Petro Chetverykov

Petro Chetverykov was born in 1910.

Family: he was married to Mariia Volkova. The couple had a son, Leonid Sysak, who was born in 1934. It was Leonid who preserved the memory of his parents and recounted their activities.

During World War II and German occupation of Kyiv, Petro Chetverykov and his wife Mariia were actively involved in Kyiv Soviet underground resistance movement. Their house in Shuliavka, located at 7 Staropishchany Lane, apartment 3, was a meeting point — a place where underground activists held secret meetings to exchange information and receive assignments. 

Leonid recalled how, one day in the spring of 1942, he came home to find a 12-year-old girl whom his parents had taken in. She stayed with them for about half a month. They arranged a sleeping place for her under their bed, letting the blanket hang down to the floor. Later, she was sent to a village, to a family that took her in and treated her as their daughter.

Some time later, a 17-year-old girl appeared in the house. During a raid, she jumped out of the window and, fleeing from the Nazis, ended up at Chetverykov’s. It was dangerous to keep her in the safe house for a long time, so the girl was taken to a partisan detachment. She died in 1942. 

Petro Chetverykov was arrested by the Gestapo and lost his life in 1943. 

The entire family of rescuers — Petro, Mariia and Leonid — were awarded the title of the Righteous of Babyn Yar.