What feat did Vera Voloshina accomplish? Who is she? We will consider these and other questions in the article. Vera was a Red Army reconnaissance and sabotage formation, which belonged to the headquarters of the Western Front. This girl was thrown into German rear in 1941, and she is a Hero of the Russian Federation (1944).
Biography
The feat of Vera Voloshina is known to many. The girl was born in 1919, on September 30, in the village of Shcheglovsk (now the metropolis of Kemerovo) of the Upper Tomsk volost of the Kuznetsk district of the Tomsk province in Russia, in the family of a teacher and a miner. When she began to study at school, she simultaneously took up sports: athletics and gymnastics. In high school, she won the high jump championship.
Yuri Dvuzhilny was her close friend and classmate. When Vera graduated from ten classes, she moved to Moscow. In 1936, the girl entered the Central State Institute of Physical Education. At the same time, she enrolled in a Moscow flying club, where she began to learn to jump with a parachute and mastered piloting the I-153 Chaika aircraft. She was also seriously interested in drawing, shooting and poetry. In 1936, she wrote a statement in which she expressed a desire to take part in the civil war that began in Spain. She was denied.
The artist and sculptor I. D. Shadr in 1935 received a state order for the production of a series of sculptures for the Gorky Park of Rest and Culture, which was being built in Moscow at that time. He went to the pool of the gymnasium, where he liked the student Voloshina. A group of twenty students, including Vera, was in the sculptor's workshop.
Surrounded by fountains, the statue “Girl with an Oar” was installed at the main entrance of the Central Park of Culture and Culture — an exact copy of Vera. Countless similarities to this work of art were subsequently installed in the parks of the entire Union. According to other sources, this is a legend. In fact, Shadr created the first version of the statue in 1934-1935, when Vera was 15-16 years old, and she could not be a student who graduated from school.
In addition, the second version of the statue was made after criticism from a different model, and the work of another sculptor multiplied. Why was the statue criticized? Because there was absolutely no clothes on her, which did not fit well with the already established Puritan norms.
In the first year, Vera Danilovna Voloshina, among other students, went to a winter sports camp located near Serpukhov. There, the girl fell ill with the flu, which caused her legs to hurt. She had to be treated for a long time, but as a result, she was still forced to leave her studies at a sports university.
Nevertheless, having gathered her strength, Vera returned to Moscow, and together with her friends from her native metropolis, she entered the Moscow University of Cooperative Soviet Trade.
In 1941, in the summer, Vera Danilovna Voloshina after completing the third year passed the exams and left for Zagorsk near Moscow, where she began to undergo practical training. Together with classmates, she decided on June 22 to go on an excursion to the museum of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On the way, the girls in the department store purchased Vera a silk white dress. Indeed, next year she planned to marry Yuri the Two-Veined. Yuri has already made her an offer, and the lovers decided on the date of the wedding. On the same day, Vera learned that the war had begun.
It is known that Voloshina died in 1941, on November 29, in the village of Golovkovo (Naro-Fominsky district, Moscow region).
First task
Until now, people remember the feat of Vera Voloshina. It is known that when the Great Patriotic War came, the girl was mobilized to dig anti-tank ditches and trenches in the area of approaches to Moscow. In October, she joined the Red Army of her own free will. She was enrolled in military unit No. 9903, owned by the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western front line, to carry out missions behind enemy lines.
For the first time, Vera left for combat missions in 1941, on October 21, in the area of the Zavidovo peninsula near Moscow. After that, she successfully went to the rear of the Germans six more times.
Zoya
In the army unit number 9903 in 1941, in November, reinforcements arrived. Among the arrivals was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who had just graduated from school. Zoya in the team at first kept herself a little apart, but soon Vera found an approach to her, and the girls became friends. They left together on their last mission to set fire to the enemy’s heating and rest points (that autumn was very cold).
Assignment
In 1941, on November 21, two detachments left behind enemy lines. The first was led by Boris Krainov. Voloshin was appointed Komsomol of the second, and Provorov Pavel was appointed commander. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was part of the second detachment. When the scouts crossed the front, they had to create two groups, each of which had its own task.
Nevertheless, when crossing the front, the soldiers fired at the enemy, and they hastily formed detachments, random in composition. So the ways of Vera and Zoe parted. The Kosmodemyanskaya group headed towards the village of Petrishchevo. Vera also continued her assignment with her comrades. But between the villages of Golovkovo and Yakshino, her detachment again came under fire, running into the ambush of the Germans. Faith was wounded and captured by the Nazis.
Two of her squad were looking for Vera or her corpse, but were never found. For a long time, the Red Army soldier Vera Voloshina was on the lists of missing persons. Only in 1957, thanks to the search work of the journalist and writer G.N. Frolov, was it possible to find out how Vera died and to find her grave.
Death
The execution of Vera Voloshina is a terrible event. Local residents said that the Germans hanged Vera in 1941, on November 29, at the Golovkovo state farm. A witness to the death of the girl said that the Germans brought Vera to the place of execution by car. They built a gallows from a roadside willow, around which a large number of fascists had already gathered. They also drove captive Russian soldiers who worked behind the bridge.
At first Voloshin was not visible, but when the side walls of the car were lowered, people gasped. The girl lay in underwear, which was all torn and smeared with blood. Two Germans got into the car and wanted to help Vera get up. But she pushed them away and, clinging to the cab with one hand, got to her feet. Her second hand hung like a whip - apparently, it was killed.
And then Vera began to speak. First, she said a few phrases in German and then continued her speech in Russian. She stated that she was not afraid of death, as she was sure that her comrades would avenge her. She said that the Russians would triumph over the Germans anyway. The last words of Vera Voloshina forever engraved in the memory of the inhabitants of the state farm Golovkovo.
And then the girl began to sing. She sang “Internationale,” which under Soviet rule was always sung at meetings and broadcast on the radio in the morning and evening. The Germans silently listened to Vera's singing. The officer in charge of the execution shouted something at the soldiers. They threw a noose around Vera’s neck and jumped off the car.
The officer approached the driver and ordered him to move. But he did not move, he turned white. Apparently, he is not used to hanging people. The officer then took out a revolver from the holster and shouted something to the driver. Apparently, he was very scolding. He seemed to wake up, and the car drove off. Faith still managed to shout, so loudly that the villagers froze in their veins: "Farewell, comrades!" When the witness opened her eyes, she saw that Vera was already hanging.
Grave
The feat of Vera Voloshina people will never forget. Only in mid-December did the enemy retreat, and the inhabitants of Golovkovo were able to remove Vera’s body from the willow. They buried her with honors here. Her remains were later transferred to a mass grave located in Kryukovo.
After some time, photos of the hanged girl were found in the German archives. Many experts are sure that Voloshina’s execution is captured on them.
Irreparable loss
The village of Petrishchevo was located ten kilometers from Golovkovo. On the day of the execution of Vera, the Cosmodemyanskaya Zoya was hanged in its center.
Hero of the Soviet Union Two-core Yuri, Beloved's beloved, also did not survive the war. He died in battle, taking part in the Mogilev operation.
Rewards
It is known that Vera Voloshina is a Hero of the Russian Federation. This title was awarded to her in 1994, May 6. In 1966, January 27, in the newspaper "Pravda" was published an essay by Frolov George Nikolaevich "Order of the daughter."
In September, celebrations were held dedicated to the battle of Moscow. And just at that moment M.P. Georgadze (Secretary of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces) presented Mother of Vera with the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.
Museums
Agree, the biography of Vera Voloshina is amazing. In honor of her, the following museums were created:
- Museum named after Voloshin's Faith and Two-Veined Yuri (Kemerovo, school number 12).
- Part of the exhibition, housed in the Museum of History and Local Lore (city of Naro-Fominsk, Moscow Region).
- Club "Memory" (the former Voloshin Vera Museum in the village of Kryukovo, Naro-Fominsky district).
Memory
The following monuments are installed in honor of the heroine:
- Monument to Vera Voloshina in Golovkovo (Naro-Fominsky district, Moscow region).
- Monument Voloshina in the village of Kryukovo (Naro-Fominsky district, Moscow region).
- There is a street. Vera Voloshina in the cities of Mytishchi, Kemerovo, Dagestan Lights, Belovo (Kemerovo Region).
- In 2017, her name was named Prospect in the Khoroshevsky district of the administrative northern Moscow district (formerly Designed Road No. 6084).
- The house of children's folklore in the city of Naro-Fominsk also bears her name.
- Her city park in the metropolis of Kemerovo is named after her.
- School number 12 in the city of Kemerovo bears her name.
- The ship of the Azov Shipping Company was named after the heroine.
- The name of Vera was given by the MAOU Lyceum of the village of Golovkovo, where the heroine died.
- The documentary film “Vera Voloshina: Killed Twice” was created (workshop “Third Rome”, 2007).
- The name of Vera is the small planet 2009 Voloshina.
- Since 2003, an electric train named after Hero of Russia Voloshina Vera began to walk on the Yaroslavl direction of the Moscow railway.
Sculptures
What is the famous sculpture “Girl with an oar”? How is she good? “Girl with an oar” - the general name of the sculptures made at different times by sculptors Romuald Iodko and Ivan Shadr. It became a common noun for the designation of gypsum sculptures identical to them (“socialist realism of gypsum”), which during the Soviet period adorned recreation and culture parks.
It is known that the restoration of the Moscow Gorky Park in 1934 was carried out by the architect Alexander Vlasov. He decided in the pool with fountains to establish a kind of vertical idea in the form of a woman’s figure. Since Vlasov had already addressed Ivan Shadr about staging various casts of classical sculptures in the park, it was he who was entrusted with the architect to sculpt the main sculpture of the recreation area.
In the same year, the Shadr began working on the statue of the Girl with the Oar. Her height, along with a bronze base, was supposed to be 12 meters. Why did the master make her so tall? He proceeded from large-scale correspondences with the dimensions of the fountain and park alleys leading to it. The statue was installed in 1935 in the center of the spring on the main park path.
According to legend, the sculptor chose Vera Voloshina as a model, as we discussed above. The statue depicted a girl athlete without clothes, who stood and was holding an oar in her right hand. Her figure was distinguished by dynamics in the rotation of her head and torso, and powerful plasticity of outlines. The hair was twisted into two "horns", the head was clearly outlined, the back of the head and forehead were fully open.
However, the selection committee criticized the work of Shadr, including for his great height, and in the same year the statue was moved to the recreation and culture park of Lugansk. The Tretyakov Gallery stores its minimized copy. At the insistence of Shadr's wife, his plaster work was created in bronze in the late 1950s.
In the summer of 1936, Ivan Shadr made a new reduced eight-meter statue from tinted concrete. This time the model for her was the gymnast Bedrinskaya Zoya. The sculpture was installed on a cannulated column in the center of the fountain. Around it beat jets of water, creating a kind of veil. In 1941, during the bombing, the sculpture was destroyed.
Some believe that the statues of Shadr served as prototypes for making cheap gypsum copies massively installed in parks throughout almost the entire Soviet Union. In fact, they were made in the image of the sculptor R. R. Iodko with the same name, created by him in 1936 for the Dynamo hydrophytic stadium park. The statue was made of gypsum and had a height of 2.5 m. In contrast to the Shadrovskaya "Girl", the statue of Iodko holds an oar in his left hand and is dressed in a swimsuit.
In 1935, Iodko Romuald made the statue "Girl with an Oar" for the fountain. First, it was installed in Cherkizovo at the Moscow stadium Electric. The statue depicted a woman standing on her left foot. She put her right foot on the stand, pushing her knee forward. Her left hand was lowered and touched her hip, and with her right hand the woman rested on the oar. She was wearing a T-shirt and underpants. This sculpture also served as a prototype for creating copies.
Present day
In 2011, in April, a copy of the statue was exhibited on Krymsky Val in the Tretyakov Gallery. Then Sergey Kapkov (Gorky Park Director) said that the statue would be restored in the park.
In 2011, on September 3, the recreated statue was to be placed in the Central Park of Culture and Arts (within the boundaries of the international congress “Golden Rook”). According to the representative of the park, the statue was installed in 2011, September 1, and opened September 3, City Day.
Interesting Facts
It is known that about the girl with the oar they composed songs:
- Valery Syutkin.
- Kimmelfeld Dmitry.
- Underwood (Red Button album).
- Group "Aquarium" (album "White Horse").
The accordion player and composer of the ensemble "Birch" V. Temnova also has a mention of the famous sculpture in the song.