Stories about children at war are often tragic. According to various estimates, the Second World War claimed the lives of 13 million children. Some of them were tortured in concentration camps, some were unable to survive the horror of the blockade, and some were forced to take up guns and participate in the fighting.
A Soviet child named Sergey Aleshkov was the youngest participant in the Battle of Stalingrad and one of the youngest soldiers in World War II.
The document about the birth of Sergey Aleskov has not been preserved, but his birth year is estimated to be 1934 or 1936, in the Green Forest Village of Kaluga Region. After the outbreak of World War II (the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union), this village became a resistance base deployed by guerrillas. In the summer of 1942, German troops accidentally arrived in Green and began to kill the guerrillas.
The villagers were also executed because of their connection with the guerrillas. Sergei's 10-year-old brother named Petya was hanged, and his mother was shot while trying to protect her son. Thanks to a neighbor, Sergey escaped from the window and ran into the forest. He wandered there until he was spotted by the reconnaissance team of the Guards 142 Infantry Regiment in August 1942.
Sergey was exhausted physically and mentally, and his body was full of scars left by insect bites. The scouts covered Sergey with a horse blanket and took him back to the camp. Many soldiers were shocked to see the boy. Colonel Mikhail Vorobev recalled his first meeting with his adopted son: "Everyone seemed to be numb in the bunker. I wanted to rush in, rush into the trenches, and strangle the first one to be arrested. The Nazis who live."
After the soldiers asked Sergey, they finally asked the boy's name, but when they asked about his mother, Sergey burst into tears and couldn't rest assured for a long time. The major decided to keep him in the Guards 142 Infantry Regiment. Sergey received medical assistance and a suitable military uniform.
Mikhail Vorobev did not have a family of his own. He took care of the boy and soon adopted him formally. He didn't want to send Sergey to the orphanage because he thought nothing would happen in the regiment.In a conversation with his new father, Sergey stated that he would like to see a good nurse Nina Bedova play his mother. The major thought for a while, and soon married Nina.
Xie Liaozha (short for Sergei) is very eager to be useful. He considers himself an assistant to the major. He went to the headquarters every morning to report that he was ready to perform a new task, but he did not participate in combat operations. Sergey's tasks include delivering information, delivering newspapers and letters to various branches. During the battle, he also provided soldiers with water, bullets and grenades.
Once when Sergey was delivering a newspaper, he noticed suspicious people in the haystack and reported them to the artillery commander. It turned out that those people were scouts of the German artillery, and they hid in the haystack with the walkie-talkie. The scouts were wiped out, and Sergey was thanked by the command.
Later, the regimental commander’s bunker was destroyed by German shelling. Except for Sergey, no one saw Vorobev buried under the rubble. Sergey was frightened and tried to move the wood, but he didn't succeed. So he ran for help. Because of this, the regimental leader was saved. As a result, the youngest soldier received his first "Military Merit" medal, and Cuikov gave him a pistol, probably Walter P38.
Soon, the 142nd regiment also participated in the battle of Stalingrad. On November 18, 1942, Seryoza and a company of soldiers fell under mortar fire. His leg was injured by shrapnel and was taken to the hospital. After the treatment, Sergey returned to his regiment.
Soon after the whole area was liberated from the German army, the survivors of Green Village explained how Sergey became an orphan. In addition to his mother and 10-year-old brother who were killed for being linked to the guerrillas, his father died before the war, and his brothers Ivan and Andrew also went to the front.
Sergey's adoptive mother Nina Bedova left the army after she became pregnant. However, a few months after she gave birth, she returned to the front line, and with her husband, who is now a colonel, she saw the victory in Berlin.After demobilization, they all settled in Chelyabinsk and resumed a peaceful life.
In 1945, Sergey Aleskov was awarded a medal for his "victory over Germany". At the request of Marshal Vasily Trikov, he was sent to the Tula Suvorov Military School to study. In 1954, he graduated from Suvorov High School and entered the Kharkiv Law School.
After receiving his education, he moved back to the Chelyabinsk region and worked in the regional department of the prosecutor's office, and later became the legal consultant of the Chelyabinsk Plexiglas Plant.
Sergey got married, raised two children, a daughter and a son, and even saw the birth of his grandchildren alive. In 1985, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded the "First Class Patriotic War Medal". Sergey Aleskov died in 1990 at the age of 54.
The story of Sergey Aleshkov was put on the big screen in 2019. The movie's name is "Little Warrior". (Mi Tan Tianxia/Zhang Mi)
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