In 2015, all of humanity will celebrate the end of one of the most terrible wars in its history. The Soviet people suffered especially much in the early 1940s, and it was the inhabitants of the USSR who showed the world examples of unprecedented heroism, perseverance and love for the Motherland. For example, to this day the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya has not been forgotten, summary whose history is presented below.
Background
On November 17, 1941, when the Nazis were on the outskirts of Moscow, a decision was made to use Scythian tactics against the invaders. In this regard, an order was issued ordering the destruction of all populated areas behind enemy lines in order to deprive him of the opportunity to winter in comfortable conditions. To carry out an order from among the fighters of the special partisan unit 9903 in as soon as possible formed several sabotage groups. This military unit, specially created at the end of October 1941, consisted mainly of Komsomol volunteers who passed a strict selection. In particular, each of the young people was interviewed and they were warned that they would have to perform tasks involving mortal risk.
Family
Before telling who Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was, whose feat made her a symbol of the heroism of the Soviet people, it is worth knowing a few interesting facts about her parents and other ancestors. So, the first woman to receive the title of Hero Soviet Union during the Second World War, she was born into a family of teachers. However for a long time the fact was hidden that the girl’s paternal ancestors were clergy. It is interesting that 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 feared arrest, but soon returned and settled in the capital. Three years later, Zoya's father died, and she and her brother found themselves in the care of their mother.
Video on the topic
Biography
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the whole truth and lies about whose feat became known to the public relatively recently, was born in 1923. After returning from Siberia, she studied at school No. 201 in Moscow and was especially interested in 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 in 1941 a recruitment of volunteers was announced to staff the partisan unit 9903, Kosmodemyanskaya was one of the first to go for an interview and successfully passed it. After this, she and about 2,000 other Komsomol members were sent to special courses, and then transferred to the Volokolamsk region.
The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: summary
On November 18, the commanders of two sabotage groups HF No. 9903, P. Provorov and B. Krainov, received orders to destroy 10 settlements located behind enemy lines within a week. As part of the first of them, Red Army soldier Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya 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 Krainov. Thus, the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was accomplished 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 along with the group commander and fighter Vasily Klubkov. They set fire to three residential buildings along with stables, destroying 20 horses of the invaders. In addition, witnesses subsequently spoke about another feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. It turns out that the girl managed to disable the communications center, which made it impossible for some German units occupying positions near Moscow to interact.
Captivity
An investigation into the events that occurred in Petrishchev at the end of November 1941 showed that Krainov did not wait for Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Vasily Klubkov and returned to his own. The girl herself, not finding her comrades at the appointed place, decided to continue carrying out the order on her own and went to the village again on the evening of November 28. This time she failed to carry out the arson, as she was captured by the peasant S. Sviridov and handed over to the Germans. The Nazis, enraged by the constant sabotage, began to torture the girl, trying to find out from her how many other partisans were operating in the Petrishchevo area. Investigators and historians, whose subject of study was the immortal feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, also established that two local residents took part in her beating, whose houses she set on fire the day before she was captured.
Execution
On the morning of November 29, 1941, Kosmodemyanskaya was led to the place where the gallows were built. There was a sign hanging around her neck with an inscription in German and Russian, which said that the girl was a house arsonist. On the way, Zoya was attacked by one of the peasant women who had been left without a home due to her fault, and hit her in the legs with a stick. Then several German soldiers began to photograph the girl. Subsequently, the peasants, who were brought in to see the execution of the saboteur, told the investigators about another feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The summary of their testimony is as follows: before they threw a noose around her neck, the fearless patriot made a short speech in which she called for fighting the fascists, and ended it 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 a feat
As already mentioned, immediately after Petrishchevo was liberated, a special commission arrived there. The purpose of her visit was to identify the corpse and interrogate those who saw with their own eyes the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Briefly, all the testimony was recorded on paper and sent to Moscow for further investigation. After studying these and other materials, the girl was personally posthumously awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union by Stalin. The order was published by all newspapers published in the USSR, and the whole country learned 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 everything and everyone was blackened. This cup has not passed from Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. As noted by a well-known researcher of Russian and Soviet history M. M. Gorinov, one of the reasons for this was the suppression and falsification of some facts of the biography of a brave girl during the Soviet period for ideological reasons. In particular, since it was considered a disgrace for a Red Army soldier, including Zoya, to be captured, a version was floated that her partner, Vasily Klubkov, had betrayed her. During the first interrogations, this young man did not report anything like this. But then he suddenly decided to confess and said that he had indicated her location to the Germans in exchange for her life. And this is just one example of juggling facts in order not to tarnish the image of the heroine-martyr, although Zoya’s feat did not require such correction 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 belittle the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a summary of the history of which is presented above, emphasis was placed on the fact that she underwent a course of therapy in a sanatorium specializing in the treatment of nervous diseases. Moreover, like in the children’s game “damaged phone,” the diagnosis changed from publication to publication. So, if in the first “revelatory” articles it was written that the girl was unbalanced, then in subsequent ones they began to call her almost a schizophrenic, who had repeatedly set fire to haystacks even before the war.
Now you know what the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was, which is quite difficult to talk about briefly and without emotion. After all, no one can be indifferent to the fate of an 18-year-old girl who accepted martyrdom for the liberation of her homeland.
On November 29, 1941, in the village of Petrishchevo, Moscow Region, the Nazis executed Soviet partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.
Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 in the Tambov province of the RSFSR. When the war began, 18-year-old Zoya volunteered for a sabotage school and was enrolled in reconnaissance and sabotage unit No. 9903.
On November 4, 1941, after three days of training, a group of saboteurs, which included Zoya, was transferred to the Volokolamsk area, where they successfully completed the task of mining the road.
On November 18, the group received the task of burning 10 settlements in the German rear within 5-7 days. By such actions, the Soviet command sought to deprive the German army of the opportunity to use the villages they occupied as transshipment bases and communication points.
Having gone out on a mission, the group was ambushed near the village of Golovkovo, and suffered big losses. However, having regrouped, the Soviet saboteurs continued to carry out the task. On November 27, at 2 a.m., fighters Boris Krainov, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya set fire to three houses in the village of Petrishchevo (Vereisky, now Ruzsky district, Moscow region). One of the burned houses was used as a German communications center. German soldiers spent the night in the remaining houses.
After completing the task, Zoya missed her comrades in the squad and decided to return to Petrishchevo to continue the arson. On the evening of November 28, she was captured by the Germans.
The Nazis interrogated Zoya, subjecting her to brutal torture. The girl did not give out any specific information and called herself Tanya. This name was chosen by her in memory of someone executed during Civil War revolutionary Tatyana Solomakha.
The next morning, Kosmodemyanskaya was taken out into the street and led to the gallows. They hung a sign on her chest with an inscription in Russian and German languages: "House arsonist." Before her execution, while the Germans were photographing her, Zoya made a legendary speech.
She said: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look, but we need to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement. Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender. Rus' and the Soviet Union are invincible and will not be defeated. No matter how much you hang us, you can’t hang us all, there are 170 million of us. But our comrades will avenge you for me.”
Kosmodemyanskaya’s body hung on the gallows for about a month, repeatedly being abused by German soldiers passing through the village. Only on January 1, 1942, the Germans gave the order to remove the gallows, and local residents buried Zoya’s body outside the village. Subsequently, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
The whole country learned about Zoya’s fate from Pyotr Lidov’s article “Tanya,” published in the Pravda newspaper on January 27, 1942. Having accidentally heard about the execution in Petrishchevo, Lidov went to Petrishchevo, where he asked local residents and published an article. On February 16, 1942, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
The brave partisan will forever remain in the memory of our people as a symbol of heroic dedication, true love to his homeland.
Zoya was born in the village of Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region. Zoya's grandfather, a priest, was executed during the Civil War. In 1930, the Kosmodemyansky family moved to Moscow. Before the Great Patriotic War, Zoya studied at the 201st Moscow high school. In the fall of 1941, she was a tenth-grader. In October 1941, during the most difficult days for the defense of the capital, when the possibility of the city being captured by the enemy could not be ruled out, Zoya remained in Moscow. Having learned that the selection of Komsomol members had begun in the capital to carry out tasks behind enemy lines, she, on her own initiative, went to the district Komsomol committee, received a permit, passed an interview and was enlisted as a private in the reconnaissance and sabotage military unit No. 9903. It was based on volunteers from Komsomol organizations Moscow and the Moscow region, and the command staff was recruited from students of the Frunze Military Academy. During the battle of Moscow in this military unit of the intelligence department Western Front 50 combat groups and detachments were prepared. In total, between September 1941 and February 1942, they made 89 penetrations behind enemy lines, destroyed 3,500 German soldiers and officers, eliminated 36 traitors, blew up 13 fuel tanks and 14 tanks. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, along with other volunteers, was taught the skills of intelligence work, the ability to mine and explode, cut wire communications, commit arson, and obtain information.
At the beginning of November, Zoya and other fighters received their first task. They mined roads behind enemy lines and returned safely to the unit's location.
On November 17, 1941, secret order No. 0428 of the Supreme High Command Headquarters appeared, which set the task of “expelling the Nazi invaders from all populated areas into the cold in the field, smoking them out of all premises and warm shelters and forcing them to freeze in the open air.” To do this, it was ordered to “destroy and burn to the ground all populated areas in the rear of German troops at a distance of 40-60 km in depth from the front line and 20-30 km to the right and left of the roads. To destroy populated areas within the specified radius, immediately deploy aviation, make extensive use of artillery and mortar fire, reconnaissance teams, skiers and sabotage groups equipped with Molotov cocktails, grenades and demolition devices. In the event of a forced withdrawal of our units... take the Soviet population with us and be sure to destroy all populated areas without exception, so that the enemy cannot use them.”
Soon, the commanders of the sabotage groups of military unit No. 9903 were given the task of burning 10 settlements behind enemy lines in the Moscow region within 5-7 days, which included the village of Petrishchevo, Vereisky district, Moscow region. Zoya, along with other fighters, was involved in this task. She managed to set fire to three houses in Petrishchevo, where the occupiers were located. Then, after some time, she tried to carry out another arson, but was captured by the Nazis. Despite the torture and bullying, Zoya did not betray any of her comrades, did not say the unit number and did not give any other information that constituted a military secret at that time. She didn’t even give her name, saying during interrogation that her name was Tanya.
To intimidate the population, the Nazis decided to hang Zoya in front of the entire village. The execution took place on November 29, 1941. Already with a noose draped around her neck, Zoya managed to shout to her enemies: “No matter how much you hang us, you won’t outweigh them all, there are 170 million of us. But our comrades will avenge you for me.” For a long time the Germans did not allow Zoya’s body to be buried and mocked it. Only on January 1, 1942, the body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was buried.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya managed to live only 18 years. But she, like many of her peers, put her young life on the altar of the future and much desired Victory. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, an exalted and romantic personality, with her painful death she once again confirmed the truth of the Gospel commandment: “There is no greater feat than to lay down your life for your friends.”
On February 16, 1942, Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The streets of a number of cities are named after her, and a monument was erected on the Minsk Highway near the village of Petrishchevo.
You can contribute to perpetuating the memory of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat on the website . The names of all donors will be mentioned in the credits of the film “The Passion of Zoe.”
The pressing issues of the Soviet-Nazi confrontation are reflected in articles, documentaries and thousands of books.
Second world war is rethought every year in a new way. Detailed analysis Such bright 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 ideals modern youth 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. This is why information about last operation young Komsomol member.
Feat
Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya just turned 17 years old. Supreme Commander Order No. 428 called for depriving the enemy of a 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.
Booker Igor 12/02/2013 at 19:00
From time to time, attempts are made to denigrate the feat of truly national heroes of the Soviet era. The selfless 18-year-old Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya did not escape this fate. How many tubs of dirt were poured on it in the early 90s, but time has washed away this foam too. These days, 72 years ago, Zoya died the death of a martyr, sacredly believing in her Motherland and its future.
Is it possible to defeat a people who, retreating, leave scorched earth for the enemy? Is it possible to bring people to their knees if women and children, unarmed, are ready to rip the throat of a hefty fellow? To defeat such heroes, you need to try to make sure that they no longer exist. And there are two ways - forced sterilization of mothers or castration of the people's memory. When the enemy came to Holy Rus', he was always opposed by people of High Faith. IN different years she changed her outer coverings, inspiring the Christ-loving army for a long time, and then fought under red flags.
It is significant that the first of the women who during the Great Patriotic War was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously); she was born into a family of hereditary priests. Zoya Anatolyevna bore the surname Kozmodemyanskaya, common for Orthodox clergy. The surname owes its origin to the holy miracle-working brothers Cosmas and Damian. Among the Russian people, the unmercenary Greeks were quickly remade in their own way: Kozma or Kuzma and Damian. Hence the surname they bore Orthodox priests. Zoya’s grandfather, the priest of the Znamenskaya Church in the Tambov village of Osino-Gai, Pyotr Ioannovich Kozmodemyansky, was drowned by the Bolsheviks in a local pond in the summer of 1918 after severe torture. Already in Soviet years The usual spelling of the surname - Kosmodemyansky - has also become established. The son of a martyr priest and the father of the future heroine, Anatoly Petrovich, first studied at the theological seminary, but was forced to leave it.
