the youngest "soldier" ever ?

[Oleg Grigoryev]

Sergey Aleshkov
"son" of the 142nd Guards Regiment (47th Gurads Division) here is pictured at the age of 6.

[davethelight]

I wonder what rank he was?

[Daniel L]

What's the story?

Best regards/ Daniel

[Oleg Grigoryev]

He lived in some remote village in Kaluga region. Due to its location (read in the middle of nowhere) the village became a partisan base. Two of his older brothers and a mother perished while fighting Germans; he became an orphan and was forced to run for his life when Germans finally found the village and destroyed it. He wondered in the forests for couple of weeks, eating whatever he could find. On the September 8 1942 he was found, half-dead, by soldiers from 142nd Guards Regiment, who pretty much saved from inventible death. He was “enlisted” in the regiment since the regiment commander believed (and reasonably so) that the boy had better chances of surviving with them (more or less regular feeding, winter clothing etc) than on its own. Serezha was wounded during Stalingrad battle (on November 18th 1942) After recovery in the hospital he returned to the regiment. Awarded the medal for “combat achievements” on 24.04.1943 (saved regiment commander ,who was buried alive by the explosion, by promptly finding help). Sergey remained with regiment through the entire war . In 1945 he was sent into Suvorov Military School.

[Daniel L]

Very interesting Oleg, it's always nice to read your posts of this kind.

By Serezha you are just using the nickname for Sergey, right (meaning 'Little Sergei')?

Best regards/ Daniel

[Oleg Grigoryev]

Serezha is short for Sergey

[Maple 01]

Oleg,
what happened to him after the war?

Regards

-Nick

[ISU-152]

Very interesting Oleg, it's always nice to read your posts of this kind.

By Serezha you are just using the nickname for Sergey, right (meaning 'Little Sergei')?

Best regards/ Daniel

That's right. I was Serezha when I was 6 years old.


best regards,
Sergei

[Zachary]

Wow that is quite interesting! Always interesting to hear about young "soldiers".

[ckleisch]

He lived in some remote village in Kaluga region. Due to its location (read in the middle of nowhere) the village became a partisan base. Two of his older brothers and a mother perished while fighting Germans; he became an orphan and was forced to run for his life when Germans finally found the village and destroyed it. He wondered in the forests for couple of weeks, eating whatever he could find. On the September 8 1942 he was found, half-dead, by soldiers from 142nd Guards Regiment, who pretty much saved from inventible death. He was “enlisted” in the regiment since the regiment commander believed (and reasonably so) that the boy had better chances of surviving with them (more or less regular feeding, winter clothing etc) than on its own. Serezha was wounded during Stalingrad battle (on November 18th 1942) After recovery in the hospital he returned to the regiment. Awarded the medal for “combat achievements” on 24.04.1943 (saved regiment commander ,who was buried alive by the explosion, by promptly finding help). Sergey remained with regiment through the entire war . In 1945 he was sent into Suvorov Military School.

Did the young man serve in batle as a combatant actually shooting and killing people?
During, the American Civil war a 12 year old boy named Johnny Clem joined the Northern Army as a Drummer boy but became a combatant during the war when he shot a Southern officer from his horse. He acheived the rank of Sargent by the end of the war. He retired at the time of the First World War as a General.

[Napoli]

Cant see a 6 year old taking the recoil of a rifle, maybe an air rifle?

[Balrog]

what happened to the little boy after the war? did he graduate the nilitary academy and have a career as an officer? he would not be that much older than my own mother is today. is he still alive?

[Gregory Deych]

I haven't been able to find too much about him, beyond the fact that he is probably still alive - they did a interview with a woman who said she met with him in 2002.

[godavid]

hii there, it was a long time ago you wrote about sergei,but i would like to add something,in the internet in translation from russian it says he passed away 1990 if its the truth, a movie was made about him 2019 called soldatic, thanks

[Hans1906]

Heartbreaking Photographs of Child Soldiers from WWI and WWII

Link: https://historycollection.com/heartbrea ... -wwi-wwii/


Hans1906