Soviet women during the Great Patriotic War. The role of women in the Great Patriotic War: numbers and facts
“Daughter, I put together a bundle for you. Go away... Go away... You still have two younger sisters growing up. Who will marry them? Everyone knows that you were at the front for four years, with men...” The truth about women in the war, which was not written about in the newspapers...
For Victory Day, blogger radulova published memoirs of women veterans from the book by Svetlana Alexievich.
“We drove for many days... We left with the girls at some station with a bucket to get water. They looked around and gasped: one train after another was coming, and there were only girls there. They sing. They wave at us, some with headscarves, some with caps. It became clear: there weren’t enough men, they were dead in the ground. Or in captivity. Now we, instead of them... Mom wrote me a prayer. I put it in the locket. Maybe it helped - I returned home. I kissed the medallion before the fight...”
“One night, a whole company conducted reconnaissance in force in our regiment’s sector. By dawn she had moved away, and a groan was heard from the no-man's land. Left wounded. “Don’t go, they’ll kill you,” the soldiers wouldn’t let me in, “you see, it’s already dawn.” She didn’t listen and crawled. She found a wounded man and dragged him for eight hours, tying his arm with a belt. She dragged a living one. The commander found out and rashly announced five days of arrest for unauthorized absence. But the deputy regiment commander reacted differently: “Deserves a reward.” At the age of nineteen I had a medal “For Courage”. At nineteen she turned gray. At the age of nineteen, in the last battle, both lungs were shot, the second bullet passed between two vertebrae. My legs were paralyzed... And they considered me dead... At nineteen... My granddaughter is like this now. I look at her and don’t believe it. Child!”
“I was on night duty... I went into the ward of the seriously wounded. The captain is lying there... The doctors warned me before duty that he would die at night... He wouldn’t live until the morning... I asked him: “Well, how? How can I help you?" I’ll never forget... He suddenly smiled, such a bright smile on his exhausted face: “Unbutton your robe... Show me your breasts... I haven’t seen my wife for a long time...” I felt ashamed, I answered him something. She left and returned an hour later. He lies dead. And that smile on his face..."
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“And when he appeared for the third time, in one moment - he would appear and then disappear - I decided to shoot. I made up my mind, and suddenly such a thought flashed: this is a man, even though he is an enemy, but a man, and my hands somehow began to tremble, trembling and chills began to spread throughout my body. Some kind of fear... Sometimes in my dreams this feeling comes back to me... After the plywood targets, it was difficult to shoot at a living person. I see him in optical sight, I see well. It’s as if he’s close... And something inside me resists... Something won’t let me, I can’t make up my mind. But I pulled myself together, pulled the trigger... We didn’t succeed right away. It’s not a woman’s business to hate and kill. Not ours... We had to convince ourselves. Persuade…"
“And the girls were eager to go to the front voluntarily, but a coward himself would not go to war. These were brave, extraordinary girls. There are statistics: losses among frontline medics ranked second after losses in rifle battalions. In the infantry. What does it mean, for example, to pull a wounded man out of the battlefield? I’ll tell you now... We went on the attack, and let’s mow us down with a machine gun. And the battalion was gone. Everyone was lying down. They were not all killed, many were wounded. The Germans are hitting and they don’t stop firing. Quite unexpectedly for everyone, first one girl jumps out of the trench, then a second, a third... They began to bandage and drag away the wounded, even the Germans were speechless with amazement for a while. By ten o'clock in the evening, all the girls were seriously wounded, and each saved a maximum of two or three people. They were awarded sparingly; at the beginning of the war, awards were not scattered. The wounded man had to be pulled out along with his personal weapon. The first question in the medical battalion: where are the weapons? At the beginning of the war there was not enough of him. A rifle, a machine gun, a machine gun - these also had to be carried. In forty-one, order number two hundred and eighty-one was issued on the presentation of awards for saving the lives of soldiers: for fifteen seriously wounded people carried out from the battlefield along with personal weapons - the medal “For Military Merit”, for saving twenty-five people - the Order of the Red Star, for saving forty - the Order of the Red Banner, for saving eighty - the Order of Lenin. And I described to you what it meant to save at least one person in battle... From the bullets...”
“What was going on in our souls, the kind of people we were then will probably never exist again. Never! So naive and so sincere. With such faith! When our regiment commander received the banner and gave the command: “Regiment, under the banner! On your knees!”, we all felt happy. We stand and cry, everyone has tears in their eyes. You won’t believe it now, because of this shock my whole body tensed up, my illness, and I fell ill with “night blindness”, it happened from malnutrition, from nervous fatigue, and so, my night blindness went away. You see, the next day I was healthy, I recovered, through such a shock to my whole soul...”
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“I was thrown against a brick wall by a hurricane wave. I lost consciousness... When I came to my senses, it was already evening. She raised her head, tried to squeeze her fingers - they seemed to be moving, barely opened her left eye and went to the department, covered in blood. In the corridor I meet our older sister, she didn’t recognize me and asked: “Who are you? Where?" She came closer, gasped and said: “Where have you been for so long, Ksenya? The wounded are hungry, but you are not there.” They quickly bandaged my head and my left arm above the elbow, and I went to get dinner. It was getting dark before my eyes and sweat was pouring out. I started handing out dinner and fell. They brought me back to consciousness, and all I could hear was: “Hurry! Hurry up!” And again - “Hurry! Hurry up!” A few days later they took more blood from me for the seriously wounded.”
“We were young and went to the front. Girls. I even grew up during the war. Mom tried it on at home... I have grown ten centimeters..."
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“They organized nursing courses, and my father took my sister and me there. I am fifteen years old, and my sister is fourteen. He said: “This is all I can give to win. My girls...” There was no other thought then. A year later I went to the front...”
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“Our mother had no sons... And when Stalingrad was besieged, we voluntarily went to the front. Together. The whole family: mother and five daughters, and by this time the father had already fought…”
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“I was mobilized, I was a doctor. I left with a sense of duty. And my dad was happy that his daughter was at the front. Defends the Motherland. Dad went to the military registration and enlistment office early in the morning. He went to receive my certificate and went early in the morning specifically so that everyone in the village would see that his daughter was at the front...”
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“I remember they let me go on leave. Before going to my aunt, I went to the store. Before the war, I loved candy terribly. I say:
- Give me some sweets.
The saleswoman looks at me like I'm crazy. I didn’t understand: what are cards, what is a blockade? All the people in line turned to me, and I had a rifle bigger than me. When they gave them to us, I looked and thought: “When will I grow up to this rifle?” And everyone suddenly began to ask, the whole line:
- Give her some sweets. Cut out the coupons from us.
And they gave it to me.”
“And for the first time in my life, it happened... Ours... Women's... I saw blood on myself, and I screamed:
- I was hurt...
During reconnaissance, we had a paramedic with us, an elderly man. He comes to me:
- Where did it hurt?
- I don’t know where... But blood...
He, like a father, told me everything... I went to reconnaissance after the war for about fifteen years. Every night. And the dreams are like this: either my machine gun failed, or we were surrounded. You wake up and your teeth are grinding. Do you remember where you are? There or here?”
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“I went to the front as a materialist. An atheist. She left as a good Soviet schoolgirl, who was taught well. And there... There I began to pray... I always prayed before the battle, I read my prayers. The words are simple... My words... The meaning is one, that I return to mom and dad. I didn’t know real prayers, and I didn’t read the Bible. No one saw me pray. I am secretly. She secretly prayed. Carefully. Because... We were different then, different people lived then. You understand?"
“It was impossible to attack us with uniforms: they were always in the blood. My first wounded was Senior Lieutenant Belov, my last wounded was Sergei Petrovich Trofimov, sergeant of the mortar platoon. In 1970, he came to visit me, and I showed my daughters his wounded head, which still has a large scar on it. In total, I carried out four hundred and eighty-one wounded from under fire. One of the journalists calculated: a whole rifle battalion... They were carrying men two to three times heavier than us. And they are even more seriously wounded. You are dragging him and his weapon, and he is also wearing an overcoat and boots. You put eighty kilograms on yourself and drag it. You lose... You go after the next one, and again seventy-eighty kilograms... And so five or six times in one attack. And you yourself have forty-eight kilograms - ballet weight. Now I can’t believe it anymore...”
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“I later became a squad commander. The entire squad is made up of young boys. We're on the boat all day. The boat is small, there are no latrines. The guys can go overboard if necessary, and that’s it. Well, what about me? A couple of times I got so bad that I jumped straight overboard and started swimming. They shout: “The foreman is overboard!” They'll pull you out. This is such an elementary little thing... But what kind of little thing is this? I then received treatment...
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“I returned from the war gray-haired. Twenty-one years old, and I’m all white. I was seriously wounded, concussed, and I couldn’t hear well in one ear. My mother greeted me with the words: “I believed that you would come. I prayed for you day and night.” My brother died at the front. She cried: “It’s the same now - give birth to girls or boys.”
“But I’ll say something else... The worst thing for me in war is wearing men’s underpants. That was scary. And this somehow... I can’t express myself... Well, first of all, it’s very ugly... You’re at war, you’re going to die for your Motherland, and you’re wearing men’s underpants. Overall, you look funny. Ridiculous. Men's underpants were long then. Wide. Sewed from satin. Ten girls in our dugout, and all of them are wearing men's underpants. Oh my God! In winter and summer. Four years... We crossed the Soviet border... We finished off, as our commissar said during political classes, the beast in its own den. Near the first Polish village they changed our clothes, gave us new uniforms and... And! AND! AND! They brought women's panties and bras for the first time. For the first time throughout the war. Haaaa... Well, I see... We saw normal women's underwear... Why aren't you laughing? Are you crying... Well, why?”
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“At the age of eighteen, on the Kursk Bulge, I was awarded the medal “For Military Merit” and the Order of the Red Star, at the age of nineteen - the Order of the Patriotic War, second degree. When new additions arrived, the guys were all young, of course, they were surprised. They were also eighteen to nineteen years old, and they asked with ridicule: “What did you get your medals for?” or “Have you been in battle?” They pester you with jokes: “Do bullets penetrate the armor of a tank?” I later bandaged one of these on the battlefield, under fire, and I remembered his last name - Shchegolevatykh. His leg was broken. I splint him, and he asks me for forgiveness: “Sister, I’m sorry that I offended you then...”
“We disguised ourselves. We are sitting. We are waiting for night to finally make an attempt to break through. And Lieutenant Misha T., the battalion commander was wounded, and he was performing the duties of a battalion commander, he was twenty years old, and began to remember how he loved to dance and play the guitar. Then he asks:
-Have you even tried it?
- What? What have you tried? “But I was terribly hungry.”
- Not what, but who... Babu!
And before the war there were cakes like this. With that name.
- No-no...
- I haven’t tried it yet either. You’ll die and won’t know what love is... They’ll kill us at night...
- Fuck you, fool! “It dawned on me what he meant.”
They died for life, not yet knowing what life was. We have only read about everything in books. I loved movies about love...”
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“She shielded her loved one from the mine fragment. The fragments fly - it's just a fraction of a second... How did she make it? She saved Lieutenant Petya Boychevsky, she loved him. And he stayed to live. Thirty years later, Petya Boychevsky came from Krasnodar and found me at our front-line meeting, and told me all this. We went with him to Borisov and found the clearing where Tonya died. He took the earth from her grave... He carried it and kissed it... There were five of us, Konakovo girls... And I alone returned to my mother...”
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“A separate smoke masking detachment was organized, commanded by the former commander of the torpedo boat division, Lieutenant Commander Alexander Bogdanov. Girls, mostly with secondary technical education or after the first years of college. Our task is to protect the ships and cover them with smoke. The shelling will begin, the sailors are waiting: “I wish the girls would put up some smoke. It’s calmer with him.” They drove out in cars with a special mixture, and at that time everyone hid in a bomb shelter. We, as they say, invited fire upon ourselves. The Germans were hitting this smoke screen...”
“I’m bandaging the tanker... The battle is on, there’s a roar. He asks: “Girl, what’s your name?” Even some kind of compliment. It was so strange for me to pronounce my name, Olya, in this roar, in this horror.”
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“And here I am the gun commander. And that means I am in the one thousand three hundred and fifty-seventh anti-aircraft regiment. At first, there was bleeding from the nose and ears, complete indigestion set in... My throat was dry to the point of vomiting... At night it was not so scary, but during the day it was very scary. It seems that the plane is flying straight at you, specifically at your gun. It's ramming at you! This is one moment... Now it will turn all, all of you into nothing. Everything is over!”
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“And by the time they found me, my legs were severely frostbitten. Apparently, I was covered in snow, but I was breathing, and a hole appeared in the snow... Such a tube... The ambulance dogs found me. They dug up the snow and brought my earflap hat. There I had a passport of death, everyone had such passports: which relatives, where to report. They dug me out, put me on a raincoat, my coat was full of blood... But no one paid attention to my legs... I was in the hospital for six months. They wanted to amputate the leg, amputate it above the knee, because gangrene was setting in. And here I was a little faint-hearted, I didn’t want to remain living as a cripple. Why should I live? Who needs me? Neither father nor mother. A burden in life. Well, who needs me, stump! I’ll choke..."
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“We received a tank there. We were both senior driver mechanics, and there should only be one driver in a tank. The command decided to appoint me as commander of the IS-122 tank, and my husband as senior mechanic-driver. And so we reached Germany. Both are wounded. We have awards. There were quite a few female tankers on medium tanks, but on heavy tanks I was the only one.”
“We were told to dress in military uniform, and I’m about fifty meters. I got into my trousers, and the girls upstairs tied them around me.”
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“As long as he hears... Until the last moment you tell him that no, no, is it really possible to die. You kiss him, hug him: what are you, what are you? He’s already dead, his eyes are on the ceiling, and I’m still whispering something to him... I’m calming him down... The names have been erased, gone from memory, but the faces remain...”
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“We had a nurse captured... A day later, when we recaptured that village, dead horses, motorcycles, and armored personnel carriers were lying everywhere. They found her: her eyes were gouged out, her breasts were cut off... She was impaled... It was frosty, and she was white and white, and her hair was all gray. She was nineteen years old. In her backpack we found letters from home and a green rubber bird. A children's toy..."
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“Near Sevsk, the Germans attacked us seven to eight times a day. And even that day I carried out the wounded with their weapons. I crawled up to the last one, and his arm was completely broken. Dangling in pieces... On the veins... Covered in blood... He urgently needs to cut off his hand to bandage it. No other way. And I have neither a knife nor scissors. The bag shifted and shifted on its side, and they fell out. What to do? And I chewed this pulp with my teeth. I gnawed it, bandaged it... I bandaged it, and the wounded man: “Hurry, sister. I’ll fight again.” In a fever..."
“The whole war I was afraid that my legs would be crippled. I had beautiful legs. What to a man? He’s not so scared if he even loses his legs. Still a hero. Groom! If a woman gets hurt, then her fate will be decided. Women's destiny..."
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“The men will build a fire at the bus stop, shake out the lice, and dry themselves. Where are we? Let's run for some shelter and undress there. I had a knitted sweater, so lice sat on every millimeter, in every loop. Look, you'll feel nauseous. There are head lice, body lice, pubic lice... I had them all...”
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“Near Makeyevka, in Donbass, I was wounded, wounded in the thigh. This little fragment came in and sat there like a pebble. I feel it’s blood, I put an individual bag there too. And then I run and bandage it. It’s a shame to tell anyone, the girl was wounded, but where – in the buttock. In the ass... At sixteen years old, this is a shame to say to anyone. It's awkward to admit. Well, so I ran and bandaged until I lost consciousness from loss of blood. The boots are full..."
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“The doctor arrived, did a cardiogram, and they asked me:
- When did you have a heart attack?
- What heart attack?
- Your whole heart is scarred.
And these scars are apparently from the war. You approach the target, you are shaking all over. The whole body is covered with trembling, because there is fire below: fighters are shooting, anti-aircraft guns are shooting... We flew mainly at night. For a while they tried to send us on missions during the day, but they immediately abandoned this idea. Our “Po-2” shot down from a machine gun... We made up to twelve sorties per night. I saw the famous ace pilot Pokryshkin when he arrived from a combat flight. He was a strong man, he was not twenty or twenty-three years old like us: while the plane was being refueled, the technician managed to take off his shirt and unscrew it. It was dripping as if he had been in the rain. Now you can easily imagine what happened to us. You arrive and you can’t even get out of the cabin, they pulled us out. They couldn’t carry the tablet anymore, they dragged it along the ground.”
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“We strived... We didn’t want people to say about us: “Oh, those women!” And we tried harder than men, we still had to prove that we weren’t worse than men. And for a long time there was an arrogant, condescending attitude towards us: “These women will fight…”
“Wounded three times and shell-shocked three times. During the war, everyone dreamed of what: some to return home, some to reach Berlin, but I only dreamed of one thing - to live to see my birthday, so that I would turn eighteen. For some reason, I was afraid to die earlier, not even live to see eighteen. I walked around in trousers and a cap, always in tatters, because you are always crawling on your knees, and even under the weight of a wounded person. I couldn’t believe that one day it would be possible to stand up and walk on the ground instead of crawling. It was a dream! One day the division commander arrived, saw me and asked: “What kind of teenager is this? Why are you holding him? He should be sent to study.”
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“We were happy when we took out a pot of water to wash our hair. If you walked for a long time, you looked for soft grass. They also tore her legs... Well, you know, they washed them off with grass... We had our own characteristics, girls... The army didn’t think about it... Our legs were green... It’s good if the foreman was old man and he understood everything, he didn’t take any extra linen from his duffel bag, and if he was young, he would definitely throw away the excess. And what a waste it is for girls who need to change clothes twice a day. We tore the sleeves off our undershirts, and there were only two of them. These are only four sleeves...”
“Let’s go... There are about two hundred girls, and behind us there are about two hundred men. It's hot. Hot Summer. March throw - thirty kilometers. The heat is wild... And after us there are red spots on the sand... Red footprints... Well, these things... Ours... How can you hide anything here? The soldiers follow behind and pretend that they don’t notice anything... They don’t look at their feet... Our trousers dried up, as if they were made of glass. They cut it. There were wounds there, and the smell of blood could be heard all the time. They didn’t give us anything... We kept watch: when the soldiers hung their shirts on the bushes. We’ll steal a couple of pieces... Later they guessed and laughed: “Master, give us some other underwear. The girls took ours.” There was not enough cotton wool and bandages for the wounded... Not that... Women's underwear, perhaps, only appeared two years later. We wore men's shorts and T-shirts... Well, let's go... Wearing boots! My legs were also fried. Let's go... To the crossing, ferries are waiting there. We got to the crossing, and then they started bombing us. The bombing is terrible, men - who knows where to hide. Our name is... But we don’t hear the bombing, we have no time for bombing, we’d rather go to the river. To the water... Water! Water! And they sat there until they got wet... Under the fragments... Here it is... The shame was worse than death. And several girls died in the water...”
“Finally got the appointment. They brought me to my platoon... The soldiers looked: some with mockery, some even with anger, and others shrugging their shoulders - everything was immediately clear. When the battalion commander introduced that, supposedly, you have a new platoon commander, everyone immediately howled: “Oooh…” One even spat: “Ugh!” And a year later, when I was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the same guys who survived carried me in their arms to my dugout. They were proud of me.”
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“We set out on a mission in a quick march. The weather was warm, we walked light. When the positions of long-range artillerymen began to pass, suddenly one jumped out of the trench and shouted: “Air! Frame!" I raised my head and looked for a “frame” in the sky. I don't detect any plane. It's quiet all around, not a sound. Where is that “frame”? Then one of my sappers asked permission to leave the ranks. I see him heading towards that artilleryman and slapping him in the face. Before I had time to think of anything, the artilleryman shouted: “Boys, they’re beating our people!” Other artillerymen jumped out of the trench and surrounded our sapper. My platoon, without hesitation, threw down the probes, mine detectors, and duffel bags and rushed to his rescue. A fight ensued. I couldn't understand what happened? Why did the platoon get involved in a fight? Every minute counts, and there’s such a mess here. I give the command: “Platoon, get into formation!” Nobody pays attention to me. Then I pulled out a pistol and shot into the air. Officers jumped out of the dugout. By the time everyone was calmed down, a significant amount of time had passed. The captain approached my platoon and asked: “Who is the eldest here?” I reported. His eyes widened, he was even confused. Then he asked: “What happened here?” I couldn't answer because I didn't really know the reason. Then my platoon commander came out and told me how it all happened. This is how I learned what “frame” was, what an offensive word it was for a woman. Something like a whore. Frontline curse..."
“Are you asking about love? I’m not afraid to tell the truth... I was a pepezhe, which stands for “field wife.” Wife at war. Second. Illegal. The first battalion commander... I didn’t love him. He was a good man, but I didn't love him. And I went to his dugout a few months later. Where to go? There are only men around, it’s better to live with one than to be afraid of everyone. During the battle it was not as scary as after the battle, especially when we were resting and re-forming. As they shoot, fire, they call: “Sister! Little sister!”, and after the battle everyone will guard you... You won’t get out of the dugout at night... Did the other girls tell you this or didn’t they admit it? They were ashamed, I think... They kept silent. Proud! And it all happened... But they are silent about it... It is not accepted... No... For example, I was the only woman in the battalion who lived in a common dugout. Together with men. They gave me a place, but what a separate place it is, the whole dugout is six meters. I woke up at night from waving my arms, then I would hit one on the cheeks, on the hands, then on the other. I was wounded, ended up in the hospital and waved my hands there. The nanny will wake you up at night: “What are you doing?” Who will you tell?”
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“We buried him... He was lying on a raincoat, he had just been killed. The Germans are firing at us. We need to bury it quickly... Right now... We found old birch trees and chose the one that stood at a distance from the old oak tree. The biggest. Near it... I tried to remember so that I could come back and find this place later. Here the village ends, here there is a fork... But how to remember? How to remember if one birch tree is already burning before our eyes... How? They began to say goodbye... They told me: “You are the first!” My heart jumped, I realized... What... Everyone, it turns out, knows about my love. Everyone knows... The thought struck: maybe he knew too? Here... He lies... Now they will lower him into the ground... They will bury him. They’ll cover it with sand... But I was terribly happy at the thought that maybe he knew too. What if he liked me too? As if he was alive and would answer me something now... I remembered how on New Year’s Day he gave me a German chocolate bar. I didn’t eat it for a month, I carried it in my pocket. Now it doesn’t reach me, I remember all my life... This moment... Bombs are flying... He... Lying on a raincoat... This moment... And I am happy... I stand and smile to myself. Abnormal. I’m glad that maybe he knew about my love... I came up and kissed him. I’ve never kissed a man before... This was the first...”
“How did the Motherland greet us? I can’t do without sobbing... Forty years have passed, and my cheeks are still burning. The men were silent, and the women... They shouted to us: “We know what you were doing there!” They lured young p... our men. Front-line b... Military bitches..." They insulted me in every way... The Russian dictionary is rich... A guy is seeing me off from the dance, I suddenly feel bad, my heart is pounding. I'll go and sit in a snowdrift. "What happened to you?" - "Never mind. I danced." And these are my two wounds... This is war... And we must learn to be gentle. To be weak and fragile, and your feet in boots were worn out - size forty. It's unusual for someone to hug me. I'm used to being responsible for myself. I was waiting for kind words, but I didn’t understand them. They are like children's to me. At the front among the men there is a strong Russian mate. I'm used to it. A friend taught me, she worked in the library: “Read poetry. Read Yesenin.”
“My legs disappeared... My legs were cut off... They saved me there, in the forest... The operation took place in the most primitive conditions. They put me on the table to operate, and there wasn’t even iodine; they sawed my legs, both legs, with a simple saw... They put me on the table, and there was no iodine. Six kilometers away, we went to another partisan detachment to get iodine, and I was lying on the table. Without anesthesia. Without... Instead of anesthesia - a bottle of moonshine. There was nothing but an ordinary saw... A carpenter's saw... We had a surgeon, he himself also had no legs, he spoke about me, other doctors said this: “I bow to her. I have operated on so many men, but I have never seen such men. He won’t scream.” I held on... I'm used to being strong in public..."
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Running up to the car, she opened the door and began to report:
- Comrade General, on your orders...
I heard:
- Leave...
She stood at attention. The general didn’t even turn to me, but looked at the road through the car window. He is nervous and often looks at his watch. I am standing. He turns to his orderly:
- Where is that sapper commander?
I tried to report again:
- Comrade General...
He finally turned to me and with annoyance:
- Why the hell do I need you!
I understood everything and almost burst out laughing. Then his orderly was the first to guess:
- Comrade General, maybe she is the commander of the sappers?
The general stared at me:
- Who are you?
- Comrade General, sapper platoon commander.
-Are you a platoon commander? – he was indignant.
- Are these your sappers working?
- That's right, Comrade General!
- Got it wrong: general, general...
He got out of the car, walked a few steps forward, then came back to me. He stood and looked around. And to his orderly:
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“My husband was a senior driver, and I was a driver. For four years we traveled in a heated vehicle, and our son came with us. During the entire war he didn’t even see a cat. When he caught a cat near Kiev, our train was terribly bombed, five planes flew in, and he hugged her: “Dear little kitty, how glad I am that I saw you. I don't see anyone, well, sit with me. Let me kiss you.” A child... Everything about a child should be childish... He fell asleep with the words: “Mommy, we have a cat. We now have a real home.”
“Anya Kaburova is lying on the grass... Our signalman. She dies - a bullet hit her heart. At this time, a wedge of cranes flies over us. Everyone raised their heads to the sky, and she opened her eyes. She looked: “What a pity, girls.” Then she paused and smiled at us: “Girls, am I really going to die?” At this time, our postman, our Klava, is running, she shouts: “Don’t die! Do not die! You have a letter from home...” Anya does not close her eyes, she is waiting... Our Klava sat down next to her and opened the envelope. A letter from my mother: “My dear, beloved daughter...” A doctor is standing next to me, he says: “This is a miracle. Miracle!! She lives contrary to all the laws of medicine...” They finished reading the letter... And only then Anya closed her eyes...”
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“I stayed with him one day, then the second, and I decided: “Go to headquarters and report. I’ll stay here with you.” He went to the authorities, but I couldn’t breathe: well, how can they say that she wouldn’t be able to walk for twenty-four hours? This is the front, that's clear. And suddenly I see the authorities coming into the dugout: major, colonel. Everyone shakes hands. Then, of course, we sat down in the dugout, drank, and everyone said their word that the wife found her husband in the trench, this is a real wife, there are documents. This is such a woman! Let me look at such a woman! They said such words, they all cried. I remember that evening all my life... What do I still have left? Enlisted as a nurse. I went with him on reconnaissance. The mortar hits, I see - it fell. I think: killed or wounded? I run there, and the mortar hits, and the commander shouts: “Where are you going, damn woman!!” I’ll crawl up - alive... Alive!”
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“Two years ago, our chief of staff Ivan Mikhailovich Grinko visited me. He has been retired for a long time. He sat at the same table. I also baked pies. She and her husband are talking, reminiscing... They started talking about our girls... And I started to roar: “Honor, you say, respect. And the girls are almost all single. Unmarried. They live in communal apartments. Who took pity on them? Defended? Where did you all go after the war? Traitors!!” In a word, I ruined their festive mood... The chief of staff was sitting in your place. “Show me,” he banged his fist on the table, “who offended you.” Just show it to me!” He asked for forgiveness: “Valya, I can’t tell you anything except tears.”
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“I reached Berlin with the army... I returned to my village with two Orders of Glory and medals. I lived for three days, and on the fourth my mother lifted me out of bed and said: “Daughter, I put together a bundle for you. Go away... Go away... You still have two younger sisters growing up. Who will marry them? Everyone knows that you were at the front for four years, with men...” “Don’t touch my soul. Write, like others, about my awards...”
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“Near Stalingrad... I’m dragging two wounded. If I drag one through, I leave it, then the other. And so I pull them one by one, because the wounded are very serious, they cannot be left, both, as it is easier to explain, have their legs cut off high, they are bleeding. Minutes are precious here, every minute. And suddenly, when I crawled further away from the battle, there was less smoke, suddenly I discovered that I was dragging one of our tankers and one German... I was horrified: our people were dying there, and I was saving a German. I was in a panic... There, in the smoke, I couldn’t figure it out... I see: a man is dying, a man is screaming... Ah-ah... They are both burnt, black. The same. And then I saw: someone else’s medallion, someone else’s watch, everything was someone else’s. This form is cursed. So what now? I pull our wounded man and think: “Should I go back for the German or not?” I understood that if I left him, he would soon die. From loss of blood... And I crawled after him. I continued to drag them both... This is Stalingrad... The most terrible battles. The best of the best. My you are diamond... There cannot be one heart for hatred and another for love. A person has only one.”
“The war ended, they found themselves terribly unprotected. Here's my wife. She is a smart woman, and she has a bad attitude towards military girls. He believes that they were going to war to find suitors, that they were all having affairs there. Although in fact, we are having a sincere conversation; most often these were honest girls. Clean. But after the war... After the dirt, after the lice, after the deaths... I wanted something beautiful. Bright. Beautiful women... I had a friend, one beautiful girl, as I now understand, loved him at the front. Nurse. But he didn’t marry her, he was demobilized and found himself another, prettier one. And he is unhappy with his wife. Now he remembers that one, his military love, she would have been his friend. And after the front, he didn’t want to marry her, because for four years he saw her only in worn-out boots and a man’s quilted jacket. We tried to forget the war. And they forgot their girls too...”
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“My friend... I won’t give her last name, in case she gets offended... Military paramedic... Wounded three times. The war ended, I entered medical school. She didn’t find any of her relatives; they all died. She was terribly poor, washing the entrances at night to feed herself. But she didn’t admit to anyone that she was a disabled war veteran and had benefits; she tore up all the documents. I ask: “Why did you break it?” She cries: “Who would marry me?” “Well,” I say, “I did the right thing.” She cries even louder: “I could use these pieces of paper now. I’m seriously ill.” Can you imagine? Crying.”
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“We went to Kineshma, this is the Ivanovo region, to his parents. I was traveling like a heroine, I never thought that you could meet a front-line girl like that. We have gone through so much, saved so many mothers of children, wives of husbands. And suddenly... I recognized the insult, I heard offensive words. Before this, except for: “dear sister”, “dear sister”, I had not heard anything else... We sat down to drink tea in the evening, the mother took her son to the kitchen and cried: “Who did you marry? At the front... You have two younger sisters. Who will marry them now?” And now, when I remember this, I want to cry. Imagine: I brought the record, I loved it very much. There were these words: and you have the right to walk in the most fashionable shoes... This is about a front-line girl. I set it up, the older sister came up and broke it in front of my eyes, saying, “You have no rights.” They destroyed all my front-line photographs... We, front-line girls, have had enough. And after the war it happened, after the war we had another war. Also scary. Somehow the men left us. They didn't cover it. It was different at the front.”
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“It was then that they began to honor us, thirty years later... They invited us to meetings... But at first we hid, we didn’t even wear awards. Men wore them, but women did not. Men are winners, heroes, suitors, they had a war, but they looked at us with completely different eyes. Completely different... Let me tell you, they took away our victory... They did not share the victory with us. And it was a shame... It’s unclear...”
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“The first medal “For Courage”... The battle began. The fire is heavy. The soldiers lay down. Command: “Forward! For the Motherland!”, and they lie there. Again the command, again they lie down. I took off my hat so they could see: the girl stood up... And they all stood up, and we went into battle...”
Many soviet women who served in the Red Army were ready to commit suicide so as not to be captured. Violence, bullying, painful executions - this was the fate that awaited most of the captured nurses, signalmen, and intelligence officers. Only a few ended up in prisoner of war camps, but even there their situation was often even worse than that of the male Red Army soldiers.
During the Great Patriotic War, more than 800 thousand women fought in the ranks of the Red Army. The Germans equated Soviet nurses, intelligence officers, and snipers with partisans and did not consider them military personnel. Therefore, the German command did not apply to them even those few international rules for the treatment of prisoners of war that applied to Soviet male soldiers.
The materials of the Nuremberg trials preserved the order that was in effect throughout the war: to shoot all “commissars who can be identified by the Soviet star on their sleeve and Russian women in uniform.”
The execution most often completed a series of abuses: women were beaten, brutally raped, and curses were carved into their bodies. Bodies were often stripped and abandoned without even thinking about burial. Aron Schneer’s book provides the testimony of a German soldier, Hans Rudhoff, who saw dead Soviet nurses in 1942: “They were shot and thrown onto the road. They were lying naked."
Svetlana Alexievich in her book “War Doesn’t Have a Woman’s Face” quotes the memoirs of one of the female soldiers. According to her, they always kept two cartridges for themselves so that they could shoot themselves and not be captured. The second cartridge is in case of misfire. The same war participant recalled what happened to the captured nineteen-year-old nurse. When they found her, her breast was cut off and her eyes were gouged out: “They put her on a stake... It’s frosty, and she’s white, white, and her hair is all gray.” The deceased girl had letters from home and a children's toy in her backpack.
Known for his cruelty, SS Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln equated women with commissars and Jews. All of them, according to his orders, were to be interrogated with passion and then shot.
Women soldiers in the camps
Those women who managed to avoid execution were sent to camps. Almost constant violence awaited them there. Particularly cruel were the policemen and those male prisoners of war who agreed to work for the Nazis and became camp guards. Women were often given to them as a “reward” for their service.
The camps often lacked basic living conditions. The prisoners of the Ravensbrück concentration camp tried to make their existence as easy as possible: they washed their hair with the ersatz coffee provided for breakfast, and secretly sharpened their own combs.
According to international law, prisoners of war could not be recruited to work in military factories. But this was not applied to women. In 1943, Elizaveta Klemm, who was captured, tried on behalf of a group of prisoners to protest the Germans’ decision to send Soviet women to the factory. In response to this, the authorities first beat everyone, and then drove them into a cramped room where it was impossible to even move.
In Ravensbrück, female prisoners of war sewed uniforms for German troops and worked in the infirmary. In April 1943, the famous “protest march” took place there: the camp authorities wanted to punish the recalcitrants who referred to the Geneva Convention and demanded to be treated as captured military personnel. Women had to march around the camp. And they marched. But not doomedly, but taking a step, as if in a parade, in a slender column, with the song “Holy War”. The effect of the punishment was the opposite: they wanted to humiliate the women, but instead they received evidence of inflexibility and fortitude.
In 1942, nurse Elena Zaitseva was captured near Kharkov. She was pregnant, but hid it from the Germans. She was selected to work at a military factory in the city of Neusen. The working day lasted 12 hours; we spent the night in the workshop on wooden planks. The prisoners were fed rutabaga and potatoes. Zaitseva worked until she gave birth; nuns from a nearby monastery helped deliver them. The newborn was given to the nuns, and the mother returned to work. After the end of the war, mother and daughter were able to reunite. But there are few such stories with a happy ending.
Only in 1944 was a special circular issued by the Chief of the Security Police and SD on the treatment of female prisoners of war. They, like other Soviet prisoners, were to be subjected to police checks. If it turned out that a woman was “politically unreliable,” then her prisoner of war status was removed and she was handed over to the security police. All the rest were sent to concentration camps. In fact, this was the first document in which women who served in the Soviet army were equated with male prisoners of war.
The “unreliable” ones were sent to execution after interrogation. In 1944, a female major was taken to the Stutthof concentration camp. Even in the crematorium they continued to mock her until she spat in the German’s face. After that, she was pushed alive into the firebox.
There were cases when women were released from the camp and transferred to the status of civilian workers. But it is difficult to say what the percentage of those actually released was. Aron Schneer notes that on the cards of many Jewish prisoners of war, the entry “released and sent to the labor exchange” actually meant something completely different. They were formally released, but in reality they were transferred from Stalags to concentration camps, where they were executed.
After captivity
Some women managed to escape from captivity and even return to the unit. But being in captivity irreversibly changed them. Valentina Kostromitina, who served as a medical instructor, recalled her friend Musa, who was captured. She was “terribly afraid to go on the landing because she was in captivity.” She never managed to “cross the bridge on the pier and board the boat.” The friend’s stories made such an impression that Kostromitina was afraid of captivity even more than of bombing.
A considerable number of Soviet women prisoners of war could not have children after the camps. They were often experimented on and subjected to forced sterilization.
Those who survived to the end of the war found themselves under pressure from their own people: women were often reproached for surviving captivity. They were expected to commit suicide but not give up. At the same time, it was not even taken into account that many did not have any weapons with them at the time of captivity.
During the Great Patriotic War, the phenomenon of collaboration was also widespread.
The question of this is still a subject of study for historians today.
Not long ago, the Russian media actively wrote that the Krasnodar Higher Military aviation school started accepting applications from girls. IN admissions committee Dozens of people immediately poured in to take the helm of a combat aircraft.
In peacetime, girls who master military specialties seem to us to be something exotic. But when the threat of war looms over the country, the fair sex often displays amazing courage and resilience, in no way inferior to men. This was the case during the Great Patriotic War, when women fought at the front equally with men. They mastered a variety of military professions and performed military service as nurses, pilots, sappers, intelligence officers and even snipers.
In difficult war conditions, young girls, many of whom were yesterday's schoolgirls, performed feats and died for the Fatherland. At the same time, even in the trenches they continued to preserve femininity, showing it in everyday life and reverent care for their comrades.
Few of our contemporaries are able to imagine what Soviet women had to go through during the war. There are already few of them themselves - those who survived and managed to convey precious memories to their descendants.
One of the keepers of these memories is our colleague, chief specialist of the scientific department of the Russian Historical Society, candidate of historical sciences Victoria Petrakova. She devoted her scientific work to the topic of women in war; the topic of her research was Soviet female snipers.
She told Istoria.RF about the hardships that befell these heroines (Victoria was lucky enough to communicate with some of them personally).
“Parachutes were deployed to carry bombs on board”
Victoria, I understand that the topic of women at the front is very broad, so let’s take a closer look at the Great Patriotic War.
The massive participation of Soviet women in the Great Patriotic War is an unprecedented phenomenon in world history. Neither Nazi Germany nor the allied countries had such a large number of women participating in the war, and, moreover, women did not master combat specialties abroad. For us, they were pilots, snipers, tank crews, sappers, miners...
- Did Russian women start fighting only in 1941? Why were they taken into the army?
This happened with the emergence of new military specialties, the development of technology, and involvement in fighting large quantity human resources. Women were drafted to free up men for more difficult military activities. Our women were on the battlefields during the Crimean War, the First World War, and the Civil War.
- Is it known how many women in the Soviet Union fought during the Great Patriotic War?
- Historians have not yet established the exact figure. Various works call the number from 800 thousand to 1 million. During the war years, these women mastered more than 20 military professions.
- Were there many female pilots among them?
- As for female pilots, we had three female aviation regiments. The decree on their creation was issued on October 8, 1941. This happened thanks to the famous pilot Marina Mikhailovna Raskova, who was already a Hero at that time Soviet Union and turned directly to Stalin with such a proposal. Girls actively went into aviation, because at that time there were many different flying clubs. Moreover, in September 1938, Polina Osipenko, Valentina Grizodubova and Marina Raskova made a direct flight to Moscow - Far East lasting more than 26 hours. For completing this flight they were awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.” They became the first women Heroes of the Soviet Union before the war, and during the war Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became the first. Thus, the history of women in aviation during the war years took on a completely new meaning. As I already said, we had three aviation regiments: the 586th, 587th and 588th. The 588th was subsequently (in February 1943) renamed the 46th Guards Taman Regiment. The pilots of this particular regiment were nicknamed “Night Witches” by the Germans.
- Which of the female military pilots of that time could you especially highlight?
- Among the women who piloted fighter jets, one of the most famous is Lydia (Lily) Litvyak, who was called the “White Lily of Stalingrad.” She went down in history as the most successful female fighter: she had 16 victories - 12 individual and 4 group. Lydia began her combat journey in the skies over Saratov, then defended the skies of Stalingrad in the hardest days of September 1942. She died on August 1, 1943 - she did not return from a combat mission. Moreover, it’s interesting: she had a combat friend who said that Lydia said that the worst thing for her would be to go missing, because then the memory of her would be erased. Actually, that’s what happened. And only in the early 1970s in the Donetsk region, search teams found a mass grave, in which they found a girl. Having studied the remains and compared documents, it was established that this was Lydia Litvyak. In 1990, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the already mentioned 46th Women's Aviation Regiment there were many who were awarded this title posthumously. Female pilots, when they left for a combat mission at night, sometimes deployed parachutes. And the planes they flew on were practically made of plywood. That is, if shells hit them, the planes instantly ignited, and the pilots could no longer eject.
- Why didn’t they take parachutes with them?
- To take more bombs on board. Despite the fact that the plane could easily catch fire, its advantage was that it was slow-moving. This made it possible to fly up to enemy positions unnoticed, which increased the accuracy of bombing. But if a shell did hit the plane, many were burned alive in the dive bombers.
“The men cried when they saw the girls die”
- Is it known what percentage of Soviet women were able to survive until the end of the war?
This is very difficult to establish, given the leadership’s not entirely orderly mobilization policy towards women during the war. There are no statistics on losses among women at all! In the book by G. F. Krivosheev (Grigory Fedotovich Krivosheev - Soviet and Russian military historian, author of several works on military losses of the USSR Armed Forces - Note ed.), which is the most famous study to date, which contains the most accurate data on losses, it is said that women were included in the total number of losses - there were no distinctions by gender. Therefore, the number of women who died during the Great Patriotic War is still unknown.
How did women cope with everyday difficulties during the war? After all, here they were required not only moral, but also physical endurance.
- Women's health at the front was practically atrophied; the body was constantly in a state of mobilization - both mentally and physiologically. It is clear that after the war people “thawed out” and came to their senses, but during the war it simply could not be any other way. A person had to survive, he had to carry out a combat mission. The conditions were very extreme. In addition, women ended up in mixed units. Imagine: infantry marches for tens of kilometers - it was difficult to solve some everyday issues when there were only men around. In addition, not all women were subject to mobilization. Those who had small children or elderly dependent parents were not taken to war. Because the military leadership understood that all the experiences associated with this could subsequently affect the psychological state at the front.
- What was required to pass this selection?
It was necessary to have a minimum education and be in very good physical condition. Only those with excellent eyesight could become snipers. By the way, many Siberian girls were taken to the front - they were very strong girls. Among other things, they were attentive to psychological state person. We cannot help but remember Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who during the hardest days of the Moscow Battle became a reconnaissance saboteur. Unfortunately, various negative statements are currently appearing that insult the memory of this girl and devalue her feat. For some reason, people do not try to realize that she entered the reconnaissance and sabotage unit, where, naturally, they did not accept people with mental disabilities. To serve there, it was necessary to undergo a medical examination, obtain various certificates, and so on. This unit was commanded by Major, hero of the Spanish War, the legendary Arthur Sprogis. He would clearly see some deviations. Therefore, the very fact that she was enrolled in this unit and she became a reconnaissance saboteur indicates that the person was mentally stable.
- How did men treat women soldiers? Were they perceived as equal comrades in arms?
It all turned out very interesting. For example, when female snipers arrived at the front, men treated them with irony and distrust: “They brought girls!” And when the first control shooting began and these girls knocked out all the targets, respect for them, of course, increased. Naturally, they were taken care of; snipers were even called “little pieces of glass.” They were treated like fathers. The sniper Klavdia Efremovna Kalugina told me a very touching story. She had three sniper pairs, and everyone was called Mashami. All three died. Her first sniper pair, Masha Chigvintseva, died in the summer of 1944. Then Operation Bagration was underway - Belarus was liberated. Masha moved, and, apparently, the optics blurred in the sun. The German sniper fired and hit her just below the right eye, right through. Masha fell dead. Klavdia Efremovna said that at that moment she screamed throughout the entire line of defense. When she cried, soldiers ran out of the dugout and tried to calm her down: “Don’t cry, the German will hear and open mortar fire!” But nothing worked. This is understandable: after all, with a sniper couple you share shelter, food, secrets, this is your closest person. She was buried in the summer in a field where there were many wildflowers: the grave was decorated with daisies and bells. Everyone came to bury Masha, right down to the unit commanders. But it was already 1944, and the men had seen a lot of death and blood. But still, everyone cried at Masha’s funeral. When they lowered her into the ground, the commander said: “Sleep well, dear Marusya.” And all the men cried when they saw the young girls dying.
“When they came back, all sorts of unpleasant things were said.”
- In which troops was it most dangerous for women to serve?
- In 1943, a study was conducted on the Leningrad Front on injuries among women in various military professions. Naturally, he was highest in the military medical service - nurses pulled the wounded from the battlefield under bullets and shrapnel. Injuries to signalmen and miners were very common. If we talk about snipers, then the injury rate of this military profession, for all its danger and complexity, was relatively low.
- Were there many women among the snipers? How were they trained?
- In the Soviet Union, there was the only women's sniper school not only in our country, but throughout the world. In November 1942, women's sniper courses were created at the Central School of Sniper Instructors (male). Then, in May 1943, the Central Women's Sniper Training School appeared; it existed until May 1945. This school graduated about two thousand female cadets. Of these, losses are 185 people, that is, 10 percent of total number. Firstly, snipers were protected and not allowed to attack: they had to fight only in defense. Snipers mostly died while performing a combat mission. This could happen due to accidental negligence: during sniper duels (when the optical sight glared in the sun, the German sniper fired a shot, and, accordingly, the sniper from the opposite side died) or under mortar fire.
- What happened to these heroines after the end of the war?
Their destinies turned out differently. In general, the topic of post-war rehabilitation of female military personnel is very complex. The memory of women's feats during the war is very for a long time was consigned to oblivion. Even the veteran grandmothers themselves told how they were embarrassed to talk about the fact that they fought. It was formed negative attitude in a society that relied on different stories about “camping field wives.” For some reason this cast a shadow on all the women who fought. When they returned, unfortunately, all sorts of unpleasant things could be said to them. But I talked with them and I know what everyday life at the front and combat work cost them. After all, many returned with health problems and were then unable to have children. Take the same snipers: they lay in the snow for two days, received maxillofacial wounds... These women endured a lot.
- Were there really no war novels with a happy ending?
There were happy cases when love was born during the war, and then people got married. There were sad stories when one of the lovers died. But all the same, as a rule, the stories of the same “field wives” are, first of all, crippled women's destinies. And we have no moral right to judge, much less condemn. Although even today someone, apparently having no respect for memory, pulls out only individual stories from the multifaceted history of the war, turning them into “fried” facts. And this is very sad. When a woman returned from war, the process of getting used to peaceful life took a long time. It was necessary to master peaceful professions. They worked in completely different fields: in museums, factories, some were accountants, and there were those who went to teach theory at higher military schools. People returned psychologically broken; it was very difficult to build a personal life.
“Not everyone could take the first shot”
After all, women are gentle and sensitive creatures, it is quite difficult to associate them with war, murder... Those girls who went to the front, what were they like?
One of my articles describes the story of Lydia Yakovlevna Anderman. She was a sniper, holder of the Order of Glory; unfortunately, she is no longer alive. She said that after the war she dreamed about the first killed German for a very long time. At school, future snipers were taught to shoot exclusively at targets, and at the front they had to face living people. Due to the fact that the distance could be small and the optical sight brought the target 3.5 times closer, it was often possible to see the enemy’s uniform and the outline of his face. Lidia Yakovlevna later recalled: “I saw through the scope that he had a red beard and some kind of red hair.” She dreamed of him for a long time even after the war. But not everyone was able to fire a shot right away: natural pity and qualities inherent in female nature made themselves felt when performing a combat mission. Of course, the women understood that there was an enemy in front of them, but it was still a living person.
- How did they overcome themselves?
The death of comrades in arms, the awareness of what the enemy was doing in their native land, tragic news from home - all this inevitably had an impact on the female psyche. And in such a situation, the question of whether it was necessary to go and carry out my combat mission did not arise: “...I must take up arms and take revenge myself. I already knew that I had no relatives left. My mother is gone...” recalled one of the snipers. Women snipers began to appear everywhere on the fronts in 1943. At that time, the siege of Leningrad had been going on for several years, villages and hamlets of Belarus were burned, and many had their loved ones and comrades killed. It was clear to everyone what the enemy had brought to us. Sometimes they ask: “What did you need to have to be a sniper? Maybe it was some kind of character predisposition, innate cruelty? Of course not. When you ask such questions, you need to try to “immerse yourself” in the psychology of a person who lived during wartime. Because they were the same ordinary girls! Like everyone else, they dreamed of marriage, created a modest military life, and took care of themselves. It’s just that the war was a very mobilizing factor for the psyche.
- You said that the memory of a woman’s feat was forgotten for many years. What has changed over time?
The first research works on the participation of women in the Great Patriotic War began to appear only in the 1960s. Now, thank God, dissertations and monographs are written about this. The feat of women is now, of course, already established in the public consciousness. But, unfortunately, it’s a little late, because many of them no longer see this. And many, perhaps, died forgotten, never knowing that anyone had written about them. In general, for studying human psychology in war, personal sources are simply invaluable: memories, memoirs, interviews with veterans. After all, they talk about things that cannot be found in any archival document. It is clear that the war cannot be idealized; these were not only exploits - it was both dirty and scary. But when we write or talk about this, we must always be as correct as possible and careful about the memory of those people. In no case should we attach labels, because we do not know even a thousandth part of what actually happened there. Many destinies were broken and distorted. And many veterans, despite everything they had to endure, retained a clear outlook, a sense of humor, and optimism until the end of their days. We ourselves can learn a lot from them. And the main thing is to always remember them with great respect and gratitude.
The female part of our multinational people, together with men, children and the elderly, bore all the hardships on their shoulders Great War. Women wrote many glorious pages in the chronicle of the war.
Women were on the front line: doctors, pilots, snipers, in air defense units, signalmen, intelligence officers, drivers, topographers, reporters, even tank crews, artillerymen and served in the infantry. Women actively participated in the underground, in the partisan movement.
Women took on many “purely male” professions in the rear, since men went to war, and someone had to stand behind a machine, drive a tractor, become a railway 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 is their right written in Art. 13th Law on General Military Duty, adopted by the IV session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 1, 1939. It states that the People's Commissariats of Defense and Navy are given the right to recruit women into the army and navy who have medical, veterinary and special - technical training, as well as attracting them to training camps. In wartime, women who have the specified training may be drafted into the army and navy to perform 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 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 speak out in defense of our beautiful Motherland. We women are proud that we are given the right to protect it on an equal basis with men. And if our party, our government calls, then we will all come to the defense of our wonderful country and give a crushing rebuff to the enemy.”
Already the first news of Germany’s treacherous attack on the USSR aroused boundless anger and burning hatred of their enemies among women. At meetings and rallies held throughout the country, they declared their readiness to defend their Motherland. Women and girls went to party and Komsomol organizations, to 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 to be sent to the front were received from 20 thousand Muscovites, and after three months, 8,360 women and girls of Moscow were enrolled in the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland. Among the Leningrad Komsomol members who submitted applications in the first days of the war with a request to be sent to the active army, 27 thousand applications were from girls. More than 5 thousand 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 hometown.
Rosa Shanina. Destroyed 54 enemies.
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 roads... Several Komsomol mobilizations were carried out, in particular the mobilization of Komsomol members in the Military Navy, Air Force and Signal Corps.
In July 1941, over 4 thousand women of the Krasnodar Territory asked to be sent to the active army. In the first days of the war, 4 thousand women of the Ivanovo region volunteered. About 4 thousand girls from the Chita region, over 10 thousand from the Karaganda region became Red Army soldiers using Komsomol vouchers.
From 600 thousand to 1 million women fought at the front at different times, 80 thousand of them were Soviet officers.
The Central Women's Sniper Training School provided the front with 1,061 snipers and 407 sniper instructors. Graduates of the school destroyed over 11,280 enemy soldiers and officers during the war.
At the end of 1942, the Ryazan Infantry School was given an order to train about 1,500 officers from female volunteers. By January 1943, over 2 thousand women arrived at the school.
For the first time during the Patriotic War, female combat formations appeared in the Armed Forces of our country. 3 aviation regiments were formed from female volunteers: 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.
Snipers Faina Yakimova, Roza Shanina, Lidiya Volodina.
While near Moscow, the 1st Separate Women's Reserve Regiment also trained motorists and snipers, machine gunners and junior commanders of combat units. There were 2899 women on staff.
20 thousand women served in the Special Moscow Air Defense Army.
Some women were also commanders. One can name 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 combat missions, delivering explosives, food to the partisans and removing the wounded.
The head of the ammunition department of the artillery department of the Polish Army was engineer-colonel Antonina Pristavko. She ended the war near Berlin. Among her awards are the Order: "Renaissance of Poland" IV class, "Cross of Grunwald" 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 working hands.
5 million women were employed in industry, and many of them were entrusted with command posts - directors, shop managers, foremen.
Culture, education, and health care have become a matter of concern mainly for women.
Ninety-five women in our country have the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Our cosmonauts are among them.
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 (paramedics, nurses, medical instructors) made up the majority - over 80 percent.
During the war years it was created harmonious system medical care for the fighting army. There was a so-called doctrine of military field medicine. At all stages of the evacuation of the wounded - from the company (battalion) to hospitals in the rear - female doctors selflessly carried out the noble mission of mercy.
Glorious patriots served in all branches of the military - in aviation and the marine corps, on warships of the Black Sea Fleet, the Northern Fleet, the Caspian and Dnieper flotillas, in floating naval hospitals and ambulance trains. Together with horsemen, they went on deep raids behind enemy lines and were in partisan detachments. With the infantry we reached Berlin. And everywhere doctors provided specialized assistance to those injured in battle.
It is estimated that female medical instructors of rifle companies, medical battalions, and artillery batteries helped seventy percent of wounded soldiers return to duty.
For special courage and heroism, 15 female doctors were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
A 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 soldier rises to his full height. nurse in a raincoat, with a sanitary bag over his shoulder. During the war, the city of Kaluga was the center of numerous hospitals that treated and returned tens of thousands of soldiers and commanders to duty. That is why they built a monument in a holy place, which always has flowers.
History has never known such massive participation of women in the armed struggle for the Motherland as Soviet women showed 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, carried out military service in all branches of the Soviet Armed Forces.
Unidentified Soviet private girls from an anti-tank artillery unit.
This text is compiled on the basis of the diary entries of Vladimir Ivanovich Trunin, about whom we have already told our readers more than once. This information is unique in that it is transmitted first-hand, from a tanker who rode a tank throughout the war.
Before the Great Patriotic War, women did not serve in units of the Red Army. But they often “served” at border outposts together with their border guard husbands.
The fate of these women with the advent of the war was tragic: most of them died, only a few managed to survive in those terrible days. But I’ll tell you about this separately later...
By August 1941, it became obvious that there was no way to do without women.
Women medical workers were the first to serve in the Red Army: medical battalions (medical battalions), MPG (field mobile hospitals), EG (evacuation hospitals) and sanitary echelons, in which young nurses, doctors and orderlies served, were deployed. Then military commissars began to recruit signalmen, telephone operators, and radio operators into 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, they served in the Red Army different time from 2 to 2.5 million girls and women.
Military commissars drafted into the army the healthiest, most educated, most beautiful girls and young women. All of them showed themselves very well: they were brave, very persistent, resilient, reliable fighters and commanders, and were awarded military orders and medals for the bravery and bravery shown in battle.
For example, Colonel Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova, Hero of the Soviet Union, commanded a long-range aviation bomber division (LAD). It was her 250 IL4 bombers that forced her to capitulate in July-August 1944 Finland.
About girls anti-aircraft gunners
Under any bombing, under any shelling, they remained at their guns. When the troops of the Don, Stalingrad and Southwestern fronts closed the encirclement ring around enemy groups in Stalingrad, the Germans tried to organize an air bridge from the territory of Ukraine they occupied to Stalingrad. For this purpose, the entire German military transport air fleet was transferred to Stalingrad. Our Russian female anti-aircraft gunners organized an anti-aircraft screen. In two months they shot down 500 three-engine German Junkers 52 aircraft.
In addition, they shot down another 500 aircraft of other types. The German invaders had never known such a defeat anywhere in Europe.
Night Witches
The women's night bomber regiment of Guard Lieutenant Colonel Evdokia Bershanskaya, flying single-engine U-2 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.
The U-2 aircraft (from 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. The U2 carried up to 200 kg of bombs at a distance of up to 100 km to the German rear. . During the night, they each 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 plane 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 saw many times how German anti-aircraft gunners drove heavy machine guns across the sky, trying to find the silent U2.
Now the Polish gentlemen do not remember how Russian beautiful pilots in the winter of 1944 dropped weapons, ammunition, food, medicine to the citizens of Poland who rebelled in Warsaw against the German fascists...
On the Southern Front near Melitopol and in the men’s fighter regiment, a Russian girl pilot named White Lily. It was impossible to shoot it down in an air battle. A flower was painted on board her fighter - a white lily.
One day the regiment was returning from a combat mission, White Lily was flying at the rear - only the most experienced pilots are given such an honor.
A German Me-109 fighter was guarding her, hiding in a cloud. He fired a burst at White Lily and disappeared into the cloud again. Wounded, she turned the plane around and rushed after the German. She never returned back... After the war, her remains were accidentally discovered by local boys when they were catching snakes in mass grave in the village of Dmitrievka, Shakhtarsky district, Donetsk region.
Miss Pavlichenko
In the Primorsky Army, one of the men - sailors - fought - a girl - a sniper. Lyudmila Pavlichenko. By July 1942, Lyudmila had already killed 309 German soldiers and officers (including 36 enemy snipers).
Also in 1942, she was sent with a delegation to Canada and the United States 
States. During the trip, she received a reception from 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!”
Regimental medical instructor (nurse) Zina Tusnolobova fought in a rifle regiment on the Kalinin Front near Velikiye Luki.
She walked in the first chain with the soldiers, bandaged the wounded. In February 1943, in the battle for the Gorshechnoye station in the Kursk region, trying to help a 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 tried to finish off the nurse with blows from her boots and butt.
At night, a nurse showing signs of life was discovered by a reconnaissance group, transferred to the location of 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 wearing prosthetics and with prosthetic arms. But she didn’t lose heart.
I've recovered. Got married. She gave birth to three children and raised them. True, her mother helped her raise her children. She died in 1980 at the age of 59.
Zinaida’s letter was read to the soldiers in the units before the storming of Polotsk:
Avenge me! Avenge my native Polotsk!
May this letter reach the hearts 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 confined to a hospital bed. I now have neither arms nor legs. The Nazis did this.
I was a chemical laboratory assistant. When the war broke out, she voluntarily went to the front along with other Komsomol members. Here I took part in battles, carried out 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 help the wounded platoon commander, I was also wounded, both legs were broken. The Nazis launched 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 hitting me on the head and face with the rifle butt...
And now I am disabled. I recently learned to write. I am writing this letter with a stump right hand, which is cut off above the elbow. They made me prosthetics, and maybe I will learn to walk. If only I could pick up a machine gun just one more time to get even with the Nazis for their blood. For the torment, for my distorted life!
Russian people! Soldiers! I was your comrade, I walked with you in the same row. Now I can't fight anymore. And I ask you: take revenge! Remember and do not spare the damned fascists. Exterminate them like mad dogs. Avenge them for me, for hundreds of thousands of Russian slaves driven into German slavery. And let every girl’s burning tear, like a drop of molten lead, incinerate one more German.
My friends! When I was in a hospital in Sverdlovsk, Komsomol members of a Ural plant, who took patronage over me, built five tanks at an inopportune time and named them after me. The knowledge that these tanks are now beating the Nazis gives great relief to my torment...
It's very difficult for me. At twenty-three years old, to find myself in the position in which I found myself... Eh! Not even a tenth of what I dreamed of, what I strived for has been done... But I don’t lose heart. I believe in myself, I believe in my strength, I believe in you, my dears! I believe that the Motherland will not leave me. I live in 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, dear ones: when you go on the assault, remember me!
Remember - and let each of you kill at least one fascist!
Zina Tusnolobova, Guard Sergeant Major of the Medical Service.
Moscow, 71, 2nd Donskoy proezd, 4-a, Institute of Prosthetics, ward 52.
Newspaper “Forward to the Enemy”, May 13, 1944.
Tankers
A tank driver has a very hard job: loading shells, collecting and repairing broken tracks, working with a shovel, crowbar, sledgehammer, carrying logs. And most often under enemy fire.
In the 220th T-34 Tank Brigade we had Lieutenant Valya Krikalyova as a mechanic-driver on the Leningrad Front. In the battle, a German anti-tank gun smashed the track of her tank. Valya jumped out of the tank and began to repair the caterpillar. The German machine gunner stitched it diagonally across the chest. Her comrades did not have time to cover her. Thus, a wonderful tank girl passed away into eternity. We, tankers from the Leningrad Front, still remember it.
On the Western Front in 1941, the tank company commander, Captain Oktyabrsky, fought in a T-34. He died the death of the brave in August 1941. The young wife Maria Oktyabrskaya, who remained behind the lines, 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 use the proceeds to buy a T-34 tank and take revenge on the Germans for the tankman husband they killed:
Moscow, Kremlin To the Chairman of the State Defense Committee. Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
Dear Joseph Vissarionovich!
My husband, regimental commissar Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrsky, died in the battles for the Motherland. 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 deposited all my personal savings - 50,000 rubles - into the state bank to build a tank. I ask you to name the tank “Battle Friend” and send me to the front as the driver of this tank. I have a specialty as a driver, I have excellent command of a machine gun, and I am a Voroshilov marksman.
I send you warm greetings and wish you good health for many, many years to come, to the fear of your enemies and to the glory of our Motherland.
OKTYABRSKAYA Maria Vasilievna.
Tomsk, Belinskogo, 31
Stalin ordered Maria Oktyabrskaya to be accepted into the Ulyanovsk Tank School, trained, and given 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, near the Krynki station in the Vitebsk region, the left sloth of the “Battle Girlfriend” tank was destroyed by a shell. 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 nineteen women whose gentle hands drove tanks towards the enemy. Katya was the commander of the T-60 light tank on the Southwestern Front west of Stalingrad.
Katya Petlyuk received the T-60 light tank. For convenience in battle, each vehicle had its own name. The names of the tanks were all impressive: “Eagle”, “Falcon”, “Grozny”, “Slava”, and on the turret of the tank that Katya Petlyuk received there was an unusual inscription – “Malyutka”.
The tankers chuckled: “We’ve already hit the nail on the head – the little one in the Malyutka.”
Her tank was connected. She walked behind the T-34, and if one of them was hit, then she approached the knocked-out tank in her T-60 and helped the tankers, delivered spare parts, and acted as a liaison. 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 money from Omsk preschool children, who, wanting to help the Red Army, donated their savings for toys to the construction of a combat vehicle and dolls. In a letter to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, they asked to name the tank “Malyutka”. Omsk preschoolers collected 160,886 rubles...
A couple of years later, Katya was already leading the T-70 tank into battle (I still had to part with the Malyutka). She took part in the battle for Stalingrad, and then as part of the Don Front in the encirclement and defeat of Nazi troops. She took part in the battle on the Kursk Bulge and liberated left-bank Ukraine. She was seriously wounded - at the age of 25 she became a disabled person of the 2nd group.
After the war, she lived in Odessa. Having removed her officer's shoulder straps, she studied to be 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, and medals.
Many years later, Marshal of the Soviet Union I. I. Yakubovsky, the former commander of the 91st separate tank brigade, would write in the book “Earth on Fire”: “... in general, it is difficult to measure how much the heroism of a person elevates. They say about him that this is courage of a special order. Ekaterina Petlyuk, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, certainly possessed it.”
Based on materials from the diary entries of Vladimir Ivanovich Trunin and the Internet.