Alexander Bondarenko young heroes of the fatherland. Young heroes of the fatherland. “The prince has already begun!” (Svyatoslav, Grand Duke of Kiev)

“Day of Heroes of the Fatherland” - Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov. For his services, Alexander Nevsky was canonized. Icon of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky. In the USSR, the Order of Alexander Nevsky was established on July 29, 1942. The veneration of the Great Martyr George the Victorious has acquired special significance. In the USSR, the Order of St. George was replaced by the Golden Star of the Hero.

“City of Young Russians” - Conversation with elements of the game “United by strong friendship.” "Symbolic" area. Series of conversations “History state symbols Russian Federation, Kostroma, Kostroma region." Conversation about New Year's symbols and customs. 1st grade Workshop “Games and fun of the Russian people.” Blitz survey “Word about hometown" “I am a citizen of Russia, I am a Kostroma resident.”

“Young Firefighters Squad” - Among assistant firefighters, squads of young firefighters occupy an important place. Basic principles when creating a DUP. Living cracks and wrinkles are not visible under the layer of ash. For red-haired and gray-haired firefighters In smoky and scorched sackcloths Like all the mourned saints, there is not enough space on the icons. Organization of the work of the DUP. Sample DYP classes during the school year.

“Young Heroes” - Memory is our history. Defense of the Motherland has become a matter of honor for every citizen. Young heroes Great Patriotic War- example for patriotic education. Vali Kotika. The courage and courage of the pioneers became an example for Soviet children. The names of young heroes will forever remain in the memory of our people. Leni Golikova.

“Young anti-fascist hero” - Valya Kotik. Monument to Zina Portnova. Marat Kazei is a hero of the Soviet Union. Young pioneer heroes Soviet Union. Valya Kotik is a hero of the Soviet Union. February 8 is the Day of the Young Anti-Fascist Hero. Valya Kotik in the partisan detachment. Partisan Lenya Golikov. Monument to Tanya Savicheva. Funeral of Lenya Golikov. Monument to pioneer heroes.

“Heroes of the Fatherland” - A. Nevsky. K. Minin and D. Pozharsky. A.V. Suvorov (1730 – 1800). Famous battles: 1240 – Battle of the Neva; 1242 – Battle on the Ice. Prince of Moscow and Vladimir, built a new stone Kremlin in Moscow. Icon of St. G.K. Zhukov 1896-1974. Great Russian commander. Saint Reverend A. Nevsky. Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263).

Twelve of several thousand examples of unparalleled childhood courage
Young heroes of the Great Patriotic War - how many were there? If you count - how could it be otherwise?! - the hero of every boy and every girl whom fate brought to war and made soldiers, sailors or partisans, then tens, if not hundreds of thousands.

According to official data from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) of Russia, during the war there were over 3,500 military personnel under the age of 16 in combat units. At the same time, it is clear that not every unit commander who risked raising a son of the regiment found the courage to declare his pupil on command. You can understand how their father-commanders, who actually served as fathers to many, tried to hide the age of the little fighters by looking at the confusion in the award documents. On yellowed archival sheets, the majority of underage military personnel clearly indicate an inflated age. The real one became clear much later, after ten or even forty years.

But there were also children and teenagers who fought in partisan detachments and were members of underground organizations! And there were much more of them: sometimes whole families joined the partisans, and if not, then almost every teenager who found himself on the occupied land had someone to avenge.

So “tens of thousands” is far from an exaggeration, but rather an understatement. And, apparently, we will never know the exact number of young heroes of the Great Patriotic War. But this is no reason not to remember them.

The boys walked from Brest to Berlin

The youngest of all known little soldiers - at least according to documents stored in military archives - can be considered a graduate of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 47th Guards Rifle Division, Sergei Aleshkin. In archival documents you can find two certificates of awarding a boy who was born in 1936 and ended up in the army on September 8, 1942, shortly after the punitive forces shot his mother and older brother for connections with the partisans. The first document, dated April 26, 1943, is about awarding him the medal “For Military Merit” due to the fact that “Comrade. ALESHKIN, the favorite of the regiment,” “with his cheerfulness, love for his unit and those around him, in extremely difficult moments, inspired cheerfulness and confidence in victory.” The second, dated November 19, 1945, is about awarding students of the Tula Suvorov Military School with the medal “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”: in the list of 13 Suvorov students, Aleshkin’s name comes first.

But still, such a young soldier is an exception even for wartime and for a country where the entire people, young and old, rose up to defend the Motherland. Most of the young heroes who fought at the front and behind enemy lines were on average 13–14 years old. The very first of them were defenders Brest Fortress, and one of the sons of the regiment is a holder of the Order of the Red Star, Order Glory III degrees and medals “For Courage” Vladimir Tarnovsky, who served in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th Infantry Division, left his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag in the victorious May of 1945...

The youngest Heroes of the Soviet Union

These four names - Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei, Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik - have been the most famous symbol of the heroism of the young defenders of our Motherland for over half a century. Having fought in different places and having accomplished feats of different circumstances, they were all partisans and all were posthumously awarded the country's highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Two - Lena Golikov and Zina Portnova - were 17 years old by the time they showed unprecedented courage, two more - Valya Kotik and Marat Kazei - were only 14.

Lenya Golikov was the first of the four who was awarded highest rank: the decree on the assignment was signed on April 2, 1944. The text says that Golikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union “for exemplary execution of command assignments and demonstrated courage and heroism in battle.” And indeed, in less than a year - from March 1942 to January 1943 - Lenya Golikov managed to take part in the defeat of three enemy garrisons, in the blowing up of more than a dozen bridges, in the capture of a German major general with secret documents... And died heroically in battle near the village of Ostray Luka, without waiting for a high reward for capturing the strategically important “tongue”.

Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik were awarded the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union 13 years after the Victory, in 1958. Zina was awarded for the courage with which she conducted underground work, then served as a liaison between the partisans and the underground, and ultimately endured inhuman torment, falling into the hands of the Nazis at the very beginning of 1944. Valya - according to the totality of feats in the ranks of Shepetovsky partisan detachment named after Karmelyuk, where he came after a year of work in an underground organization in Shepetivka itself. And Marat Kazei received the highest award only in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory: the decree conferring on him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was promulgated on May 8, 1965. For almost two years - from November 1942 to May 1944 - Marat fought as part of the partisan formations of Belarus and died, blowing up both himself and the Nazis surrounding him with the last grenade.

Over the past half century, the circumstances of the exploits of the four heroes have become known throughout the country: more than one generation has grown up from their example. Soviet schoolchildren, and the current ones are certainly told about them. But even among those who did not receive the highest award, there were many real heroes - pilots, sailors, snipers, scouts and even musicians.

Sniper Vasily Kurka

The war found Vasya a sixteen-year-old teenager. In the very first days he was mobilized to the labor front, and in October he achieved enrollment in the 726th Infantry Regiment of the 395th Infantry Division. At first, the boy of non-conscription age, who also looked a couple of years younger than his age, was left in the wagon train: they say, there is nothing for teenagers to do on the front line. But soon the guy achieved his goal and was transferred to a combat unit - to a sniper team.

Vasily Kurka. Photo: Imperial War Museum

Amazing military fate: from the first to last day Vasya Kurka fought in the same regiment of the same division! Made a good one military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant and taking command of a rifle platoon. He chalked up, according to various sources, from 179 to 200 Nazis killed. He fought from Donbass to Tuapse and back, and then further to the West, to the Sandomierz bridgehead. It was there that Lieutenant Kurka was mortally wounded in January 1945, less than six months before the Victory.

Pilot Arkady Kamanin

15-year-old Arkady Kamanin arrived at the location of the 5th Guards Attack Air Corps with his father, who had been appointed commander of this illustrious unit. The pilots were surprised to learn that the son of the legendary pilot, one of the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union, a participant in the Chelyuskin rescue expedition, would work as an aircraft mechanic in a communications squadron. But they soon became convinced that the “general’s son” did not live up to their negative expectations at all. The boy did not hide behind the back of his famous father, but simply did his job well - and strived towards the sky with all his might.

Sergeant Kamanin in 1944. Photo: war.ee

Soon Arkady achieved his goal: first he takes to the air as a flight attendant, then as a navigator on a U-2, and then goes on his first independent flight. And finally - the long-awaited appointment: the son of General Kamanin becomes a pilot of the 423rd separate communications squadron. Before the victory, Arkady, who had risen to the rank of sergeant major, managed to fly almost 300 hours and earn three orders: two of the Red Star and one of the Red Banner. And if it weren’t for meningitis, which literally killed an 18-year-old boy in the spring of 1947, perhaps Kamanin Jr. would have been included in the cosmonaut corps, the first commander of which was Kamanin Sr.: Arkady managed to enroll in the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy back in 1946.

Frontline intelligence officer Yuri Zhdanko

Ten-year-old Yura ended up in the army by accident. In July 1941, he went to show the retreating Red Army soldiers a little-known ford on the Western Dvina and did not have time to return to his native Vitebsk, where the Germans had already entered. So he left with his unit to the east, all the way to Moscow, from there to begin the return journey to the west.

Yuri Zhdanko. Photo: russia-reborn.ru

Yura accomplished a lot along this path. In January 1942, he, who had never jumped with a parachute before, went to the rescue of partisans who were surrounded and helped them break through the enemy ring. In the summer of 1942, together with a group of fellow reconnaissance officers, he blew up a strategically important bridge across the Berezina, sending not only the bridge deck, but also nine trucks driving along it to the bottom of the river, and less than a year later he was the only one of all the messengers who managed to break through to the encircled battalion and help it get out of the “ring”.

By February 1944, the chest of the 13-year-old intelligence officer was decorated with the medal “For Courage” and the Order of the Red Star. But a shell that exploded literally under his feet interrupted Yura’s front-line career. He ended up in the hospital, from where he was sent to the Suvorov Military School, but did not pass due to health reasons. Then the retired young intelligence officer retrained as a welder and on this “front” he also managed to become famous, having traveled almost half of Eurasia with his welding machine - building pipelines.

Infantryman Anatoly Komar

Among the 263 Soviet soldiers who covered enemy embrasures with their bodies, the youngest was a 15-year-old private of the 332nd reconnaissance company of the 252nd rifle division of the 53rd army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front Anatoly Komar. IN active army the teenager was caught in September 1943, when the front came close to him to my native Slavyansk. This happened to him in almost the same way as to Yura Zhdanko, with the only difference being that the boy served as a guide not to the retreating, but to the advancing Red Army soldiers. Anatoly helped them go deep into the German frontline, and then left with the advancing army to the west.

Young partisan. Photo: Imperial War Museum

But, unlike Yura Zhdanko, Tolya Komar’s front-line path was much shorter. For only two months he had the opportunity to wear the shoulder straps that had recently appeared in the Red Army and go on reconnaissance missions. In November of the same year, returning from a free search behind German lines, a group of scouts revealed themselves and was forced to break through to their own in battle. The last obstacle on the way back was a machine gun, pinning the reconnaissance unit to the ground. Anatoly Komar threw a grenade at him, and the fire died down, but as soon as the scouts got up, the machine gunner began shooting again. And then Tolya, who was closest to the enemy, stood up and fell on the machine gun barrel, at the cost of his life, buying his comrades precious minutes for a breakthrough.

Sailor Boris Kuleshin

In the cracked photograph, a boy of about ten stands against the backdrop of sailors in black uniforms with ammunition boxes on their backs and the superstructure of a Soviet cruiser. His hands tightly grip a PPSh assault rifle, and on his head he wears a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Tashkent.” This is a student of the crew of the leader of the Tashkent destroyers, Borya Kuleshin. The photo was taken in Poti, where, after repairs, the ship called for another load of ammunition for the besieged Sevastopol. It was here that twelve-year-old Borya Kuleshin appeared at the Tashkent gangplank. His father died at the front, his mother, as soon as Donetsk was occupied, was driven to Germany, and he himself managed to escape across the front line to his own people and, together with the retreating army, reach the Caucasus.

Boris Kuleshin. Photo: weralbum.ru

While they were persuading the ship’s commander, Vasily Eroshenko, while they were making a decision in which combat unit to enlist the cabin boy, the sailors managed to give him a belt, a cap and a machine gun and take a photograph of the new crew member. And then there was the transition to Sevastopol, the first raid on “Tashkent” in Bori’s life and the first clips in his life for an anti-aircraft artillery machine, which he, along with other anti-aircraft gunners, gave to the shooters. At his combat post, he was wounded on July 2, 1942, when German aircraft tried to sink a ship in the port of Novorossiysk. After the hospital, Borya followed Captain Eroshenko to a new ship - the guards cruiser "Red Caucasus". And already here he received a well-deserved reward: nominated for the medal “For Courage” for the battles on “Tashkent”, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner by the decision of the front commander, Marshal Budyonny and member of the Military Council, Admiral Isakov. And in the next front-line photo he is already showing off in the new uniform of a young sailor, on whose head is a cap with a guards ribbon and the inscription “Red Caucasus”. It was in this uniform that in 1944 Borya went to the Tbilisi Nakhimov School, where in September 1945 he, along with other teachers, educators and students, was awarded the medal “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”

Musician Petr Klypa

Fifteen-year-old student of the musical platoon of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, Pyotr Klypa, like other minor inhabitants of the Brest Fortress, had to go to the rear with the beginning of the war. But to leave the fighting citadel, which, among others, was defended by the only dear person- his older brother, Lieutenant Nikolai, Petya refused. So he became one of the first teenage soldiers in the Great Patriotic War and a full participant in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress.

Peter Klypa. Photo: worldwar.com

He fought there until the beginning of July, until he received an order, together with the remnants of the regiment, to break through to Brest. This is where Petya's ordeal began. Having crossed the tributary of the Bug, he, along with other colleagues, was captured, from which he soon managed to escape. I got to Brest, lived there for a month and moved east, behind the retreating Red Army, but did not reach it. During one of the overnight stays, he and a friend were discovered by police, and the teenagers were sent to forced labor in Germany. Petya was released only in 1945 by American troops, and after verification he even managed to serve for several months in Soviet army. And upon returning to his homeland, he again ended up in jail because he succumbed to the persuasion of an old friend and helped him speculate with the loot. Pyotr Klypa was released only seven years later. For this he had to thank the historian and writer Sergei Smirnov, who piece by piece recreated the history of the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress and, of course, did not miss the story of one of its youngest defenders, who after his liberation was awarded the order Patriotic War I degree.

Young Heroes of the Fatherland

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Title: Young Heroes of the Fatherland

About the book Alexander Bondarenko “Young Heroes of the Fatherland”

This book is dedicated to the young heroes of our Fatherland: children and younger age, and already almost an adult, 16 years old, who lived in various historical eras– from the 10th century to the present day. Among them are the future rulers of the Russian land, young soldiers and officers, as well as the most ordinary children of various nationalities. Some of them became war heroes, others performed feats in Peaceful time- in your native village, on the street of your city, even in your home. And since a feat is always associated with danger, sometimes mortal, then, unfortunately, many of them remained young forever... But, as stated in Holy Scripture, “there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” - that is, there is no greater love for people than to give one’s life for them. After all, life is always a choice, and each person makes it independently: how and why to live, what trace, what memory to leave of oneself on earth.

Some of our heroes subsequently became famous for other deeds, reached considerable heights in life, and for some, it was a childhood feat that became the most striking event of their entire life - perhaps a very long one, her finest hour. Talking about young heroes, we also talk about the history of our entire country, which includes their exploits. History, as we know, is made by people through their actions, and therefore the book “Young Heroes of the Fatherland” is addressed to everyone who is interested in the history of our country, who is not indifferent to its present and future.

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Alexander Yulievich Bondarenko

Young Heroes of the Fatherland

Two days later, the Turks actually attacked Russian positions on the island of Rodamas, but they were expected there, they were well prepared for the meeting, so they responded with well-aimed fire, and the enemy was driven back with heavy losses...

Emperor Nicholas I highly appreciated the feat of the 13-year-old hero. He was awarded the medal “For Diligence” on a red Annensky ribbon and 10 half-imperials - a large number for those times sum of money. Somewhat later, Raicho's father also received a cash allowance of one hundred chervonets. But the main thing that made the boy happy was that the tsar fulfilled his request, allowing him to stay in Russia, learn Russian literacy and enter military service.

A few years later, Herodion Nikolov trained and became a border guard officer on the Moldavian-Wallachian border - closer to his homeland. As a Russian officer, he was elevated to the dignity of nobility.

When the struggle to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule began in the 1870s, many Russian officers, even before Russia entered the war, volunteered for the Balkans to fight the Turks. Lieutenant Colonel Nikolov became the commander of a detachment of one of the Bulgarian squads. For the courage shown in battles, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree with a bow.

But the life of our hero was short: he was mortally wounded during fierce battles on Mount Shipka and was buried here in his native land.

Commander of the Varangian and the Korean

(Sasha Stepanov)

January 27, 1904 Japanese warships suddenly attacked the Russian squadron stationed on the outer roadstead of the Port Arthur fortress. So it began Russo-Japanese War, to which neither Tsar Nicholas II nor Russian government, nor the command of the Russian army were not ready, although they had all known about the possibility of such a war for a long time and were even confident in the unconditional victory of Russia. In this war there were loud battles, brilliant feats and wonderful heroes, but there was no our victory in it. We can say that it was Nicholas II who lost this war - because of his incompetent state, military and economic policy, their attitude towards the army and the selection of army leadership.

The events of this war are devoted to several very interesting books Russians Soviet writers, including the novel “Port Arthur” by Alexander Nikolaevich Stepanov. But few people know that the author of this book saw the events he describes with his own eyes, being a young hero of the defense of the fortress...

Since time immemorial in noble family Stepanov, all men served in the artillery. He dreamed of becoming an artillery officer and little Sasha, who already studied in Polotsk cadet corps, in present-day Belarus. However, in 1903 his father was transferred to Port Arthur, and all big family Stepanov went to Far East. Sasha was eleven years old, and his parents decided not to leave him alone, and therefore took him away from the corps, so the cadet had to take off his shoulder straps and enter a real school - a school where education was given with an emphasis on the study of mathematics and the exact sciences. Of course, the boy was very upset: it’s one thing to be a cadet, a military man, and quite another thing to be a realist, a “shtafirka”! But if Alexander knew what combat tests would lie ahead of him in the very near future...

His father was appointed commander of the artillery battery of the so-called Small Eagle's Nest. Sasha went to school and made new friends. Mom ran the household and took care of the younger children. The family’s life gradually returned to normal – everything was the same as in Russia.

But soon the war began. After they thundered near Port Arthur naval battles, and shells fired from Japanese ships began to explode on the streets of the city, a decision was made to evacuate the families of the officers. The Stepanovs also left - mother, Sasha, his younger brother and two sisters. The father sat them all down in the compartment of the railway carriage, kissed them goodbye, waved his hand after the train for a long time, thinking about whether they would have to see each other again.

And two days later Alexander returned. It turned out that he escaped from the train at the first station. And what was to be done with him?! His father whipped him, but left him on his battery. As they say, the train has left – in both senses.

On April 22, Japanese troops landed near Port Arthur, and already on the 28th the fortress was under blockade. Now Japanese guns They fired at it every day and quite often, and the Port Arthur guns returned fire. At first, Sasha was afraid of these shellings, hid in his father’s dugout and sat there until the shells stopped thundering, but he soon got used to it and, like the soldiers, no longer paid much attention to the shooting.

He spent several months on the battery. And since it is impossible to live in positions just like that, without doing anything, he soon took on the duties of assistant battery commander. The boy not only conveyed his father’s orders to the firing positions, but also checked the correct installation of the sight: the soldiers were mostly illiterate and often made mistakes, and he, as a cadet, had certain skills in artillery. When Japanese shell explosions cut off the telephone line, Sasha, despite the shelling, bravely “ran along the wire,” looked for the break point and repaired it.

The situation in the besieged fortress worsened every day. There was not enough ammunition, water and food, the soldiers died not only under enemy fire and while repelling Japanese attacks, but also due to various diseases that literally decimated the garrison.

Captain Stepanov fell ill and was sent to the hospital, so Sasha was essentially left homeless. However, he was not alone - there were other sons of officers in the fortress, whose mothers had left, and whose fathers were in the hospital or died. Then these guys were assigned to help water carriers when delivering water to the forts and fortifications of the fortress: there were no water pipes or conduits, and water was transported to the garrison at night in large 20-bucket barrels mounted on carts. Each barrel was pulled by a team of two donkeys.

During the day, the guys washed and cleaned the barrels, filled them to the top with water, and in the evening, when dusk was gathering over the besieged fortress, they handed over the sleds to the water carrier soldiers, who went their separate ways and waited for their return. The boys also had to look after the donkeys: feed, water, clean, harness.

Sasha named his long-eared charges big names Varyag and Koreets - in honor of the Russian ships that died heroically in an unequal battle with the Japanese on the very first day of the war. The Varangian was healthier than the Korean, but lazy and stubborn - if he resisted, he could not be moved either by prodding, or by treats, or by beatings. But Stepanov soon learned that when you splash water on a donkey, he immediately becomes submissive and goes where he is told.

The fighting did not stop, the shelling continued, and the number of soldiers defending Port Arthur was inexorably decreasing. After some time, the guys had to replace the drivers and carry water to the front line themselves. Sasha Stepanov got the route from the Litera B battery to Fort No. 2 - about one and a half kilometers long. Whether the Japanese were shooting or not, every night he led his stubborn Varyag and Korean, harnessed to a heavy barrel, along this difficult path, stopped in certain places and distributed water to the soldiers in a precisely established, calculated volume: on one fortification there were two buckets, on the other - three ... The buckets were large and heavy, so by the end of the journey both my back hurt and my arms didn’t obey me. It wasn’t a child’s job, of course, it was work, but war and siege are generally not children’s activities.

At the beginning of November 1904, a Japanese shell exploded near the house where Sasha lived. The house collapsed, Stepanov’s both legs were damaged, and the boy was sent to the hospital. When he recovered, he went to one of the batteries of White Wolf Bay, where his father was, again in command of the artillery pieces. And Sasha continued his military service there.

On December 20, 1904, the Russian command treacherously surrendered the fortress, although the defenders of Port Arthur were still able and ready to resist. The victors took the captured Russian soldiers and officers to Japan, so that on January 21, 1905, Sasha Stepanov ended up with his father in the city of Nagasaki.

The young hero of the defense of Port Arthur did not stay there long: a few weeks later, together with sick soldiers and officers, he was sent by ship to Russia. The route ran through Shanghai, Manila, Singapore, Colombo, Djibouti, Port Said, Constantinople - names that would make any boy's head spin.

On March 8, Sasha was met in the Odessa port by his mother... Only a year and a half has passed since his arrival in the Far East.

"Peaceful children of labor"

This is what the wonderful Russian called the heroes of one of his most famous poems poet XIX century Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. The guys our story is about lived almost at the same time as him - maybe a little later. They did not wear officer epaulettes or soldiers' shoulder straps, did not participate in battles, they were not awarded orders and medals - but it so happened that each of these simple peasant children who lived in various parts of Russia, these “peaceful children of labor”, in some At that moment I had to risk my life to save other people. It doesn’t matter whether they are family or complete strangers. The main thing is that they all acted then exactly as their conscience told them, as their heart told them.

After that, each of them lived his most ordinary life, but there is no doubt that it was honest, worthy and, God willing, long and happy life people who work in their native land.

And therefore, let us once again remember the words of the poet N. A. Nekrasov:

That nature is not mediocre,
That land has not yet perished,
What brings people out
There are so many glorious ones, you know, -
So many kind, noble,
Strong loving soul
Among the stupid, cold
And pompous of themselves!

There is something here to think about for a person just entering life.

Angara - a wayward river

(Timosha Grechin)

336 rivers and streams flow into Lake Baikal, and only the Angara flows out of it - a fast, wide, stormy, capricious, and very cold river.

On the shore along the Angara, somewhere in the Irkutsk province, stretches the large village of Vorobyovo, which is closely approached by dense taiga. When you leave the hut, you look at how the green wall stands in front of you. The places here are beautiful, protected, but in order to plow the fields, it was necessary to first cut down centuries-old trees, uproot stumps, and then cultivate the arable land. However, the Vorobyov peasants found another way out: in the middle of the river there was a large island, which they turned into their field, where they came along the river in boats and longboats. IN time of suffering They usually went there early in the morning and returned only late in the evening...

One fine day, when the people were already hard at work on their island field - the harvest and harvesting of grain had begun - a worker of the wealthy peasant Grechin took a horse to the owner on a large longboat. The owner's son Timosha, a boy of about fifteen, went with him. Timosha himself, unfortunately, was a useless worker - the boy was small for his age, quiet, weak, and even lame. But he had a kind, gentle disposition, they say about such people that he wouldn’t hurt a fly, and people pitied him. He usually stayed at home rather than working in the fields with everyone else.

- What are you up to, Timosha? – the worker asked affectionately. - Why can’t you stay at home?

– Why sit when everyone is in the field? - he answered. – The island is nice, fresh, fun with people! Yes, maybe I can help my father in some way...

While they were getting ready to set off, they led the horse along the gangplank onto the longboat, and she, of course, was afraid, did not go, then they tied her there, a young peasant, Khrisanf Stupin, came out of his hut - a healthy man and a competent peasant, but he was still a little tipsy, I didn’t have time to recover from yesterday’s holiday, so I overslept the general departure to the island.

A worker called out to him, but Chrysanthus did not answer, he hid his eyes, he was ashamed that he had gone on a spree. He sat down in his fragile boat and began rowing hastily, in order to quickly make up for lost time - the oars were bending, the boat was literally flying along the river. The current near the Angara is stormy, the boat dances on the waves, sways, rolls from side to side. And suddenly there was trouble: the boat rocked, and a brand new sickle, which the man had carelessly thrown onto the stern bank - the back bench, slid along the board and fell overboard into the water. And, of course, straight to the bottom. The peasant did not even realize that, as they say, all hell was lost, the sickle sank irrevocably, and he started to grab it. After all, a sickle costs money; to buy it, you need to go to the city for a fair, and what can you do on the island without it now?! But then the boat swayed strongly, fell on its side and capsized, and Stupin fell into the water. As luck would have it, all this happened in the deepest place. The boat floats upside down, the current carries it away, and Chrysanthos in the water tries to catch up with his little boat, but then he too is carried somewhere to the side.

- Good people, help! Save! I'm drowning! - the man shouted.

But who will hear him when all the people are on the island?

Only Timosha saw what happened - the worker was driving the longboat and did not look around. Without saying a word, the boy jumped into a small boat that was tied to the stern of the longboat, grabbed the oars and rowed to the drowning man - well, he was downstream, it was easy to row. In a hurry, the boy sat down facing not the stern, but the bow, and the mighty river carried the boat forward astern.

- Grab the stern! - he shouted to the man, swimming up.

Yes where there! When a person drowns, he loses his mind - it’s not for nothing that they say that a drowning person clutches at straws. So Khrisanf Stupin grabbed tightly onto the side of the boat, pulled it towards himself, trying to climb into it. The boat tilted and scooped up water on its side. Another moment - and it will capsize, both will end up in the water, and then there will definitely be no salvation. But Timosha did not lose his composure, he leaned onto the other side, even leaned over it - and leveled the boat. And the man, who had swallowed water, was frozen, was already exhausted and was simply hanging on board, holding on from last bit of strength. But, God forbid, he unclenches his fingers and that’s it, he drowns! Then the boy, without deviating from his side, contrived and extended his hand to him, grabbed him by the hair, and pulled him towards him. And he was so puny and frail, as they said about him, but he managed to drag a huge man into his boat! He fell to the bottom, froze, and lay there breathing heavily until they swam to the shore...

Bottomless Well