Children are war heroes waving a cat. Hero of the Patriotic War Valya Kotik (or Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik)

Valya Kotik (or Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik) was born on February 11, 1930 in the village. Khmelevka of the modern Khmelnitsky (formerly Kamenets-Podolsk) region of Ukraine, in a peasant family. The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War prevented him from finishing school - the young pioneer managed to complete only five years of secondary education at the district school in Shepetivka. At school, Valentin was famous for his sociability and organizational skills, and was a leader among his comrades.

When the Germans occupied the Shepetovsky district, Valya Kotik was only 11 years old. The official biography states that he immediately took part in collecting ammunition and weapons, which were then sent to the front. Together with his friends, Valya collected weapons abandoned at the site of clashes, which were transported to the partisans in carts of hay. The young hero also independently made and posted caricatures of fascists around the city.

In 1942, he was accepted into the ranks of the Shepetivka underground organization as an intelligence officer. Further, his military biography was supplemented by participation in the exploits of a partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev (1943). In October of the same year, Valya Kotik accomplished his first high-profile feat - he managed to discover an underground telephone cable at the German command headquarters, which was then successfully blown up by partisans.

The courageous pioneer also has other feats to his credit - the successful explosions of six warehouses and railway trains, as well as numerous ambushes in which he took part. Valya Kotik’s responsibilities included obtaining information about the location of German posts and the order of changing their guards.

The young hero accomplished another feat that saved the lives of many of his adult comrades on October 29, 1943. That day, the guy was standing at his post when suddenly he was attacked by Hitler’s punitive forces. The boy managed to shoot an enemy officer and raise the alarm.

For heroism, courage and repeatedly accomplished feats, pioneer Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the Order of Lenin, as well as the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree.

On February 16, 1944, the 14-year-old hero was mortally wounded in the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav Kamenets-Podolsky. He died the next day, February 17, and was buried in the central park of Shepetivka.

According to another version biography of Valya Kotik from a direct participant in the battles for the city of Izyaslav, WWII veteran Murashov, the boy was initially wounded non-fatally, in the shoulder. The narrator's brother (who was with him on the mission) dragged him to the nearby Gorinya valley and bandaged him. On the second day, during the evacuation of the wounded to the partisan hospital in Strigani, the carts carrying Kotik were subjected to German bombardment. The young hero received mortal wounds from which he died on the way.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 1958, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

During the Soviet years, every schoolchild knew about this brave pioneer and his exploits. Numerous streets, both in Russia and Ukraine, pioneer squads, detachments and camps were named after the courageous guy. A monument to Valya Kotik was erected in front of the school where he studied, another monument stood at VDNKh. One motor ship was also named after him.

The biography of the pioneer Valya Kotko formed the basis of a feature film about Valya Kotko, released in 1957 under the title “Eaglet”. The film tells about the struggle of the young pioneer Vali with the fascist invaders who occupied his hometown. The boy helps his partisan detachment spy on the enemy and obtain weapons. One day, finding himself surrounded by Nazis, a schoolboy accomplishes a feat by blowing himself up with a grenade.

Born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district of Kamenets-Podolsk since 1954 and now in the Khmelnytsky region of Ukraine in the family of an employee. So, in 1942, the pioneer Valya Kotik became an intelligence officer of the Shepetovsky underground party organization.

When the Nazis burst into Shepetivka, Valya Kotik and his friends decided to fight the enemy. Valya Kotik died as a hero, and the Motherland posthumously awarded him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A monument to him was erected in front of the school where this brave pioneer studied.

On February 11, 1930, Valya Kotik, the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union, was born. He dedicated his short life to the fight against Nazism. Needless to say, with their arrival, childhood ended for Valya Kotik, as for many boys and girls. On February 16, during the assault on Izyaslav, a young partisan was seriously wounded. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors fought for his life for days. On February 17, 1944 Valya Kotik died.

He also contributed to the destruction of six railway trains and a warehouse. He was buried in the center of the park in the city of Shepetivka. Valya Kotik’s responsibilities included obtaining information about the location of German posts and the order of changing their guards.

Valya Kotik - pioneer hero

The biography of the pioneer Valya Kotko formed the basis of a feature film about Valya Kotko, released in 1957 under the title “Eaglet”. Valya Kotik, like all Soviet boys and girls, of course, heard the fairy tale about Malchish-Kibalchish. The rapid Hitlerite blitzkrieg of the summer of 1941, and now Valya, who by that time lived in the city of Shepetivka, together with his family was already in the occupied territory.

Biography of Valya Kotik

Valya was buried in the village of Khorovets. Valya Kotik, in a difficult time of testing for the Motherland, turned out to be more courageous than many adults, who to this day are looking for justification for their cowardice and cowardice. The name Vali Kotik was given to the ship, a number of schools, pioneer squads and detachments. The streets in the hero city of Kyiv, the city of Kaliningrad (regional center) are named after the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union, Vali Kotik.

Vali's last fight

He studied at school No. 4 in the city of Shepetovka, and was a recognized leader of the pioneers, his peers. He defended the country no worse than adults and was eager to fight, not afraid of difficulties. In underground circles, they learned about the young defender after he set up an ambush and used a grenade to blow up a car with the head of the Nazi field gendarmerie.

The partisans tried to protect the boy from danger, but Valya could not be stopped. Smart, brave and decisive, he rushed into battle without fear and fought as best he could. But he did it no worse than adults. Thanks to him, the underground telephone cable through which the invaders kept in touch with Hitler's headquarters in Warsaw was blown up.

A young partisan saved a detachment from punitive forces

By the beginning of the war, he had just entered the sixth grade of school No. 4 in the city of Shepetivka, but from the first days of the war he began to fight the German occupiers. The outbreak of the Great Patriotic War prevented him from finishing school - the young pioneer managed to complete only five years of secondary education at the district school in Shepetovsk.

The courageous pioneer also has other feats to his credit - the successful bombing of six warehouses and railway trains, as well as numerous ambushes in which he took part.

The young hero accomplished another feat that saved the lives of many of his adult comrades on October 29, 1943. That day, the guy was standing at his post when suddenly he was attacked by Hitler’s punitive forces. On February 16, 1944, the 14-year-old hero was mortally wounded in the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav Kamenets-Podolsky.

A monument to Valya Kotik was erected in front of the school where he studied, another monument stood at VDNKh. One motor ship was also named after him

On the second day, during the evacuation of the wounded to the partisan hospital in Strigani, the carts carrying Kotik were subjected to German bombardment. During the Soviet years, every schoolchild knew about this brave pioneer and his exploits. Numerous streets, both in Russia and Ukraine, pioneer squads, detachments and camps were named after the courageous guy.

The film tells about the struggle of the young pioneer Vali with the fascist invaders who occupied his hometown. The boy helps his partisan detachment spy on the enemy and obtain weapons. And instead of children's toys, the most persistent and courageous took rifles and machine guns into their hands.

In 1933, writer Arkady Gaidar wrote “The Tale of the Military Secret, the Boy-Kibalchish and his firm word.” This work by Gaidar, written eight years before the start of the Great Patriotic War, was destined to become a symbol of memory of all the young heroes who died in the fight against the Nazi invaders. Valya had an ordinary childhood as a boy of that time, with the usual pranks, secrets, and sometimes bad grades.

The victorious power of the Wehrmacht instilled fear in many adults, but did not frighten Valya, who, together with his friends, decided to fight the Nazis. The underground members learned about Valya's affairs.

The command tried to take care of the 13-year-old boy, but he was eager to fight. In addition, Valya showed himself to be a skilled intelligence officer and a person capable of finding a way out of the most difficult situation. In October 1943, Valya, who was on a partisan patrol, ran into punitive forces preparing to attack the base of a partisan detachment.

Valya himself was wounded, but managed to get to the hut of the forester who was helping the partisans. Soviet troops rushed into the city to help the partisans. The wounded Valya was urgently sent to the rear, to the hospital. His name, like the names of other pioneer heroes whose exploits were told to Soviet schoolchildren in the post-war period, was defamed in the post-Soviet period.

On October 29, 1943, Valya Kotik was on patrol. Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree. In October 1943, a young partisan scouted the location of the underground telephone cable of Hitler's headquarters, which was soon blown up.

On February 11, 1930, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik (Valya Kotik) was born - a young partisan scout of the Karmelyuk partisan detachment, operating in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kamenets-Podolsk region of the Ukrainian SSR; the youngest...

On February 11, 1930, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik (Valya Kotik) was born - a young partisan scout of the Karmelyuk partisan detachment, operating in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kamenets-Podolsk region of the Ukrainian SSR; the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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



A large country that survived a terrible war could not immediately appreciate the exploits of all those who fought for its freedom and independence. But over time, everything fell into place.

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

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



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

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

Eternal memory to him!

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

Valya Kotik is one of the teenage heroes who fought against the German occupiers during the years. Valentin glorified his name as a courageous defender of his land and a faithful son of the Motherland.

Valya Kotik biography briefly

Valentin came from a simple peasant family. He was born in the Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine. When the Germans occupied Ukrainian soil in 1941, Valya was a simple schoolboy. At that time the boy was eleven years old.

The young pioneer immediately took an ardent part in helping the Soviet front. Together with his classmates, Valya collected ammunition: grenades, rifles, pistols that remained on the battlefields and transported all these weapons to the partisans.

The children hid weapons in haystacks and transported them quite freely, because it did not occur to the Germans that children were also assistants to the partisans.

In 1942, Valya was accepted into the number of intelligence officers of the underground Soviet organization, and the following year, 1943, the boy became a full member. Valentin Kotik went through a long and difficult two and a half years of war; he died from mortal wounds received in battle in February 1944.

Description of the exploits of Valentin Kotik

The hero Valentin Kotik was immediately remembered by his comrades for his courage and ingenuity. The boy accomplished his most famous feat in the fall of 1943: he discovered a secret radio line of the Germans, which they carefully concealed (later the partisans destroyed this line, leaving the Nazis without communication). Valentin took part in many partisan operations: he was a good demolitionist, signalman and fighter. He went on reconnaissance missions, and once in 1943 he saved the entire detachment.

It happened this way: Valentin was sent on reconnaissance, he noticed in time the Germans who had begun a punitive operation, shot one of the senior commanders of this operation and made a noise, thereby warning his comrades of the danger that threatened them. The story of the death of Valentin Kotik has two main versions. According to the first of them, he was mortally wounded in battle and died the next day. According to the second, the slightly wounded Valentin died during German shelling of evacuated Soviet soldiers. The young hero was buried in the city of Shepetivka.

Posthumous fame

After the war, the name Valentin Kotik became a household name. The boy was awarded orders and partisan medals. And in 1958 he was awarded the title of Hero. Streets, parks and public gardens were named after Vali Kotik. Monuments were erected to him throughout the Soviet Union. The most famous of all the monuments is the sculptural monument erected in 1960 in the center of Moscow.

Another monument is still located in the city of Simferopol on the Alley of Heroes, where there are sculptures of adults and children who heroically defended their Motherland during the Great Patriotic War. Valentin’s feat was glorified in the feature film about the war “Eaglet”, in which the main character, a courageous young man, blew himself up with a grenade so as not to be captured by the Nazis.

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Patriotic stories. Children of war. Valya Kotik

Valya Kotik (or Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik) was born on February 11, 1930 in the village of Khmelevka (Ukraine) into a peasant family. By the beginning of the war, he had just entered the sixth grade, but from the first days he began to fight the occupiers. In the fall of 1941, together with his comrades, he killed the head of the field gendarmerie near the city of Shepetovka, throwing a grenade at the car in which he was driving. Since 1942, he took an active part in the partisan movement in Ukraine. At first he was a liaison for the Shepetovsky underground organization, then he took part in battles.

When the Germans occupied the Shepetovsky district, Valya Kotik was only 11 years old. The official biography states that he immediately took part in collecting ammunition and weapons, which were then sent to the front. Together with his friends, Valya collected weapons abandoned at the site of clashes, which were transported to the partisans in carts of hay. The young hero also independently made and posted caricatures of fascists around the city.

In 1942, he was accepted into the ranks of the Shepetivka underground organization as an intelligence officer. Further, his military biography was supplemented by participation in the exploits of a partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Alekseevich Muzalev (1943). In October of the same year, Valya Kotik accomplished his first high-profile feat - he managed to discover an underground telephone cable at the German command headquarters, which was then successfully blown up by partisans.

The courageous pioneer also has other feats to his credit - the successful bombing of six warehouses and railway trains, as well as numerous ambushes in which he took part. Valya Kotik’s responsibilities included obtaining information about the location of German posts and the order of changing their guards.

The young hero accomplished another feat that saved the lives of many of his adult comrades on October 29, 1943. That day, the guy was standing at his post when suddenly he was attacked by Hitler’s punitive forces. The boy managed to shoot an enemy officer, and thereby raise the alarm. This made it possible to prevent the partisans from being taken by surprise.

For his heroism, courage and repeated feats, pioneer Valya Kotik was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the Order of Lenin, as well as the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War,” 2nd degree.

On February 16, 1944, the 14-year-old hero was mortally wounded in the battle for the liberation of the city of Izyaslav Kamenets-Podolsky. He died the next day, February 17, and was buried in the central park of Shepetivka.

According to another version of Valya Kotik’s biography from a direct participant in the battles for the city of Izyaslav, WWII veteran Murashov, the boy was first non-fatally wounded, in the shoulder. The narrator's brother (who was with him on the mission) dragged him to the nearby Gorinya valley and bandaged him. On the second day, during the evacuation of the wounded to the partisan hospital in Strigani, the carts carrying Kotik were subjected to German bombardment. The young hero received mortal wounds from which he died on the way.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 1958, Valentin Aleksandrovich Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

During the Soviet years, every schoolchild knew about this brave pioneer and his exploits. Numerous streets, both in Russia and Ukraine, pioneer squads, detachments and camps were named after the courageous guy. A monument to Valya Kotik was erected in front of the school where he studied, another monument stood at VDNKh. One motor ship was also named after him.

The biography of the pioneer Valya Kotko formed the basis of a feature film about Valya Kotko, released in 1957 under the title “Eaglet”. The film tells about the struggle of the young pioneer Vali with the fascist invaders who occupied his hometown. The boy helps his partisan detachment spy on the enemy and obtain weapons. One day, finding himself surrounded by Nazis, a schoolboy accomplishes a feat by blowing himself up with a grenade.