Joan of Arc from near Tambov
September 30, 1941, the Nazi command moved its tank hordes in the last, as it seemed to them then, attack on Moscow.
Summoning Zhukov from Leningrad, the Supreme Commander sent him to the front line to personally investigate the situation there. Once west of Moscow, the illustrious commander reported that the front was completely open to the advancing fascist hordes. Having broken through our defenses, on October 10, the Nazis surrounded the five armies belonging to the Western and Reserve fronts in the Vyazma region. October 7 8-th year George Konstantinovich much later called the most difficult day in the battles for the capital: "On this day, the fascist" tigers "went to us almost in the parade ...". At the same time, Joseph Vissarionovich issued a decree on the mining of the most important objects of the city - bridges, industrial enterprises, etc. Tens of thousands of inhabitants, beating themselves out of strength, hastily dug trenches, escarpes and anti-tank ditches. Under Moscow, military units were urgently transferred from Siberia and the Far East. October 1941 evacuated all foreign missions, the government led by Molotov, the People's Commissariat of the Navy and Defense, the General Staff.
However, Stalin, who made the decision to fight for Moscow to the last, remained in the city. 19 October was a state of siege. Every resident of the capital was preparing for street fighting. The idea that the city could go to the enemy seemed unbearable. People thousands were enrolled in the workers' and communist battalions and squads. In each of the twenty-five areas, their own detachments of snipers, tank destroyers and demolition men were formed.
Among those who remained in Moscow was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a young Komsomol member. In one of the troubled October days, she crossed the threshold of the Cabinet of the Komsomol Secretary of the Moscow City Committee Alexander Shelepin. The girl managed to finish the ninth grade, knew the German language well and heard that the Central Committee of the Komsomol organizes an intelligence and sabotage school, in which, among other things, high school students will be trained for later transfer to the enemy rear.
The leaders of the reconnaissance and sabotage unit under the number 9903 personally talked in the Shelepin office with Komsomol members who received directions from the local district committees. The conversation was extremely short and tough: “Motherland needs patriots able to withstand any trials, sacrifice themselves ... Ninety-five percent of you will die. The fascists do not know mercy and brutally kill the partisans ... If you are not ready for this, just say so. No one will condemn you, and fulfill your desire to fight the enemy at the front ... ". But even those who agreed were often given a turn from the gate. Not taken due to health problems, behavior in front of the commission, biography, pedigree. Initially, Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya also refused. In a conversation that took place in the office of the secretary of the Moscow Komsomol city committee, the girl felt that she ... was not trusted. Of course, she was well aware of her “sins” - of her origin ...
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was born in the village of Osinovye Gai (which means “aspen grove”), located a hundred kilometers from Tambov. Her paternal grandfather, Peter Ioannovich Kozmodemyanovsky, was a graduate of the Tambov seminary and worked as a priest in the local Church of the Sign. The surname "Kozmodemyanovskie" derived from the names of two saints, Kozma and Demyan, revered by the people. In the autumn of 1918, after the release of the decree of the Military Commissariat on the mobilization of horses for the Red Army, unrest began among the peasants, anxious about harvesting. One of the organizers of the riots found Peter Ivanovich, soon after that he died at the hands of the Bolsheviks under unexplained circumstances. The church, despite the complaints of believers, was also closed. Zoe's father, Anatoly Petrovich, did not manage to finish the seminary, took part in the civil war, and soon after returning, he married a local resident, Lyubov Timofyevna Churikova. They worked together: Lyubov Timofeevna was a teacher, and Anatoly Petrovich was in charge of the library.
Zoya was born on September 8 of 1923. However, in many sources is the date 13 September. This was the result of an error in the response to a request from Moscow in the 1942 year, during the work of the commission to identify the body of the deceased. In fact, on the day of 13 on September 1923 of the year Zoe was registered. In 1925, the Kozmodemyanovsky couple had a son, Alexander.
When Zoe was six years old, collectivization came to their village. The family suddenly left the black-earth Tambov region and moved to the Irkutsk region in the deep and snow-covered village of Shitkino. According to one version, Anatoly Petrovich spoke too harshly at the local meeting about collective farm construction, on the other, Kozmodemyanovskys fled, fearing denunciations.
At the same time, the elder sister of Lyubov Timofeevna, Olga, managed to firmly settle in Moscow. She worked in the apparatus of the People's Commissariat of Education, where Nadezhda Krupskaya also worked. After another tearful request from the employee, the widow of the founder of the USSR helped her to release her Tambov relatives from Siberia. However, in Moscow Kozmodemyanovskie already registered as Kosmodemyanskie.
Initially, the family settled in an ordinary communal apartment, but after two years they were given a more spacious room in the 7 room at Aleksandrovsky Proezd. Zoe and her little brother went to the first grade. Mother began to teach in elementary school, while simultaneously studying at the Pedagogical Institute. My father got a job at the Timiryazev Academy, worked on shorthand courses. Also, following my old dream, I studied hard, getting ready to enter a technical institute. However, the dream remained unfulfilled. Anatoly Petrovich fell ill and, despite the successful operation, he died in the 1933 year. His father was very fond of his family, his loss was a heavy blow. Children had to quickly grow up, get used to live without a breadwinner.
Zoe studied well, read a lot, was fond history and dreamed of getting into the Literary Institute. In October 1938 of the year she joined the Komsomol, she was elected Komsomol gruporgom. It should be noted that the girl had a difficult character, relations with comrades did not always develop successfully. The children complained about its rigor and exactingness, and the school teachers said: "Never back down from what they consider to be true." After being re-elected as a group organizer in 1939, Zoe had a nervous breakdown. She became less sociable, thoughtful and absent-minded. Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya wrote: “The nervous disease was due to the fact that the guys did not understand it. The inconstancy of her friends, the disclosure of secrets - Zoya did not like this, worried and, as a rule, sat alone. ” In 1940, the girl got sick with acute meningitis, after which she spent a long time recovering in a sanatorium in Sokolniki. Here she became friends with Arkady Gaidar being treated. In the same year, despite the huge number of missed classes, Zoe was able to finish the ninth grade of school number XXUMX.
The war for Kosmodemyanskys, as well as for many inhabitants of our country, was an absolute surprise. Together with the other guys, Zoya and Alexander began to be on duty during raids on the roofs of houses. The girl also sewed clothing bags and buttonholes for the front-line soldiers, helped at the factory, took accelerated courses of nurses.
After reviewing her case in the intelligence and sabotage school, the commission was dissatisfied. Corrections in the name of Zoya, the biography of his grandfather, the priest, the reference of his parents to Siberia — all of this did not dispose to the recruitment of future saboteurs. Shelepin failed to make a decision and handed her case over to the head of the school to the legendary major Sprogis. In his memoirs, Arthur Karlovich wrote that Zoya was not suitable for the tasks of reconnaissance groups. However, after the refusal, the girl declared: “I want to fight for the Motherland” and stayed overnight near the Major’s office. Reluctantly, Sprogis credited Kosmodemyanskaya.
At the very end of October, 1941 of the year, more than two thousand Komsomol members arrived in batches at the assembly point near the former “Colosseum” cinema. From here, boys and girls in covered trucks were taken to a reconnaissance school located in Kuntsevo and officially called the military unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front. Time in the study did not lose. An hour after arrival, according to the recollections of fellow Zoyin, class began. The class brought pistols and grenades. For three days the guys learned to navigate in the woods, put mines, blow up objects, use a map and ... kill people. At the beginning of November, Zoe’s squadron received the first mission - to lay mines on the roads behind enemy lines.
At the cadets, before sending, civilian clothes were worn, strap bags with food, ammunition, tol and gasoline were hanging over their shoulders. The guys they weighed about twenty pounds, the girls - a little less. Under padded jackets and coats, pistols were hidden. Each scout signed that he was familiarized with the combat mission for the whole group. November 4 squad Zoe was redeployed near Volokolamsk. For several days the guys got to the place, scattered thorns, mined well-built roads. During the day the group passed up to twenty kilometers. Rested in turn for two or three hours at dawn or afternoon, often waking up from the cold. Soon, due to careless handling of tolom, the stock of crackers disappeared, and other products began to run out. Patients appeared in the detachment, in particular, Zoya had a cold, and she started having otitis. However, after the commander gave the order to return, the girl declared her readiness to continue the task. Scouting saboteurs returned to base without loss of 11 on November 1941 of the year.
On November 17, 1941, Stalin issued a secret order at number 428. In it, instead of the usual appeal to those who should execute it, the leader immediately took the bull by the horns: “The arrogant enemy thought to winter in the warm houses of Leningrad and Moscow ... Do not allow the German "armies to be deployed in cities and villages, to chase fascist invaders from any settlements, to smoke from warm shelters and to make them freeze in the open air is our important task." To implement this, it was proposed: “Burn and destroy all settlements located in the rear of the Nazi troops and forty-sixty kilometers and twenty-thirty kilometers away from the main roads from the front line. To quit this task Aviation, use mortar and artillery fire, detachments of skiers, scouts, partisans and saboteurs equipped with Molotov cocktails, grenades and subversive weapons ... In the event of a forced withdrawal of our units ... withdraw the entire Soviet population, be sure to destroy settlements without exception ... ".
Of course, this order opens a very painful and controversial page of the battle for Moscow. The truth about that war is much worse than we can imagine today. The civilian population of the country did not know anything about this secret ruling, nor did it know about the danger of the next offensive of the fascist troops on the capital of our Motherland. The least aware were those who found themselves in the territory of the Moscow region occupied by the fascists. And the implementation of the Stalinist decree primarily affected them .... However, what would have ended the bloodiest, most important battle of the Second World War, if the Nazis were given the chance to quietly rest in warm village huts and eat up local grubs - is unknown. When there is a deadly battle, at least two truths always manifest themselves in the actions of people: philistine (save at any cost) and heroic (sacrifice yourself for the Victory).
In pursuance of this order 18 (and according to other 20 sources) November, the sabotage groups of Kraynov and Provorov (in which Zoya was) of the special part of 9903 were ordered to eliminate ten localities during the week: Anashkino, Il'yatino, Gribtsovo, Usadkovo, Pushkino, Grachevo, Bugaylovo , Korovino, Mikhailovsky and Petrishchevo. On assignment, both groups left together. Vera Voloshin and Klava Miloradova were in the detachment with Zoya. The front line guys went on the night of November 22 1941 year. Near the village of Golovkovo both groups attacked the Nazi ambush. During the ensuing shootout squads were scattered. Some fighters died, others (including Vera Voloshin) were captured. Some of the guys just got lost in the forest, lagging behind their comrades. The remaining saboteurs united under the command of Krainov on November 25 near the village of Uskovo. Of the original team (twenty people — ten in a group), only eight remained. There was a conflict among the guys, five of them thought that it was pointless to continue the task. Taking the necessary things, they turned to their. Three — Boris Krainov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, and the school's Komsomol Vasily Klubkov — decided to stay in order to fulfill the order in the village of Petrishchevo.
On the night of November 27, they reached the village, in which, apart from the deployed soldiers of the 332 regiment of the Wehrmacht 197 division, there was, according to unconfirmed data, an important German military target - the army radio center. The Trinity divided the targets for arson and left the forest. Vasily went to school, Boris took over the headquarters, and Zoya went to the stable. After the task is completed, the guys agreed to get together in the forest and leave together for their own.
At about two o'clock in the morning, four buildings burst into flames in Petrishchev. The arson turned out to be a complete surprise for the fascists, the sentries raised the alarm, shots rang out at random. Returning to the agreed place, Krainov did not meet there either Zoya or Klubkova. After waiting some time, he set off on his way back, safely reaching his unit. Zoya, in turn, successfully set fire to the Germans' army stable, in which nearly two dozen horses tied for the night burned, forage stock and a large number of weapons. In the forest, she somehow missed Kraynov and, left alone, decided to return to the village, following the group’s order to the end.
Having stayed in the forest one day, on November X, with the onset of twilight, Kosmodemyanskaya again sneaked into Petrishchevo and tried to set fire to the barn of a certain Sviridov. However, the Nazis were ready, not sleeping and the locals, guarding their homes. The owner noticed the girl and raised the alarm. The Germans came running and grabbed Zoya. The battered saboteur at about ten in the evening was dragged to one of the huts. According to the recollections of a local woman, she was without shoes and with her hands tied. Black lips sintering, swollen face from beatings. Zoya asked the villager for water, but the Germans allowed the prisoner to be drunk only after some time. Half an hour later, she was dragged out into the street and about twenty minutes she was dragged barefoot in one lower shirt.
Then she was brought several times and led away. This lasted until two in the morning, after which the girl was left alone. The captive was given a blanket, and Zoe fell asleep. By nine in the morning three officers came to the hut with a translator and gave her an interrogation that lasted about an hour. During the "conversation" the girl was severely beaten. According to some reports, Zoya’s nails were torn out. 29 numbers in 10: 30 in the morning put on dark blue wadded trousers and a dark shirt on Kosmodemyanskaya, took them outside and led them to the gallows built the day before in the center of the village at the crossroads. She staggered, but two Germans supported her by the arms. On the chest of the Soviet soldier hung a sign "Pyro" and taken away the bottle with gasoline.
Many residents of Petrishchevo could not look at it and left, others remained awaiting execution. There were still others. One of the residents jumped up and hit Zoya on the legs with shouts: “Why did you burn my house?”. However, the girl reached the gallows, without saying a word. At the place of execution the circle was expanded, the Germans took several pictures. The commission later established that before death Kosmodemyanskaya had uttered these words: “Citizens, do not stand or look. Need help the Red Army. For my death the fascists will take revenge on their comrades. The Soviet Union is unbeatable. ” And personally for the Germans: “It’s not too late, surrender. How many do not hang us, do not hang all, we 170 millions. " The last words were spoken when the noose already covered her neck. After a moment, the box was knocked out from under my feet .... The body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, being subjected to abuse, hung for almost a month. Only on New Year's Eve the Germans allowed to bury the body behind the outskirts of the village.
Already on January 12 of the 1942 of the year, units of the 108 th infantry division entered the village of Petrishchevo. Military leader Peter Lidov heard from a local old man a shocking story about a caught partisan: "She was hanged, and she threatened them all ...". He was interested in what he heard, and at the end of January an article devoted to the nameless heroine appeared on the pages of Pravda.
The real name of the girl reconnaissance was established by a specially created commission of the Komsomol city committee in February of 1942. Both local residents and schoolteacher Zoya and her classmate took part in the identification of the body. However, after the publication of photos of the dead girl in the newspaper, several mothers “recognized” her at once. For the final clarification of the personality of 10, February, a conversation was held with Lyubov Timofeevna Kosmodemyanskaya, as well as Zoya's brother, Alexander. Soon the mother, the brother and the closest fighting friend, Klava Miloradova, arrived in Petrishchevo. Here, a commission consisting of forensic experts, Sprogis and Shelepin presented to them for identification the body of a Komsomol member killed by the fascists. After this, no doubt remained, and 16 February 1942 of the year Zoe Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was posthumously awarded the Golden Star of the Hero.
All those responsible for the torment of the young heroine were fully received from the Soviet justice. A local resident of Sviridov was caught by the Red Army after the liberation of the village and sentenced to death. A resident of Petrishchevo, who hit Zoya on the legs with a stick, was also shot. And in the autumn of 1943, five photographs appeared in the newspapers, which were found near the Wehrmacht soldier who was killed near Smolensk. They depicted the execution of Zoe, the last moments of her life. There is information that there are thirteen photos in total. However, only five of them have been published. The rest is so terrible that they are still kept in secret archives. They were not shown even by mother Zoe.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became a symbol of the heroism of our compatriots during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Her image is reflected in fiction, cinema, journalism, painting, museum exhibitions and monumental art. In many cities of the USSR, streets and squares were named after Zoe, and her image, having separated from a real biography, truly became one of the pillars of the self-consciousness of the Russian people.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the eighties, the debunking of all and the whole of the Soviet period began. Anti-communist propaganda could not ignore the bright memory of our heroine. In the press, facts of her life began to appear, presented in a monstrously distorted form, as well as new information about Zoya, based on rumors, speculation, and reminiscences of "eyewitnesses" who appeared from the depths of time. In particular, in some articles you can find allegations that Zoe suffered from a severe mental illness - schizophrenia. The authors were not embarrassed by the fact that if this were so in reality, the girl would never have got into an intelligence school. Other researchers argued that Kosmodemyanskaya did not accomplish her feat at all, attributing it, for example, to Leela Azolina. However, in December of 1991, at the request of the staff of the Central Archives of the Komsomol, a new forensic portrait research was conducted at the All-Russian Research Institute of Forensic Examination based on photos of Lily Azolina, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the girl at the time of her execution in the village of Petrishchev, as well as images of the corpse. The conclusion was unequivocal: "The hanged girl is Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya."
Some critics of the “democratic press” put forward the question of whether there are enough burned huts to be called a Hero? Indeed, Zoe did not derail the train, did not score the slain Nazis. No, her feat is not that. Few people are capable of being torn by torture, clenching their fists with their nails torn off, independently reaching the place of execution and, standing with a noose, saying to the executioners: “It’s not too late, surrender in captivity ...”. Although it seems that if she had damaged the tanks or the assault weapons of the fascists, she would also have been watered with mud. It’s enough to diligently belittle the feat of the Panfilovites who destroyed dozens of enemy combat vehicles. As if due to the fact that there were not twenty-eight of them, their deed, their lives given for their Motherland, began to cost less.
The photos of the moment of execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya depict the gagging Germans, who remove the penalty from several vehicles at once. There is an unshakable confidence in their faces that they will soon parade through the streets of Moscow. They do not know that the Soviet soldiers in 1943 will crush their 332 regiment in the Pskov battles into powder, and of all those who stood under the walls of our capital, only five people will survive. The new composition of the pieces will be even less lucky, it will almost completely put its heads in the Bobruisk boiler in the 1944 year in Belarus. So a Russian girl comes out with a noose around her neck trying to convey the Truth to them. It will be the same with critics. Time will erase them, and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya will remain forever.
Information sources:
http://liewar.ru/content/view/73/5/
http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=284
http://svpressa.ru/war/article/24767/
http://www.tstu.ru/win/tambov/imena/mih/kosmod.htm
Summoning Zhukov from Leningrad, the Supreme Commander sent him to the front line to personally investigate the situation there. Once west of Moscow, the illustrious commander reported that the front was completely open to the advancing fascist hordes. Having broken through our defenses, on October 10, the Nazis surrounded the five armies belonging to the Western and Reserve fronts in the Vyazma region. October 7 8-th year George Konstantinovich much later called the most difficult day in the battles for the capital: "On this day, the fascist" tigers "went to us almost in the parade ...". At the same time, Joseph Vissarionovich issued a decree on the mining of the most important objects of the city - bridges, industrial enterprises, etc. Tens of thousands of inhabitants, beating themselves out of strength, hastily dug trenches, escarpes and anti-tank ditches. Under Moscow, military units were urgently transferred from Siberia and the Far East. October 1941 evacuated all foreign missions, the government led by Molotov, the People's Commissariat of the Navy and Defense, the General Staff.
However, Stalin, who made the decision to fight for Moscow to the last, remained in the city. 19 October was a state of siege. Every resident of the capital was preparing for street fighting. The idea that the city could go to the enemy seemed unbearable. People thousands were enrolled in the workers' and communist battalions and squads. In each of the twenty-five areas, their own detachments of snipers, tank destroyers and demolition men were formed.
Among those who remained in Moscow was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a young Komsomol member. In one of the troubled October days, she crossed the threshold of the Cabinet of the Komsomol Secretary of the Moscow City Committee Alexander Shelepin. The girl managed to finish the ninth grade, knew the German language well and heard that the Central Committee of the Komsomol organizes an intelligence and sabotage school, in which, among other things, high school students will be trained for later transfer to the enemy rear.
Decades later, Alexander Nikolaevich Shelepin will head the entire Soviet KGB, get the nickname “Iron Shurik”, become a member of the Politburo, take an active part in Khrushchev’s dismissal, and in the mid-sixties enter the fight against Secretary-General Leonid Brezhnev. He will not be able to win this battle - he will be expelled from the Kremlin, expelled from the capital.
The leaders of the reconnaissance and sabotage unit under the number 9903 personally talked in the Shelepin office with Komsomol members who received directions from the local district committees. The conversation was extremely short and tough: “Motherland needs patriots able to withstand any trials, sacrifice themselves ... Ninety-five percent of you will die. The fascists do not know mercy and brutally kill the partisans ... If you are not ready for this, just say so. No one will condemn you, and fulfill your desire to fight the enemy at the front ... ". But even those who agreed were often given a turn from the gate. Not taken due to health problems, behavior in front of the commission, biography, pedigree. Initially, Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya also refused. In a conversation that took place in the office of the secretary of the Moscow Komsomol city committee, the girl felt that she ... was not trusted. Of course, she was well aware of her “sins” - of her origin ...
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was born in the village of Osinovye Gai (which means “aspen grove”), located a hundred kilometers from Tambov. Her paternal grandfather, Peter Ioannovich Kozmodemyanovsky, was a graduate of the Tambov seminary and worked as a priest in the local Church of the Sign. The surname "Kozmodemyanovskie" derived from the names of two saints, Kozma and Demyan, revered by the people. In the autumn of 1918, after the release of the decree of the Military Commissariat on the mobilization of horses for the Red Army, unrest began among the peasants, anxious about harvesting. One of the organizers of the riots found Peter Ivanovich, soon after that he died at the hands of the Bolsheviks under unexplained circumstances. The church, despite the complaints of believers, was also closed. Zoe's father, Anatoly Petrovich, did not manage to finish the seminary, took part in the civil war, and soon after returning, he married a local resident, Lyubov Timofyevna Churikova. They worked together: Lyubov Timofeevna was a teacher, and Anatoly Petrovich was in charge of the library.
Zoya was born on September 8 of 1923. However, in many sources is the date 13 September. This was the result of an error in the response to a request from Moscow in the 1942 year, during the work of the commission to identify the body of the deceased. In fact, on the day of 13 on September 1923 of the year Zoe was registered. In 1925, the Kozmodemyanovsky couple had a son, Alexander.
When Zoe was six years old, collectivization came to their village. The family suddenly left the black-earth Tambov region and moved to the Irkutsk region in the deep and snow-covered village of Shitkino. According to one version, Anatoly Petrovich spoke too harshly at the local meeting about collective farm construction, on the other, Kozmodemyanovskys fled, fearing denunciations.
Many years later, when the name Zoya was already known to everyone in the country, her mother published the book The Tale of Zoya and Shura. These generations will subsequently bring up several generations of Soviet citizens. From the fifties to eighties of the last century, this work was reprinted with an interval of hundreds of thousands of copies a year. To circumvent domestic censorship and at the same time explain to readers how Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and her whole family found themselves in Siberian wilderness, mother wrote ingeniously simple: “My spouse and I decided to go to Siberia. See the world, see the people!
At the same time, the elder sister of Lyubov Timofeevna, Olga, managed to firmly settle in Moscow. She worked in the apparatus of the People's Commissariat of Education, where Nadezhda Krupskaya also worked. After another tearful request from the employee, the widow of the founder of the USSR helped her to release her Tambov relatives from Siberia. However, in Moscow Kozmodemyanovskie already registered as Kosmodemyanskie.
Initially, the family settled in an ordinary communal apartment, but after two years they were given a more spacious room in the 7 room at Aleksandrovsky Proezd. Zoe and her little brother went to the first grade. Mother began to teach in elementary school, while simultaneously studying at the Pedagogical Institute. My father got a job at the Timiryazev Academy, worked on shorthand courses. Also, following my old dream, I studied hard, getting ready to enter a technical institute. However, the dream remained unfulfilled. Anatoly Petrovich fell ill and, despite the successful operation, he died in the 1933 year. His father was very fond of his family, his loss was a heavy blow. Children had to quickly grow up, get used to live without a breadwinner.
Zoe studied well, read a lot, was fond history and dreamed of getting into the Literary Institute. In October 1938 of the year she joined the Komsomol, she was elected Komsomol gruporgom. It should be noted that the girl had a difficult character, relations with comrades did not always develop successfully. The children complained about its rigor and exactingness, and the school teachers said: "Never back down from what they consider to be true." After being re-elected as a group organizer in 1939, Zoe had a nervous breakdown. She became less sociable, thoughtful and absent-minded. Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya wrote: “The nervous disease was due to the fact that the guys did not understand it. The inconstancy of her friends, the disclosure of secrets - Zoya did not like this, worried and, as a rule, sat alone. ” In 1940, the girl got sick with acute meningitis, after which she spent a long time recovering in a sanatorium in Sokolniki. Here she became friends with Arkady Gaidar being treated. In the same year, despite the huge number of missed classes, Zoe was able to finish the ninth grade of school number XXUMX.
The well-known historian Mikhail Gorinov wrote about her: “A complex, refined nature, painfully reacting to the imperfection of the world, its incompatibility with high ideals. The separation of dreams from reality was experienced by Zoya extremely sharply, leading to alienation, loneliness and nervous breakdown. ”
The war for Kosmodemyanskys, as well as for many inhabitants of our country, was an absolute surprise. Together with the other guys, Zoya and Alexander began to be on duty during raids on the roofs of houses. The girl also sewed clothing bags and buttonholes for the front-line soldiers, helped at the factory, took accelerated courses of nurses.
After reviewing her case in the intelligence and sabotage school, the commission was dissatisfied. Corrections in the name of Zoya, the biography of his grandfather, the priest, the reference of his parents to Siberia — all of this did not dispose to the recruitment of future saboteurs. Shelepin failed to make a decision and handed her case over to the head of the school to the legendary major Sprogis. In his memoirs, Arthur Karlovich wrote that Zoya was not suitable for the tasks of reconnaissance groups. However, after the refusal, the girl declared: “I want to fight for the Motherland” and stayed overnight near the Major’s office. Reluctantly, Sprogis credited Kosmodemyanskaya.
At the very end of October, 1941 of the year, more than two thousand Komsomol members arrived in batches at the assembly point near the former “Colosseum” cinema. From here, boys and girls in covered trucks were taken to a reconnaissance school located in Kuntsevo and officially called the military unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front. Time in the study did not lose. An hour after arrival, according to the recollections of fellow Zoyin, class began. The class brought pistols and grenades. For three days the guys learned to navigate in the woods, put mines, blow up objects, use a map and ... kill people. At the beginning of November, Zoe’s squadron received the first mission - to lay mines on the roads behind enemy lines.
Literally, the text of the assignment for the group in which Kosmodemyanskaya was included was: “Prevent fuel, ammunition, manpower and food from being brought in by mining roads, setting ambushes, arson and blasting bridges in the Shakhovskaya-Knyazhy Mountains road. The operation will be considered completed successfully if: 1. destroy from five to seven motorcycles and cars; 2. destroy two or three bridges; 3. burn one or two depots with fuel or ammunition; 4. destroy from fifteen to twenty German officers. "
At the cadets, before sending, civilian clothes were worn, strap bags with food, ammunition, tol and gasoline were hanging over their shoulders. The guys they weighed about twenty pounds, the girls - a little less. Under padded jackets and coats, pistols were hidden. Each scout signed that he was familiarized with the combat mission for the whole group. November 4 squad Zoe was redeployed near Volokolamsk. For several days the guys got to the place, scattered thorns, mined well-built roads. During the day the group passed up to twenty kilometers. Rested in turn for two or three hours at dawn or afternoon, often waking up from the cold. Soon, due to careless handling of tolom, the stock of crackers disappeared, and other products began to run out. Patients appeared in the detachment, in particular, Zoya had a cold, and she started having otitis. However, after the commander gave the order to return, the girl declared her readiness to continue the task. Scouting saboteurs returned to base without loss of 11 on November 1941 of the year.
A special military unit 9903 intelligence department of the Western Front was formed specifically to conduct sabotage in the rear of the enemy. Its commanding staff was recruited from students of the Frunze Military Academy, and the basis was composed of Komsomol members of Moscow and its suburbs. In the course of the battles for the capital of Russia, about fifty combat detachments were trained in this unit. From September 1941 to February 1942, they made almost ninety penetrations into the German rear, destroyed more than three and a half thousand Nazis, eliminated thirty-six traitors and defectors, thirteen tanks with fuel and fourteen tanks were blown up.
On November 17, 1941, Stalin issued a secret order at number 428. In it, instead of the usual appeal to those who should execute it, the leader immediately took the bull by the horns: “The arrogant enemy thought to winter in the warm houses of Leningrad and Moscow ... Do not allow the German "armies to be deployed in cities and villages, to chase fascist invaders from any settlements, to smoke from warm shelters and to make them freeze in the open air is our important task." To implement this, it was proposed: “Burn and destroy all settlements located in the rear of the Nazi troops and forty-sixty kilometers and twenty-thirty kilometers away from the main roads from the front line. To quit this task Aviation, use mortar and artillery fire, detachments of skiers, scouts, partisans and saboteurs equipped with Molotov cocktails, grenades and subversive weapons ... In the event of a forced withdrawal of our units ... withdraw the entire Soviet population, be sure to destroy settlements without exception ... ".
Of course, this order opens a very painful and controversial page of the battle for Moscow. The truth about that war is much worse than we can imagine today. The civilian population of the country did not know anything about this secret ruling, nor did it know about the danger of the next offensive of the fascist troops on the capital of our Motherland. The least aware were those who found themselves in the territory of the Moscow region occupied by the fascists. And the implementation of the Stalinist decree primarily affected them .... However, what would have ended the bloodiest, most important battle of the Second World War, if the Nazis were given the chance to quietly rest in warm village huts and eat up local grubs - is unknown. When there is a deadly battle, at least two truths always manifest themselves in the actions of people: philistine (save at any cost) and heroic (sacrifice yourself for the Victory).
In pursuance of this order 18 (and according to other 20 sources) November, the sabotage groups of Kraynov and Provorov (in which Zoya was) of the special part of 9903 were ordered to eliminate ten localities during the week: Anashkino, Il'yatino, Gribtsovo, Usadkovo, Pushkino, Grachevo, Bugaylovo , Korovino, Mikhailovsky and Petrishchevo. On assignment, both groups left together. Vera Voloshin and Klava Miloradova were in the detachment with Zoya. The front line guys went on the night of November 22 1941 year. Near the village of Golovkovo both groups attacked the Nazi ambush. During the ensuing shootout squads were scattered. Some fighters died, others (including Vera Voloshin) were captured. Some of the guys just got lost in the forest, lagging behind their comrades. The remaining saboteurs united under the command of Krainov on November 25 near the village of Uskovo. Of the original team (twenty people — ten in a group), only eight remained. There was a conflict among the guys, five of them thought that it was pointless to continue the task. Taking the necessary things, they turned to their. Three — Boris Krainov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, and the school's Komsomol Vasily Klubkov — decided to stay in order to fulfill the order in the village of Petrishchevo.
On the night of November 27, they reached the village, in which, apart from the deployed soldiers of the 332 regiment of the Wehrmacht 197 division, there was, according to unconfirmed data, an important German military target - the army radio center. The Trinity divided the targets for arson and left the forest. Vasily went to school, Boris took over the headquarters, and Zoya went to the stable. After the task is completed, the guys agreed to get together in the forest and leave together for their own.
At about two o'clock in the morning, four buildings burst into flames in Petrishchev. The arson turned out to be a complete surprise for the fascists, the sentries raised the alarm, shots rang out at random. Returning to the agreed place, Krainov did not meet there either Zoya or Klubkova. After waiting some time, he set off on his way back, safely reaching his unit. Zoya, in turn, successfully set fire to the Germans' army stable, in which nearly two dozen horses tied for the night burned, forage stock and a large number of weapons. In the forest, she somehow missed Kraynov and, left alone, decided to return to the village, following the group’s order to the end.
Before execution. 29 November 1941
The story of the third member of the group, Vasily Klubkov, is curious. According to the declassified protocol of his interrogation by security officers from 11 in March 1942, he was caught trying to set fire to two German soldiers who dragged him to the commander. He and a guy gave a place in the woods where he was supposed to meet with the rest of his comrades. According to this version, Kosmodemyanskaya was caught in the agreed point. Klubkov agreed to cooperate with the fascists, trained in their intelligence school near Smolensk, and at the beginning of 1942, he was sent back to his home part with a task. Already 16 April he was shot for treason to the Motherland. Klubkov’s testimony, exactly like his presence in the village during the Kosmodemyansk torture, was never confirmed. In addition, during the interrogation, the guy was constantly confused in explanations and contradicted himself. By the way, according to the first version of his story immediately after arriving at the intelligence school, he was taken prisoner by the Nazis, but later managed to escape, then was captured again and escaped from them.
Having stayed in the forest one day, on November X, with the onset of twilight, Kosmodemyanskaya again sneaked into Petrishchevo and tried to set fire to the barn of a certain Sviridov. However, the Nazis were ready, not sleeping and the locals, guarding their homes. The owner noticed the girl and raised the alarm. The Germans came running and grabbed Zoya. The battered saboteur at about ten in the evening was dragged to one of the huts. According to the recollections of a local woman, she was without shoes and with her hands tied. Black lips sintering, swollen face from beatings. Zoya asked the villager for water, but the Germans allowed the prisoner to be drunk only after some time. Half an hour later, she was dragged out into the street and about twenty minutes she was dragged barefoot in one lower shirt.
Then she was brought several times and led away. This lasted until two in the morning, after which the girl was left alone. The captive was given a blanket, and Zoe fell asleep. By nine in the morning three officers came to the hut with a translator and gave her an interrogation that lasted about an hour. During the "conversation" the girl was severely beaten. According to some reports, Zoya’s nails were torn out. 29 numbers in 10: 30 in the morning put on dark blue wadded trousers and a dark shirt on Kosmodemyanskaya, took them outside and led them to the gallows built the day before in the center of the village at the crossroads. She staggered, but two Germans supported her by the arms. On the chest of the Soviet soldier hung a sign "Pyro" and taken away the bottle with gasoline.
Many residents of Petrishchevo could not look at it and left, others remained awaiting execution. There were still others. One of the residents jumped up and hit Zoya on the legs with shouts: “Why did you burn my house?”. However, the girl reached the gallows, without saying a word. At the place of execution the circle was expanded, the Germans took several pictures. The commission later established that before death Kosmodemyanskaya had uttered these words: “Citizens, do not stand or look. Need help the Red Army. For my death the fascists will take revenge on their comrades. The Soviet Union is unbeatable. ” And personally for the Germans: “It’s not too late, surrender. How many do not hang us, do not hang all, we 170 millions. " The last words were spoken when the noose already covered her neck. After a moment, the box was knocked out from under my feet .... The body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, being subjected to abuse, hung for almost a month. Only on New Year's Eve the Germans allowed to bury the body behind the outskirts of the village.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became the first girl in the USSR to receive the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union (February 1942). Stalin decided that it was necessary to do everything possible so that her feat would become a model for the growing Soviet youth. Kalinin was entrusted with the preparation of the decree, but the "All-Union Elder" then did not yet know the identity of the heroine. The member of the Politburo, Shcherbakov, was identified by Zoya, who, naturally, gave the task to the head of the intelligence school Sprogis. It was the major who made a written submission on conferring the honorary title to Zoya Kosmodemyansk. In addition, there is a legend (mentioned, in particular, in the movie “Battle for Moscow”) that Joseph Vissarionovich gave the order to shoot at the place of every surrendered soldier or officer of the Wehrmacht X infantry regiment.
Already on January 12 of the 1942 of the year, units of the 108 th infantry division entered the village of Petrishchevo. Military leader Peter Lidov heard from a local old man a shocking story about a caught partisan: "She was hanged, and she threatened them all ...". He was interested in what he heard, and at the end of January an article devoted to the nameless heroine appeared on the pages of Pravda.
The real name of the girl reconnaissance was established by a specially created commission of the Komsomol city committee in February of 1942. Both local residents and schoolteacher Zoya and her classmate took part in the identification of the body. However, after the publication of photos of the dead girl in the newspaper, several mothers “recognized” her at once. For the final clarification of the personality of 10, February, a conversation was held with Lyubov Timofeevna Kosmodemyanskaya, as well as Zoya's brother, Alexander. Soon the mother, the brother and the closest fighting friend, Klava Miloradova, arrived in Petrishchevo. Here, a commission consisting of forensic experts, Sprogis and Shelepin presented to them for identification the body of a Komsomol member killed by the fascists. After this, no doubt remained, and 16 February 1942 of the year Zoe Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was posthumously awarded the Golden Star of the Hero.
All those responsible for the torment of the young heroine were fully received from the Soviet justice. A local resident of Sviridov was caught by the Red Army after the liberation of the village and sentenced to death. A resident of Petrishchevo, who hit Zoya on the legs with a stick, was also shot. And in the autumn of 1943, five photographs appeared in the newspapers, which were found near the Wehrmacht soldier who was killed near Smolensk. They depicted the execution of Zoe, the last moments of her life. There is information that there are thirteen photos in total. However, only five of them have been published. The rest is so terrible that they are still kept in secret archives. They were not shown even by mother Zoe.
Alexander, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya's brother, having graduated from the Ulyanovsk Tank School, went to the front. Fighting valorously against the fascists, the commander of a battery of self-propelled artillery installations, the guard, senior lieutenant Kosmodemyansky, died near Koenigsberg in the spring of 1945. He became a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union. The obelisk mounted on the side of the Kaliningrad-Baltiisk highway reminds of his exploits.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became a symbol of the heroism of our compatriots during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Her image is reflected in fiction, cinema, journalism, painting, museum exhibitions and monumental art. In many cities of the USSR, streets and squares were named after Zoe, and her image, having separated from a real biography, truly became one of the pillars of the self-consciousness of the Russian people.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the eighties, the debunking of all and the whole of the Soviet period began. Anti-communist propaganda could not ignore the bright memory of our heroine. In the press, facts of her life began to appear, presented in a monstrously distorted form, as well as new information about Zoya, based on rumors, speculation, and reminiscences of "eyewitnesses" who appeared from the depths of time. In particular, in some articles you can find allegations that Zoe suffered from a severe mental illness - schizophrenia. The authors were not embarrassed by the fact that if this were so in reality, the girl would never have got into an intelligence school. Other researchers argued that Kosmodemyanskaya did not accomplish her feat at all, attributing it, for example, to Leela Azolina. However, in December of 1991, at the request of the staff of the Central Archives of the Komsomol, a new forensic portrait research was conducted at the All-Russian Research Institute of Forensic Examination based on photos of Lily Azolina, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the girl at the time of her execution in the village of Petrishchev, as well as images of the corpse. The conclusion was unequivocal: "The hanged girl is Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya."
Four times they dug the grave of the heroine and buried it five times again. Twice, the body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was buried behind the outskirts of the village, and after the war was transferred to the center of the restored Petrishchev. The last time her remains were cremated and interred at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Some critics of the “democratic press” put forward the question of whether there are enough burned huts to be called a Hero? Indeed, Zoe did not derail the train, did not score the slain Nazis. No, her feat is not that. Few people are capable of being torn by torture, clenching their fists with their nails torn off, independently reaching the place of execution and, standing with a noose, saying to the executioners: “It’s not too late, surrender in captivity ...”. Although it seems that if she had damaged the tanks or the assault weapons of the fascists, she would also have been watered with mud. It’s enough to diligently belittle the feat of the Panfilovites who destroyed dozens of enemy combat vehicles. As if due to the fact that there were not twenty-eight of them, their deed, their lives given for their Motherland, began to cost less.
Archbishop Evgeny Michurinsky and Tambovskiy left in the museum of the heroine in Aspen Gayah the following entry in the guest book: “Eternal glory and prayer memory to the immortal feat of the great daughter of the Tambov land Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya who gave her invaluable gift, her life, for GREAT RUSSIA and her people.”
The photos of the moment of execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya depict the gagging Germans, who remove the penalty from several vehicles at once. There is an unshakable confidence in their faces that they will soon parade through the streets of Moscow. They do not know that the Soviet soldiers in 1943 will crush their 332 regiment in the Pskov battles into powder, and of all those who stood under the walls of our capital, only five people will survive. The new composition of the pieces will be even less lucky, it will almost completely put its heads in the Bobruisk boiler in the 1944 year in Belarus. So a Russian girl comes out with a noose around her neck trying to convey the Truth to them. It will be the same with critics. Time will erase them, and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya will remain forever.
Information sources:
http://liewar.ru/content/view/73/5/
http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=284
http://svpressa.ru/war/article/24767/
http://www.tstu.ru/win/tambov/imena/mih/kosmod.htm
Information