Women tankers of World War II. Lyudmila Kalinina

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Lyudmila Ivanovna Kalinina did not conduct a war in tankbut having the most direct relation to tank troops. Even before the war, the girl graduated from the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army. Stalin (later the Marshal Malinovsky Military Academy of Armored Forces), served in the tank forces and was able to rise to the rank of colonel engineer, commanded an engineering and restoration regiment that brought back tanks damaged in battles. The girl managed to sit behind the levers of the tank. In 1940, she took part in the tests of a light floating T-40 tank as a driver. Our series of articles about women tankers without this man would be incomplete.

Lyudmila Kalinina (Sukhareva, Starshinova) was born 8 September 1915 of the year, passed away 24 June 2014, at the age of 98 years. She - a Soviet officer, took direct part in the Great Patriotic War, serving in the tank forces, rose to the rank of colonel-engineer. She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree, various combat medals, including the medal "For Military Merit" (total 9 orders and 55 medals). The tunic of a female veteran with these awards weighed 7 kilograms!

Lyudmila Sukhareva was born in 1915 in Ufa in an intelligent Russian family. Her father, Sukharev Ivan Georgievich (1892-1962) was an accountant by profession, the mother of Sukharev Kapitolina Mikhailovna (1892-1975). Lyudmila was married twice. The first husband - Starshinov Ivan Fedotovich, the second husband - Kalinin Boris Pavlovich (1910-1991) the participant of the Great Patriotic War, also served in the tank forces, left her in the rank of colonel.

Women tankers of World War II. Lyudmila Kalinina


In 1927, Ludmila's family decided to move to Moscow, where the girl continued her studies at school. After finishing 7 classes, she decided to go work. At the age of 13 for years, she became an assistant locksmith at an AMO automobile factory, which would then become ZIL. The girl pretty quickly was able to master the working profession and began working as a mechanic to repair machine tools and working machines. In the afternoon she worked at the factory, and in the evening she studied at the workers' school, repeating the fate of hundreds of thousands of boys and girls of those years. In 1932, the girl married turner from her own plant Starshinov Ivan Fedotovich, who was a knight of the Order of Lenin. In 18 years, she was assigned the 4 st rank.

In 1934, the AMO plant was visited by a commission from the Academy of Mechanization and Motorization. Stalin, representatives of the commission engaged in the recruitment of young personnel in the Faculty of Engineering. Lyudmila also wanted to study at this academy, while the parents and the older brother Anatoly were surprised at the decision of the girl, but she simply put them in front of a fact, but they did not discourage her. The girl was able to complete all the necessary sports standards for entering the university, and also successfully passed the exams. However, when the formation of the group began for further training at the base of the Kuntsevo preparatory camp, it was refused. Later, she learned that in 1934, an order came to the academy that he attributed not to take women to military universities.

The director of the plant, Ivan Alekseevich Likhachev, helped the girl with the receipt. About a week after the refusal, he met Lyudmila on the factory floor, the girl was screaming, and the director asked her what had happened. Learning all the details storiesLikhachev personally called the academy and settled the issue with admission. Lyudmila was accepted to study, at that moment 160 students were studying on the course (there are only two girls among them).

At the academy, she met her future second husband, with whom she then lived a long happy life. Boris Kalinin was her classmate, at first the young people made friends, and then fell in love with each other. Lyudmila's first husband was subjected to repression, and she had to divorce him.



In the spring of 1940, Lyudmila and Boris graduated from the academy together. Lyudmila was assigned to the headquarters of the Moscow Military District, and Boris Kalinin went to Transbaikalia. In the summer of the same year, the military engineer of the 3 rank, Lyudmila Starshinova, who at that time occupied the post of the district headquarters department, was able to achieve her inclusion in the group of specialists who should have tested the light T-40 amphibious tank. The tests of this car are especially memorable for the girl. Ludmila spent more than 3,5 thousands of kilometers behind the tank's levers and all this time over bumps, hummocks and various swamps, and controlling the tank is not easy, in order to squeeze the lever it was necessary to force up to 40 kg. On the tank she crossed the Dnieper and Dniester rivers. In one of the villages in the Voronezh region, the locals called for a girl and other test-tankers to take a bath. When Lyudmila took off her clothes, she saw that her body resembled one big bruise. So she remembered her adventures with T-40 for the rest of her life, for her they became a real test not only of military equipment, but also of her body. At the same time, Ludmila received her first award - the badge “For excellent tank driving”.

The Great Patriotic War found Lyudmila and Boris on holiday in the Crimea. In this case, they could only lie on the beaches of the peninsula for two days. 22 June 1941, by telegram-lightning, they were promptly returned from vacation to Moscow. From Moscow, Lyudmila Ivanovna was sent to the Southern Front, and Boris, along with the tank corps to the Western Front.

The military engineer of the 3 rank, Lyudmila Starshinova, was placed at the disposal of the commander of the front armored and mechanized troops, Major General of the Armored Forces A.D. Shtenev, who instructed the girl to lead the tank repair and evacuation department. From the front, Lyudmila had to go on a business trip to Moscow, her task was to get spare parts for tanks and bring new combat equipment to the Southern Front. It successfully coped with its task, having brought parts by plane, in addition to this, the front received two echelons of new tanks. At the same time she took with her from Moscow and Boris Kalinin. After the Battle of Smolensk, Boris headed courses for the preparation of tank crews in the capital. The girl was able to persuade him to go with her to the Southern Front and was able to settle all the issues with personnel services. So in the fall of 1941, the roads of Lyudmila and Boris joined together, never to diverge anymore. Then they got married, the couple lived together 50 for years.



In the autumn of 1941, the troops of the Southern Front fought hard defensive battles with the advancing forces of the enemy. Soviet tank units suffered significant losses in vehicles and people. Military engineer Lyudmila Kalinina did everything possible to return the tanks into service. In the short hours of a lull on the front line, she urged tractors, cranes, technical “battles” to the scene of the battles, and organized the evacuation of damaged tanks to the nearest rear. At the same time minor malfunctions of combat vehicles tried to fix on the spot. She herself learned what bombing and enemy attacks are, so she never concealed that she had been very scared at the front.

After the officer's shoulder straps were returned to the Red Army and new military ranks appeared, Lyudmila received the rank of major engineer. By that time, she already commanded a repair and restoration regiment, which included a marching and repair plant, an 3 army repair and restoration battalion, and an evacuation company. In total, under the command of Lyudmil Ivanych, as colleagues called their commander, there were about two thousand men. It was a girl and another nickname - Lady Tank Forces. The regiment of Lyudmila acted as part of the Southern, North Caucasian, Transcaucasian Fronts and the Separate Maritime Army. In particular, only for 5 months of 1943, her field service managed to repair and return to service 1525 defective combat vehicles. In total, during the war years, the repairmen, led by Ludmila, managed to restore and return the second life to more than four thousand Soviet tanks, excluding repaired German trophy cars. Tank repair service, which led the girl, took second place on all fronts in the number and quality of the repaired tanks.

If we talk about the main man of her life - Boris Kalinin, then during the war years they had occasion to see not so often. Although they fought on some fronts, Boris was constantly on the front lines. Therefore, lovers exchanged letters and patiently waited to meet with each other. Lyudmila Ivanovna was at the front until the autumn of 1944.



In 1945, the Kalinin couple turned out to be in intelligence. Lyudmila never spoke about this period of her life in detail, noting only that they had to recruit the necessary specialists in Germany and the USA. In those years, she learned English and German, which she had mastered perfectly. The spouses did not have children, so after the war they adopted a six-month-old girl, who was named Lyuda.

In the postwar years, Lyudmila Kalinina lived in Moscow. A retired colonel engineer worked on the Council of Veterans of Tank Troops and the Russian Committee of War and Military Veterans, and was actively involved in social work. In 2000, for many years of work and their social activities, Russian President Vladimir Putin was awarded the Order of Honor.

Even at retirement age, a woman has not forgotten her tank control skills. The last time she sat behind the levers of a military vehicle in 2003, at the age of 87, was at the Kubinka training ground near Moscow, where the repaired T-70 tank, raised from one of the marshes under Velukiy Luki, was brought as a gift. Lyudmila Ivanovna personally drove behind the levers of this tank 5 kilometers. An 24 tanker woman died on June 2014 at the age of 98 in Moscow. Her memory today is perpetuated by the exhibition and the exhibition in the museum in Kubinka, as well as in the museum "History of the T-34 tank."

Information sources:
http://ria.ru/ocherki/20120307/587353254.html
http://today.shadrinsk.info/star-birthday/71
http://www.peoples.ru/military/hero/kalinina
http://veterangabtu.ru/index.php/o-kalininoj-lyudmile-ivanovne
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  1. 0
    3 March 2015 05: 58
    An interesting interview was laid out on foreign media yesterday - a Czech newspaper was published by our radio operator, which freed Prague on tanks
  2. +3
    3 March 2015 09: 10
    As always, plus such articles and heroes of these articles.
  3. +1
    3 March 2015 09: 49
    To make nails from these people - there wouldn’t be tighter in the world of nails! soldier
  4. +1
    3 March 2015 15: 06
    There are women in the Russian villages of Beauty, the world is marvelous,
    Blush, slender, tall,
    In every garment is beautiful,
    To any work is dexterity.

    And hunger and cold endure,
    Always patient, smooth ...
    I saw how she mows:
    What a wave - the pile is ready!
    ON THE. Nekrasov.
  5. +3
    3 March 2015 16: 45
    what kind of people were !!!!!
  6. 0
    5 March 2015 07: 42
    Blessed memory of Lyudmila Ivanovna! Kowtow for valiant work!

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