War hero Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The immortal feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

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 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, 50 combat groups and detachments were trained in this military unit of the intelligence department of the Western Front. 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 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.”

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. The Bolsheviks captured him on the night of August 27, 1918, and after severe torture they 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.

Zoya studied well at school, 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 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 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 disease” 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 carrying out 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 to beat 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, they 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 hanged her, and she gave 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

January 5, 2015

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, a brief summary of the history of which 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 spend the winter in comfortable conditions. To carry out the order, several sabotage groups were formed from among the fighters of the special partisan unit 9903 in the shortest possible time. 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 carry out tasks involving mortal risk.

Family

Before telling who Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya Anatolyevna was, whose feat made her a symbol of the heroism of the Soviet people, it is worth learning a few interesting facts about her parents and other ancestors. So, the first woman to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Second World War 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 that, 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 the famous researcher of Russian and Soviet history M. M. Gorinov notes, 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.

A summary of the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which was given in history textbooks to Soviet schoolchildren, for several decades was for them the best lesson in patriotism and love for the motherland, courage, and an example to follow. And for modern boys and girls, this woman, or rather a girl, is an example of heroism. Zoya’s feat is still being discussed, new facts and evidence are appearing, controversy and even speculation are arising around it. Who was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya?

Biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Zoya was a simple girl from the Tambov village of Osiny Gai. She was born into a family of school teachers on September 13, 1923. The family lived near Tambov until 1929, and then was forced to flee to Siberia, fearing denunciations and arrest. The fact is that Zoya’s grandfather was accused of anti-Soviet activities and executed for this. But the 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 studies at school, but lack of mutual understanding with classmates,
meningitis, meeting Arkady Gaidar in a sanatorium during treatment,
studying at a sabotage school and sending Zoya’s group to the rear of the Nazis,
successful completion of several tasks, capture and execution.

The difficult life of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, hardships and difficulties did not take away her patriotism and love for the Fatherland. The girl firmly believed in socialism and victory in the War, steadfastly endured all the hardships of captivity and accepted death with dignity - this is a fact that skeptics and pro-Soviet figures are unable to dispute.

Background to the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

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 populated areas and strategic objects on the path of advance of enemy forces. This task was to be carried out by sabotage groups, which were specially trained for this purpose in specialized schools, in accelerated courses. One of these groups included Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

In accordance with Stalin’s order No. 0428, the group was supposed 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 Mikhailovskoye,
Korovino, Bugailovo and others.

The saboteurs set out on a mission on November 21, 1941, in two groups. They were ambushed near the village of Golovkovo, as a result of which only one group remained, which continued to carry out such a cruel, but necessary task in those realities.

Brief summary of the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

After the losses suffered as a result of the shelling of groups near the village of Golovkovo, the task became more complicated, and the saboteurs, including Zoya, had to gather all their strength to complete the task of Stalin himself. Kosmodemyanskaya was supposed to burn the village of Petrishchevo near Moscow, which was a transport hub for fascist movements. The girl and her colleague, fighter Vasily Klubkov, partially completed the task, destroying 20 horses of the German army along the way. In addition, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya managed to disable German communications, which helped eliminate contact between several German units in the Moscow region and reduce their offensive activity, albeit for a short time.

The leader of the group of saboteurs who survived the ambush, Krainov, did not wait for Kosmodemyanskaya and Klubkov, and returned to the rear. Realizing this, Zoya decided to continue working behind enemy lines on her own and returned to Petrishchevo to start setting fires again. One of the village residents, who at that time was already serving the Germans, by the name of Sviridov, grabbed the girl and handed her over to the Nazis.

Captivity and execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was captured by the Nazis on November 28, 1941. The following facts are known for certain about her time in captivity and the torment that the young Komsomol member had to endure:

regular beatings, including by two local residents,
spanking with belts on naked bodies during interrogations,
being driven through the streets of Petrishchev without clothes, in the bitter cold.

Despite all the horrors of torment, Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya not only did not disclose any information about her groups or assignments, but did not even give her real name. She gave her name as Tanya and did not provide any other information about herself or her accomplices, even under torture. Such resilience amazed not only the local residents, who became unwitting witnesses to her torment, but also the torturers themselves, the fascist punishers and investigators.

Many years after the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, her captivity and execution, it became known that villagers who were then serving for the Germans, whose houses she burned - the wives of the elder Smirnov and the punisher Solin - took part in the torture. They were convicted and sentenced to death by the Soviet authorities.

The Nazis turned the execution of Zoya herself into a whole demonstration performance for local residents who did not show them due respect. The girl was paraded through the streets with an “arsonist” sign on her chest, and a photo was taken in front of Zoya, who was standing on the scaffold with a noose around her neck. But even in the face of death, she called for fighting fascism and not being afraid of invaders. The girl’s body was not allowed to be removed from the gallows for a whole month, and only on the eve of the New Year did local residents manage to bury Zoya.

Posthumous recognition of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat and new facts

After the liberation of the village of Petrishchevo from the Nazis, a special commission arrived there, identified the body and interviewed witnesses to the events. The data was provided to Stalin himself, and after studying it, he decided to posthumously award Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, they were given a directive to publish material about the feat in the media so that the whole country would learn about the heroism of a simple Komsomol member.

Modern historians have already provided supposedly genuine facts that the girl was betrayed to the Nazis either by her partner or by the group commander, and her heroism and perseverance are just fiction. These data have not been confirmed by anything, nor have they been refuted. Despite attempts to denigrate socialism and everything connected with it, the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya to this day serves as an example of patriotism and heroism for Russians.

Know, Soviet people, that you are descendants of fearless warriors!
Know, Soviet people, that the blood of great heroes flows in you,
who gave their lives for their homeland without thinking about the benefits!
Know and honor, Soviet people, the exploits of our grandfathers and fathers!

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osinovye Gai, Tambov region. A very young girl showed the highest human valor. Zoya gave her life defending her homeland. I bow to Zoya and the memory of her feat will be eternal in our hearts.

November 29, 1941, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was executed by the Nazis after brutal torture in the village of Petrishchevo, Moscow region. And a few days after that, December 5, 1941, a turning point in the Great Patriotic War began. Now you understand why the Nazis tortured Zoya so cruelly and what exactly Zoya did not tell them at the cost of her young life.

The name of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is known to every history textbook. Photos of the massacre of a young Soviet girl, taken in 1941, spread all over the world. The Nazis tried to film the execution of the brave partisan from all angles; witnesses remembered her speech before her death word for word, and dozens of films were made about Zoya’s feat.

In November 1941, a group of Soviet military personnel, including NKVD officers, including young Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, went beyond the front line. Their task is to conduct reconnaissance of the enemy’s manpower and equipment, destroy the Nazis’ communications, and destroy food supplies located behind enemy lines. In Petrishchevo, near Moscow, a brave intelligence officer managed to disable a communications center. Here the Komsomol member was captured by the Nazis.

The girl was tortured for a long time. But the brave partisan, despite the terrible pain, did not betray her comrades and did not ask for mercy.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became the first woman Hero of the Soviet Union. Villages, schools, ships, military units, as well as dozens of streets throughout the country and abroad are named in her honor. Interest in the life and feat of Kosmodemyanskaya has not subsided to this day. About 20 thousand people come to the museum in Petrishchevo every year.