On November 15, 1942, a group of young guards under the command of Viktor Petrov freed 75 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army from a concentration camp on the Volchansk farm.
It is believed that the underground anti-fascist organization "Young Guard", consisting of the Soviet Union of Donbass, was finally established in the fall of 1942 in the city of Krasnodon. Moreover, it arose completely spontaneously, without any "leading and directing role of the party" - young boys and girls, the oldest of whom is 19 years old, and the youngest is only 14 years old.
The organization was discovered by the fascists because it attracted to its ranks too wide a circle of young people, among them less persistent people who betrayed the brave girls and boys.
Of all the young guards, only thirteen survived the organization's defeat and only ten lived to see the victory.
They had to make great efforts so that the real story of the "Young Guard" was published like its literary version - the novel "The Young Guard" by Alexander Fadeev, written in hot pursuit and published in 1946.