The female part of our multinational people, together with men, children and old people, bore on their shoulders all the hardships of the Great War. Women wrote many glorious pages in the chronicle of the war.
Women were on the front line: doctors, pilots, snipers, in air defense units, signalmen, intelligence officers, drivers, topographers, reporters, even tank crews, artillerymen and served in the infantry. Women actively participated in the underground, in the partisan movement.
Women took on many “purely male” professions in the rear, since men went to war, and someone had to stand behind a machine, drive a tractor, become a railway lineman, master the profession of a metallurgist, etc.
Figures and facts
Military service in the USSR is an honorable duty not only for men, but also for women. This is their right written in Art. 13th Law on General Military Duty, adopted by the IV session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 1, 1939. It states that the People's Commissariats of Defense and Navy the right is granted to recruit women with medical, veterinary and special technical training into the army and navy, as well as to attract them to training camps. In wartime, women who have the specified training may be drafted into the army and navy to perform auxiliary and special service. Feelings of pride and gratitude Soviet women Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR E.M. Kozhushina from the Vinnitsa region expressed her opinion on the decision of the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to the party and the government: “All of us, young patriots,” she said, “are ready to defend our beautiful Motherland. We women are proud that we are given the right to protect it on an equal basis with men. And if our party, our government calls, then we will all come to the defense of our wonderful country and give a crushing rebuff to the enemy.”
Already the first news of Germany’s treacherous attack on the USSR aroused boundless anger and burning hatred of their enemies among women. At meetings and rallies held throughout the country, they declared their readiness to defend their Motherland. Women and girls went to party and Komsomol organizations, to military commissariats and there they persistently sought to be sent to the front. Among the volunteers who applied to be sent to the active army, up to 50% of the applications were from women.
During the first week of the war, applications to be sent to the front were received from 20 thousand Muscovites, and after three months, 8,360 women and girls of Moscow were enrolled in the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland. Among the Leningrad Komsomol members who submitted applications in the first days of the war with a request to be sent to the active army, 27 thousand applications were from girls. More than 5 thousand girls from the Moskovsky district of Leningrad were sent to the front. 2 thousand of them became fighters of the Leningrad Front and selflessly fought on the outskirts of their hometown.
Rosa Shanina. Destroyed 54 enemies.
Created on June 30, 1941, the State Defense Committee (GKO) adopted a number of resolutions on the mobilization of women to serve in the air defense forces, communications, internal security, on military roads... Several Komsomol mobilizations were carried out, in particular the mobilization of Komsomol members in the Military Navy, Air Force and Signal Corps.
In July 1941, over 4 thousand women of the Krasnodar Territory asked to be sent to the active army. In the first days of the war, 4 thousand women of the Ivanovo region volunteered. About 4 thousand girls from the Chita region, over 10 thousand from the Karaganda region became Red Army soldiers using Komsomol vouchers.
From 600 thousand to 1 million women fought at the front at different times, 80 thousand of them were Soviet officers.
The Central Women's Sniper Training School provided the front with 1,061 snipers and 407 sniper instructors. Graduates of the school destroyed over 11,280 enemy soldiers and officers during the war.
At the end of 1942, the Ryazan Infantry School was given an order to train about 1,500 officers from female volunteers. By January 1943, over 2 thousand women arrived at the school.
For the first time during the Patriotic War, female combat formations appeared in the Armed Forces of our country. 3 aviation regiments were formed from female volunteers: 46th Guards Night Bomber, 125th Guards Bomber, 586th fighter regiment Air defense; Separate women's volunteer rifle brigade, Separate women's reserve rifle regiment, Central women's sniper school, Separate women's company of sailors.
Snipers Faina Yakimova, Roza Shanina, Lidiya Volodina.
While near Moscow, the 1st Separate Women's Reserve Regiment also trained motorists and snipers, machine gunners and junior commanders of combat units. There were 2899 women on staff.
20 thousand women served in the Special Moscow Air Defense Army.
Some women were also commanders. One can name Hero of the Soviet Union Valentina Grizodubova, who throughout the war commanded the 101st Long-Range Aviation Regiment, where men served. She herself made about two hundred combat missions, delivering explosives, food to the partisans and removing the wounded.
The head of the ammunition department of the artillery department of the Polish Army was engineer-colonel Antonina Pristavko. She ended the war near Berlin. Among her awards are the orders: "Renaissance of Poland" IV class, "Cross of Grunwald" III class, "Golden Cross of Merit" and others.
In the first war year of 1941, 19 million women were employed in agricultural work, mainly on collective farms. This means that almost all the burdens of providing food for the army and the country fell on their shoulders, on their working hands.
5 million women were employed in industry, and many of them were entrusted with command posts - directors, shop managers, foremen.
Culture, education, and health care have become a matter of concern mainly for women.
Ninety-five women in our country have the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Our cosmonauts are among them.
The largest representation of participants in the Great Patriotic War among other specialties were female doctors.
Of the total number of doctors, of whom there were about 700 thousand in the active army, 42% were women, and among surgeons - 43.4%.
Middle and junior medical workers More than 2 million people served on the fronts. Women (paramedics, nurses, medical instructors) made up the majority - over 80 percent.
During the war years, a coherent system of medical and sanitary services for the fighting army was created. There was a so-called doctrine of military field medicine. At all stages of the evacuation of the wounded - from the company (battalion) to hospitals in the rear - female doctors selflessly carried out the noble mission of mercy.
Glorious patriots served in all branches of the military - in aviation and the marine corps, on warships of the Black Sea Fleet, the Northern Fleet, the Caspian and Dnieper flotillas, in floating naval hospitals and ambulance trains. Together with horsemen, they went on deep raids behind enemy lines and were in partisan detachments. With the infantry we reached Berlin. And everywhere doctors provided specialized assistance to those injured in battle.
It is estimated that female medical instructors of rifle companies, medical battalions, and artillery batteries helped seventy percent of wounded soldiers return to duty.
For special courage and heroism, 15 female doctors were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
A sculptural monument in Kaluga reminds of the feat of women military doctors. In the park on Kirov Street, a front-line nurse in a raincoat, with a sanitary bag over her shoulder, stands at full height on a high pedestal. During the war, the city of Kaluga was the center of numerous hospitals that treated and returned tens of thousands of soldiers and commanders to duty. That is why they built a monument in a holy place, which always has flowers.
History has never known this before mass participation women in the armed struggle for the Motherland, as demonstrated by Soviet women during the Great Patriotic War. Having achieved enrollment in the ranks of the soldiers of the Red Army, women and girls mastered almost all military specialties and, together with their husbands, fathers and brothers, carried out military service in all branches of the Soviet Armed Forces.
Unidentified Soviet private girls from an anti-tank artillery unit.
The question of why the Soviet Union won a war tens of times more difficult than the one that fell to Imperial Russia just 25 years earlier remains. But there is no other answer: completely different people lived in Russia at that time. Not only not like us - “the glorious great-grandfathers of the great great-grandsons are filthy” - but not even like the Russians of Tsarist Russia.
If you look at how many media outlets now present our ancestors who lived on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, it becomes sad - our roots are too disgusting. And these people were stupid, and vile, and wrote denunciations against each other, and lazy, and worked under pressure, and did not learn anything, did not know how to do anything, they died of hunger and fear of the NKVD. It must be said that the fascists imagined our ancestors in a similar way. But they met - and their opinion began to change.
A little over a year after Germany’s attack on the USSR, which gave the Germans the opportunity to see Soviet soldiers and Soviet slaves driven to Germany, a official document(shown below) which I believe should be introduced to students in every high school.
CHIEF OF SECURITY POLICE AND SD. Directorate III. Berlin, August 17, 1942 CBII, Prinz-Albrechtstrasse 8. Copy. No. 41.
Secret!
Personally. Report immediately! Messages from the Empire No. 309.
II. Population's perceptions of Russia.
It was a voluminous analytical note in which Gestapo analysts, based on denunciations received from all over the Reich, concluded that contact between the Germans and Russians was the first to show the falsity of Goebbels’s propaganda, and this began to lead the Reich to despondency. What did the agents report?
The first thing that shocked the Germans was the appearance of the slaves being unloaded from the wagons. It was expected to see skeletons tortured by collective farms, but... Gestapo analysts report to the Reich leadership:
“So, already upon the arrival of the first trains with ostarbeiters, many Germans were surprised by their good condition of nutrition (especially among civilian workers). One could often hear such statements:
“They don't look hungry at all. On the contrary, they still have thick cheeks and they must have lived well.”
Soviet women - soldiers captured
By the way, the head of one government agency After examining the ostarbeiters, the health service stated:
“I was actually amazed by the good appearance of the working women from the east. The greatest surprise was caused by the teeth of the workers, since so far I have not yet discovered a single case of a Russian woman having bad teeth. Unlike us Germans, they must pay a lot of attention to keeping their teeth in order.”
Then analysts reported the shock that the general literacy caused among the Germans and its level among the Russians. Agents reported:
"Before, wide circles German population opinions were supported that in the Soviet Union people are distinguished by illiteracy and low level education. The use of ostarbeiters now gave rise to contradictions that often confused the Germans. Thus, all reports from the field claim that the illiterates make up a very small percentage. In a letter from one certified engineer who ran a factory in Ukraine, for example, it was reported that in his enterprise, out of 1,800 employees, only three were illiterate (Mr. Reichenberg).”
Similar conclusions also follow from the examples given below.
“According to many Germans, current Soviet school education is much better than it was during tsarism. Comparison of the skill of Russian and German agricultural workers often turns out to be in favor of the Soviet ones” (Mr. Schgettin).
“Particular amazement was caused by the widespread knowledge German language, which is studied even in rural junior high schools" (Frankfurt an der Oder).
“A student from Leningrad studied Russian and German literature, she can play the piano and speaks many languages, including fluent German…” (Breslau).
“I almost completely disgraced myself,” said one apprentice, when he asked the Russian a small arithmetic problem. I had to strain all my knowledge in order to keep up with him...” (Bremen).
“Many believe that Bolshevism brought Russians out of their limitations” (Berlin).
As a result, the Germans were amazed by both the intelligence and technical awareness of the Russians.
“The extermination of the Russian intelligentsia and the intoxication of the masses was also important topic in the interpretation of Bolshevism. In German propaganda, the Soviet man appeared as a stupid exploited creature, as a so-called “working robot.” A German employee, based on the work performed by the ostarbeiters and their skill, was often convinced on a daily basis of the exact opposite. Numerous reports indicate that the Ostarbeiters sent to military enterprises directly puzzled German workers with their technical knowledge (Bremen, Reichenberg, Stettin, Frankfurt an der Oder, Berlin, Halle, Dortmund, Kiel, Breslau and Beyreut). One worker from Beirut said:
“Our propaganda always presents Russians as stupid and stupid. But here I have established the opposite. While working, Russians think and don’t look so stupid at all. For me it’s better to have 2 Russians at work than 5 Italians.”
Many reports note that workers from former Soviet regions show special awareness of all technical devices. Thus, the German, from his own experience, was more than once convinced that an ostarbeiter, who gets by with the most primitive means when performing work, can eliminate breakdowns of any kind in engines, etc. Various examples This kind of thing is given in a report received from Frankfurt an der Oder:
“On one estate, a Soviet prisoner of war figured out an engine with which German specialists did not know what to do: in a short time he put it into operation and then discovered damage in the tractor’s gearbox that had not yet been noticed by the Germans servicing the tractor.”
In Landsberg an der Warth, German brigadiers instructed Soviet prisoners of war, most of whom came from rural areas, on the procedure for unloading machine parts. But this instruction was received by the Russians with a shake of their heads, and they did not follow it. They carried out unloading much faster and more technically practical, so their ingenuity greatly amazed the German employees.
The director of one Silesian flax spinning mill (Glagau) said the following regarding the use of ostarbeiters: “Ostarbeiters sent here immediately demonstrate technical awareness and do not need more long-term training than the Germans."
Ostarbeiters also know how to make something worthwhile out of “all kinds of rubbish”, for example, make spoons, knives, etc. from old hoops. From one matting workshop they report that the braiding machines, which had long been in need of repair, were put back into operation by the Ostarbeiters using primitive means. And it was done so well, as if a specialist had done it.
From the conspicuously large number of students among the Ostarbeiters, the German population comes to the conclusion that the level of education in the Soviet Union is not as low as it has often been portrayed among us. German workers, who had the opportunity to observe the technical skill of Ostarbeiters in production, believe that, in all likelihood, not the best Russians end up in Germany, since the Bolsheviks sent their most qualified workers from large enterprises to the Urals. In all this, many Germans find a certain explanation for the unprecedented amount of weapons the enemy has, which they began to tell us about during the war in the east. The very number of good and sophisticated weapons indicates the presence of qualified engineers and specialists. The people who led the Soviet Union to such achievements in military production must have undoubted technical skill."
In the field of morality, the Russians also aroused surprise among the Germans, mixed with respect.
“In sexual terms, ostarbeiters, especially women, show healthy restraint. For example, at the Lauta-werk plant (Zentenberg) 9 newborns were born and another 50 are expected. All but two are children of married couples. And although from 6 to 8 families sleep in one room, there is no general debauchery.
A similar situation is reported from Kiel:
“In general, a Russian woman in sexual terms does not at all correspond to the ideas of German propaganda. She is not at all familiar with sexual debauchery. In various districts, the population says that during a general medical examination of eastern workers, all girls were found to still have virginity.”
These data are confirmed by a report from Breslau:
“The Wolfen film factory reports that during a medical examination at the enterprise, it was found that 90% of Eastern workers aged 17 to 29 were chaste. According to various German representatives, one gets the impression that a Russian man pays due attention to a Russian woman, which ultimately is also reflected in the moral aspects of life.”
Since our youth today somehow uncertainly connect sexual promiscuity with morality, I would like to clarify the words “is also reflected in the moral aspects of life” with an example from the same document:
“The head of the camp at the Deutschen Asbest-Cement A.G. plant, speaking to the ostarbeiters, said that they must work with even greater diligence. One of the Ostarbeiters shouted: “Then we should get more food.” The camp commander demanded that the one who shouted stand up. At first no one reacted to this, but then about 80 men and 50 women stood up.”
Smart people will retort that this data only confirms that the Russians were afraid of everything, since the NKVD ruled over them. The Germans thought so too, but... the Solzhenitsyns, Volkogonovs, Yakovlevs and others did not yet work in the Gestapo, so in analytical note objective, truthful information was given.
“The GPU plays an exceptionally large role in propaganda. Forced exile to Siberia and executions had a particularly strong impact on the perceptions of the German population. German entrepreneurs and workers were very surprised when the German Labor Front reiterated that there were no Ostarbeiters who had been punished in their own country. As for the violent methods of the GPU, which our propaganda hoped to largely confirm, then, to everyone’s amazement, not a single case was found in large camps in which the relatives of ostarbeiters were forcibly exiled, arrested or shot. Part of the population is skeptical about this and believes that the situation in the Soviet Union with forced labor and terror is not as bad as it has always been claimed, that the actions of the GPU do not determine the main part of life in the Soviet Union, as was previously thought.
Thanks to these kinds of observations, reported in reports from the field, ideas about the Soviet Union and its people have changed dramatically. All these isolated observations, which are perceived as contradicting previous propaganda, give rise to a lot of thought. Where anti-Bolshevik propaganda continued to operate with the help of old and well-known arguments, it no longer aroused interest and faith.”
Unfortunately, such documents are not quoted in any television program. You won’t find anything like this in fashionable contemporary “near-historical” authors either. It's a pity! We should always remember the deeds of our glorious ancestors and be proud of them.
References:
Mukhin Yu. I. Crusade to the East
"War has no woman's face“,” “war is a man’s business”... It’s all true. It is also true that during the Great War, 800,000 of our women were at the front. 150,000 were awarded military orders and medals. You read documents and memoirs of war participants and realize: how many “white spots” there are on the blood-red earth! "Night witches" and "bandit battalion".
The war had just begun, and hundreds of thousands of 17-18-year-old girls were already besieging military registration and enlistment offices demanding that they be immediately sent to the front. In 1942, with millions of male fighters dead or wounded, the Soviet Union announced a mass mobilization of young women. For the first time in the 20th century, women were mobilized into regular army– even as battalion commanders (!). It's incredible, but true. Previously, fighting women were found only in legends: Amazons, Celtic and African warrior women. This was an exception to the rule - everything was different in the Red Army.
The Motherland taught girls to use machine guns. They cut long hair and became not only nurses, signalmen and telephone operators, but also snipers, tank crews, and bomber pilots.
In order 0099, Stalin writes about education of three special women's flying regiments. The Germans called female pilots “night witches”: they flew mainly at night.
One British historian wrote: “During the battle of Kharkov in May 1942, General Paulus’s troops confronted women for the first time. The 389th Infantry Division encountered a "bandit battalion" led by a woman. Fighting against women was especially dangerous. They lay in the straw sheaves, let us go forward, and then shot from behind.”
There is a lot of evidence: the Germans were very afraid of our women warriors.
Mixed feelings…
Women's weapons have always caused and still cause mixed feelings. And surprise, and fear, and admiration, and disdain...
And how does a woman herself feel during war?
Are there differences in how women and men experience disasters like war? Yes, I have.
The women were ready for the feat, but were not ready for the army and the surprises that awaited them. It is always difficult for a civilian to adapt to a military mindset, especially for a woman.
“Women’s memory covers that continent of human feelings in war, which usually eludes male attention,” emphasizes the author of the book “War Has Not a Woman’s Face...” Svetlana Alexievich. – If a man was captured by war as an action, then a woman felt and endured it differently due to her female psychology: bombing, death, suffering - for her this is not the whole war. The woman felt more strongly, again due to her psychological and physiological characteristics, the overloads of war - physical and moral, she had a harder time enduring the “male” life of war.” In essence, what the woman had to see, experience and do during the war was a monstrous contradiction of her feminine nature.
“But I wouldn’t take him as a wife...”
Many men had a feeling of guilt for the fact that girls were fighting, and with it, again, a mixed feeling of admiration and alienation. “When I heard that our nurses, being surrounded, fired back, protecting the wounded soldiers, because the wounded are helpless, like children, I understood this,” recalls war veteran M. Kochetkov, “but when two women crawl to kill someone with a “sniper” in no man’s land – it’s still a “hunt”... Although I myself was a sniper. And I shot myself... But I’m a man... I might have gone into reconnaissance with someone like that, but I wouldn’t have taken her as my wife.”
But, on the other hand, “if men saw a woman on the front line, their faces became different, even the sound of a woman’s voice transformed them.” According to many, the presence of a woman in war, especially in the face of danger, ennobled the person who was nearby, making him “much more brave.”
"Field Wife"
There was another “topic” with a stream of gossip and anecdotes, which gave rise to the mockingly contemptuous term “field wife” (PPW). But here’s what’s characteristic: they were especially willing to slander about this in the rear - those who themselves preferred to sit away from the front line behind the backs of the same girls who went to the front as volunteers. But front-line morality condemned much more strictly the unfaithful wife who stayed at home and cheated on her front-line husband with a “rear rat.”
But true feelings were also born at the front, the most sincere love, especially tragic because it had no future - too often death separated lovers. But life is so strong because even under bullets it made people love and dream of happiness.
So isn't it time to close the topic, gentlemen and comrades?
“How did the Motherland greet us?”
Public opinion did not favor former Red Army heroines, or Red Army women, if you will.
“How did the Motherland greet us? I can't think about this without tears. They shouted in our faces: what were you doing there? You lived with our men!” - said Lyudmila, the defender of Stalingrad. “I had a friend, I saved him from the fire. We lived together for a year, then he left me for another woman. She smelled like perfume. You smell like foot wraps and boots.”
The war had barely ended, and the bourgeois image of the “Soviet woman” was quickly being formed in the country. We remembered! Women should be mothers and give birth to children. Fashion is becoming especially feminine, cosmetics are hitting store shelves in abundance, and laws prohibiting abortion are becoming stricter.
What about your former front-line girlfriends? They were judged not by their actions during the war, like men, but by their morality. “Make sure you don’t bring me a child from the front!” – Lyudmila’s mother shouted after her. It was painful. The girl “only” wanted to defend her homeland.
Women veterans won one war, but capitulated in another - called “normal life”. They had to become absolute women again. Many kept silent about their front-line experience and were ashamed of their memories...
* * *
There's no need to be ashamed. Neither those who fought, nor those who starved in the rear, giving everything to the front... No one needs to be ashamed of the Victory. Except for bastards, who, however, have no sense of shame.
We should be ashamed of only one thing: our leaky memory. Let's forget about the war - we will die without any war.
Vitaly NABOZHENKO
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Attention! Slide previews are for informational purposes only and may not represent all the features of the presentation. If you are interested in this work, please download the full version.
Purpose of the event: spiritual and moral education of students based on the example of the exploits of women during the war.
Tasks:
Educational:
- Expand students’ knowledge about the events of world wars;
- Based on historical facts, show the courage and heroism of the participants in the wars.
Educational:
- Continue to develop students’ skills in using additional sources of information;
- Develop information and communication skills (make presentations, videos, slide shows);
Educational :
- Formation of patriotic feeling; love for one's native land;
- To cultivate a respectful attitude towards women, women fighters, women workers, women mothers, wives, sisters.
Expected results:
Students will become familiar with:
- with unknown facts and events of world wars;
- with the lives and exploits of the women of the world wars.
Students:
- learn to work with different sources of information (printed, electronic);
- will be able to prepare multimedia presentation, a video on the topic of the class hour.
Students will receive:
- experience speaking to large audiences;
Students:
- will form their attitude to the concepts: “kindness”, “sensitivity”, “mercy”, “humanity”.
Form: oral journal
Equipment:
- Screen, multimedia projector, PC;
- Poems: R. Verzakova “War has an unfeminine face”, N. Gumilev “Answer of a sister of mercy”, poster with the name of the event, photographs of women war heroes, photographs of women home front workers, “Petrovskie Vesti” newspapers, film “I Remember”, presentation .
- Stand “Photos of war participants”, video with Anna Ivanovna Kudryashova’s speech, excerpt from the film about the war “I Remember”.
Preliminary preparation: students prepare presentations, videos; find the necessary information (music and songs, photos, etc.); as well as works by contemporary authors; The teacher prepares a class script and selects performers from among the students.
Methodology for conducting a class hour: ICT techniques, an activity trip is carried out.
Progress of the class hour
No! War does not have a woman's face.
At least a woman's name is included in it.
War contradicts the essence of a woman,
God did not give her love for murder.
A woman has her power over the world -
Longing for love, fiery passion.
And women’s destiny is to keep the hearth.
Extending life is a step into infinity.
Wait for the man to go home; endure need.
Use gentle hands to prevent trouble.
And keep your beloved porch clean,
Raise children in the traditions of their fathers.
No! War does not have a woman's face...
Slide 1. It just so happened that our memory of the war and all our ideas about the war are male. This is understandable: for centuries war has been the lot of men only. But over the years, we understand more and more the immortal feat of women in war, its greatest sacrifice, sacrificed on the altar of victory.
Presenter: Woman and war... Both of these words are feminine... But they are incompatible. Woman and war...
(The girls enter the stage one by one: one finishes speaking and then the next one appears.)
A woman comes into the world
To light a candle.
A woman comes into the world
To protect the hearth.
A woman comes into the world.
To be loved.
A woman comes into the world
To give birth to children.
A woman comes into the world
To make a flower bloom.
A woman comes into the world
To save the world.
Leading; We dedicate today's class hour to women who bore the brunt of the war on their fragile shoulders along with men. The war, which drenched their native land in blood, took away their home, children, and husband from women, but they could not take away the most important thing - hope. And a Russian woman can hope, believe and love like no other.
Wars... wars... it seems there will be no end to them
Patriotic War of 1812
A lot of memoirs and fiction, essays, letters, and notes from eyewitnesses of the events of those years were devoted to the War of 1812.
From these letters we learn that women of all classes could not remain deaf to the military events of 1812.
The Napoleonic invasion was a huge misfortune for Russia.
In the provinces affected by the invasion, women and children helped their husbands, fathers, and joined the partisans.
The names of Vasilisa Kozhina are known,
Slide 6 representatives of the royal family, Ekaterina Skavronskaya
Slide 7. Margarita Tuchkova, Nadezhda Durova,
The fate of a Russian woman is amazing Margarita Tuchkova, born in 1781. Margarita Tuchkova (née Naryshkina) wife of General Alexander Tuchkov (IV), hero of Borodin. This woman, in the name of boundless love for her husband, who died in the Battle of Borodino, created the first monument in Russia to the heroes of the War of 1812. She was not a saint, did not perform miracles... but in fact, Margarita Tuchkova was - just like thousands other Russian women who lost loved ones and remained faithful to their memory to the end. It is to her that we also owe the fact that today there is the Borodino field and the Spaso-Borodinsky monastery, built with her money in memory of her husband and all those killed on the Borodino field. Abbess Maria took the initiative to hold the annual Borodino celebrations and the round-the-clock commemoration of Russian soldiers, which took place in the monastery.
Slide 8-9 Student 2
Nadezhda Durova (cavalry maiden)
The cross of St. George sparkles under the epaulette,
Hope on Borodino's glorious day,
Rushing on a horse, not yet glorified by a poet,
The French are being cut down by a saber like a shadow!
The Emperor himself is delighted with the girl,
He gave her his name for a nickname,
Memoirs, letters, and especially the notes of Nadezhda Durova were material of paramount importance, which, better than any fiction, told contemporaries about the real life and situation of Russian women, who shared all the hardships of the war on an equal basis with men.
Nadezhda Durova was awarded the Military Order of the 4th degree for saving a wounded officer.
Classroom teacher:
IN Russian-Japanese war Four brave Russian women were awarded soldiers' crosses of St. George.
When the First World War broke out, their number went into dozens... The Military Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, over the almost century and a half history of the order, more than 10 thousand men were awarded it. And just one (!) woman. The name of this heroine is Rimma Ivanova
Slide number 10 ( Student 3)
Classroom teacher. Russian women participated in the First World War as sisters of mercy. But the laurels of the first Russian female officer, Nadezhda Durova, did not give rest to Russian noblewomen. Therefore, as soon as the thunder of war thundered again, many of them wanted to put on a military uniform. Vitebsk high school student Olga Shidlovskaya turned out to be braver than others. Among the “Russian Amazons” there were also those who were able to earn two St. George Crosses with their courage and valor.
The most famous among them is Antonina Palshina, who was born in a remote village in the Vyatka province. Representatives of all classes - noblewomen, bourgeois women, and peasant women - who wanted to join combat military units at the front, were forced to “turn” into men. The only ones who did not experience difficulties in this matter were the Cossack women: those of them who, from childhood, were accustomed to ride in a saddle, shoot from a carbine, wield a saber and a dagger, easily obtained permission from regiment commanders to serve on an equal basis with men. And they showed miracles of courage.
For example, Natalya Komarova fled to the front, where her father and older brother, a military sergeant major (lieutenant colonel) and a centurion of the Ural Cossack Army, had already fought, respectively. She ran away, buying a horse and all the Cossack ammunition with the money set aside for the purchase of a dowry.
And the Cossack Maria Smirnova, who went to the front in place of her consumptive husband, managed to earn as many as three St. George’s Crosses by the summer of 1917: they were awarded to her for carrying a wounded officer from the battlefield, after capturing an Austrian gun and two machine guns, as well as for valuable information about the location of enemy captured during night reconnaissance...
This woman was feared and hated, admired and proud of her. A participant in the First World War, the only woman is a full Knight of St. George. In 1917, the initiator of the creation of women's battalions, in October, the commander of the battalion guarding the Winter Palace in Petrograd, Maria Leontyevna Bochkareva. Kornilov asked her to go to America and England for help in the fight against the Bolsheviks... Bochkareva met at dinner at the White House on July 4, 1918 .with Woodrow Wilson. The Minister of War provided the 1st Russian female officer with a 5-minute audience in August 1918 with King George V of England at Buckingham Palace.
Classroom teacher. Now a feature film about the women of the women's battalion is being released, I think you all will watch the modern interpretation terrible life women in war. Truly, a country in which there are such women is invincible!
Slide 13.
Presenter 1: On the most terrible war During the 20th century of the Great Patriotic War, a woman had to become a soldier. She not only saved and bandaged the wounded, but also shot, bombed, blew up bridges, went on reconnaissance missions, and killed people. The woman killed...
1st reader.
Uncompressed rye swings,
The soldiers are walking along it.
We too, girls, are walking,
Look like guys.
No, it’s not the houses that are burning,
My youth is on fire
They're walking along war girls,
Look like guys.
(Yu. Druzhinina)
1st student:
Can you really tell me about this?
What years did you live in?
What an immeasurable burden
It fell on women's shoulders!
That morning I said goodbye to you
And you and your destiny
Left alone.
2nd student:
One on one with tears
With unharvested grain in the field
You met this war
And all - without end and without counting -
Sorrows, labors and worries
We fell for you for one.
For you alone, willy-nilly -
And you have to keep up everywhere
You are alone both in the house and in the field,
You are the only one to cry and sing.
Presenter: Bride, wife, widow...
The destinies of these women are in many ways the same, but at the same time different in some ways.
Presenter 1: Just like the nurses of past wars, the women of the Second World War were nurses. Today we want to remember the girl nurses, whose names are forever recorded in the book of the Great Patriotic War.
Brave nurse.
The daughter of a blacksmith from the Arsenal factory Skvarchinsky, 16-year-old Masha, came to the artillery battalion of the 14th cavalry division and, after repeated requests, was left in the division as a nurse. During the operations of the mobile group of the 26th Army, she, neglecting the danger, during the bombing by enemy aircraft, provided assistance to the wounded, carried them to shelters and, when she herself could not carry the victim, forced the soldiers to assist her. The fearless patriot of the Motherland, Masha, saved the lives of dozens of soldiers and commanders. Given her exceptional heroism and courage, the command nominated her for a government award.
(Their archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense)
Our sister's name was Masha,
Everyone in the regiment loved her,
In any regiment our little sister
She walked with her bag on her side.
In battle, it happened that he was wounded by a bullet,
Masha does not hesitate and does not wait,
She has skillful hands
He takes bandages out of the bag.
And by the fire during the hours of rest,
To make the heart more cheerful,
She used to sing
About two comrades and friends.
Until then, comrades, we will
In any region, in any battle,
We will not forget our Masha,
My faithful sister.
Slide 18. Student 5
Pilot girls. White Lily.
A Russian girl pilot named White Lily fought on the Southern Front near Melitopol and in the men’s fighter regiment. Knock her down air combat it was impossible. A flower was painted on board her fighter - a white lily. One day the regiment was returning from a combat mission, White Lily was flying at the rear - only the most experienced pilots are given such an honor.
A German Me-109 fighter was guarding her, hiding in a cloud. He fired a burst at White Lily and disappeared into the cloud again. Wounded, she turned the plane around and rushed after the German. She never returned back... After the war, her remains were accidentally discovered by local boys when they were catching snakes near a mass grave in the village of Dmitrievka, Shakhtarsky district, Donetsk region
Slide 18 Student 6.
Tankers
A tank driver has a very hard job: loading shells, collecting and repairing broken tracks, working with a shovel, crowbar, sledgehammer, carrying logs. And most often under enemy fire.
In the 220th Tank Brigade we had the T-34 Leningrad Front mechanic-driver, technical lieutenant Valya Krikalyova. In the battle, a German anti-tank gun smashed the track of her tank. Valya jumped out of the tank and began to repair the caterpillar. The German machine gunner stitched it diagonally across the chest. Her comrades did not have time to cover her. Thus, a wonderful tank girl passed away into eternity.
On the Western Front in 1941, the tank company commander, Captain Oktyabrsky, fought in a T-34. He died the death of the brave in August 1941. The young wife Maria Oktyabrskaya, who remained behind the lines, decided to take revenge on the Germans for the death of her husband. She sold her house, all her property and sent a letter to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin with a request to allow her to use the proceeds to buy a T-34 tank and take revenge on the Germans for the tankman husband they killed.
Slide 18 Student 7.
Night Witches
The women's night bomber regiment of Guard Lieutenant Colonel Evdokia Bershanskaya, flying single-engine U-2 aircraft, bombed German troops on the Kerch Peninsula in 1943 and 1944. And later in 1944-45. fought on the first Belorussian front, supporting the troops of Marshal Zhukov and the troops of the 1st Army of the Polish Army.
The U-2 aircraft (from 1944 - Po-2, in honor of the designer N. Polikarpov) flew at night. They were based 8-10 km from the front line. They needed a small runway, only 200 meters. During the night in the battles for the Kerch Peninsula, they made 10-12 sorties. The U2 carried up to 200 kg of bombs at a distance of up to 100 km to the German rear. . During the night, they each dropped up to 2 tons of bombs and incendiary ampoules on German positions and fortifications. They approached the target with the engine turned off, silently: the plane had good aerodynamic properties: the U-2 could glide from a height of 1 kilometer to a distance of 10 to 20 kilometers. It was difficult for the Germans to shoot them down. I myself have seen many times how German anti-aircraft gunners flew large-caliber machine guns across the sky, trying to find the silent U2. Now the Polish gentlemen do not remember how beautiful Russian pilots in the winter of 1944 dropped weapons, ammunition, food, medicine...
Slide number 19. Student 8
Women participants in the war of the Stavropol Territory
Abramova Klavdiya Ilyinichna
Born in 1906 into a peasant family. She worked from the age of 14. After graduating from the institute, she was appointed to the Stavropol Territory and at the beginning of the war became an assistant to the regional prosecutor. In the occupied regional center she became an organizer and participant in the anti-fascist underground, destroyed archival documents so that they do not fall to the Nazis.
She was arrested by the Gestapo along with her children. Despite death threats against daughters and terrible torture, refused to sign an appeal to the population and call for cooperation with the occupiers.
On October 3, 1942, the Nazis shot her daughters Lira and Rita, and then Klavdiya Ilyinichna Abramova.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, she was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Kuznetsova-Listopadova Maria Ivanovna.
At the age of 20 she went to the front. She began her combat career in October 1942. volunteered to join the Red Army. First baptism of fire it took place near Mozdok, then battles in the village of Voznesenskaya. It ends up in Grozny, then in Tuapse. Arriving in Tuapse, she did not stay there for long, and through the city of Gelendzhik and Kabardinka she landed on “Malaya Zemlya”, fierce battles on Malaya Zemlya. The soldiers called her brave Maria, where she stayed for 7 months. For her exploits, she was awarded 8 government awards: the Order of the Red Star for Kerch, the medal For Military Merit, and the Medal for Victory over Germany.
Lyubimtseva Lyubov Stepanovna.
Born in 1922, on May 5, 1942 she was mobilized by the Mozdok district military registration and enlistment office into the ranks of the Red Army. She began her combat journey from the city of Cherkessk in the 492 BAO 5th Air Army of the North Caucasus Front. She took part in the battles for Krasnodar, Ukraine, and Moldova. The war ended in Romania.
Gromova Zinaida Nikolaevna.
Gromova Zinaida Nikolaevna was born on October 5, 1925, studied at the Pavlodolsk secondary school, on the day of the graduation ceremony the beginning of the war was announced. In September 1942, as a railway worker, she was drafted into the active army on the Second Ukrainian Front. She was restored to the position of senior switchman under fire from enemy troops. railways, bridges, carried out loading of the wounded, guarded the railway tracks. The war ended in Poland. After demobilization, she returned to her native village. He has awards: medal “For Victory over Germany”, commendations from the command, medal “For Valiant Labor”.
In the occupied territories, women organized and supported the work of partisan detachments, lived and worked under occupation.
Dora Karabut lived with us in the Petrovsky district of the Stavropol Territory. Dora Evdokimovna Karabut was born in Ipatovo, graduated from school No. 1 in the village of Petrovskoye. Entered the Agricultural Institute. But the war interrupted the peaceful course of life. Due to health reasons, Dora was not taken to the front, then she joined the partisan detachment, saying goodbye to her mother: “Take care of yourself, dear, don’t worry about me. I won't let you down. We’ll meet when we defeat the enemy.” In the partisan detachment, Dora became the soul of the Stavropol people. She was a fighter and intelligence officer, performing important tasks. In December 1942, during one of the missions, Dora and several partisans were captured, they were tortured for a long time, but they could not achieve anything. It’s not for nothing that Dora’s favorite hero was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.
Nina Nikolaevna Zakopailo. Ninochka met the news of the Victory in Sevastopol, on the Malakhov Kurgan. The sounds of the button accordion, songs, bright lights on ships, rejoicing in the streets - all this remained in my memory.
“I would really like to bequeath peace to all future generations,” says Nina Nikolaevna
Anna Maksimovna Motuz recalls how she and her fellow villagers lived under the Germans for five and a half months. How we worked for victory, giving everything of ourselves.
Women heroes, women fighters, women women
Presenter: No matter how terrible the reality, even in war a woman remains a woman. Wherever a woman is, she strives to create comfort. Snowdrops in a tin, curtains made from foot wraps. The little things in military life brought smiles.
1st girl: Once in the forest after a battle, I saw violets in the forest and could not resist, picked a bouquet and tied it to a bayonet. We arrived at a military camp. The commander lined everyone up and calls me. I'm out of action... and I forgot that I have flowers on my rifle. And he began to scold me: “A soldier should be a soldier, not a flower picker...”. He couldn’t understand how anyone could think about flowers in such an environment.
To support the morale of the Soviet soldier, to give hope for an unconditional victory, to help remember peaceful life wonderful and brave artists helped: Lidiya Ruslanova, Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Lyubov Orlova .
Presenter: In Volgograd, a monument to the feat of a woman was erected on Mamayev Kurgan. It's all pain and crying Soviet people. But there is another memory. It is not overgrown with grass. This is the memory of the heart. The memory of the heroism of women during the Great Patriotic War is always alive in our hearts. And it will remain there forever.
A woman is with us when we are born,
The woman is with us in our last hour,
Woman is the banner when we fight
A woman is the joy of opened eyes.
Our first love and happiness.
In the best endeavor, first hello,
In the battle for right - the fire of complicity.
Woman is music. Woman is light.
Presenter: Bride, wife, widow Many brides, without becoming wives, became widows. The merciless war separated many loving hearts. How many women were widows left after the war? Despite the suffering and grief, women were not sufferers, but workers in the war. It was hardest for those who were left with small children. What to feed? How to get out? How to save it?
Presenter 1: They forged victory not only at the front, but also in the rear. Caring women's hands sewed and knitted, and their eyes, sore from tears, did not close either day or night. Nothing could break the spirit of a Russian woman, ready to do anything for her family and Motherland.
Reader.
Can you really tell me about this?
What years did you live in?
What an immeasurable burden
It fell on women's shoulders!..
That morning I said goodbye to you
Your husband, or brother, or son,
And you and your destiny
Left alone.
One on one with tears,
With unharvested grain in the field
You met this war.
And all - without end and without counting -
Sorrows, labors and worries
We fell for you for one.
M. Isakovsky. Russian woman.
During the war, the success of the Soviet people at the front and in the rear largely depended on the work of millions of women. Housewives, retired women, and high school students came to industrial enterprises to replace men.
Video with Anna Ivanovna Kudryashova’s performance. During the war she was only 12 years old and 2 younger sisters and three brothers went to war
Slide number 25 (Student 9)
Praskovya Fedorovna Angelina was a leader in agricultural production, the organizer of the first tractor brigade. On the eve of the war, she made an appeal to Soviet women: “One hundred thousand girlfriends - to the tractor!” 200 thousand women responded to her call. The training of tractor drivers played a big role in providing the people with food.
Slide number 26:
During the war, Soviet teachers worked selflessly; there was not enough space, fuel, and educational supplies, but they still fulfilled their main task - educating the younger generation.
Slide number 27 (Student 10)
Kira Ivanovna Izotova was from December 1942 to September 1944 the senior pioneer leader of school 30 in Leningrad. She recalled: “In the 1942/43 school year, both boys and girls studied at the school. It was very cold and hungry. The school that year was a seven-year school. During the bombing and shelling, the seniors (7th grade) together with the teachers on duty were on duty in the attic (extinguishing incendiary bombs), the rest were in air-raid shelters. In the summer of 1943, all the senior classes worked in agricultural work. It was very difficult: everyone was weak: both adults and children, did not know how to work with agricultural equipment. They collected young nettles, sorrel, quinoa - they added all this for food.
Slide 28
The most important role of a woman is a mother.
Girl: Mothers. There are millions of them, and each one carries a feat in its heart - maternal love. How many sons and daughters were sent to the front by their mothers in the very first days of the war. And every minute, every second, mothers were with their hearts where their children fought.
The mother did not give birth to a son for war!
She didn’t give him the primer for war,
I was worried, proud, sad.
Lifelong lover, like a Mother,
Ready to darn and dream,
And wait for stingy, slow letters
From some outskirts of the country.
The mother did not give birth to a son for war! (N. Burova)
Host: Yes, a mother always cares about her child - even if he is not a genius, not a star, or not very lucky. But the Mother accompanied her son to the front, with the last of her strength she tried to encourage him as he went into mortal combat... And somewhere far away, her son, her little blood, was met by an enemy bullet. He fell face down, hugging the ground with his hands, like a mother is hugged, and finally called in a fading voice: “MOM...” Before death, many people turn to God and to their mother... And if the mother could, she would give her life, to give life back to your son or daughter. This is what a mother's love can do!
The writer A. Fadeev has exciting lines addressed to his mother:
“But if in the days of war people have a piece of bread, and there are clothes on their bodies, and if trains are running along the rails, and cherries are blooming in the garden, and a fire is raging in the blast furnace, and someone’s invisible force lifts a warrior from the ground or bed , when he is sick or injured, all these are the hands of my mother – mine, and his, and his.”
She escorted them out of the village -
And since that day I haven’t slept peacefully.
In what region were they covered in snow?
In what region was the stray bullet found?
Years go by.
The mother waits patiently.
Waiting outside the village in bad weather and frost,
The old lady had been crying tears for a long time.
She chose one concern -
Walk here for the rest of my life,
And again accompany them to war,
And repeat what I told them then.
The eyes don't see. But the past hurts -
Rivers of memories flow...
The sons did not leave her.
The sons are alive.
They are with her. Forever!
(T.Tetsaev)
Leading: There is nothing worse in the world than for mothers to bury their sons.
And how many mothers are there who don’t know where their children are buried: son or daughter. The war took away the most precious thing from mothers - a child. But until the end of her days, the mother will remember her child, come to him, wait for him.
Slide with V.A. Frolova
Class teacher: I want to tell you about my grandmother Varvara Alekseevna Frolova. ( Watch an excerpt from the film about the war “I Remember”)
Memory area, memory area,
This memory is knocking on your temples.
Mothers come to gray stones,
Gray with melancholy.
Tears tremble on the eyelashes.
Like three screams on a gray stone,
Three red carnations lie.
Memory area, memory area,
Dark night and clear day
Excite people's memory
With its unquenchable fire.
Woman and war... What could be more unnatural? A woman who gives life, protects it, and the war that takes this life away... Orphaned mother of a soldier, you are not alone in the world. All mothers shared your loss. We are all grateful to her that she raised a real man, a protector, a hero. But let there be no more wars, no more maternal grief!
Host: The war has passed...But the world is once again restless and “hot spots” are emerging in different parts of the planet. And again the crimson reflections of recent fires come to life in the blood. One of the tragic pages of our history was the war in Afghanistan.
Before you is the newspaper “Petrovskie Vesti”, a newspaper of the city of Svetlograd, Stavropol Territory.
I want to talk about the woman-mother Kovtun Maria
The first cargo-200 from Afghanistan arrived in Svetlograd with her son Mikhail Kovtun.
Host: What about the recent events in Chechnya? How much grief this war brought to mothers who lost their sons. Rulers come and go. But who will return to his mother a son who died in peacetime?
Host: You all know that Vadim Kizilov studied at our school. Do you know how he died?
Listen to his mother's poems (Student 11)
Reader. Mother's moan
“A corpse came from Afghanistan,” -
Words thrown carelessly on a bus once upon a time
“Yes, for you he’s just a corpse
But for me it is exorbitant, backbreaking work,”
Said the mother of the dead soldier
“With love I raised and cherished him
And he grew up to be a hero for joy and glory
In soybean incomplete twentieth spring
He died for his homeland, for the honor of his state.”
My dear son sleeps soundly
The flowers on the hill are slightly swayed by the breeze
The gray-haired mother says with a groan
“Wake up son”
The soldier is silent, dressed all in granite
And he doesn’t hear his mother’s groan.
P.A. Kizilova
Leading: For loyalty and perseverance, for strength and tenderness, glory to you, wives, widows, brides and mothers!
Leading: We bow to all women, mothers, sisters, friends for your selfless love, kindness, for your hands, which do good and justice on earth, decorate life, fill it with meaning, make it happy.
If we declare a minute of silence for every person who died in World War II...
The world would be silent for 50 years!!!
(Minute of Silence) (Metronome)
Slide 34
A woman doesn't need to fight
Let her, beautiful and fragile,
There will be just a woman and a mother,
Keeping her hearth like a dove...Doesn't a woman need to fight?
But the soldiers now remember:
- It was a shame to hug the earth,
If the girls lift the chain.Quiet in the fields. Although the years go by
Memorable time is dear to the heart,
And at meetings veterans wait
Your brave Komsomol organizer,They are ready to kiss her hands
All soldiers, older and younger.
Glory to female valor!But still
A woman doesn't need to fight!
Bottom line
Classroom teacher: Thank you! We will definitely talk about the war again. As long as the memory is alive, you and I are alive. This means there is hope for the future. I hope that a time will come when the world will think about the heart of a mother, which hurts for her sons, will take pity on her and there will be no war on earth.
Where the whirlwind of war blows its trumpet,
In gray greatcoats next to us
The girls are going into mortal combat.
They will not flinch before a shell
And through the iron blizzard
They look straight and boldly
In the eyes of an arrogant enemy.
Alexey Surkov
War. It is always unnatural, ugly in its essence. But the important thing is that it reveals hidden qualities in people. She brought out the best features in Russian women.
Even in the pre-war years, many women became “sick” of the sky - they learned to fly in flying clubs, schools, and courses. Among the women were instructor pilots (V. Gvozdikova, L. Litvyak), and an honored test pilot (N. Rusakova), and a participant in air parades (E. Budanova). Studied at the Air Force engineering academy S. Davydovskaya, N. Bovkun and others. Among the pilots were Heroes of the Soviet Union - M. Raskova, P. Osipenko, V. Grizodubova. Women worked in the civil air fleet, like E. Bershanskaya; some served in Air Force units.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the command of the Armed Forces decided to create combat aviation units from female volunteer pilots, taking into account their ardent desire to go to the front.
October 8, 1941 The People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR issues an order on the formation of women's aviation regiments of the Red Army Air Force: the 588th night bomber air regiment, which later became the 46th Guards; the 587th Day Bomber Regiment, which later became the 125th Guards Regiment, and the 586th Air Defense Fighter Regiment. Their formation was entrusted to the Hero of the Soviet Union M.M. Raskova, the famous pilot, navigator of the Rodina crew, which made the legendary non-stop flight from Moscow to the Far East.
The texts of orders from the period of the Great Patriotic War concerning women and included in the book are given in the appendices. The originals are in the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA).
O.P. Kulikova, who graduated from the Faculty of Engineering of the Air Force Academy in 1938, then worked at the Air Force Research Institute at test work senior experimental engineer. What was unexpected for her was a call in October 1941 to the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army and an offer to become a commissar in one of the 3 women’s aviation regiments being created. At the end of October 1941, she began to fulfill her new duties, choosing a fighter aviation regiment, the selection for which was the most strict, since the pilots had to fly the Yak-1 (new aircraft).
Former students of the same academy, experienced military engineers G.M. Volova, M.A. Kazarinova, A.K. Muratova, M.F. Orlova, M.Ya. Osipova, Z.G. Seid-Mamedova, A.K. Skvortsova also arrived to recruit and prepare women's air regiments for flights on Yak-1 and Pe-2 aircraft.
Most of the women enrolled in the pilot school (in the city of Engels), where they were trained, had previously graduated from flight schools, flying clubs, had experience as instructors, and worked in the Civil Air Fleet. Now, having become cadets, they studied complex military equipment, studied theory in classes for 10-12 hours a day, since they had to complete a three-year course at a military school in 3 months. After theoretical studies- flights. Tenacious and persistent, they quickly mastered the new aircraft.
Within six months, the 586th Women's Fighter Aviation Regiment began combat work in the air defense system to protect the city of Saratov; The pilots accompanied special-purpose transport aircraft to Stalingrad and other areas.
On September 24, 1942, in a night battle in the Saratov area, V. Khomyakova shot down a Yu-88. This was the first victory, and the pilot opened the account of enemy bombers destroyed by women.
586th fighter regiment The air defense was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel T.A. Kazarinova. The personnel of this regiment performed air cover tasks for industrial centers, defended Stalingrad, Saratov, Voronezh, Kursk, Kyiv, Zhitomir and other cities from enemy air raids; covered fighting Steppe, 2nd Ukrainian Fronts; accompanied the bombers. As a sign of special trust, recognition of the skill of the pilots, their courage and bravery, the regiment was entrusted to accompany the planes from. members of the Soviet government and representatives of the Headquarters Supreme High Command, commanders and members of the military councils of the fronts. The regiment covered crossings across the Volga, Don, Voronezh, Dnieper, Dniester, supported the actions of ground troops, and stormed enemy airfields.
In September 1942, from among the best female pilots of the regiment, a squadron was trained and sent to the Stalingrad area, the commander of which was R. Belyaeva, who had considerable experience in piloting before the war. The squadron included K. Blinova, E. Budanova, A. Demchenko, M. Kuznetsova, A. Lebedeva, L. Litvyak, K. Nechaeva, O. Shakhova, as well as technicians: Gubareva, Krasnoshchekova, Malkova, Osipova, Pasportnikova, Skachkova, Terekhova, Shabalina, Eskin.
The women amazed the imagination with their skill and courage. The very fact that women fought on fighter planes evoked various emotions: admiration, bewilderment...
The fight between T. Pamyatnykh and R. Surnachevskaya with 42 Junkers captured the imagination of foreign journalists. On March 19, 1943, they carried out a mission to cover a large railway junction - Kastornaya station. Enemy planes appeared from the southwest like a flock. Hiding behind the sun, the girls went on the attack, dived and opened fire on the center of the formation of German aircraft. The Germans began to dump cargo aimlessly. Taking advantage of the confusion, the Yaks attacked again. Once again, the bombs of enemy aircraft were dropped far from the target. However, both planes of our brave pilots were severely damaged. The plane of the Pamyatnykh plane was torn off - the pilot jumped out with a parachute. Surnachevskaya's plane had a damaged engine, but she managed to land it.
Amazing! Two women - against 42 enemy planes! For the courage and bravery shown in an extremely unequal battle, for comradely mutual assistance, support of the fighter pilot of the 586th aviation regiment, junior lieutenants Pamyatnykh and Surnachevskaya were awarded the Order of the Red Banner and personalized gold watches.
In the 586th regiment, Z.G. Seid-Mamedova served as deputy regiment commander. During 3 years of instructor work, she trained 75 pilots and 80 parachutists. She was the first female student at the navigation department of the N.E. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, which she graduated in 1941.
In the same heroic regiment, A.K. Skvortsova, who graduated in 1937 from the Air Force Engineering Academy, worked as a weapons engineer. Before the war, she worked as an engineer at the Air Force Research Institute. Tested weapons on Yak-1 and Yak-3 aircraft.
In battles for the Motherland, female fighter pilots showed examples of heroism, courage, and fearlessness, which were appreciated both by their fellow pilots and by the command of the armies and fronts in which women fought.
Former Commander Stalingrad Front Marshal of the Soviet Union A.I. Eremenko wrote in his memoirs: “At the end of September the situation continued to remain very difficult. Enemy aviation, as before, operated in close cooperation with ground troops, its activity increased significantly during the days of enemy attacks. So, September 27 German aviation groups of up to 30 bombers, under strong cover of their fighters, continuously operated throughout the day against front troops in the area of Stalingrad and the Volga crossing. Our fighter pilots were required to take decisive action to destroy the bombers (U-88) and the fighters covering them (Me-109), which were heading to bomb Stalingrad.
As a result of the skillful actions of our pilots, in front of the troops, 5 Junkers and 2 Messerschmitts were shot down, which fell burning into the battle formations of the 64th Army. In this battle, Colonel Danilov, Sergeant Litvyak, senior lieutenants Shutov and Nina Belyaeva, and Lieutenant Dranishchev distinguished themselves by shooting down one plane each (the rest of the planes were shot down by them in a group battle).
Female heroine pilots, who fought on an equal basis with men, repeatedly emerged victorious in air battles. In the battles for Stalingrad, Lydia Litvyak shot down 6 enemy aircraft, Nina Belyaeva - 4.”
The image of the heroic girl L.V. Litvyak, who lived in the world for only 22 years (died in July 1943), but managed to destroy 12 fascist aircraft alone and in a group battle, will forever remain in memory. In 1990, she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The 586th Women's Fighter Aviation Regiment ended its combat career in Austria, having made 4,419 combat sorties, conducting 125 air battles, during which the pilots shot down 38 enemy aircraft.
In June 1942, the combat life of the 588th Women's Night Bomber Regiment began - commander E.D. Bershanskaya. She already had ten years of experience in aviation and headed one of the civil aviation units in the Krasnodar Territory. The Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet, which took part in the creation of women's aviation regiments, called her to Moscow and recommended her as commander of an aviation regiment. The Po-2 aircraft on which the pilots of this regiment had to fight were low-speed - speed 120 km/h, altitude - up to 3000 m, load - up to 200 kg. And on these former training aircraft, the 588th Air Regiment became a night thunderstorm for the Germans. They nicknamed the brave pilots “night witches.”
“Night flight is not the time to fly” - these are the words in one of the songs about pilots. And at this time, not for flying, the female pilots in an unfamiliar environment, without visible landmarks, pursued by anti-aircraft guns and the blinding beams of searchlights, carried out a bombing raid. The first flights were followed by thousands of others. The pilots returned on planes riddled with bullets. Then women mechanics and armed forces took up work at the airfields. Without any work-facilitating devices, in the dark, in the cold, they changed 150-kilogram engines and adjusted them. Under bombing and shelling, machine guns and cannons were urgently replaced with repaired, cleaned, and tested ones. One can imagine the burden placed on the women who served the planes if the pilots made several flights a day.
Women armed forces trained in their specialty in aviation technical schools and weapons workshops at military units. After completing the course of study, they were sent as gunsmiths to airfield maintenance battalions, where they attached aerial bombs to aircraft, repaired aircraft and escorted them into battle, adjusted aircraft weapons, and assembled machine-gun disks.
A.L. Molokova, a 1937 graduate of the N.E. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, this forge of aviation engineering personnel, worked in the front-line workshops. After the war, she was a leading engineer at the Air Force Research Institute. She retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
But let’s return to the actions of the pilots of the 588th Air Regiment. During the Great Patriotic War, they bombed enemy personnel and equipment, together with other aviators they supported the landing from the air amphibious assault on the night of November 3, 1943 at Mayak-Yenikale. About 50 crews bombed targets at intervals of less than a minute. Their actions helped the landing party successfully complete the task.
The regiment provided great assistance to the Marine landing force in the Eltigen area. The pilots delivered ammunition and food to the paratroopers, flying at an altitude of no more than 300 m. This was very risky and dangerous, because, having heard the roar of the engines, the boats opened frantic fire on them with large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns, blocking the defending paratroopers from the sea.
Major General V.F. Gladkov recalls: “We began to receive from the mainland, although in limited quantities, everything we needed: ammunition, food, medicine, clothing”3.
During the fighting in the Mozdok area, the regiment's pilots made 80-90 sorties per night.
They took part in the battles for the North Caucasus, Kuban, Crimea, Belarus, Poland, East Prussia, ending their combat journey in Berlin.
The regiment made about 24 thousand combat missions during the war, more than 3 million kg of bombs were dropped by pilots and navigators on the enemy’s head. By orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the regiment received over 20 commendations. More than 250 people were awarded orders and medals, and 23 pilots and navigators were awarded high rank Hero of the Soviet Union (5 of them posthumously)4. One of these 23 Heroes is E.A. Nikulina. From civil aviation, through a military aviation school, she came to combat aircraft, starting her journey as an ordinary pilot. Smart, fearless, and a competent pilot, she is appointed squadron commander. Pilots under her command made thousands of flights, destroying enemy personnel and equipment. On October 26, 1944, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Evdokia Andreevna was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Now Guard Major E.A. Nikulina is on a well-deserved rest.
In February 1943, the 588th Women's Night Bomber Aviation Regiment was reorganized into the 46th Guards Regiment, and for its participation in the liberation of the Taman Peninsula it was given the name "Tamansky". Fireworks were fired 22 times in honor of the victories of the Tamans. In 1945, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the regiment was awarded the Order of Suvorov 3rd degree and the Order of the Red Banner.
Combat skill, moral qualities personnel This women's regiment was highly appreciated by Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky. He wrote: “We men were always amazed by the fearlessness of female pilots who took to the air on low-speed U-2 aircraft and exhausted the enemy with endless bombing. Alone in the night sky, above enemy positions, under heavy anti-aircraft fire, the pilot found a target and bombed it. How many flights - so many encounters with death."
The 587th Women's Day Bomber Aviation Regiment received its baptism of fire near Stalingrad in August 1942. A group of female pilots of this regiment, flying Pe-2 high-speed dive bombers, successfully struck an enemy airfield west of Stalingrad, destroying many German aircraft. The raid was very successful. The crew members who participated in the mission received gratitude from M.M. Raskova, who commanded this regiment until her death in 1943.
The regiment took part in battles in the North Caucasus, in the Smolensk operation, in the Oryol-Bryansk, Vitebsk, Orsha and other directions.
Many female pilots showed exceptional courage in battle. For example, A.L. Zubkova, a squadron navigator, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1945 for successful combat missions and accurate execution of tasks. After the war, she completed her interrupted studies at Moscow State University, graduate school, and taught at the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky.
The highly technically trained M.F. Orlova served as the senior engineer of the regiment. In 1939, she graduated from the engineering faculty of the Air Force Engineering Academy and was a military representative at aircraft factories. After the war, engineer-lieutenant colonel M.F. Orlova worked at the Academy of the General Staff.
For the heroism and courage shown in battles, perseverance, and organization, the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment on September 3, 1943, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, was transformed into the 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment named after Hero of the Soviet Union M. Raskova. For accurate bombing strikes on the enemy, successful assistance to the Red Army troops in crossing the Berezina River and capturing the city of Borisov, the regiment received the honorary name “Borisovsky”. For military operations he was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 3rd degree, and Order of Kutuzov, 3rd degree. Five female pilots of the regiment became Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Women pilots fought not only in women's aviation regiments. They also served in other parts of the Air Force. From March 1942, she commanded a long-range aviation regiment, and then a bomber regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union V.S. Grizodubova, who received the military rank of colonel in 1943.
In the 805th Attack Aviation Regiment she served as a navigator on A.A. Egorova-Timofeev’s Il-2, fighting over the Taman Peninsula, Malaya Zemlya, and in the skies of Poland. The 277th combat mission turned out to be tragic for her. As part of 16 attack aircraft, A.A. Egorova carried out a combat mission to support ground units. The task was completed, but Egorova’s plane was shot down and fell into enemy territory. She, wounded, was thrown into a prisoner of war camp by the Germans. The courageous pilot, like other prisoners, was freed by the advancing units of the Red Army. The Motherland celebrated the military feats of A.A. Egorova with two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and many medals. On the 20th anniversary of the victory, in May 1965, she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Polish government awarded the Order of the Silver Cross of Merit to the Soviet pilot who fought over its territory.
In the 999th assault aviation Tallinn Order of Suvorov regiment on the Il-2, nicknamed the “flying tank,” navigator T.F. Konstantinova fought - at the age of 26, Hero of the Soviet Union. She worthily replaced her pilot husband in the sky, who died in battle (she herself worked as an instructor pilot at a flying club at the beginning of the war). The soldiers of the Leningrad and 3rd Belorussian fronts knew about her military skill, courage and fearlessness. Tamara Feodorovna’s brother Vladimir, also a pilot, who had previously become a Hero of the Soviet Union, also took part in the Great Patriotic War. Truly a “winged” family. This example is clear evidence of the continuation by women of the USSR of glorious family traditions in the struggle for their Fatherland, coming from past centuries.
In the training regiment of the 16th Air Army, 58 people were trained to fly the Il-2 by instructor pilot M.I. Tolstova. For training pilots she was awarded the Order of the Red Star. At the end of 1944, she was sent to the front. As part of the 175th Guards Regiment, Lieutenant Tolstova made dozens of combat missions and was awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner and many medals.
On September 12, 1941, senior lieutenant, deputy squadron commander of the 135th short-range bomber air regiment E.I. Zelenko died in the sky near Sumy region in an air battle.
Ekaterina Zelenko was a career pilot and was fluent in piloting. She was entrusted with testing new machines, parachutes, and training young pilots. E. Zelenko took part in the Soviet-Finnish War and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, together with her comrades, she carried out important missions, daily making 2-3 sorties behind enemy lines for reconnaissance and bombing. On September 12, the pair flew out on reconnaissance to detect and bomb an enemy column moving towards Romny-Konotop. Giving another plane the opportunity to escape from the enemy aircraft attacking them, she entered into battle with 7 Messerschmitts, knocked out 1, but died in an unequal battle. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin, and on May 5, 1990 she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
There are many more examples of courage and dedication of women who fought in the sky with the enemy. Suffice it to say that 32 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and 5 - Hero of Russia (for participation in the Great Patriotic War). One, Pe-2 radio operator gunner of the 99th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment of the 15th Air Army, N.A. Zhurkina, became a full holder of the Order of Glory.
In the most difficult year of 1942, the mobilization of women into the army was carried out especially intensively in all branches of the Armed Forces and branches of the armed forces.
At the Central School of Sniper Instructors under the Main Directorate of Vsevobuch NPO, courses for training female snipers were held.
Many women mastered the art of sniper shooting right at the front, undergoing training in units and formations of the active army. Women snipers fought on all fronts, destroying many enemies, for example, A. Bogomolova - 67 people, N. Belobrova - 79 people, awarded the Order of Glory III and II degrees. N.P. Petrova, who at the age of 48 voluntarily went to the front, became a full holder of the Order of Glory. After graduating from sniper school, she trained many “super-sharp shooters who hit the enemy with the first shot,” as snipers were called. When presenting Petrova with the Order of Glory, 1st degree, the commander of the 2nd Shock Army, I.I. Fedyuninsky, also presented a watch with the inscription “Nina Pavlovna Petrova from Army Commander Fedyuninsky. March 14, 1945." As a sign of admiration for her skill, he also presented a sniper rifle with a gold plate. Having walked the battle route from Leningrad to Stettin, N.P. Petrova died in the victorious May 1945.
M. Morozova - sniper of the 1160th regiment of the 352nd Orsha Red Banner Order of Suvorov rifle division, a graduate of the Central Women's Sniper Training School, participated in Operation Bagration, in the liberation of Borisov, Minsk, Poland, fought in East Prussia, and met victory in Prague.
The women's sniper company was commanded by Guard Lieutenant N. Lobkovskaya. She fought on the Kalinin Front, in the Baltic States, and took part in the storming of Berlin. The Order of the Red Banner, Glory, World War I and II degrees, many medals deservedly adorned the chest of this woman.
On May 21, 1943, by order of NKO No. 0367, women's courses for excellent marksmen in sniper training were reorganized into the Central Women's School of Sniper Training (TsZHSSP) (Appendix 26). During its existence, the school graduated 7, trained 1,061 snipers and 407 sniper instructors6. In January 1944 the school became Red Banner. During the war years, graduates of the girls' school destroyed thousands of fascist soldiers and.
The homeland adequately appreciated the military feat of the school's pupils. 102 women received the Order of Glory III and II degrees, the Red Banner - 7, the Red Star - 7, the Order of the Patriotic War - 7, the medals “For Courage” - 299, “For Military Merit” - 70, the Komsomol Central Committee awarded 114 female snipers with Certificates of Honor , 22 - personalized sniper rifles, 7 - valuable gifts. 56 girls were awarded the “Excellence in the Red Army” badge7.
During the years of the Great Patriotic War, 5 female snipers received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (N. Kovshova, T. Kostyrina, A. Moldagulova (a graduate of the Central College of Shipping), L. Pavlichenko, M. Polivanov) and 1 - full holder of the Order of Glory (N. Petrova ).
In 1942, on the basis of orders from NGOs of the USSR on the mobilization of women, hundreds of thousands of them were drafted into the active army. Thus, on March 26, 1942, in pursuance of the resolution of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, order No. 0058 was issued on the mobilization of 100 thousand girls into the air defense forces (Appendix 27). It should be noted that, except for medicine, perhaps more than in air defense, such a number of women have not served in any of the military branches. In some regiments and divisions they made up from 50 to 100% of the personnel. On the Northern Front, air defense in some units and subunits is 80-100%. Already in 1942, more than 20 thousand women served in the Moscow Air Defense Front, over 9,000 women in the Leningrad Army, and 8,000 in the Stalingrad Air Defense Corps. About 6,000 women served in the troops of the Baku Air Defense District.
In October 1942, by decision of the State Defense Committee, the second mass mobilization of women into the Air Defense Forces was carried out. By January 1943, 123,884 volunteer girls came to these troops on Komsomol vouchers. In total, from April 1942 to May 1945, up to 300 thousand women served in the Air Defense Forces9.
There are well-known sayings: war does not have a woman’s face, war is not a woman’s business, and others. However, in the harshest conditions, women entered into service and stood up to defend the Fatherland. They coped well with various types of aircraft and destroyed thousands of enemies with a sniper rifle. But special courage and endurance were needed to stand at the turret of an anti-aircraft machine gun, unprotected by anything, during a raid by enemy aircraft, engaging in single combat with enemy aircraft. Many women served in anti-aircraft artillery, anti-aircraft machine gun, anti-aircraft searchlight units during 4 long war years.
It is characteristic that women from all over the country joined the army. In April 1942, 350 young Stavropol women volunteered for the front and were enlisted in the 485th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Air Defense Regiment. 3,747 girls from Bashkiria became machine gunners, nurses, radio operators, snipers, and anti-aircraft gunners. Some of them served in the 47th separate anti-aircraft artillery regiment and took part in the battles for Stalingrad. Others are in the 80th anti-aircraft artillery division, in the 40th, 43rd anti-aircraft searchlight regiments. In the 40th regiment, 313 girls were awarded orders and medals. Guard sergeant V. Lytkina, an excellent air defense student who graduated from the university’s chemistry department before the war, served in the 178th separate anti-aircraft artillery division.
In 1942, Z. Litvinova voluntarily went to the front. As a former nurse, she was sent to the medical unit of the 115th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment. However, the girl wanted to become an anti-aircraft gunner. After a short training, she is a gunner in the first women's anti-aircraft battery. Then Sergeant Litvinova commanded a crew of 7 girls, which distinguished itself on the Karelian Isthmus in the summer of 1944 when breaking through a deeply layered defense. For accurate, effective shooting at tanks, infantry, and positions of enemy artillery and mortar batteries, the entire personnel of the women's battery was awarded orders and medals, and the gun commander, Sergeant Z. Litvinova, was awarded the Order of Glory, III degree.
In this regard, it is interesting to draw a parallel between the Patriotic War and previous wars. The readiness of Russian women to defend the Motherland was manifested at any time, but then, making their way to the front, women acted only as volunteers, acting on their own behalf, only on their own initiative. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of women into the army was carried out on the basis of orders from the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, although the principle of voluntariness was preserved along with mobilization.
The need to conscript a large number of women was due to the fact that in connection with the creation of multimillion-dollar armies, the development of technology, weapons, and large losses at the front, the involvement of women in military service becomes the dictate of the time, a necessary need. And now hundreds of thousands of women different ages and specialties are in the active army: on anti-aircraft installation vehicles, in the signal troops, as snipers, at the helm of an airplane and tank control levers, in sailor peacoats and with traffic controller flags in their hands, there was practically no military specialty in which women did not fight together with men for their Fatherland in 1941 - 1945.
Everywhere in war is difficult, dangerous, difficult, but it is impossible not to admire the courage of the young girls who served in anti-aircraft machine-gun units. During enemy air raids, everyone hid in shelters, and they stood at the gun to meet the enemy. A striking example is the service of women in the 7th anti-aircraft machine gun regiment, which during the Battle of Stalingrad in the difficult summer of 1942 stood on the cover of the railway junction - Povorino station. The 1st company of the 1st battalion of the regiment guarded the airfield of the fighter air regiment for all 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad.
After Stalingrad, the 7th Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun Regiment arrived in Valuiki, which was the main railway junction on the Yelets-Kupyansk line, the ammunition supply base for Soviet troops operating in the Kharkov direction. Enemy aircraft persistently sought to paralyze this hub. The sky over Valuiki was defended by women who came with a regiment from Stalingrad.
The 1st company took up combat positions at the Sortirovochnaya station. Few planes managed to break through the barrage, although the enemy flew in large groups and rushed at the anti-aircraft gunners with the sound of sirens. But the women withstood the onslaught as well as the tactics of exhaustion, which replaced the tactics of fear, when the Junkers, alone and in groups, circled the station day and night. We needed strong nerves, willpower, and a quick reaction in order not only to withstand all this, but also not to get confused in a sudden attack, and to prevent enemy aircraft from breaking through.
The Kursk Bulge was followed by battles on the Dnieper. I got up here difficult task ensure the safety of railway bridges and crossings, since the pace of the offensive largely depended on their precise, intensive work. The 7th Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun Regiment guarded the railway track. All of his quad machine gun mounts were located in open areas on both sides of the railroad tracks and on coastal towers. There was nowhere to hide from massive raids that lasted 2.5 hours. However, the women were not inferior in courage to the men and completed the task. Many were awarded military awards. The regiment for the protection of the Kyiv Bridge became Red Banner.
If during the years of the Great Patriotic War the country's Air Defense Forces repelled about 20 thousand enemy air raids on railway facilities, then it is impossible to say exactly how many of them were repulsed by the gentle and firm hand of our heroic female warrior.
In general, many women served in anti-aircraft machine-gun units and subunits. For example, the 1st Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun Division, which defended Moscow, consisted mainly of women. In the 9th Stalingrad Corps Air Defense District, thousands of women served as anti-aircraft machine gunners, gunners, spotters, and rangefinders.
On a critical day for Stalingrad, August 23, 1942, when fascist group broke through to the Volga in the area of the Tractor Plant, and enemy aircraft carried out a massive raid on the city, women of the 1077th, 1078th anti-aircraft artillery regiments, together with units of the NKVD troops, sailors of the Volga military flotilla, city militias, training tank battalion They did not allow the enemy into the city, holding it until the troops arrived.
No less complex and responsible was the service of women in units and units of air surveillance, warning and communications (VNOS). What was needed here was special responsibility for the area, vigilance, efficiency, and good combat training. The success of the fight against him depended on timely identification and accurate targeting data.
Observers, signalmen, searchlight operators, of whom, as was said, many served in units and divisions of the Moscow Air Defense Front, Leningrad Air Defense Army, Stalingrad Corps Air defense forces selflessly performed their difficult, dangerous duties.
In parts of the air barrage balloons that covered the approaches to large cities and industrial areas, women almost completely replaced men. There were especially many girls in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd divisions of barrage balloons defending Moscow. Thus, in the 1st Division, out of 2925 personnel, women accounted for 2281 people.
In the 1st VNOS division of the Moscow Air Defense Front, which stood in defense of Moscow, there were 256 female sergeants, 96 of them worked as heads of observation posts, 174 as radio operators10.
By the end of the Great Patriotic War specific gravity women reached 24% of the contingent of the country's Air Defense Forces, which made it possible to release from these units hundreds of thousands of men fit for service in the field forces.
Many women served as signalmen.
Starting from August 1941, when 10 thousand girls were drafted into the signal troops, in all subsequent years there was a replacement by women of male signalmen of various communications specialties: body operators, estists, morse operators, telephone operators, radio operators, telegraph operators, telegraph technicians, projectionists, field workers mail and forwarders, etc. The released men were sent to the active army. And one more circumstance should be paid attention to. Women not only did an excellent job, but also brought with them order, enormous responsibility for the assigned work and its precise execution.
In 1942, mass mobilizations of women continued into all branches of the military, including the signal troops. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated April 13, 1942 No. 0276, about 6 thousand women were sent to various fronts to replace Red Army soldiers. 24 thousand women are enrolled in spare parts and training courses for communications specialists.
If during the First World War 1914 - 1918. there were only attempts to create communications teams of women, which, before they had time to enter into service, were disbanded, then only a quarter of a century later - in 1941 - 1945. women made up 12% of the personnel of the signal troops, and in some units - up to 80%. In the signal forces (unlike, for example, the aviation and especially the navy), women were not an unusual occurrence. Even before the war, some women studied at various communications schools. Thus, Z.N. Stepanova graduated from the Kiev Military School of Communications. She served in the Belarusian Military District and took part in the campaign in Western Belarus. She fought in the Great Patriotic War.
IN separate battalion communications of the 32nd Rifle Corps of the 5th shock army, where Major Stepanova was the chief of staff, 32 girls served as radio operators, telephone operators, and telegraph operators.
No matter how well people fight, it is very difficult to achieve a successful result without clear management and interaction. And communications were the link that served as the main means of command and control of troops in battle.
Signal specialists for the army were trained by military communications schools. Thus, Kiev and Leningrad trained many female commanders of communications units, most of them served in the active army. The Kuibyshev Military School of Communications trained female radio specialists for about 3 years. Women communications specialists were trained at military communications schools: Stalingrad, Murom, Ordzhonikidze, Ulyanovsk, Voronezh. In addition, women received military communications qualifications in separate reserve communications regiments and radio schools. Voronezh courses for radio specialists trained female signalmen. Thousands of women were trained at the 5th courses of the North Caucasian Military District, which began operating in September 1941, and in November 107 female cadets were commended for their successful academic performance. Many of the students of these courses arrived in the active army, becoming platoon and squad commanders. Others served in rear units and subunits. Only in the Komsomol-youth units of specialist fighters of the Vsevobuch under the People's Commissariat of Defense, 49,509 signalmen were trained.
Many women signalmen took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. In some communications units they accounted for up to 90% of the personnel. Their professionalism and combativeness were noted in his memoirs by the former commander of the 62nd Army, Marshal of the Soviet Union V.I. Chuikov: “In the second half of October, the situation in the city became so complicated, the distance between the front line of the battle and the Volga was so reduced that the military council of the army was forced to transfer units and institutions to the left bank so as not to have unnecessary losses. First of all, it was decided to send women to the left bank. The commanders and superiors were ordered to invite the female fighters to temporarily go to the left bank to rest there and return to us in a few days.
The military council made this decision on October 17, and on the morning of the 18th a delegation of female signal fighters came to see me. The delegation was headed by Valya Tokareva, a native of the city of Kamyshin. She posed the question, as they say, bluntly:
- Comrade commander, why are you escorting us out of the city? Why do you make a difference between women and men? Are we worse at our jobs? Whatever you want, we won’t go beyond the Volga.
I told them that at the new command post we would be able to deploy portable radios and that only this forced me to send them to the left bank until work areas for heavy communications equipment were prepared.
The delegation of women agreed to carry out the instructions of the military council, but demanded that I give my word of honor that as soon as the conditions necessary for work were created, we would transport them back to the right bank.
They crossed the Volga on October 18, and starting from October 20 the signalmen gave us no rest. “We have already rested,” they said. “When will you take us to the city again?” Or: “Comrade commander, when will you keep your word?”
We kept our word. At the end of October, they, along with their communications equipment, were transported to prepared dugouts, which they were very happy about.”
The commander of the 62nd in the same memoirs appreciated the exceptional devotion to duty and the greatest diligence of women. He wrote: “If they were sent to an intermediate communication point, then one could be sure that communication would be ensured. Let artillery and mortars hit this point, let bombs rain down on it from airplanes, let this point be surrounded by enemies - the women will not leave without an order, even if they are threatened with death.”13
These words of the marshal are confirmed by dozens of examples, in particular, the feat of Senior Sergeant E.K. Stempkovskaya, a radio operator in the 216th battalion rifle regiment, 76th Infantry Division, 21st Army of the Southwestern Front. On June 26, 1942, during the battalion's escape from encirclement, she provided communication with the regimental headquarters, replacing a deceased spotter, and called fire on herself. Then, as part of a platoon, she covered the battalion’s withdrawal. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded posthumously.
The signalmen of the 42nd Signal Regiment, which served the headquarters of the Stalingrad Front, and then the Southern and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, worked conscientiously and highly qualifiedly. The girls walked from the Volga to Prague.
On April 14, 1942, Order No. 0284 of the People's Commissar of Defense was issued on the mobilization of 30 thousand women into the Signal Corps to replace Red Army soldiers (Appendix 29). Male signalmen released from front-line, army and reserve signal units were sent to staff and replenish rifle divisions, brigades, artillery, tank, and mortar units located at the front.
Large losses at the front required replenishment. And since the number of women wishing to join the army was large, this made it possible in various branches of the Armed Forces and branches of the military to replace men with women who were sent directly to combat units. For example, from the rear units rifle troops, fortified areas, political institutions of the Red Army, male military personnel were sent to the active army, and their positions were replaced by women who were enrolled in the cadres of the Red Army.
By order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 0297 of April 19, 1942, 40 thousand women were mobilized to replace Red Army soldiers in the Air Force. Women were appointed as communications specialists, drivers, in warehouses, clerks, clerks, cooks, librarians, accountants and other positions in the administrative and economic service, in addition to the positions of riflemen.
In 1942 and in subsequent years, a number of orders were issued by the People's Commissar of Defense to replace the command and commanding staff, which, due to the nature of the work, could be replaced by command personnel of limited fitness and older age, as well as female military personnel and civilian employees (Appendices 32, 34).
On June 4, 1942, Order No. 0459 of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR was issued on the replacement of certain positions in armored vehicles military educational institutions and in the rear institutions of the Red Army, military men, civilians and women (Appendix 35).
Let us pay attention to the fact that women replaced men not only in military educational institutions of the armored forces, they themselves served at the front as tank crews. In 4-6 months they mastered the tank and successfully fought on it.
In the armored and mechanized forces we meet women mechanics-drivers, gunners-radio operators, tank commanders, tank units.
Hero of the Soviet Union, tank driver of the 26th Guards Tank Brigade of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps, M.V. Oktyabrskaya, went to the front to avenge her Motherland, for her deceased husband. Tank T-34 " Fighting girlfriend", built with personal funds, she led into battle until January 1944, then she was seriously wounded and died. The comrades in arms fulfilled the brave woman’s order to reach Berlin on the “Battle Friend.”
I.N. Levchenko carried 168 wounded from the battlefield, and later completed an accelerated course at Stalingrad tank school. She served as a liaison officer for the 41st Guards Tank Brigade of the 7th Mechanized Corps. For her military exploits, in 1965 she was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Driver mechanic, then tank commander 3. Podolskaya began fighting in 1941 in Sevastopol, providing medical care to the wounded, and then became a tank driver, graduating from a tank school, in which she was the second female student. She fought on the 1st Ukrainian Front in the 1st Tank Brigade of the 8th Guards Mechanized Corps. Amazing willpower helped not only to leave crutches (in December 1944 she was disabled in the 2nd group and returned to Sevastopol), but also to become the champion of the Black Sea Fleet in sailing in 1950. The next year at the Olympic she became the Navy champion.
Captain Alexandra Samusenko, an officer for special assignments of the headquarters of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, arrived at this position in August 1944, having already fought and having 2 military orders. She was the first female combat officer in the brigade. Died March 3, 1945
The commander of the thirty-four company, senior lieutenant E.S. Kostrikova, was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
Ekaterina Petlyuk - tank driver on the Stalingrad front. In one of the battles, she covered the commander’s damaged tank with her tank and saved him. In 1967, she came to the hero city, so memorable to her for the battles and the loss of friends. A cheerful, energetic, charming woman donated a tunic that had been preserved from the war to the Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad, telling a lot of interesting things.
Olga Porshonok, a mechanic-driver of the T-34 and IS-122 tanks, took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. Then there were battles on the Kursk Bulge, for Belarus, Poland, and Berlin.
G. Sorokina, who also fought for Stalingrad, after graduating from a tank school, became a T-34 driver mechanic in the 1126th tank brigade, reorganized into the 234th separate tank regiment.
Sergeant V. Gribaleva was a driver mechanic in the 84th battalion of heavy tanks, which was named after its first commander, Major Konstantin Ushakov, for daring raids behind enemy lines. At the Magnushevsky bridgehead, Valentina especially distinguished herself: she crushed 2 enemy bunkers, 2 anti-tank guns, a six-barreled mortar and an all-terrain vehicle. Army commander N.E. Berzarin awarded her the Order of the Red Banner right on the battlefield. She died during the crossing of the Oder.
The senior assistant to the head of the department (later the head of the department) for the repair and evacuation of armored and mechanized troops of the Southern Front was military engineer 3rd rank L.I. Kalinina, who graduated from the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army in 1939. The Motherland awarded her with ten awards military labor. In 1955, engineer-colonel L.I. Kalinina went into the reserve.
Difficult summer of 1942. The vast territory of the Soviet country was captured by the aggressor. The situation is getting more and more complicated every day. Bloody battles unfolded in the bend of the Don and Volga. The enemy is at the walls of Stalingrad.
Soldiers of the Red Army endure great psychological stress. In such an environment, women’s ability to reach the heart with words, show care, and inspire heroism has found application in the political agencies of the active army.
In order to train political personnel from among female communists at the district Military-Political School of the Moscow Military District, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated July 15, 1942 No. 0555, two-month courses are organized for women with a number of cadets of 200 people.
The training of women for political work in the active army was also carried out in other military districts. The Rostov Military-Political School was graduated from A.V. Nikulina, who back in August 1941 worked as a commissar of the evacuation hospital. After graduating from college, from November 1942 until the end of the war, she served as a senior instructor in the political department and secretary of the party commission of the 9th Rifle Corps, with whom she went through the battle route to Berlin, through the North Caucasus, Donbass, Dnieper, Dniester, and Poland. Major A.V. Nikulina took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow on June 24, 1945. Before the Great Patriotic War, Anna Vladimirovna wanted to become a sea captain and entered the Academy of Water Transport in Leningrad. Seven women were studying at the Academy at that time, six were studying at the port department, and she was the only one studying at the operational department. The war disrupted her plans, another profession led her along the roads of war. And Nikulina carried her with dignity through the fiery snowstorms.
G.K. Zhukov wrote about it in his memoirs: “The last battle for the imperial chancellery, which was fought by the 301st and 248th rifle divisions, was very difficult. The battle on the approaches and inside the building was particularly fierce.
The senior instructor of the political department of the 9th Rifle Corps, Major Anna Vladimirovna Nikulina, acted extremely boldly. As part of the assault group... she made her way up through a hole in the roof and, pulling out a red banner from under her jacket, tied it to a metal spire using a piece of telephone wire. The Banner of the Soviet Union soared above the Imperial Chancellery.”
In 1941 she became a cadet at the A.G. Odinokov Military-Political School. After graduation, she became the political commander of a rifle company, the party organizer of a separate anti-tank fighter division, and the deputy head of the sanitary flight for political affairs - the first female political commander on the 2nd Belorussian Front. For personal courage and skillful organization of work, Lieutenant Odinokova was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
The courses for political workers, organized in the summer of 1942 at the 33rd Army of the Western Front, enrolled 10 girls who had combat experience, awards, and wounds. Among them was Lieutenant T.S. Makharadze, who completed the course with flying colors. At graduation, she was awarded the Order of the Red Star - the first Georgian commissar. Brave, energetic, she was with the fighters everywhere. She made sure that there were fewer losses during the battle. In difficult moments of battle, she carried the fighters along with her. Fiery military kilometers: Medyn, Istra, Yasnaya Polyana, Yelnya, Kursk Bulge... a 22-year-old female commissar walked by.
IN rifle units and units, women fought as machine gunners, machine gunners, etc. There were also commanders among them. Women are commanders of crews, squads, platoons, and companies. They studied in various women's units that trained military personnel for the front and rear: in schools, courses, and in reserve rifle regiments.
For example, the 1st Separate Women's Reserve Rifle Regiment, formed in November 1942 under the Moscow Military District, trained 5,175 female soldiers and commanders of the Red Army (3,892 ordinary soldiers, 986 sergeants and foremen, and 297). In addition, in 1943, 514 women and 1,504 women sergeants were retrained in the regiment, including about 500 front-line soldiers.
An indicator of the practical application of the acquired knowledge was the combat deeds of women, noted by the highest state awards. M.S. Batrakova, M.Zh. Mametova, A.A. Nikandrova, N.A. Onilova were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The commander of the machine gun crew of the 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division, D.Yu. Staniliene-Markauskienė, became a full holder of the Order of Glory.
It is unusual for a girl at 18 to be appointed commander of a machine gun company. Valentina Vasilyevna Chudakova was entrusted with such a company. Valentina began fighting at the age of 16 in the 183rd Infantry Division as a medical instructor. Participated in battles under Staraya Russa, Smolensk, Novgorod, on the Rzhev-Vyazemsky bridgehead, Vistula. In one of the battles, she replaced a wounded machine gunner. She herself was wounded, but even after the wound she accurately struck the enemy. Under male surname she was enrolled in a course for junior lieutenants - machine gun platoon commanders. After completing the course, she arrives at the front as the commander of a machine gun company. For a woman, of course, this is an exceptional phenomenon, since such companies were staffed by strong, hardy, courageous men and were located in the hottest spots. Personnel officers were appointed commanders of machine gun companies. Senior Lieutenant V.V. Chudakova commanded such a company. Having successfully ended the war, decades later she is still as energetic, active, and open to people.
The Ryazan Infantry School trained women capable of performing combat and operational missions in active and rear units of the Red Army. 80% of female cadets studied with excellent marks.
In 1943, the Ryazan Infantry School trained 1,388 commanders for the front. 704 of its graduates were appointed commanders of rifle, 382 machine-gun and 302 mortar units of the active army16.
Although the enemy's advance into the interior of the Soviet Union slowed down, the fighting was fierce and cost heavy losses. The front constantly required replenishment. And the replacement of men going to the front with women continued.
It would not be out of place to talk about a profession that is not entirely usual for a woman - a sapper. She served as the commander of a sapper platoon of A.P. Turova, and at the age of 20 she graduated from the Moscow Military Engineering School (out of 24 disciplines, she passed 22 with “excellent marks”). She worked precisely, like a jeweler, laying mines or clearing mines, clearing the way for units of the Red Army, acting boldly and intelligently. Her authority among her 18 subordinates, most of whom were twice the age of their commander, was indisputable. Throughout the entire engineering brigade there was fame about the combat deeds of the female sapper.
On November 21, 1942, Order No. 0902 of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR was issued on the initial training of women in the Komsomol youth special forces of Vsevobuch (Appendix 39). In this regard, it should be noted that back on September 16, 1941, by decree of the State Defense Committee, universal military training (Vsevobuch) was introduced in the country. For the military training of women, Komsomol youth units were created under Vsevobuch, in which they were trained in military specialties.
In the Komsomol youth units of Vsevobuch during the war without interruption from work military training Over 222 thousand women passed through, of which 6,097 received the specialty of mortar women, 12,318 - heavy and light machine gunners, 15,290 - machine gunners, 29,509 - signalmen and 11,061 - specialists for military highway units17.
Since we touched upon the activities of Vsevobuch, we also note that during the war years, the bodies of Vsevobuch conducted 7 rounds of non-military training according to a 110-hour program. Men and women aged from 16 to 50 years were involved in the training. The total number of citizens covered by Vsevobuch was 9862 thousand people. This was almost one and a half times the size of the active army together with the reserves of the Headquarters by the beginning of 1944. Thus, the bodies of Vsevobuch, working in all corners of the Soviet country, made a significant contribution to winning victory over the enemy.
The replacement by women of men fit for military service in many specialties was carried out constantly. They were sent to different kinds Armed Forces.
Women also served in the Navy. On May 6, 1942, Order No. 0365 was issued on the mobilization of Komsomol and non-Komsomol girls - volunteers into the Navy19 (Appendix 33). In 1942, there were already 25 thousand women in the Navy of various specialties: doctors, signalmen, surveyors, drivers, clerks, etc. In connection with the increase in the number of women in the Navy, on May 10, 1942, the Main Political Directorate of the Navy issued a special directive on the organization of political work with mobilized girls.
Platoon commander Marine Corps E.N. Zavaliy fought. She completed a six-month course for junior officers. Since October 1943, junior lieutenant Zavaliy has been a platoon commander of a separate company of machine gunners of the 83rd naval brigade.
The company was impact force brigade, and in the company the breakthrough platoon was Evdokia Zavaliy. When the battles were going on for Budapest, the platoon was without hesitation assigned to carry out one of the most difficult tasks - to get into the center of the fortified city and capture the "language" - one of the representatives of the highest command staff or start a fight, raise panic. Having familiarized herself with the intelligence data, Evdokia Nikolaevna led the platoon through the sewer pipes. To avoid suffocation, they used gas masks and oxygen bags. In the very center of the city, paratroopers emerged from the ground, destroyed the guards and captured the headquarters of a unit of fascist troops.
Evdokia Nikolaevna Zavaliy went through a difficult and dangerous path from the first to last days war... For her exploits on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, Guard Lieutenant E.N. Zavaliy was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Red Star, the Patriotic War, and many medals20.
The right gunner of the 180-mm gun O. Smirnova, a fighter of the only naval railway artillery troops of its kind, fought for Leningrad.
A woman served in the Navy in an unusual profession for her gender. “In 1930, with the special permission of People’s Commissar K.E. Voroshilov, she became the first girl to serve in the navy. She was the first to put on the uniform of a naval commander and the first woman to receive the all-male specialty of pyrotechnics-miner. This is Guard Lieutenant Colonel of the Navy Taisiya Petrovna Sheveleva.” This is how the article about T.P. Sheveleva in the Trud newspaper begins.
In 1933, Sheveleva graduated from the Leningrad Artillery Technical School. She was sent to the Black Sea Fleet, where her appearance caused a stir, since Sheveleva was the first woman naval commander, and even a completely unprecedented specialty for a woman - pyrotechnics-miner. Many did not believe in her, but she worked masterfully and soon in the Black Sea Fleet she was nicknamed a pyrotechnic surgeon.
Since 1936 she has been a pyrotechnician of the Dnieper flotilla. Before the Great Patriotic War, she commanded a company of the united naval crew school. The entire military service of T.P. Sheveleva before her dismissal from the Navy in 1956 was in one way or another connected with the artillery armament of the fleet.
Taisiya Petrovna’s sister, Maria, was also an artillery officer. Their destinies are similar: each served more than 25 calendar years in the Armed Forces, fought, retired with the same ranks, and their awards are almost the same - the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Red Star, an equal share of medals*.
* See: Kanevsky G. Lady with daggers // Week. 1984. No. 12. P. 6.
During the Great Patriotic War, girls who cleared mines on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, L. Babaeva, L. Voronova, M. Kilunova, M. Plotnikova, E. Kharina, Z. Khryapchenkova, M. Sherstobitova, served in the 176th separate engineering battalion of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and others.
The work of a detachment of two hundred divers in Leningrad was led by engineer-colonel N.V. Sokolova - the only woman in the world who worked underwater in a heavy diving suit.
We have already met Russian women who, during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 - 1905. on the floating infirmaries of the Amur and Sungari they provided medical care to wounded and sick soldiers. In 1941 - 1945 On the Amur, women on ships, the crews of which almost entirely consisted only of them, carried out defense transportation. For example, the crew of the steamship "Astrakhan" from the sailor and fireman to captain Z.P. Savchenko (a navigator technician by training who graduated from the Blagoveshchensk Water College), chief mate P.S. Grishina consisted of women who replaced husbands and fathers who had gone to the front . “Astrakhan” and 65 other ships, on which a quarter of the crews were women, sailed along with the Red Army advancing in Manchuria, transporting food, fuel, military units, and wounded along the Amur and Sungari.
For their titanic work and the heroism shown at the same time, the commander of the Red Banner Amur flotilla awarded Captain Z.P. Savchenko the Order of the Red Star, and 5 women received medals “For Military Merit”.
During the war years, half-female teams worked on the ships “Krasnaya Zvezda”, “Kommunist”, “F.Mukhin”, “21st MYuD”, “Kokkinaki” and many other Amur ships.
38 women river workers of the Far East were awarded various military awards.
A.I. Shchetinina graduated from a water technical school before the Great Patriotic War, worked as a navigator, first mate, and captain. During the Great Patriotic War, she was the captain of the steamship “Saule”, delivered ammunition, fuel, and transported the wounded. The Order of the Red Star was a reward for the courageous captain. Faithfully serving her Motherland, Anna Ivanovna, in any weather, sometimes spent days on the bridge of ships - “Karl Liebknecht”, “Rodina”, “Jean Zhores” and others, on which she happened to be the captain. She is the world's first female captain long voyage, having in addition to the Hero star Socialist Labor And military awards. On February 26, 1993, Anna Ivanovna Shchetinina turned 85 years old.
Midshipman L.S. Grineva studied at the navigation department of the Odessa Naval School before the war. She began to fight as a nurse, defeated the enemy as a shooter on an attack aircraft, and served as an assistant commander of a sea hunter. A woman in love with the sea, after the war, she went to Vladivostok, where she worked as the fourth mate on the ship "Khabarovsk".
On the Volga, the crew of a minesweeper boat, consisting of women, cleared the fairway of mines.
Women also contributed to the defense of the northern sea frontiers.
Women combat doctors of 1941-1945 were no less selfless than the sisters of mercy of previous wars.
Medical instructor N. Kapitonova served in the 92nd separate Red Banner Marine Infantry Brigade, formed from sailors of the Northern Fleet. While fighting for Stalingrad, she carried 160 wounded from the battlefield. Awarded the Order of Lenin. She died in battles for the city.
About 400 people were saved during the war years by Chief Petty Officer E.I. Mikhailova (Demina), a medical instructor of the 369th separate Kerch Red Banner Marine Battalion. After the war she graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute. She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War and many medals, including the Florence Nightingale Medal, which is awarded only to women. This medal was established by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1912 in memory of an English nurse who devoted her life to caring for the wounded and sick from 1854-1856. (Crimean War).
The medal's regulations state that it is intended as a reward for particularly selfless acts in recognition of exceptional moral and professional qualities demonstrated by nurses and Red Cross activists. When treating sick and wounded people in difficult and dangerous conditions, which especially often arise during wars. About a thousand women around the world have been awarded this medal, including about fifty of our compatriots. E.I. Mikhailova (Demina) was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on May 5, 1990.
Considering the importance medical care in the active army, State Committee On September 22, 1941, the Defense Forces adopted a resolution to improve medical care for wounded soldiers and commanders of the Red Army.
The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in a directive to party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions, demanded that the buildings of hospitals, schools, clubs, and institutions be transferred to hospitals. Already in July 1941, the country began the formation of 1,600 evacuation hospitals with 750 thousand beds. By December 20, 1941, 395 thousand beds were deployed to treat the wounded. Thousands of doctors, nurses, students and graduates medical institutes came to the military registration and enlistment offices with a request to send them to the front.
In addition, as in previous wars, in different cities of the country, women through the Red Cross prepared to care for wounded and sick soldiers. Thousands of applications were submitted to the Red Cross organizations; in Moscow alone, at the very beginning of the war, over 10 thousand.
Along with mobilization into the air defense, air force, communications troops, etc. Medical workers are being drafted into the army from the reserves, and early graduations of trainees and students are being carried out in military medical educational institutions. Military medical schools organize courses for training military paramedics. A major role in the training of medical personnel was played by the Red Cross, which during the war years trained about 300 thousand nurses (almost half of them were sent to military units, military ambulance trains, various medical institutions of the Red Cross), over 500 thousand nurses and up to 300 thousand orderlies.
Hundreds of thousands of women worked selflessly to save lives and preserve the health of soldiers at the front.
For comparison, let us remember the Russian-Turkish war of 1877 - 1878, when for the first time nurses were trained at the official level for the active army and rear hospitals. About one and a half thousand sisters of mercy were then sent to the active army, and more than a thousand worked in hospitals on the territory of the Empire.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. Over 225 thousand sanitary workers and activists came to medical institutions Russian Society Red Cross. In Moscow and the Moscow region alone in 1941, ROKK organizations trained 160 thousand nurses and sanitary workers. During the first 2 years of the war, Leningrad provided the army and civilian medical institutions with 8,860 nurses, 14,638 sanitaries and 636,165 GSO badges.
Again, a comparison arises with past wars - doctors and surgeons at the front during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877 - 1878. There were a few women, and “brothers of mercy” worked alongside the sisters.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. female doctors in the active army made up 41% of front-line doctors, 43% of military surgeons and military paramedics, 100% of nurses and 40% of medical instructors and nurses24.
The noble mission of medicine - saving people in such extreme conditions as war - has manifested itself even more clearly.
Heroically defending the wounded, Natalya Kochuevskaya, a 19-year-old nurse on the Stalingrad front, died. A street in the center of Moscow is named after her. Continuing the list of famous names, let's name some more of them. V.F. Vasilevskaya worked as a tow truck at the front-line evacuation point in Yugo-Zapadny, Donskoy, Stepnoy; 1st Belorussian Front. From July 5, 1941 until the end of the war, M.M. Epstein was a divisional doctor and then the head of an army hospital. O.P. Tarasenko - doctor of a military hospital train, doctor of the evacuation department, surgeon of the medical battalion. A.S. Sokol is the commander of a medical company in the 415th Infantry Division. O.P. Dzhigurda - naval surgeon. Z.I. Ovcharenko, M.I. Titenko and others worked as surgeons at evacuation hospitals. Doctor L.T. Malaya (now an academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences) worked as an assistant to the head of the triage evacuation hospital for the medical part. And many, many selfless workers of the war received the wounded under fire, provided assistance, and saved lives.
Almost 90 years after the defense of Sevastopol in the war of 1853 - 1856. Russian women continued the work of their predecessors - the sisters of mercy.
After more than three weeks of preparation, on December 17, 1941, the general assault on Sevastopol began. For 17 days the roar of guns, bomb explosions, the whistle of bullets did not stop, and blood flowed. 2.5 thousand wounded per day were admitted to the city’s medical institutions, which turned out to be overcrowded. Sometimes they contained more than 6,000-7,000 people.
During the heroic 250-day defense of Sevastopol, male and female doctors returned to duty 36.7% of the wounded who were treated in hospitals in the Sevastopol defensive region. Over 400 thousand wounded were transported across the Black Sea.
The eternal struggle between two opposites - good and evil, destruction and salvation - appears especially naked during war, being an indicator of high spirituality, culture, humanity or completely polar qualities of people.
The Germans, as during the First World War, did not observe the international laws of inviolability of medical personnel, ambulance trains, cars, hospitals, which they bombed, shot the wounded, doctors, and nurses. While saving the lives of the wounded, many medical workers died themselves. They stood at operating tables for days until they fainted from overwork, and were wounded or killed at work.
The work in medical battalions and front-line hospitals was very intense. The most complex operations were performed by their female colleagues on an equal basis with men. As for the organization of primary care and monitoring of the wounded during transportation to the rear, the decisive role in this belonged, of course, to women. During the Great Patriotic War, they received and served hundreds of thousands of wounded. The medical battalions received and triaged a continuous stream of wounded, bandaged, operated on, administered anti-shock therapy, and treated those who were unable to be transported.
In addition to special medical institutions, doctors served in a wide variety of units and formations. Not a single branch of the military could do without medical workers. In the cavalry squadron of the 4th cavalry-mechanized group of Hero of the Soviet Union I.A. Pliev, Sergeant Major 3.V. Korzh served as a guard medical instructor. Near Budapest, in 4 days she carried 150 wounded from the battlefield, for which she was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
Women often headed medical units in combat formations. For example, S.A. Kuntsevich was the commander of a medical platoon of the 2nd battalion of the 119th regiment of the 40th Guards Rifle Division. In 1981, she received the highest award of the International Committee of the Red Cross - the Florence Nightingale Medal for rescuing wounded soldiers.
In field hospitals, pharmacists worked selflessly alongside surgeons, doctors, and nurses. In the field marching surgical hospital No. 5230, the head of the pharmacy was a graduate of the Ulyanovsk Pharmacy School V.I. Goncharova. In field hospital No. 5216, the head of the pharmacy was L.I. Koroleva, who traveled all military roads with the hospital.
The combined efforts of front-line doctors helped return a large number of wounded to duty. For example, the medical service of the 2nd Belorussian Front in 1943 evacuated only 32% of the wounded outside its borders, and 68% remained until complete recovery in medical institutions divisions, in army and front-line hospitals26. Caring for them fell primarily on women. The war veterans with whom I spoke remember with great gratitude and warmth the care and attention of women.
It should be noted that the military affairs of the doctors were in the field of view of the command.
Already at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the selfless work of orderlies and porters on the battlefield to save the wounded was appreciated in the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 281 of August 23, 1941, which stated that for the removal from the battlefield of 15 wounded with their rifles or light machine guns - present each orderly or porter with a government award for a medal “For Military Merit” or “For Courage”. For the removal of 25 wounded with personal weapons, orderlies and porters are nominated to be awarded the Order of the Red Star, for the removal of 40 wounded - to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner, for the removal of 80 wounded - to be awarded the Order of Lenin.
Any work in war is hard and dangerous, but to carry a wounded person out of the fire and return there again requires extraordinary courage, ardent love for a person, sincere mercy, and exceptional willpower. And fragile women returned to the fiery hell several dozen times during one battle to pull out those in need of help. The poet Yulia Drunina, who herself fought as a front-line nurse, wrote wonderful lines coming from the heart about the feelings of a woman saving a fellow soldier.
But there is nothing more beautiful, believe me
(And I’ve had everything in my life!)
How to protect a friend from death
And take him out from under the fire...
Echoing these words is a letter from the front-line nurse of the Hero of the Soviet Union M.Z. Shcherbachenko, who wrote home during the break between battles: “The situation of a nurse at the front is sometimes more difficult than a fighter. A defensive soldier fires from his trench, and a nurse runs from one wounded man to another under rifle, machine-gun and mortar fire, every minute being exposed to mortal danger. But you don’t think about yourself, you don’t think about your life when you see the wounded bleeding, when you feel that your help is extremely necessary and life often depends on it...”27
And without sparing themselves, the women carried the wounded from the battlefield in incredible difficult conditions, when the losses of personnel of the fighting troops reached 75%, as for example, during the Battle of Stalingrad in the divisions of V.G. Zholudev and V.A. Gorishny during the hardest days of October 13 and 15, 1942.
The former commander of the 62nd Army, V.I. Chuikov, spoke warmly about the army nurses in his memoirs. In particular, he wrote: “Nurse Tamara Shmakova served in Batyuk’s division. I knew her personally. She became famous for carrying out seriously wounded people from the front line of battle, when it seemed impossible to raise an arm above the ground.
Crawling closer to the wounded man, Tamara, lying next to him, bandaged him. Having determined the extent of the injury, she decided what to do with it. If a seriously wounded man could not be left on the battlefield, Tamara took measures for urgent evacuation. To carry a wounded man from the battlefield, it usually takes two people, with or without a stretcher. But Tamara most often dealt with this matter alone. Her evacuation techniques were as follows: she crawled under the wounded man and, gathering all her strength, dragged a living load on her back, often one and a half to two times heavier than herself. And when the wounded man could not be lifted, Tamara spread out a raincoat, rolled the wounded man onto it and also crawled and pulled the heavy burden behind her.
Tamara Shmakova saved many lives. Many survivors must thank her for saving them. And it happened that the fighters, saved from death, could not even find out the name of this girl. Now she works in Tomsk region doctor.
And there were many heroines like Tamara in the 62nd Army. There were over a thousand women on the lists of those awarded in units of the 62nd Army. Among them: Maria Ulyanova, who from the beginning to the end of the defense was in the house of Sergeant Pavlov; Valya Pakhomova, who carried more than a hundred wounded from the battlefield; Nadya Koltsova, awarded two Orders of the Red Banner; doctor Maria Velyaminova, who bandaged hundreds of soldiers and commanders under fire at the forefront; Lyuba Nesterenko, who, finding herself in the besieged garrison of Senior Lieutenant Dragan, bandaged dozens of wounded guardsmen and, bleeding, died with a bandage in her hands next to a wounded comrade.
I remember the female doctors who worked in division medical battalions and at evacuation points when crossing the Volga, each of whom bandaged a hundred or even more wounded during the night. There are known cases when the medical staff of an evacuation point sent two or three thousand wounded to the left bank in one night.
And all this under continuous fire from all types of weapons and bombing from the air28.
As the first sister of mercy who provided assistance on the battlefield to the wounded defenders of Sevastopol in Crimean War 1853 - 1856, we know Dasha of Sevastopol. During the Patriotic War of 1941-1945, like young Dasha, Pasha Mikhailova and Dina Kritskaya appeared on the battlefield, bandaged the wounded sailors of the 1st Perekop Regiment, and carried them to safe place. The girls helped the military orderlies and carried up to 50 wounded from the battlefield. For participation in battles during the defense of Sevastopol they were awarded orders and medals.
No matter what kind of war we took in past centuries, none of them did without epidemic diseases, which claimed more lives of soldiers than bullets and cannonballs. Epidemics killed 2-6 times more than weapons - about 10% of the personnel.
Thus, during the Russian-Japanese War there were almost 4 times more sick people than wounded.
To combat the prevention of epidemics during the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. A network of sanitary and hygienic and anti-epidemic institutions is being created: by the beginning of the war, there were 1,760 sanitary and epidemiological stations, 1,406 sanitary and bacteriological laboratories, 2,388 disinfection stations and points in the country.
Considering the importance of preventing epidemic diseases, on February 2, 1942, the State Defense Committee adopted a resolution “On measures to prevent epidemic diseases in the country and in the Red Army.” This decree of the State Defense Committee was a guideline for military doctors.
During the Great Patriotic War, a clear, well-coordinated system of sanitary and epidemiological service operated in the country. Military sanitary anti-epidemic detachments, field bath detachments, field laundries and laundry-disinfection detachments of field evacuation points, washing and disinfection companies, bath-laundry-disinfection trains, etc., in which many women served, were organized. Immunization was carried out with vaccines against typhus created by the remarkable scientists M.K. Krontovskaya and M.M. Mayevsky, for which they were awarded Stalin Prize. All these measures and a number of others helped prevent epidemics in the army.
In the multi-volume work “Experience Soviet medicine in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945” it is noted that the war was not accompanied by the massive development of epidemic diseases, as might have been expected. Epidemic diseases, even during the most difficult periods of the war, did not reach a level of development that could to some extent adversely affect the country's economy, the combat effectiveness of the Red Army troops and the strength of its rear.
Thus, the contribution of medical workers to the victory can hardly be overestimated. Their the main task- saving lives and returning defenders of the Fatherland to duty, preventing epidemic diseases, was successfully completed. The very fact that, thanks to the courage and tireless work of doctors, 72% of the wounded and 90% of the sick returned to the army, speaks of the importance of medicine and its contribution to victory.
The work of doctors was appreciated by the government. 116 thousand received various awards, among them over 40 thousand women. Of the 53 Heroes of the Soviet Union - physicians, 16 are women. Many became holders of the Order of Soldier's Glory of various degrees, and the foreman of the medical service M.S. Necheporchukova (Nozdracheva) was awarded the Order of Glory of all three degrees.
During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. More than 200 thousand doctors and over 500 thousand paramedics, nurses, medical instructors and orderlies served in the army and navy.
Thanks to their efforts, assistance was provided to 10 million defenders of the Motherland30.
Soviet women made a great contribution to the liberation of their Fatherland and the defeat of Nazi Germany. They steadfastly endured the hardships of war, won victories in single combat with the enemy, saved the lives of the wounded, and returned them to duty.
Women fought fearlessly, desperately, bravely, but still they were not only warriors, but also loving, beloved, wanting to have a family and children. Marriages began, women became mothers. The cases were far from isolated. A pregnant warrior, a warrior with a child in her arms is a considerable problem, which required the adoption of a number of normative documents to solve it. So, in 1942 - 1944. Council resolutions were issued People's Commissars USSR, Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, which determined the procedure for issuing benefits, maternity leave to female military personnel, civilian employees, as well as those dismissed from the Red Army and Navy due to pregnancy; providing benefits to pregnant women. Which, to a certain extent, contributed to the preservation of women’s health and the restoration of the country’s population.
During the difficult war years, in the most difficult front-line conditions, the needs of the Rzeczin warriors were taken into account: they were given additional soap, and non-smokers were given chocolate and candy instead of tobacco allowance.
Let us conclude the story about the women of the Great Patriotic War with the words of the commander of the Stalingrad Front A.I. Eremenko, said about the defenders of Stalingrad, which, rightfully, can apply to all women participants in the Great Patriotic War: “... I cannot help but express warm words of deep gratitude to the women - Stalingrad. We know about the exploits of Soviet women in the rear, in factories and factories, on collective farm fields. Here, men’s work and the enormous responsibility for providing the country and the front with everything necessary fell on the shoulders of women. But we cannot forget the unprecedented feat of those women volunteers who, together with men, stood at the forefront of the fight against the enemy. Women pilots, women rivermen, women snipers, women signalmen, women artillerymen. There is hardly one military specialty, which our brave women could not cope with as well as their brothers, husbands and fathers. Pilots Lydia Litvyak and Nina Belyaeva, female sailor Maria Yagunova, Komsomol nurse Natalya Kochuevskaya, signalmen A. Litvina and M. Litvinenko. And how much bright heroism was shown by the Komsomol girls who were in the Air Defense Forces and sometimes made up the majority in anti-aircraft batteries and divisions, in instrument, rangefinder and other crews!
Women's hands, weak at first glance, did any work quickly and accurately. And who doesn’t know that the hardest and most difficult is military work, work under fire, work in every minute mortal danger.
I think that in those oratorios and symphonies that will undoubtedly be created by our composers in honor of Stalingrad, the highest and most tender note dedicated to the women of Stalingrad will certainly sound.”
Marshal G.K. Zhukov spoke with no less warmth and gratitude about the women defenders of the Fatherland: “On the eve of the war, more than 50 percent of the country’s population were women. It was a great force in building a socialist society. And when the war began, they actively showed themselves in defense of the Motherland: some in the active army, some on the labor front, some in the fight against invaders in the occupied territory.
Many years have passed since the victory over Nazi Germany, and it is impossible to forget what its participants and contemporaries had to see - people were at the extreme limit of spiritual and physical human capabilities.
During the war, I repeatedly had the opportunity to visit forward medical aid stations - medical battalions and evacuation hospitals. The heroism and fortitude of the orderlies, nurses, and doctors are unforgettable. They carried soldiers out of the battlefield and nursed them back to health. Snipers, telephone operators, and telegraph operators were distinguished by their fearlessness and courage. Many of them were then no more than 18 - 20 years old. Despising danger, they bravely fought the hated enemy and went on the attack along with men. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are indebted to the heroism and mercy of women.
With their devotion to the Motherland and constant readiness to give their lives for it, Soviet women amazed all progressive humanity. I think I will not be mistaken in expressing the opinion that our women, with their heroic military and labor feats in the war with Nazi Germany, deserve a monument equal to the monument to the Unknown Soldier erected in Moscow near the Kremlin wall.”
This highest praise feat of Soviet women on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. has a solid foundation. For the exploits shown during the war, 96 women received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (6 of them Heroes of Russia) (Appendix 46), over 150 thousand women were awarded military orders and medals. Many received awards more than once, 200 women were awarded 1-2 orders of soldier's glory, and 4 became full holders of the Order of Glory (Appendix 47). 650 women who participated in the liberation of Europe were awarded by the governments of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other countries.
Closing the next page of the book, please read the poems of Yulia Drunina, I think the last 2 lines will especially clearly say that as long as we have and will have such Daughters as you just met, our Fatherland - Russia was, is and will be.
I still don't quite understand
How am I, thin and small,
Through the fires to the victorious May
I arrived in my kirzachs!
And where did so much strength come from?
Even the weakest among us?
What to guess! Russia had and still has
Eternal strength is an eternal supply.
So, Russia had and still has an “eternal reserve of eternal strength.” It seems that this eternal reserve, stored in the souls, minds, and actions of Russian women, received its greatest realization in the last war.
Russian women in less than 100 years, they took an incredible step in establishing equal rights with men to defend the Fatherland, increasing their ranks in his service from 120 people to 800 thousand*
* The figure of 800 thousand is used in the research of V.S. Murmantseva. In the book “The classification of secrecy has been lifted. Losses of the USSR Armed Forces in wars, hostilities and military conflicts. Statistical research". Ed. G.F. Krivosheeva. M., 1993, the figure is 490,235 women. It seems that 800 thousand is more complete.
The Russian woman remembered her ancient ancestors - the warlike Slavs and used what was provided to her by the development of society, a progressive change in views on her role in it and the implementation of mental, physical, professional opportunities, the right to military activity. She boldly and decisively stepped onto the battlefields. For four years, side by side with men, she shared everyday life at the front and walked tens of thousands of kilometers to Victory.
The last war was distinguished from previous ones by its scale. Scope in everything. In the number of human masses in the army; in the number of days and nights of the war; in the number and variety of weapons of destruction; in the size of the territories engulfed by the fire of war; in the number of killed, maimed; tortured and burned prisoners of war in concentration camps scattered throughout the territories of many “civilized” states; in the mass of peoples drawn into the destruction of each other; in astronomical figures of damage caused; in the chaos of cruelty...
What should I list?! More than half a century has passed, and the wounds of the body, soul, Earth, and the remains of crippled buildings still do not heal; In the memory of those who survived the meat grinder of war, those 20-year-olds who remained like that forever are alive.
Women don't like war. They give the world Love, Life, Future. And for this reason, millions of young, beautiful, gentle and sharp, quiet and lively, shy and overwhelmed by the warmth of their homes and orphanages, from all over the vast country, stood up to defend their Fatherland. Why were so many - almost a million women - in the ranks of the Red Army? Were there not enough men? Or were the same men not taking care of them? Maybe they fought better? Or did the men not want to fight? No. The men performed their military duty. And women, just as in previous times, went voluntarily. And they were facilitated by the fact that, taking into account the persistent requests of hundreds of thousands of patriots, the state, waging a difficult war, experiencing a real need to replenish the active army with healthy, young men, mobilized (while maintaining the principle of voluntariness) women, as a rule, to replace men with them where It was possible to free them and send them into the heat of war.
There were many women in this hell, especially doctors, who not only nursed the wounded and sick in hospitals, infirmaries, etc., but also pulled them out of the battlefield under the whistle of bullets and shrapnel, the roar of explosions, sometimes sacrificing their lives, making almost half of the medical instructors, orderlies, front-line doctors, military paramedics, and the nurses were only women. Through their gentle, caring hands, millions of warriors returned to life and into the ranks of the fighting. Women doctors of the Great Patriotic War, having taken up the baton of the predecessors of previous wars, carried it with dignity through a cruel, bloody, destructive war.
Along with this noble mission, women joined the ranks of such military specialties that were not available before, and which did not previously exist at all.
This war differed from previous ones not only in the huge increase in the number of women in the theater of operations, but also in their participation in various fields of combat activity in all branches of the Armed Forces and branches of the military: machine gunners, signalmen, drivers, traffic controllers, political workers, tank drivers, riflemen -radio operators, armed forces, clerks, clerks, anti-aircraft gunners, librarians, accountants, sappers, miners, topographers, etc.
Among the women there were commanders of crews, squads, platoons, companies, and regiments. Thousands of women trained at military schools in many cities of the country.
Already, as many as 3 special women’s aviation regiments were formed from “winged” women who successfully fought in the capitals of European states. Their military skill, courage, and courage delighted the men who not only fought alongside them, but also abroad.
The fighter pilots were not afraid of the number of enemy aircraft. They beat not by numbers, but by the skill of an experienced, intelligent, angry, determined male enemy.
But despite the expansion of the spheres of military activity and the numerical increase in women in the army in the years last war, they were united with their predecessors by love for the Fatherland, a voluntary desire to defend it in difficult times of war. From all that has been said, it is clear that the same courage, bravery, dedication, even self-sacrifice - qualities that were characteristic of Russian women of previous times - were also characteristic of women during the last war.
They not only took the baton of mercy, love for their neighbor and the Fatherland, serving him on the battlefield, but they carried it with dignity through the fiery blizzards of four war years and finally established their equality with men and the right to protect their homes.
At the end of the Great Patriotic War, there was a massive demobilization of soldiers and due to the reduction of the Armed Forces. Women soldiers were also demobilized. They were returning to normal civil life, to peaceful labor, the restoration of destroyed cities and economies, they had the opportunity to start a family, children, and revive the population of a country that had lost millions in a four-year war.
The number of women in the Armed Forces has dropped sharply. However, they remained in military service in the army; taught in military educational institutions; worked in laboratories, research institutes, signalmen, translators, doctors, etc. Now they have been replaced by a new generation.
Women who went through the war actively participated in the public life of the country for many decades, speaking to young people with memories of the difficult fiery years of the Great Patriotic War.
Yu.N. Ivanova The bravest of the beautiful. Women of Russia in wars