The heroic act of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya

September 13 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Soviet partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the first woman awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Read more about her immortal feat.

She was only 18 years old when the Great Patriotic War began. From the first days she firmly decides to become a volunteer. So she will end up in a partisan sabotage and reconnaissance detachment. The Nazis were already in the Moscow region, and in the fall of 1941, Stalin issued an order that ordered “to expel the German invaders from all populated areas, smoke them out of all premises and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air, destroy and burn to the ground all populated areas behind German lines.” troops at a distance of 40-60 km in depth from the front edge and 20-30 km to the right and left of the roads.”

Commanders of sabotage groups of unit No. 9903 P.S. Provorov, whose group included Zoya, and B.S. Krainov received the task of burning 10 settlements within 5-7 days, including the village of Petrishchevo. Having gone out on a combat mission together, both groups came under fire near the village of Golovkovo, located 10 km from Petrishchev. Of the 20 partisans, only a few people remained, who united under the command of Boris Krainov.

On November 27 at 2 a.m., Boris Krainov, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya set fire to three houses in Petrishchevo. The Germans lost 20 horses in the fire. Krainov was waiting for Klubkov and Zoya at the appointed place. The comrades missed each other. Klubkov was captured by the Germans. Zoya, left alone, decided to set fire to several more fascist dwellings in the village. But the enemies were already on the alert, they gathered local residents and, under pain of execution, ordered them to carefully guard their homes. On November 28, while trying to set fire to Sviridov’s barn, she was captured by the owner, who handed the girl over to the Germans. During the interrogation, Zoya, hiding her real name, called herself Tanya and did not say anything. The Nazis brutally tortured her: they stripped her naked, flogged her with belts, and drove her out into the cold naked and barefoot for a long time. Local residents Solina and Smirnova, who lost their homes as a result of arson, also tried to join in the torture of Kosmodemyanskaya. They doused Zoya with slop. But no matter how much the monsters mocked the girl, no matter what atrocities they used, she did not say anything to them.

At 10:30 the next morning, Kosmodemyanskaya, with the sign “Arsonist” on her chest, was taken out into the street, where a gallows was hastily erected. When Zoya was being led to execution, fire victim Smirnova hit her on the legs with a stick, shouting: “Who did you harm? She burned my house, but did nothing to the Germans..."

But Zoya did not lower her head, she walked proudly, with dignity. Near the gallows, where there were many Germans and villagers, they began to photograph her. At that moment she shouted: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look, but we need to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement. Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender. The Soviet Union is invincible and will not be defeated!” Then they set up the box. She stood on the box herself without any command. A German came up and began to put on the noose. At this time she shouted: “No matter how much you hang us, you won’t hang us all, there are 170 million of us. But our comrades will avenge you for me.” . She was not allowed to say anything more, the box was knocked out from under her feet.

Kosmodemyanskaya’s body hung on the gallows for about a month, repeatedly being abused by German soldiers passing through the village. On New Year's Day 1942, drunken Germans tore off the hanged woman's clothes and once again violated the body, stabbing it with knives and cutting off her chest. The next day, the Germans gave the order to remove the gallows, and the body was buried by local residents outside the village.

The fate of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became widely known from the article “Tanya” by Pyotr Lidov, published in Pravda on January 27, 1942. The correspondent accidentally heard about the execution in Petrishchevo from a witness - an elderly peasant who was shocked by the courage of the unknown girl: “They hung her, and she spoke. They hanged her, and she kept threatening them..." . Lidov went to Petrishchevo, questioned the residents in detail and wrote an article based on their testimony. Her identity was soon established, and on February 18 Lidov wrote a continuation in the same Pravda, “Who Was Tanya.” And on February 16, 1942, a decree was signed awarding her the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

The villagers who helped the Germans capture the partisan, as well as comrade Klubkov, who betrayed Zoya to the Nazis, were subsequently shot.

Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat is immortalized in works of literature and art. You can read about him in Margarita Aliger’s poem “Zoe”. In the midst of the war, the poet’s lines called on the Russian people to take revenge on the hated enemy:

Relatives, comrades, neighbors,

everyone who was tested by the war,

if everyone took a step towards victory,

as if she were approaching us!

There is no way back!

Rise up like a thunderstorm.

No matter what you do, you are in a fight.

Zoya’s mother Lyubov Timofeevna Kosmodemyanskaya, who lost not only her daughter, but also her son in the damned war, wrote the autobiographical story “Zoya and Shura.” From the writer Vyacheslav Kovalevsky you can find the story “Don’t be afraid of death!”, which describes Zoya’s partisan activities, children’s poetess A.L. Barto dedicated two poems to her: “To the Partisan Zoya”, “At the Monument to Zoya”. Thus, many generations of Soviet people were brought up by her example, her ardent love for the Motherland and hatred of the enemy.

The image of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is depicted in many Soviet films.
In 1944, director Leo Arnstam made the film Zoya.

And in 1946, Alexander Zarkhi and Joseph Kheifits in the film “In the Name of Life” showed part of the play about Kosmodemyanskaya. The fourth film “Partisans” is dedicated to her. War behind enemy lines" in the "Great Patriotic War" series. In 1985, director Yuri Ozerov highlighted the theme of Zoya’s feat in the film “Battle for Moscow.”

There are museums of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya throughout Russia and even in Germany.

- at the site of the feat and execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in Petrishchevo;

— in the village of Osino-Gai, Tambov region, Gavrilovsky district

— School No. 201 in Moscow, School No. 381 in St. Petersburg, located on Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street, and at the school in Zoya’s native village Borshchevka (Tambov region);

— Germany, city of Ederitz, Halle district — museum named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

Monuments to Zoya were installed on the Minsk highway, near the village of Petrishchevo, in the Donetsk and Rostov regions, in Tambov, in the Moscow metro, at the Partizanskaya station, in St. Petersburg, Kharkov, Saratov, Kiev, Bryansk, Volgograd, Izhevsk, Zheleznogorsk, Barnaul and other cities of vast Russia, where her memory is sacredly revered.

Monument to Zoya in PetrishchevoAt the Partizanskaya station in the Moscow metro

About Kosmodemyanskaya they composed the songs “Song about the partisan Tanya” (words by M. Kremer, music by V. Zhelobinsky), “Song about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya” (words by P. Gradov, music by Y. Milyutin), about her feat V. Dekhterev wrote the opera “Tanya ”, and N. Makarova composed the orchestral suite and opera “Zoya”, the musical and dramatic poem “Zoya” by V. Yurovsky, the ballet “Tatyana” by A. Crane are famous.

Her feat is also captured in painting. “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya” is the name of the Kukryniksy’s painting; Dmitry Mochalsky also has a painting with the same name. The execution of Zoya - on the canvas by K.N. Shchekotov “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya before the execution” and in the painting by G. Inger “The Execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya”.

Painting by KukryniksyPainting by D. MochalskyPainting by G. IngerPainting by K. Shchekotov

All these paintings captured the most tragic and heroic moments of the partisan’s life.

The ashes of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

There is mortal peace on your face...
This is not how we will remember you.
You remained alive among the people,
And the Fatherland is proud of you.
You are like her battle glory,
You are like a song calling to battle!

Agniya Barto

“No matter how much you hang us, don’t hang us all, we are one hundred and seventy million. But our comrades will avenge you for me.”

…Yes. She said this - Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - the first woman awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 into a family of priests. Her place of birth is the village of Osino-Gai, Tambov province (USSR). Zoya's grandfather, Pyotr Ioannovich Kosmodemyansky, was brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 for trying to hide counter-revolutionaries in a church. Zoya's father, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky, studied at the theological seminary, but did not have time to graduate because... (according to Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya - Zoya’s mother) the whole family fled from denunciation to Siberia. From where a year later she moved to Moscow. In 1933, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky died after an operation. Thus, Zoya and her brother Alexander (future Hero of the Soviet Union) were left to be raised by one mother. Zoya graduated from the 9th grade of school No. 201. She was interested in school subjects such as history and literature. But, unfortunately, it was difficult for her to find a common language with her classmates. In 1938, Zoya joined the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM).

In 1941, terrible events began for the country, the Great Patriotic War began. From the first days, brave Zoya wanted to fight for her homeland and go to the front. She contacted the Oktyabrsky District Komsomol Committee. On October 31, 1941, Zoya, along with other Komsomol volunteers, was taken to a sabotage school. After three days of training, the girl became a fighter in a reconnaissance and sabotage unit (“partisan unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front”). The leaders of the military unit warned that the participants in this operation were actually suicide bombers; the loss rate of fighters would be 95%. Recruits were also warned about torture and death in captivity. Anyone unprepared was asked to leave the school. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, like many other volunteers, did not flinch; she was ready to fight for the victory of the Soviet Union in this terrible war. Then Kosmodemyanskaya was only 18 years old, her life was just beginning, but the Great War crossed out the life of young Zoya.

On November 17, the Supreme High Command issued order No. 428, which ordered to deprive (quote) “the German army of the opportunity to be located in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold in the field, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open.” sky,” with the purpose of “destroying and burning to the ground all populated areas in the rear of German troops.”

A team of saboteurs was tasked with burning ten settlements within 5-7 days. The group, which included Zoya, was given Molotov cocktails and dry rations for 5 days.

Kosmodemyanskaya managed to set fire to three houses and also destroy German transport. On the evening of November 28, while trying to set fire to the barn, Zoya was captured by the Germans. She was questioned by three officers. It is known that the girl called herself Tanya and did not say anything about her reconnaissance squad. The German executioners brutally tortured the girl; they wanted to find out who sent her and why. From the words of those present, it is known that Zoya, having been stripped naked, was flogged with belts, then led barefoot through the snow in the cold for four hours. It is also known that Smirnova and Solina, the housewives whose houses were set on fire, took part in the beating. For this they were subsequently sentenced to death.

The courageous Komsomol member did not say a word. Zoya was so brave and devoted to her Motherland that she did not even give her real name.

At 10:30 the next morning, Kosmodemyanskaya was taken to the street where a gallows had already been erected. All the people were forced to go out into the street to look at this “spectacle.” They hung a sign on Zoya’s chest that read “House Arsonist.” Then they put her on a box and put a noose around her neck. The Germans began to photograph her - they really loved photographing people before execution. Zoya, taking advantage of the moment, began to speak loudly:

Hey, comrades! Be brave, fight, beat the Germans, burn them. Poison!.. I'm not afraid to die, comrades. This is happiness, to die for your people. Farewell, comrades! Fight, don't be afraid! Stalin is with us! Stalin will come!

The body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya hung on the street for a month. Passing soldiers repeatedly mocked him shamelessly. On New Year's Day 1942, drunken fascist monsters took off her clothes and stabbed her body with knives, cutting off one breast. After such abuse, it was ordered to remove the body and bury it outside the village. Subsequently, the body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was reburied in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

The fate of this courageous girl became known from the article “Tanya” by Pyotr Lidov, published on January 27, 1942 in the Pravda newspaper. And on February 16, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Poems, stories, poems are dedicated to Kosmodemyanskaya. Monuments to the Heroine were erected on the Minsk highway, at the Izmailovsky Park metro station, in the city of Tambov and the village of Petrishchevo. In tribute to Zoya, museums have been opened and streets have been named. Zoya, a young and selfless girl, became an inspiring example for the entire Soviet people. Her heroism and courage shown in the fight against the fascist invaders are admired and inspired to this day.

Family

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gai (the village in various sources is also called Osinov Gai or Osinovye Gai, which means “aspen grove”), Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region, in a family of hereditary local priests.

Zoya's grandfather, the priest of the Znamenskaya Church in the village of Osino-Gai Pyotr Ioannovich Kozmodemyansky, was captured by the Bolsheviks on the night of August 27, 1918 and, after cruel torture, was drowned in the Sosulinsky pond. His corpse was discovered only in the spring of 1919; the priest was buried next to the church, which was closed by the communists, despite complaints from believers and their letters to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in 1927

Zoya's father Anatoly studied at the theological seminary, but did not graduate from it; married local teacher Lyubov Churikova.

Zoya had been suffering from a nervous disease since she was moving from 8th to 9th grade... She... had a nervous illness for the reason that her children did not understand. She didn’t like the fickleness of her friends: as sometimes happens, today a girl will share her secrets with one friend, tomorrow with another, these will be shared with other girls, etc. Zoya did not like this and often sat alone. But she was worried about all this, saying that she was a lonely person, that she could not find a girlfriend.

Captivity, torture and execution

Execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

External images
	Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is led to execution 2.
	The body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

Zoya’s fighting friend Klavdiya Miloradova recalls that during the identification of the corpse, there was dried blood on Zoya’s hands and there were no nails. A dead body does not bleed, which means Zoya’s nails were also torn out during torture.

At 10:30 the next morning, Kosmodemyanskaya was taken out into the street, where a gallows had already been erected; a sign was hung on her chest that read “House Arsonist.” When Kosmodemyanskaya was brought to the gallows, Smirnova hit her legs with a stick, shouting: “Who did you harm? She burned my house, but did nothing to the Germans...”

One of the witnesses describes the execution itself as follows:

They led her by the arms all the way to the gallows. She walked straight, with her head raised, silently, proudly. They brought him to the gallows. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows. They brought her to the gallows, ordered her to expand the circle around the gallows and began to photograph her... She had a bag with bottles with her. She shouted: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look, but we need to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement.” After that, one officer swung his arms, and others shouted at her. Then she said: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender.” The officer shouted angrily: “Rus!” “The Soviet Union is invincible and will not be defeated,” she said all this at the moment when she was photographed... Then they framed the box. She stood on the box herself without any command. A German came up and began to put on the noose. At that time she shouted: “No matter how much you hang us, you won’t hang us all, there are 170 million of us. But our comrades will avenge you for me.” She said this with a noose around her neck. She wanted to say something else, but at that moment the box was removed from under her feet, and she hung. She grabbed the rope with her hand, but the German hit her hands. After that everyone dispersed.

In the “Corpse Identification Act” dated February 4, 1942, carried out by a commission consisting of representatives of the Komsomol, officers of the Red Army, a representative of the RK CPSU (b), the village council and village residents, on the circumstances of the death, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses of the search, interrogation and execution, it was established that Komsomol member Z. A. Kosmodemyanskaya before her execution uttered the words of appeal: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look. We must help the Red Army fight, and for my death our comrades will take revenge on the German fascists. The Soviet Union is invincible and will not be defeated." Addressing the German soldiers, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya said: “German soldiers! Before it's too late, surrender. No matter how much you hang us, you can’t hang us all, there are 170 million of us.”

Subsequently, Kosmodemyanskaya was reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

There is a widespread version (in particular, it was mentioned in the film “The Battle of Moscow”), according to which, having learned about the execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, I. Stalin ordered the soldiers and officers of the 332nd Wehrmacht Infantry Regiment not to be taken prisoner, but only to be shot. The regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Rüderer, was captured by front-line security officers, convicted and later executed by court verdict. .

Posthumous recognition of the feat

Zoya’s fate became widely known from the article “Tanya” by Pyotr Lidov, published in the newspaper “Pravda” on January 27, 1942. The author accidentally heard about the execution in Petrishchevo from a witness - an elderly peasant who was shocked by the courage of an unknown girl: “They hanged her, and she spoke a speech. They hanged her, and she kept threatening them...” Lidov went to Petrishchevo, questioned the residents in detail and published an article based on their questions. Her identity was soon established, as reported by Pravda in Lidov’s February 18 article “Who Was Tanya”; even earlier, on February 16, a decree was signed awarding her the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

During and after perestroika, in the wake of anti-communist criticism, new information about Zoya appeared in the press. As a rule, it was based on rumors, not always accurate memories of eyewitnesses, and in some cases - on speculation, which, however, was inevitable in a situation where documentary information contradicting the official “myth” continued to be kept secret or was just was declassified. M. M. Gorinov wrote about these publications that in them “some facts of the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya were reflected, which were hushed up during Soviet times, but were reflected, as in a distorting mirror, in a monstrously distorted form”.

Researcher M. M. Gorinov, who published an article about Zoya in the academic journal “Domestic History,” is skeptical about the version of schizophrenia, but does not reject the newspaper’s reports, but only draws attention to the fact that their statement about suspicion of schizophrenia is expressed in a “streamlined” way. form.

Version about the betrayal of Vasily Klubkov

In recent years, there has been a version that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was betrayed by her squadmate, Komsomol organizer Vasily Klubkov. It is based on materials from the Klubkov case, declassified and published in the Izvestia newspaper in 2000. Klubkov, who reported to his unit at the beginning of 1942, stated that he was captured by the Germans, escaped, was captured again, escaped again and managed to get to his own. However, during interrogations he changed his testimony and stated that he was captured along with Zoya and handed her over, after which he agreed to cooperate with the Germans, was trained at an intelligence school and was sent on an intelligence mission.

Could you please clarify the circumstances under which you were captured? - Approaching the house I had identified, I broke the bottle with “KS” and threw it, but it did not catch fire. At this time, I saw two German sentries not far from me and, showing cowardice, ran away into the forest, located 300 meters from the village. As soon as I ran into the forest, two German soldiers pounced on me, took away my revolver with cartridges, bags with five bottles of “KS” and a bag with food supplies, among which was also a liter of vodka. - What evidence did you give to the German army officer? “As soon as I was handed over to the officer, I showed cowardice and said that there were three of us in total, naming the names of Krainev and Kosmodemyanskaya. The officer gave some order in German to the German soldiers; they quickly left the house and a few minutes later brought Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. I don’t know whether they detained Krainev. - Were you present during the interrogation of Kosmodemyanskaya? - Yes, I was present. The officer asked her how she set the village on fire. She replied that she did not set the village on fire. After this, the officer began beating Zoya and demanded testimony, but she categorically refused to give one. In her presence, I showed the officer that it was indeed Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya, who arrived with me in the village to carry out acts of sabotage, and that she set fire to the southern outskirts of the village. Kosmodemyanskaya did not answer the officer’s questions after that. Seeing that Zoya was silent, several officers stripped her naked and severely beat her with rubber truncheons for 2-3 hours, extracting her testimony. Kosmodemyanskaya told the officers: “Kill me, I won’t tell you anything.” After which she was taken away, and I never saw her again.

Klubkov was shot for treason on April 16, 1942. His testimony, as well as the very fact of his presence in the village during Zoya’s interrogation, is not confirmed in other sources. In addition, Klubkov’s testimony is confused and contradictory: he either says that Zoya mentioned his name during interrogation by the Germans, or says that she did not; states that he did not know Zoya’s last name, and then claims that he called her by her first and last name, etc. He even calls the village where Zoya died not Petrishchevo, but “Ashes”.

Researcher M. M. Gorinov suggests that Klubkov was forced to incriminate himself either for career reasons (in order to receive his share of dividends from the unfolding propaganda campaign around Zoya), or for propaganda reasons (to “justify” Zoya’s capture, which was unworthy, according to the ideology of that time, Soviet fighter). However, the version of betrayal was never put into propaganda circulation.

Awards

Medal "Gold Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union (February 16, 1942) and the Order of Lenin (posthumously).

Memory

Monument at the Partizanskaya metro station

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya's grave at Novodevichy Cemetery

Museums

Monumental art

Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya near school 201 in Moscow

Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in the courtyard of school number 54 in Donetsk

Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in Tambov

Monument in the village of Osino-Gai, Tambov region, in the birthplace of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Tambov sculptor Mikhail Salychev
Monument in Tambov on Sovetskaya Street. Sculptor Matvey Manizer.
Bust in the village of Shitkino
Monument on the platform of the Partizanskaya metro station in Moscow.
Monument on the Minsk highway near the village of Petrishchevo.
Memorial plate in the village of Petrishchevo.
Monument in St. Petersburg in Moscow Victory Park.
Monument in Kyiv: square on the corner of the street. Olesya Gonchar and st. Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Monument in Kharkov in “Victory Square” (behind the “Mirror Stream” fountain)
Monument in Saratov on Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street, near school No. 72.
Monument in Ishimbay near school No. 3
Monument in Bryansk near school No. 35
Bust in Bryansk near school No. 56
Monument in Volgograd (on the territory of school No. 130)
Monument in Chelyabinsk on Novorossiyskaya Street (in the courtyard of school No. 46).
Monument in Rybinsk on Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street on the banks of the Volga.
Monument in the city of Kherson near school No. 13.
Bust near a school in the village of Barmino, Lyskovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region.
Bust in Izhevsk near school number 25
Bust in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, near gymnasium No. 91
Monument in Berdsk (Novosibirsk region) near school No. 11
Monument in the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy near the Bolshevyazemskaya gymnasium
Monument in Donetsk in the courtyard of school number 54
Monument in Khimki on Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street.
Monument in Stavropol near gymnasium No. 12
Monument in Barnaul near school No. 103
Monument in the Rostov region, village. Tarasovsky, monument near school No. 1.
Bust in the village of Ivankovo, Yasnogorsk district, Tula region, in the courtyard of the Ivankovo secondary school
Bust in the village Tarutino, Odessa region, near the primary secondary school
Bust in Mariupol in the courtyard of school No. 34
Bust in Novouzensk, Saratov region, near school No. 8

Fiction

Margarita Aliger dedicated the poem “Zoe” to Zoya. In 1943, the poem was awarded the Stalin Prize.
Lyubov Timofeevna Kosmodemyanskaya published “The Tale of Zoya and Shura”. Literary record of Frida Vigdorova.
Soviet writer Vyacheslav Kovalevsky created a dilogy about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The first part, the story “Brother and Sister,” describes the school years of Zoya and Shura Kosmodemyansky. The story “Don't be afraid of death! "is dedicated to Zoya’s activities during the harsh years of the Great Patriotic War,
The Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet and the Chinese poet Ai Qing dedicated poems to Zoya.
A. L. Barto poems “Partisan Tanya”, “At the monument to Zoya”

Music

Painting

Kukryniksy. “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya” (-)
Dmitry Mochalsky “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya”
K. N. Shchekotov “The Last Night (Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya).” 1948-1949. Canvas, oil. 182x170. OOMII named after. M. A. Vrubel. Omsk.

Movies

“Zoe” is a 1944 film directed by Leo Arnstam.
“In the Name of Life” is a 1946 film directed by Alexander Zarkhi and Joseph Kheifits. (There is an episode in this film where the actress plays the role of Zoya in the theater.)
“The Great Patriotic War”, film 4. “Partisans. War behind enemy lines."
“Battle for Moscow” is a 1985 film directed by Yuri Ozerov.

In philately

Other

Asteroid No. 1793 “Zoya” was named in honor of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, as well as asteroid No. 2072 “Kosmodemyanskaya” (according to the official version, it was named in honor of Lyubov Timofeevna Kosmodemyanskaya - the mother of Zoya and Sasha). Also the village of Kosmodemyansky in the Moscow region, Ruzsky district, and the Kosmodemyansk secondary school.

In Dnepropetrovsk, eight-year school No. 48 (now secondary school No. 48) was named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Singer Joseph Kobzon, poets Igor Puppo and Oleg Klimov studied at this school.

The electric train ED2T-0041 (assigned to the Alexandrov depot) was named in honor of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

In Estonia, Ida Virumaa district, on the Kurtna lakes, a pioneer camp was named in honor of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

In Nizhny Novgorod, school No. 37 of the Avtozavodsky district, there is a children's association “Schools”, created in honor of Z. A. Kosmodemyanskaya. School students hold ceremonial celebrations on Zoya's birthday and death day.

In Novosibirsk there is a children's library named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

A tank regiment of the National People's Army of the GDR was named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

In Syktyvkar there is Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street.

In Penza there is a street named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

In the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, on the Seversky Donets River, there is a children's camp named after Zoya Komodemyanskaya.

Literature

Great Soviet Encyclopedia . In 30 volumes. Publisher: Soviet Encyclopedia, hardcover, 18,240 pp., circulation: 600,000 copies, 1970.
Folk heroine. (Collection of materials about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya), M., 1943;
Kosmodemyanskaya L. T., The Tale of Zoya and Shura. Publisher: LENIZDAT, 232 pp., circulation: 75,000 copies. 1951, Publisher: Children's Literature Publishing House, hardcover, 208 pp., circulation: 200,000 copies, 1956 M., 1966 Publisher: Children's Literature. Moscow, hardcover, 208 pp., circulation: 300,000 copies, 1976 Publisher: LENIZDAT, soft cover, 272 pp., circulation: 200,000 copies, 1974 Publisher: Narodnaya Asveta, hardcover, 206 pp., circulation: 300,000 copies ., 1978 Publisher: LENIZDAT, paperback, 256 pp., circulation: 200,000 copies, 1984
Gorinov M. M. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923-1941) // National history. - 2003.
Savinov E. F. Zoya's comrades: Doc. feature article. Yaroslavl: Yaroslavl book. ed., 1958. 104 p.: ill. [About the combat work of the partisan detachment in which Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya fought.]
You remained alive among the people...: A book about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya / Compiled by: Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Valentina Dorozhkina, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Ivan Ovsyannikov. Photos of Alexey and Boris Ladygin, Anatoly Alekseev, as well as from the collections of the Osinogaevsky and Borshchevsky museums.. - Collection of articles and essays. - Tambov: OGUP “Tambovpolygraphizdat”, 2003. - 180 p.

Documentary film

“Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The truth about the feat" "Studio Third Rome" commissioned by State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company "Russia", 2005.

Notes

Some sources indicate the erroneous date of birth of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - September 8
Magazine "Rodina": Saint of Osinov Gai
Zoya changed her last name in 1930
M. M. Gorinov. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya // Domestic history
Closing of the church in the village of Osinovye Gai | History of the Tambov diocese: documents, research, persons
G. Naboishchikov. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - Russian Maid of Orleans
Senyavskaya E. S."Heroic symbols: reality and mythology of war"
1941-1942
...The 197th Infantry Division and its 332nd Regiment found their death in two cauldrons near Vitebsk on June 26-27, 1944: between the villages of Gnezdilovo and Ostrovno and in the area of Lake Moshno, north of the village of Zamoshenye
Mind Manipulation (book)
Library - PSYPORTAL
Vladimir Lota “About heroism and meanness”, “Red Star” February 16, 2002
Chapter 7. WHO BETRAYED ZOYA KOSMODEMYANSKAYA

Booker Igor 12/02/2013 at 19:00

From time to time, attempts are made to denigrate the feat of truly national heroes of the Soviet era. The selfless 18-year-old Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya did not escape this fate. How many buckets of dirt were poured on it in the early 90s, but time has washed away this foam too. These days, 72 years ago, Zoya died the death of a martyr, sacredly believing in her Motherland and its future.

Is it possible to defeat a people who, retreating, leave the enemy scorched earth? Is it possible to bring people to their knees if women and children, unarmed, are ready to rip the throat of a hefty fellow? To defeat such heroes, you need to try to make sure that they no longer exist. And there are two ways - forced sterilization of mothers or castration of the people's memory. When the enemy came to Holy Rus', he was always opposed by people of High Faith. Over the years, she changed her outer covers, inspiring the Christ-loving army for a long time, and then fought under the red flags.

It is significant that the first woman who was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) during the Great Patriotic War was born into a family of hereditary priests. Zoya Anatolyevna bore the surname Kozmodemyanskaya, common for Orthodox clergy. The surname owes its origin to the holy miracle-working brothers Cosmas and Damian. Among the Russian people, the unmercenary Greeks were quickly remade in their own way: Kozma or Kuzma and Damian. Hence the surname that Orthodox priests bore. Zoya’s grandfather, the priest of the Znamenskaya Church in the Tambov village of Osino-Gai, Pyotr Ioannovich Kozmodemyansky, was drowned by the Bolsheviks in a local pond in the summer of 1918 after severe torture. Already in the Soviet years, the usual spelling of the surname was established - Kosmodemyansky. The son of a martyr priest and the father of the future heroine, Anatoly Petrovich, first studied at the theological seminary, but was forced to leave it.

In January 1942, an issue of the newspaper Pravda with the essay “Tanya” was published. In the evening, the story told in the newspaper was broadcast on the radio. This is how the Soviet Union learned about one of the dramatic stories of the Great Patriotic War: a captured partisan remained silent during interrogations and was executed by the Nazis without telling them anything. During interrogation, she called herself Tatyana, and it was by this name that she initially became known. Later, a specially created commission found out that her real name was Zoya. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

The story of this girl became one of the canonical legends about Soviet heroes. She became the first woman during the war to be posthumously awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the USSR.

Later, like almost all other iconic feats of Soviet citizens, the story about Zoya was revised. In both cases, there were some distortions. Reality was either varnished, turning the girl into a faceless heroic-romantic figure, or, conversely, covered in black paint. Meanwhile, the real story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s combat performance and her death is truly full of both horror and valor.

On September 30, 1941, the battle for Moscow began. Its start was marked by a huge disaster, and the capital was already preparing for the worst. In October, the city began selecting young people for sabotage operations behind German lines. The volunteers were immediately told the not very good news: “95% of you will die.” Nevertheless, no one refused.

Commanders could even afford to select and reject unsuitable ones. This circumstance, by the way, is important in this sense: if something had been wrong with Zoya’s psyche, she simply would not have been enrolled in the detachment. Those selected were taken to a sabotage school.

Among the future saboteurs was a very young eighteen-year-old girl. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

She ended up in military unit 9903. Structurally, she was part of the intelligence department of the General Staff and worked at the headquarters of the Western Front. Initially it consisted of only a few officers. Military unit 9903 functioned since June 1941, its task was to form groups for operations in the rear of the Wehrmacht - reconnaissance, sabotage, mine warfare. The unit was commanded by Major Arthur Sprogis.

Initially, the results of the sabotage school’s work could hardly be called impressive. There was too little time to prepare each sabotage group. In addition, the front line was constantly rolling to the east, and contact with the groups thrown behind German lines was lost. In the fall of 1941, Sprogis organized a mass recruitment of volunteers for the first time.

The training went quickly. The first deployment behind enemy lines took place on November 6th. The date already says a lot: there was no talk of thorough sabotage preparation. On average, 10 days were allocated for training; Zoya’s group received only four days for preparation. The goal was to mine the road. Two groups set off. The one in which Zoya was walking returned. The other was intercepted by the Germans and died in its entirety.

The order was formulated as follows:

“You must prevent the supply of ammunition, fuel, food and manpower by exploding and setting fire to bridges, mining roads, setting up ambushes in the area of the Shakhovskaya - Knyazhi Gory road... The task is considered completed: a) destroy 5-7 cars and motorcycles; b) destroy 2–3 bridges; c) burn 1–2 warehouses with fuel and ammunition; d) destroy 15–20 officers.

The next raid was planned soon - after November 18. This time the combat mission of the saboteurs looked more than gloomy.

As a desperate measure, the Supreme Command Headquarters decided to resort to scorched earth tactics. On November 17, order No. 428 was issued:

To deprive the German army of the opportunity to be stationed in villages and cities, to drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold in the field, to smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air - this is an urgent task, the solution of which will largely determine the acceleration of the defeat of the enemy and the disintegration of his army.

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command orders:

1. Destroy and burn to the ground all populated areas in the rear of German troops at a distance of 40–60 km in depth from the front line and 20–30 km to the right and left of the roads.

2. In each regiment, create teams of hunters of 20–30 people each to blow up and burn settlements in which enemy troops are located.

3. If our units are forced to withdraw in one area or another, take the Soviet population with them and be sure to destroy all populated areas without exception so that the enemy cannot use them.

Was it a smart idea to burn villages? To a certain extent it was. The Wehrmacht suffered from poor quartering conditions, and several thousand extra frostbite among soldiers in the Feldgrau hammered an extra nail into the Reich's coffin. Was this idea cruel? More than. If the army mechanism stood behind the Germans and the Wehrmacht could provide its soldiers with at least tents and stoves, the residents of the burned villages could not count on anyone’s help.

In the fierce winter of war, completely different views of the world collided. The people who sent saboteurs to their death understood perfectly well that the disorganization of the German rear would ricochet back on their own fellow citizens. They proceeded from the logic of total war, where the enemy must be harmed by all means.

Residents of the destroyed settlements had their own view of things and, of course, could not be delighted that part of their village would turn into coal in the middle of winter. Subsequently, the Headquarters recognized this measure as erroneous and canceled it. However, privates and junior officers had no room for maneuver: they were soldiers, obliged to follow orders. The specific command for the saboteur squad looked like this:

“Burn 10 settlements (Comrade Stalin’s order dated November 17, 1941): Anashkino, Gribtsovo, Petrishchevo, Usadkovo, Ilyatino, Grachevo, Pushkino, Mikhailovskoye, Bugailovo, Korovino. Completion time: 5–7 days.”

It is characteristic that the order did not at all arouse delight among the young saboteurs. Therefore, according to one of them, Margarita Panshina, they decided not to set fire to residential buildings, limiting themselves to military purposes. It should be noted that in general there were different housing options in Wehrmacht units, but most often residents were expelled from houses where headquarters, communications centers, etc. were located. significant objects. Also, the owners could be evicted to a bathhouse or barn if there were too many soldiers in the house. However, it regularly turned out that German soldiers were quartered next to the peasants.

The group went on a new raid on the night of November 22. However, the Komsomol members, of course, were not real saboteurs. Soon the detachment came under fire and scattered. Several people went their own way and were soon captured by the Germans. These people were executed, and one of the saboteurs, Vera Voloshina, went exactly the same way as Zoya: she was tortured, achieved nothing and was executed only after torture.

Meanwhile, the surviving part of the detachment made their way through the forests to their destination. From a local resident we learned which villages there were Germans. What follows is less like a special operation, but a squad of students with little to no basic training cannot be expected to act like experienced soldiers.

Three people went to the village of Petrishchevo: Boris Krainov, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya. They moved towards the village one by one and, judging by Klubkov’s later testimony, set fire to several buildings. Tangles was captured in the confusion; he came across soldiers while returning to the forest. He was later recognized as a traitor who betrayed the group, but this version looks rather dubious.

In any case, Klubkov escaped from captivity and returned to his own, which is a rather non-trivial step for a coward and a traitor. In addition, Klubkov’s testimony does not conflict with the data of Krainov and the Germans captured later who were involved before this story.

In addition, the persistent torture of Zoya later indirectly testifies to Klubkov’s innocence: he knew no less than Zoya, and, if you believe the version of betrayal, the Germans had absolutely no need to torture Kosmodemyanskaya. Since Klubkov was shot, it is extremely difficult to verify his testimony, and in general, a dark trail of understatement trails behind this case.

Some time later, Zoya went to the village again - to set fire to buildings, in particular the house in the yard of which horses were kept. Instinctively, any normal person feels sorry for horses, but in war conditions, a horse is not a cute animal with smart eyes, but a military transport. Thus, it was an attempt on a military target. Subsequently, a Soviet memorandum stated:

“...in the first days of December at night she came to the village of Petrishchevo and set fire to three houses (the houses of citizens Karelova, Solntsev, Smirnov) in which the Germans lived. Along with these houses, the following were burned: 20 horses, one German, many rifles, machine guns and a lot of telephone cable."

Apparently, she managed to burn something during the first “visit” of the saboteurs to Petrishchevo. However, after the previous raid, Zoya was already expected in the village. Again, the wariness of the Germans is often explained by Klubkov’s betrayal, but after the raid and the capture of one saboteur, it was not necessary to receive any separate information to assume that there was someone else in the forest.

Between the two attacks, the Germans gathered a gathering and posted several sentries from among the residents in addition to their own soldiers. It is very easy to understand these people: a fire in a winter village is a death sentence. One of the guards, a certain Sviridov, noticed Zoya and called the soldiers, who captured Zoya alive.

Subsequently, assumptions were made about the complete absence of Germans in the village of Petrishchevo and the capture of saboteurs by local residents. Meanwhile, in Petrishchev and nearby, two people were captured - Klubkov and Kosmodemyanskaya, and they were armed with revolvers.

Despite the inexperience of the Komsomol members, an unarmed person, obviously, would not go for a revolver, and they could only be captured by numerous people who themselves had firearms - that is, the Germans. In general, in the Moscow region, things were extremely bad with entire residential buildings, and settlements where there were no Germans at all were rare. It was in this village that units of the 332nd Wehrmacht Infantry Regiment were quartered, and in Sviridov’s house, next to which Zoya tried to set fire to the barn, there were four officers.

On November 27 at 7 pm Zoya was brought to the house of the Kulik family. Details of further events became known from her. After the usual search, interrogations began. To begin with, the captured saboteur was beaten with belts and her face was mutilated. Then they drove her through the cold in her underwear, barefoot, burned her face and beat her continuously. According to Praskovya Kulik, the girl’s legs were blue from constant beatings.

During interrogations, she did not say anything. In reality, Kosmodemyanskaya did not possess any valuable information and nevertheless did not provide even unimportant information about herself to those who tortured her. During interrogations, she called herself Tanya, and under that name her story was published for the first time.

It was not only the Germans who beat the girl. On May 12, 1942, the accused resident of the village of Smirnova testified during interrogation:

“The next day after the fire, I was at my burned house, citizen Solina came up to me and said: “Come on, I’ll show you who burned you.” After these words she said, we headed to Petrushina’s house together. Entering the house, we saw partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was under the guard of German soldiers. Solina and I began to scold her, in addition to scolding, I swung my mitten at Kosmodemyanskaya twice, and Solina hit her with her hand. Then Petrushina, who kicked us out of her house, did not allow us to mock the partisan. the day after the partisans set fire to houses, including mine, in which German officers and soldiers were located, their horses stood in the courtyards, which burned in the fire, the Germans set up a gallows on the street, drove the entire population to the gallows of the village of Petrishchevo, where I also came. Not limiting myself to the abuse that I carried out in Petrushina’s house, when the Germans brought the partisan to the gallows, I took a wooden stick, walked up to the partisan and, in front of all those present, hit the partisan’s legs. It was at that moment when the partisan was standing under the gallows, I don’t remember what I said.”

Here, of course, it is easy to understand everyone. Zoya carried out the order and harmed the enemy as much as she could - and objectively did serious harm. However, the peasant women, who lost their homes because of this, could not have warm feelings for her: they still had to survive the winter.

On November 29, the denouement finally came. Kosmodemyanskaya was executed publicly, in the presence of Germans and local residents. Zoya, by all accounts, walked to the scaffold calmly and silently. Near the gallows, as residents later said during interrogations, she shouted:

“Citizens! Don’t stand there, don’t watch, but we must help fight! This death of mine is my achievement.”

Zoya’s specific words before her death became the subject of speculation and propaganda; in some versions she makes a speech about Stalin, in other versions she shouts: “The Soviet Union is invincible!” - however, absolutely everyone agrees that before her death, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya cursed her executioners and predicted the victory of her country.

For at least three days the numb body hung, guarded by sentries. They decided to remove the gallows only in January.

In February 1942, after Petrishchev’s release, the body was exhumed; relatives and colleagues were present at the identification. This circumstance, by the way, allows us to exclude the version according to which some other girl died in Petrishchevo. The short life of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya ended, and the legend about her began.

As usual, during the Soviet period Zoya’s story was glossed over, and in the 90s it was ridiculed. Among the sensational versions, a statement about Zoya’s schizophrenia surfaced, and most recently the Internet was enriched with a speech about Kosmodemyanskaya by a famous public figure and psychiatrist in the first specialty, Andrei Bilzho:

“I read the medical history of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which was kept in the archives of the psychiatric hospital named after P.P. Kashchenko. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was in this clinic more than once before the war; she suffered from schizophrenia. All the psychiatrists who worked in the hospital knew about this, but then her medical history was taken away because perestroika began, information began to leak out and Kosmodemyanskaya’s relatives began to be indignant that this was insulting her memory. When Zoya was taken to the podium and was about to be hanged, she was silent, keeping a partisan secret. In psychiatry this is called mutism: she simply did not could speak because she had fallen into a “catatonic stupor with mutism,” when a person moves with difficulty, looks frozen and is silent.”

It is quite difficult to take Bilzho’s word for several reasons. God be with him, with the “podium,” but in a professional sense, the “diagnosis” causes bewilderment.

Such a condition does not develop instantly (a person was walking and suddenly froze); it takes time for the development of complete stupor, usually several days, or even weeks, explains in psychiatrist Anton Kostin. - Considering that before being captured, Zoya underwent training for saboteurs, then was thrown to the rear, performed meaningful actions there, the statement that she was in a catatonic stupor at the time of her execution is, let’s say, a serious assumption. In the photograph, Zoya is being led to execution by the arms and legs, she moves independently, but in a stupor the person does not make movements, he is immobilized, and she should have been dragged or dragged along the ground.

In addition, as we remember, Zoya was not silent during the interrogations and execution, but, on the contrary, regularly talked with those around her. So the version of stupor does not stand up to even the most superficial criticism.

Finally, it is difficult to believe Bilzho for one more reason. After the scandalous remark, the whistleblower said that his father went through the entire Great Patriotic War on the T-34. Meanwhile, due to the fact that in our time the archives of the Great Patriotic War are largely open, we can check this and make sure that Guard Senior Sergeant Georgy Bilzho held the responsible position of head of the ammunition depot during the war.

The post, without any irony, is important, but regarding the T-34, the brain specialist still told a lie, and this circumstance undermines the credibility of the literal interpretation of what was written in the medical history.

Information about Zoe’s mental problems did not appear today. Back in 1991, an article was published according to which Kosmodemyanskaya in her youth was examined at the Kashchenko Hospital with suspected schizophrenia.

Meanwhile, no documentary evidence of this version was ever presented. When trying to establish the authorship of the version, it was discovered that the doctors who allegedly stated this “appeared” only to throw in a sharp thesis, and then mysteriously “disappeared.” In reality, everything is much more prosaic: in her youth, the girl suffered from meningitis, and subsequently grew up as an introverted, but quite mentally healthy teenager.

The story of the death of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is monstrous. A young girl went to commit sabotage behind enemy lines in one of the most brutal and uncompromising wars in human history, in pursuance of a controversial order. No matter how you feel about everything that’s happening, it’s impossible to blame her personally for anything. Questions for its commanders arise naturally. But she herself did what a soldier should do: she caused damage to the enemy, and in captivity she suffered monstrous torture and died, demonstrating to the end her unyielding will and strength of character.