Zorka - bear of the regiment of the Great Patriotic War

A modern picture of a bear at one of the airfields

During World War II, many pictures were taken. Their authors are both front-line correspondents and military personnel who were happy owners of cameras. There are pictures known around the world. For example, this is a snapshot of the hoisting of the Red Banner over the Reichstag or the capture of Field Marshal Paulus in Stalingrad. And there are those about whom either little is known or nothing is known - neither authorship, nor the names of those who are captured in the photo.

On the channel Sky Artist talks about an interesting picture of the time of the Second World War. It depicts a military pilot S.M. Nechaev against the backdrop of the La-7 aircraft. The company of the pilot is very unusual. This is a bear. The caption in the photo says that a soldier is playing with a teddy bear.

From the memoirs of the famous ace Ivan Kozhedub, it turns out that the bear was called Zorka. Kozhedub tells how he met Zorka immediately after arriving at a new position for himself - deputy commander of an air regiment stationed at that time in Poland. The peasants of Western Ukraine, freed from the Nazis, presented this bear cub to Marshal Alexander Novikov.

Detailed story about the bear of the regiment - on the Sky Artist channel:

Comments

[AU Ivanov.]

My grandfather (a conscript, a foreman of a battery), before the war, an artillery regiment had a regimental goat Yasha. According to the stories of my grandmother, my grandfather, leaving for service in the morning, always took carrots for him.

[Grandfather]

Quote: AS Ivanov.

regimental goat Yashka

these were not few .. under all sorts of names.

[AU Ivanov.]

This commander was gored, Yushka did not like the commander. Nothing, the goat was repressed, the commander was a man with a sense of humor.

[knn54]

I was born in Kamchatka. My father served in air defense. Border guards presented a unique photo (someone stole it from his grandfather with other interesting papers and documents until the 19th century), where a teddy bear in his forepaws holds a bowl, waiting for his turn in the dining room outpost.

[Ponchik78]

The bear in the photo, if not mistaken, is called Mansour.