The Zonal State Archive in Rechitsa presents letters about the partisan of the Bragin region Sima Mikhalenko

The fund of the Mikulich Village Council of the Bragin district of the Gomel region contains letters sent from Transbaikalia by the sister of the Bragin partisan Sima Kirillovna Mikhalenko, who was killed by the German occupiers (F. 259. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 3-4, 19-20).

In her first letter, dated January 1944, the woman mentions that before the war, Sima Mikhalenko and her husband Alexei Zdorovets worked as teachers in the village of Lubeniki, Braginsky district, and during the occupation they lived in Mikulichi at the place of residence of Alexei’s mother. The author of the letter asks the village council administration to report under what circumstances Sima’s family was destroyed, why her husband was not at the front and whether his mother is alive.

The next letter from sister Mikhalenko to the Mikulichi village council arrived in December 1944. In it, she thanks the chairman of the village council for providing information about the murder of Sima Mikhalenko and her family. This happened on August 14, 1942, Sima’s 31st birthday. The Nazis burned the brave partisan woman along with her husband and two young sons in a barn in Mikulichi.

Currently, in the agricultural town of Mikulichi, at the site of the execution of the family and other residents, there is a monument, the inscription on which states that Sima Mikhalenko and her husband Alexey Zdorovets participated in the partisan movement.

1-4. ZGA in Rechitsa. F. 259. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 19-20

5-8. ZGA in Rechitsa. F. 259. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 3-4

9. Monument to the victims of fascism in the agricultural town of Mikulichi, Bragin district