Text taken from a post on the V Kontakte page of Irina Belokolos
[VK] Seryozha Aleshkov was six years old when the Germans executed his mother and older brother for their connections with the partisans. This happened in the Kaluga region.
Seryozha was saved by a neighbor. She threw the child out of the window of the hut and shouted at him to run as fast as he could. The boy ran into the forest. It was autumn 1942. It is hard to say how long the child wandered, hungry, exhausted, frozen in the Kaluga forests. He was encountered by scouts from the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment, commanded by Major Vorobyov. They carried the boy in their arms across the front line. And left him with the regiment.
The hardest thing was to find clothes for the little soldier: where would you find size thirty boots? However, over time, both shoes and a uniform were found - everything as it should be. Young unmarried Major Mikhail Vorobyov became a second father to Seryozha. Incidentally, he later officially adopted the boy.
- But you don’t have a mother, Seryozhenka, - the major said sadly, stroking the boy’s short-cropped hair.
- No, it will be like this, - he answered. – I like the nurse Aunt Nina, she is kind and beautiful.
So, thanks to the child, the major found his happiness and lived with Nina Andreyevna Bedova, the senior medical officer, all his life.
Seryozha helped his older comrades as best he could: he carried mail and ammunition to the soldiers, sang songs between battles. Seryozhenka turned out to have a wonderful character – cheerful, calm, he never whined or complained about trifles. And for the soldiers, this boy became a reminder of peaceful life, each of them had someone at home who loved and waited for them. Everyone tried to caress the child. But Seryozha gave his heart once and for all to Vorobyov.
Seryozha received the Medal "For Military Merit" for saving the life of his adopted father. Once, during a fascist raid, a bomb tore apart the regiment commander's dugout. No one except the boy saw that Major Vorobyov was under the rubble of logs.
– Daddy! - Seryozha screamed in a voice that was not his own, ran up to the dugout and pressed his ear to the logs. A muffled groan was heard from below.
Swallowing his tears, the boy tried to move the logs to the side, but only tore his hands until they bled. Despite the continuing explosions, Seryozha ran for help. He led soldiers to the collapsed dugout, and they pulled out their commander. And Guards Private Seryozha stood nearby and sobbed loudly, smearing dirt over his face, like the most ordinary little boy, which, in fact, he was.
The commander of the 8th Guards Army, General Chuikov, having learned about the young hero, awarded Seryozha with a combat weapon - a captured Walther pistol. Later, the boy was wounded, sent to the hospital and never returned to the front. It is known that Sergei Aleshkov graduated from the Suvorov Military School and the Kharkov Law Institute. For many years he worked as a lawyer in Chelyabinsk, closer to his family, Mikhail and Nina Vorobyov. In his last years he worked as a prosecutor. He died early, in 1990. The war years took their toll.
The story of the son of the regiment, Aleshkov, seems like a legend, if not for the old black-and-white photograph, from which a smiling, round-faced boy with a cap pulled jauntily down over one ear looks at us trustingly. Guards Private Seryozhenka. A child who got caught in the millstones of war, survived many troubles and became a real person. And for this, as we know, not only strength of character is needed, but also a kind heart.
Taken from the vastness of the Internet.