Mystery of mercy

21
Mystery of mercyNowadays, when no one knows exactly how many homeless children we have in our country (and the bill is already on the millions!) storythat happened during the Great Patriotic War is striking in its mercy. Maybe we live so hard today because we lost his great secret. But it was charity that was the moral support of the military generation.

From the first days of the war, after the shaft of the German invasion, there was a children's trouble. Having lost their parents, orphans roamed the forest roads. There were many such hungry, feral children in the Polotsk district of Belarus. At the end of 1941, they began to pass on to each other that there is such a foreign school teacher in Polotsk, we must get to him.

Before the war, Mikhail Stepanovich Forinko worked in Polotsk as a director of an orphanage. He graduated from the pedagogical technical school and studied by correspondence at the mathematics department of the Vitebsk Pedagogical Institute. In the early days of the war went to the front. Got surrounded. On the forest roads he began to make his way to Polotsk, which was already occupied by the Germans. At night, Mikhail Stepanovich knocked on the window of his home. He was met by his wife Maria Borisovna and children, a ten-year-old Gena and six-year-old Nina.

For more than a month, Maria Borisovna, as she could, treated her husband for a concussion. And he, suffering from a headache, told her what he had in mind. Passing through the destroyed villages, he saw children orphaned. Mikhail Stepanovich decided to try to open an orphanage in Polotsk. “I am ready to ask, to be humiliated, if only they would be allowed to gather orphans,” he said.

Mikhail Stepanovich went to the burgomaster of the city. He bowed obsequiously, drawing his statement. Forinko asked to hand over an empty building as an orphanage, to single out at least scant food rations. Many more days he went to the reception to the burgomaster, sometimes demeaning to the extreme. There was a case when Mikhail Stepanovich rushed to flush the cabinet flies away from him, persuading him to sign papers. Then he had to convince the occupying authorities of their loyalty. Finally, he obtained permission to open an orphanage in Polotsk. Mikhail Stepanovich and his wife scraped themselves, washed the walls of the dilapidated building. Instead of cots in the bedrooms they spread straw.

The news that an orphanage was opened in Polotsk began to spread rapidly throughout the district. Mikhail Stepanovich took all the orphans - the kids, who brought residents, and teenagers.

Despite the fact that announcements were posted in the city: “residents will be executed for harboring Jews,” Mikhail Stepanovich, risking his life, sheltered Jewish children in the orphanage by miraculously escaped by writing down other names.

A boy from a gypsy family also appeared here - he hid in the bushes when his relatives were taken away for execution. Now the Gypsy Mishka, barely seeing the Germans passing by, immediately climbed into the sack, stored up in the attic.

... A few years ago, when I first came to Polotsk, I managed to find Maria Borisovna Forinko, the wife of Mikhail Stepanovich (now she is dead), his daughter Nina Mikhailovna, as well as the pupils of that orphanage Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova and Ninel Klepatskaya -Voronovu. Together we came to the old building where the orphanage was located. Walls covered with moss, lilac bushes, a picturesque descent to the river. Silence.

- How did the orphanage survive? - Maria Borisovna Forinko asked. Many residents in the city had their own gardens. And in spite of the fact that the Germans went from house to house, selecting supplies, the women brought potatoes and cabbage to orphans. We also saw something else: the neighbors, meeting Mikhail Stepanovich, shook their heads sympathetically after him: “At this time, we don’t know how to feed our children, but he gathers strangers.”

“We had to work a lot,” said Ninel Klepatskaya – Voronova. - The older guys went to the forest for firewood. With the onset of summer, we gathered mushrooms, berries, medicinal herbs, and roots in the forest. Many were sick. Maria Borisovna Forinko treated us with herbal decoctions. Of course, we did not have any medications.

They recall the fear in which they lived day after day.

Passing by, the German soldiers enjoyed themselves, turning the muzzles of machine guns in the direction of the children playing. They shouted loudly: “Bunch!” And laughed, seeing as the children scattered in fear.

In the orphanage they learned about the arrests of partisans and underground fighters. On the outskirts of the city there was an anti-tank ditch from which shooting was heard at night - the Germans shot everyone who was suspected of trying to resist them. It would seem that in such a situation, orphans could become similar to small, embittered animals, pulling out a piece of bread from each other. But they did not become so. Before them was the example of the Master. Mikhail Stepanovich saved the children of the arrested underground workers, giving them other names and surnames. The children of the orphanage understood that he risked his life by saving the children of the executed partisans. No matter how small they were, nobody let it slip that there are secrets here.

The children, starving, sick, were themselves capable of doing mercy. They began to help the Red Army soldiers who were captured.

Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova told:

- Once we saw how Red Army prisoners were driven to the river to restore the bridge. They were exhausted, barely able to stand. We agreed among ourselves - we will leave them pieces of bread, potatoes. What they were doing? They decided to play around the river, threw stones at each other, getting closer and closer to the place where the prisoners of war worked. And unnoticeably they threw potatoes wrapped in leaves or pieces of bread.

In the forest, collecting brushwood, three boys-orphanage children heard a voice in the bushes. Someone called them. So they met the wounded tanker Nikolai Vanyushin, who managed to escape from captivity. He was hiding in an abandoned lodge. The children began to wear him food. Soon, Mikhail Stepanovich noticed their frequent absences, and they told him about the wounded tankman. He forbade them to go to the forest. Taking with him old trousers and a jacket, Mikhail Stepanovich found a tankman at the appointed place and brought him to an orphanage. Kolya Vanyushin was young, of small stature. He was recorded in detdomovtsy.

“I remember our evenings,” said Margarita Yatsunova. - We sit in the dark on the straw. We are plagued by ulcers, from malnutrition, they fester almost everyone - on the arms, on the legs, on the back. We retell each other the books that were once read, we invent some stories ourselves, in which everything ends with the coming of the Red Army fighters, freeing us. Slowly sang songs. We did not always know what was happening at the front. But even now, when I remember those days, I myself am amazed at how we believed in the Victory. Somehow bypassing the attic, looking into every corner, Mikhail Stepanovich suddenly saw a grenade. He gathered the older guys who often went to the forest. “Tell the guys who brought the grenade?” Is there still in the orphanage weapon? ”It turned out that the children brought and hid several grenades, a pistol and ammunition in the attic. Weapons found on the ground fighting near the village of Fishermen. “Don't you understand that you are destroying the whole orphanage?” The children knew that villages were burning around Polotsk. For the bread handed over to the partisans, the Germans burned the houses with people. And here in the attic weapons ... At night, Mikhail Stepanovich threw a pistol, grenades, ammunition into the river. The children also said that they had set up a cache near the Rybaki village: they collected and buried rifles, grenades and a machine gun found nearby.

Through his former pupil, Mikhail Stepanovich was associated with Polotsk underground workers. He asked to transfer to the partisan brigade information about the cache of weapons. And as he learned later, the partisans took everything that the orphanage had hidden in the pit.

In the late autumn of 1943, Mikhail Stepanovich learned that the German command had prepared a terrible fate for his pupils. Children as donors will be transported to hospitals. Children's blood will help heal the wounds of German officers and soldiers. Maria Borisovna Forinko told: “My husband and I were crying when I heard about this. Many of the orphanages were emaciated. They will not survive donation. Mikhail Stepanovich, through his former pupil, handed a note to the underground workers: “Help save the orphanage.” Soon the military commander of Polotsk called on her husband and demanded to compile a list of orphanages, indicate who was sick. ”No one knew how many days were left for the orphanage to start when fascist execution.

The underground sent a liaison officer to the Chapaev brigade. Jointly developed a rescue plan for children. Once again appearing to the military commander of Polotsk, Mikhail Stepanovich, as usual, bowing obsequiously, began to talk about the fact that there were many sick and weakened children among the pupils. In an orphanage instead of glass - plywood, nothing to drown. We must take the children to the village. It is easier to find food there, they will gain strength in the open air. There is also a place where you can move an orphanage. In the village Belchitsy many empty houses.

The plan, invented by the director of the orphanage together with the underground workers, worked. The military commander, after listening to the report of the director Forinko, accepted his proposal: in fact, it is worthwhile to act prudently. In the village, the children will improve their health. So, more donors can be sent to the hospitals of the Third Reich. The commandant of Polotsk issued passes to travel to the village of Belchitsy. Mikhail Stepanovich Forinko immediately informed the Polotsk underground workers about this. He was given the address of the village resident of Belchitsa, Elena Muchanko, who will help him to contact the partisans. Meanwhile, a liaison officer from Polotsk went to the Chapaev Partisan Brigade, which operated near the village of Belchitsy.

By this time in the Polotsk orphanage under the tutelage of the director Forinko gathered about two hundred orphans. At the end of December 1943, the orphanage set off. The kids were placed on the sleigh, the older ones were walking. Mikhail Stepanovich and his wife left their home, which they had built themselves before the war, left the acquired good. Children Gena and Nina also took with them.

In Belchitsy, the orphanages are located in several huts. Forinko asked his pupils to appear less on the street. Belchitsy village was considered an outpost in the fight against partisans.


There were built bunkers, were artillery and mortar batteries. Somehow, being careful, Mikhail Stepanovich Forinko called on Elena Muchanko, a coherent partisan brigade. A few days later she told him that the brigade command was developing a plan to save the orphanage. We must be ready. In the meantime, to spread the rumor in the village that the orphanage children will soon be taken to Germany.

How many people in the rear of the enemy will risk their lives in order to save the orphans unknown to them. A partisan radio operator transmitted a radiogram to the mainland: “We are waiting for aircraft to support the partisan operation”. It was February 18 1944. At night, Mikhail Stepanovich raised children: “We are leaving for the partisans!”. “We were delighted and confused,” recalled Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova. Mikhail Stepanovich quickly distributed: the older children will carry the babies. Stumbling in the deep snow, we went to the forest. Suddenly, two planes appeared over the village. Shots were heard at the far end of the village. Elder teenage orphanages walked along our sprawling column: they made sure that no one got behind, not to get lost. ”

To save the orphans, the guerrillas of the Chapaev Brigade prepared a military operation. At the appointed hour, planes flew over the village on a low-level flight, German soldiers and policemen hid in shelters. At one end of the village, the partisans, having reached the German posts, opened fire. At that time, at the other end of the village, Forinko led his pupils to the forest. “Mikhail Stepanovich warned us not to scream or make any noise,” said Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova. - Frost. Deep snow We got stuck, fell. I was exhausted, in my arms baby. I fell into the snow, but I can't get up, I have no strength. Then the partisans jumped out of the forest and began to pick us up. There were sleds in the forest. I remember: one of the partisans, seeing us, who were chilled, took off his hat, mittens, and then the short fur coat — he covered the little ones. He himself remained light. ”Thirty sleds took the children to the partisan zone. More than a hundred partisans participated in the operation to save the orphanage.

The children were brought to the village of Yemelyaniki. “We were met as relatives,” MI Yatsunova recalled. - Residents brought milk, pigs with food. It seemed to us that happy days had come. Partisans staged a concert. We sat on the floor and laughed. "

However, soon the children heard how in the village they were anxiously saying that “the blockade was going on”. Scout brigades reported that around the partisan zone German troops are being tied up. The brigade command, preparing for the upcoming battles, was also concerned about the fate of the orphanage. A radiogram was sent to the mainland: “Please send airplanes. We must take the children. " And the answer was: "Prepare the airfield." In wartime, when everything was not enough, two aircraft were allocated to save the orphanage. The guerrillas cleared the frozen lake. Contrary to all technical standards, the aircraft will land on ice. The director of the orphanage, MS Forinko, selects the most weakened and sick children. They will go the first flights. He himself and his family will fly away from the partisan camp with the last plane. That was his decision.

In those days, Moscow cameramen were in this partisan brigade. They captured footage remaining for the story. Pilot Alexander Mamkin, heroic-looking, handsome, with a good-natured smile, takes the hands of the kids and sits them in the cockpit. Usually flew at night, but there were day flights. Pilots Mamkin and Kuznetsov took on board 7-8 children. The sun was warm. Airplanes hardly rose from the melted ice.

... On that day, pilot Mamkin accepted the 9 children on board. Among them was Galina Tishchenko. She later recalled: “The weather was clear. And suddenly we saw that a German plane was above us. He fired at us with a machine gun. From the cockpit of the pilot burst flames. As it turned out, we have already flown the front line. Our plane began to decline rapidly. Sharp punch. Landed. We began to pop up. The elders were pulling the kids off the plane. Fighters ran up. Barely carried towards the pilot Mamkina, as the gas tank exploded. Two days later, Alexander Mamkin died. Being seriously wounded, he planted the plane with the last effort. Saved us. ”

In the partisan village 18 detdomovtsev left. Every day, together with Mikhail Stepanovich, they went to the airfield. But there were no more planes. Forinko, guiltily with his head down, returned to the family. I sent other children, but I didn’t manage my own ones.
No one else knew what terrible days they had ahead. Closer cannonade. The Germans, surrounding the partisan zone, are fighting on all sides. By occupying villages, they drive residents into houses and set fire to them.

Guerrillas are on the breakthrough of the ring of fire. Behind them on carts - wounded, old people, children ...

A few scattered pictures of those terrible days remained in the children's memory:

- The fire is such that cut the tops of the trees. Cries, moans of the wounded. Partizan with broken legs shouts: "Give me a gun!"

Ninel Klepatskaya-Voronova said: “As soon as there was silence, Mikhail Stepanovich, taking my hand, said: Let's go look for the guys.”. Together we walked through the forest in the dark, and he shouted: “Children, I'm here! Come to me! ”Frightened children began to crawl out of the bushes, gather around us. He stood in ragged clothes, stained with earth, and his face was enlightened: there were children. But here we heard shots and German speech. We were captured. ”

Mikhail Stepanovich and the orphanage boys were driven into a concentration camp. Forinko had a cold, weakened, could not get up. The guys shared with him pieces of food.

Maria Borisovna Forinko, together with her daughter Nina and other girls of the orphanage, got into the village, which they were preparing to burn with the people. Houses pounded with boards. But then came the partisans. Freed residents.

After the liberation of Polotsk, the Forinko family gathered together. Mikhail Stepanovich worked for many years in school as a teacher.
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  1. +5
    21 May 2016 08: 01
    Thank you for the story. It was very hard to read, because everything stood before my eyes, like in a movie.
    The history of the motherland must be known.
  2. +8
    21 May 2016 08: 04
    It is a fact. A question for the idiot "Solzhenitsyn-Gulag" people: if Stalin ruthlessly destroyed tens of millions in the Gulag and shot penal battalions in the back, why did he save children from the Nazi rear?
    1. +2
      21 May 2016 08: 10
      I'll try a little to intercede for the "morons". Mendeleev calculated that by the 21st century the population of Russia will be 500 million people. Question: where is 350 million?
      1. 0
        21 May 2016 08: 28
        Quote: mordvin xnumx
        I'll try a little to intercede for the "morons". Mendeleev calculated that by the 21st century the population of Russia will be 500 million people. Question: where is 350 million?

        So after that he brought out the recipe for ideal vodka - it would be necessary to recount the population accordingly
        1. +3
          21 May 2016 09: 10
          Quote: atalef
          So after that he brought out the recipe for ideal vodka - it would be necessary to recount the population accordingly

          He didn’t get the perfect vodka. He deduced the optimal ratio of alcohol to water. laughing
          40 degrees. soldier
          1. 0
            22 May 2016 04: 39
            Right And then used to bring down Mendeleev ....
      2. +6
        21 May 2016 10: 00
        Ask about it the West, which arranged two world wars.
        1. +2
          21 May 2016 16: 34
          Quote: Flinky
          Ask about it the West, which arranged two world wars.

          And we climbed into the First World War.
  3. Riv
    +4
    21 May 2016 09: 50
    Millions of street children in Russia! BILLIONS OF THEM !!! 111
    Meanwhile, the UNICEF statistical compilation lists the total number of street and street children of 60903 people as of 2008. In orphanages at this time, about one hundred thousand children. A lot, of course, but by no means millions.
    So not everything in Russia is so bad, and the attitude towards children has not changed. There are now people like Mikhail Stepanovich.
    1. +2
      21 May 2016 10: 50
      Both on the left and on the right, a stream of muddy information flows, unreliable, but ... "beating on the consciousness." This is cheap propaganda! On the one hand, millions were shot by Stalin, on the other, millions of street children today. How dishonorable it is!
  4. +1
    21 May 2016 10: 01
    no one knows for sure how many street children we have in our country (and the bill is already in the millions!)

    The lady is clearly hysterical.
  5. +2
    21 May 2016 10: 06
    Thanks, Lyudmila.
  6. +2
    21 May 2016 10: 49
    Mikhail Stepanovich is truly a holy man ... By all means he tried and fought for the good of the children.
  7. +2
    21 May 2016 13: 06
    This is not "mercy" in the sense of "charity" in a class antagonistic state, it is the policy of the state of the whole people in relation to man, the implementation of the principles of communism. It is no coincidence that many orphans have made "careers" in the USSR.
  8. The comment was deleted.
    1. 0
      22 May 2016 04: 33
      Not this, but this!)) And why did the author of the article not bother to provide evidence? Everything is allowed? Any nonsense to carry? There are questions. For whom and for what? This is not a violation of the rules of the site?
  9. 0
    21 May 2016 15: 20
    >> Nowadays, when no one knows exactly how many street children we have in our country (and the bill goes into the millions!)
    There is clearly a contradiction:
    1. On the one hand, no one knows for sure;
    2. On the other, Lyudmila Ovchinnikova knows for sure that there are several (how many?) Millions of them;
    The author is at odds with logic, some emotions ...
  10. +1
    21 May 2016 17: 56
    At Khoroshavin, the former governor of Sakhalin, property worth 1,1 billion rubles + in bank accounts of 750 million were seized. Despite the fact that the family income for 8 years is 55 million. And how many such governors, ministers, deputies in Russia? The problem of homeless children could be solved by shaking the servants of the people.
  11. 0
    21 May 2016 19: 14
    Thanks for the article Lyudmila! Piercing! Not far from Polotsk I live, I know this story. Thank you for reporting to many! But mercy is and will be in our hearts ...... even warriors after the battle were merciful to us ...... it is in Our blood!
  12. 0
    22 May 2016 00: 16
    What millions, billions.
  13. +1
    22 May 2016 20: 01
    Quote: iouris
    This is not "mercy" in the sense of "charity" in a class antagonistic state, it is the policy of the state of the whole people in relation to man, the implementation of the principles of communism. It is no coincidence that many orphans have made "careers" in the USSR.

    First, during the war and after, there were real orphans who lost their parents. That is, they were normal, mentally healthy children, and therefore they did careers. Now 99% of children in orphanages are "orphans" with living parents. That is, either abandoned or with parents deprived of parental rights. As cynical as it may sound, but these are children with bad heredity, and nothing good will grow out of them. Look at the statistics, as the old Russian proverb says "an apple does not fall far from an apple tree." And our ancestors were not fools, and the laws of heredity knew better than today's geneticists. With regard to the current "orphans", one should recall the experience of the Soviet Union, with its well-functioning system of vocational training and free education in universities.
  14. 0
    23 March 2018 18: 39
    OPERATION “Asterisk”. PARTICIPANTS OF VITEBSHCHEN

    “OPERATION STAR. An article was published in a newspaper more than 50 years ago in 1967. This is the most complete first description from the original source of the impudent operation of the Belarusian partisans “Zvezdochka” on the release of the pupils of the Polotsk orphanage from fascist captivity, carried out in February 1944. detachment of Shchors of Polotsk-Lepelsky partisan formation

    INTRODUCTION
    During the war, Vasily Barminsky fought with the invaders in the ranks of the partisan detachment named after Shchors br. named after Chapaev of the Polotsk-Lepelsky partisan formation operating in the Vitebsk region. Belarus.

    VV Barminsky happened to become one of the developers and direct participants in the partisan operation, called the “Star”.

    In his article “Operation Zvezdochka”, published in the newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussia” in 1967, V.V. Barminsky gives the first description of this famous one carried out at the beginning of 1944. partisans of the Shchors detachment of the operation "Asterisk", as a result of which the pupils of the Polotsk orphanage were released from German captivity.

    Operation Asterisk actually had two stages:
    - The first stage (autumn 1 - 1943/18.02.1944/XNUMX) - months of preparation and the actual release of children, for which they carried out their secretive withdrawal from the village where the German garrison was located, practically from under the nose of the Nazis, and their removal to freed partisan zone;
    - The second stage (beginning of April 2) - the forced evacuation of children by air from the partisan zone to the Soviet rear behind the front line.

    The article most fully describes the first stage of the operation "Asterisk".

    A little later, at the 2nd stage of this operation - the evacuation of children through the front line to the mainland, the pilots of the 105th separate air regiment of the Civil Air Fleet took part. Then the pilot A. Mamkin accomplished the feat.

    Considering that the partisan operation Zvezdochka gained fame over time, it began to be consciously distorted and distorted by some, others by ignorance of all factual material.
    And in the presented article it is given: how the idea of ​​the operation came about, a description of the long preparation for the operation, the participants of the operation and their role, the description of the actual operation itself are indicated.

    So, the first STAGE of the partisan operation “Asterisk” actually began in the autumn of 1. Then the reconnaissance group of the Shchors detachment found a large number in the occupied by the Germans in the village of Belchitsy. children - later it turned out that they were pupils of an orphanage displaced by the Nazis from Polotsk.

    Scouts that night secretly entered the village and met with the teachers of the orphanage to clarify the situation.

    Educators said that due to a lack of food in the city, children were starving, often sick, and an epidemic of typhoid broke out. There was information that the Germans wanted to take the children to Germany or make them donors for their wounded soldiers. However, the Nazis did not want to feed them in the city of Polotsk and were taken to the village for self-sufficiency. But after the emergence of numerous diseases of children, the Nazis, angered by defeats at the fronts, could simply destroy them.

    In general, it was clear that the lives of Soviet children, whom the partisans discovered quite by accident, were in danger.

    Subsequently, it was the partisans who initiated the decision to release the children, having carried out the operation after a long, several months, preparation with detailed intelligence in the area of ​​Polotsk and the village of Belchitsy, where the large garrison of Germans was located.

    By decision of the headquarters of the partisan br. named after Chapaev a detailed development and conduct of the military operation was carried out by the detachment named after Shchors.
    In accordance with the developed operation, it was planned to release the children so that they would not suffer, with secretive, thoughtful to the smallest detail actions.

    And now, after many months of preparation in the evening of February 18, 1944. in accordance with the plan of operation, a detachment at 50 approaches under the cover of darkness made a swift march from the place of its permanent deployment near Polotsk to the village of Belchitsy.
    In accordance with the plan, the edge of the forest near the village was turned by the partisans into a fortified line, occupied by machine-gun units of the detachment to cover the retreating partisans with children in case of detection by the Nazis.

    Then, the reconnaissance unit of the detachment secretly penetrated into Belchitsy and took the children and their educators to a predetermined place on the edge of the village.

    Further, the main group of partisans, having met the children, transferred, and the juveniles - transferred in their arms, through a snow-covered field into the forest, to carts, on which the children were brought to the partisan zone.
    The operation, as planned, was carried out with lightning speed and without clash.

    In early April 1944, as the German command launched an intensified struggle against the partisan detachments of the Polotsk-Lepel zone, and the presence of children in the partisan territories became unsafe, the headquarters of the partisan formation decided to conduct the 2nd STAGE operation “Asterisk” - by agreement with the Big Land to carry out the evacuation of children by air behind the front line to the Soviet rear.

    This truthful information from the original source, published over 50 years ago, is important to keep for posterity.

    Leonid Barminsky (Vitebsk, Belarus),
    Vladimir BARMINSKY (Dubna, Moscow region)

    NOTE: full text with photos at http://biblioteka.by/m/articles/view/ OPERATION-ZVE
    HAIR-Article-in-a-newspaper-for-1967;
    www.proza.ru/2017/07/27/1771

    *****
    An article in two issues of “Sovetskaya Belorussia” on 20, 21.06.1967/XNUMX/XNUMX (abbreviated):

    OPERATION “STAR”

    In the summer of 1943, the partisan detachment named after Shchors was relocated to the forests near Polotsk ... Our detachment defended the partisan frontiers near Polotsk, near the village of Mezhno ...

    In the fall, our reconnaissance group entered the stations of Polotsk and Gromy, as well as to Belchitsy and found out that an orphanage with about 200 children moved to this village from Polotsk.

    On the same day, scouts met with the director of the orphanage, M. Forinko. He said that due to a lack of food, children were starving, often sick, and an epidemic of typhoid broke out. The Nazis were preparing to take them out somewhere and destroy them.

    Our intelligence officers immediately reported this to the command of the partisan brigade. The command instructed the detachment to conduct daily reconnaissance in the garrisons located around Polotsk ...

    We had to clarify the size of the German garrison in Belchitsy ...
    Our squad successfully completed these tasks. In particular, it was found that in the villages of Belchitsy there is a reinforced garrison of fascists, which consisted of three battalions ...

    Intelligence in order to clarify all the circumstances related to the release of children was conducted for a total of several months ...

    Then a special meeting was held at the brigade headquarters.
    It was attended by the commander of the compound V.E. Lobanok, the command of the brigade and detachment, ... including V. Barminsky.

    After Comrade Gvozdev’s information and exchange of views, it was decided to conduct an operation to free the children. She received the conditional name "STAR."

    The detailed development and conduct of this operation was entrusted to our detachment.

    The scheduled day arrived - February 18, 1944.
    In the evening, our detachment went on a combat mission ... made a big march-throw near Polotsk.

    With the onset of darkness, they occupied the edge near Belchitsa, leaving carts in the forest. Soon the edge of the forest was turned into a fortified line. Trenches were dug in the snow, machine guns were placed.
    And a reconnaissance group was sent to the village of Belchitsa to bring the children to the designated place.
    The detachment was instructed to come close to the village in order to meet the children and carry it in their arms into the forest. Part of the partisans was at the edge of the forest, ready to join the battle.

    At the appointed time, children went to the forest in small groups.
    The partisans in white camouflage robes went forward to meet the children who were leaving the fascist garrison ... took them in their arms and carried them into the forest. I had two in my arms: a boy of about five and a girl of about the same age ... Kneeling in the snow, he carried children farther and deeper into the woods ...

    Soon the children ... the luge train delivered at night to the partisan zone, to the location of our detachment. Then the children were housed in the village of Emelyaniki ...

    The unit commander V. Lobanok and the commissar of br. Comrade Korenevsky ... Thanks were announced to all personnel. A group of partisans presented for government awards ...

    Another step in saving children is to evacuate them to the mainland.
    Several times a day, pilots Alexander Mamkin, Nikolai Zhukov, Dmitry Kuznetsov flew in for children from behind the front line.

    Mamkin rose 9 times from Lake Kovalevshchina. He was carrying two wounded partisans, 11 children and their teacher V.S. Latko.

    When flying across the front line, the plane was shot down and caught fire. But Mamkin did not release the helm and planted a blazing car. As soon as the children managed to get out of it, there was an explosion. The burnt pilot was thrown back by a blast wave. Six days later, he died from serious wounds in the hospital.
    In the name of saving the children, the hero pilot Mamkin sacrificed his life.

    The value of the operation "Asterisk" is difficult to overestimate. The release of nearly two hundred children is perhaps the only case in the history of guerrilla warfare during the Great Patriotic War.

    The children rescued by the partisans (now they are already adults) live and work in various regions of our country ...

    Many partisans did not live to see the bright day of Victory.
    The secretary of the Ushachsky district party committee, T. Korenevsky, the commissar of the partisan detachment named after Shchors Ivan Korolenko, the chief of staff of the same detachment, Ivan Krupin, and many others died ...

    But we, former partisans, remember and will always remember them.


    V.V. BARMINSKY, former deputy. Commissioner of the Shchors Detachment

    *****

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