Regimental son / Valentin Kataev
The protagonist of the story "The Son of the Regiment" is the boy Vanya Solntsev. During the Great Patriotic War, he became an orphan, wandered for a long time in the territory occupied by the Germans, until the scouts who were returning from a mission picked him up in the forest. The intelligent boy, whom the scouts dubbed the "shepherd", liked them so much that they decided to keep him and teach the profession of a scout. But Captain Enakiev was opposed to the child being in the combat area, and he ordered Vanya to be sent to the rear.
But on the way to the rear, Vanya fled from the accompanying intelligence officer Bidenko, and when he was able to find him and tied him to himself with a rope, Vanya fled from him again. After that, he went back on his own and, meeting with captain Enakiev, managed to create such an impression about himself that the captain allowed him to stay with the scouts and put the boy on a full army allowance.
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First published in the journal "October", 1945, № 1-2. At the same time - in the children's magazine "Friendly guys", 1945, №№ 1, 2-3, 4, 5-6, 7-8.
A separate edition was published in Detgiz in 1945.
The passages were printed: “Change”, 1945, No. 2 (called “Interrogation”); Krasnoflotets, 1945, No. 3-4; Pioneer Truth, 1945, February 23; Teacher's Newspaper, 1945, February 23 (titled “Fire in Germany!”); “Crocodile”, 1945, No. 5 (called “Eight forty”), No. 8 (called “Independent character”); Komsomolskaya Pravda, 1945, March 28-30.