Zoya was born in the village of Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region. Zoya's grandfather - a priest - was executed in the years Civil War. In 1930, the Kosmodemyansky family moved to Moscow. Before the Great Patriotic War, Zoya studied at Moscow Secondary School No. 201. 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 sabotage groups of military unit No. 9903 were given the task of burning 10 settlements in the Moscow region behind enemy lines 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 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.”
Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region, into a family of hereditary local priests.
Her grandfather, priest Pyotr Ioannovich Kosmodemyansky, was executed by the Bolsheviks for hiding counter-revolutionaries in the church. On the night of August 27, 1918, the Bolsheviks captured him and, after severe torture, drowned him in a pond. Zoya's father Anatoly studied at the theological seminary, but did not graduate from it. He married a local teacher, Lyubov Churikova, and in 1929 the Kosmodemyansky family ended up in Siberia. According to some statements, they were exiled, but according to Zoya’s mother, Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, they fled from denunciation. For a year, the family lived in the village of Shitkino on the Yenisei, then managed to move to Moscow - perhaps thanks to the efforts of sister Lyubov Kosmodemyaskaya, who served in the People's Commissariat for Education. In the children's book “The Tale of Zoya and Shura,” Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya also reported that the move to Moscow occurred after a letter from sister Olga.
Zoya's father, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky, died in 1933 after intestinal surgery, and the children (Zoya and her younger brother Alexander) were left to be raised by their mother.
At school, Zoya studied well, was especially interested in history and literature, and dreamed of entering the Literary Institute. However, her relationships with her classmates were not always the best. in the best possible way- in 1938 she was elected Komsomol group organizer, but then was not re-elected. According to Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, Zoya had been suffering from a nervous disease since 1939, when she moved from 8th to 9th grade... Her peers did not understand her. She didn’t like the fickleness of her friends: Zoya often sat alone, worried about it, saying that she was a lonely person and that she couldn’t find a friend.
In 1940, she suffered from acute meningitis, after which she underwent rehabilitation in the winter of 1941 at a sanatorium for nervous diseases in Sokolniki, where she became friends with the writer Arkady Gaidar, who was lying there. That same year she graduated from 9th grade high school No. 201, despite the large number of classes missed due to illness.
On October 31, 1941, Zoya, among 2,000 Komsomol volunteers, came to the gathering place at the Colosseum cinema and from there was taken to the sabotage school, becoming a fighter in the reconnaissance and sabotage unit, officially called the “partisan unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front.” After three days of training, Zoya as part of the group was transferred to the Volokolamsk area on November 4, where the group successfully dealt with the mining of the road.
On November 17, Stalin issued Order No. 0428, which ordered that “the German army be deprived of the opportunity to be stationed in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold fields, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air,” with which the goal is “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 carry out this order, on November 18th (according to other sources, 20th) the commanders of sabotage groups of unit No. 9903 P.S. Provorov (Zoya was included in his group) and B.S. Krainev were ordered to burn within 5-7 days 10 settlements, including the village of Petrishchevo (Ruzsky district, Moscow region). The group members each had 3 Molotov cocktails, a pistol (for Zoya it was a revolver), dry rations for 5 days and a bottle of vodka. Having gone out on a mission together, both groups (10 people each) came under fire near the village of Golovkovo (10 kilometers from Petrishchev), suffered heavy losses and were partially scattered. Later, their remnants united under the command of Boris Krainev.
On November 27 at 2 o'clock in the morning, Boris Krainev, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya set fire to three houses of residents of Karelova, Solntsev and Smirnov in Petrishchevo, while the Germans lost 20 horses.
What is known about what happened next is that Krainev did not wait for Zoya and Klubkov at the agreed upon meeting place and left, safely returning to his people. Klubkov was captured by the Germans, and Zoya, having missed her comrades and being left alone, decided to return to Petrishchevo and continue the arson. However, both the Germans and local residents were already on guard, and the Germans created a guard of several Petrishchevsky men who were tasked with monitoring the appearance of arsonists.
With the onset of the evening of November 28, while trying to set fire to the barn of S.A. Sviridov (one of the “guards” appointed by the Germans), Zoya was noticed by the owner. The Germans who were quartered by him grabbed the girl at about 7 o'clock in the evening. Sviridov was awarded a bottle of vodka by the Germans for this and was subsequently sentenced by a Soviet court to death. During interrogation, Kosmodemyanskaya identified herself as Tanya and did not say anything definite. Having stripped her naked, she was flogged with belts, then the guard assigned to her for 4 hours led her barefoot, in only her underwear, along the street in the cold. Local residents Solina and Smirnova (a fire victim) also tried to join in the torture of Zoya, throwing a pot of slop at Zoya. Both Solina and Smirnova were subsequently sentenced to death.
At 10:30 the next morning, Zoya was taken out into the street, where a hanging noose had already been erected, and a sign with the inscription “Arsonist” was hung on her chest. When Zoya was led 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."
The above footage of Zoe's execution was taken by one of the Wehrmacht soldiers, who was soon killed.
Zoya'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, Zoya was reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
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 of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in Petrishchev from a witness - an elderly peasant who was shocked by the courage of the 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. It was claimed that the article was noted by Stalin, who allegedly said: “Here is a national heroine,” and it was from this moment that the propaganda campaign around Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya began.
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 to posthumously award her the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During and after perestroika, in the wake of anti-communist propaganda, 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, speculation - which was inevitable in a situation where documentary information contradicting the official “myth” continued to be kept secret or was just being declassified. M.M. Gorinov wrote about these publications that they “reflected some facts of the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which were hushed up during Soviet times, but were reflected, as in a distorting mirror, in a monstrously distorted form.”
Some of these publications claimed that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya suffered from schizophrenia, others - that she arbitrarily set fire to houses in which there were no Germans, and was captured, beaten and handed over to the Germans by the Petrishchevites themselves. It was also suggested that in fact it was not Zoya who accomplished the feat, but another Komsomol saboteur, Lilya Azolina.
Some newspapers wrote that she was suspected of schizophrenia, based on the article “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: Heroine or Symbol?” in the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” (1991, No. 43). The authors of the article - the leading doctor of the Scientific and Methodological Center for Child Psychiatry A. Melnikova, S. Yuryeva and N. Kasmelson - wrote: “Before the war in 1938-39, a 14-year-old girl named Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was repeatedly examined at the Leading Scientific and Methodological Center Center for Child Psychiatry and was an inpatient in the children's department of the hospital named after. Kashchenko. She was suspected of schizophrenia. Immediately after the war, two people came to the archives of our hospital and took out Kosmodemyanskaya’s medical history.”
No other evidence or documentary evidence of suspicion of schizophrenia was mentioned in the articles, although the memoirs of her mother and classmates did talk about a “nervous disease” that struck her in grades 8-9 (as a result of the mentioned conflict with classmates), for which she was examined. In subsequent publications, newspapers citing Argumenty i Fakty often omitted the word “suspected.”
IN recent years there was a version that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was betrayed by her squadmate (and Komsomol organizer) Vasily Klubkov. It was 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 at SMERSH, he changed his testimony and stated that he was captured along with Zoya and betrayed her. Klubkov was shot “for treason to the Motherland” on April 16, 1942. His testimony contradicted the testimony of witnesses - village residents, and was also contradictory.
Researcher M.M. Gorinov assumed that the SMERSHists forced Klubkov 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.
In 2005, a documentary film “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The truth about the feat."
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Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov
Materials used:
Internet materials
ANOTHER LOOK
"The Truth about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya"
The story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat since the war era is essentially textbook. As they say, this has been written and rewritten. Nevertheless, in the press, and recently on the Internet, no, no, and some “revelation” of a modern historian will appear: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was not a defender of the Fatherland, but an arsonist who destroyed villages near Moscow, dooming the local population to death in severe frosts. Therefore, they say, the residents of Petrishchevo themselves seized her and handed her over to the occupation authorities. And when the girl was brought to execution, the peasants allegedly even cursed her.
"Secret" mission
Lies rarely arise out of nowhere; their breeding ground is all sorts of “secrets” and omissions of official interpretations of events. Some circumstances of Zoya's exploit were classified, and because of this, somewhat distorted from the very beginning. Until recently, the official versions did not even clearly define who she was or what exactly she did in Petrishchevo. Zoya was called either a Moscow Komsomol member who went behind enemy lines to take revenge, or a partisan reconnaissance woman captured in Perishchevo while carrying out a combat mission.
Not so long ago I met front-line intelligence veteran Alexandra Potapovna Fedulina, who knew Zoya well. The old intelligence officer said:
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was not a partisan at all.
She was a Red Army soldier in a sabotage brigade led by the legendary Arthur Karlovich Sprogis. In June 1941 he formed a special military unit No. 9903 for carrying out sabotage operations behind enemy lines. Its core consisted of volunteers from Komsomol organizations in Moscow and the Moscow region, and the command staff was recruited from students of the Frunze Military Academy. During the Battle of Moscow, 50 combat groups and detachments were trained in this military unit of the intelligence department of the Western Front. In total, from September 1941 to 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. In October 1941, we studied in the same group with Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya at the brigade reconnaissance school. Then together we went behind enemy lines on special missions. In November 1941, I was wounded, and when I returned from the hospital, I learned the tragic news of Zoya’s martyrdom.
Why is it that Zoya was a fighter in the active army? for a long time was it kept silent? - I asked Fedulina.
Because the documents that determined the field of activity, in particular, of the Sprogis brigade, were classified.
Later, I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the recently declassified order of the Supreme Command Headquarters No. 0428 dated November 17, 1941, signed by Stalin. I quote: It is necessary to “deprive the German army of the opportunity to be stationed in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold fields, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air. 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.”
This is the task that the soldiers of the Sprogis brigade, including Red Army soldier Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, performed in the Moscow region. Probably, after the war, the leaders of the country and the Armed Forces did not want to exaggerate the information that soldiers in the active army were burning villages near Moscow, so the above-mentioned order from Headquarters and other documents of this kind were not declassified for a long time.
Of course, this order reveals a very painful and controversial page of the Moscow Battle. But the truth of war can be much more cruel than our current understanding of it. It is unknown how the bloodiest battle of World War II would have ended if the Nazis had been given full opportunity to rest in flooded village huts and fatten up on collective farm grub. In addition, many fighters of the Sprogis brigade tried to blow up and set fire only to those huts where the fascists were quartered and headquarters were located. It is impossible not to emphasize that when there is a life-or-death struggle, at least two truths are manifested in people’s actions: one is philistine (to survive at any cost), the other is heroic (readiness to self-sacrifice for the sake of Victory). It is the collision of these two truths, both in 1941 and today, that occurs around Zoya’s feat.
What happened in Petrishchevo
On the night of November 21-22, 1941, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya crossed the front line as part of a special sabotage and reconnaissance group of 10 people. Already in the occupied territory, the fighters in the depths of the forest ran into an enemy patrol. Someone died, someone, showing cowardice, turned back, and only three - group commander Boris Krainov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Komsomol organizer of the reconnaissance school Vasily Klubkov continued moving along the previously determined route. On the night of November 27-28, they reached the village of Petrishchevo, where, in addition to other military installations of the Nazis, they were to destroy a field radio and radio-technical reconnaissance point carefully disguised as a stable.
The eldest, Boris Krainov, assigned roles: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya penetrates into the southern part of the village and destroys houses where the Germans live with Molotov cocktails, Boris Krainov himself - in the central part, where the headquarters is located, and Vasily Klubkov - in the northern part. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya successfully completed a combat mission - she destroyed two houses and an enemy car with KS bottles. However, when returning back to the forest, when she was already far from the site of sabotage, she was noticed by the local elder Sviridov. He called the fascists. And Zoya was arrested. The grateful occupiers poured a glass of vodka for Sviridov, as local residents told about this after the liberation of Petrishchevo.
Zoya was tortured for a long time and brutally, but she did not give out any information about the brigade or where her comrades should wait.
However, the Nazis soon captured Vasily Klubkov. He showed cowardice and told everything he knew. Boris Krainov miraculously managed to escape into the forest.
Traitors
Subsequently, fascist intelligence officers recruited Klubkov and, with a “legend” about his escape from captivity, sent him back to the Sprogis brigade. But he was quickly exposed. During interrogation, Klubkov spoke about Zoya’s feat.
“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 only three of us had come, naming the names of Krainov and Kosmodemyanskaya. The officer gave it to German some kind of order to the German soldiers, they quickly left the house and a few minutes later they brought Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. I don’t know whether they detained Krainov.
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.”
From the interrogation protocol of A.V. Smirnova dated May 12, 1942: “The next day after the fire, I was at my burned house, citizen Solina came up to me and said: “Come on, I’ll show you who burned you.” After these words she said, we headed together to the Kulikov house, where the headquarters had been transferred. Entering the house, we saw Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was under the guard of German soldiers. Solina and I began to scold her, in addition to scolding, I swung my mitten at Kosmodemyanskaya twice, and Solina hit her with her hand. Further, Valentina Kulik did not allow us to mock the partisan, who kicked us out of her house. During the execution of Kosmodemyanskaya, when the Germans brought her to the gallows, I took a wooden stick, approached the girl and, in front of everyone present, hit her on the legs. It was at that moment when the partisan was standing under the gallows; I don’t remember what I said.”
Execution
From the testimony of V.A. Kulik, a resident of the village of Petrishchevo: “They hung a sign on her chest, on which was written in Russian and German: “Arsonist.” They led her by the arms all the way to the gallows, because due to torture she could no longer walk on her own. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows. They brought her to the gallows and began to photograph her.
She shouted: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look, but we need to help the army fight! My death for my Motherland is my achievement in life.” Then she said: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender. The Soviet Union is invincible and will not be defeated." She said all this while she was being photographed.
Then they set up the box. She, without any command, having gained strength from somewhere, stood on the box herself. 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 instinctively grabbed the rope with her hand, but the German hit her on the hand. After that everyone dispersed."
The girl’s body hung in the center of Petrishchevo for a whole month. Only on January 1, 1942, the Germans allowed residents to bury Zoya.
To each his own
On a January night in 1942, during the battle for Mozhaisk, several journalists found themselves in a village hut that had survived the fire in the Pushkino region. Pravda correspondent Pyotr Lidov talked with an elderly peasant who said that the occupation overtook him in the village of Petrishchevo, where he saw the execution of a Muscovite girl: “They hung her, and she spoke a speech. They hanged her, and she kept threatening them...”
The old man’s story shocked Lidov, and that same night he left for Petrishchevo. The correspondent did not calm down until he spoke with all the residents of the village and found out all the details of the death of our Russian Joan of Arc - that’s what he called the executed partisan, as he believed. Soon he returned to Petrishchevo along with Pravda photojournalist Sergei Strunnikov. They opened the grave, took a photo, and showed it to the partisans.
One of the partisans of the Vereisky detachment recognized the executed girl, whom he had met in the forest on the eve of the tragedy that took place in Petrishchevo. She called herself Tanya. The heroine was included in Lidov’s article under this name. And only later it was discovered that this was a pseudonym that Zoya used for conspiracy purposes.
The real name of the woman executed in Petrishchevo in early February 1942 was established by a commission of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol. The act dated February 4 stated:
"1. Citizens of the village of Petrishchevo (last names follow) identified from photographs presented by the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front that the hanged person was Komsomol member Z.A. Kosmodemyanskaya.
2. The commission excavated the grave where Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was buried. An examination of the corpse... once again confirmed that the hanged person was Comrade. Kosmodemyanskaya Z.A.”
On February 5, 1942, the commission of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol prepared a note to the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a proposal to nominate Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya for awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). And already on February 16, 1942, the corresponding Decree of the Presidium was issued Supreme Council USSR. As a result, Red Army soldier Z.A. Kosmodemyanskaya became the first in the Great Patriotic War female holder of the Golden Star of the Hero.
Headman Sviridov, traitor Klubkov, fascist accomplices Solina and Smirnova were sentenced to capital punishment.
Hero of the Soviet Union
Knight of the Order of Lenin
Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region, into a family of hereditary local priests.
Her grandfather, priest Pyotr Ioannovich Kosmodemyansky, was executed by the Bolsheviks for hiding counter-revolutionaries in the church. On the night of August 27, 1918, the Bolsheviks captured him and, after severe torture, drowned him in a pond. Zoya's father Anatoly studied at the theological seminary, but did not graduate from it. He married a local teacher, Lyubov Churikova, and in 1929 the Kosmodemyansky family ended up in Siberia. According to some statements, they were exiled, but according to Zoya’s mother, Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, they fled from denunciation. For a year, the family lived in the village of Shitkino on the Yenisei, then managed to move to Moscow - perhaps thanks to the efforts of Lyubov Kosmodemyaskaya’s sister, who served in the People’s Commissariat for Education. In the children's book “The Tale of Zoya and Shura,” Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya also reported that the move to Moscow occurred after a letter from sister Olga.
Zoya's father, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky, died in 1933 after intestinal surgery, and the children (Zoya and her younger brother Alexander) were left to be raised by their mother.
At school, Zoya studied well, was especially interested in history and literature, and dreamed of entering the Literary Institute. However, her relationships with her classmates did not always develop in the best way - in 1938 she was elected Komsomol group organizer, but then was not re-elected. According to Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, Zoya had been suffering from a nervous disease since 1939, when she moved from 8th to 9th grade... Her peers did not understand her. She didn’t like the fickleness of her friends: Zoya often sat alone, worried about it, saying that she was a lonely person and that she couldn’t find a friend.
In 1940, she suffered from acute meningitis, after which she underwent rehabilitation in the winter of 1941 at a sanatorium for nervous diseases in Sokolniki, where she became friends with the writer Arkady Gaidar, who was lying there. That same year, she graduated from the 9th grade of secondary school No. 201, despite a large number of missed classes due to illness.
On October 31, 1941, Zoya, among 2,000 Komsomol volunteers, came to the gathering place at the Colosseum cinema and from there was taken to the sabotage school, becoming a fighter in the reconnaissance and sabotage unit, officially called the “partisan unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front.” After three days of training, Zoya as part of the group was transferred to the Volokolamsk area on November 4, where the group successfully dealt with the mining of the road.
On November 17, Stalin issued Order No. 0428, which ordered that “the German army be deprived of the opportunity to be stationed in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold fields, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air,” with which the goal is “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 carry out this order, on November 18 (according to other sources, 20) the commanders of sabotage groups of unit No. 9903 P. S. Provorov (Zoya was included in his group) and B. S. Krainev were ordered to burn within 5-7 days 10 settlements, including the village of Petrishchevo (Ruzsky district, Moscow region). The group members each had 3 Molotov cocktails, a pistol (for Zoya it was a revolver), dry rations for 5 days and a bottle of vodka. Having gone out on a mission together, both groups (10 people each) came under fire near the village of Golovkovo (10 kilometers from Petrishchev), suffered heavy losses and were partially scattered. Later, their remnants united under the command of Boris Krainev.
On November 27 at 2 o'clock in the morning, Boris Krainev, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya set fire to three houses of residents of Karelova, Solntsev and Smirnov in Petrishchevo, while the Germans lost 20 horses.
What is known about what happened next is that Krainev did not wait for Zoya and Klubkov at the agreed upon meeting place and left, safely returning to his people. Klubkov was captured by the Germans, and Zoya, having missed her comrades and being left alone, decided to return to Petrishchevo and continue the arson. However, both the Germans and local residents were already on guard, and the Germans created a guard of several Petrishchevsky men who were tasked with monitoring the appearance of arsonists.
With the onset of the evening of November 28, while trying to set fire to the barn of S. A. Sviridov (one of the “guards” appointed by the Germans), Zoya was noticed by the owner. The Germans who were quartered by him grabbed the girl at about 7 o'clock in the evening. Sviridov was awarded a bottle of vodka by the Germans for this and was subsequently sentenced by a Soviet court to death. During interrogation, Kosmodemyanskaya identified herself as Tanya and did not say anything definite. Having stripped her naked, she was flogged with belts, then the guard assigned to her for 4 hours led her barefoot, in only her underwear, along the street in the cold. Local residents Solina and Smirnova (a fire victim) also tried to join in the torture of Zoya, throwing a pot of slop at Zoya. Both Solina and Smirnova were subsequently sentenced to death.
At 10:30 the next morning, Zoya was taken out into the street, where a hanging noose had already been erected, and a sign with the inscription “Arsonist” was hung on her chest. When Zoya was led 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."
The above footage of Zoe's execution was taken by one of the Wehrmacht soldiers, who was soon killed.
Zoya'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, Zoya was reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
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 of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in Petrishchevo from a witness - an elderly peasant who was shocked by the courage of the 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. It was claimed that the article was noted by Stalin, who allegedly said: “Here is a national heroine,” and it was from this moment that the propaganda campaign around Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya began.
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 to posthumously award her the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During and after perestroika, in the wake of anti-communist propaganda, new information about Zoya appeared in the press. As a rule, it was based on rumors, not always accurate recollections of eyewitnesses, and in some cases, speculation - which was inevitable in a situation where documentary information contradicting the official “myth” continued to be kept secret or was just being declassified. M. M. Gorinov wrote about these publications that they “reflected some facts of the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which were hushed up during Soviet times, but were reflected, as in a distorting mirror, in a monstrously distorted form.”
Some of these publications claimed that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya suffered from schizophrenia, others that she arbitrarily set fire to houses in which there were no Germans, and was captured, beaten and handed over to the Germans by the Petrishchevites themselves. It was also suggested that in fact it was not Zoya who accomplished the feat, but another Komsomol saboteur, Lilya Azolina.
Some newspapers wrote that she was suspected of schizophrenia, based on the article “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: Heroine or Symbol?” in the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” (1991, No. 43). The authors of the article - the leading doctor of the Scientific and Methodological Center for Child Psychiatry A. Melnikova, S. Yuryeva and N. Kasmelson - wrote: “Before the war in 1938-39, a 14-year-old girl named Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was repeatedly examined at the Leading Scientific and Methodological Center Center for Child Psychiatry and was an inpatient in the children's department of the hospital named after. Kashchenko. She was suspected of schizophrenia. Immediately after the war, two people came to the archives of our hospital and took out Kosmodemyanskaya’s medical history.”
No other evidence or documentary evidence of suspicions of schizophrenia was mentioned in the articles, although the memoirs of her mother and classmates did talk about a “nervous illness” that struck her in grades 8-9 (as a result of the aforementioned conflict with classmates), for which she was examined. In subsequent publications, newspapers citing Argumenty i Fakty often omitted the word “suspected.”
In recent years, there was a version that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was betrayed by her squadmate (and Komsomol organizer) Vasily Klubkov. It was 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 at SMERSH, he changed his testimony and stated that he was captured along with Zoya and betrayed her. Klubkov was shot “for treason to the Motherland” on April 16, 1942. His testimony contradicted the testimony of witnesses - village residents, and was also contradictory.
Researcher M. M. Gorinov assumed that the SMERSHists forced Klubkov 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.
Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov
ANOTHER LOOK
"The Truth about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya"
The story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat since the war era is essentially textbook. As they say, this has been written and rewritten. Nevertheless, in the press, and recently on the Internet, no, no, and some “revelation” of a modern historian will appear: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was not a defender of the Fatherland, but an arsonist who destroyed villages near Moscow, dooming the local population to death in severe frosts. Therefore, they say, the residents of Petrishchevo themselves seized her and handed her over to the occupation authorities. And when the girl was brought to execution, the peasants allegedly even cursed her.
"Secret" mission
Lies rarely arise out of nowhere; their breeding ground is all sorts of “secrets” and omissions from official interpretations of events. Some circumstances of Zoya's exploit were classified, and because of this, somewhat distorted from the very beginning. Until recently, the official versions did not even clearly define who she was or what exactly she did in Petrishchevo. Zoya was called either a Moscow Komsomol member who went behind enemy lines to take revenge, or a partisan reconnaissance woman captured in Petrishchevo while performing a combat mission.
Not long ago I met front-line intelligence veteran Alexandra Potapovna Fedulina, who knew Zoya well. The old intelligence officer said:
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was not a partisan at all.
She was a Red Army soldier in a sabotage brigade led by the legendary Arthur Karlovich Sprogis. In June 1941, he formed a special military unit No. 9903 to carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines. Its core consisted of volunteers from Komsomol organizations in Moscow and the Moscow region, and the command staff was recruited from students of the Frunze Military Academy. During the Battle of Moscow, 50 combat groups and detachments were trained in this military unit of the intelligence department of the Western Front. In total, from September 1941 to 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. In October 1941, we studied in the same group with Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya at the brigade reconnaissance school. Then together we went behind enemy lines on special missions. In November 1941, I was wounded, and when I returned from the hospital, I learned the tragic news of Zoya’s martyrdom.
Why was the fact that Zoya was a fighter in the active army kept silent for a long time? - I asked Fedulina.
Because the documents that determined the field of activity, in particular, of the Sprogis brigade, were classified.
Later, I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the recently declassified order of the Supreme Command Headquarters No. 0428 dated November 17, 1941, signed by Stalin. I quote: It is necessary to “deprive the German army of the opportunity to be stationed in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold fields, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air. 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.”
This is the task that the soldiers of the Sprogis brigade, including Red Army soldier Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, performed in the Moscow region. Probably, after the war, the leaders of the country and the Armed Forces did not want to exaggerate the information that soldiers in the active army were burning villages near Moscow, so the above-mentioned order from Headquarters and other documents of this kind were not declassified for a long time.
Of course, this order reveals a very painful and controversial page of the Moscow Battle. But the truth of war can be much more cruel than our current understanding of it. It is unknown how the bloodiest battle of World War II would have ended if the Nazis had been given full opportunity to rest in flooded village huts and fatten up on collective farm grub. In addition, many fighters of the Sprogis brigade tried to blow up and set fire only to those huts where the fascists were quartered and headquarters were located. It is also impossible not to emphasize that when there is a life-or-death struggle, at least two truths are manifested in people’s actions: one is philistine (to survive at any cost), the other is heroic (readiness to self-sacrifice for the sake of Victory). It is the collision of these two truths, both in 1941 and today, that occurs around Zoya’s feat.
What happened in Petrishchevo
On the night of November 21-22, 1941, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya crossed the front line as part of a special sabotage and reconnaissance group of 10 people. Already in the occupied territory, the fighters in the depths of the forest ran into an enemy patrol. Someone died, someone, showing cowardice, turned back, and only three - group commander Boris Krainov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Komsomol organizer of the reconnaissance school Vasily Klubkov continued moving along the previously determined route. On the night of November 27-28, they reached the village of Petrishchevo, where, in addition to other military installations of the Nazis, they were to destroy a field radio and radio-technical reconnaissance point carefully disguised as a stable.
The eldest, Boris Krainov, assigned roles: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya penetrates into the southern part of the village and destroys houses where the Germans live with Molotov cocktails, Boris Krainov himself - in the central part, where the headquarters is located, and Vasily Klubkov - in the northern part. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya successfully completed a combat mission - she destroyed two houses and an enemy car with KS bottles. However, when returning back to the forest, when she was already far from the site of sabotage, she was noticed by the local elder Sviridov. He called the fascists. And Zoya was arrested. The grateful occupiers poured a glass of vodka for Sviridov, as local residents told about this after the liberation of Petrishchevo.
Zoya was tortured for a long time and brutally, but she did not give out any information about the brigade or where her comrades should wait.
However, the Nazis soon captured Vasily Klubkov. He showed cowardice and told everything he knew. Boris Krainov miraculously managed to escape into the forest.
Traitors
Subsequently, fascist intelligence officers recruited Klubkov and, with a “legend” about his escape from captivity, sent him back to the Sprogis brigade. But he was quickly exposed. During interrogation, Klubkov spoke about Zoya’s feat.
“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 only three of us had come, naming the names of Krainov 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 Krainov.
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.”
From the interrogation protocol of A.V. Smirnova dated May 12, 1942: “The next day after the fire, I was at my burned house, citizen Solina came up to me and said: “Come on, I’ll show you who burned you.” After these words she said, we headed together to the Kulikov house, where the headquarters had been transferred. Entering the house, we saw Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was under the guard of German soldiers. Solina and I began to scold her, in addition to scolding, I swung my mitten at Kosmodemyanskaya twice, and Solina hit her with her hand. Further, Valentina Kulik did not allow us to mock the partisan, who kicked us out of her house. During the execution of Kosmodemyanskaya, when the Germans brought her to the gallows, I took a wooden stick, approached the girl and, in front of everyone present, hit her on the legs. It was at that moment when the partisan was standing under the gallows; I don’t remember what I said.”
Execution
From the testimony of V. A. Kulik, a resident of the village of Petrishchevo: “They hung a sign on her chest, on which was written in Russian and German: “Arsonist.” They led her by the arms all the way to the gallows, because due to torture she could no longer walk on her own. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows. They brought her to the gallows and began to photograph her.
She shouted: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look, but we need to help the army fight! My death for my Motherland is my achievement in life.” Then she said: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender. The Soviet Union is invincible and will not be defeated." She said all this while she was being photographed.
Then they set up the box. She, without any command, having gained strength from somewhere, stood on the box herself. 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 instinctively grabbed the rope with her hand, but the German hit her on the hand. After that everyone dispersed."
The girl’s body hung in the center of Petrishchevo for a whole month. Only on January 1, 1942, the Germans allowed residents to bury Zoya.
To each his own
On a January night in 1942, during the battle for Mozhaisk, several journalists found themselves in a village hut that had survived the fire in the Pushkino region. Pravda correspondent Pyotr Lidov talked with an elderly peasant who said that the occupation overtook him in the village of Petrishchevo, where he saw the execution of a Muscovite girl: “They hung her, and she spoke a speech. They hanged her, and she kept threatening them...”
The old man’s story shocked Lidov, and that same night he left for Petrishchevo. The correspondent did not calm down until he spoke with all the residents of the village and found out all the details of the death of our Russian Joan of Arc - that’s what he called the executed partisan, as he believed. Soon he returned to Petrishchevo along with Pravda photojournalist Sergei Strunnikov. They opened the grave, took a photo, and showed it to the partisans.
One of the partisans of the Vereisky detachment recognized the executed girl, whom he had met in the forest on the eve of the tragedy that took place in Petrishchevo. She called herself Tanya. The heroine was included in Lidov’s article under this name. And only later it was discovered that this was a pseudonym that Zoya used for conspiracy purposes.
The real name of the woman executed in Petrishchevo in early February 1942 was established by a commission of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol. The act dated February 4 stated:
"1. Citizens of the village of Petrishchevo (last names follow) identified from photographs presented by the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front that the hanged person was Komsomol member Z.A. Kosmodemyanskaya.
2. The commission excavated the grave where Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was buried. An examination of the corpse... once again confirmed that the hanged person was Comrade. Kosmodemyanskaya Z. A.”
On February 5, 1942, the commission of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol prepared a note to the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a proposal to nominate Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya for awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). And already on February 16, 1942, the corresponding Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published. As a result, Red Army soldier Z. A. Kosmodemyanskaya became the first female holder of the Golden Star of the Hero in the Great Patriotic War.
Headman Sviridov, traitor Klubkov, fascist accomplices Solina and Smirnova were sentenced to capital punishment.
chtoby-pomnili.com
Zoya was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gai, Tambov Region. In 1929, she began to live in Siberia with her family. During her school years she began to suffer from a nervous disease, and in 1940 she fell ill with meningitis. Then, in the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, she completed a rehabilitation course (she met Arkady Gaidar at the sanatorium), and later graduated from school.
In October 1941, she entered the Sprogis sabotage school. Having become a member of the reconnaissance partisan unit, she successfully completed her first military mission. The next operation, the purpose of which was to rid the villages of the German invaders, turned out to be more difficult. The group, which included Zoya, set fire to several houses with Germans. Then, breaking away from the group, Zoya was detained while attempting to set fire to another house.
Then, in the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, severe torture took place, but the girl did not even give her real name. Kosmodemyanskaya endured the execution proudly. Even with a rope around her neck, she made speeches glorifying her homeland.
Later, Kosmodemyanskaya’s biography became widely known in the USSR thanks to an article in Pravda. And on February 16, 1942, she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Biography score
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The story of the young intelligence officer Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is well known to many generations of Soviet people. The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was discussed in history lessons at school, articles were written about her and television programs were filmed. Her name was assigned to pioneer squads and Komsomol organizations; schools still carried it today. In the village where the Germans executed her, a monument was erected, to which numerous excursions were organized. Streets were named in her honor...
What do we know
It seems that we knew everything that was possible to know about the heroic girl. However, quite often this “everything” came down to such cliched information: “...partisan, Hero of the Soviet Union. From a family of rural teachers. 1938 - became a member of the Komsomol. In October 1941, as a 10th grade student, she voluntarily joined the partisan detachment. She was captured by the Nazis during an arson attempt, and after torture she was hanged. 1942 - Zoya was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 1942, May - her ashes were transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery.”
Execution
1941, November 29, morning - Zoya was led to the place where the gallows were built. It was not her neck that they threw a sign with an inscription in German and Russian, on which it was written that the girl was a house arsonist. On the way, the partisan was attacked by one of the peasant women, who was left without a home due to her fault, and hit her in the legs with a stick. Then several Germans started taking photographs of the girl. Subsequently, the peasants, who were herded to watch the execution of the saboteur, told the investigators about another feat of the fearless patriot. Summary Their testimony is as follows: before the noose was thrown around her neck, the girl made a short speech in which she called for fighting the fascists, and ended it with words about the invincibility of the USSR. The girl’s body was not removed from the gallows for about a month. Then she was buried by local residents only on the eve of the New Year.
New details emerge
The decline of the communist era in the Soviet Union cast its shadow on those long-standing events of November 1941 that cost the life of a young girl. New interpretations of them, myths and legends began to appear. According to one of them, the girl who was executed in the village of Petrishchevo was not Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya at all. According to another version, Zoya was still there, but she was captured not by the Nazis, but by her own Soviet collective farmers, and then handed over to the Germans because she set fire to their houses. The third provides “evidence” of the absence of the partisan at the time of execution in the village of Petrishchevo.
Understanding the danger of becoming popularizers of yet another misconception, we will supplement the existing versions of another one, which was outlined by Vladimir Lot in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, as well as some of our own comments.
Version of real events
Based on archival documents, he describes the following picture of what happened at the turn of autumn and winter of 1941 in the Moscow region. On the night of November 21-22, 1941, two groups of Soviet intelligence officers were sent behind enemy lines on a combat mission. Both groups consisted of ten people. The first of them, which included Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, was commanded by Pavel Provorov, the second by Boris Krainov. The partisans were armed with three Molotov cocktails and food rations...
Fatal task
The task assigned to these groups was the same, the only difference being that they had to burn down different villages occupied by the Nazis. So, the group that Zoya was in received the order: “Penetrate behind the front line with the task of burning settlements in the enemy rear, in which German units are located. Burn the following settlements occupied by the Nazis: Anashkino, Petrishchevo, Ilyatino, Pushkino, Bugailovo, Gribtsovo, Usatnovo, Grachevo, Mikhailovskoye, Korovino.” To complete the task, 5–7 days were allotted from the moment of crossing the front line, after which it was considered completed. Then the partisans had to return to the location of the Red Army units and report not only on its implementation, but also report information received about the enemy.
Behind enemy lines
But, as often happens, events began to develop differently than planned by the commander of the saboteurs, Major Arthur Sprogis. The fact is that the situation at the front at that time was tense. The enemy approached Moscow itself, and the Soviet command took various measures to delay the enemy on the approaches to Moscow. Therefore, sabotage behind enemy lines became commonplace and happened quite often. This, of course, caused increased vigilance of the fascists and additional measures to protect your rear.
The Germans, who vigorously guarded not only the main roads, but also forest paths and every village, were able to detect groups of reconnaissance saboteurs making their way to their rear. The detachments of Pavel Provorov and Boris Krainov were fired upon by the Germans, and the fire was so strong that the partisans suffered serious losses. The commanders decided to unite into one group, which now numbered only 8 people. After another shelling, several partisans decided to return to their own, interrupting the mission. Several saboteurs remained behind enemy lines: Boris Krainov, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. These three approached the village of Petrishchevo on the night of November 26-27, 1941.
After a short respite and designating a meeting place after completing the task, the partisans set off to set fire to the village. But failure awaited the group again. When the houses set on fire by Krainov and Kosmodemyanskaya were already burning, their comrade was captured by the Nazis. During the interrogation, he revealed the meeting place of the partisans after completing the mission. Soon the Germans brought Zoya...
In captivity. Witness testimony
ABOUT further development events can now be judged mainly from the words of Vasily Klubkov. The fact is that some time after the interrogation, the occupiers offered Klubkov to work for their intelligence in the Soviet rear. Vasily agreed, was trained at the saboteur school, but, once on the Soviet side (already in 1942), he found the intelligence department of the Western Front, which he was sent on a mission, and he himself told Major Sprogis about what happened in the village of Petrishchevo.
From the interrogation report
1942, March 11 - Klubkov testified to the investigator of the special department of the NKVD of the Western Front, state security lieutenant Sushko:
Around two o’clock in the morning I was already in the village of Petrishchevo,” says Klubkov. - When I got to my site, I saw that the houses of Kosmodemyanskaya and Krainov had caught fire. I took out one bottle of flammable mixture, tried to set fire to the house. I saw two German sentries. I got cold feet. He started running towards the forest. I don’t remember how, but suddenly two German soldiers pounced on me, took away my revolver, two bags of ammunition, a bag of food containing canned food and alcohol. Delivered to headquarters. The officer began interrogating. At first I didn’t say that I was a partisan. He said he was a Red Army soldier. They started beating me. Then the officer put a revolver to his head. And then I told him that I had not come to the village alone, I told him about the meeting place in the forest. After some time they brought Zoya...
The interrogation protocol of Klubkov was 11 pages. The last contains the line: “Recorded from my words, read by me personally, to which I sign.”
Klubkov was present when Zoya was interrogated, which he also told the investigator about:
Were you present during the interrogation of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya? - they asked Klubkov.
Yes, I was present.
- What did the Germans ask Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and what did she answer?
The officer asked her a question about the assignment received from the command, what objects she was supposed to set on fire, where her comrades were. Kosmodemyanskaya remained stubbornly silent. After which the officer began to beat Zoya and demand evidence. But she remained silent.
Did the Germans turn to you for help in obtaining recognition from Kosmodemyanskaya?
Yes, I said that this girl is a partisan and intelligence officer Kosmodemyanskaya. But Zoya didn’t say anything after that. Seeing that she was stubbornly silent, the officers and soldiers stripped her naked and beat her with rubber truncheons for 2–3 hours. Exhausted from torture, Zoya shouted at her executioners: “Kill me, I won’t tell you anything.” After which she was taken away and I never saw her again.
Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya at Novodevichy Cemetery
Conclusions
The information contained in the interrogation protocol of Klubkov would seem to add one very important circumstance to the Soviet version of the death of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: she was betrayed by her own comrade in arms. Nevertheless, can this document be completely trusted, knowing about the methods of “extorting” testimony from the NKVD? Why was it necessary to keep the testimony of the traitor secret for many years? Why was it not immediately, back in 1942, that the entire Soviet people were told the name of the man who killed the Hero of the Soviet Union Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya? We can assume that the case of betrayal was fabricated by the NKVD. Thus, the culprit in the death of the heroine was found. And certainly publicity about betrayal would completely destroy official version the death of a girl, and the country needed not traitors, but heroes.
What the document cited by V. Lot did not change was the nature of the sabotage group’s mission. But it is precisely the nature of the task that rightly causes many, so to speak, mixed feelings. The order to set the villages on fire somehow completely ignores the fact that there were not only Germans in them, but also our own, Soviet people. A logical question arises: who did these types of methods of fighting the enemy cause more damage to - the enemy or their own compatriots, who were left on the threshold of winter without a roof over their heads and, most likely, without food? Of course, all the questions are addressed not to the young girl Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, but to the mature “uncles” who came up with methods of fighting the German invaders that were so merciless in relation to their own people, as well as to the social system in which such methods were considered the norm...
