Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is the first woman whose heroic deed was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. What she managed to do, it is impossible to describe briefly, understand contemporaries and admit that a simple girl is able to bear this. Experts believe that Zoey’s feat played an important role, as an example of courage, in approximating the victory of the Soviet people in the most bloody war.
The summary of the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which was given to Soviet schoolchildren in history textbooks, for several decades was for them the best lesson in patriotism and love for the motherland, courage, an example to follow. And for modern boys and girls, this woman, or rather, a girl, is a model of heroism. Zoya’s feat is still being discussed, new facts and evidence appear, disputes and even speculation arise around him. Who was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya?
Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya biography
Zoya was a simple girl from the Tambov village of Osiniy Gai. She was born in a family of school teachers on September 13, 1923. Under Tambov, the family lived until 1929, and then was forced to flee to Siberia, fearing denunciations and arrest. The fact is that Zoe’s grandfather was accused of anti-Soviet activity and executed for it. But in Kosmodemyanskys lived in Siberia for only a year, then moved to the outskirts of Moscow.
Zoya lived a short life, and her significant milestones were a meager number of events, not all of which can be called happy:
- excellent school, but lack of understanding with classmates,
- Meningitis disease, meeting Arkady Gaidar in a sanatorium during treatment,
- studying in a sabotage school and casting Zoe’s group behind the Nazis,
- the successful completion of several tasks, captivity and execution.
The difficult life of Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya, deprivation and difficulty did not rob her of patriotism and love for the Fatherland. The girl sacredly believed in socialism and victory in the War, steadfastly endured all the hardships of captivity and adequately accepted death - this is a fact that skeptics and pro-Soviet leaders cannot dispute.
The background of the feat of Zoe Kosmodemyanskoy
In November 1941, when the Nazis were rapidly advancing, and their troops were already on the approaches to the capital of the USSR, Stalin and the military commanders decided to use the so-called "Scythian" tactics in the fight against the enemy. Its essence was the complete destruction of settlements and strategic objects on the path of the advance of enemy forces. This task was to be performed by sabotage groups, which were specially prepared for this in specialized schools, at accelerated courses. One of these groups included Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.
In accordance with Stalin’s order under No. 0428, the group was to commit sabotage and destroy more than 10 villages in the Moscow Region with Molotov cocktails:
- Anashkino and Petrishchevo,
- Gribtsovo and Usadkovo,
- Ilyatino and Pushkino,
- Grachevo and Mikhailovsky,
- Korovino, Bugailovo and others.
Saboteurs took up the mission on November 21, 1941 as part of two groups. Under the village of Golovkovo, they were ambushed, as a result of which only one group remained, which continued to carry out such a cruel, but necessary task in those realities.
Summary of the Feat of Zoe Kosmodemyanskoy
After the losses incurred as a result of shelling groups near the village of Golovkovo, the task became more complicated, and the saboteurs, including Zoe, had to gather all their strength to carry out the task of Stalin himself. Kosmodemyanskaya was supposed to burn the village of Petrishchevo near Moscow, which is a traffic intersection for fascist movements. With the task, the girl and her colleague, the fighter Klubkov Vasily, partially coped, destroying 20 horses of the German army along the way. In addition, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya managed to disable the Germans' communication, which helped to eliminate contact between several German units in the suburbs and reduce their offensive activity, albeit for a short time.
The head of the group of saboteurs who survived the ambush, Krainov did not wait for Kosmodemyanskaya and Klubkova, and returned to the rear. Realizing this, Zoya decided to continue to work behind enemy lines on her own, returned to Petrishchevo to start the arson again. One of the villagers, who at that time had already served the Germans, seized the girl by the name of Sviridov and handed her over to the fascists.
Captivity and execution of Zoe Cosmodemyanskaya
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was captured by the Nazis on November 28, 1941. The following facts about her stay in captivity and the torment that the young Komsomol had to endure are known for certain:
- regular beatings, including by two local residents,
- whipping straps on his naked body during interrogations,
- driving through the streets of Petrishchev without clothes, in severe frost.
Despite all the horrors of torment, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya not only did not disclose any information about her groups, assignments, but did not even give her real name. She called herself Tanya; she did not provide any other information about herself and accomplices, even under torture. Such resilience struck not only local residents who became unwitting witnesses to her torment, but also the tormentors themselves, fascist punishers and investigators.
Many years after the heroic deed of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, her captivity and execution, it became known that the villagers who served on the Germans, whom she burned at home, were the wives of the elder Smirnov and the punisher Solin. They were convicted and sentenced to death by the Soviet government.
The Nazis turned the execution of Zoe herself into a whole show for locals who did not pay them due respect. The girl was taken through the streets with the “arsonist” sign on her chest, and a photo was taken against the backdrop of Zoe, who was standing on the scaffold with a noose around her neck. But in the face of death, she called for the fight against fascism and not be afraid of the invaders. The girl’s body was not allowed to be removed from the gallows for a month, and only on the eve of the New Year, local residents managed to bury Zoya.
Posthumous recognition of Zoya Kosmodemyanskoy’s feat and new facts
After the liberation of the village of Petrishchevo from the Nazis, a special commission arrived there, which identified the body and interviewed witnesses of the events. The data were provided to Stalin himself, and after studying it, he decided to assign Zoe the Cosmodemyan title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously. In addition, they were given a directive to publish material on the feat in the media, so that the whole country would learn about the heroism of a simple Komsomol member.
Already modern historians have provided supposedly true facts that the girl was given to the fascists either by her partner, or by the commander of the group, and her heroism and stamina were just fiction. These data are not confirmed by anything, as, however, are not refuted. Despite attempts to denigrate both socialism and everything connected with it, the feat of Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya to this day serves as an example of patriotism and heroism for the Russians.
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