There are many envious people who are haunted by other people's love relationships....
Aleshkov (Aleshkin) Sergei Andreevich (1934 or 1936, Gryn, Ulyanovsk district, Western region, RSFSR, USSR - 1990, Chelyabinsk, RSFSR, USSR) - participant in the Great Patriotic War, son of the regiment. Took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. Seryozha Aleshkov was the youngest defender of Stalingrad, the son of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 47th Guards Rifle Division.
In April 1943 awarded the medal "For Military Merit" From the order of the 142nd Guards. joint venture No. 013/P dated April 26, 1943 on awarding medals “For Courage” and “For Military Merit.” 
... During his stay in the regiment from September 8, 1942, he went through a responsible combat path with the regiment. On November 18, 1942 he was wounded... With his cheerfulness, love for his unit and those around him, in extremely difficult moments he inspired cheerfulness and confidence in victory. Comrade ALESHKIN is the favorite of the regiment.
Do you think there is a report to the political commander? No. Although, in a sense, perhaps, yes.
... The dust raised by the explosion cleared away. Comrade Aleshkin realized with horror that the shell hit exactly the dugout of the regiment commander, Mikhail Vorobyov, who replaced Seryozha’s own father. Having run up, he realized that he could not cope with the rolling logs alone, and rushed to the sappers. Sappers quickly dismantled the ceiling; the overwhelmed regiment commander was alive and even intact, only stunned. And the fighter Alyoshkin stood nearby and, without hiding his joy, roared into three streams.
When you lose your second father, and your heart, out of despair, quickly falls into the already familiar abyss, and then flies up, because this time - happiness, he remained alive - it is no wonder to burst into tears. And of course there is no shame, even for a seasoned fighter.
Especially at six years old.
On September 8, 1942, a reconnaissance group of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment (more precisely, at that time - still the 510th “simple”; it will become a guards regiment in December following the renaming of “its” 154th Guards Rifle Regiment into the 47th Guards) in the forest in the Ulyanovsk district of the Oryol (now Kaluga) region, she discovered an extremely emaciated, scabbed, half-naked child who looked to be about five years old, and brought him to her location.
Regiment commander Mikhail Danilovich Vorobyov recalled: Seryozha could barely stand on his thin legs and looked fearfully, pleadingly. Everyone in the dugout seemed speechless. I wanted to rush there, to the line of trenches, to grab the throat of the first fascist that came across. I walked up to him, stroked his head and asked:
- What is your name?
- Seryozha.
- And do you remember the last name?
- We are Alyoshkin.
Seryozha got a little confused with his last name, which became clear later: in fact, he was Aleshkov. And his story was ordinary at that time.
He lived with his mother and older brothers in the remote village of Gryn, almost in the middle between Kaluga and Orel, near the border with the Tula region. When he was 5 years old, the war began. Two older brothers went to the front. The Germans have arrived. It is not known why ten-year-old Petya Aleshkov, the last of Seryozha’s older brothers, did not like them, but the German soldiers who were establishing a new order in the village killed him. And the mother who rushed to her murdered son was also killed. And they spared the bullets for Seryozha, who was frozen in shock, and simply kicked him aside so as not to get in the way.
The people ran from the Germans into the forest, Seryozha ran with the people, but quickly got lost. How long he wandered through the forest, he never remembered; maybe five days, or maybe a whole week. If it weren’t for wild berries, he would have perished there; when the scouts found him, he couldn’t even cry.
The regiment commander, not unreasonably, reasoned that, even though it was dangerous at the front, the child would get stronger, be well-fed, clothed, and under the constant supervision of his elders.
Sergei became a student of the regiment (the term “son of the regiment” would come into use later, towards the end of the war, apparently at the suggestion of the writer Kataev), in which everyone knew his sad story. Personally, of course, I didn’t sit on the front line and didn’t shoot at the Germans (although I dreamed about it). But he was not ballast either: every morning he came to headquarters and reported on his arrival for duty. And there were many things to do, including those that he could do. He carried mail and ammunition to the soldiers, read poetry and sang songs in between marches and battles. And, I think, it strengthened the morale of the regiment’s fighters in a way that no political officer or detachment could simply do.
On November 18, 1942, Seryozha and his soldiers came under artillery fire and were wounded in the leg by shrapnel. After treatment, to the joy of the entire regiment, he returned to his own. And then, when the Battle of Stalingrad ended, the commander, much to Seryozha’s joy, decided to adopt him. Soon he also had a new mother - the division commander allowed Lieutenant Colonel Vorobyov to marry his chosen one, foreman of the medical service Nina Andreevna Bedova (on the recommendation of Seryozha, who really liked “Aunt Nina”.
And they lived a long and happy life together. And Seryozha had to be sent to the rear - the command (up to the Supreme Commander) was not enthusiastic about the presence of minors in the combat zone. And in 1944, he was included in the first intake of cadets at the Tula Suvorov Military School. Together with him, in November 1944, 83 Leningraders and more than 30 sons of the regiment and young partisans began their studies. Sergei graduated from the school in the sixth graduating class, in 1954 (and in 1960 it was disbanded).
From school, Serezha often came to Chelyabinsk, where Mikhail and Nina Vorobyov, who officially adopted the boy, were waiting for him. Having subsequently graduated from the Kharkov Law Institute, he finally moved to the Southern Urals. In the Chelyabinsk region, Sergei Aleshkov served in the prosecutor's office in the Uysky, Kizilsky and Agapovsky districts, and after his dismissal he worked as a lawyer in Chelyabinsk. Aleshkov died in 1990 (the war years had an impact)..
His adoptive parents were very famous in Chelyabinsk. Mikhail Danilovich Vorobyov, who ended the war with the rank of colonel, worked at the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant. In 1984, his book of memoirs “In Heart and Memory” was published.
Both the Aleshkovs and Vorobyovs now live in Chelyabinsk. These are the daughter, son and grandchildren of Sergei Aleshkov, as well as children born to Mikhail and Nina Vorobyova, and their children. They are all very proud of their heroic ancestors.
It seemed impossible to find any of the relatives of the regiment’s son, Sergei Andreevich Aleshkov, in Chelyabinsk. Neither the military commissariat nor veterans' organizations knew about the post-war fate of the boy, who had fought his way from Kozelsk to Poland and was awarded the medal "For Military Merit". And suddenly luck: at the registry office we were told that the death certificate of Aleshkov, who died on February 1, 1990, was received by a certain Vyacheslav Mitrofanovich Vorobiev.
Well, this is the son of the commander of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment, Mitrofan Vorobyov, who adopted a six-year-old foundling near Stalingrad!
Orphan 1942
We met Vyacheslav Mitrofanovich Vorobyov in the village of Sakulovo near Chelyabinsk, where he moved after his retirement. His father and mother, regimental medical instructor Nina Bedova, had four children of their own. But Seryozha was always considered one of the family members.
In 1952, he came in Suvorov uniform on vacation to Kaliningrad, where his father was serving at that time, his half-brother recalls. - I found a trophy checker for us somewhere, the best toy. I remembered how Army Commander Chuikov gave him a captured Browning. They loved him very much at the front! And he died early... The war crippled him - his health was in bad shape. Yes, and smoked all my life, like a locomotive. I started at the front, looking at the soldiers...
Regimental reconnaissance discovered Seryozha in August 1942 during the fighting in the Kozelsk direction. He was extremely thin, emaciated, covered in scabs from insect bites. And he could no longer speak or stand on his thin legs. I didn’t remember how much time I spent in the forest. So they brought him to the headquarters dugout, half naked, in a bag made of horse blankets. When they turned around, the experienced soldiers had tears in their eyes...
“Everyone in the dugout seemed speechless. I wanted to rush there, to the line of trenches, to grab the throat of the first fascist that came across,” Colonel Vorobiev recalled about the first meeting with his adopted son.
When asked about the surname, the foundling, after thinking, said: “We are Aleshkins.” After the question about the “mother”, he burst into tears so that they could not calm him down for a long time...
The medal "For Military Merit" was not awarded to Seryozha for wounding and killing saboteurs. He was awarded for saving the commander. That is, his father...
After the liberation of the area from the Germans, fellow villagers from the village of Gryn, Kaluga Region, told how Serezha was left an orphan. The father died before the war, the older brothers Ivan and Andrei went to the front, and the mother and 10-year-old brother Petya were shot by the Nazis shortly before the arrival of the Red Army for their connection with the partisans. According to eyewitnesses, Seryozha was spared the bullet. When he ran up to his mother, who was cut off by machine-gun fire, one of the punishers simply threw him aside with a kick of his boot...
Son for father
At the beginning of November 1942, Vorobyov’s regiment was sent to Stalingrad. By this time, the commander had already adopted a boy with whom he had developed a particularly trusting relationship. Mitrofan Danilovich did not yet have his own family. But he could not send the child to an orphanage, deciding that the boy in the regiment would always be well fed and clothed. Seryozhka considered himself an adjutant of the regiment commander and even demanded to be promoted to junior lieutenant - every morning he came to headquarters with a report on his readiness to carry out new assignments, and delivered newspapers and letters to the units.
According to officers, nothing raised the morale of the soldiers more than visits from their son.
On one of these forays - Seryozhka was distributing the festive, November 7, issue of "Red Star" - he committed his first heroic act: he spotted German fire spotters hiding in a haystack with a walkie-talkie. Having arrived at the location, he reported to the commander of artillery reconnaissance, the scouts were neutralized. On November 19, when the Katyusha rockets hit the German troops, the boy was in the trench, along with everyone else, he opened his mouth wide so that his eardrums would not burst...
The six-year-old soldier came out clear. They sewed a uniform for Seryozhka, made real leather boots to fit, gave him a belt, cap and binoculars, which he never parted with. And when, at the beginning of 1943, shoulder straps with stars returned to the army, the boy was given a “junior lieutenant” kit as a joke.
My father then greatly reproached himself for this,” Vyacheslav Mitrofanovich Vorobiev continues the story. - German pilots returning from an air raid behind the front line noticed an officer with shiny shoulder straps and a hat in the steppe. On a low level flight, even the rank could be seen. They fired from machine guns, and one of the bullets hit Sergei in the heel. But the medal “For Military Merit” was not awarded to him for wounding and killing saboteurs, although the then division commander, General Ostashenkov, spoke about this, lifting the soldier in his arms. They awarded Seryozhka for saving the commander - our father.
Sergei, like a tail, followed him everywhere. One day both came under artillery fire, the father, throwing the boy into the “gap”, jumped into the dugout - and a second later a shell hit it. The dugout was torn apart, Sergei, without waiting for the end of the bombing, tried to crawl inside to help. And when he couldn’t, he rushed to the sappers for help. It was they who dug up Regimental Commander Vorobyov - shell-shocked, wounded, but alive. In the family of a front-line soldier, both children and grandchildren sacredly remember this.
Father and son often walked close to death. In May 1943, Seryozha, together with his regiment, crossed the Northern Donets under heavy fire when a blast wave from a shell capsized the raft. The guardsman had already learned to read, but he swam like an axe. And he probably would have drowned if the nameless fighter had not dived after him in time. And one day, a boy remains a boy in war, he wanted to take a ride in an ambulance cart, and a team of seasoned shepherd dogs, seeing the mongrel, rushed towards the enemy trenches. They caught up with us on a motorcycle...
After crossing the Dnieper, the inseparable commander and “adjutant” almost died out of the blue. We were returning in a jeep from army headquarters to the front line along a pontoon crossing, along which dozens of vehicles had already passed. And suddenly, when driving ashore, they accidentally caught one of the neutralized mines lying nearby with a wheel. The explosion threw the car into the air, the driver died, and Vorobiev was shell-shocked. Seryozha was thrown to the side of the road - and not a scratch...
Home family
In 1944, the military career of Sergei Aleshkov ended on the Vistula. By order of the commander of the 62nd Army Vasily Chuikov, with whom the boy danced the “sesetka” shortly before farewell (the guardsman still could not pronounce “tap dance” correctly), he was sent from the front to the Tula Suvorov School. There, the “son of the regiment” was initially rejected for health reasons and the intervention of the army commander was required...
Seryozha was not distinguished by the height of a grenadier; he remained small and thin throughout his life, but tried to compensate for this with good physical fitness, continues his half-brother Vyacheslav Mitrofanovich. - Received classes in boxing and sambo, and after Suvorov College entered the military. But my health failed, and I had to become an investigator. Just like in war, he didn’t hide behind anyone’s back. But my personal life didn’t work out - I was married and divorced twice. He probably considered his main family all his life to be at the front...
The last years of his life, Sergei Andreevich Aleshkov worked as a legal adviser at the Chelyabinsk plexiglass plant. He died at the age of 54 right at the bus stop, getting ready for work. Colonel Vorobyov of the Guard outlived him by just a year - and his heart stopped on the street. Two single shots under the peaceful sky for which father and son fought at Stalingrad.
A cruel and merciless war burst into the childhood of six-year-old Seryozha Aleshkov in 1942. He lived with his mother and brother in his village in the Kaluga region when the Nazis appeared there. The enemy began to establish his own order, promising punishment by death for the slightest dissatisfaction and resistance. They were also killed for helping partisans and for harboring escaped prisoners of war. Seryozha did not have a father; he died long before the war. Both older brothers fought somewhere on the fronts.
The Germans learned that Seryozha’s mother was giving bread to the partisans. She was executed. Serezha's brother also died. And the baby managed to survive thanks to the help of a neighbor, who took the boy into the forest. Seryozha got lost in the thicket. He wandered for a long time, was hungry, exhausted. Serezha's fate was similar to the adventures of the young son of the regiment from the well-known story by Valentin Kataev. Seryozha was also found in the forest, quite by accident by scouts from the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment. They bandaged his wounded leg and carried him to the unit location.
Seryozha told his sad story to the deputy commander of the unit, Vorobyov, at headquarters. He said his name - Seryozha. But he didn’t know the last name, he said that the last name was probably Aleshkin. That was his name in the partisan detachment.
the baby became the son of the regiment. The little soldier was enrolled in all types of allowances. They made a uniform for him according to his height, and even fitted him with size 30 boots.
The kid ate the soldier's bread for nothing. He also fought with enemies. Once he even captured two Nazi soldiers. Here is how it was. Private Aleshkov came to the commander and shared his observations. It seemed to him that someone was hiding behind the haystacks. The commander sent soldiers on patrol. And they soon brought two “Krauts” hiding from Soviet soldiers with a walkie-talkie. These were artillery fire spotters holed up in the rear of the Soviet troops. For his vigilance, Seryozha received his first gratitude from the command.
The little soldier also distinguished himself while crossing the Dnieper. The shell hit the headquarters dugout. Sergei noticed a column of smoke and fire and, under fire, reached the sappers. They hurried to the headquarters and in time dug out the unit commanders buried under the earth.
General Chuikov, who commanded the 8th Guards Army, was informed about the seven-year-old fighter. The feat of the young hero - the rescue of officer M.D. Vorobyov - was celebrated by the command with the medal "For Military Merit" No. 013 (Order dated April 24, 1943). Seryozha was also given a personalized "Walter". So the fighter got his own weapon.
Together with his fellow soldiers from the 142nd regiment, Seryozha entered the territory of Poland. A mine fragment caught my leg. had to be treated in the hospital. The soldier’s biography turned out to be so different from the childhood that the war took away from the baby.
After the regiment commander’s recovery, Mikhail Danilovich Vorobyov adopted the boy. And since 1944, Seryozha began to study at the Tula Suvorov Military School. After the war, Sergei Andreevich Aleshkov served honorably in various positions in the Soviet army and died in 1990. He, like many veterans, met with young people, schoolchildren, talked about what he saw in the war, what he remembered.
Seryozha was saved by a neighbor. She threw the child out of the window of the hut and shouted for him to run as fast as he could. The boy ran into the forest. This was in the fall of 1942. It is difficult to say how long the child wandered, hungry, exhausted, frozen in the Kaluga forests. He was encountered by scouts from the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment, commanded by Major Vorobyov. They carried the boy in their arms across the front line. And they left him in the regiment.
The hardest thing was to choose clothes for the little soldier: where can you find size thirty boots? However, over time, both shoes and uniforms were found - everything was as it should be. The young unmarried Major Mikhail Vorobyov became a second father for Seryozha. By the way, he later officially adopted the boy.
“But you don’t have a mother, Serezhenka,” the major said somehow sadly, stroking the boy’s short-cropped hair.
“No, it will be so,” he replied. – I like the nurse Aunt Nina, she is kind and beautiful.
So, with the light hand of a child, the major found his happiness and lived with Nina Andreevna Bedova, a senior medical officer, all his life.
Seryozha helped his senior comrades as best he could: he carried mail and ammunition to the soldiers, and sang songs between battles. Serezhenka turned out to have a wonderful character - cheerful, calm, he never whined or complained about trifles. And for the soldiers, this boy became a reminder of a peaceful life; each of them had someone left at home who loved them and was waiting for them. Everyone tried to caress the child. But Seryozha gave his heart to Vorobyov once and for all.
Seryozha received the medal “For Military Merit” for saving the life of his named father. Once, during a fascist raid, a bomb destroyed the regiment commander’s dugout. No one except the boy saw that Major Vorobyov was under the rubble of logs.
Swallowing tears, the boy tried to move the logs to the side, but only tore his hands bloody. Despite the ongoing explosions, Seryozha ran for help. He led the soldiers to the littered dugout, and they pulled out their commander. And Guard Private Seryozha stood next to him and sobbed loudly, smearing dirt over his face, like the most ordinary little boy, which he, in fact, was.
The commander of the 8th Guards Army, General Chuikov, having learned about the young hero, awarded Seryozha with a military weapon - a captured Walther pistol. The boy was later wounded, sent to the hospital and never returned to the front line. It is known that Sergei Aleshkov graduated from the Suvorov School and the Kharkov Law Institute. For many years he worked as a lawyer in Chelyabinsk, closer to his family - Mikhail and Nina Vorobyov. In recent years he worked as a prosecutor. He died early, in 1990. The years of war took their toll.
The story of the regiment's son Aleshkov seems like a legend, if not for the old black and white photograph from which a smiling, round-faced boy with a cap pulled jauntily over one ear looks at us trustingly. Guard Private Serezhenka. A child who fell into the millstones of war, survived many troubles and became a real person. And for this, as you know, you need not only strength of character, but also a kind heart.
Vasily Zhurakhov After a book about the history of the injury and death of our fellow countryman, General Vatutin, I decided to prepare a photo album about the military exploits of the outstanding commander for the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. I started collecting material. And in Vatutin’s family album, which the staff officers presented to his commander, I saw a photograph of a boy in the uniform of a Red Army soldier. The baby looked to be about five or six years old. And the signature: “Seryozha Aleshin, Rostov region.” Who is that boy? Why is his picture in the general's album? What kind of medal is on his chest? What is the future fate of the boy?
To find answers to these questions, Vasily Zhurakhov, a former criminal investigation officer, contacted former colleagues from Rostov. But they could not help: they knew nothing about this man. The writer sent a request to the central archive of the Ministry of Defense in Podolsk. I talked with specialists from the museum-diorama “Battle of Kursk. Belgorod direction". I called the grandson of the commander, candidate of historical sciences Alexander Vatutin. I was looking for traces of the boy in Kharkov, for which I contacted local state security veterans. But the search was fruitless. A happy accident helped.
Once Zhurakhov was invited to a ceremony honoring Emma Doroshenko, who was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Belgorod.” I approached the writer Aida Evgenievna Volkova- the oldest employee of the Belgorod cultural department - and asked to sign the congratulatory address intended for Doroshenko.
“Okay, but I don’t sign with other people’s pens,” Zhurakhov answered and opened his briefcase to find his signature red pencil.
“And I know this boy,” Aida Evgenievna suddenly said, seeing a photograph of the little fighter lying on top of other documents. – This is Seryozha Aleshkov, the youngest son of the regiment. There should be information about him in the “Young Defenders of the Motherland” museum, which is located in Kursk.
Volkova clarified the boy’s last name and said that he was not from the Rostov region, which is why no traces of him were found there. Aleshkov, already an adult, came to Kursk. This meeting was preserved in Aida Evgenievna’s memory.
Zhurakhov just had to contact the people of Kursk to find out the amazing story of the six-year-old defender of the Motherland. It turned out that a lot was written about him in the sixties and seventies of the last century. But lately his name has been practically forgotten.
Let her be my mother!
Seryozha Aleshkova was 6 years old when the Germans executed his mother and older brother for their connection with the partisans. This happened in the Kaluga region. Seryozha was saved by a neighbor. She threw the child out of the window of the hut and shouted for him to run as fast as he could. The boy ran into the forest. This was in the fall of 1942. It is difficult to say how long the child wandered, hungry, exhausted, frozen in the Kaluga forests. He was encountered by scouts from the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment, commanded by Major Vorobyov. They carried the boy in their arms across the front line. And they left him in the regiment.
The hardest thing was to choose clothes for the little soldier: where can you find size thirty boots? However, over time, both shoes and uniforms were found - everything was as it should be. Young unmarried major Mikhail Vorobyov became a second father for Seryozha. By the way, he later officially adopted the boy.
“But you don’t have a mother, Serezhenka,” the major said somehow sadly, stroking the boy’s short-cropped hair.
“No, it will be so,” he replied. – I like the nurse Aunt Nina, she is kind and beautiful.
So, with the light hand of a child, the major found his happiness and lived with Nina Andreevna Bedova, senior medical officer all his life.
Seryozha helped his senior comrades as best he could: he carried mail and ammunition to the soldiers, and sang songs between battles. Serezhenka turned out to have a wonderful character - cheerful, calm, he never whined or complained about trifles. And for the soldiers, this boy became a reminder of a peaceful life; each of them had someone left at home who loved them and was waiting for them. Everyone tried to caress the child. But Seryozha gave his heart to Vorobyov once and for all.
Seryozha received the medal “For Military Merit” for saving the life of his named father. Once, during a fascist raid, a bomb destroyed the regiment commander’s dugout. No one except the boy saw that Major Vorobyov was under the rubble of logs.
Swallowing tears, the boy tried to move the logs to the side, but only tore his hands bloody. Despite the ongoing explosions, Seryozha ran for help. He led the soldiers to the littered dugout, and they pulled out their commander. And Guard Private Seryozha stood next to him and sobbed loudly, smearing dirt over his face, like the most ordinary little boy, which he, in fact, was.
Commander of the 8th Guards Army General Chuikov, Having learned about the young hero, he awarded Seryozha with a military weapon - a captured Walther pistol. The boy was later wounded, sent to the hospital and never returned to the front line.
It is known that Sergei Aleshkov graduated from the Suvorov School and the Kharkov Law Institute. For many years he worked as a lawyer in Chelyabinsk, closer to his family - Mikhail and Nina Vorobyov. In recent years he worked as a prosecutor. He died early, in 1990. The years of war took their toll.
Instead of an afterword
The story of the regiment's son Aleshkov seems like a legend, if not for the old black and white photograph from which a smiling, round-faced boy with a cap pulled jauntily over one ear looks at us trustingly. Guard Private Serezhenka. A child who fell into the millstones of war, survived many troubles and became a real person. And for this, as you know, you need not only strength of character, but also a kind heart.
Victoria Perederiy
