was in the hands of the invaders for almost two months. However, the locals did not give up and continued to resist the Nazis, expecting an early release. By the way, Volokolamsk was liberated on December 20, 1941 by units of the 20th Army under the command of Major General Andrei Vlasov, the future traitor and commander of the ROA, and then one of the most promising Soviet military leaders, who enjoyed great favor from I.V. Stalin.

On the last night before the liberation of the city on December 20, 1941, Borya Kuznetsov, a 15-year-old teenager from Volokolamsk, heard that a large number of Nazis had gathered near the river. The guy realized that the enemies were going to blow up the bridge to prevent the advance of those approaching the city. Soviet troops. And then Kuznetsov, who had a captured German machine gun, opened fire on the Nazis. Alone, without a support group, Borya went to certain death, just not to allow the Nazis to fulfill their plan. The enemies returned fire. Borya was seriously wounded in the spine, but continued to shoot at the Nazis. The Red Army soldiers, who had already burst into the city, faced a terrible picture. Borya was still conscious, but with a severe wound. They tried to save him, but to no avail - on March 18, 1942, the young defender of Volokolamsk died.

When on December 20, 1941, soldiers and officers of the 20th Army entered the liberated Volokolamsk, a terrifying sight appeared before their eyes. Gallows were erected in the town square, on which eight hanged men were hanging - six young men and two girls. It was not possible to immediately establish their personalities, but it was clear that they were partisans or underground fighters who fought against the Nazis and accepted a terrible death at the hands of the enemy. Later it was possible to establish that they were members of one of the extermination partisan detachments, which in those days were formed by the Moscow Komsomol. November 4, 1941 a group of eight Komsomol members on the instructions of the headquarters Western front was sent to the Teryaeva Sloboda area for reconnaissance and reconnaissance and sabotage operations. This group included: 29-year-old commander Konstantin Fedorovich Pakhomov (1912-1941) - designer of the Moscow Sickle and Hammer plant, his 27-year-old colleague, designer of the Sickle and Hammer plant Nikolai Alexandrovich Galochkin (1914-1941), 26- Naum Samuilovich Kagan (1915-1941), a 26-year-old machinist of a shaped and foundry shop, Pavel Vasilyevich Kiryakov (1915-1941), an 18-year-old factory mechanic Viktor Vasilyevich Ordyntsev (1923-1941), a 19-year-old mechanic enterprise "Moskabel" Ivan Aleksandrovich Malenkov (1922-1941), 21-year-old third-year student of the Moscow Art and Industrial School named after M.I. Kalinin Evgenia Yakovlevna Poltavskaya (1920-1941) and 19-year-old furniture factory worker Alexandra Vasilievna Lukovina-Gribkova (1922-1941).

Unfortunately, Pakhomov's group, having successfully penetrated behind enemy lines, was discovered by the Nazis. Despite fierce resistance, the Nazis managed to capture the partisans alive, after which the nightmare of torture and humiliation began. In the end, the young people were shot, after which, on November 6, 1941, their bodies were hung on Volokolamsk's Soldier Square to intimidate the inhabitants of the city. The Nazi commandant did not allow to remove the bodies of the hanged, and only after the liberation of the city and the entry of Soviet troops into Volokolamsk, Konstantin Pakhomov, Nikolai Galochkin, Naum Kagan, Pavel Kiryakov, Ivan Malenkov, Viktor Ordyntsev, Evgenia Poltavskaya and Alexandra Lukovina-Gribkova were buried with all the military honors. A monument was erected on Novosoldatskaya Street in Volokolamsk in memory of the heroic partisans.

There were also much less noticeable actions of local youth, which, it seems, are not feats at all compared to the heroism of Boris Kuznetsov, but for which you also need to have very great courage, a “margin of safety”, so to speak. For example, in one of the state farms of the Volokolamsk region, even before the war, they began breeding a valuable breed of cows, which gave large milk yields. When the enemy troops approached Volokolamsk, the young Volokolamsk residents were given a difficult task - to bring the cattle to the rear so that the Nazis would not get it. The boys and girls, who had not even reached military age, were strictly ordered not to lose a single head of a cow. One hundred and eighteen guys coped with the task brilliantly. It now seems to their peers - and what is the feat here? Gather the cows and drive them to a secluded place. But then every minute was precious, the guys did not have food supplies with them, and they had to drive the cattle over a fairly impressive distance and very quickly, since the Nazis were approaching very rapidly.

The history of the liberation of the Moscow region from the fascist invaders knows many examples of desperate heroism and amazing courage. But what happened in the village of Steblevo, Volokolamsk district, can only be called a miracle. Local teenagers defended the approaches to the village for two days, preventing the enemy army from capturing this strategic point, which opens the way to Moscow. The son of one of these "boys" and a local historian, who thoroughly studied the history of the extraordinary feat, told the correspondent of "Podmoskovye Segodnya" how the children managed to cope with the advancing German units.

ASSISTANTS OF PARTISANS

In October 1941, when the Germans captured Steblevo, Tolya Nikolaev turned 13 years old. All his peasant ancestors were born and died here. The boy grew up without a father, he was raised by his mother, who worked at a weaving factory from morning to night.

The arrival of the Nazis deprived the Steblevites of a roof over their heads. The soldiers of the enemy army silently drove the locals out of their houses at gunpoint and settled there themselves. It was unusually cold for the end of October, where to go?

“Fortunately, the soil has not yet frozen, so my father dug a dugout in his garden,” says the son of the hero Andrei Nikolaev. They lived there with their mother. Grandmother recalled that the Germans let her into their own hut only to cook food for them.

The invaders did not pay attention to the boys, so they could run wherever they please. The partisans operating in the surrounding forests took advantage of this.

The most famous of them was Hero Soviet Union Ilya Kuzin. Lame from birth, he did not go to the front, but took the Moscow demolition courses. His group was abandoned in the Volokolamsk region, and there Kuzin and his comrades blew up trains with ammunition, warehouses and bridges. To obtain information about the enemy, the partisans used village boys, including Tolya Nikolaev. The guys wandered around the village, memorizing the amount of military equipment and the location of strategic facilities, eavesdropping on the conversations of officers - many boys learned German at school. Then they fled into the forest and passed on intelligence to members of Kuzin's group.

WHO WILL PROTECT US?

- The invaders did not commit atrocities in our village, - says Andrey Anatolyevich. - Among the soldiers who lived in our house, there were French, they showed photographs of Paris, laughing, convinced my grandmother that someday she would visit there. But right in front of his father, a terrible incident happened one day. Three Soviet soldiers surrendered, assuming that their lives would be spared. The Nazis stripped them and shot them.

Meanwhile, our units were approaching. On December 15, the mobile detachment of Colonel Porfiry Chanchibadze quite unexpectedly fell upon Steblevo and drove the unsuspecting Germans out of there with a powerful hurricane. Usually, during the retreat, the invaders burned villages, towns and villages behind them. But in this case, it was not a retreat, but an escape. The Nazis fled, leaving military equipment, weapons, personal belongings. Andrey Nikolaev still has a trophy - a tool box left by the invaders who lived in their house.

Having knocked out the enemies from Steblev, the Chanchibadze detachment moved on. But the residents were worried: what if the Germans would return? By that time, it was already known about the atrocities committed by the fascist punishers, about the burned neighboring villages, about the executions of civilians. Who will protect their homes?

VETERAN OF THE FINNISH WAR

- Father and a few other boys went to the veteran Finnish war Ivan Volodin,” Andrey Nikolaev continues. - He was wounded in battles, he became disabled and therefore avoided mobilization. During the occupation, he hid from the Germans in some kind of cache.

The guys asked the veteran to help organize the defense of the village. And Volodin set to work. First of all, he ordered the boys to collect weapons and ammunition, which were lying in disorder all over Steblevo. Taught to shoot.

There was a lot of snow that winter. The snowdrifts were one and a half meters high. Volodin ordered the boys to dig trenches in them, encircling the village from the side of the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery. Place weapons in them every few tens of meters. And wait.

The Germans showed up the next morning. The guys heard the crackle of the engine and saw a soldier on a motorcycle. Shot at him several times. Missed, he turned around and drove off. A few hours later, a large group of fascists approached Steblev. The boys started shooting again. They ran across the trenches and fired indiscriminately from several changing points so that the enemy got the impression that a large detachment was defending the village. The Germans attacked again and again, but did not dare to approach. They were cautious, apparently deciding that Steblevo was occupied by one of the Soviet military units or, possibly, by a partisan detachment.

For almost two days the guys shot and ran, ran and shot. Until the Chanchibadze detachment returned to the village, which cleared the area from enemy troops.

ELEVEN BOLD

Anatoly Nikolaev then told his son that for him what was happening was something like an exciting game. He did not think that this adventure could end in death. I just wanted to shoot and didn't feel like a hero at all. Volodya Ovsyannikov, Sasha Kryltsov, Tolya Volodin, Kolya Pechnikov, Pavlik Nikanorov, Tolya Nikolaev, Vitya Pechnikov, Vanya Ryzhov, Petya Trofimov, Volodya Rozanov and Vanya Dervyanov - these are the names of the Volokolamsk "boys" who saved their native village.

- Why were a handful of guys able to withstand the onslaught of the elite soldiers of the Wehrmacht? asks Volokolamsk local historian Tatyana Baburova. I think psychology is at work here. The children were in their native land. And the invaders - in an area unknown to them, which they knew only from maps. They feared everything.

In addition, the "boys" acted according to the canons of military science. Ivan Volodin, who went through battles in the Finnish snows, simply applied his experience.

SOMEONE HAD TO WORK

Just as the guys themselves did not consider themselves heroes, so no one considered them heroes. What they did was natural for the villagers. You have to protect your land, period!

- The feat of the Volokolamsk "boys", no doubt, was worthy of a reward, - Tatyana Baburova is convinced. But there was no one to take care of them. Ivan Volodin was soon, despite his injury, sent to the front, from where he did not return. Porfiry Chanchibadze, who witnessed this feat, died almost immediately after the war.

The "boys" lived their own lives. During the war years, they worked at a logging site - it was necessary to rebuild blown-up bridges and destroyed houses.

In peacetime, they went to the army, returned to their native village, worked here, got married, had children. And they were dying. Now there is no one left alive from that brilliant detachment. Slowly, the memory of their feat is also fading. From time to time there were proposals to erect a monument in Steblevo, or at least a memorial plaque with the names of the guys who saved the village. But the idea never came to fruition.

During the Great Patriotic War, several brave teenagers defended their village, fighting off the German invaders and managing to hold out until the arrival of Soviet soldiers.

During the fighting in the enemy's frontline rear on December 15, 1941, a detachment of Colonel Porfiry Chanchibadze from the 30th Army, after a short battle, liberated the village of Steblevo near Moscow and went further to carry out combat missions. The Germans, during their hasty retreat, left a large amount of military equipment and equipment.

The population of the village, joyfully meeting their liberators and providing all possible assistance, were left without protection, because if the Nazis return, they will not spare anyone. Then Sasha Kryltsov and Volodya Ovsyanikov, young workers of the state farm and pupils of the Teryaevsky orphanage, decided to organize a squad for defense.

This squad also included 11-16-year-old teenagers: Vanya Dervyanov, Petya Trofimov, Vitya Pechnikov, Kolya Pechnikov, Pavel Nikanorov, Volodya Rozanov, Vanya Ryzhov, Tolya Nikolaev and Tolya Volodin. Ivan Volodin, a participant in the Soviet-Finnish war, became their leader and organizer of the defense. Ivan Yegorovich taught the young defenders the skills of owning weapons and conducting aimed fire.

The Nazis began to make attempts to re-occupy the village on December 16th. A German soldier who tried to drive up to the village on a motorcycle was met with fire: Sasha Kryltsov, hearing a noise and seeing a fascist, began to shoot from a rifle. The German immediately turned back.

A little later, a large group of fascists began to approach the village, and all the partisans began to shoot at them. Having occupied three advantageous frontiers, they met the German invaders with hurricane fire. The Nazis began to retreat.

This was repeated several more times on the same day and in the morning of the next day, until the Germans stopped making attempts to capture the village, apparently deciding that it was defended by Soviet soldiers.

On the afternoon of December 17, a unit of the advanced units of the Soviet troops arrived in Steblevo, met by tired but joyful partisans. The command expressed gratitude to the group for their help in protecting the Soviet land from the Nazis and for the German trophies. So a group of very young boys was able to expel the German invaders from their village.

And the village of Steblevo became known as the place where the "Volokolamsk boys" performed the feat.

Colonel Porfiry Georgievich Chanchibadze

Not far from Volokolamsk near Moscow is the village of Steblevo. In December 1941, during the famous Battle of Moscow, a very interesting event took place in this village, which I want to tell you about.

Mobile combat groups of Colonel Porfiry Georgiyevich Chanchibadze from the 30th Army were operating in the frontline rear of the enemy. One of these flying detachments, after a short battle on December 15, 1941, liberated the village of Steblevo. The invaders hastily retreated, leaving a large amount of military property, weapons and equipment.

They had knocked out the Germans from the village, but a small detachment from the 107th motorized rifle division had other tasks. Therefore, by the end of the day, the Red Army left Steblevo and went further to carry out their combat missions.

The villagers, who at first enthusiastically greeted their liberators, realized by evening that they were left without protection, and that if the Nazis suddenly returned, they would not spare anyone. Then the young workers of the state farm, pupils of the local orphanage - Volodya Ovsyanikov and Sasha Kryltsov proposed to organize a squad for self-defense. The Pioneer-Komsomol military detachment included teenagers aged 12 to 16: Tolya Volodin, Kolya and Vitya Pechnikovs, Pavlik Nikanorov, Tolya Nikolaev, Vanya Ryzhov, Petya Trofimov, Volodya Rozanov and Vanya Dervyanov.

Their commander was a former soldier, a participant in the Soviet-Finnish war, Ivan Yegorovich Volodin. He began to teach young partisans the skills of owning weapons and conducting aimed fire. Ivan Yegorovich organized the defense and set up posts. And he did exactly the right thing. Because already on the morning of December 16 there was a crash of a motorcycle - this was a German intelligence officer trying to assess the situation. Sasha Kryltsov opened fire on him, but missed. The motorcyclist abruptly turned around and sped away to his own.

The attack of the Nazis began in the afternoon. But the uninvited guests were met by the fire of young militias. Competently taking up defense in three directions, the Malchishi-Kibalchishi of the village of Steblevo repelled the onslaught of the enemy for a whole day. And, using the knowledge of their native area, they did it quite successfully - without loss. By the next noon, the Germans apparently decided that the village was being defended by Soviet soldiers and retreated.

And on the afternoon of December 17, a unit of advanced units of the Soviet troops entered Steblevo. Tired but joyful young partisans greeted the soldiers of the Red Army. The command of the rifle division thanked the battle group Malchish for their help in expelling the Nazis and for the spoils of war.

This is how a group of teenagers defended their village. Let me rephrase the classic of our Mikhail Yurievich:

- Yes, there were children at that time, not like the current tribe!