i promised to do this thread earlier today so here it is, a thread about nikolay kiselyov and how he saved more than 200 jews in nazi-occupied belarus.

kiselyov was born in 1913 in bogorodskoye and graduated from the moscow institute of foreign trade in 1941 and was also a communist party member. even though he was exempt from conscription, he volunteered anyway and they assigned him a political instructor role.

the nazis captured him and his unit in 1941, but he managed to escape and ended up in the shtetl of ilya, belarus and started getting involved in the resistance. also worth noting that gennady safonov, another partisan who later was named righteous among the nations, was there

in 1942 kiselyov joined the the "vengenance" battalion led by vasily voronyansky and organized the "victory" partisan unit, which was mainly made up of jews who had fled the nearby dolhinov ghetto and escaped red army POWs.

however, it quickly grew to 300 people: primarily civilians who had also escaped from dolhinov. kiselev received his biggest mission yet: he needed to transfer them to the front lines so they could be evacuated into safety.

however, the front line was 1500 kilometers away in difficult terrain of forests and swamps: perfect terrain if you're a partisan, not so perfect if you're also escorting jews (mainly women, children, and elderly) through nazi-occupied belarus.

nonetheless, he agreed and along with some other jewish partisans. in addition to the terrain, they also needed to avoid enemy ambushes and so they hid during the day and traveled at night. they also needed to feed everyone and deal with crying children who could give them away.

while some of the locals (mainly in the partisan controlled territories) were willing to share their food with kiselev and company and let them rest a bit, many of them were unwilling to share and especially not with jews so he occasionally had to use force.

at one point, a 13 year old named shimon came down with dysentery and they had to stop and rest. a lot of people wanted to leave him behind but kiselyov carried him until he recovered.

there was another incident where a toddler couldn't stop crying from hunger and some people wanted to drown her so her cries didn't give him away, so kiselyov calmed her down and fed her.

everyone liked kiselyov was not only because he helped the most vulnerable civilians escape certain death through a grueling journey, but he also knew they were physically and emotionally traumatized and cared about their well-being.

despite all of those hardships AND german ambushes that killed a few people, they finally made it to soviet-controlled velikiye luki four months later. they left with 270 people and arrived with 218.

when they arrived kiselyov was arrested on charges of desertion, but was released after everyone vouched for him. he was even nominated for hero of the soviet union but unfortunately, the the plane carrying his recommendation was shot down.

he served in the war until 1944 and in 1946, he married anna sirotkova, a jewish partisan he had met back in belarus, and they had two children. he kept in touch with some of the people he rescued and died in 1974. he was posthumously named righteous among the nations in 2005

in conclusion, nikolay kiselyov may not have officially won the hero of the soviet union title, but he is a hero of the soviet union in all of our hearts.