A story about any hero. Heroes of our time - the exploits of ordinary people
Every day in Russia, ordinary citizens perform feats and do not pass by when someone needs help. The exploits of these people are not always noticed by officials, they are not awarded certificates, but this does not make their actions any less significant.
A country should know its heroes, so this selection is dedicated to brave, caring people who have proven by deeds that heroism has a place in our lives. All events occurred in February 2014.
Schoolchildren from the Krasnodar region Roman Vitkov and Mikhail Serdyuk saved an elderly woman from a burning house. While heading home, they saw a building on fire. Running into the yard, the schoolchildren saw that the veranda was almost completely engulfed in fire. Roman and Mikhail rushed into the barn to get a tool. Grabbing a sledgehammer and an ax, breaking out the window, Roman climbed into the window opening. An elderly woman was sleeping in a smoky room. They managed to get the victim out only after breaking the door.
“Roma is smaller in build than me, so he easily got through the window opening, but he couldn’t get back out with his grandmother in his arms in the same way. Therefore, we had to break down the door and this was the only way we managed to get the victim out,” said Misha Serdyuk.
Residents of the village of Altynay, Sverdlovsk region, Elena Martynova, Sergey Inozemtsev, Galina Sholokhova, saved children from the fire. The owner of the house committed the arson by blocking the door. At this time, there were three children aged 2–4 years and 12-year-old Elena Martynova in the building. Noticing the fire, Lena unlocked the door and began to carry the children out of the house. Galina Sholokhova and the children’s cousin Sergei Inozemtsev came to her aid. All three heroes received certificates from the local Ministry of Emergency Situations.
And in the Chelyabinsk region, priest Alexey Peregudov saved the life of the groom at a wedding. During the wedding, the groom lost consciousness. The only one who was not at a loss in this situation was Priest Alexey Peregudov. He quickly examined the man lying down, suspected cardiac arrest and provided first aid, including chest compressions. As a result, the sacrament was successfully completed. Father Alexey noted that he had only seen chest compressions in movies.
In Mordovia, Chechen war veteran Marat Zinatullin distinguished himself by saving an elderly man from a burning apartment. Having witnessed the fire, Marat acted like a professional firefighter. He climbed up the fence onto a small barn, and from there climbed onto the balcony. He broke the glass, opened the door leading from the balcony to the room, and got inside. The 70-year-old owner of the apartment was lying on the floor. The pensioner, who was poisoned by smoke, could not leave the apartment on his own. Marat, opening the front door from the inside, carried the owner of the house into the entrance.
An employee of the Kostroma colony, Roman Sorvachev, saved the lives of his neighbors in a fire. Entering the entrance of his house, he immediately identified the apartment from which the smell of smoke was coming. The door was opened by a drunk man who assured that everything was fine. However, Roman called the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The rescuers who arrived at the scene of the fire were unable to enter the premises through the door, and the uniform of an Emergencies Ministry employee prevented them from entering the apartment through the narrow window frame. Then Roman climbed up the fire escape, entered the apartment and pulled out an elderly woman and an unconscious man from a heavily smoky apartment.
A resident of the village of Yurmash (Bashkortostan), Rafit Shamsutdinov, saved two children in a fire. Fellow villager Rafita lit the stove and, leaving two children - a three-year-old girl and a one-and-a-half-year-old son, went to school with the older children. Rafit Shamsutdinov noticed smoke from the burning house. Despite the abundance of smoke, he managed to enter the burning room and take out the children.
Dagestani Arsen Fitzulaev prevented a disaster at a gas station in Kaspiysk. Only later did Arsen realize that he was actually risking his life.
An explosion unexpectedly occurred at one of the gas stations within the boundaries of Kaspiysk. As it turned out later, a foreign car driving at high speed crashed into a gas tank and knocked down the valve. A minute of delay, and the fire would have spread to nearby tanks with flammable fuel. In such a scenario, casualties could not be avoided. However, the situation was radically changed by a modest gas station worker, who, through skillful actions, prevented the disaster and reduced its scale to a burnt-out car and several damaged cars.
And in the village of Ilyinka-1, Tula region, schoolchildren Andrei Ibronov, Nikita Sabitov, Andrei Navruz, Vladislav Kozyrev and Artem Voronin pulled a pensioner out of a well. 78-year-old Valentina Nikitina fell into a well and could not get out on her own. Andrei Ibronov and Nikita Sabitov heard the cries for help and immediately rushed to save the elderly woman. However, three more guys had to be called in for help - Andrei Navruz, Vladislav Kozyrev and Artem Voronin. Together the guys managed to pull an elderly pensioner out of the well.
“I tried to climb out, the well is shallow - I even reached the edge with my hand. But it was so slippery and cold that I couldn’t grab the hoop. And when I raised my arms, ice water poured into my sleeves. I screamed, called for help, but the well is located far from residential buildings and roads, so no one heard me. How long this lasted, I don’t even know... Soon I began to feel sleepy, with the last of my strength I raised my head and suddenly saw two boys looking into the well!” – said the victim.
In the village of Romanovo, Kaliningrad region, twelve-year-old schoolboy Andrei Tokarsky distinguished himself. He saved his cousin who fell through the ice. The incident occurred on Lake Pugachevskoye, where the boys and Andrei’s aunt came to skate on the cleared ice.
A policeman from the Pskov region Vadim Barkanov saved two men on. While walking with his friend, Vadim saw smoke and flames of fire escaping from the window of an apartment in a residential building. A woman ran out of the building and began to call for help, since two men remained in the apartment. Calling the firefighters, Vadim and his friend rushed to their aid. As a result, they managed to carry two unconscious men out of the burning building. The victims were taken by ambulance to the hospital, where they received the necessary medical care.
Introduction
This short article contains only a drop of information about the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. In fact, there are a huge number of heroes and collecting all the information about these people and their exploits is a titanic work and it is already a little beyond the scope of our project. However, we decided to start with 5 heroes - many have heard about some of them, there is a little less information about others and few people know about them, especially the younger generation.
Victory in the Great Patriotic War was achieved by the Soviet people thanks to their incredible effort, dedication, ingenuity and self-sacrifice. This is especially clearly revealed in the heroes of the war, who performed incredible feats on the battlefield and beyond. These great people should be known to everyone who is grateful to their fathers and grandfathers for the opportunity to live in peace and tranquility.
Viktor Vasilievich Talalikhin
The story of Viktor Vasilyevich begins with the small village of Teplovka, located in the Saratov province. Here he was born in the fall of 1918. His parents were simple workers. After graduating from college, which specialized in producing workers for factories and factories, he himself worked at a meat processing plant and at the same time attended a flying club. Afterwards he graduated from one of the few pilot schools in Borisoglebsk. He took part in the conflict between our country and Finland, where he received a baptism of fire. During the period of confrontation between the USSR and Finland, Talalikhin carried out about five dozen combat missions, while destroying several enemy aircraft, as a result of which he was awarded the honorary Order of the Red Star in the forties for special successes and the completion of assigned tasks.
Viktor Vasilyevich distinguished himself by heroic feats already during the battles in the great war for our people. Although he was credited with about sixty combat missions, the main battle took place on August 6, 1941 in the skies over Moscow. As part of a small air group, Victor flew out on an I-16 to repel an enemy air attack on the capital of the USSR. At an altitude of several kilometers, he met a German He-111 bomber. Talalikhin fired several machine-gun bursts at him, but the German plane skillfully dodged them. Then Viktor Vasilyevich, through a cunning maneuver and subsequent shots from a machine gun, hit one of the bomber’s engines, but this did not help stop the “German”. To the chagrin of the Russian pilot, after unsuccessful attempts to stop the bomber, there were no live cartridges left, and Talalikhin decides to ram. For this ram he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
During the war there were many such cases, but as fate would have it, Talalikhin became the first who decided to ram, neglecting his own safety, in our skies. He died in October 1941 with the rank of squadron commander, while performing another combat mission.
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub
In the village of Obrazhievka, the future hero, Ivan Kozhedub, was born into a family of simple peasants. After graduating from school in 1934, he entered the Chemical Technology College. The Shostka Aero Club was the first place where Kozhedub acquired flying skills. Then in 1940 he enlisted in the army. In the same year, he successfully entered and graduated from the military aviation school in the city of Chuguev.
Ivan Nikitovich took direct part in the Great Patriotic War. He has more than a hundred air battles to his name, during which he shot down 62 aircraft. Of the large number of combat sorties, two main ones can be distinguished - a battle with an Me-262 fighter with a jet engine, and an attack on a group of FW-190 bombers.
The battle with the Me-262 jet fighter took place in mid-February 1945. On this day, Ivan Nikitovich, together with his partner Dmitry Tatarenko, flew out on La-7 planes to hunt. After a short search, they came across a low-flying plane. He flew along the river from Frankfurt an der Oder. As they got closer, the pilots discovered that it was a new generation Me-262 aircraft. But this did not discourage the pilots from attacking an enemy plane. Then Kozhedub decided to attack on a collision course, since this was the only opportunity to destroy the enemy. During the attack, the wingman fired a short burst from a machine gun ahead of schedule, which could have confused all the cards. But to the surprise of Ivan Nikitovich, such an outburst by Dmitry Tatarenko had a positive effect. The German pilot turned around in such a way that he ended up in Kozhedub’s sights. All he had to do was pull the trigger and destroy the enemy. Which is what he did.
Ivan Nikitovich performed his second heroic feat in mid-April 1945 in the area of the capital of Germany. Again, together with Titarenko, carrying out another combat mission, they discovered a group of FW-190 bombers with full combat kits. Kozhedub immediately reported this to the command post, but without waiting for reinforcements, he began an attack maneuver. German pilots saw two Soviet planes take off and disappear into the clouds, but they did not attach any importance to this. Then the Russian pilots decided to attack. Kozhedub descended to the Germans' flight altitude and began shooting them, and Titarenko from a higher altitude fired in short bursts in different directions, trying to create the impression on the enemy of the presence of a large number of Soviet fighters. The German pilots believed at first, but after several minutes of battle their doubts were dispelled, and they moved on to active action to destroy the enemy. Kozhedub was on the verge of death in this battle, but his friend saved him. When Ivan Nikitovich tried to get away from the German fighter that was pursuing him and was in the firing position of the Soviet fighter, Titarenko, with a short burst, got ahead of the German pilot and destroyed the enemy aircraft. Soon a reinforcement group arrived, and the German group of aircraft was destroyed.
During the war, Kozhedub was twice recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union and was elevated to the rank of marshal of Soviet aviation.
Dmitry Romanovich Ovcharenko
The soldier’s homeland is a village with the telling name Ovcharovo, Kharkov province. He was born into the family of a carpenter in 1919. His father taught him all the intricacies of his craft, which later played an important role in the fate of the hero. Ovcharenko studied at school for only five years, then went to work on a collective farm. He was drafted into the army in 1939. I met the first days of the war, as befits a soldier, on the front line. After a short service, he received minor damage, which, unfortunately for the soldier, became the reason for his transfer from the main unit to service at an ammunition depot. It was this position that became key for Dmitry Romanovich, in which he accomplished his feat.
It all happened in the middle of the summer of 1941 in the area of the village of Pestsa. Ovcharenko was carrying out orders from his superiors to deliver ammunition and food to a military unit located several kilometers from the village. He came across two trucks with fifty German soldiers and three officers. They surrounded him, took away his rifle and began interrogating him. But the Soviet soldier was not taken aback and, taking the ax lying next to him, cut off the head of one of the officers. While the Germans were discouraged, he took three grenades from a dead officer and threw them towards the German vehicles. These throws were extremely successful: 21 soldiers were killed on the spot, and Ovcharenko finished off the remaining ones with an ax, including the second officer who was trying to escape. The third officer still managed to escape. But even here the Soviet soldier was not at a loss. He collected all the documents, maps, records and machine guns and took them to the General Staff, while bringing ammunition and food on time. At first they did not believe him that he alone had dealt with an entire platoon of the enemy, but after a detailed study of the battle site, all doubts were dispelled.
Thanks to the heroic deed of soldier Ovcharenko, he was recognized as a Hero of the Soviet Union, and he also received one of the most significant orders - the Order of Lenin along with the Gold Star medal. He did not live to see victory for only three months. The wound received in the battles for Hungary in January was fatal for the fighter. At that time he was a machine gunner in the 389th Infantry Regiment. He went down in history as a soldier with an axe.
Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya
Zoya Anatolyevna’s homeland is the village of Osina-Gai, located in the Tambov region. She was born on September 8, 1923 into a Christian family. As fate would have it, Zoya spent her childhood in dark wanderings around the country. So, in 1925, the family was forced to move to Siberia to avoid persecution by the state. A year later they moved to Moscow, where her father died in 1933. Orphaned Zoya begins to have health problems that prevent her from studying. In the fall of 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya joined the ranks of intelligence officers and saboteurs on the Western Front. In a short time, Zoya completed combat training and began to carry out her assigned tasks.
She accomplished her heroic feat in the village of Petrishchevo. By order, Zoya and a group of fighters were instructed to burn a dozen settlements, including the village of Petrishchevo. On the night of November twenty-eighth, Zoya and her comrades made their way to the village and came under fire, as a result of which the group broke up and Kosmodemyanskaya had to act alone. After spending the night in the forest, early in the morning she set out to complete the task. Zoya managed to set fire to three houses and escape unnoticed. But when she decided to return again and finish what she started, villagers were already waiting for her, who, seeing the saboteur, immediately informed the German soldiers. Kosmodemyanskaya was captured and tortured for a long time. They tried to extract information from her about the unit in which she served and her name. Zoya refused and didn’t say anything, and when asked what her name was, she called herself Tanya. The Germans felt that they could not get more information and hung it up in public. Zoya met her death with dignity, and her last words went down in history forever. Dying, she said that our people number one hundred and seventy million people, and they cannot be outweighed in all. So, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya died heroically.
Mentions of Zoya are associated primarily with the name “Tanya”, under which she went down in history. She is also a Hero of the Soviet Union. Her distinctive feature is that she is the first woman to receive this honorary title posthumously.
Alexey Tikhonovich Sevastyanov
This hero was the son of a simple cavalryman, a native of the Tver region, and was born in the winter of 1917 in the small village of Kholm. After graduating from technical school in Kalinin, he entered the military aviation school. Sevastyanov finished it successfully in 1939. In more than a hundred combat sorties, he destroyed four enemy aircraft, of which two each personally and in a group, as well as one balloon.
He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. The most important sorties for Alexei Tikhonovich were battles in the skies over the Leningrad region. So, on November 4, 1941, Sevastyanov patrolled the skies over the Northern capital in his IL-153 aircraft. And just while he was on duty, the Germans carried out a raid. The artillery could not cope with the onslaught and Alexei Tikhonovich had to join the battle. The German He-111 aircraft managed to keep away the Soviet fighter for a long time. After two unsuccessful attacks, Sevastyanov made a third attempt, but when the time came to pull the trigger and destroy the enemy with a short burst, the Soviet pilot discovered a lack of ammunition. Without thinking twice, he decides to go for the ram. A Soviet plane pierced the tail of an enemy bomber with its propeller. For Sevastyanov, this maneuver turned out well, but for the Germans it all ended in captivity.
The second significant flight and the last for the hero was an air battle in the skies over Ladoga. Alexey Tikhonovich died in an unequal battle with the enemy on April 23, 1942.
Conclusion
As we have already said in this article, not all the heroes of the war are collected; there are about eleven thousand of them in total (according to official data). Among them are Russians, Kazakhs, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and all other nations of our multinational state. There are those who did not receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, having committed an equally important act, but due to a coincidence of circumstances, information about them was lost. There was a lot in the war: desertion of soldiers, betrayal, death, and much more, but the most important thing was the exploits of such heroes. Thanks to them, victory was won in the Great Patriotic War.
Every day in Russia, ordinary citizens perform feats and do not pass by when someone needs help. A country should know its heroes, so this selection is dedicated to brave, caring people who have proven by deeds that heroism has a place in our lives.
1. An unusual incident with a miraculous rescue occurred in the city of Lesnoy. A 26-year-old engineer named Vladimir Startsev saved a two-year-old girl who fell from a fourth-floor balcony.
“I was returning from the sports ground, where I was training with children. “I saw some kind of pandemonium,” Startsev recalls. “People under the balcony were fussing, shouting something, waving their arms. I raise my head up, and there is a little girl, with her last strength, grabbing onto the outer edge of the balcony.” Here, according to Vladimir, he developed the climber’s syndrome. Moreover, the athlete has been practicing sambo and rock climbing for many years. My physical form allowed it. He assessed the situation and intended to climb the wall to the fourth floor.
“I’m already prepared to jump onto the first floor balcony, I look up, and the child is flying down! I instantly regrouped and relaxed my muscles to catch it. We were taught this way during training,” says Vladimir Startsev. “She landed right in my arms, cried, of course, she was scared.”
2. It happened on August 15th. That day, my sister and nephews and I came to the river to swim. Everything was fine - heat, sun, water. Then my sister says to me: “Lesha, look, a man has drowned, there, he’s floating past. The drowned man was carried away by the fast current, and I had to run about 350 meters until I caught up with him. And our river is mountainous, there are cobblestones, while I was running, I fell several times, but I got up and continued running, and barely caught up. 
The drowned man turned out to be a child. The face shows all the signs of a drowned person - an unnaturally swollen belly, a bluish-black body, swollen veins. I didn't even understand if it was a boy or a girl. He pulled the child ashore and began pouring water out of him. The stomach, the lungs - everything was filled with water, the tongue kept sinking. I asked the people standing nearby for a towel. No one served, they were disdainful, they were afraid of the girl’s appearance, and they spared their beautiful towels for her. And I'm wearing nothing but swimming trunks. Due to the fast running, and while I was pulling her out of the water, I was exhausted, there was not enough air for artificial respiration.
About resuscitation
Thank God, my colleague, nurse Olga, was passing by, but she was on the other side. She started screaming for me to bring the child to her shore. The child, who swallowed water, became incredibly heavy. The men responded to the request to take the girl to the other side. There Olga and I continued all resuscitation efforts. They drained the water as best they could, did cardiac massage, artificial respiration, for 15-20 minutes there was no reaction, neither from the girl nor from the onlookers standing nearby. I asked to call an ambulance, no one called, and the ambulance station was nearby, 150 meters away. Olga and I couldn’t afford to be distracted even for a second, so we couldn’t even call. After some time, a boy was found and he ran to call for help. In the meantime, we were all trying to revive a little girl, five years old. Out of despair, Olga even began to cry; it seemed that there was no hope. Everyone around said, stop these useless attempts, you will break all her ribs, why are you mocking the dead man. But then the girl sighed, and the nurse who came running heard the sounds of a heartbeat.
3. A third grader saved three young children from a burning hut. For his heroism, 11-year-old Dima Filyushin was almost flogged at home. 
... On the day when a fire broke out on the outskirts of the village, twin brothers Andryusha and Vasya and five-year-old Nastya were alone at home. Mom left for work. Dima was returning from school when he noticed flames in the neighbors' windows. The boy looked inside - the curtains were on fire, and three-year-old Vasya was sleeping next to him on the bed. Of course, the schoolboy could have called the rescue service, but without hesitation, he rushed to save the kids himself.
4. A young 17-year-old girl from Zarechny, Marina Safarova, became a real hero. The girl used a sheet to pull the fishermen, her brother, and the snowmobile out of the hole. 
Before the onset of spring, the young people decided to visit the Sursky Reservoir, in the Penza region, for the last time, and after that “give up” until next year, since the ice is no longer as reliable as a month ago. Without going far, the guys left the car on the shore, and they themselves moved 40 meters from the edge and drilled holes. While her brother was fishing, the girl drew sketches of the landscape, and after a couple of hours she froze and went to the car to warm up, and at the same time warm up the engine.
Under the weight of the motorized equipment, the ice could not stand it and broke in the places where the holes were drilled, like after a hammer drill. People began to drown, the snowmobile hung on the edge of the ice by its ski, this entire structure threatened to break off completely, then people would have had very little chance of salvation. The men clung with all their strength to the edge of the ice hole, but their warm clothes immediately got wet and literally pulled them to the bottom. In this situation, Marina did not think about the possible danger and rushed to the rescue.
Having grabbed her brother, the girl, however, was unable to help him in any way, since the ratio of the forces of our heroine and the superior mass turned out to be too unequal. Run for help? But not a single living soul is visible in the area, only a company of the same fishermen can be seen on the horizon. Go to the city for help?
So while time passes, people may simply drown from hypothermia. Thinking like this, Marina intuitively ran to the car. Having opened the trunk in search of an item that could help in the situation, the girl drew attention to the bag of bed linen that she had taken from the laundry. - The first thing that came to mind was to twist a rope out of sheets, tie it to the car and try to pull them out. – Marinochka remembers
The pile of laundry was enough for almost 30 meters, it could have been longer, but the girl tied the improvised cable with double calculation.
“I’ve never braided braids so quickly,” the rescuer laughs, “in about three minutes I braided about thirty meters, this is a record.” The girl risked driving the remaining distance to the people on the ice.
- Near the shore it is still very strong, I slid onto the ice and slowly drove backwards. She opened the door just in case and drove off. The cable made from the sheets turned out to be so strong that in the end they pulled out not only people, but also a snowmobile. After the rescue operation was completed, the men took off their clothes and climbed into the car.
- I don’t even have a license yet, I took it, but I’ll get it only in a month, when I turn 18. While I was driving them home, I was worried that traffic cops would suddenly come across me, and I would have no license, although in theory they would have let me go, or helped me take everyone home.
5. Little hero of Buryatia - this is how 5-year-old Danila Zaitsev was dubbed in the republic. This little boy saved his older sister Valya from death. When the girl fell into the wormwood, her brother held her for a whole half hour so that the current would not drag Valya under the ice. 
When the boy’s hands were cold and tired, he grabbed his sister’s hood with his teeth and did not let go until his neighbor, 15-year-old Ivan Zhamyanov, came to the rescue. The teenager was able to pull Valya out of the water and carried the exhausted and frozen girl in his arms to his home. There the child was wrapped in a blanket and given hot tea.
Having learned about this story, the leadership of the local school turned to the regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations with a request to reward both boys for their heroic deed.
6. 35-year-old resident of Uralsk Rinat Fardiev was repairing his car when he suddenly heard a loud knock. Running to the scene of the incident, he saw a sinking car and, without thinking twice, rushed into the icy water and began to pull out the victims. 
“At the scene of the accident, I saw the confused driver and passengers of the VAZ, who in the darkness could not understand where the car they crashed into had gone. Then I followed the tracks of the wheels down and found the Audi upside down in the river. I immediately entered the water and began to pull people out of the car. First I took out the driver and the passenger who was sitting in the front seat, and then the two passengers in the back seat. They were already unconscious at that time.”
Unfortunately, one of the people saved by Rinat did not survive - a 34-year-old passenger in the Audi died from hypothermia. Other victims were hospitalized and have now been discharged. Rinat himself works as a driver and does not see any special heroism in his action. “Even at the scene of the accident, the traffic cops told me that they would decide on my promotion. But from the very beginning I did not seek publicity or receive any awards; the main thing is that I managed to save people,” he said.
7. A Saratovite who pulled two little boys out of the water: “I thought that I didn’t know how to swim. But when I heard the screams, I immediately forgot about everything.” 
The screams were heard by a local resident, 26-year-old Vadim Prodan. Running up to the concrete slabs, he saw Ilya drowning. The boy was 20 meters from the shore. The man, without wasting time, rushed to save the boy. In order to pull the child out, Vadim had to dive several times - but when Ilya appeared from under the water, he was still conscious. On the shore, the boy told Vadim about his friend, who was no longer visible.
The man returned to the water and swam towards the reeds. He began to dive and look for the child, but he was nowhere to be seen. And suddenly Vadim felt his hand catch on something - diving again, he found Misha. Grabbing him by the hair, the man pulled the boy ashore, where he performed artificial respiration. A few minutes later Misha regained consciousness. A little later, Ilya and Misha were taken to the Ozinsk Central Hospital.
“I always thought to myself that I didn’t know how to swim, just to stay on the water a little,” Vadim admits, “But as soon as I heard the screams, I immediately forgot about everything, and there was no fear, there was only one thought in my head - I need to help.”
While saving the boys, Vadim hit a piece of reinforcement lying in the water and suffered a leg injury. Later at the hospital he received several stitches.
8. Schoolchildren from the Krasnodar region Roman Vitkov and Mikhail Serdyuk saved an elderly woman from a burning house. 
While heading home, they saw a building on fire. Running into the yard, the schoolchildren saw that the veranda was almost completely engulfed in fire. Roman and Mikhail rushed into the barn to get a tool. Grabbing a sledgehammer and an ax, breaking out the window, Roman climbed into the window opening. An elderly woman was sleeping in a smoky room. They managed to get the victim out only after breaking the door.
9. And in the Chelyabinsk region, priest Alexey Peregudov saved the life of the groom at a wedding. 
During the wedding, the groom lost consciousness. The only one who was not at a loss in this situation was Priest Alexey Peregudov. He quickly examined the man lying down, suspected cardiac arrest and provided first aid, including chest compressions. As a result, the sacrament was successfully completed. Father Alexey noted that he had only seen chest compressions in movies.
10. In Mordovia, veteran of the Chechen war Marat Zinatullin distinguished himself by saving an elderly man from a burning apartment. 
Having witnessed the fire, Marat acted like a professional firefighter. He climbed up the fence onto a small barn, and from there climbed onto the balcony. He broke the glass, opened the door leading from the balcony to the room, and got inside. The 70-year-old owner of the apartment was lying on the floor. The pensioner, who was poisoned by smoke, could not leave the apartment on his own. Marat, opening the front door from the inside, carried the owner of the house into the entrance.
11. An employee of the Kostroma colony, Roman Sorvachev, saved the lives of his neighbors in a fire. 
Entering the entrance of his house, he immediately identified the apartment from which the smell of smoke was coming. The door was opened by a drunk man who assured that everything was fine. However, Roman called the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The rescuers who arrived at the scene of the fire were unable to enter the premises through the door, and the uniform of an Emergencies Ministry employee prevented them from entering the apartment through the narrow window frame. Then Roman climbed up the fire escape, entered the apartment and pulled out an elderly woman and an unconscious man from a heavily smoky apartment.
12. Resident of the village of Yurmash (Bashkortostan) Rafit Shamsutdinov saved two children in a fire. 
Fellow villager Rafita lit the stove and, leaving two children - a three-year-old girl and a one-and-a-half-year-old son, went to school with the older children. Rafit Shamsutdinov noticed smoke from the burning house. Despite the abundance of smoke, he managed to enter the burning room and take out the children.
13. Dagestani Arsen Fitzulaev prevented a disaster at a gas station in Kaspiysk. Only later did Arsen realize that he was actually risking his life. 
An explosion unexpectedly occurred at one of the gas stations within the boundaries of Kaspiysk. As it turned out later, a foreign car driving at high speed crashed into a gas tank and knocked down the valve. A minute of delay, and the fire would have spread to nearby tanks with flammable fuel. In such a scenario, casualties could not be avoided. However, the situation was radically changed by a modest gas station worker, who, through skillful actions, prevented the disaster and reduced its scale to a burnt-out car and several damaged cars.
14. And in the village of Ilyinka-1, Tula region, schoolchildren Andrei Ibronov, Nikita Sabitov, Andrei Navruz, Vladislav Kozyrev and Artem Voronin pulled a pensioner out of a well. 
78-year-old Valentina Nikitina fell into a well and could not get out on her own. Andrei Ibronov and Nikita Sabitov heard the cries for help and immediately rushed to save the elderly woman. However, three more guys had to be called in for help - Andrei Navruz, Vladislav Kozyrev and Artem Voronin. Together the guys managed to pull an elderly pensioner out of the well. “I tried to climb out, the well is shallow - I even reached the edge with my hand. But it was so slippery and cold that I couldn’t grab the hoop. And when I raised my arms, ice water poured into my sleeves. I screamed, called for help, but the well is located far from residential buildings and roads, so no one heard me. How long this lasted, I don’t even know... Soon I began to feel sleepy, with the last of my strength I raised my head and suddenly saw two boys looking into the well!” – said the victim.
15. In Bashkiria, a first-grader saved a three-year-old child from icy water. 
When Nikita Baranov from the village of Tashkinovo, Krasnokamsk region, accomplished his feat, he was only seven. Once, while playing with friends on the street, a first-grader heard a child crying coming from a trench. They installed gas in the village: the dug holes were filled with water, and three-year-old Dima fell into one of them. There were no builders or other adults nearby, so Nikita himself pulled the choking boy to the surface
16. A man in the Moscow region saved his 11-month-old son from death by cutting the boy’s throat and inserting the base of a fountain pen there so that the choking baby could breathe. 
An 11-month-old baby's tongue sunk and he stopped breathing. The father, realizing that seconds were counting, took a kitchen knife, made an incision in his son’s throat and inserted a tube into it that he had made from a pen.
17. Shielded my brother from bullets. The story took place at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. 
In Ingushetia, it is customary for children to congratulate friends and relatives in their homes at this time. Zalina Arsanova and her younger brother were leaving the entrance when shots were heard. In a neighboring yard, an attempt was made on one of the FSB officers. When the first bullet pierced the facade of the nearest house, the girl realized that it was shooting, and her younger brother was in the line of fire, and covered him with herself. The girl with a gunshot wound was taken to Malgobek Clinical Hospital No. 1, where she underwent surgery. Surgeons had to assemble the internal organs of a 12-year-old child literally piece by piece. Luckily everyone survived
18. Students of the Iskitim branch of the Novosibirsk Assembly College - 17-year-old Nikita Miller and 20-year-old Vlad Volkov - became real heroes of the Siberian town. 
Of course: the guys captured an armed robber who was trying to rob a grocery kiosk.
19. A young man from Kabardino-Balkaria saved a child in a fire. 
In the village of Shithala, Urvan district of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, a residential building caught fire. Even before the firefighters arrived, the entire neighborhood came running to the house. No one dared to enter the burning room. Twenty-year-old Beslan Taov, having learned that there was a child left in the house, without hesitation, rushed to his aid. Having previously doused himself with water, he entered the burning house and a few minutes later came out with the baby in his arms. The boy named Tamerlan was unconscious; in a few minutes he could not be saved. Thanks to the heroism of Beslan, the child remained alive.
20. A resident of St. Petersburg did not allow the girl to die. 
A resident of St. Petersburg, Igor Sivtsov, was driving a car when he saw a drowning man in the waters of the Neva. Igor immediately called the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and then attempted to save the drowning girl on his own.
Bypassing the traffic jam, he came as close as possible to the parapet of the embankment, where the drowning woman was carried by the current. As it turned out, the woman did not want to be saved; she tried to take her own life by jumping from the Volodarsky Bridge. After talking with the girl, Igor convinced her to swim to the shore, where he managed to pull her out. After that, he turned on all the heaters in his car and sat the victim down to warm up until the ambulance arrived.
We present to your attention the most heroic domestic deeds performed by our children. These are stories about child heroes who, sometimes, at the cost of their lives and health, without hesitation rushed to the rescue of those who needed help.
Zhenya Tabakov
The youngest hero of Russia. A Real Man who was only 7 years old. The only seven-year-old recipient of the Order of Courage. Unfortunately, posthumously.
The tragedy took place on the evening of November 28, 2008. Zhenya and his twelve-year-old older sister Yana were alone at home. An unknown man rang the doorbell and introduced himself as a postman who allegedly brought a registered letter.
Yana did not suspect anything was wrong and allowed him to come in. Entering the apartment and closing the door behind him, the “postman” took out a knife instead of a letter and, grabbing Yana, began to demand that the children give him all the money and valuables. Having received an answer from the children that they did not know where the money was, the criminal demanded that Zhenya look for it, and he dragged Yana into the bathroom, where he began to tear off her clothes. Seeing how he was tearing off his sister’s clothes, Zhenya grabbed a kitchen knife and, in desperation, stuck it in the criminal’s lower back. Howling in pain, he loosened his grip, and the girl managed to run out of the apartment for help. In a rage, the would-be rapist, tearing the knife out of himself, began to thrust it into the child (eight puncture wounds incompatible with life were counted on Zhenya’s body), after which he fled. However, the wound inflicted by Zhenya, leaving a trail of blood behind, did not allow him to escape the pursuit.
By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of January 20, 2009. For the courage and dedication shown in the performance of civic duty, Evgeniy Evgenievich Tabakov was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage. The order was received by Zhenya’s mother Galina Petrovna.
On September 1, 2013, a monument to Zhenya Tabakov was unveiled in the school yard - a boy driving a kite away from a dove.
Danil Sadykov
A 12-year-old teenager, a resident of the city of Naberezhnye Chelny, died while saving a 9-year-old schoolboy. The tragedy occurred on May 5, 2012 on Entuziastov Boulevard. At about two o'clock in the afternoon, 9-year-old Andrei Churbanov decided to get a plastic bottle that had fallen into the fountain. Suddenly he was electrocuted, the boy lost consciousness and fell into the water.
Everyone shouted “help,” but only Danil, who was passing by on a bicycle at that moment, jumped into the water. Danil Sadykov pulled the victim onto the side, but he himself received a severe electric shock. He died before the ambulance arrived.
Thanks to the selfless act of one child, another child survived.
Danil Sadykov was awarded the Order of Courage. Posthumously. For the courage and dedication shown in saving a person in extreme conditions. The award was presented by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Instead of his son, the boy’s father, Aidar Sadykov, received it.
Maxim Konov and Georgy Suchkov
In the Nizhny Novgorod region, two third-graders saved a woman who had fallen into an ice hole. When she was already saying goodbye to life, two boys passed by the pond, returning from school. A 55-year-old resident of the village of Mukhtolova, Ardatovsky district, went to the pond to draw water from the Epiphany ice hole. The ice hole was already covered with an edge of ice, the woman slipped and lost her balance. Wearing heavy winter clothes, she found herself in icy water. Having caught on the edge of the ice, the unfortunate woman began to call for help.
Fortunately, at that moment two friends Maxim and Georgy were passing by the pond, returning from school. Having noticed the woman, they, without wasting a second, rushed to help. Having reached the ice hole, the boys took the woman by both hands and pulled her onto the strong ice. The guys walked her home, not forgetting to grab a bucket and sled. Arriving doctors examined the woman, provided assistance, and she did not require hospitalization.
Of course, such a shock did not pass without a trace, but the woman never tires of thanking the guys for staying alive. She gave soccer balls and cell phones to her rescuers.
Vanya Makarov
Vanya Makarov from Ivdel is now eight years old. A year ago, he saved his classmate from the river, who fell through the ice. Looking at this little boy - a little more than a meter tall and weighing only 22 kilograms - it is difficult to imagine how he alone could pull the girl out of the water. Vanya grew up in an orphanage with his sister. But two years ago he ended up in the family of Nadezhda Novikova (and the woman already had four children of her own). In the future, Vanya plans to go to cadet school and then become a rescuer.
Kobychev Maxim
A fire broke out in a private residential building in the village of Zelveno, Amur Region, late in the evening. Neighbors discovered the fire very late when thick smoke poured out of the windows of the burning house. Having reported the fire, residents began to extinguish the flames by dousing it with water. By that time, things and the walls of the building were burning in the rooms. Among those who came running to help was 14-year-old Maxim Kobychev. Having learned that there were people in the house, he, not at a loss in a difficult situation, entered the house and pulled a disabled woman born in 1929 into the fresh air. Then, risking his own life, he returned to the burning building and carried out a man born in 1972.
Kirill Daineko and Sergei Skripnik
In the Chelyabinsk region, two friends of 12 years showed real courage, saving their teachers from destruction caused by the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite.
Kirill Daineko and Sergei Skripnik heard their teacher Natalya Ivanovna calling for help from the cafeteria, unable to knock down the massive doors. The guys rushed to save the teacher. First, they ran into the duty room, grabbed a reinforcement bar that came to hand and broke out the window into the dining room with it. Then, through the window opening, they carried the teacher, wounded by glass fragments, to the street. After this, the schoolchildren discovered that another woman needed help - a kitchen worker, who was overwhelmed by utensils that had collapsed from the impact of the blast wave. Having quickly cleared the rubble, the boys called adults for help.
Lida Ponomareva
The medal “For saving the dead” will be awarded to Lidia Ponomareva, a sixth-grade student at the Ustvash secondary school in the Leshukonsky district (Arkhangelsk region). The corresponding Decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports the press service of the Regional Government.
In July 2013, a 12-year-old girl saved two seven-year-old children. Lida, ahead of the adults, jumped into the river first after the drowning boy, and then helped the girl, who was also carried away by the current far from the shore, to swim out. One of the guys on land managed to throw a life jacket to the drowning child, after which Lida pulled the girl to the shore.
Lida Ponomareva, the only one of the surrounding children and adults who found themselves at the scene of the tragedy, without hesitation, threw herself into the river. The girl doubly risked her own life, because her injured arm was very painful. When the next day after saving the children, mother and daughter went to the hospital, it turned out that it was a fracture.
Admiring the girl’s courage and bravery, the governor of the Arkhangelsk region, Igor Orlov, personally thanked Lida over the phone for her courageous act.
At the suggestion of the governor, Lida Ponomareva was nominated for a state award.
Alina Gusakova and Denis Fedorov
During terrible fires in Khakassia, schoolchildren saved three people.
That day, the girl accidentally found herself near the house of her first teacher. She came to visit a friend who lived next door.
I heard someone screaming, I said to Nina: “I’ll come now,” Alina says about that day. - I see through the window that Polina Ivanovna is shouting: “Help!” While Alina was saving the school teacher, her house, where the girl lives with her grandmother and older brother, burned to the ground.
On April 12, in the same village of Kozhukhovo, Tatyana Fedorova and her 14-year-old son Denis came to visit their grandmother. It's a holiday after all. As soon as the whole family sat down at the table, a neighbor came running and, pointing to the mountain, called to put out the fire.
We ran to the fire and started extinguishing it with rags,” says Rufina Shaimardanova, Denis Fedorov’s aunt. “When we put out most of it, a very sharp, strong wind blew, and the fire came towards us. We ran to the village and ran into the nearest buildings to hide from the smoke. Then we hear - the fence is cracking, everything is on fire! I couldn’t find the door, my skinny brother ducked through the crack and then came back for me. But together we can’t find a way out! It's smoky, scary! And then Denis opened the door, grabbed me by the hand and pulled me out, then his brother. I am in panic, my brother is in panic. And Denis reassures: “Calm down Rufa.” When we walked, I couldn’t see anything at all, the lenses in my eyes melted from the high temperature...
This is how a 14-year-old schoolboy saved two people. He not only helped me get out of a house engulfed in flames, but also took me to a safe place.
The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia Vladimir Puchkov presented departmental awards to firefighters and residents of Khakassia who distinguished themselves in eliminating massive fires at fire station No. 3 of the Abakan garrison of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. The list of awarded 19 people includes firefighters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, firefighters from Khakassia, volunteers and two schoolchildren from the Ordzhonikidze district - Alina Gusakova and Denis Fedorov.
This is only a small part of the stories about brave children and their unchildish actions. One post cannot contain stories about all the heroes. Not everyone is awarded medals, but this does not make their actions any less significant. The most important reward is the gratitude of those whose lives they saved.
The names of this year's heroes that should not be forgotten
They say that there were too many tragic events in the past year, and there was almost nothing good to remember on the eve of the New Year. Constantinople decided to argue with this statement and collected a selection of our most outstanding compatriots (and not only) and their heroic deeds. Unfortunately, many of them accomplished this feat at the cost of their own lives, but the memory of them and their actions will support us for a long time and serve as an example to follow. Ten names that made a splash in 2016 and should not be forgotten.
Alexander Prokhorenko
A special forces officer, 25-year-old Lieutenant Prokhorenko, died in March near Palmyra while carrying out missions to direct Russian air strikes against ISIS militants. He was discovered by terrorists and, finding himself surrounded, did not want to surrender and drew fire on himself. He was awarded the title of Hero of Russia posthumously, and a street in Orenburg was named after him. Prokhorenko’s feat aroused admiration not only in Russia. Two French families donated awards, including the Legion of Honor.
Farewell ceremony for the hero of Russia, senior lieutenant Alexander Prokhorenko, who died in Syria, in the village of Gorodki, Tyulgansky district. Sergey Medvedev/TASS
In Orenburg, where the officer is from, he left behind a young wife, who, after the death of Alexander, had to be hospitalized in order to save the life of their child. In August, her daughter Violetta was born.
Magomed Nurbagandov
A policeman from Dagestan, Magomet Nurbagandov, and his brother Abdurashid were killed in July, but the details became known only in September, when a video of the execution of police officers was found on the phone of one of the liquidated militants of the Izberbash criminal group. On that ill-fated day, the brothers and their relatives, schoolchildren, were relaxing outdoors in tents; no one expected an attack by bandits. Abdurashid was killed immediately because he stood up for one of the boys, whom the bandits began to insult. Mohammed was tortured before his death because his documents as a law enforcement officer were discovered. The purpose of the bullying was to force Nurbagandov to renounce his colleagues on record, recognize the strength of the militants and call on Dagestanis to leave the police. In response to this, Nurbagandov addressed his colleagues with the words “Work, brothers!” The enraged militants could only kill him. President Vladimir Putin met with the brothers’ parents, thanked them for their son’s courage and awarded him the title of Hero of Russia posthumously. The last phrase of Mohammed became the main slogan of the past year and, one might assume, for the years to come. Two small children were left without a father. Nurbagandov's son now says that he will only become a policeman.
Elizaveta Glinka
Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS
The resuscitator and philanthropist, popularly known as Doctor Lisa, accomplished a lot this year. In May, she took children out of Donbass. 22 sick children were saved, the youngest of whom was only 5 days old. These were children with heart defects, oncology, and congenital diseases. Special treatment and support programs have been created for children from Donbass and Syria. In Syria, Elizaveta Glinka also helped sick children and organized the delivery of medicines and humanitarian aid to hospitals. During the delivery of another humanitarian cargo, Doctor Lisa died in a TU-154 plane crash over the Black Sea. Despite the tragedy, all programs will continue. Today there will be a New Year's party for the guys from Lugansk and Donetsk...
Oleg Fedura
Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Primorsky Territory, Colonel of the Internal Service Oleg Fedura. Press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Primorsky Territory/TASS
Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Primorsky Territory, who distinguished himself during natural disasters in the region. The rescuer personally visited all the flooded cities and villages, led search and rescue operations, helped evacuate people, and he himself did not sit idly by - he has hundreds of similar events on his account. On September 2, together with his brigade, he was heading to another village, where 400 houses were flooded and more than 1,000 people were waiting for help. Crossing the river, the KAMAZ, in which Fedura and 8 other people were, collapsed into the water. Oleg Fedura saved all the personnel, but then could not get out of the flooded car and died.
Lyubov Pechko
The entire Russian world learned the name of the 91-year-old female veteran from the news on May 9. During the festive procession in honor of Victory Day in Slavyansk, occupied by the Ukrainians, the column of veterans was pelted with eggs, doused with brilliant green and sprinkled with flour by the Ukrainian Nazis, but the spirit of the old soldiers could not be broken, no one fell out of action. The Nazis shouted insults; in occupied Slavyansk, where any Russian and Soviet symbols are prohibited, the situation was extremely explosive and could at any moment turn into a massacre. However, the veterans, despite the threat to their lives, were not afraid to openly wear medals and St. George ribbons; after all, they did not go through the war with the Nazis in order to be afraid of their ideological followers. Lyubov Pechko, who took part in the liberation of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War, was splashed with brilliant green directly in the face. Photos showing traces of brilliant green being wiped off Lyubov Pechko’s face have spread across social networks and the media. The sister of an elderly woman, who saw the abuse of veterans on TV and suffered a heart attack, died from the resulting shock.
Danil Maksudov
In January of this year, during a severe snowstorm, a dangerous traffic jam formed on the Orenburg-Orsk highway, in which hundreds of people were trapped. Ordinary employees of various services showed heroism, leading people out of icy captivity, sometimes putting their own lives at risk. Russia remembers the name of policeman Danil Maksudov, who was hospitalized with severe frostbite because he gave his jacket, hat and gloves to those who needed it most. After that, Danil spent several more hours in the snowstorm helping to get people out of the jam. Then Maksudov himself ended up in the emergency traumatology department with frostbitten hands; there was talk of amputating his fingers. However, in the end the policeman recovered.
Konstantin Parikozha
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Orenburg Airlines Boeing 777-200 crew commander Konstantin Parikozha, awarded the Order of Courage, during the state awards ceremony in the Kremlin. Mikhail Metzel/TASS
A native of Tomsk, the 38-year-old pilot managed to land a plane with a burning engine, which was carrying 350 passengers, including many families with children and 20 crew members. The plane was flying from the Dominican Republic, at an altitude of 6 thousand meters a bang was heard and the cabin was filled with smoke, panic began. During landing, the plane's landing gear also caught fire. However, thanks to the skill of the pilot, the Boeing 777 was successfully landed and none of the passengers were injured. Parikozha received the Order of Courage from the hands of the President.
Andrey Logvinov
The 44-year-old commander of the Il-18 crew that crashed in Yakutia managed to land the plane without wings. They tried to land the plane until the last minute and in the end they managed to avoid casualties, although both wings of the plane broke off when it hit the ground and the fuselage collapsed. The pilots themselves received multiple fractures, but despite this, according to rescuers, they refused help and asked to be the last to be evacuated to the hospital. “He managed the impossible,” they said about Andrei Logvinov’s skill.
Georgy Gladysh
On a February morning, the rector of the Orthodox church in Krivoy Rog, Priest Georgy, as usual, was riding home from service on a bicycle. Suddenly he heard cries for help from a nearby body of water. It turned out that the fisherman had fallen through the ice. The priest ran to the water, threw off his clothes and, making the sign of the cross, rushed to help. The noise attracted the attention of local residents, who called an ambulance and helped pull the already unconscious retired fisherman out of the water. The priest himself refused honors: " It wasn't me who saved. God decided this for me. If I had been driving a car instead of a bicycle, I simply would not have heard the cries for help. If I started to think about whether to help the person or not, I wouldn’t have time. If the people on the shore had not thrown us a rope, we would have drowned together. And so everything happened by itself"After the feat, he went on to perform church services.
Yulia Kolosova
Russia. Moscow. December 2, 2016. Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the Russian Federation Anna Kuznetsova (left) and Yulia Kolosova, winner in the "Children-Heroes" nomination, at the awards ceremony for the winners of the VIII All-Russian festival on the theme of safety and rescue of people "Constellation of Courage". Mikhail Pochuev/TASS
The Valdai schoolgirl, despite the fact that she was only 12 years old, was not afraid to enter a burning private house after hearing the screams of children. Julia took two boys out of the house, and already on the street they told her that their other little brother remained inside. The girl returned to the house and carried a 7-year-old baby in her arms, who was crying and afraid to go down the stairs shrouded in smoke. As a result, none of the children were harmed. " It seems to me that in my place any teenager would do this, but not every adult, because adults are much more indifferent than children", says the girl. Concerned residents of Staraya Russa collected money and gave the girl a computer and a souvenir - a mug with her photo. The schoolgirl herself admits that she did not help for the sake of gifts and praise, but she, of course, was pleased, because she is from a low-income family - Yulia’s mother is a saleswoman, and her father works at a factory.
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