52

p Beginning of 1942

p Our handful of men are a mighty force which the enemy reckons a division... .

p ... No power in the world can defeat us. Soviet people, because we are our own masters, led by our Communist Party.

p This is who we are....

p Here, in School No. 52:

p 1. Commander . .. Zhidilov, Russian;

p 2. Cavalry Captain Gobaladze, Georgian;

p 3. Tank man, Vasili Paukshtite, Lett;

p 4. ... Captain-Surgeon Mamedov, Uzbek;

p 5. Pilot, Junior Lieutenant Ilita Daurova, an Ossetian girl;

p 6. Sailor Ibrahim Ibrahimov, Kazan Tatar;

p 7. Gunner Petrunenko from Kiev, Ukrainian;

p 8. Infantry Sergeant Bogomolov from Leningrad, Russian;

p 9. Diver-scout Arkady Zhuravlev from Vladivostok;

10. I, son of a cobbler, 4th form pupil, Valeri Volkov, Russian. ...

p Dear comrades,

p Whoever gets out of this alive must tell all who will study at this school. No matter where you end up come and tell them what happened here in Sevastopol. I want to be a bird and fly round all Sevastopol, to every home, every school, 53 every street.. .. Hitler and the other scum will never beat us.... We are the millions, watch out! From the Far East to Riga, from the Caucasus to Kiev, from Sevastopol to Tashkent. . . . We, like steel, are invincible!

Valeri "the Poet" (Volk)
1942

p This small newssheet was written to the accompaniment of the thunder of battle by a 13-year-old Sevastopol schoolboy, Valeri Volkov, one of the heroic defenders of the besieged city.

p Valeri fought among the grown-ups acting as lookout, scouting and bringing in ammunition, assisting the wounded and using his rifle when the Germans attacked. Those were fierce battles with no quarter given day or night. Only eight men, a woman and a boy were left, four Russians, a Ukrainian, a Georgian, a Lett, an Uzbek, a Tatar and an Ossetian girl. That is when issue No. 11, the last, of their own newspaper came out-a vivid testament to the courage of the heroic ten.

p Tanks were bearing down on the heroes. They tossed their grenades. Valeri blew up one of the tanks. But the young hero was the victim of an enemy bullet.

Twenty years went by and the ten Sevastopol heroes remained unknown. It was only recently that two of the survivors, Ivan Petrunenko and woman pilot Ilita Daurova, brought the last newssheet to people’s notice.