Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - biography, information, personal life. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Feat. Real events

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is a symbol of the heroism of Soviet citizens, who became for Russia an example of perseverance and readiness to help her Motherland, like Joan of Arc for her country. In difficult times, many remember her feat, are interested in her biography, photos of the torture and execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. You can find out more about her life in this article.

https://youtu.be/Q-VA_I742mE

Childhood and youth

Zoya was born on September 13, 1923, in the Tambov region, in a village called Osinov Gai. Her parents were school teachers, and her grandfather worked as a priest in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian - from the name of this church the surname Kosmodemyanskaya came from.

Soon their family moved to Moscow, where Zoya went to school. Their father had died by that time, and their mother alone raised her and Sasha, Zoya’s younger brother. The girl was an excellent student, her favorite subjects were history and literature. Zoya wanted to enter the Literary Institute, but the outbreak of war interrupted her plans.

While still at school, Kosmodemyanskaya had a conflict with her classmates, as a result of which she developed a nervous illness.

Some said that Zoya allegedly had schizophrenia, and even showed her medical history. However, no one knew the doctors who treated her, and it is quite possible that the story about schizophrenia was invented to discredit her feat.

In 1940, Kosmodemyanskaya fell ill with an acute form of meningitis, and only in 1941 was she able to recover. Zoya was treated in Sokolniki, where she met her favorite writer, Arkady Gaidar.

On October 31, 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya came to the recruiting station, after which she was sent to combat training for saboteurs. At that time, the famous Order number 428 was announced, ordering the burning and blowing up of houses and railways that the Nazis use for their own purposes. The order was received ambiguously; there are still debates about its necessity and success, because Soviet citizens lost their homes and roads, and many even went over to the side of the Germans. But the Russian command had nothing to do - Nazi troops were rapidly approaching Moscow, and they had to be stopped at any cost.

The training was very short - only three days, where Zoe and other recruits were taught the basics. During the exercises they were warned that 95 percent would die from terrible torture, or they would simply be shot, so those who were afraid of pain and death were not allowed to fight.

Basically, they preferred to hire athletes as people who were persistent and hardy. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya successfully passed all the tests and was enrolled in the sabotage detachment of the Western Front. Her first task was to mine the Volokolamsk railway, which she successfully did.

Zoya's feat

On November 27, 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya was preparing for a new task, which consisted of the following: it was necessary to set fire to the houses in which the Germans were located in several villages. In addition to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, several young people went on the mission. Zoya was given an incendiary mixture, a pistol and a bottle of vodka to keep warm on the frosty night. Together with her comrades, Klubkov and Krainov, she sets fire to several houses in the village of Petrishchevo, one of which was a Nazi communications center, and the other was a stable.

After the execution, Klubkov, Krainov and Zoya were supposed to meet, but Krainov, without waiting for his comrades, went to the camp, Krainov was discovered and captured, and Kosmodemyanskaya began to continue the arson alone.

On November 28, at night, Zoya went to set fire to the hut of Sviridov, the village elder, who was helping the Germans. Kosmodemyanskaya failed to commit arson, as the headman noticed her and handed her over to the Nazis. Zoya could not shoot because her gun was faulty.

Z. Kosmodemyanskaya in captivity

The Germans brought the girl into the house and began interrogating her. Zoya was silent, only saying that her name was Tatyana. The Germans continued to interrogate her through torture - they beat her with belts for several hours, and then drove her naked all night on the street, in thirty-degree frost, but Zoya never said anything.

Execution

The next morning, the Germans prepared the public execution of Zoe. The Germans photographed the execution and torture of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - these photos were later found in the house of a Nazi.

There was a gallows set up on the street with two boxes underneath. Zoya was taken outside with a sign tied to her chest that read: “Arsonist of houses.” Some villagers condemned her for burning houses and also helped in erecting the gallows.

They were later shot by Soviet soldiers for helping the Germans. While she was being led to the place of execution, Zoya gave a speech that inspired millions of Soviet citizens to help their army, their country. However, it was not possible to finish the speech - the boxes were pushed over, and Kosmodemyanskaya was hanged.

After that, she hung on the gallows for a whole month; one day, passing Germans took off her clothes and cut off her breasts. Until the end, no one knew the girl’s real name and surname, because everyone thought she was Tanya. For a long time, after her remains were discovered, she could not be identified, but it was soon confirmed that this girl was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

Her mother and brother, after receiving a letter that Zoya had disappeared, were sure that this girl, hanged in the village of Petrishchevo, was their daughter and sister. Brother Sasha then went to serve at the front as a tank driver, and wrote “For Zoya” on his tank. Alexander died in the battle near Koenigsberg and became a hero, like his sister.

Only a month later, village residents removed Kosmodemyanskaya’s body and buried it in an unknown grave. After the village was liberated from the Germans, Zoya’s grave was found by soldiers and then buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.

Monuments to her began to be erected throughout Russia, and soon she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - Zoya was the first woman to be given this title.

Poets wrote poems in her honor. City streets and the names of schools, geographical objects, and even the BT-5 tank - all of this was named after her. The whole world learned about the heroic act of the young girl, as well as her inspiring speech. The memory of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is still alive.

Family

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

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

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

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

Captivity, torture and execution

Execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

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

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

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

One of the witnesses describes the execution itself as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

Posthumous recognition of the feat

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

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

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

Version about the betrayal of Vasily Klubkov

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

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

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

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

Awards

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

Memory

Monument at the Partizanskaya metro station

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya's grave at Novodevichy Cemetery

Museums

Monumental art

Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya near school 201 in Moscow

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

Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in Tambov

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

Fiction

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

Music

Painting

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

Movies

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

In philately

Other

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Syktyvkar there is Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Street.

In Penza there is a street named after Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

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

Literature

Great Soviet Encyclopedia . In 30 volumes. Publisher: Soviet Encyclopedia, hardcover, 18240 pp., circulation: 600,000 copies, 1970.
Folk heroine. (Collection of materials about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya), M., 1943;
Kosmodemyanskaya L. T., The Tale of Zoya and Shura. Publisher: LENIZDAT, 232 pp., circulation: 75,000 copies. 1951, Publisher: Children's Literature Publishing House, hardcover, 208 pp., circulation: 200,000 copies, 1956 M., 1966 Publisher: Children's Literature. Moscow, hardcover, 208 pp., circulation: 300,000 copies, 1976 Publisher: LENIZDAT, soft cover, 272 pp., circulation: 200,000 copies, 1974 Publisher: Narodnaya Asveta, hardcover, 206 pp., circulation: 300,000 copies ., 1978 Publisher: LENIZDAT, paperback, 256 pp., circulation: 200,000 copies, 1984
Gorinov M. M. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923-1941) // National history. - 2003.
Savinov E. F. Zoya's comrades: Doc. feature article. Yaroslavl: Yaroslavl book. ed., 1958. 104 p.: ill. [About the combat work of the partisan detachment in which Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya fought.]
You remained alive among the people...: A book about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya / Compiled by: Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Valentina Dorozhkina, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Ivan Ovsyannikov. Photos of Alexey and Boris Ladygin, Anatoly Alekseev, as well as from the collections of the Osinogaevsky and Borshchevsky museums.. - Collection of articles and essays. - Tambov: OGUP “Tambovpolygraphizdat”, 2003. - 180 p.

Documentary film

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

Notes

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

The pressing issues of the Soviet-Nazi confrontation are reflected in articles, documentaries and thousands of books.

The Second World War is rethought every year in a new way. A detailed analysis of such outstanding personalities and arbiters of human destinies during the war years as Hitler can be gleaned from the books of M. Solonin, A. Suvorov, which are so replete with bookstores.

Meanwhile, ordinary people, whose feats should live on for centuries, are fading into the shadows.Let's remember Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

Until recently, it seemed that the courage, boundless love for the Motherland, and fortitude of this fragile girl would always be for us the standard of true heroism. But the ideals of modern youth are completely different; few people remember Zoya’s patriotism Kosmodemyanskaya, but it should.

Biography

Zoya was born Kosmodemyanskaya September 8, 1923 in the Tambov region in a small village. Zoya's grandfather was a priest. The Bolsheviks drowned him in it. At first, the girl signed up for a sabotage group, information about which was kept in the strictest confidence. That is why information about the last operation of the young Komsomol member is so contradictory.

Feat

Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya just turned 17 years old. Supreme Commander Order No. 428 called for depriving the enemy of warm shelter and burning houses in which the Germans were camped. Zoya, as part of a group of 20 people, was thrown behind enemy lines. The Germans were located in the area of the village of Petrishchevo. In the occupied territory, the fighters came across an enemy patrol. Someone was killed, someone showed cowardice and returned back.

Three people took on the task: Zoya, Vasily Klubkov and Boris Krainov. They reached the village and agreed to meet after the arson at an appointed place, which never took place. The Germans captured Vasily Klubkov, he chickened out and betrayed his comrades. After this, Zoya was also captured. Kosmodemyanskaya.

The young defender of the Motherland showed an unbending character, not revealing information about the name of the group or about the comrade who miraculously managed to escape. The Nazis subjected the girl to excruciating torture. They brutally beat her with sticks, burned her body with matches, and took her barefoot out into the cold. Not a word of mercy escaped her lips.

Dozens of people who witnessed Zoya’s death testified to her uttering the following dying words: “We are two hundred million. You can't outweigh everyone. You will be avenged for me!”The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to a woman for the first time. It was Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya, who during the terrible years of the war showed a true example of courage and fearlessness. Streets were named in her honor, and every schoolchild heard the girl’s legendary name on their lips.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, A. Matrosov, N. Gastello, N. Onilova are true heroes who gave their lives for the Motherland, for the world, for our bright present.