Memorial House - A.Chekalin Museum

The history of the village Peskovatskoe, which is located near Chekalin, is perhaps not less important than the history of the town of Chekalin (Likhvin). However, it's known primarily as the birthplace of Alexander Chekalin, a sixteen-year-old Hero of the Soviet Union. Alexander (Sasha) was born in 1925 and wasn’t liable for military service at the beginning of the war. However, he could shoot well and knew all the nearby forests, because he had grown up in the family of a hunter. Alexander Chekalin volunteered in a fighter pilot detachment in July 1941, then joined the guerrillas with his father Передовой In early November Sasha fell sick, and the political officer of the detachment P. S. Makeev sent him to stay with the teacher Muzalevskaya, who helped the guerrillas, to the village Misbar, where Sasha could get better. However, when in the village, he learned that he was being sought by the Germans, and Muzalevskaya had been arrested and sent to Likhvin. Then he decided to go home in the village Peskovatskoe. There he was noticed by the headman Nikifor Avdukhin, who immediately reported the hiding Soviet guerrilla to the Nazis. Avdukhin and three German soldiers came to the Chekalins’ house in order to arrest him. The German soldiers, fearing the guerrillas, sent the headman first to get into the house through the window and detain Chekalin. However, Avduhin refused to climb through the window. The Germans shot several times, then Sasha Chekalin ran out of the house, tried to escape, but was captured and taken to the German commandant's office, located in Likhvin (according to the testimonies of N. Avdyukhin, which were declassified in 2007). Alexander Chekalin was tortured for several days, the Nazis tried to obtain the necessary information from him but without success. The German authorities arranged a public execution in the town square, Alexander was hanged on 6 November 1941. All the inhabitants of Likhvin were driven to the square to observe Sasha’s execution. According to the recollections of the eyewitnesses, there were bloody footprints on the road when the barefoot young guerilla was led to the square. It is quoted in the books published in the Soviet time that Chekalin, standing with a noose around his neck, was singing the "Internationale" and then shouted: "There are a lot of us, you cannot hang everyone!" However, it is most likely a beautiful legend. Eyewitnesses say that Sasha Chekalin was silent and wept quietly before death. But does it diminish the heroism of the 16-year-old boy? Is it shameful to cry before execution? The house where Sasha Chekalin was born doesn’t exist anymore. In the 1960s local Komsomol members built a memorial house of the young hero not far from the place of the original one, and gathered Sasha’s belongings – an old camera, a mandolin, books, hunting and skiing gear.