The Great Patriotic War was on. The holiday of November 7, the Day of the October Revolution, was approaching. At a meeting of the partisan detachment, they discussed who would go to the city of Vitebsk and hang out red flags on the buildings in which the Nazis lived in honor of the holiday. In Vitebsk, the Nazis kept many Soviet prisoners of war, and established laws in the city under which children, the elderly, and women died every day.

If we hang out red flags for the holiday, then everyone will see that we are fighting the Nazi invaders, and this struggle will continue to the last drop of blood,” said partisan commander Mikhail Ivanovich Dyachkov.

The Nazis carefully guarded the approaches to the city, searched everyone, and even sniffed. If a suspect's hat smelled of smoke or gunpowder, they considered him a partisan and shot him on the spot. There was less attention to the children, so they decided to entrust this task to Nadia Bogdanova and Vanya Zvontsov, proven scouts who were only eleven years old.

At dawn on the seventh of November, the partisans brought the children closer to Vitebsk. They gave us a sled in which brooms were neatly stacked, among them three brooms with red flags wrapped around their bases, and rods on top. The legend was this: children go to sell brooms. Nadia and Vanya entered the city without problems, none of the Nazis paid much attention to the little guys with sleds.

To relieve herself of the suspicions of the Germans looking in their direction, Nadia approached a group of Nazis with a sled and offered them to buy brooms. They began to laugh and poke their machine guns in her direction, and one of them said menacingly: Dafai is running away from here.

Nadya felt that Vanya was afraid, and encouraged him as much as she could:

The main thing is to do what I tell you and do not think about anything bad. And if you're scared, take my hand, - said Nadia

I'm not afraid - answered Vanya, and again and again he grabbed Nadia's hand.

All day they walked around the city and looked at the buildings in the city center where they could put up red flags. When evening came and it became dark, they set to work. During the night, the guys set up flags at the railway station, a vocational school and a cigarette factory. When dawn came, our flags were already flying on these buildings. Nadia and Vanya were happy, they were in a hurry to go to the partisan detachment, to report on the completed task. The children had already left the city, went out onto the main road, but then the fascist policemen caught up with them) and shouted:

Stand! Who are they?

We are orphans, uncle, - Vanya cried, - give me some bread, I really want to eat.

I'll give you bread! Bastards, did you hang out the red flags in Vitebsk? the policeman asked.

No what are you. Look at us from where we can have flags? - Nadia answered.

Climb into the sleigh, we'll figure it out in the city, - the policeman ordered.

The boys were crying all the way and rubbing their eyes with their fists. At the headquarters they were interrogated by a fascist. When the guys told their legend, the German began to shout that they were partisans, after which he ordered Nadia and Vanya to be shot. The guys did not confess and did not extradite anyone. They were placed in the basement, where there were many of our prisoners of war. The next day they were all taken out of town and shot. Our prisoners of war shouted to the Nazis not to touch Nadia and Vanya, and when the guys were placed near a huge ditch, they tried to cover them with their bodies.

Here Nadia and Vanya are standing by the moat and the Nazis are aiming at them. The children hold hands and cry. Something clicked in Nadia's head, her eyes blurred, she felt that she was falling into an abyss…….

... A girl woke up in a ditch among the dead. It turns out that a fraction of a second before the Nazis shot, she lost consciousness and fainted, which saved her life. Nadia climbed out of the ditch, rose and fell, crawled, rose again. There was no strength.

Guys, she's alive - Nadia heard a familiar voice above her. It was her uncle Stepan from their partisan detachment who found her. He took her in his arms and put her in the sled, Nadia fainted again……

After this incident, in the partisan detachment they began to take care of her, they were not sent to reconnaissance or to combat missions. Remembering the dead Vanya, Nadia always cried as only eleven-year-old girls can cry. She felt sorry for Vanya, she often dreamed of him laughing, as if they were playing snowballs ....

Nadya strengthened herself, in the detachment she, along with adults, learned to shoot at targets and throw grenades. There, in the detachment, she swore allegiance to her people and kissed the red banner.

I will take revenge on the Nazis for Vanya, for the dead comrades and for all Soviet people, she said to the commander of the partisan detachment. And she took revenge! German warehouses took off from the explosions, the houses where the Nazis lived were on fire, enemy echelons flew downhill. It was Nadya Bogdanova and her comrades who waged their war against the Nazis.

The Nazis were very afraid of the partisans, and at the front, it was not as easy as the Nazis intended. The Red Army fought back the Fritz on all fronts. Therefore, the Germans tried to turn the main villages and cities into fortresses. One of these fortresses of the Nazis was the village of Balbeki. The Germans set up firing points there, mined the roads, dug tanks into the ground ... It was necessary to conduct reconnaissance and establish where the Germans had cannons, machine guns, where sentries were stationed, from which side it was better to attack the village. The command decided to send Nadya and the head of intelligence of the partisans Ferapont Slesarenko. Nadia, dressed as a beggar, will go around the village, and Slesarenko will cover her departure in a forest near the village. Sentinels - the Nazis easily let the girl into the village, you never know the homeless go to the villages in the cold, collect food in order to at least somehow feed themselves. Nadia went around all the yards, collected alms and remembered everything that was needed. It was getting dark, she returned to the woods, where to uncle Feropont, and saw the entire partisan detachment there. They were waiting for information from her. The young scout told everything in detail and showed from which side it is better to attack the village.

The partisan detachment hit the Nazis at night from both sides of the village: machine-gun bursts scattered here and there, you could hear the crazed Nazis yelling - these were the partisans taking revenge on the Nazis for our tormented Motherland, for the dead Soviet people. The Nazis jumped out of the houses in their underwear, shouted something and tried to escape through the white snow away from the village, but they were still overtaken by partisan bullets.

Nadya participated in the night battle for the first time, although Slesarenko did not let go of her a single step. And suddenly he was hurt. Slesarenko fell and lost consciousness for a while, Nadia bandaged his wound, a green rocket soared into the sky - this was the commander's signal for all partisans to retreat to the forest. Slesarenko told Nadia:

Nadia leave me! Go to the forest!

No, I'll pull you out - said Nadya, she pulled herself up and could only lift Slesarenko, the girl's strength was not enough.

Leave me hear? We will both die like this, you must go .... call our... remember this place. I order you! -The head of intelligence said menacingly. Nadya picked fir branches, made a bed out of them for Uncle Feropont, laid him down and went.

Nadia ran to the partisan detachment, at night, in the cold. It was about 10 kilometers to the detachment, the wind whipped her face, she fell through the snowdrifts, but went forward. Suddenly she saw a small farm, a house and a light in the window. Near the house stood a horse with a sleigh. Exactly what I need, she thought. Creeping quietly up to the house, she looked out the window and saw several policemen eating at the table. Hearing the clatter of horses, the policemen - traitors jumped out onto the porch, but Nadya was already far away and they could not catch up with her. She found Slesarenko in the same place where she left him. Together they safely reached the partisan detachment. So Nadia, risking her life, saved her comrade-in-arms.

Nadia could have done many more things for the speedy liberation of our Motherland from the Nazis, but in February 1942, she parted ways with her comrades. She, along with partisan demolitionists, was ordered to destroy the railway bridge. When the girl mined it and began to return to the detachment, the policemen stopped her, Nadya began to pretend to be a beggar, then they searched her and found a piece of explosive in Nadya's backpack. When they began to ask her what it was, there was a strong explosion and the bridge flew into the air right before the eyes of the policemen. The policemen realized that it was Nadya who mined him. They tied her up, put her in a sleigh and took her to the Gestapo. There they tortured her for a long time, burned a star on her back, doused her with ice water in the cold, threw her on a red-hot stove .. Covered in blood, tortured, exhausted, the little girl did not betray anyone. She withstood all the torture and the Nazis decided that she was dead and threw her out into the cold. Nadya was picked up by the villagers, went out, cured. But it was no longer possible for her to fight, she practically lost her sight. After the end of the war, Nadya spent several years in the Odessa hospital, where her sight was restored.

Nadia went to work at the factory and did not tell anyone about how she fought against the Nazis. More than 15 years have passed since the war. Nadya and those with whom she worked heard on the radio how the head of intelligence of the 6th partisan detachment Ferapont Slesarenko - her commander - said that the soldiers of their dead comrades would never forget, and named Nadya Bogdanova among them, who to him, wounded, saved a life...

Only then did she show up, only then did the people who worked with her learn about what an amazing fate she was, Nadia Bogdanova, who was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and medals.

Nadezhda Alexandrovna is no longer alive, she died already in peacetime. But we will always remember how a little eleven-year-old girl fought for her Motherland, so that we could live in this world and enjoy life. For our country to live, just live...

Eternal memory to you Nadya Bogdanova.

Nadezhda Bogdanova was born in the Byelorussian SSR, presumably in 1932. In 1941, after the start of World War II, the orphanage in which she lived was evacuated to the city of Frunze, Kirghiz SSR. Nadia with several children from Vitebsk and Mogilev orphanages, during one of the stops, got off the train to go to the front. She was executed twice by the Nazis, and fighting friends for many years considered Nadya dead. She even erected a monument.

It's hard to believe, but when she became a scout in the partisan detachment of "Uncle Vanya" Dyachkov, she was not yet ten years old. Small, thin, she, pretending to be a beggar, wandered among the Nazis, noticing everything, remembering everything, and brought the most valuable information to the detachment. And then, together with partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, and mined objects.

The first time she was captured when, together with Vanya Zvontsov, she hung out a red flag on November 7, 1941 in Vitebsk, occupied by the enemy. They beat her with ramrods, tortured her, and when they brought her to the ditch - to shoot, she had no strength left - she fell into the ditch, for a moment, ahead of the bullet. Vanya died, and the partisans found Nadya alive in the ditch...

The second time she was captured at the end of the 43rd. And again torture: they poured ice water over her in the cold, burned a five-pointed star on her back. Considering the scout dead, the Nazis, when the partisans attacked Karasevo, abandoned her. Came out of her, paralyzed and almost blind, the locals. After the war in Odessa, Academician V.P. Filatov restored Nadia's sight.

After 15 years, she heard on the radio how the head of intelligence of the 6th detachment Slesarenko - her commander - said that the soldiers of their dead comrades would never forget, and named Nadya Bogdanova among them, who saved his life, wounded ...

Bogdanova, Nadezhda Alexandrovna

Nadezhda Alexandrovna Bogdanova (married - Kravtsova) (December 28, 1931 - August 21, 1991) - pioneer hero. The youngest participant of the Great Patriotic War, awarded the title of pioneer hero.

Nadezhda Bogdanova was born in the Byelorussian SSR on December 28, 1931. In 1941, after the start of World War II, the orphanage in which she lived was evacuated to the city of Frunze, Kirghiz SSR. Nadia with several children from Vitebsk and Mogilev orphanages got off the train during one of the stops to go to the front.

She was executed twice by the Nazis, and her comrades-in-arms considered her dead for many years and even erected a monument. When she became a scout in the partisan detachment of the 2nd Belarusian brigade, she was not yet ten years old. Small, thin, she, pretending to be a beggar, wandered among the Nazis, noticing and remembering everything, and brought valuable information to the detachment. And then, together with partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, and mined objects. In subsequent operations, she was entrusted with weapons - she went with a pistol and a grenade in her belt. In one of the night battles, she saved the wounded commander of the reconnaissance unit Ferapont Slesarenko.

Attempted sabotage in Vitebsk

After getting off the train in Vitebsk, the orphans tried to take part in the defense of the city on their own. They freely moved around Vitebsk captured by the Nazis, knowing that the Germans did not attach importance to children. The children planned to blow up a German ammunition depot located in Vitebsk. They found explosives but did not know how to use them. The guys did not have time to reach their destination: there was an explosion, as a result of which the children died. Only Nadia survived. Later she was accepted into the partisan detachment of the 2nd Belarusian brigade.

Red flags in Vitebsk

On the eve of the upcoming holiday of the October Revolution, at a meeting of the partisan detachment, the fighters discussed who would go to Vitebsk and hang out red flags in honor of the holiday on the buildings in which the Nazis lived. According to the commander of the detachment Mikhail Ivanovich Dyachkov, the red flags hung in honor of the holiday were supposed to serve as a sign to the residents of the city that the war against the Nazi invaders continues in order to raise the morale of Vitebsk residents. The Nazis carefully guarded the approaches to the city, searched everyone, and even sniffed. If a suspect's hat smelled of smoke or gunpowder, they considered him a partisan and shot him on the spot. There was less attention to children, so we decided to entrust this task to 10-year-old Nadia Bogdanova and 12-year-old Vanya Zvontsov. At dawn on November 7, 1941, the partisans brought the children closer to Vitebsk. They gave me a sled in which brooms were neatly stowed. Among them are three brooms, at the base of which red cloths were wound, and rods on top. According to the idea of ​​​​the partisans, children had to sell brooms to avert the eyes of the Nazis.

Nadia and Vanya entered the city without any problems. Little children with sleds aroused no particular suspicion among any of the Nazis. Vanya, who was recently in the partisan detachment, was noticeably nervous at every glance of the Nazis in their direction. More experienced Nadia tried to cheer up the boy. To relieve herself of the suspicions of the Germans looking in their direction, Nadia approached a group of Nazis with a sled and offered them to buy brooms. They began to laugh and poke the muzzles of machine guns in her direction, after which one of them in broken Russian drove her away.

All day they walked around the city and looked at the buildings in the city center where they could hang red flags. When evening came and it became dark, they set to work. During the night, the guys set up flags at the railway station, a vocational school and an abandoned cigarette factory. When dawn came, the flags of the USSR were already flying on these buildings. Having completed the work, the children hurried to the partisan detachment to report on the completed task. When they, having already left the city, went out onto the main road, the Nazis caught up with them and searched them. Having found the cigarettes that the children had taken at the cigarette factory for the partisans, they guessed who they were carrying them to, and began interrogating them, after which they took them to Gorodok. The kids cried all the way. At the headquarters they were interrogated by the head of the district gendarmerie, putting the children against the wall and firing over their heads. After interrogation, he ordered the children to be shot. They were placed in the basement, where there were many Soviet prisoners of war. The next day everyone was taken out of Gorodok to be shot.

Nadya and Vanya stood at the moat under the guns of the Nazis. The children held hands and cried. A fraction of a second before the shot, Nadia lost consciousness. Some time later, Nadia woke up among the dead, including Vanya Zvontsov. Exhausted, she headed towards the forest, where the partisans found her. Since then, the squad for a long time did not allow her to independently perform tasks.

Reconnaissance and combat in Balbeki

In the captured settlements of Belarus, the Nazis set up firing points, mined roads, dug tanks into the ground. In one of these settlements - in the village of Balbeki - it was necessary to conduct reconnaissance and establish where the Germans had cannons, machine guns disguised, where sentries were stationed, from which side it was better to attack the village. The command decided to send the partisan intelligence chief Ferapont Slesarenko and Nadya Bogdanova to this task. Nadia, dressed as a beggar, was supposed to bypass the village, and Slesarenko - to cover her departure in a forest near the village. The Nazis easily let the girl into the village, believing that she was one of the homeless children who walk around the villages in the cold, collect food in order to somehow feed themselves. Nadia went around all the yards, collected alms and remembered everything that was needed. By evening, she returned to the woods to Slesarenko. There, a partisan detachment was waiting for her, to which she reported information.

At night, the partisans fired machine-gun fire at the Nazis from both sides of the village. Then Nadia first participated in a night battle, although Slesarenko did not let her go a single step. In this battle, Slesarenko was wounded in his left hand: he fell and lost consciousness for a while. Nadia bandaged his wound. A green rocket soared into the sky, which was a signal from the commander to all partisans to retreat to the forest. Nadya and the wounded Slesarenko tried to leave for the detachment, but in deep snowdrifts Slesarenko lost a lot of blood and became exhausted. He ordered Nadia to leave him and go to the detachment for help. Putting spruce branches under the commander, Nadya went to the detachment.

The detachment was about 10 kilometers away. At night, it was difficult to get there quickly through snowdrifts in frost. After walking about three kilometers, Nadia wandered into a small farm. Near one of the houses where the police were having dinner, there was a horse with a sleigh. Creeping up to the house, Nadia got into the sleigh and returned to the wounded Slesarenko. Climbing into the sleigh, they returned together to the detachment.

Mining of the bridge in Karasevo

In February 1942 (according to other sources - 1943), Nadia, along with demolition partisans, was ordered to destroy the railway bridge in Karasevo. When the girl mined it and began to return to the detachment, she was stopped by the police. Nadia began to pretend to be a beggar, then they searched her and found a piece of explosives in her backpack. They began to interrogate Nadia, at that moment there was an explosion and the bridge flew into the air right in front of the policemen.
The police realized that it was Nadya who had mined him, and, having tied him up, they put him in a sled and took him to the Gestapo. There they tortured her for a long time, burned a star on her back, doused her with ice water in the cold, threw her on a red-hot stove. Failing to get information from her, the Nazis threw the tormented, bloodied girl out into the cold, deciding that she would not survive. Nadia was picked up by the inhabitants of the village of Zanaluchki, who went out and cured her. Nadia could no longer participate in the war, because after the torture she practically lost her sight.

After the war

3 years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, Nadya was sent to Odessa for treatment. In Odessa, Academician Vladimir Petrovich Filatov partially restored her sight. Returning to Vitebsk, Nadya got a job at a factory. For a long time, Nadia did not tell anyone that she fought with the Nazis.
15 years later, she heard on the radio how the intelligence chief of the 6th partisan detachment, Ferapont Slesarenko, her commander, said that the soldiers of their dead comrades would never forget, and named Nadya Bogdanova among them, who saved his life, wounded. Only then did she show up.

She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, and medals. The name of Nadia Bogdanova is included in the Book of Honor of the Belarusian Republican Pioneer Organization named after V. I. Lenin.
She lived all her life in Vitebsk. Raised 1 native and 7 adopted children. Since the late 1970s, she has been in active correspondence with the pioneers of the 35th school in the city of Bratsk, the Klemovskaya secondary school in the village of Novoklemovo, Moscow Region, the 9th school in the city of Novopolotsk, the school in the city of Leninsk (now Baikonur) and others, as well as with local historians, whom she helped restore the events that took place in the Byelorussian SSR during the war years. The pioneers of different schools called themselves "Bogdanovites" - in honor of Nadezhda Bogdanova. In 1965, she gave an interview to the writer Sergei Smirnov as part of the documentary series Tales of Heroism, in which she talked about her participation in the Great Patriotic War.

She died on August 21, 1991 - on the day of the August coup in the USSR. After her death, several schools organized fundraising for the opening of a monument to Nadezhda Bogdanova. At present, nothing is known about the fate of the monument.

The war for Nadezhda began when she was only 13. On account of the heroic girl, dozens of bold sabotage. The Nazis executed her twice, but they could not take her life and faith in victory. "Defend Russia" recalls the front-line path of the young partisan Nadia Bogdanova.

In a partisan detachment

Nadya Bogdanova came to the partisans at the beginning of the war. The Belarusian orphanage in which she lived was evacuated to the city of Frunze, and at one of the stations the orphan got off the train with a firm decision to go to the front. So the fragile little girl, who was only 13, was accepted into the partisan detachment of the 2nd Belarusian brigade.

Nadia not only did not become a burden for the avengers, but also managed to gain the respect and trust of adult soldiers. Pretending to be a beggar, she wandered through the villages occupied by the enemy, memorizing and noticing every little thing, and then returned to her own with the most valuable intelligence.

Flags in Vitebsk

On the occasion of the October Revolution, a partisan detachment planned a diversion: hang Soviet flags in German-occupied Vitebsk. This was supposed to raise the morale of the locals and serve as a call to fight the enemy. They entrusted the task to Nadia Bogdanova and twelve-year-old Vanya Zvontsov - the children would not attract the attention of the Nazis.

In the early morning of November 6, 1941, dressed in rags, Nadya and Vanya, without arousing the suspicions of the Nazis, entered Vitebsk. The children were carrying sleds in which the partisans had put brooms - their young scouts were supposed to sell them as a distraction. At the base of three brooms, under the bars, the cherished red banners were hidden.

All day the children wandered around the city, and after dark they set to work. By dawn on November 7, three flags were flying from the building of the railway station, the vocational school and the abandoned cigarette factory.

Nadia and Vanya were already leaving the city when the Nazis caught up with them and searched them. They found cigarettes - their young saboteurs grabbed them for the partisans - and guessed everything.

After interrogation, the children were ordered to be shot.

Together with the captured Red Army soldiers, they were taken outside the city and lined up at the moat. The children were crying and holding hands as the Germans opened fire.

This is how Vanya Zvontsov and about a dozen captured soldiers died. And Nadia, who lost consciousness from fright a moment before the shot, miraculously survived.

Returning to the partisans, the girl asked to be taught how to shoot and throw grenades.

Last diversion

In February 1943, Nadya Bogdanova was assigned to blow up the bridge over Lake Karasevo. The girl mined the crossing and was already returning to the detachment when the policemen stopped her.

The little partisan was searched, and crumbs of explosives were found in her knapsack. At that moment, the bridge exploded - it did not take long to look for the perpetrators.

The brutalized Nazis brought Nadya to headquarters. They mocked the girl during interrogation - poured ice water over her in the cold, threw her on hot coals, burned a star on her back. Despite the inhuman torture, which not every adult can endure, Nadia did not betray her.

The tormentors threw her mutilated body into a ditch.

Burying the partisan was ordered by local residents, who discovered that she was alive! It's amazing, but the heroic girl who survived real hell was still breathing.

For a long time, Nadia was cared for by local residents. She never returned to the partisans.

Return

Victory Day has come, but Nadia did not immediately see a world without war. After Nazi torture, she lost her sight. She spent many years in hospitals before she could see again.

Nadezhda settled in Vitebsk, got a job at a factory. Started a family, gave birth to children.

Nadia was silent about her heroic past. Her exploits would have remained unknown if not for the occasion.

Fifteen years after the war, Nadezhda Kravtsova - her husband's surname - heard on the radio the voice of Ferapont Slesarenko, the intelligence chief of the 6th partisan detachment. The front-line soldier talked about the war and about those who did not wait for victory. He also mentioned Nadya, who at one time saved his life. Then the heroine decided to make herself known.

Nadezhda Alexandrovna Bogdanova was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree.

She raised four children and lived all her life in the city she defended.

Nadezhda Alexandrovna Bogdanova (married - Kravtsova) (December 28, 1931, the village of Avdanki, Vitebsk region, Byelorussian SSR - August 21, 1991, Vitebsk, Byelorussian SSR) - pioneer hero. The youngest participant of the Great Patriotic War, awarded the title of pioneer hero.

Nadezhda Bogdanova was born in the village of Avdanki, Gorodok District, Vitebsk Region, Byelorussian SSR, on December 28, 1931. At the age of 8, she ended up in the 4th Mogilev orphanage. Prior to that, she was a homeless child for a long time. In the orphanage she was an active sportswoman. Mother - Irina Semyonovna Bogdanova. She showed up when Nadia was written about in the newspapers. Her father was a professional wrestler, from whom Nadia inherited her love for the sport.

Nadya Bogdanova was executed twice by the Nazis, and her comrades-in-arms considered her dead for many years and even erected a monument. When she became a scout in the partisan detachment of the 2nd Belarusian brigade, she was not yet ten years old. Small, thin, she, pretending to be a beggar, wandered among the Nazis, noticing and remembering everything, and brought valuable information to the detachment. And then, together with partisan fighters, she blew up the fascist headquarters, derailed a train with military equipment, and mined objects. In subsequent operations, she was entrusted with weapons - she went with a pistol and a grenade in her belt. In one of the night battles, she saved the wounded commander of the reconnaissance unit Ferapont Slesarenko. The description of Nadia Bogdanova in 1958 was signed by the chief of staff of the 2nd Belarusian brigade Ivan Stepanovich Skumatov.

Nazi raid on a train with children

In 1941, after the start of World War II, the orphanage where Nadya Bogdanova lived was evacuated to the city of Frunze, Kirghiz SSR. Behind Smolensk, a train with an echelon in which the orphans were traveling was attacked by fascist planes and bombed three times: many children died, but the survivors fled into the forest and dispersed in all directions.

Undermining a warehouse in Vitebsk

Nadia, together with her friend Vanya Zvontsov, three weeks after the air raid on the train, ended up in Vitebsk occupied by the Germans. Children huddled in the basements of destroyed houses. In order not to die of hunger, until the end of 1941 they went to the villages of the Vitebsk and Gorodok regions and begged for alms. At the same time, they stole food and poorly guarded ammunition from the Nazis. Having stolen mines and sticks of dynamite, the children planned to blow up one of the German warehouses. A group of children with ammunition went to the warehouse, and Nadia and Vanya remained on the lookout. Due to the inability to use ammunition, several children were blown up along with the warehouse. Nadia and Vanya Zvontsov, who are far from the warehouse, were not injured.

Intelligence near Vitebsk

In September 1941, Nadia and Vanya planned to cross the front line and go to the Soviet soldiers, but ended up with the partisans - in the detachment of "Uncle Vanya" (Mikhail Ivanovich Dyachkov), formed in the summer of that year. Nadia was accepted into the detachment, but for this she had to put on 3 years by her age. The children were taught everything they needed to complete the task: how to find a ford across the river, how to determine the cardinal direction in the forest, how to recognize the steps of the Germans. Soon they were given the first combat mission to reconnoiter enemy fortifications in the villages of Dolgany and Rudnya, Ezerishchensky district, Vitebsk region (now Gorodoksky district, Vitebsk region). They grabbed beggarly sacks and went through the villages closer to the German garrisons. They carefully studied where and how many fascists were in the area, where the cars were, what fortifications were erected. Together with other scouts, the children participated in the operation to blow up the German headquarters in the village of Komary, Gorodoksky district, Vitebsk district (now the Vitebsk region). Several times a prisoner was brought from enemy garrisons. In 1942, they participated in reconnaissance of the enemy garrison in the village of Churilovo, Nevelsky district, Kalinin region (now the Pskov region). As a result of that operation, the garrison was defeated, the Nazis suffered heavy losses.

Red flags in Vitebsk

On the eve of the upcoming holiday of the October Revolution, at a meeting of the partisan detachment, the fighters discussed who would go to Vitebsk and hang out red flags in honor of the holiday on the buildings in which the Nazis lived. According to the commander of the detachment Mikhail Ivanovich Dyachkov, the red flags hung in honor of the holiday were supposed to serve as a sign to the residents of the city that the war against the Nazi invaders continues in order to raise the morale of Vitebsk residents. The Nazis carefully guarded the approaches to the city, searched everyone, and even sniffed. If a suspect's hat smelled of smoke or gunpowder, they considered him a partisan and shot him on the spot. There was less attention to children, so we decided to entrust this task to 10-year-old Nadia Bogdanova and 12-year-old Vanya Zvontsov. At dawn on November 7, 1941, the partisans brought the children closer to Vitebsk. They gave me a sled in which brooms were neatly stowed. Among them are three brooms, at the base of which red cloths were wound, and rods on top. According to the idea of ​​​​the partisans, children had to sell brooms to avert the eyes of the Nazis.

Nadia and Vanya entered the city without any problems. Little children with sleds aroused no particular suspicion among any of the Nazis. Vanya, who was recently in the partisan detachment, was noticeably nervous at every glance of the Nazis in their direction. More experienced Nadia tried to cheer up the boy. To relieve herself of the suspicions of the Germans looking in their direction, Nadia approached a group of Nazis with a sled and offered them to buy brooms. They began to laugh and poke the muzzles of machine guns in her direction, after which one of them in broken Russian drove her away.

All day they walked around the city and looked at the buildings in the city center where they could hang red flags. When evening came and it became dark, they set to work. During the night, the guys set up flags at the railway station, a vocational school and an abandoned cigarette factory. When dawn came, the flags of the USSR were already flying on these buildings. at dawn on November 7, a commotion arose in occupied Vitebsk - the Nazis, seeing the red flags hung out, raised all military units, including the police and gendarmerie, in alarm. Suspicion fell on two teenagers: a boy and a girl, so the commandant of Vitebsk sent a radiogram to all the garrisons of the Vitebsk region about their detention and strengthened the posts. Began general searches, raids and arrests. Anyone who aroused even the slightest suspicion was captured. Prisons and camps were overflowing with arrested people. Having completed the work, the children hurried to the partisan detachment to report on the completed task. When they, having already left the city, went out onto the main road of the Mezhensky Bolshak, the Nazis caught up with them and searched them. Having found the cigarettes that the children had taken at the cigarette factory for the partisans, the gendarmes guessed who they were carrying them to, and began to interrogate them, after which they took them to Gorodok. The kids cried all the way. At the headquarters they were interrogated by the head of the district gendarmerie, putting the children against the wall and shooting over their heads, then they were beaten with ramrods. After interrogation, he ordered the children to be shot. They were placed in the basement, where there were many Soviet prisoners of war. The next day everyone was taken out of Gorodok to be shot.

Nadya and Vanya stood at the moat under the guns of the Nazis. The children held hands and cried. A fraction of a second before the shot, Nadia lost consciousness and fell into the ditch due to pain in her legs after being hit with ramrods. She lay for a long time in the ditch among the dead, among whom was Vanya Zvontsov. I woke up cold and nauseated. Realizing that there was no guard, gathering all her strength, the girl began to get up and make her way to the road. Exhausted, she headed towards the forest, where she was found by the commander of the reconnaissance brigade Fyodor Fyodorovich Ukleya. Since then, the squad for a long time did not allow her to independently perform tasks.

Siege of Balbeki village

In early February 1943, in the captured settlements of Belarus, the Nazis set up firing points, mined roads, dug tanks into the ground. In one of these settlements - in the village of Balbeki, Sharkovshchina district, Vitebsk region - it was necessary to conduct reconnaissance and establish where the Germans had guns, machine guns disguised, where sentries were stationed, from which side it was better to attack the village. After an unsuccessful attempt by adult partisans to obtain information, after which the sent group suffered losses, the command decided to send the partisan intelligence chief Ferapont Slesarenko and Nadya Bogdanova to this task. Nadia, dressed as a beggar, was supposed to bypass the village, and Slesarenko - to cover her departure in a forest near the village. The Nazis easily let the girl into the village, believing that she was one of the homeless children who walk around the villages in the cold, collect food in order to somehow feed themselves. Nadia went around all the yards, collected alms and remembered everything that was needed. By evening, she returned to the woods to Slesarenko. There, a partisan detachment was waiting for her, to which she reported information.

On the night of February 5, 1943, the 2nd Belorussian Brigade named after Ponomarenko, together with the partisans, hit the Nazis from both sides of the village with a machine-gun burst. Then Nadia first participated in a night battle. She blew up the Nazi headquarters. With her participation, a train of fascists was derailed, heading to the areas of Ezerishche and Gorodok, a motor-tractor station was burned, in which the fascists were repairing tank equipment. Nadia reconnoitred the Bornavala garrison and mined the objects indicated by the command.

In the battle for Balbeki, Slesarenko was wounded in his left hand: he fell and lost consciousness for a while. Nadia bandaged his wound. A green rocket soared into the sky, which was a signal from the commander to all partisans to retreat to the forest. Nadya and the wounded Slesarenko tried to leave for the detachment, but in deep snowdrifts Slesarenko lost a lot of blood and became exhausted. He ordered Nadia to leave him and go to the detachment for help. Putting spruce branches under the commander, Nadya went to the detachment.

The detachment was about 10 kilometers away. At night, it was difficult to get there quickly through snowdrifts in frost. After walking about three kilometers, Nadia wandered into a small farm. Near one of the houses where the police were having dinner, there was a horse with a sleigh. Creeping up to the house, Nadia got into the sleigh and returned to the wounded Slesarenko. Climbing into the sleigh, they returned together to the detachment. After this operation, the Nazis announced a reward in occupation stamps for Nadia's head.

Mining of the crossroads Nevel - Velikiye Luki - Usvyaty

At the end of February 1943, the demolition partisans of the 6th detachment under the command of Blinov were ordered to mine the intersection of the Nevel - Velikie Luki - Usvyaty highways near the village of Churilovo, which is guarded by policemen, in order to block the movement of the Nazis towards Leningrad.

Nadya and Yura Semyonov participated in this operation. When the children mined the road and began to return to the detachment, they were stopped by the policemen. Nadia began to pretend to be a beggar, then they searched her and found a piece of explosives in her backpack. Nadya and Yura were interrogated. The police realized that it was the children who mined him, and, having tied him up, they put him in a sled and took him to the Gestapo in the village of Karasevo. There, Yura was shot, and Nadya was tortured for seven days, beaten on the head, burned a five-pointed star on her back with a red-hot rod, doused with ice water in the cold, and placed on hot stones. Failing to obtain information from her, the Nazis threw the tormented and bloodied girl out into the cold, deciding that she would not survive.

At the end of 1943, the 2nd partisan detachment of Makhodkin and the 6th partisan detachment of Blinov attacked Karasevo and the Nazis left the village. Nadya was found by partisans Ivan Lokhmotko and Alexander Shamkov and taken to the village of Zanaluchki. There, local collective farmers Lydia Sharyonok and Tatyana Samokaleva took care of Nadya, at their house at that moment the headquarters of the 2nd Belarusian brigade named after Ponomarenko was located.

Shelter in Zanaluchki

During the torture, Nadya lost her hearing and sight, and her legs were paralyzed. When a punitive expedition began against the partisans of the Gorodok and Ezerishchensky districts, they, along with many residents of the village, left those places and went to a safe place in a swampy area. Nadia refused to leave with them and stayed in the village. There, Nadya was nursed and treated with folk remedies by Lydia Sharyonok and Tatiana Samokaleva. A month later, the girl's hearing was restored. Her vision was partially restored - her pupils constricted from the beatings. Nadia could no longer participate in the war due to the loss of her sight. For participation in mining, Nadya was awarded the medal "For Military Merit".

In January 1944, together with the inhabitants of the village of Zanaluchki, Nadya Bogdanova met a group of Red Army submachine gunners who were liberating the Vitebsk region from Nazi invaders, and her fellow partisans.

After the war

3 years after the war, Nadya, in a frostbite, was taken to the Vitebsk hospital, where she was cured by a neuropathologist Iosif Lazarevich Sosnovik, after which, according to his referral, she was sent for treatment to Odessa to the famous ophthalmologist Vladimir Petrovich Filatov, who returned her one eye.

In 1958, Nadia returned to her native village of Avdanka. In 1960, she came to Vitebsk and got a job as a watchman, since heavy workloads were contraindicated for her, at the same time she played the accordion for food and sang songs in the residential area of ​​Vitebsk. Later she got a job as a laborer at the Znamya Industrialization factory.

In 1962 she married forester Dmitry Kravtsov. They lived together for 18 years until his death. She raised 1 native and 7 adopted children: Viktor, Galina, Lyudmila, Albert, Alla, Valentina, Natalya and Andrey. Alla and Valentina are the native children of Tatyana Samokaleva, who during the war years saved Nadya and left her. Andrei was the native and youngest child of Bogdanova. He was 7 months old when her husband died. Andrei was the most difficult child. He managed to visit the colony, but after his release, Nadezhda Bogdanova achieved his assignment to the army, where he remained to serve overtime. Fought in Afghanistan, was wounded.

Merit recognition

Nadezhda Bogdanova did not talk about her participation in the Great Patriotic War, because she could not prove it. On February 23, 1958, she heard on the radio how the head of intelligence of the 6th partisan detachment Ferapont Slesarenko - her commander - said that the soldiers of their dead comrades would never forget, and said that there were children among them, among others, naming Nadia Bogdanova, which saved his life when he was wounded. After that, she tried in various instances to prove her participation in the Great Patriotic War, but they did not believe her.

Nadezhda Bogdanova in an interview with Sergei Smirnov as part of the documentary film Tales of Heroism talks about her participation in the Great Patriotic War. 1965

In the military registration and enlistment office they found her name in the lists of partisans, after which the chief of staff of the 2nd Belarusian brigade, Ivan Stepanovich Skumatov, came to her and confirmed her merits with documents. After that, they began to write about Nadia Bogdanova in newspapers and write books. The story of Nadia Bogdanova became interested in the writer Sergei Smirnov, who in 1964 conducted research on veterans. As part of the study, an exhumation was carried out in the grave, in which the bodies of Yura Semyonov and Nadia Bogdanova were supposed to have been located. On this grave, one of the partisans, assuming that Nadya died along with Yura, erected a monument with the inscription "Eternal glory to the young heroes - Bogdanova N.A., Semyonov Yu.I. brutally killed by the Germans in February 1942" (later on this relatives of Tatyana Samokaleva and Lydia Sharyonok who were caring for Nadya were buried in the place). When Nadia's body was not found next to the body of Yura, Smirnov came to her house in Vitebsk, and in 1965, as part of the documentary cycle "Stories about Heroism", she gave an interview to Sergei Smirnov, in which she talked about her participation in the Great Patriotic War. After that, she and Smirnov went to France, where she met with members of the Resistance and spoke at a rally, went to the GDR, where she visited the International Friendship Club, named after her, and also went to Poland and Czechoslovakia. She visited the union republics - Ukraine, Moldova, in the RSFSR she visited Ulyanovsk, Arkhangelsk, the Bratsk hydroelectric power station, Baikonur, the Sayano-Shukshenskaya hydroelectric power station, Altai, Tataria, Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Nadezhda Bogdanova at a meeting with the pioneers of the 9th school in Novopolotsk, 1986

She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Orders of the Patriotic War I and II degrees, the medal "For Courage", the medal "For Military Merit", the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War I degree". The name of Nadia Bogdanova is included in the Book of Honor of the Belarusian Republican Pioneer Organization named after V. I. Lenin.

Since the late 1970s, she has been in active correspondence with the pioneers of various schools throughout the country.