The Public Relations Center of the FSB of Russia has published archival documents related to the investigation into the circumstances of the death of members of the anti-fascist underground organization “Young Guard” during the Great Patriotic War.

On the department’s website, in the “Archival materials” section of the “History” section, you can find the protocols of interrogations of German gendarmes who took part in the execution of the “Young Guards,” as well as the decision to bring charges against the criminals.

“Strengthened the spirit of Soviet citizens”

The Komsomol organization "Young Guard" operated in German-occupied Krasnodon, Voroshilovgrad region (now the Lugansk People's Republic) from September 1942 to January 1943. 

The commander of the Young Guards was Red Army lieutenant Ivan Turkenich, who had previously managed to escape from German captivity, and the commissar was Viktor Tretyakevich. In total, by mid-December 1942, there were about 100 people in the Young Guard, most of whom were about 18 years old, and the youngest were only 14.

According to Maxim Sinitsyn, a graduate student at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the “Young Guard” arose spontaneously on the personal initiative of Krasnodon youth.

  • Pavel Petrovich Sokolov-Skalya “Krasnodontsy”, 1948

  • © State Russian Museum

“This cell arose largely spontaneously, at the will of the guys. She had no connection with the “mainland”. The organization was based on the Young Guards’ own moral values.

“Yes, I found myself behind enemy lines, but I need to somehow help the country” - that was their logic,” the specialist noted in a conversation with RT.

In Krasnodon, Young Guards organized an underground printing house, where they printed leaflets, which were then distributed among city residents. In this way, they informed the population about the situation at the fronts, exposed Nazi propaganda and warned citizens about the danger of being forcibly sent to Germany. As Dmitry Surzhik, a senior researcher at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in a conversation with RT, such information work was of great importance and was associated with great risks.

“Young Guards listened to reports from the Sovinformburo, posted leaflets around Krasnodon, thereby strengthening the spirit of Soviet citizens who fell under Nazi occupation. How dangerous this was can be judged by the fact that the very presence of a radio receiver on German-occupied Soviet territory was punishable by death,” the historian said in an interview with RT.

The Young Guard also operated combat groups that disrupted enemy telephone communications and disrupted the shipment of livestock, grain and coal to the German rear.

Among the successful operations of the Young Guard, one can highlight the liberation of about 80 Soviet soldiers and officers from a prisoner of war camp on the Volchensky farm, as well as 21 prisoners of war from a hospital building in the village of Pervomaika. In addition, the underground workers disabled the Krasnodon mine used by the invaders and set fire to the German labor exchange, which saved about 2 thousand Krasnodon residents from being sent to work in Germany.

In December, Young Guards attacked a convoy of trucks that was carrying Christmas gifts for the occupiers. Because of this action, the occupation authorities managed to get on the trail of the underground, and arrests began on January 1, 1943. After torture on January 16, 71 members of the organization were thrown into the pit of the idle mine No. 5 on the outskirts of Krasnodon. Several more people were killed in early February. Of the entire group, only a few Young Guards managed to escape. 

The MGB begins a search

The massacre of the Young Guard occurred just days before the arrival of the Red Army - already on February 14, 1943, the city of Krasnodon was liberated from the Nazi invaders.

Immediately after the liberation, Soviet state security agencies began investigating the crimes of the Nazis and their henchmen.

That same year, on August 15-18, a closed trial took place in Krasnodon of a group of Nazi collaborators who took part in the murders of civilians, including the massacre of members of the Young Guard. In the dock were the executioners of the “Young Guards”: local police investigator Mikhail Kuleshov, secret informant Vasily Gromov and his stepson Gennady Pocheptsov.

By the military tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Voroshilovgrad region, all three accused were sentenced to death. The execution was public and took place on August 19 of the same year.

Subsequently, the search for those involved in the brutal massacre of the “Young Guards” continued outside the USSR. In March 1947, with the sanction of the Minister of State Security, an employee of the 4th Directorate of the MGB was sent to Germany “to search for Germans in camps on German territory who participated in atrocities against members of the Young Guard.”

A month later, in the city of Bautzen, the head of the Rovenkovo ​​District Gendarmerie, Captain Ernst Emil Renatus, was detained and transferred to Moscow by employees of the Operations Sector of the MGB of Berlin. By the end of the summer of 1947, three of his former subordinates - Jacob Schultz, Otto Drewitz and Erich Schröder - were found in Germany and brought to Moscow.

  • Interrogation protocol of Emil Renatus

  • © Public Relations Center of the FSB of Russia

The investigation into the case of the German gendarmes was carried out by employees of the Investigative Unit for Particularly Important Cases of the USSR Ministry of State Security. During interrogations, the accused were presented with photographs of executed “Young Guardsmen” for identification.

As follows from documents released by the FSB, Renatus, during interrogation on November 12, 1947, confirmed to the investigation his involvement in the massacre of the “Young Guards”. Schroeder also admitted to his crime.

“In February 1943, two days before fleeing Rovenka to the west, I took part in the execution of eight Soviet patriots, including Lyubov Shevtsova,” Schroeder said.

In turn, Drewitz described to investigators the details of the brutal reprisal against members of the Young Guard.

“Having placed the arrested on the edge of a pre-dug hole in the park, the police and gendarmes, on the orders of Fromme (deputy commander of the gendarme platoon - 

RT

), shot them. I noticed among the corpses that Koshevoy remained alive and was only wounded. I walked up to the place where Koshevoy was lying and shot him point-blank in the head,” he admitted.

  • Interrogation protocol of Otto Drewitz

  • © Public Relations Center of the FSB of Russia

During the same interrogation, Drewitz described how Lyubov Shevtsova, a member of the Young Guard headquarters, behaved before her execution.

“Despite her youth, she behaved very courageously. Before the execution, when I brought Shevtsova to the edge of the execution pit, she did not utter a word about mercy and calmly accepted death with her head raised,” said the defendant.

From the decree indicting Renatus, signed on November 12, 1947, it follows that he was guilty of other murders of Soviet citizens.

“In September 1942, on his orders, a brutal massacre of 32 Soviet citizens was carried out in the Krasnodon city park, some of whom were buried alive,” the document says.

In total, during the occupation of the Krasnodon region by German troops, on the orders of Renatus, over 240 Soviet citizens were killed, the resolution states. In addition, he gave orders to carry out robberies and, through his fault, over 4 thousand people were driven away to hard labor in Germany in the Krasnodon region alone.

On October 29, 1949, by resolution of the Special Meeting of the USSR Ministry of State Security “for the atrocities and violence committed on the territory of the USSR against the civilian population,” Drewitz, Renatus, Schroeder and Schultz were imprisoned in forced labor camps for a period of 25 years.

“The history of the Young Guard served as a moral guideline”

In 1943, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was posthumously awarded to members of the Young Guard headquarters Ivan Zemnukhov, Sergei Tyulenin, Oleg Koshevoy, Ulyana Gromova and Lyubov Shevtsova. In 1990, group commander Ivan Turkenich was also awarded this title.

After the war, the feat of the Young Guard became known throughout the Soviet Union. Details of their activities were described in Alexander Fadeev’s novel “The Young Guard”. Front-line journalist Kim Kostenko also played a significant role in writing the history of the underground. In particular, thanks to him, the truth about the role of its commissar Viktor Tretyakevich in the organization became known to the general public.

For some time he was undeservedly considered to be the culprit in exposing the Young Guards, but further investigation carried out by Soviet law enforcement agencies established the falsity of these accusations, after which Tretyakevich was rehabilitated. Kostenko described the details of this case in the book “It Happened in Krasnodon.”

  • Monument “Unconquered” in Krasnodon, dedicated to the feat of the “Young Guard”

  • RIA News

  • © Valery Melnikov

In December 1960, Tretyakevich was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him the title of Hero of Russia.

According to Dmitry Surzhik, the history of the Young Guard had a great influence on the education of Soviet youth in the post-war period.

“They took on the feat, aware of the mortal risk. But the Young Guards were confident that something needed to be done, it was necessary to help their country in word and deed, even while under the enemy’s heel. The history of the Young Guard served as a moral guide during the years of the USSR for many generations. She is not forgotten even today. For example, in the LPR, 2022 was declared the year of the “Young Guard,” says the historian.

In turn, the head of the department of political analysis and socio-psychological processes of the Russian Economic University. Plekhanov Andrei Koshkin, in a conversation with RT, noted the importance of the FSB publishing previously unknown documents about the history of the Great Patriotic War.

“The FSB is opening more and more archival data that were closed from society. Such documents make it possible to more fully understand the heroic feat of the Soviet people and appreciate the contribution that the citizens of the USSR made to the victory. This is especially important when in some countries monuments are demolished and neo-Nazis are raising their heads. Therefore, it is necessary to continue publishing such documents in order to show the true face of Nazism,” the analyst concluded.