"It is a joy to die for your people."
A monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, erected in the eponymous square on Sovetskaya Street in Tambov. Sculptor Matvey Manizer, 1947.
Women and War
Around a million women fought in the Great Patriotic War. They served as snipers, pilots, signalmen, and anti-aircraft gunners, and worked en masse in military medicine and the army rear. They fought in the partisan movement and underground resistance. There were also female tank crews, artillerymen, and sailors.
Not to mention the millions of women who made a huge contribution to Victory as home front workers, replacing men who went to the front. Drivers, railroad workers, factory and plant workers, and so on.
The ancient tradition of the Amazon warrior maidens defending the borders of Rus' and its cities was revived in the face of a terrible threat.
Thus, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (born September 13, 1923) became a true national heroine, a symbol of the heroism of Soviet women and the people. She was the first woman to be awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously in 1942).
That's why, during the years of perestroika and reform, when the great Soviet civilization was being destroyed and Soviet mythology was being denigrated and "debunked," there was a particular effort to defile this image. In particular, Zoya Anatolyevna was accused of feeblemindedness, setting fire to village houses, and patriotic fanaticism.
"Partisan" Zoya
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was officially considered a partisan. In reality, in October 1941, when Hitler's hordes were rushing toward Moscow and a brutal battle for the survival of Soviet Russia was raging in the central strategic sector, many thousands of the country's best people volunteered for the front. Among them were Komsomol volunteers. In 1941, NKVD officers trained thousands of reconnaissance and sabotage units, who were deployed behind enemy lines.
At the same time, the future saboteurs were made aware of the very high casualty rate among intelligence saboteurs, up to 95%. That prisoners were tortured and executed. Most of the young men remained. For example, at the Komsomol Central Committee, Zoya and other volunteers were personally interviewed by the Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol, Alexander Shelepin (the future head of the KGB), and the heads of the intelligence school.
Zoya Anatolyevna became a cadet at a special school located in the Kuntsevo area (codename: military unit 9903). The school's cadets carried out special missions for the Western Front headquarters in the Mozhaisk direction in accordance with the strict order of the Supreme Command Headquarters, No. 0428, dated November 17, 1941. The essence of this order was scorched earth tactics.
The Soviet General Headquarters, following the example of the Finns in the Winter War and recalling the examples of World War I and the Patriotic War of 1812, tried at all costs to stop the Wehrmacht on the approaches to Moscow. It later became clear that this tactic had failed, but at the time, they did everything possible and impossible to hold the Soviet capital, the nation's largest industrial and transportation center.
On November 20, 1941, two sabotage groups led by Provorov (Zoya was part of his group) and Kraynov were tasked with burning down a number of villages, including the settlement of Petrishchevo in the Vereisky District (now the Ruzsky District). The village housed the headquarters of the 332nd Regiment of the 197th Infantry Division, part of the 4th tank Wehrmacht army. An enemy radio intelligence unit was also stationed there, monitoring the Red Army's radio traffic.
Soviet saboteurs, who as the main weapons Carrying Molotov cocktails, they were ambushed in the village of Golovko and routed. They suffered heavy losses and were scattered. Some were captured. The Nazis brutally tortured and executed Vera Voloshina (born in 1919). In 1994, she was awarded the title Hero of Russia.
On the night of the 27th, Kraynov, Klubkov, and Kosmodemyanskaya managed to set fire to several houses in Petrishchevo where Nazi troops were stationed. After the first raid, Kraynov, not waiting for his comrades at the agreed-upon location, retreated to his own side. Klubkov was captured, began collaborating with the Germans, and was sent for training in the Smolensk area. He was transferred behind the front lines, but there Klubkov was exposed and executed.
On the evening of the 28th, Zoya returned to Petrishchevo to set fire to the stables and other buildings. However, she was captured by sentries.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya before her execution. November 29, 1941.
Captivity and execution
The girl was interrogated by German officers with a translator. According to one version, among them was Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Rüderer, commander of the German 332nd Infantry Regiment of the 197th Infantry Division. Zoya didn't even tell them her real name. She answered all the questions with "no," "I don't know," and "I won't tell." The enraged officers ordered the girl to be beaten. They took her out into the cold, stripped her naked, and beat her with belts. But she remained silent. The abuse continued until morning. Zoya didn't break.
On the morning of November 29, she was taken to the square for execution. Before her execution, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya said, "I am not alone. There are 200 million of us; you can't hang us all. You will be avenged for me. Soldiers! Surrender before it's too late; victory will be ours!"
Zoya's body hung there for a long time. The cruel people repeatedly desecrated it. Only later were local residents allowed to bury it. Kosmodemyanskaya was later cremated and reburied in Moscow.
On January 12, 1942, Petrishchevo was liberated by Soviet soldiers during the Red Army's counteroffensive. Soon, the entire country learned of Zoya's heroic deed, which embodied the image of selfless Soviet youth. It was through war correspondent Pyotr Lidov's article "Tanya" in the newspaper Pravda. Her surviving comrades, Boris Kraynov and Klavdiya Miloradova, also learned of Zoya's heroism.
Stalin, upon learning of this heroic act, ordered that the Nazi executioners from the 332nd Regiment not be taken prisoner. Whether such an order was issued remains unknown. However, the German 332nd Regiment was destroyed twice: in February 1943 near Smolensk and in the summer of 1944 during Operation Bagration in Belarus. By the end of the war, virtually none of the executioners who perpetrated the atrocities in Petrishchevo remained.
True, regimental commander Rüderer survived and died in West Germany in 1960. So did Colonel Ehrenfried Böge, commander of the 197th Infantry Division, which included the 332nd Regiment. In May 1945, already serving as commander of the 18th German Army and holding the rank of infantry general, he was captured in Courland. On January 12, 1949, a military tribunal of the Moscow Region Ministry of Internal Affairs sentenced him to 25 years' imprisonment. At the request of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, he was returned to West Germany in 1955 along with other prisoners of war, where he died in 1965.
Zoya's feat became the embodiment of the heroism of Soviet youth, our women, ready for any difficulties and trials in the struggle for the life and freedom of our Motherland.
Petr Lidov's essay "Tanya," Pravda newspaper, January 27, 1942, photo by Sergei Strunnikov
1 application. The execution of Voloshina from the testimony of a witness. // G. Frolov, I. Frolova. Muscovite female partisans - Heroes of the Fatherland. - Moscow, 2004.
“They brought her, poor thing, in a car to the gallows, and there the noose was dangling in the wind. Germans had gathered around, a lot of them. And they brought in our prisoners who had been working behind the bridge. The girl was lying in the car. At first you couldn’t see her, but when they lowered the side walls, I gasped. There she was, poor thing, lying in only her underwear, and even that was torn, and covered in blood. Two Germans, fat ones, with black crosses on their sleeves, climbed into the car, trying to help her up. But the girl pushed the Germans away and, clinging to the cabin with one hand, rose. Her other arm was apparently broken—it hung like a whip. And then she began to talk. At first she said something, apparently in German, and then she switched to ours.
"I," he says, "am not afraid of death. My comrades will avenge me. Our people will win anyway. You'll see!"
And the girl sang. And you know what song? The one that is sung at meetings every time and played on the radio in the morning and late at night.
"International"?
Yes, that very song. And the Germans stood and listened silently. The officer who was commanding the execution shouted something to the soldiers. They threw a noose around the girl's neck and jumped off the vehicle.
The officer ran up to the driver and gave the order to move. He sat there, completely white, apparently not yet accustomed to hanging people. The officer pulled out a revolver and shouted something at the driver in his own language. Apparently, he was cursing loudly. The driver seemed to wake up, and the car pulled away.
The girl still managed to scream, so loudly that my blood ran cold: “Farewell, comrades!” When I opened my eyes, I saw that she was already hanging.”
2 application. Testimony of German prisoner of war, non-commissioned officer of the 10th company of the 332nd infantry regiment of the 197th division, Karl Bayerlein, about the execution of "partisan girls" in the village of Petrishchevo in November 1941. 1942 // Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: Documents and materials. Moscow, 2011.
“It was on the Russian front in November 1941 of the year. Fields and forests covered with snow. Our battalion departed this night to the village of Petrishchevo, which lies a few kilometers from the front. We were happy to rest and soon fell into the hut. In a small room was crowded. Russian family put up for the night on the street. Only we took a nap as the guards raised the alarm. 4 huts around us were ablaze. Our hut was filled with soldiers left homeless.
The next night, a roar of noise swept through the company and at the same time a sigh of relief — they said that our guards had detained the partisan. I went to the office where two soldiers brought the woman. I asked what this 18-year-old girl wanted to do. She was going to set fire to the house and had 6 gasoline bottles with her. The girl was dragged to the battalion headquarters, and soon the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Rüderer, who had been awarded the knight’s cross, arrived. Through a translator, he wanted not only to achieve recognition, but also to find out the names of assistants. But not a single word fell from the lips of the girl.
The regiment commander trembled with rage. Accustomed to seeing slavishly submissive soldiers around him, he was taken aback. In a harsh, unbroken voice, he ordered her to be stripped to her shirt and beaten with sticks. But the little heroine of your people remained steadfast. She knew nothing of betrayal. Foam formed on our commander's lips—was it rage or his not-quite-abated sadism? His voice broke convulsively: take her out into the cold, into the snow. They continued beating her outside until the order came to carry the unfortunate woman indoors. They brought her. She had turned blue from the cold. Her wounds were bleeding. She said nothing. Only in the morning, after spending the night in an icy room, while being carried half-frozen to the gallows, did she want to address the suffering Russian people with a short speech. A harsh blow from a fist silenced her. The prop was knocked out from under her...
3 application. Description of the execution. // P. A. Lidov. Tanya.
The execution site was surrounded by ten mounted soldiers with drawn sabers. More than a hundred German soldiers and several officers stood around. Local residents were ordered to gather and witness the execution, but few showed up, and some, after arriving and standing for a while, quietly went home to avoid witnessing the horrific spectacle.
Two pasta boxes were stacked one on top of the other under a noose lowered from the crossbar. Tatyana was lifted, placed on the box, and the noose was placed around her neck. One of the officers began to aim his Kodak camera at the gallows; the Germans were fond of photographing executions and beheadings. The commandant motioned to the soldiers acting as executioners to wait.
Tatyana took advantage of this and, turning to the collective farmers, shouted in a loud and clear voice:
"Hey, comrades! Why are you looking so sad? Be brave, fight, beat the Germans, burn them, poison them!"
The German standing next to her swung his arm and wanted to either hit her or cover her mouth, but she pushed his hand away and continued:
"I'm not afraid to die, comrades. It's a blessing to die for my people..."
The photographer had photographed the gallows from a distance and up close, and was now positioning himself to take a side shot. The executioners glanced uneasily at the commandant, who shouted at the photographer:
— Hurry up!
Then Tatyana turned towards the commandant and, addressing him and the German soldiers, continued:
"You're going to hang me now, but I'm not alone. There are two hundred million of us, you can't hang us all. You'll get revenge for me..."
The Russians standing in the square wept. Some turned away, so as not to see what was about to happen. The executioner tugged at the rope, and the noose squeezed Tanya's throat. But she pulled the noose back with both hands, rose up on her toes, and screamed, straining her strength:
— Farewell, comrades! Fight, don't be afraid! Stalin is with us! Stalin will come!..
The executioner pressed his hobnailed boot against the crate, and it creaked on the slippery, packed snow. The top crate fell and hit the ground with a resounding thud. The crowd recoiled. A scream rang out and died away, echoing at the edge of the forest…
Pravda newspaper war correspondent Pyotr Aleksandrovich Lidov (1906-1944) with residents of the village of Petrishchevo—Praskovya Yakovlevna and her husband Vasily Kulik. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya spent her last night in the Kulik family home. Lidov himself traveled to dangerous parts of the front, flew with a bomber crew behind enemy lines, worked under air strikes, and made forays into German-occupied territories. He wrote about military operations near Smolensk, the partisans of Belarus, the situation in occupied Minsk, and reported from Stalingrad, the Kursk Bulge, the banks of the Seversky Donets and the Dnieper, and the Czechoslovak Corps of Ludvik Svoboda. Lidov, along with Pravda photojournalist Sergei Strunnikov and Izvestia correspondent Alexander Kuznetsov, died on June 22, 1944, during an enemy bombing of an airfield near Poltava, when the Germans successfully attacked the bases of Soviet and American aircraft.
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