In 2015, all of humanity will celebrate the end of one of the most terrible wars in its history. Especially a lot of suffering in the early 1940s fell on the lot of the Soviet people, and it was the inhabitants of the USSR who showed the world examples of unprecedented heroism, perseverance and love for the motherland. For example, the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, whose brief history is presented below, has not been forgotten to this day.
Background
November 17, 1941, when the Nazis were on the outskirts of Moscow, it was decided to apply Scythian tactics in relation to the invaders. In this regard, an order was issued ordering the destruction of all settlements in the rear of the enemy in order to deprive him of the opportunity to winter in comfortable conditions. To fulfill the order, from the number of fighters of the special partisan unit 9903, several subversive groups were formed as soon as possible. This military unit, specially created at the end of October 1941, consisted mainly of Komsomol volunteers who underwent rigorous selection. In particular, a conversation was held with each of the young people, and they were warned that they would have to carry out tasks involving mortal risk.
A family
Before telling who Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya Anatolyevna was, whose feat made her a symbol of the heroism of the Soviet people, it is worthwhile to find out some interesting facts about her parents and other ancestors. So, the first woman who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Second World War was born in a family of teachers. However, for a long time, the fact was hidden that the ancestors of the paternal girl were clergy. Interestingly, in 1918, her grandfather, who was a priest in the church of the village of Osino-Gai, where Zoya was later born, was brutally tortured and drowned in a pond by the Bolsheviks. The Kosmodemyansky family spent some time in Siberia, as the girl’s parents were afraid of arrest, but soon returned and settled in the capital. Three years later, Zoe’s father died, and he and his brother were under the care of their mother.
Biography
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the whole truth and lie about whose deed became known to the public relatively recently, was born in 1923. After returning from Siberia, she studied at school N 201 in the city of Moscow and was especially fond of humanitarian subjects. The girl's dream was to enter the Literary Institute, but she was destined for a completely different fate. In 1940, Zoya suffered a severe form of meningitis and underwent a rehabilitation course at a specialized sanatorium in Sokolniki, where she met Arkady Gaidar.
When a set of volunteers was announced in 1941 to complete the partisan unit 9903, Kosmodemyanskaya was one of the first to go for an interview and successfully passed it. After that, she and about 2,000 other Komsomol members were sent to special courses, and then transferred to Volokolamsk district.
Feat of Zoe Kosmodemyanskoy: summary
On November 18, the commanders of two sabotage groups of RF # 9903 P. Provorov and B. Krainov were ordered to destroy 10 settlements located behind enemy lines in a week. As part of the first of them, the Red Army soldier Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya also went on a mission. The groups were fired upon by the Germans near the village of Golovkovo, and due to heavy losses they had to unite under the command of Kraynov. Thus, the feat of Zoe Kosmodemyanskoy was completed in the late autumn of 1941. More precisely, the girl went on her last mission to the village of Petrishchevo on the night of November 27, together with the group commander and fighter Vasily Klubkov. They set fire to three residential buildings with stables, destroying 20 horses of the invaders. In addition, subsequently witnesses spoke about another exploit of Zoe Kosmodemyanskoy. It turns out that the girl managed to disable the communications center, making it impossible for some German units to occupy positions near Moscow.
Captivity
An investigation of the events that took place in Petrishchev at the end of November 1941 showed that Krainov did not wait for Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya and Vasily Klubkov and returned to his own. The girl herself, not finding her comrades in the appointed place, decided to continue the execution of the order herself and again went to the village on the evening of November 28. This time, she was not able to carry out arson, as she was captured by the peasant S. Sviridov and surrendered to them by the Germans. Fascists, infuriated by constant sabotage, began to torture the girl, trying to find out from her how many more partisans were operating in the Petrishchevo district. Investigators and historians, whose subject of research was the immortal feat of Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya, also found that two local residents took part in her beating, whose houses she set fire to the day before they captured her.
Execution
On the morning of November 29, 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya was brought to the place where the gallows were built. A sign with inscriptions in German and Russian was hanging around her neck, which stated that the girl was the arsonist of houses. On the way, Zoya was attacked by one of the peasant women who remained homeless due to her fault and hit her with a stick in the legs. Then several German servicemen began to photograph the girl. Subsequently, the peasants, who were driven to see the saboteur executed, told the investigators about yet another exploit of Zoya Kosmodemyanskoy. The summary of their testimony is as follows: before she was thrown a noose around her neck, the fearless patriot made a short speech in which she called on to fight the Nazis and ended her with words about the invincibility of the Soviet Union. The girl’s body was on the gallows for about a month and was buried by local residents only on the eve of the New Year.
Recognition of the feat
As already mentioned, immediately after Petrishchevo was released, a special commission arrived there. The purpose of her visit was to identify the corpse and interrogate those who personally saw the heroism of Zoe Kosmodemyanskoy. Briefly, all evidence was recorded on paper and sent to Moscow for further investigation. After studying these and other materials, the girl personally was posthumously awarded the high rank of Hero of the Soviet Union. The order was published by all newspapers published in the USSR, and the whole country found out about it.
"Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya", M. M. Gorinov. New details about the feat
After the collapse of the USSR, many “sensational” articles appeared in the press, in which everyone and everyone was blackened. This cup did not pass by Zoya Kosmodemyanskoy. As a famous researcher of Russian and Soviet history M. M. Gorinov notes, one of the reasons for this was the silence and falsification of some facts of the biography of a brave girl in the Soviet period for ideological reasons. In particular, since it was considered a disgrace to be captured for the Red Army soldier, including for Zoe, the version that his partner, Vasily Klubkov, issued it, was launched. During the first interrogations, this young man did not report such a thing. But then he suddenly decided to confess and said that he indicated her whereabouts to the Germans in exchange for life. And this is just one example of a juggling of facts in order not to tarnish the image of the heroine martyr, although Zoey’s deed did not need such adjustment at all.
Thus, when cases of falsification and suppression of the truth became known to the general public, some unfortunate journalists in pursuit of cheap sensations began to present them in a distorted form. In particular, in order to detract from the exploit of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the brief summary of the history of which is presented above, emphasis was placed on the fact that she was taking a course of therapy in a sanatorium specializing in the treatment of nervous diseases. Moreover, as in the children's game “damaged telephone”, the diagnosis changed from publication to publication. So, if in the first “revealing” articles it was written that the girl was unbalanced, then in the subsequent she was already called almost a schizophrenic who had repeatedly set fire to haystacks before the war .
Now you know what Zoya Kosmodemyanskoy’s feat consisted of, which is rather difficult to tell about briefly and without emotions. After all, the fate of an 18-year-old girl who suffered a martyrdom for the liberation of her homeland cannot leave anyone indifferent.