She was born on November 8, 1917 in the village of Parfenovo, now Spas-Demensky district of the Kaluga region, into a peasant family. In 1933, she received the specialty of a laboratory assistant, graduating from the FZU school in the city of Podolsk at a cement plant. Later she graduated from an aviation technical school and an aviation school in the city of Balashov. She worked as a pilot in the aviation detachment of the Civil Air Fleet of the city of Smolensk.
Since 1941 in the ranks of the Red Army. Since 1942 on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. She fought in the North Caucasus, Kuban, Crimea, and Poland. She distinguished herself in the Belarusian operation. On the night of June 26, 1944, on the section of the Shklov-Chernoruchye highway, it bombed the retreating enemy and caused 2 fires.
By September 1944, the squadron commander of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (325th Night Bomber Aviation Division, 4th Air Army, 2nd Belorussian Front) of the Guard, Major E. A. Nikulina, made 600 sorties to bomb fortifications, crossings and enemy troops, causing him great damage.
On October 26, 1944, for courage and military valor shown in battles with enemies, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In total, she completed 774 combat missions. The pilots of her squadron made about 8,000 combat missions, inflicting great damage on the enemy in manpower and equipment.
After the war, Guard Major E. A. Nikulina was in the reserve and then retired. In 1948 she graduated from the Rostov party school, in 1954 - from the Pedagogical Institute. She worked in the city party committee. Lived in the city of Rostov-on-Don. She died on March 23, 1993.
Awarded the orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (three times), Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st and 2nd degrees; medals. At home, in the city of Spas-Demensk, Kaluga region, an obelisk was installed in the Walk of Fame. One of the streets of the city of Rostov-on-Don bears her name. There is a memorial plaque on the wall of the house where she lived.
***
Last night, the pilots made 6 combat missions. They bombed fascist troops retreating from Belarus. Returning at dawn from a combat mission, the commander of the Guard squadron, Major Evdokia Nikulina, took off again. The regiment was eagerly awaiting her. Every now and then they asked the duty officer:
- What about Nikulina, is she back?
“No,” he answered. - We'll wait until evening.
Where did the squadron commander go, why did her flight arouse such interest not only among his subordinates, but also among all his fellow soldiers?
...From the airfield to the village of Parfenovo, Smolensk region, it was only 90 kilometers. Less than an hour later, Nikulina’s plane and Zinaida Redko’s equipment appeared over the Spas-Demyansk station. The pilot did not look away from the ground. Here is the road, pine forest. How he has changed! Only bare, charred trees stick out. Pits are visible - craters from shells and aerial bombs. But where is Parfenovo? The village should be just under the wing of the plane. Nikulina could not be mistaken.
There are women and children on the field. They harnessed themselves to the plow and plowed. The pilot decided to land the plane next to them. U-turn. Landing. And now the car, bouncing, runs across the field. The meeting with fellow villagers was joyful and exciting. 4 years have passed since Nikulina last had a chance to visit home, and even then only a few days. And here she is again. The command allowed her to fly here. Accompanied by fellow villagers, the pilot went to her native village, of which only the name remained. Enemies wiped it off the face of the earth. Here and there dugouts were visible. The street is overgrown. Not a tree around. On the site of the family home there are charred logs, the yard is overgrown with nettles.
“I felt terrible,” Nikulina later told her friends. “I’m walking through the village, standing in my yard, but I don’t recognize the place.”
Here is the dugout. The walls are damp, there is water underfoot. Her brother’s aged and thinner wife rushed to her in tears.
“If your mother would look at you, she would be happy,” she said, wiping away her tears. - And we have experienced so much grief here! They hid from the Nazis in the forest. It’s good that we were safely buried, otherwise we would have been in danger of being hijacked.
Listening to the stories of relatives and friends about the terrible life under the Nazis, Dina (that was Evdokia Nikulina’s name since childhood) felt hatred of the invaders with renewed vigor. Almost the entire Nikulin family fought against the hated enemy. Brother Fedor and sister Olga died. Brothers Andrei and Mikhail were seriously injured.
Wandering through her native ashes, Nikulina involuntarily remembered her childhood, the training school, her road to aviation. Time pushed these events back, but could not erase them from memory or tear them out of the heart. They may have flashed fragmentarily in my mind, but they were close and dear. Each of them left a deep mark.
...The village kids had never seen an airplane. And then during the lesson there was a roar of an engine. We looked out the window: it was flying, and low - low, although it was small, but still an airplane. Classes had to be stopped. The schoolchildren ran out into the street and quickly headed to the plane, which had already landed. Third-grader Dina Nikulina ran almost ahead of everyone. It's winter, frosty, but the kids are hot. Suddenly the plane, raising a column of snow dust, took off. What a shame it was that we couldn’t see the outlandish car. It was then that schoolgirl Nikulina developed a special interest in human flight.
In 1930, when Dina turned 11 years old, she said goodbye to her native school and went to her brother, who worked at a cement plant in the town of Podolsk near Moscow. Another life has begun. The educational institution where Dina entered trained laboratory assistants. Graduates explored cement. She did the same thing after graduating from FZU in 1933. I liked the work, but it was hard - the thought of aviation, which had been firmly ingrained since childhood, did not give me rest. And then one day Dina and her friend Klava Dunina came to the flying club. They were lucky. True, they did not get into the flying club, since the reception had already ended, but suddenly a representative from the aviation school arrived to encourage young people to study aviation. There was no need to agitate anyone, but Nikulin did not need to agitate. Her dream was becoming a reality.
At the commission, Dina was asked what she wanted to be: a pilot or a technician? But she didn’t care, as long as she got into aviation. One of the commission members advised me to study to become a technician. Dina agreed. However, in her 2nd year at aviation school, Nikulina decided to master flying. They met her halfway, but set her the task of passing the exams for both a flight mechanic and a pilot. She agreed.
The year 1936 was marked by a great event for Dina Nikulina. Girls who studied at different aviation schools were brought together into a squadron, which was transferred to the Bataysk school. In 2 years, Dina completed a 3-year course, receiving the highest grade in flying. The Moscow Department of the Civil Air Fleet gave the pilot a referral to the Smolensk detachment. This is where we had to work! She carried mail, carried out tasks to feed flax, and destroyed malarial mosquitoes. Often I had to fly out with doctors on urgent calls.
Nikulina flew about 500 hours. And this is in just 2 years! With such flying experience, she began to serve the headquarters of the Western Front in the first days of World War II. Then the order came: to send the pilot E. Nikulina to the city of Engels at the disposal of Dina, who dreamed of heavy, high-speed vehicles, of smashing the enemy with them. But it turned out differently...
One day Raskov calls the pilot Amosova and says that the unit should be the first to go to the front.
— If you want to join the active army, then you will have to switch to this plane. Decide for yourself.
Amosova did not hesitate for a second to answer:
- Of course, I agree. Just send it to Nikulin too.
Raskova wrote it down. And after a while, meeting Dina, she asked:
— Aren’t you offended that you’ll have to fly the U-2? Agree?
- Agree! — the pilot answered firmly.
...Summer 1942. Evdokia Nikulina received an order to fly out to bomb the enemy. It was a dark, southern night, memorable for a lifetime. By the light of a lantern, the pilot wrote a statement asking to be accepted as a candidate member of the party. “I want to go on my first combat mission as a communist,” said the patriot.
The front line ran along the Mius River. Nikulina's crew was supposed to bomb a concentration of enemy troops. We gained more altitude. They did not immediately find the target location. Lack of experience took its toll. The bombs were dropped from 900 meters. We saw a strong explosion. Excited and joyful, they returned to the airfield. When Dina got off the plane, she was congratulated. The party organization unanimously accepted Nikulina as a candidate member of the party. But the happy moment was overshadowed: squadron commander Lyuba Olkhovskaya died. So already in the first hours of combat, the pilots felt the formidable power of war. Danger awaited on the ground and in the air. The crews of light night bombers responded to the death of their friend by increasing vigilance, flying skill, and high discipline.
Evdokia Nikulina became squadron commander. She was appointed navigator on her plane. Together they flew 450 combat missions. Listening to Nikulina, rereading Rudneva’s diaries, her letters to her parents, you learn how much they meant to each other.
In one of her letters to her mother, Zhenya Rudneva wrote:
“Well, of all the pilots, the best is, of course, Dina. Not because she is mine, no, that would be too immodest, but because she really is the best flyer.
Mommy, regardless of whether you receive her letter, send Dina a good letter: after all, she is almost your daughter. In the most difficult conditions, we are with her, together - only two, and no one around, and below us are enemies.”
Another entry is imbued with warm concern for a friend:
“Dina looked into the room, tired. After all, she is my big commander, and she has to work even when the others are resting. I barely persuaded her to go to dinner.”
One day Dina did not return. Zhenya was very worried and cried.
- What happened?
Dina and navigator Larisa Radchikova were injured in flight. Their plane was hit by 6 enemy searchlights. The shells turned the planes, the side. The pilot continued to drive the car. Suddenly lights began to run across the planes. What to do? We must put out the flames at all costs! How? Sliding is the only way out. The car began to fall sharply. Dina’s heart beat joyfully: the spotlights turned off and there was no fire! Now there is a new task: to reach our own people. Nikulina understood that she would not be able to get to the airfield in a riddled car, with a broken gas tank from which gasoline was leaking, and being wounded. It took incredible effort for her to sit down near the front line, on the side of the road. Random flashes of car headlights served as a guide.
The wounded pilot and navigator were taken to Krasnodar. There is the following entry about this in Zhenya Rudneva’s diary for August 1, 1943:
“On the morning of the 22nd, the regiment commander and I went to see Dina in Krasnodar. At the entrance to the city a ramp came down. I had to change it. It was already 6 o’clock, and you could see ambulance planes taking off from the airfield. It turns out that we arrived before Sima. Dina reported on the completion of the task, but I couldn’t even approach her - tears began to flow. Dina has a wound right through her shin, Lelya has shrapnel in her thigh, she has lost a lot of blood. They landed right next to the field hospital. Dinka is simply a hero - landing the car so calmly! It first knocked out the flames, but the engine could have caught fire because there was gasoline. Lelya was in shock.
I don’t want any pathos, but it was about Dina, about a simple woman, that Nekrasov said: “In a game, a horseman will not catch her, in trouble she will not be discouraged - she will save her, she will stop a galloping horse, she will enter a burning hut.”
...There were heavy battles near Rostov. Nikulina’s crew received orders to fly to the Don and prevent the enemy from building a crossing. On board 2 x 100 kg bombs. But let Dina herself tell about this flight:
“Lights flash below.
“It’s like a crossing,” said Zhenya.
We came closer: indeed, Hitler’s troops were crossing. They not only built a pontoon bridge, but also organized a boat crossing. We made an approach, and Rudneva dropped one of the bombs. The bomb hit the edge of the bridge. Now the second “gift” is going there too. But what is it? Once the plane passed over the target, the second time, but the bomb was not dropped.
“Something happened to the bomb release,” Zhenya said through the intercom.
- Pull the rope tighter! - I say.
We made two more circles, but to no avail. And then the anti-aircraft guns opened fire.
- Zhenya! Pull more.
“I skinned my hands bloody,” says Rudneva, “but the bomb doesn’t come off, that’s all.” I can't do anything. Try throwing the plane.
I started throwing the car down to the sides..... The anti-aircraft guns were hitting so hard that, just look, they would hit the plane. I decided to return. The bomb tilted the plane sharply, and it was difficult to keep it in a horizontal position. True, Rudneva helped me. She grabbed the second control stick and also flew the plane. Then I rested. During one of the breaks, my gaze fell on the bomb. To tell the truth, what I saw took my breath away. The "hotel" continued to hang under the left wing, but... there was no locking fork of the fuse blade. It is very dangerous. A blow with a force of 5 kilograms on the exposed fuse is enough and the bomb will explode. Rudneva courageously accepted the news. We decided to take a risk, but still land the car. Actually, there was no other way out.
“Prepare several rockets and illuminate the field for me,” I say to Zhenya. - Give me three red rockets. Our people will understand the signal - it means that the plane is returning with bombs, or something is wrong with the car or the crew. Understood?
- Understood.
Here is the airfield. We see other planes landing. They walk in a circle on the right, and I on the left. They noticed us, but, as it turned out later, they mistook us for the enemy. I’m just about to land, and the lights at the airport are turned off. Do whatever you want! Just look, the bomb will go off. We are spinning at an altitude of 300 meters. I turn to Rudneva:
- Zhenya, write a note. Wrap it in a scarf, tie it to the spare control stick and reset it. Write: “The bomb was not dropped: the lock is stuck. Check bomb racks and locks on all aircraft. I sit down. If we die, say hello to the families. We kiss everyone. Nikulina, Rudneva.”
Another call. The rocket light flashed. At the same moment, the navigator threw out her pen.
- As soon as we touch the ground, jump out! - I shout.
- I will jump, and you will stay? No! “No way,” Zhenya said decisively.
The earth is closer, closer... 15 meters. Rudneva fires a rocket launcher. Push. Earth! I sat down easily - easily... The plane flies, and I look to see if there is a bomb. Suddenly I see: there is no bomb. I give a sign to Zhenya, and we jump out of the car almost simultaneously. As soon as my comrades began to approach the landing site, I shouted:
- Don't come close. Bomb!
Weapons engineer Nadezhda Strelkova was called. She found the bomb and deftly unloaded it. It turns out that having come off, our deadly cargo slid across the grass and lay down. If he had gone lower, hit the hillock, we would have died...
When my nerves calmed down a little and the commotion caused by the dangerous landing subsided, I asked the deputy regiment commander:
— Did you find the control knob with the note?
- No. What pen? How did you fly without a handle?
I smiled and jokingly replied:
- At such a moment you can fly without a handle.
They never found the pen,” Dina concluded. “Apparently she got lost in the grass.”
The battles for the North Caucasus left a deep imprint on the pilot’s memory. The Nazis were near Mozdok, building crossings. Nikulina and Serafima Amosova each made 8 combat missions per night. Their blows caused enormous damage to the enemy. The next day an order came to award Nikulina, Amosova and Rudneva with the Order of the Red Banner.
Another flight to the crossing to Mozdok. Cargo - 4 x 50 kg bombs. In the enemy concentration area, they illuminated their “working place.” There are a lot of Hitler’s troops at the crossing, they’re literally swarming with them.
“We’ll go upwind, it’ll be easier to bomb,” Dina told the navigator. - Get ready. Count on it.
- I calculated it. To the left, to the left. Oh, not like that! Make an approach again.
At an altitude of 750 meters, intense work was going on. Both girls gave their full attention.
- Very good, Dina. Keep it up!
The plane shook. The familiar feeling that appeared every time the bombs came off filled my heart with joy. Turning around, Nikulina and Rudneva saw the results of the bombing.
The next day, the air regiment received orders for ground troops. It said that the fascist units that were at the crossing of the Terek had been swept away. The command thanked the pilots for their help.
In those days, the newspaper “Wings of the Soviets” in its issue of February 28, 1942 reported how boldly and decisively our night bomber crew led by E. Nikulina acted:
“The machines are in full readiness. The pilots are looking forward to the combat flight. A little time passed and the signal was given. One after another, the planes smoothly take off from the ground, disappearing into the blue of the night sky.
The first to set off on course was the decorated crew of Lieutenant Nikulina. It flies at the enemy 250 times. Nikulina confidently pilots her plane. This time the order was to destroy the enemy's railway station. This station is of great strategic importance, and the Germans therefore cover it with powerful anti-aircraft artillery fire.
Even from a distance, hearing the noise of engines, enemy machine guns open fire, and searchlights begin to restlessly rummage with their tentacles across the dark sky. But all this cannot stop the fearless patriots moving towards their goal. The station has been discovered. The bombs, accurately dropped by junior lieutenant Rudneva, land as intended. Bright flashes of explosions flashed on the ground, and thick clouds of black smoke covered the target...”
Behind every combat episode there is excellent teamwork, interaction, absolute understanding between the pilot and navigator, plus friendship.
When Nikulina and Rudneva celebrated the anniversary of their joint combat work, Zhenya expressed her feelings in poetry.
So that the enemies forget about the dream.
If a year flew by together,
If there are more than two hundred flights,
Then wherever I might be later,
I still can't forget you.
I won’t forget how we sat down with the hundred,
How on Manych the cannons hit us,
We flew over the burning Motherland.
The front-line biography of each of the girls is rich in combat episodes. Each of them is significant in its own way, adding some new touch to characterize both Nikulina and Rudneva.
...There were 2 enemy echelons at Krasnaya station. Strong anti-aircraft fire excluded the approach of a night bomber at the most convenient altitude: 600 - 800 meters. It's bad to bomb from a great height. Dina and Zhenya decided to wait for the train to leave the station.
“I see the smoke of the locomotive,” said the navigator. - Gain 600 meters. It’s okay that the smoke is spreading.
One bomb dropped. Past! The train is going very fast.
- Hit the head. Drop all the remaining ones,” Zhenya heard the commander’s order.
Explosion. Zhenya reacted violently. “Oh, we got it!” - she shouted joyfully. The task is completed, you can return.
...The situation required high skill. We sat down in the fog. We flew near Kizlyar, where the Germans had many tanks. Maneuvering between the mountains, Nikulina made flights to our surrounded units, delivering them food and ammunition. If we add that each such flight took place in clouds, it becomes clear how much strength and energy it took from the pilot.
The crew of Dina Nikulina, like other crews of the regiment, helped our landing force, which landed on the Kerch Peninsula, well.
...Clouds up to 100 meters. Waves under the car itself. The pilot feels their powerful breathing. This time the cargo is not bombs, but food. They are intended for a group of sailors and infantrymen fortified in the village of Eltigen. The storm made it impossible for boats to get through to them to help with food, ammunition, and medicine. Nikulina often put a note in another bag: “Guys! Don't be discouraged. We will help you." The newspapers that the girls brought on their own initiative brought great joy to the paratroopers. The journey to Eltigen and back was a tremendous effort. They entered from the strait and went into the strait. A very strong wind was blowing and the cloud cover was low; the Nazis often fired anti-aircraft fire at the planes. The “bombing” itself with bags containing everything necessary for the paratroopers required exceptional precision: the cargo could fall into the water or towards the enemy.
Dina Nikulina recalls that, despite the difficulties, she wanted to fly again and again. The landing commander then came to the regiment and thanked the “sisters,” as the soldiers called the female pilots.
Many combat missions were carried out against Sevastopol. They usually flew by sea so that enemy coastal artillery could not prevent the U-2 from reaching its target. They not only bombed, but also took with them flash bombs, which paralyzed the enemy’s searchlights. And what did it take to escape from the light beam, directing the plane into the sea! It is very difficult to fly over water, because the horizon is not visible. And yet, Dina preferred this maneuver - she approached the target from the sea, turning off the engine. It was in those days that she set a record in the regiment, lifting about 500 kilograms of bomb cargo on a U-2!
E. M. Rudneva, 1943.
On May 15, 1944, the regiment said goodbye to the south, to the sea. How many memories are associated with these places! The combat skills of Nikulina and her friends were forged here; several fellow soldiers died here, including everyone’s favorite Zhenya Rudneva.
...Dina walked around her native village, which had been burned and plundered by the enemy. She told the collective farmers about the path she had traveled at the front, about her friends in battle. She spent about 5 hours among her fellow villagers. Everyone saw her off: women, old people, children. The plane made a farewell circle and went west.
Our troops entered Polish territory. On one October night, good news came to the regiment: For the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command, courage, bravery and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Major Nikulina Evdokia Andreevna was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award Order of Lenin and Gold Star medal (No. 4741).
...The Soviet Army was advancing. Red Star night bombers appeared over East Prussia. Dina Nikulina flew combat missions to Stettin, Danzig and the Baltic Sea. Sometimes there were 12 flights a night.
On May 7, 1945, the squadron of the Hero of the Soviet Union of the Guard, Major Evdokia Nikulina, completed its last combat mission. She bombed the airfield and fascist troops at Swinemünde. A few hours later, the Nazis capitulated on this section of the front.
Soon after the war I was in this famous women's regiment. On Nikulina’s chest sparkled the “Gold Star” of the Hero, the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd degree and Alexander Nevsky, military medals “For Military Merit”, “For the Defense of the Caucasus” and “For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War” Patriotic War of 1941-45."
In addition to its commander E. Nikulina, the squadron received the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 8 more pilots and navigators. This squadron was truly a brave squadron! During the war, its crews flew about 8,000 combat missions.
Dina’s own flight book tells a lot. I leafed through it, wrote down the numbers of the heroine’s battle score and thought how much this cheerful, modest girl, with a kind, wide smile, had done for victory.
Hero of the Soviet Union Evdokia Nikulina made 774 combat missions during the war, spending 3,650 hours in the air, 1,500 of them at night.
We talked about the combat affairs of the night bombers, about their life at the front. Dina and her friends talked not only about flying, but also about their passion for embroidery. This “disease” has taken hold of literally everyone. We embroidered before and after flights, using every free minute. Some carried with them up to 50 different drawings. One day the commander of the 4th Air Army, General Vershinin, arrived. He was also in Nikulina’s squadron. The general smiled, examining the embroidered pillows.
- Well done! - he praised. — It’s immediately obvious that they are women. That's how it should be.
Dina Nikulina could tell the commander how they often didn’t get enough sleep to be clean and tidy. In the most difficult situations, they took care of their appearance. On the birthday of the hero of the occasion, an embroidered item was always given as a gift. We agreed in advance what kind of gift to give. A pillowcase with cornflowers, given to Dina by Zina Petrova, is a dear memory of great friendship, love, and the atmosphere of warmth and cordiality that reigned in the women's air regiment.
Life has long led each former pilot on its own path. Nikulina also decided on this road. In 1948 she graduated from the Rostov party school, and in 1954 from the Pedagogical Institute. She worked as an instructor for the city committee of the CPSU. Dina’s memory remained fresh of the heroic days, of the fight against the enemy in the name of freedom, the happiness of the Motherland and the people, and future generations. She died on March 23, 1993.
B. Lukyanov.
(Based on materials from the book “Heroines. Issue 2". - M.: Politizdat, 1969.)
Ozhina Evdokia Andreevna is a foreman of workers at the Moscow confectionery factory “Bolshevik” of the Ministry of Food Industry of the RSFSR.
In 1938, she came to the Moscow confectionery factory “Bolshevik”, where, after completing training at a training center, she began working as a confectioner. Over time, she became a top-class pastry chef, baking cakes for state leaders - Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev. Evdokia Andreevna’s cakes were enjoyed by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and King Baudouin I of Belgium. She traveled to Japan, where she taught her skills to Japanese confectioners.
In the 1960s, Bolshevik was one of the largest factories in Europe. The best specialists in the industry work here. By the resolution of the Committee of the Council of the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR, the Bolshevik factory was awarded a First Degree Diploma. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council in 1971, the Bolshevik confectionery factory was awarded the Order of Lenin for the early implementation of the Eighth Five-Year Plan.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 26, 1971, for outstanding successes achieved in fulfilling the tasks of the five-year plan for the development of the food industry, Ozhina Evdokia Andreevna awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
In the 1980s, having worked at the factory for more than 50 years, she retired.
She was awarded 2 Orders of Lenin (07/21/1966, 04/26/1971), medals, including “For Labor Valor” (05/28/1960).
CAKE FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II
Once upon a time, it seemed, not a single important state feast was complete without the participation of Evdokia Ozhina: she baked cakes for Stalin, all the secretaries general - from Khrushchev to Brezhnev, for the arrival of distinguished guests, honoring cosmonauts, famous artists and athletes... Evdokia Andreevna’s cakes came to the taste of the English Queen Elizabeth II and the Belgian King Baudouin. The Motherland recognized the pastry-maker’s “confectionery” merits with the Order of Lenin and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. And in Japan, millionaire Matsuo Kokado named a park in Osaka after her as a sign of gratitude. The beginning of our conversation was unexpected.
You know, I baked a cake for the anniversary of Labor. This was in 1961, when the newspaper celebrated its 40th anniversary,” said Evdokia Andreevna. - They called from the trade unions and asked to make a cake in the shape of a newspaper page. There was even a heartfelt text attached, which the confectioners drew with chocolate glaze, and from whole chocolate they molded a pen and the words - “Labor” - 40. You can grow up to 100 years without getting old.”
Evdokia Andreevna, how did they entrust you with the “special orders” team?
I came to the Bolshevik confectionery factory before the war. There was a training center here. I still remember my first master pastry chef, Pyotr Yakovlevich Fotin. Before the revolution, he himself studied with the Germans who worked at our factory, which then belonged to a Frenchman named Siu. Before studying, I was meticulous, not only quickly mastered the lessons of modeling and artistic drawing, but even began to offer some of my own recipes for baking. She received the highest rank as a cake maker, and from there she went straight to the special orders laboratory. And although our factory was considered the only one in the country that was trusted to make cakes for executives, I note that they, the executives, did not really indulge themselves in sweets. And then the war broke out, all the stamping lines were evacuated, and we prepared only crackers, cookies, biscuits, and chocolate for the army.
When did the first cakes appear in stores after the war?
The smell of vanilla and butter dough began to smell in Moscow in 1947. For our leaders, the “sweet life” began with Khrushchev: receptions, meetings, trips began, which were accompanied by feasts. There were so many significant events of world significance: take the same launches of satellites, the first flights of astronauts, the strengthening of peace throughout the world. In 1958, the Soviet delegation left for England. On the eve of the trip, our team was tasked with baking a cake that was supposed to not only capture the imagination of capitalists, but also make them believe in the happy, rich life of Soviet people. We fulfilled the party's task: we threw dust in the eyes of the bourgeoisie. The cake received the Grand Prix at the international fair held in London. Queen Elizabeth II visited her and, after tasting a Russian cake, asked, as she put it, “the author of a confectionery masterpiece.” I went out to her, and the queen shook my hand.
Then, when I arrived in the Soviet Union, journalists kept pestering me with questions: was I worried when meeting the queen, what kind of person did she seem to me? In the spirit of those years, I answered, they say, the Soviets have their own pride, why worry? The Queen is a beautiful woman with cold hands. I told it like it is, but nevertheless I got to the point: I and my cakes were included in almost all delegations, invited to all receptions, and elected as a deputy for many years. She traveled all over the world, passing on her experience to foreign colleagues in the confectionery shop.
Is it true that you taught the Japanese the art of confectionery?
I think that the two years spent in such a well-known concern as Parnas did not pass without a trace for Japanese confectioners. They called me Parnas-mama. We are very friendly with the owner of the concern, Matsuo Kokado, who made his initial capital on Russian liver pies. The same ones that we had for 5 kopecks.
Matsuo once served in the Navy. Soviet sailors invited the Japanese onto their ship, where they ate Russian vodka and liver pies. After demobilization, he and his brother baked a tray of these pies and walked through the streets of Osaka. Inviting customers, he shouted: “Russi pirosiki,” which attracted the attention of curious Japanese. “Pirosiki” was such a success that Kokado is now one of the richest entrepreneurs in his country. A good start is half the battle.
When I came to help him set up his confectionery production, he lined up all the employees in white coats and huge chef’s hats at the airfield, and a banner was stretched across the entire site: “Long live Ozhina-san!” There was even a film made of how the Russian master taught her Japanese colleagues. When perestroika began, Matsuo Kokado, having learned that there were empty shelves in the country and no food, gave me money and food...
Tell me, how did you get special orders?
A month or two before the event, government officials from the protocol service came to us. They informed us about the nature of the celebrations, how many guests were invited, and it happened that we received clear instructions about the shape of the future cake. During the time of Khrushchev, there was a struggle for the harvest: first virgin soil, then corn, then something else. Therefore, for Nikita Sergeevich they prepared a cake in the form of a huge field on which tall wheat and corn were heading, and everything around was strewn with fruits, berries, and vegetables made from chocolate.
For the 50th anniversary of GOELRO they sculpted a steam turbine, and for the country's anniversary - the cruiser "Aurora", the cake was called that and differed from the original only in size. When Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin flew into space, we made a generally “tricky” cake. It was in the form of a globe with a satellite flying over it. The whole secret was in the device under the table, which set the cake in motion. We received the order long before Gagarin’s flight, we prepared it in great secrecy, and only when Yuri Alekseevich landed did we understand what was what.
I remember well how they prepared a treat for Brezhnev’s 75th birthday. Leonid Ilyich was no longer at all good at that time: he walked poorly, his speech was slurred. I heard that he loves field daisies, so I decided to bake a cake - I ordered a 2x2 meter cake - chocolate, and there are white daisies on it. The day before, KGB officers came to the workshop and, seeing the cake, gave a thrashing: why are you mourning here, take away this dark chocolate, do something fun.
Who tasted the confectionery products you prepared?
After the recipe was ready, it was submitted for examination to the relevant authorities. The quality of raw materials: milk, flour, butter, eggs, etc. was checked in special laboratories. Everything was returned sealed. Our workshop itself was a real closed area; after the end of the shift it was also sealed. In the morning the seal was removed by special guards. There was always one of the KGB officers next to me. All dishes underwent special treatment and were locked under supervision until the next order.
Before entering the workshop, I also underwent thorough sanitary treatment, clothes and hair were checked - God forbid that anything foreign should be brought in! No manicure, nails are cut - nothing short. Despite the “sweet” life, many people’s nerves were frayed: not everyone could withstand the constant supervision, the “hood” over themselves. Some moved to other workshops for less stressful work, but those who remained became highly qualified confectioners. I am proud of my students, there have been many of them over the 55 years of work at Bolshevik. Among them are Tatyana Privalova, she now heads one of the workshops of the Bolshevik factory, Tamara Ivanova, who works in the patriarchal kitchen under Alexy II.
Evdokia Andreevna, I can’t help but ask. It is no secret that many women, fearing excess weight, deny themselves the pleasure of eating a piece or two of cake or pie. How did you, who worked in a confectionery factory for 55 years, manage to maintain a slim figure?
I think it’s all about the quality of the raw materials that go into making baked goods: it should be natural, not a substitute, and even more so - no fillers or substitutes. Moscow cakes, for which people stood in long lines, were famous for the fact that confectioners used only real Vologda butter, real chocolate, the freshest fruits, berries and eggs for them. In a word, everything was good. Here, look at the recipe for my cakes and see for yourself. I'm going to publish these healthy eating recipes. Maybe I can help someone get rid of prejudices regarding the “extra” piece of flour.
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Prepared by Timur Karimov |
Evdokia Andreevna
Chapter 1.
We lived on the outskirts of the city of Orenburg, in the village of Berdy, which is now part of the city district. The village has a very rich history, even the great A.S. Pushkin did not consider it difficult to visit this settlement and talk with the then residents, still living witnesses of the Pugachev uprising (Cossack Buntov), which he wrote about in his works: “The Captain’s Daughter”, “The History of Pugachev”.
In the village, the leader of the peasant uprising, who was so frightened by Catherine the Great that she renamed the Yaik River to the Ural River, set up a headquarters, and from there he led the siege of the Orenburg fortress. I am not going to retell here the content of the above-mentioned works, or analyze them, although, with a great desire, I probably could.
All students at the local village school, including me, know this topic perfectly. It cannot be otherwise: on September 1, first-graders begin their acquaintance with the school by visiting two museums that occupy most of the second floor of the school, where they are given lectures by high school students, this happens every year. On the birthday and death of the great poet, lessons were transferred to the walls of the school museum. What about guests from neighboring schools? After all, they need to be told everything in detail and questions answered. Therefore, all students who did not suffer from stuttering or other speech therapy problems memorized the texts of excursion lectures, quotes from Pushkin, articles about the museum, etc.
I tell all this in such detail only to make it clear that the place where I lived with my family has a rich history. The people of the village are still engaged in folk crafts. There are masters here: making handmade felt boots - soft, warm and surprisingly light; in weaving willow baskets, strong and comfortable, but the main pride is the down jackets - women who knit those same Orenburg down scarves that Lyudmila Zykina sang about.
My grandmother Kondratyeva Evdokia Andreevna, a native of the Orenburg province, the village of Matveevka, Matveevsky district, was such a knitter.
My mother, father, older brother and I lived with my grandmother, in her house, which she built herself, after the war, left with two small children and a “Missing in Action” notice on her husband.
This formulation did not give the right to pensions or child benefits, but caused mistrust in the post-war years. And my grandmother’s main source of livelihood until her death was income from the sale of down scarves. I, who never went to kindergarten (unlike my brother), was raised by my grandmother, and the entire process of making Orenburg down scarves took place before my eyes, and some, not very responsible procedures, were trusted to me.
And here I will try to reproduce the technological process the way Evdokia Andreevna did it...
Born on November 8, 1917 (19171108) in the village of Parfenovo, Russian Empire, now Spas-Demensky district, Kaluga region, into a peasant family. Russian.
She graduated from an aviation technical school and an aviation school in the city of Balashov. She worked as a pilot in the aviation detachment of the Civil Air Fleet of the city of Smolensk.
In the Red Army since 1941. On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1942.
Squadron commander of the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (325th Night Bomber Aviation Division, 4th Air Army, 2nd Belorussian Front) Guard, Major E. A. Nikulina, by September 1944, had completed 600 sorties to bomb fortifications, crossings and enemy troops, causing him great damage.
After the war, Guard Major E. A. Nikulina was in the reserve and then retired.
In 1948 she graduated from the Rostov party school, and in 1954 from the Pedagogical Institute. She worked in the city party committee. She lived in the city of Rostov-on-Don, where she died on March 23, 1993.
Awards and titles
- By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated October 26, 1944, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command and the courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders of the guard, Major Nikulina Evdokia Andreevna was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 4741).
- She was awarded the Order of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, as well as medals.
- Honorary citizen of the city of Rostov-on-Don.
Memory
- In the Hero’s homeland, in the city of Spas-Demensk, Kaluga region, an obelisk was installed in the Walk of Fame.
- There is a memorial plaque installed on the house where she lived in Rostov-on-Don - 104 Zhuravleva Ave.
- One of the streets of the city of Rostov-on-Don bears the name of the hero.
Honored School Teacher of the Russian Federation (1992), Honored Education Worker of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra (1996), Veteran of Labor, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences.
Khanty, born May 4, 1936 in the village. Polnovat Berezovsky district of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra.
The role and significance of Evdokia Andreevna’s scientific and pedagogical activities is enormous. She is one of the few Khanty researchers who created a scientific school in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.
Evdokia Andreevna contributed to the formation of ethnic self-awareness of students, participated in the public life of the district, stood at the origins of the creation of the public organization “Saving Ugra” in 1989 and is now an active Member of the Council of Elders.
In 1991, Nemysova E.A. with the national intelligentsia of the district, she created the Research Institute for the Revival of the Ob-Ugric Peoples of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and was its first director (1991-1998).
She has been working as a leading researcher at the budgetary institution of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra “Ethnographic Open Air Museum “Torum Maa” since 2010.
Evdokia Andreevna talks about her wartime childhood, and more about her relatives:
“Before the Great Patriotic War, families of four Khanty families lived in the village of Polnovat: the Nemysovs, the Tuplevs, the Syzarovs, and the Tarlins.
Nemysov Vasily Fedorovich had three sons: Peter, Mikhail, Andrey - and one daughter, Ulyana. Daughter Ulyana married Moldanov Peter from Vanzevat.
The eldest son of Vasily Fedorovich Peter with his sons: Ivan, Timofey, Dmitry and two daughters Taisya and Tatyana lived near his father’s house in his hut. The eldest son Ivan married a girl from the Lelkhov family, Marfa Dmitrievna, and they had three children. The middle son Timofey just began to look at beautiful girls. The younger Dmitry was still a young boy.
Vasily Fedorovich's middle son Mikhail and his family, with two sons Grigory and Semyon and daughters Anna and Anastasia, lived in a separate house, quite large for that time.
Before the war, Vasily Fedorovich’s youngest son Andrei lived in his hut with his son Alexei from his first marriage (his wife died) and his young wife Anastasia from the village of Pashtori and two daughters Evdokia and Palageya.
The life of the families of the Nemysov brothers passed in a traditional environment, they were engaged in fishing and hunting, and after collectivization they became collective farmers.
And suddenly terrible news came: WAR had begun! Like all the people of our land, the Soviet country, the Nemysovs were mobilized to the front: Ivan and Timofey - the sons of Peter, Grigory - the son of Mikhail, Andrei Vasilyevich with his son Alexei.
In what places they fought, no one will say now. Andrei, the youngest son of Vasily Fedorovich Nemysov, was already old, fell ill (or was wounded) at the front, was seriously ill, and was demobilized. In the month the leaves appeared (June) 1942, he reached home. He said that at the beginning of the war he and Ivan were in one unit, then Ivan was transferred to another unit, and he received a package. Andrei Vasilyevich asked to give the parcel to him, but they refused.
Perhaps he told me something else, we were kids, of course, we didn’t remember anything, and we tried not to talk loudly about the terrible news.
After a month of illness at home and in the hospital, Andrei Vasilyevich died and was buried in the Khanty family cemetery behind a jay in a high forest mane.
Alexey Andreevich, wounded, was also sent home from the front. In the autumn of the same 1942, before reaching the village of Kondinskoye (now Oktyabrskoye) by boat, he died and was buried there by his colleagues. When the boat reached Polnovat, the men came to Anastasia Ivanovna Nemysova, the widow of Andrei Vasilyevich, and told about this. So Anastasia, having not recovered from mourning after the death of her husband, accepted a new mourning. If before the war there were five people in Andrei Vasilyevich’s family, then within a year my mother and I lost my father, brother and sister Palageya (she died in the summer of 1941) and two were left orphans.
Pyotr Vasilyevich's two sons, Ivan and Timofey, were the first to go to the front in June 1941. Timofey Petrovich went missing at the beginning of the war.
Ivan Petrovich, the eldest son of Pyotr Vasilyevich, was one of the first to be mobilized to the front in June 1941, and served in the Cavalry Army near Leningrad. He died in April 1942 and was buried in the village of Spasskaya, Chudovsky district (Leningrad, 30th km) of the Leningrad (now Vologda) region. From the stories of a fellow countryman from Kazym, who fought with him and returned from the war, the widow Marfa Dmitrievna learned that they were sitting by the fire when they suddenly gave the command “On your horses!” Everyone jumped on their horses, Ivan Petrovich too, at that time a bullet hit his horse, he reared up, Ivan Petrovich fell, and the fellow countryman from the village of Kazyma never saw him again. Marfa Dmitrievna received a notification that he died on April 9, 1942 in the forest on the 3rd (maybe 30th) km near Leningrad in the village of Spasskaya, Chudovsky district.
Marfa Dmitrievna Nemysova (Lelkhova) remembered for the rest of her life how her husband, relatives and fellow countrymen were taken to the front on a huge monster barge coated with black tar. She was left with two young children (son Nikolai was 4 years old, daughter Nina was 1 year old) and pregnant with her third child (a girl was born after Ivan was taken to the war, the girl died before she was a year old).
There remains a photograph sent by Ivan Petrovich, where he is depicted riding a horse with an inscription (in pencil) for the eternal memory of his son Nikolai from Nemysov’s father Ivan P., later (in ink) signed: for the long, eternal memory of Nemysov Peter Vasilyevich from his son Ivan Petrovich. Another inscription appeared when daughter Nina learned to write, she wrote Nemysova Nina and instead of her patronymic she wrote Parovna (probably Petrovna wanted to write, thinking that her patronymic was the same as her father’s).
Mikhail Vasilyevich Nemysov, the middle son of my grandfather Vasily Fedorovich, had four children: Grigory, Anna, Semyon and Anastasia. Mikhail Vasilyevich's wife Olga died early, and her eldest daughter Anna was in charge of raising her brothers and sister. The sweet girl early learned the wisdom of running a traditional household and raising her brothers and sister, the skill of a Khanty woman. In her family with her beloved husband Emmanuel Grishkin, they raised three children: daughter Rufina, sons Sergei and Andrei.
Rufina Emmanuilovna Maslennikova (Grishkina) married Vladimir Maslennikov from Omsk, lived in Polnovata, moved to Omsk and lived there for some time, but still settled permanently in the village. Overweight Their children grew up (three daughters Maria, Svetlana, Alena and son Konstantin) and grandchildren were born.
Grigory Mikhailovich Nemysov is a hereditary fisherman and participant in the Great Patriotic War. He “fought bravely at the front in a separate ski battalion on the Central Front, on the Kursk Bulge, near Orel, crossed the Dnieper, liberated Warsaw, stormed Berlin, completed his campaign on the Elbe,” journalist Grigory Skripunov wrote in the Leninskaya Pravda newspaper. Returning home from the front in 1947, he worked as a salesman in a store in the village of Sumatnely, which was located 10-12 km south of the village of Vanzevat, became a fisherman, worked as a team leader for more than 30 years, his team of 13 fishermen performed five annual jobs in three years normal He was the first to catch spearfish with control nets and recommended that the fishermen of his team switch to smooth fishing with bottom nets. Budarka Grigory Mikhailovich arrives on the sand of Rus-pan, sweeps out the net for the arrival of his fishermen and pounds of nelma lie in the boat box. The best fishermen P.I. worked with him. Syzarov, E.S. and T.V. Pendakhovs, P.I. Yukhlymov. Yes, he is a hereditary fisherman. His grandfather and father and their brothers pulled a heavy net with straps and rowed. A fishing boat named after Frunze was named after Grigory Nemysov. Polnovat Berezovsky (now Beloyarsky) district.
Dear relatives, my Nemysovs, are now only on the obelisks of the participants of the Great Patriotic War: first in Beloyarskoye, now near the Administration building of the village. Overweight - can I bow to you. Your names are written in golden letters on the obelisk near the ancestral Khanty cemetery, which has not survived to this day!
I appeal to the dear heart of the young generation! Dear children and grandchildren! Thanks to the courage of our ancestors, their energy and strength, we continue the line of the Nemysovs, our dear grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who gave their lives for the bright dawn of today in our dear village, guarded by the dark wing of the Raven, the bloody wing of the Raven. Live happily, illuminated by the bright rays of the Sun under the divine Sky, under the gaze of the light of the Moon, protected by the energy of life of your previous generations of relatives.