Liberation of Kyiv. Brave and strong women-heroes of Russia! (a photo)

The female part of our multinational people, together with men, children and the elderly, bore all the hardships of the Great War on their shoulders. Women wrote many glorious pages in the annals of the war.

Women were on the front line: doctors, pilots, snipers, in air defense units, signalmen, scouts, drivers, topographers, reporters, even tankers, artillerymen and served in the infantry. Women actively participated in the underground, in the partisan movement.

Women took on many "purely male" specialties in the rear, as the men went to war, and someone had to stand at the machine, drive a tractor, become a railroad lineman, master the profession of a metallurgist, etc.

Figures and facts

Military service in the USSR is an honorable duty not only for men, but also for women. This right is written in Art. 13th Law on universal conscription, adopted by the IV session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 1, 1939. It says that the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy are given the right to take into the army and navy women who have medical, veterinary and special -technical training, as well as to involve them in training camps. In wartime, women with this training may be drafted into the army and navy for auxiliary and special service. The feeling of pride and gratitude of Soviet women to the party and government regarding the decision of the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was expressed by the deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR E.M. Kozhushina from the Vinnitsa region: “All of us, young patriots,” she said, “are ready to defend our beautiful Motherland. We women are proud that we have been given the right to protect her on an equal footing with men. And if our party, our government calls, then we will all defend our wonderful country and give the enemy a crushing rebuff.”

Already the first news of Germany's perfidious attack on the USSR aroused boundless anger and burning hatred for the enemies in women. At meetings and rallies held throughout the country, they declared their readiness to stand up for their homeland. Women and girls went to the party and Komsomol organizations, to the military commissariats, and there they persistently sought to be sent to the front. Among the volunteers who applied to be sent to the active army, up to 50% of the applications were from women.

During the first week of the war, applications for sending to the front were received from 20,000 Muscovites, and three months later, 8,360 women and girls of Moscow achieved admission to the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland. Among the Leningrad Komsomol members who filed applications in the first days of the war with a request to be sent to the army, 27 thousand applications were from girls. More than 5,000 girls from the Moskovsky district of Leningrad were sent to the front. 2 thousand of them became fighters of the Leningrad Front and selflessly fought on the outskirts of their native city.

Created on June 30, 1941, the State Defense Committee (GKO) adopted a number of resolutions on the mobilization of women to serve in the air defense forces, communications, internal security, on military highways ... Several Komsomol mobilizations were carried out, in particular, the mobilization of Komsomol women in the Military Navy, Air Force and signal troops.

In July 1941, over 4,000 women of the Krasnodar Territory asked to be sent to the active army. In the first days of the war, 4,000 women from the Ivanovo region volunteered. About 4,000 girls from the Chita region, more than 10,000 from Karaganda, became Red Army soldiers on Komsomol vouchers.

From 600 thousand to 1 million women fought at the front in different periods, 80 thousand of them were Soviet officers.

The Central Women's School of Sniper Training provided the front with 1,061 snipers and 407 sniper instructors. School graduates destroyed over 11,280 enemy soldiers and officers during the war.

At the end of 1942, the Ryazan Infantry School was ordered to train about 1,500 officers from female volunteers. By January 1943, over 2,000 women had arrived at the school.

For the first time in the years of the Patriotic War, women's combat formations appeared in the Armed Forces of our country. Of the female volunteers, 3 aviation regiments were formed: the 46th Guards Night Bomber, 125th Guards Bomber, 586th Air Defense Fighter Regiment; Separate Women's Volunteer Rifle Brigade, Separate Women's Reserve Rifle Regiment, Central Women's Sniper School, Separate Women's Company of Sailors.

Being near Moscow, the 1st Separate Women's Reserve Regiment also trained cadres of motorists and snipers, machine gunners and junior commanders of combat units. There were 2899 women in the personnel.

20,000 women served in the Special Moscow Air Defense Army.

Some women were also commanders. You can name the Hero of the Soviet Union Valentina Grizodubova, who throughout the war commanded the 101st long-range aviation regiment, where men served. She herself made about two hundred sorties, delivering explosives, food to the partisans, and taking out the wounded.

Colonel-engineer Antonina Pristavko was the head of the ammunition department of the artillery department of the army of the Polish Army. She ended the war near Berlin. Among her awards are the orders: "Rebirth of Poland" IV class, "Grunwald Cross" III class, "Golden Cross of Merit" and others.

In the first war year of 1941, 19 million women were employed in agricultural work, mainly on collective farms. This means that almost all the burdens of providing food for the army and the country fell on their shoulders, on their laboring hands.

5 million women were employed in industry, and many of them were also entrusted with command posts - directors, heads of workshops, foremen.

Culture, education, health care have become a matter of concern, mainly for women.

Ninety-five women in our country have the high title of Heroes of the Soviet Union. Among them are our astronauts.

The largest representation of participants in the Great Patriotic War among other specialties were female doctors.

Of the total number of doctors, of whom there were about 700 thousand in the active army, 42% were women, and among surgeons - 43.4%.

More than 2 million people served as middle and junior medical workers at the fronts. Women (medical assistants, sisters, medical instructors) made up the majority - over 80 percent.

During the war years, a coherent system of medical and sanitary services for the fighting army was created. There was the so-called doctrine of military field medicine. At all stages of the evacuation of the wounded - from the company (battalion) to the hospitals of the deep rear - female doctors selflessly carried out the noble mission of mercy.

Glorious patriots served in all branches of the military - in aviation and marines, on warships of the Black Sea Fleet, the Northern Fleet, the Caspian and Dnieper flotillas, in floating naval hospitals and sanitary trains. Together with the horsemen, they went into deep raids behind enemy lines, were in partisan detachments. With the infantry they reached Berlin. And everywhere the doctors provided specialized assistance to those injured in the battles.

It is estimated that the female medical instructors of rifle companies, medical battalions, and artillery batteries helped seventy percent of the wounded soldiers return to duty.

For special courage and heroism, 15 female doctors were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The sculptural monument in Kaluga reminds of the feat of women - military doctors. In the park on Kirov Street, on a high pedestal, a front-line nurse in a raincoat, with a sanitary bag over her shoulder, rises to her full height. The city of Kaluga during the war years was the focus of numerous hospitals, which cured and returned to service tens of thousands of soldiers and commanders. That is why they built a monument in a holy place, which always has flowers.

History has not yet known such a massive participation of women in the armed struggle for the Motherland, which was shown by Soviet women during the Great Patriotic War. Having achieved enrollment in the ranks of the soldiers of the Red Army, women and girls mastered almost all military specialties and, together with their husbands, fathers and brothers, served in all branches of the Soviet Armed Forces.

Unknown Soviet female soldiers from an anti-tank artillery unit.

1. Ekaterina Budanova - Guards Senior Lieutenant, fought in the 586th, 437th, 296th (73rd Guards) Fighter Aviation Regiments. She was a flight leader. During her life, Ekaterina Budanova made 266 sorties. During the air battles, Budanova personally shot down 6 enemy aircraft. In a group with comrades - 5 more aircraft. July 19, 1943 Ekaterina Budanova died in an air battle. On May 9, 1988, the remains of the pilot were reburied in the village of Bobrikovo, Antratsitovsky district, Luhansk region. In October 1993, half a century later, Ekaterina Vasilievna was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. In Moscow, one of the streets is named after her.

2. During the war, Budanova met Lydia Litvyak. The girls became best friends. Meanwhile, Lydia Litvyak was recognized as the most productive female aviator of the Second World War. She fought in the 586th, 437th, 9th Guards, 296th (73rd Guards) Fighter Aviation Regiments. Made about 150 sorties. She personally shot down 6 aircraft and 1 observation balloon, and destroyed 6 more enemy aircraft in a group with her comrades. Lydia Litvyak did not survive her friend Ekaterina Budanova much. Litvyak died on August 1, 1943 in an air battle. Her remains were found only in 1979 and buried in a mass grave near the village of Dmitrievka, Mining District. By decree of the President of the USSR of May 5, 1990, Lidia Litvyak was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

3. The pilot, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Yevgenia Rudneva fought in the 46th female Taman air regiment of light night bombers of the 325th air division. In all official reference books, books of memory of those who died and disappeared during the Great Patriotic War, it is written about Rudneva: Rudneva Evgenia Maksimovna, born in 1920, a native of Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region, from employees, Guards senior lieutenant, air regiment navigator. Rudneva made 645 night combat sorties to destroy crossings, railway echelons, manpower and equipment of the enemy. She fought on the Transcaucasian, North Caucasian, 4 Ukrainian fronts. Participated in battles in the North Caucasus, Taman and Kerch peninsulas. The brave pilot died a heroic death on the night of April 9, 1944, while performing, together with Prokopyeva Pana, a combat mission north of the city of Kerch of the Crimean ASSR. She was buried in the hero city of Kerch at the Military Memorial Cemetery. By the way, she was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union even before her death.

4. Soon after the start of the Great Patriotic War, in early October 1941, the famous pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union Marina Mikhailovna Raskova personally applied to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a request to allow her to form a women's aviation regiment. Her request was granted. Since 1932, Marina Raskova herself worked in the aeronautical laboratory of the Air Force Academy. After graduating from the Leningrad Institute of the Civil Air Fleet in 1934, she became a navigator. Participated in flights over long distances. On September 24-25, 1938, together with V. S. Grizodubova and P. D. Osipenko, she made a non-stop flight Moscow - Komsomolsk-on-Amur on the Rodina plane. During World War II, she commanded a bomber regiment. Died in a plane crash. Buried at the Kremlin wall. Her name was given to the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment, Tambov VVAUL, a passenger ship on the Volga. Author of the book "Notes of the Navigator".

5. Nosal Evdokia Ivanovna - Guards junior lieutenant. In aviation since 1940. She worked as an instructor at the Nikolaev flying club. Member of the Great Patriotic War since May 1942. Started the war as an ordinary pilot. Then the brave pilot was appointed flight commander, and then deputy squadron commander. For 20 nights in June 1942, she made 95 sorties. 10 times a fire broke out in the camp of the enemy, explosions were heard 18 times, the crossing ceased to exist. For these exploits, Dusya was awarded the Order of the Red Star. After the first award, she made another 120 sorties. And again 14 fires and 16 explosions in the territory occupied by the enemy. Two crossings across the Terek River flew into the air, and at the Ardon station - a railway echelon with manpower and equipment of the enemy. For courage and courage, Dusya was awarded the second order - the Red Banner. And then more and more sorties ... On the night of April 23, 1943, Dusya Nosal took to the skies for the 354th time during the war. She bombed the enemy southwest of Novorossiysk. On the way back, she was attacked by an enemy night fighter. Dusya was killed by a fragment of a shell that exploded right in the cockpit. The navigator of the Guards foreman Irina Kashirina brought the plane to the airfield.

Evdokia Ivanovna Nosal was the first in the 46th Taman Guards Regiment to be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

6. Olga Lisikova was the only female commander of the largest American transport aircraft DC-3 (in the USSR better known as Li-2) and C-47 during the Second World War. She graduated from the Batai flight school in 1937. Participant in the war with the White Finns in 1939-1940. From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, she flew on liaison aircraft, transported the wounded, delivered medicines, blood for transfusion, and the like. She flew to the besieged Leningrad. She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Back in 1941, the young pilot Olga Lisikova entered into a duel with the Messerschmitt. She didn't shoot him. She simply had nothing to shoot with, because she was not piloting a combat vehicle, but an ambulance aircraft, in which there were two wounded. And yet it was a fight. She dragged the Messerschmitt to the very ground, made it dodge over the bizarrely meandering Meta, and she herself, almost touching the steep banks with her wings, flew like in a gorge, broken by sharp turns. The machine-gun burst caught the "orderly" on the tail, but the plane still obeyed the rudders, and the fight continued. In the end, the enemy pilot got carried away and dived so low that there was no time to climb.

7. Pilot Ekaterina Zelenko, the only woman who participated in the Soviet-Finnish war and committed an air ram during the Great Patriotic War, fought as part of the 135th short-range bomber aviation regiment. Few people know about the feat of Alexandra Polyakova - the only woman who decided on a fiery ram. On September 12, 1941, she made two reconnaissance sorties on a Su-2 aircraft. Despite the fact that during the second sortie her plane was damaged, she flew on the mission for the third time on the same day. On the way back, near the city of Romny, two Soviet aircraft were attacked by seven German Me-109s. The second Soviet aircraft was hit and was forced to withdraw from the battle. Zelenko was able to shoot down one plane, and when she ran out of ammunition, she rammed a second German plane. Thus, she destroyed him, but at the same time she herself died. Ekaterina Zelenko during her lifetime received the Order of the Red Banner for her participation in the Soviet-Finnish War. She also participated in military tests of the Su-2. She was on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War from the first day. She fought in the 135 BBAP, was the deputy squadron commander. She made 40 sorties, conducted 12 air battles. A minor planet in the solar system is named after her.

During the four war years, the highest award of the country was awarded to nine dozen women who defended their homeland with weapons in their hands.

Official statistics say that 490,000 women were drafted into the army and navy. Three aviation regiments were formed entirely from women - the 46th guards night bomber, the 125th guards bomber and the 586th fighter regiment

Heroine pilots

Most of the women who earned the highest rank of the country on the fronts of the Second World War were among the pilots. This is easily explained: after all, there were already three purely female regiments in aviation, while in other branches and types of troops such units were almost never found. In addition, one of the most difficult tasks fell to the share of female pilots: night bombing on the "heavenly slug" - the U-2 plywood biplane.
Is it any wonder that out of 32 female pilots who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 23 are “night witches”: this is how the German warriors called the heroines, who suffered serious losses from their night raids. In addition, it was women pilots who were the first to receive the highest rank before the war. In 1938, the crew of the Rodina aircraft - Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko and Marina Raskova - received the highest award for a non-stop flight from Moscow to the Far East. Of the more than three dozen women - holders of the highest rank, seven received it posthumously. And among them - the first pilot who rammed a German plane, the pilot of the Su-2 bomber Ekaterina Zelenko. By the way, she was awarded this title many years after the end of the war - in 1990. One of the four women who were full holders of the Order of Glory also served in aviation: the air gunner of the reconnaissance aviation regiment Nadezhda Zhurkina.

Underground heroines

Slightly less than female pilots, among the Heroes of the Soviet Union, there are 28 women underground fighters and partisans. But here, unfortunately, the number of heroines who received the title posthumously is much larger: 23 underground fighters and partisans accomplished feats at the cost of their lives. Among them are the first woman - Hero of the Soviet Union during the war years Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, and pioneer hero Zina Portnova, and members of the Young Guard Lyubov Shevtsova and Uliana Gromova ... Alas, the quiet war, as the German occupiers called it, was almost always waged to the fullest. destruction, and few managed to survive, actively operating underground.

Medical heroines

Of the almost 700,000 doctors in the active army, about 300,000 were women. And among the 2 million middle and junior medical staff, this ratio was even higher: almost 1.3 million! At the same time, many female medical instructors were constantly at the forefront, sharing all the hardships of the war with male soldiers.
Therefore, it is natural that in terms of the number of Heroes of the Soviet Union, female doctors are in third place: 15 people. And one of the full holders of the Order of Glory is also a physician. But the ratio among them of the living and those who were awarded the highest title posthumously is also indicative: 7 out of 15 heroines did not live to see their moment of glory. As, for example, the sanitary instructor of the 355th separate battalion of the Marine Corps of the Pacific Fleet, sailor Maria Tsukanova. One of the "twenty-five thousand" girls who responded to the order to call up 25,000 female volunteers to the navy, she served in the coastal artillery, and became a medical instructor shortly before the landing attack on the coast occupied by the Japanese army. Medical instructor Maria Tsukanova managed to save the lives of 52 sailors, but she herself died - it happened on August 15, 1945 ...

Heroine Infantry

It would seem that even during the war years, women and infantry were difficult to combine. It's one thing - pilots or doctors, but infantrymen, workhorses of war, people who, in fact, always and everywhere start and end any battle and at the same time endure all the hardships of military life ... Nevertheless, women who took the risk served in the infantry not only to share the difficulties of infantry life with men, but also to master hand weapons, which required considerable courage and skill from them. Among
women infantrymen - six Heroes of the Soviet Union, five of them received this title posthumously. However, for male infantrymen the ratio will be the same. One of the full holders of the Order of Glory also served in the infantry. Remarkably, among the infantry heroines is the first woman from Kazakhstan who deserved such a high rank: machine gunner Manshuk Mametova. During the liberation of Nevel, she alone held the dominant height with her machine gun and died without letting the Germans through.

Heroine Snipers

When they say "female sniper", the first name that comes to mind is Lieutenant Lyudmila Pavlichenko. And quite deservedly: after all, she received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, being the most productive female sniper in history! But besides Pavlichenko, five more of her fighting girlfriends were awarded the highest award for the art of marksmanship, and three of them posthumously. One of the full holders of the Order of Glory is Sergeant Nina Petrova. Her story is unique not only because she had 122 destroyed enemies, but also because of the age of the sniper: she fought when she was already 52 years old! Few of the men sought the right to go to the front at that age, and the instructor of the sniper school, behind which was the Winter War of 1939-1940, achieved this. But, alas, she did not live to see the Victory: Nina Petrova died in a car accident a week before her, on May 1, 1945.

Tank heroines

You can imagine a woman at the controls of an airplane, but behind the controls of a tank, it's not easy. And, nevertheless, there were women tankers, and not just were, but achieved great success at the front, receiving high awards. Two female tankers received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and one of them - Maria Oktyabrskaya - posthumously. And she died, under enemy fire, repairing her own tank. Own in the truest sense of the word: the tank "Fighting Girlfriend", on which Maria fought as a driver, was built with money collected by her and her sister after the woman learned about the death of her husband, regimental commissar Ilya Oktyabrsky. To achieve the right to take a place behind the levers of her tank, Maria Oktyabrskaya had to apply personally to Stalin, who helped her get to the front. And the woman tanker fully justified the high trust.

Heroines-communicators

One of the most traditional book and film characters associated with the war are signal girls. Indeed, for delicate work requiring perseverance, attentiveness, accuracy and good hearing, they were taken willingly, sent to the troops as telephone operators, radio operators and other communications specialists. In Moscow, on the basis of one of the oldest divisions of the communications troops, during the war years, there was a special school in which female signalmen were trained. And it is quite natural that among the signalmen there were their own Heroes of the Soviet Union. Moreover, both girls, who deserved such a high rank, received it posthumously - like Elena Stempkovskaya, during the battle of her battalion surrounded, she caused artillery fire on herself and died during a breakthrough to her own.

Smuglyanka - Soviet song with wordsYakov Zakharovich Shvedovand musicAnatoly Grigorievich Novikov.

The song was part of a suite written by composer A. Novikov and poet Yakov Shvedov in 1940 commissioned by the ensemble of the Kyiv Special Military District. It sang the partisan girl of the timescivil war. And the whole suite was dedicatedGrigory Ivanovich Kotovsky. However, the song was never performed in the pre-war years. Clavier her was lost. The authors have only drafts. The composer remembered this song four years later when he received a call from the artistic directorRed Banner EnsembleA. V. Aleksandrovand asked to show the songs for the new program of this illustrious artistic group. Among others, Novikov showed the "Smuglyanka", which he took just in case. But it was she who liked Alexandrov, who immediately began to learn it with the choir and soloists.

For the first time the ensemble sang a song in the Concert Hall named after Tchaikovsky in 1944 . The soloist of the Red Banner Ensemble sang it Nikolai Ustinov to whom this song largely owes its success. The concert was broadcast on the radio. "Smuglyanka" was thus heard by a lot of people. She was picked up in the rear and at the front. The song, which spoke about the events of the civil war, was perceived as a song about those who heroically fought for the liberation of the long-suffering Moldovan land in Great Patriotic WarThe song was also featured in the movie.Only "old men" go into battle» 1973 .

Morning May 2 1945 turned out to be kind. Corporal Shalneva regulated the movement of our military equipment one and a half kilometers from the Reichstag. Suddenly, one emka drove off to the side of the road, the poet Yevgeny Dolmatovsky and the front-line correspondent Yevgeny Khaldei got out of the car. The experienced eye of the TASS photojournalist immediately "snatched out the type." Khaldei did not get out of the car calmly, as he did. Dolmatovsky, he jumped out of it, as if he had been scalded with boiling water, almost knocking his comrade down. Whirling around the girl like a bumblebee, he chattered with a smile from ear to ear:

“Tell me, beauty, where are you from?”

“I’m a Siberian, from a village whose name won’t tell you anything,” the traffic controller smiled in response.

The shutter of the "watering can" clicked, and Maria Shalneva got into history ... Maria Timofeevna Shalneva, corporal of the 87th separate road maintenance battalion, regulates the movement of military equipment near the Reichstag in Berlin.

Oath. AT During the war, women served in the Red Army not only in auxiliary positions, such as signalmen, nurses. There were even rifle units: the 1st Separate Women's Reserve Rifle Regiment, the 1st Separate Women's Volunteer Rifle Brigade (OZhDSB) of 7 battalions with a total of 7 thousand people. Mostly they were 19-20-year-old girls

Girls of the 487th Fighter Aviation Regiment. In the photo, Sergeant O. Dobrova is sitting on the left. Captions on the back of the photo:
“Masha, Valya, Nadya, Olya, Tanya are the girls of our unit p / p 23234-a”
"July 29, 1943"

Local residents erect barricades on one of the streets of Odessa. 1941

Nurses of the Northern Fleet.

Cavalier of the Order of Glory, 3rd degree, sniper Maria Kuvshinova, who destroyed several dozen German soldiers and officers.

December 1942
Location: active army

Female officers of the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 325th Night Bomber Aviation Division of the 4th Air Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front: Evdokia Bershanskaya (left), Maria Smirnova (standing) and Polina Gelman.

Evdokia Davydovna Bershanskaya (1913-1982) - commander of the women's 588th Night Light Bomber Aviation Regiment (NLBAP, since 1943 - 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Regiment). The only one among women was awarded the military orders of Suvorov (III degree) and Alexander Nevsky.

Maria Vasilievna Smirnova (1920-2002) - squadron commander of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. By August 1944 she made 805 night sorties. 10/26/1944 was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Polina Vladimirovna Gelman (1919-2005) - Head of Communications of the Aviation Squadron of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. By May 1945, as a Po-2 navigator, she made 860 sorties. 05/15/1946 was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Valentina Milyunas, medical instructor of the 125th Rifle Regiment of the 43rd Latvian Guards Division.

From Andrey Eremenko's book “Years of Retribution. 1943-1945":
“Later on, the 43rd Guards Latvian Division, advancing somewhat north of Daugavpils, occupied the Vishki railway station; the battle here was very stubborn, since, having entrenched themselves in strong station buildings, the Nazis fired destructive fire on the advancing. Arrows stuck. It was at that moment that Valya Milyunas got up and exclaimed: “Forward, for our native Latvia!” — rushed at the enemy. Dozens of other warriors followed her, but an enemy bullet struck down the heroine. Everyone thought she was dead. With the thought of revenge for the death of a young patriot
new divisions moved swiftly. Suddenly Valya got up and, waving a red flag, again began to call the soldiers forward to the enemy. The Nazis were driven out of the station. The wounded heroine was picked up by her friends, nurses. The red flag turned out to be a scarf soaked in her blood. Valya was accepted into the party and was awarded a high award.

Hero of the Soviet Union, sniper of the 25th Chapaev division Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko (1916-1974). Destroyed over 300 fascist soldiers and officers.

Women dig anti-tank ditches near Moscow in autumn 1941.

Sniper of the 54th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division of the Primorsky Army of the North Caucasian Front, Junior Lieutenant L.M. Pavlichenko. The photo was taken during her trip to England, the USA and Canada with a delegation of Soviet youth in the fall of 1942.

Pavlichenko Lyudmila Mikhailovna was born in 1916, a participant in the Great Patriotic War since June 1941 - a volunteer. Member of defensive battles in Moldova and southern Ukraine. For good shooting training, she was sent to a sniper platoon. Since August 1941, a participant in the heroic defense of the city of Odessa, destroyed 187 Nazis. Since October 1941, a member of the heroic defense of the city of Sevastopol. In June 1942, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was wounded and recalled from the front line. By this time, Lyudmila Pavlichenko had destroyed 309 Nazis with a sniper rifle, including 36 enemy snipers. She was not only an excellent sniper, but also an excellent teacher. During the period of defensive battles, she brought up dozens of good snipers.
In October 1943, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 1218).

A medical orderly girl from the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps.

Soviet volunteer girls go to the front.

Soviet soldiers in Prague, seated in trucks, rest.

Soviet military personnel participating in the assault on Koenigsberg - before being sent home.

Nurse at an American field hospital in France. Normandy, 1944

This text is based on the diary entries of Vladimir Ivanovich Trunin, about which we have already told our readers more than once. This information is unique in that it is transmitted first-hand, from a tanker who spent the entire war on a tank.

Before the Great Patriotic War, women did not serve in the Red Army. But often they "served" at the border posts along with their husbands, border guards.

The fate of these women with the advent of the war was tragic: most of them died, only a few managed to survive those terrible days. But I'll talk about that later...

By August 1941, it became obvious that women were indispensable.

The first to serve in the Red Army were female medical workers: medical battalions (medical sanitary battalions), PPG (field mobile hospitals), EG (evacuation hospitals) and sanitary echelons were deployed, in which young nurses, doctors and nurses served. Then the military commissars began to call signalmen, telephone operators, and radio operators to the Red Army. It got to the point that almost all anti-aircraft units were staffed by girls and young unmarried women aged 18 to 25 years. Women's aviation regiments began to form. By 1943, from 2 to 2.5 million girls and women served in the Red Army at different times.

The military commissars drafted the healthiest, most educated, most beautiful girls and young women into the army. All of them showed themselves very well: they were brave, very persistent, hardy, reliable fighters and commanders, they were awarded military orders and medals for bravery and courage shown in battle.

For example, Colonel Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova, Hero of the Soviet Union, commanded a long-range aviation bomber division (ADD). It was her 250 IL4 bombers that forced her to surrender in July-August 1944 Finland.

About anti-aircraft girls

Under any bombing, under any shelling, they remained at their guns. When the troops of the Don, Stalingrad and Southwestern fronts closed the encirclement around the enemy groups in Stalingrad, the Germans tried to organize an air bridge from the territory of Ukraine they occupied to Stalingrad. For this, the entire military transport air fleet of Germany was transferred to Stalingrad. Our Russian anti-aircraft gunners organized an anti-aircraft screen. They shot down 500 three-engine German Junkers 52 aircraft in two months.

In addition, they shot down another 500 aircraft of other types. The German invaders have never known such a rout anywhere in Europe.

Night Witches

The women's regiment of night bombers, Lieutenant Colonel of the Guards Evdokia Bershanskaya, flying on U-2 single-engine aircraft, bombed German troops on the Kerch Peninsula in 1943 and 1944. And later in 1944-45. fought on the first Belorussian front, supporting the troops of Marshal Zhukov and the troops of the 1st Army of the Polish Army.

Aircraft U-2 (since 1944 - Po-2, in honor of the designer N. Polikarpov) flew at night. They were based 8-10 km from the front line. They needed a small runway, only 200 meters. During the night in the battles for the Kerch Peninsula, they made 10-12 sorties. Carried U2 up to 200 kg of bombs at a distance of up to 100 km to the German rear. . During the night, they dropped up to 2 tons of bombs and incendiary ampoules on German positions and fortifications. They approached the target with the engine turned off, silently: the aircraft had good aerodynamic properties: the U-2 could glide from a height of 1 kilometer to a distance of 10 to 20 kilometers. It was difficult for the Germans to shoot them down. I myself have seen many times how German anti-aircraft gunners drove heavy machine guns across the sky, trying to find a silent U2.

Now the Poles do not remember how Russian beautiful pilots in the winter of 1944 dropped weapons, ammunition, food, medicines to Polish citizens who rebelled in Warsaw against the German fascists ....

On the Southern Front near Melitopol and in the male fighter regiment, a Russian pilot girl, whose name was White Lily, fought. It was impossible to shoot her down in aerial combat. On board her fighter was painted a flower - a white lily.

Once the regiment was returning from a combat mission, the White Lily flew in the rear - only the most experienced pilots receive such an honor.

The German fighter Me-109 guarded her, hiding in a cloud. He fired a burst at the White Lily and disappeared into the cloud again. Wounded, she turned the plane around and rushed after the German. She never returned back ... Already after the war, her remains were accidentally discovered by local boys when they were catching snakes in a mass grave in the village of Dmitrievka, Shakhtersky district of Donetsk region.

Miss Pavlichenko

In the Primorsky Army, one among the men - sailors, a girl - a sniper, fought. Ludmila Pavlichenko. By July 1942, Lyudmila already had 309 destroyed German soldiers and officers (including 36 enemy snipers) on her account.

In the same 1942, she was sent with a delegation to Canada and the United States.
States. During the trip, she was at the reception of the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Later, Eleanor Roosevelt invited Lyudmila Pavlichenko on a trip around the country. American country singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "Miss Pavlichenko" about her.

In 1943, Pavlichenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

"For Zina Tusnolobova!"

Regiment medical instructor (nurse) Zina Tusnolobova fought in a rifle regiment on the Kalinin Front near Velikiye Luki.

She walked in the first chain along with the fighters, bandaging the wounded. In February 1943, in the battle for the Gorshechnoye station in the Kursk region, while trying to help the wounded platoon commander, she herself was seriously wounded: her legs were broken. At this time, the Germans launched a counterattack. Tusnolobova tried to pretend to be dead, but one of the Germans noticed her, and with the blows of his boots and butt he tried to finish off the nurse.

At night, the nurse showing signs of life was discovered by a reconnaissance group, transferred to the location of the Soviet troops and on the third day taken to a field hospital. Her hands and lower legs were frostbitten and had to be amputated. She left the hospital on prostheses and with prosthetic hands. But she didn't lose heart.

Got better. Got married. She gave birth to three children and raised them. True, her mother helped her raise children. She died in 1980 at the age of 59.

Zinaida's letter was read to the soldiers in units before the assault on Polotsk:

Revenge me! Revenge for my Native Polotsk!

May this letter reach the heart of each of you. This is written by a man whom the Nazis deprived of everything - happiness, health, youth. I am 23 years old. For 15 months now I have been lying, chained to a hospital bed. I have no arms or legs now. The Nazis did it.

I was a laboratory chemist. When the war broke out, together with other Komsomol members, she voluntarily went to the front. Here I participated in the battles, endured the wounded. For the removal of 40 soldiers along with their weapons, the government awarded me the Order of the Red Star. In total, I carried 123 wounded soldiers and commanders from the battlefield.

In the last battle, when I rushed to the aid of the wounded platoon commander, I was also wounded, both legs were broken. The Nazis went on a counterattack. There was no one to pick me up. I pretended to be dead. A fascist approached me. He kicked me in the stomach, then began to beat me with a butt on the head, in the face ...

And now I'm disabled. I recently learned to write. I am writing this letter with the stump of my right arm, which is cut off above the elbow. I got dentures, and maybe I'll learn to walk. If only I could pick up a machine gun at least once more to get even with the Nazis for blood. For torment, for my warped life!

Russian people! Soldiers! I was your comrade, walked with you in the same row. Now I can't fight anymore. And I beg you: take revenge! Remember and do not spare the damned fascists. Destroy them like mad dogs. Take revenge on them for me, for hundreds of thousands of Russian slaves driven into German slavery. And let each maiden's burning tear, like a drop of molten lead, incinerate another German.

My friends! When I was in a hospital in Sverdlovsk, the Komsomol members of a Ural plant, who took patronage over me, built five tanks at an inopportune time and named them after me. The realization that these tanks are now beating the Nazis gives great relief to my torment...

It's very hard for me. At twenty-three years of age, to be in the position I was in ... Eh! Not even a tenth of what I dreamed about, what I aspired to ... But I do not lose heart. I believe in myself, I believe in my strength, I believe in you, my dear! I believe that the Motherland will not leave me. I live in the hope that my grief will not remain unavenged, that the Germans will pay dearly for my torment, for the suffering of my loved ones.

And I ask you, relatives: when you go to the assault, remember me!

Remember - and let each of you kill at least one fascist!

Zina Tusnolobova, guard foreman of the medical service.
Moscow, 71, 2nd Donskoy proezd, 4-a, Institute of Prosthetics, room 52.
Newspaper "Forward to the enemy", May 13, 1944.

tank girls

The tanker has a very hard job: loading shells, collecting and repairing broken tracks, working with a shovel, crowbar, sledgehammer, and carrying logs. And most often under enemy fire.

In the 220th tank brigade, the T-34 was with us on the Leningrad Front as a driver, technician-lieutenant Valya Krikaleva. In battle, a German anti-tank gun smashed the caterpillar of her tank. Valya jumped out of the tank and began to repair the caterpillar. A German machine gunner scribbled it across her chest. Comrades did not have time to cover it. So the wonderful girl tanker went into eternity. We, tankers from the Leningrad Front, still remember her.

On the Western Front in 1941, the company commander, tanker Captain Oktyabrsky, fought on the T-34. He died a heroic death in August 1941. The young wife Maria Oktyabrskaya, who remained in the rear, decided to take revenge on the Germans for the death of her husband.

She sold her house, all her property and sent a letter to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich with a request to allow her to buy a T-34 tank with the proceeds and take revenge on the Germans for their tanker husband killed by them:

Moscow, Kremlin To the Chairman of the State Defense Committee. Supreme Commander.
Dear Joseph Vissarionovich!
In the battles for the Motherland, my husband, regimental commissar Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrsky, died. For his death, for the death of all Soviet people tortured by fascist barbarians, I want to take revenge on the fascist dogs, for which I contributed all my personal savings - 50,000 rubles - to the state bank to build a tank. I ask you to name the tank "Fighting Girlfriend" and send me to the front as the driver of this tank. I have the specialty of a driver, I have an excellent command of a machine gun, I am a Voroshilov shooter.
I send you warm greetings and wish you health for many, many years to the fear of enemies and to the glory of our Motherland.

OCTOBER Maria Vasilievna.
Tomsk, Belinsky, 31

Stalin ordered to take Maria Oktyabrskaya to the Ulyanovsk Tank School, to train her, to give her a T-34 tank. After graduating from college, Maria was awarded the military rank of technician-lieutenant driver.

She was sent to that section of the Kalinin Front where her husband fought.

On January 17, 1944, in the vicinity of the Krynki station in the Vitebsk region, a left sloth was smashed by a shell near the tank "Fighting Girlfriend". The mechanic Oktyabrskaya tried to repair the damage under enemy fire, but a fragment of a mine that exploded nearby seriously wounded her in the eye.

She underwent surgery in a field hospital, and then was taken by plane to a front-line hospital, but the wound turned out to be too severe, and she died in March 1944.

Katya Petlyuk is one of the nineteen women whose gentle hands drove tanks at the enemy. Katya was the commander of the T-60 light tank on the Southwestern Front west of Stalingrad.

Katya Petlyuk got the T-60 light tank. For convenience in battle, each machine had its own name. The names of the tanks were all impressive: "Eagle", "Falcon", "Terrible", "Glory", and on the turret of the tank that Katya Petlyuk received, an unusual one was displayed - "Baby".

The tankers chuckled: “We have already hit the mark - a baby in the “Baby”.

Her tank was connected. She walked behind the T-34, and if one of them was hit, then she approached the wrecked tank on her T-60 and helped the tankers, delivered spare parts, and was a liaison officer. The fact is that not all T-34s had radio stations.

Only many years after the war, senior sergeant from the 56th tank brigade Katya Petlyuk learned the story of the birth of her tank: it turns out that it was built with the money of Omsk preschool children, who, wanting to help the Red Army, gave their accumulated toys for the construction of a combat vehicle and dolls. In a letter to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, they asked to name the tank "Baby". Omsk preschoolers collected 160,886 rubles…

A couple of years later, Katya was already leading the T-70 tank into battle (they still had to part with the Malyutka). Participated in the battle for Stalingrad, and then as part of the Don Front in the encirclement and defeat of the Nazi troops. Participated in the battle on the Kursk Bulge, liberated the left-bank Ukraine. She was seriously wounded - at the age of 25 she became an invalid of the 2nd group.

After the war - lived in Odessa. Having taken off her officer's epaulettes, she trained as a lawyer and worked as the head of the registry office.

She was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, medals.

Many years later, Marshal of the Soviet Union I. I. Yakubovsky, the former commander of the 91st separate tank brigade, wrote in the book “Earth on Fire”: “... but in general it is difficult to measure how many times the heroism of a person exalts. They say about him that this is courage of a special order. They, of course, were possessed by a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, Ekaterina Petlyuk.

Based on the diary entries of Vladimir Ivanovich Trunin and the Internet.