The most terrible and deadly war of all times and peoples is the Great Patriotic War! Millions of people died in it, including young guys who desperately defended their homeland. Leonid Aleksandrovich Golikov is one of such heroes, immortally living in the hearts of compatriots.
The most ordinary boy Lenya Golikov grew up as a happy and carefree representative of his generation. His life was filled with household chores, friendship with the guys from his yard and studying at school. And after finishing the seven-year period, he got a job at a plywood factory.
And then, at the age of fifteen, a war began with the Nazi invaders, which unexpectedly interrupted all his plans for life. Very soon, German troops occupied a village in the Novgorod region, where Lenya Golikov grew up. With a pain in his heart, the boy watched the new orders and gross outrages that the Nazis were doing on Russian soil. His patriotic fervor did not allow him to simply watch the suffering of his fellow villagers, and he quickly decided to defend his beloved land by all available methods.
After stubborn battles for the village, when it was recaptured from the Nazis, the brave boy without hesitation enlisted in the newly formed partisan detachment. Despite his young age, on the guarantee of his school mentor, who was in this detachment, he was nevertheless accepted into it. It was then that, for the first time in his life, he felt the whole burden of responsibility for the liberation of the Fatherland from the invaders that were not asked for and vowed to defend his native land and his compatriots to the last drop of his blood.
Another page was added to the heroic chronicle of our Motherland, when in March 1942 Leonid Golikov became a scout in a partisan detachment belonging to the Leningrad brigade. There he became a member of the Komsomol organization.
Fight against German invaders
Partisans made a huge contribution to the liberation of our Motherland from German troops during the Great Patriotic War. They became a real punishment for the Nazis, because their actions behind enemy lines were accompanied by the destruction of manpower and equipment, food and ammunition, violated the order of interaction of military units established by wartime. The hated enemy was very much afraid of the guerrillas, who forced them to spend time and resources to neutralize the threat.
The combat experience of Leni Golikov also has such a case when one day, returning from intelligence, he came across five German servicemen. These Hitlerites were so passionate about looting in the apiary that they left their weapons aside from the place of eating honey and fighting bees. The young partisan, without thinking twice, killed three people, and two were lucky enough to leave the battlefield on their own.
During his partisan activities, the heroic scout managed to take part in twenty-seven military operations, during which seventy-eight German officers, several bridges and enemy vehicles were destroyed.
The feat of Leni Golikov
And the heroic feat of Leni Golikov, which remained the country's immortal heritage as an eternal memory of grateful descendants, took place on August 13, 1942 near the village of Varintsy on the Luga-Pskov highway. While on a combat mission together with another partisan, Lenya was able to blow up a German car in which an important German military rank was traveling (Major General of the Engineering Troops Richard von Wirtz). In his possession was invaluable documentation, including drawings of enemy mines and other new weapons, which subsequently rendered great assistance to the Soviet army in the fight against the Nazis.
For heroic actions behind enemy lines related to obtaining strategically important information, Lenya Golikov was awarded the Gold Star medal and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). In December 1942, the partisans of the detachment where Golikov fought were surrounded by German troops. For a long time, the partisans held a perimeter defense, desperately repulsing numerous enemy attacks. On one of these days, they even managed to break through the German defenses in a fierce battle and break out of the cordon, changing their place of deployment.
The losses of the detachment were very significant. Only about fifty partisans remained in combat formation, who, moreover, ran out of ammunition and food, and the radio was destroyed, which made communication with other partisans impossible. After a long pursuit by the Nazis, the twenty-seven surviving partisans were forced to stop at the outskirts of the village of Ostraya Luka. Since no German units were found near, for maximum secrecy of the detachment, the leader of the partisans decided not to post a patrol. However, the traitor Stepanov from among the inhabitants of the village passed information about the partisans to the elder Pykhov, who, in turn, made them known to the punitive detachment of the Germans.
The betrayal of the Motherland by both participants in this atrocity was subject to retribution. Pykhov, who received a significant reward from the Nazis for the timely delivery of information about the partisans, was shot at the beginning of 1944 as a traitor. And Stepanov, who showed remarkable opportunistic abilities, later began to fight against the Germans as part of a partisan detachment. This happened when the outcome of the war was clearly predetermined. It's amazing how this "hero" of the war returned home, having even managed to win awards for military valor in defeating the enemy. However, the fairness of Soviet justice overtook him in 1948. Stepanov was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison with the complete withdrawal of all awards.
Death of a hero
After the betrayal of Pykhov and Stepanov in January 1943, the village was surrounded by a squad of punishers of fifty people. By the way, in this operation to destroy the partisans on the side of the Nazis, the villagers also participated, who ingloriously collaborated with them. A short battle took place, in which almost all the partisans were destroyed. Only six of them managed to escape into the forest. Lenya Golikov also died in this bloody battle.
It is interesting that the perpetuation of the memory of Leni Golikov was associated with the history of his photograph, which was considered lost for a long time. So, to reflect the heroic image of a young partisan in 1958, the artist V. Fomin used a photo of his sister Lydia. However, a photograph of the heroic partisan was subsequently found. But the symbol of all domestic adolescents has already been immortalized in his convincingly created image. Therefore, many of his images still show off a portrait drawn from a photograph of his sister.
Immortal memory
At present, the name of Leonid Golikov is on a par with such Soviet pioneer heroes as Vitya Korobkov, Marat Kazei, Zina Portnova and Valya Kotik. However, there was a time in the controversial historical period of "perestroika and glasnost", when many heroes recognized by the Soviet regime were subjected to the procedure of "exposure". Lenya Golikov, who was recognized as a person belonging to an older category than the members of the pioneer organization, was also subjected to this provocative epic.
The heroic feat of the young patriot, described in Yuri Korolkov's book "Partisan Lenya Golikov", is a real historical monument describing the legendary behavior of a young man who loves his country during the period of the threat of enemy invasion hanging over it. It was Yu. Korolkov, who went through the entire terrible war as a war correspondent, who considered it justified to reduce the age of Leni Golikov by two years. This technique helped make his combat story more revealing.
It was important for the writer to show a vivid collective image of the pioneer. And Leonid Golikov was also a Hero of the Soviet Union, embodying all the qualities of a young defender of the Motherland. Thus, the story of the fighting heroism of Leni Golikov, declared by the writer as a pioneer, has become immortalized for many generations of our country.
