8 April 2026Admin1 min read
Children at War
The German occupation of Belarus was among the most brutal in all of occupied Europe. Over a quarter of the population — 2.3 million people — were killed, including virtually the entire Jewish population. In response, a massive partisan movement emerged, and remarkably, thousands of teenagers joined the fight.
The Young Avengers Brigade
The "Young Avengers" (Юные мстители) was a youth partisan group operating in the Vitebsk region. Its members, many barely in their teens, carried out reconnaissance, sabotage, and propaganda operations. They distributed underground newspapers, cut telephone wires, derailed trains, and gathered intelligence on German troop movements.
Zinaida Portnova
The most famous member was Zinaida Portnova, who joined at age 15. In her most daring operation, she poisoned food at a German officers' canteen, killing over 100 soldiers. When suspicion fell on her, she ate the poisoned food herself to prove her innocence — and survived through a deliberate overdose of emetics she had concealed. Captured in 1944, she seized a pistol during interrogation and shot her interrogator before being overpowered. She was tortured and executed at 17, never revealing her comrades' identities.
Legacy
Portnova was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Her story, and those of thousands of young partisans like her, stands as testimony to the extraordinary courage of ordinary people in the face of unimaginable evil.
