The wonderful city of Lipetsk. There is a square named after her, the medical college where the girl studied bears her name. Hero of the Soviet Union Ksenia Konstantinova.
In 1939, she graduated from seventh grade and decided to become a paramedic. She entered the Lipetsk Medical School and, having successfully completed it, began working in a hospital. She liked to wear a snow-white robe and look sternly at the sick.
The war changed everything around. The faces of the men became gloomy, the women often cried, clutching their little children. Ksenia met the second day of the war in the corridors of the military registration and enlistment office. Tears did not soften the tired military commissar.
The young girl was not accepted into the army. In 1942, Ksenia again came to the military registration and enlistment office. She became a little older, but still a young nurse could not be drafted into the active army. Only the third time her persistence was crowned with success.
She didn't even leave a note at home. Everyone was afraid that her mother would not allow her to go to the front. Maybe they won’t guess where she went? Tears are a terrible weapon. Ksenia was afraid of other people's tears. I was ready to drop everything and run to help.
Mom rushed to the military registration and enlistment office. It's too late. The documents were ready. She wrote her a letter while sitting in a shaking carriage, leaving for the front. She asked for forgiveness. And there was nothing more in the short letter. There’s nothing else to write about.
Military nursing is not a civilian duty. But there are general skills, and the girl is sent to nursing courses. In the spring of 1943, she beat the Nazis on the Kursk Bulge, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of her battalion.
But she still had to carry the wounded from the battlefield. She lied that she was 25 years old and there was no need to feel sorry for her. And the soldiers looked at the little girl, nodded their heads in agreement, not believing her at all. Still a long way to go until twenty-five.
Tirelessly, she dragged the wounded to the medical battalion, as if she did not feel tired at all. Once she carried a battalion sergeant major, Zirdenko, whose both legs were broken, weighing 105 kilograms. And she herself ended up in the hospital after being wounded.
From the hospital, without completing her treatment, she fled to her battalion. I was very worried about my soldiers. Who will take them out of the battle if Ksyusha is chilling in the hospital? Will they remain in the field until Victory?
The front line greeted her with the roar of explosions and the whistling of bullets. The soldiers did not see when this girl was sleeping. Every minute of her time is given to the wounded. She wrote letters for the wounded, combed their hair, shaved them, washed their clothes, washed them, and read books.
In the fall of 1943, the battalion fought near the village of Uzgorki, trying to block the highway to Smolensk. The Germans were driven out of the village, but there were many seriously wounded. There was not enough medicine, and Ksyusha went to the medical battalion for help.
She returned with a cart, where she began to load the wounded. There wasn't enough room for everyone. There were still a few fighters left. The driver had not yet left on the cart with the wounded. They decided that he would return for the rest later.
But suddenly the Nazis appeared. There were many of them. Ksenia literally drove out the driver with the wounded. The rest lay in the ravine without moving. The Germans did not notice them. She was left alone against a hundred armed occupiers.
Once upon a time, little Ksyusha survived an attack by wild dogs. And I remembered the scary dogs. Now she stood alone with a machine gun against Nazi soldiers. Almost a girl, she ran from bush to bush, trying to create the appearance of a group of fighters.
And she took a pack of fascist dogs with her. They did not notice the hollow with the wounded. The cartridges ran out, there was only one left, which she could spend on herself. But she killed another fascist, knowing that now she would be torn to pieces.
The pack of distraught soldiers did not spare the defenseless girl Ksyusha. Her ears and breasts were cut off and her eyes were cut out. While still alive, they stuck a stake in his stomach, pinning him to the ground. The soldiers found their sister of mercy, as they affectionately called her in the battalion, still warm.
And the wounded all remained alive in that hollow. In the village of Uzgorki, at the site of the death of Hero of the Soviet Union Ksenia Konstantinova, there is an obelisk.
She dreamed of becoming a doctor, but only managed to get a position as a medical instructor. The 18-year-old nurse killed several dozen German soldiers while protecting wounded Soviet soldiers and posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union, but few knew about her feat for decades.
On May 6 in Rudna to military nurse Ksenia Konstantinova, on May 7 - a memorial plaque in Smolensk dedicated to her.
She talks about who Ksenia Konstantinova is and what feat she accomplished. website.
“I did what my heart told me to do”
Ksenia Semenovna Konstantinova was born on April 18, 1925 in the village of Sukhaya Lubna (Mokhovoye village) in the Trubetchinsky district of the Lipetsk region. In the teacher's family, in addition to the daughter, there were two more children - Ksenia had two younger brothers, Pavlik and Grisha. The girl graduated from the Lubnovsky primary and Kuymansky seven-year schools, and studied, according to her father’s recollections, very well.
Ksenia Konstantinova. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
“From early childhood, she strived to learn to read and write. From elementary school I studied “excellently,” he recalled Ksenia's father Semyon Konstantinov.
In 1940, the girl entered the Lipetsk Medical Assistant and Midwifery School (Lipetsk Medical College), where she studied until 1942. Already during her studies, Ksenia began working as an instructor at the district health department and at the Trubetchinsk hospital.
In 1941, when the German army occupied Yelets and began to approach her native Lipetsk, 16-year-old Ksenia decided to volunteer for the front.
“Mom, I cannot look calmly at everything that is happening when the hated fascists are trampling our native land. Sorry, mommy, I did what my heart told me,” she wrote Xenia in a letter to his mother.
"I'm hurrying to the front"
The young nurse was assigned as a medical instructor to the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 730th Infantry Regiment of the 204th Infantry Division. Ksenia Konstantinova took part in battles on the Voronezh and Kalinin fronts. During the offensive, like all nurses, she helped the wounded and carried them from the battlefield.
“I will not return home until at least one fascist reptile remains on our land,” the girl wrote in letters from the front to her family.
In one of the battles on the Kursk Bulge, Ksenia was wounded and sent to a hospital in Tula.
“Dad, on the Kursk-Belgorod arc I was shell-shocked and scratched by shell fragments. Received gratitude... and was nominated for an award,” writes Xenia to my father. And soon: “Dad, I’ve thrown off all the bandages from my body, I’m hurrying to the front to finish off the Nazis.” By this time, she had already been awarded the medal “For Military Merit.”
Bad feeling
In the fall of 1943, the unit where Ksenia served fought in the Smolensk region. On September 30, the battalion received orders to move forward, but someone had to stay behind with the wounded.
"R Explaining the combat mission, the battalion commander, Captain Klevakin, ordered Ksenia to stay with the wounded, since the battalion paramedic was killed, - recalled fellow soldier and lover of Ksenia Valentin Lazorenko. - Ksenia really didn’t want to stay, she was used to being on the front line, but the orders of the commanders at the front were not discussed. When the command to move forward sounded, Ksenya hugged me and said: “Goodbye, I have a feeling that I won’t see you again. Take care of yourself".
When the battalion left, the Germans appeared from behind the hill, according to various sources, up to 100 people. Ksenia forced the driver to load the wounded onto the cart and leave. And she herself stayed to detain the Germans - to allow the wounded to be taken away and the battalion to retreat.
The Germans opened fire. The 18-year-old girl had one machine gun and, probably, a bunch of grenades, but she did not give up - she accepted a obviously lost battle. Even when she was wounded in the head, Ksenia shot until the last bullet. Then she threw a bunch of grenades at the Nazis.
The Germans were able to capture Ksenia only when she ran out of ammunition.
On October 2, 1943, the soldiers of her battalion, returning to their place of deployment, found the mutilated body of a young girl in a medical instructor’s uniform.
“A terrible picture of the execution of our medical instructor, my beloved girl, appeared before us. Ksenia’s death was terrible,” recalled Valentin Lazorenko.
Her eyes were gouged out, her nose was cut off, her breasts were cut off, and her body was nailed to the ground with a stake. Dozens of corpses of German soldiers lay nearby. Data vary: some sources, in particular Valentin Lazorenko, report that there were about 20 killed, others claim that there were about 60.
Ksenia Konstantinova was buried on October 8, 1943 in a mass grave with 242 other soldiers in the village of Raspopi, Smolensk region. But there is another version: Lazorenko claimed that Ksenia was buried under a linden tree on the river bank. Another version says that the girl’s grave is located on the outskirts of the village of Boyarshchina, Ponizovsky rural settlement.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 4, 1944, for the exemplary fulfillment of command assignments and the courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, medical service sergeant Ksenia Semyonovna Konstantinova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Memory
The memory of nurse Ksenia Konstantinova is especially honored in her homeland - in the village of Sukhaya Lubna. At the local school there is an exhibition “The Road of Glory and Immortality”, where every year excursions are held dedicated to the girl’s feat, meetings are held and communication with the heroine’s family - Ksenia’s half-sisters (her father’s daughter from his second marriage), Ksenia - she was named after her sister, and Elena carefully preserve old photos and memories of their father.
On the building of the former paramedic and midwifery school (now a medical college) in the city of Lipetsk, a memorial plaque was installed in memory of Heroine. Also, a memorial plaque was installed on the building of Lipetsk secondary school No. 28 (located on Konstantinova Square). On May 5, 1965, Club Square in Lipetsk was renamed Konstantinova Square. At the memorial complex on Heroes Square there is a bronze portrait of Ksenia Konstantinova.
On May 6, 2015, in Rudna, in the Smolensk region, a memorial immortalized the name of senior medical officer Ksenia Konstantinova.
Monument to Ksenia Konstantinova in Rudna. Photo: Press service of the Smolensk region administration
The granite stone weighing 6 tons, from which the monument was made, was taken straight from the forest where those terrible battles took place. The authors of the project were the chief architect of the Smolensk region, Marina Martinovich, and the sculptor Tatyana Neveselaya. During the grand opening of the memorial, it was noted that for many years the name and feat of military nurse Ksenia Konstantinova were not properly immortalized.
Afterword
All surviving photos of Ksenia Konstantinova are, of course, black and white. But relatives and colleagues recalled that the girl had blue, blue eyes, she was small and fragile, she loved literature, especially Nekrasov’s poetry. In the moments of calm between battles, Ksenia took part in amateur performances; most of all she loved to sing, and the soldiers loved to listen to her songs with a guitar. She dreamed of becoming a doctor and seeing her family after the war, but she became one of the millions who never returned home.
The name of Hero of the Soviet Union Ksenia Konstantinova is known in Lipetsk. The square is named in her honor, and there is a memorial plaque on the building of the medical college where the girl studied. But, unfortunately, the known part of the heroine’s biography is very stingy. I’ll try to supplement it with what I learned in Ksenia’s native village, Sukhaya Lubnya.
During the Great Patriotic War, this village belonged to the Tambov province, and now it belongs to the Lipetsk region. Here, on April 18, 1925, the future heroine was born into a peasant family. Dad - Semyon Grigorievich, mother - Arina Semyonovna. The daughter was the first-born, and from an early age she grew up working hard, helping her parents. Ksenia was not particularly lively or enthusiastic, but if necessary, she showed a downright masculine character. One day, on the outskirts of the village, she saw a boy surrounded by large dogs. The boy pressed himself against the fence. I couldn’t climb on it - I was still too small. I stood literally five meters from the gate, but was unable to reach it. Ksenia, who was about seven years old at that time, grabbed a stick and rushed to protect the boy. I couldn’t disperse the angry dogs, and very soon I found myself next to the boy, pressed against the same fence, and with a bitten leg. And then, in this moment full of fear and despair, the girl did the unexpected: she fell on all fours, as if for a moment turning into a dog, and growled desperately. The dogs retreated, and Ksenia, without being taken aback, grabbed the boy’s hand, rushed to the gate and pushed him there. She didn’t have time: the dogs had already come to their senses and closed the ring again. But, fortunately, at that moment the men were returning from field work and dispersed the dogs.
In 1939, Ksenia graduated with honors from a seven-year school and entered the Lipetsk Medical Assistant and Midwifery School (today a medical college). She also graduated with honors and started working.
Sixteen-year-old Ksenia met the second day of the Great Patriotic War at the military registration and enlistment office. She asked to go to the front, even cried, but to no avail - they were not allowed due to her young age. The second attempt (already in 1942, after all, she was older!) also turned out to be a failure. And for the third time, Ksenia finally achieved permission. She didn’t say anything to her family, she didn’t want any persuasion or tears. And early on a February morning in 1943, she quietly left home. I was even afraid to leave a note: what if my mother rushed to the military registration and enlistment office?
Mom rushed over as soon as she realized what her daughter had done. Yes, it was already late. And soon she received a letter: “Forgive me, mom, I couldn’t do otherwise...” Actually, almost nothing else was in that short letter...
Ksenia completed short-term nursing courses and in the spring of 1943 she was enrolled as a medical instructor in the 3rd battalion of the 730th Infantry Regiment of the 204th Infantry Division.
They fought on the Kursk Bulge. And senior medical officer Ksenia Konstantinova also fought. She told her fellow soldiers that she was already twenty-five, and therefore there was nothing to feel sorry for or take care of her. But the fighters looked at the thin girl and understood: she was far from twenty-five. They were amazed at her strength: Ksenia carried the wounded tirelessly, as if without feeling the burden. Once I pulled out a battalion sergeant major named Zirdenko (both his legs were broken), who later claimed that he weighed one hundred and five kilograms.
In one of the battles, Ksenia was wounded by a shell fragment. She ended up in a Tula hospital, but did not stay for long: barely getting to her feet, she ran to her family. “How can they live without me? - the girl said to the head doctor. “After all, no one will pull them out of the battlefield, so they will lie there until our victory?”
Frontline again. Fighting again. Ksenia seemed to never sleep at all: she devoted every minute to the wounded. If there was no need to provide medical assistance, she wrote letters from dictation, combed the soldiers’ hair, shaved, and washed their clothes.
In September 1943, the division was transferred to the Vitebsk direction. The battalion in which Ksenia served fought near the village of Uzgorki for a section of the Smolensk-Vitebsk highway. On October 1, soldiers drove the Nazis out of Uzgorki. There were a lot of seriously wounded people, there was not enough medicine for everyone, and urgent help was needed. Many soldiers were unconscious, none of the wounded could walk. Ksenia went on foot to the medical battalion and returned in a cart. The soldiers were waiting for their sister in the hollow. Ksenia began to provide assistance and, one by one, carried the soldiers into the cart. But there wasn’t enough room for everyone; a few people still remained. We decided that the driver would now take the wounded to the medical battalion and return for the rest. The cart had just started moving when a large group of Nazis appeared - about a hundred people.
- Leave quickly! - Ksenia shouted. - We'll stop them! Drive!
The cart disappeared behind the bushes. And here, in the ravine, there were several fighters left who could not fight. The Nazis did not see them - the hollow was deep, and the people showed no signs of life. Therefore, there really was no “we”, and Ksenia knew it. And she shouted so only so that the driver would not stay, but would go away and save people.
The Nazis were approaching, like that old pack of dogs. They were confronted by only one girl, almost a girl, with a machine gun in her hands. She ran from place to place, trying not to get hit by a bullet. And she led the enemies away so that the hollow became completely invisible to them. She fought until the last bullet. And even this last cartridge, which Ksenia could have kept for herself, realizing that the Nazis would not leave her alive and, most likely, would torture her, the girl spent on the enemy. There's one less...
She was taken prisoner, completely unarmed. About eighty surviving fascists - she killed twenty. And this pack did not disdain reprisals. She cut off Ksenia's nose and chest, gouged out her eyes and nailed her to the ground with a stake. That's how our soldiers found her...
And the wounded remained alive - all of them. On June 4, 1944, Ksenia Konstantinova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. There is now an obelisk where she died.
Sanitary instructor Ksenia Konstantinova, born in the village. Sukhaya Lubna, Lipetsk district, Lipetsk region, accomplished an outstanding feat - in a mortal battle, an 18-year-old nurse killed several dozen German soldiers, protecting wounded Soviet soldiers, and posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
The feat of Ksenia Konstantinova was not forgotten and immortalized:
- a memorial plaque was installed on the building of the former paramedic and midwifery school (now a medical college) in the city of Lipetsk in memory of Heroine;
- a memorial plaque was installed on the building of Lipetsk secondary school No. 28 (located on Konstantinova Square);
- On May 5, 1965, Club Square in Lipetsk (Sokol district) was renamed Konstantinova Square;
- on the memorial complex on Heroes Square there is a bronze portrait of K. S. Konstantinova;
- By Resolution of the Lipetsk Regional Council of Deputies dated June 4, 2015 No. 1175-ps, Yelets Medical College was named after Hero of the Soviet Union Ksenia Semenovna Konstantinova;
- Smolensk Basic Medical College was named after K. S. Konstantinova in 2015;
- On May 6, 2015, a monument to military nurse Ksenia Konstantinova was unveiled in Rudnya, Smolensk region, and on May 7 - a memorial plaque in Smolensk dedicated to her.
Ksenia Semenovna Konstantinova was born on April 18, 1925 in the village of Sukhaya Lubna (Mokhovoye village) in the Trubetchinsky district of the Lipetsk region. In the teacher's family, in addition to the daughter, there were two more children - Ksenia had two younger brothers, Pavlik and Grisha. The girl graduated from the Lubnovsky primary and Kuymansky seven-year schools, and studied, according to her father’s recollections, very well.
In 1940, the girl entered the Lipetsk Medical Assistant and Midwifery School (Lipetsk Medical College), where she studied until 1942. Already during her studies, Ksenia began working as an instructor at the district health department and at the Trubetchinsk hospital.
The building of the medical college in Lipetsk, where Ksenia Konstantinova studied from 1940 to 1942:
In 1941, when the German army occupied Yelets and began to approach her native Lipetsk, 16-year-old Ksenia decided to volunteer for the front. “Mom, I cannot look calmly at everything that is happening when the hated fascists are trampling our native land. I’m sorry, mommy, I did what my heart told me,” Ksenia wrote in a letter to her mother.
The young nurse was assigned as a medical instructor to the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 730th Infantry Regiment of the 204th Infantry Division. Ksenia Konstantinova took part in battles on the Voronezh and Kalinin fronts. During the offensive, like all nurses, she helped the wounded and carried them from the battlefield.
In one of the battles on the Kursk Bulge, Ksenia was wounded and sent to a hospital in Tula. “Dad, on the Kursk-Belgorod arc I was shell-shocked and scratched by shell fragments. She received gratitude... and was nominated for an award,” Ksenia writes to her father. And soon: “Dad, I’ve thrown off all the bandages from my body, I’m hurrying to the front to finish off the Nazis.” By this time, she had already been awarded the medal “For Military Merit.”
Relatives and colleagues recalled that the girl had blue-blue eyes, she was small and fragile, she loved literature, especially Nekrasov’s poetry. In the moments of calm between battles, Ksenia took part in amateur performances; most of all she loved to sing, and the soldiers loved to listen to her songs with a guitar.
In the fall of 1943, the unit where Ksenia served fought in the Smolensk region. On September 30, the battalion received orders to move forward, but someone had to stay behind with the wounded.
“Explaining the combat mission, the battalion commander, Captain Klevakin, ordered Ksenia to stay with the wounded, since the medical battalion paramedic was killed,” recalled Ksenia’s fellow soldier and lover Valentin Lazorenko. - Ksenia really didn’t want to stay, she was used to being on the front line, but the orders of the commanders at the front were not discussed. When the command to move forward sounded, Ksenya hugged me and said: “Goodbye, I have a feeling that I won’t see you again. Take care of yourself".
When the battalion left, the Germans appeared from behind the hill, according to various sources, up to 100 people. Ksenia forced the driver to load the wounded onto the cart and leave. And she herself stayed to detain the Germans - to allow the wounded to be taken away and the battalion to retreat. The Germans opened fire. The 18-year-old girl had one machine gun and, probably, a bunch of grenades, but she did not give up - she accepted a obviously lost battle. Even when she was wounded in the head, Ksenia shot until the last bullet. Then she threw a bunch of grenades at the Nazis. The Germans were able to capture Ksenia only when she ran out of ammunition.
On October 2, 1943, the soldiers of her battalion, returning to their place of deployment, found the mutilated body of a young girl in a medical instructor’s uniform. Her eyes were gouged out, her nose was cut off, her breasts were cut off, and her body was nailed to the ground with a stake. Dozens of corpses of German soldiers lay nearby. Data vary: some sources, in particular Valentin Lazorenko, report that there were about 20 killed, others claim that there were about 60.
Ksenia Konstantinova was buried on October 8, 1943 in a mass grave with 242 other soldiers in the village of Raspopi, Smolensk region. But there is another version: Lazorenko claimed that Ksenia was buried under a linden tree on the river bank. Another version says that the girl’s grave is located on the outskirts of the village of Boyarshchina, Ponizovsky rural settlement.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 4, 1944, for the exemplary fulfillment of command assignments and the courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, medical service sergeant Ksenia Semyonovna Konstantinova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Monument to Ksenia Konstantinova in Rudna
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory over the fascist invaders. Those terrible years are moving further and further away from us, but the exploits of the people who gave their lives for the freedom of the country will live in our memory forever. The exploits of those who with their labor forged Victory in the rear. Streets and squares are named in honor of War Heroes in many Russian cities. Lipetsk is no exception. 59 streets of our city are named after War Heroes. Before the anniversary date, we are starting a new project “Name Street...”
Plot
"Name Street..."
- "Name Street...." Vyacheslav Krotevich, Vasily Gazin, Pavel Papin
- "Name Street..." Three cities in the Kaliningrad region are named after Lipetsk residents
Today we will remember the feat of our fellow countrywoman, Hero of the Soviet Union Ksenia Konstantinova, in whose honor the square on Sokol is named.
One against hundreds of fascists
On the outskirts of the village of Boyarshchina, Ponizovsky district, Smolensk region, on October 8, 1943, military friends buried Ksenia Konstantinovna. After a farewell fireworks display and a moment of silence near a mound of fresh, damp earth, the soldiers swore an oath to avenge the death of their friend, comrade in arms. On the night of October 1, 1943, when medical instructor Ksenia Konstantinovna near the village of Shatilovo was collecting the wounded on the battlefield and providing assistance to them, about 100 Germans suddenly appeared from behind the hill. They opened fire with machine guns and began to surround the bushes where the seriously wounded lay. Ksenia took on an unequal battle. She destroyed about 60 fascist soldiers, was wounded in the head, and shot back to the last bullet. When the cartridges ran out, the brutal fascists grabbed her and subjected her to inhuman torture: they gouged out her eyes, cut out her breasts, cut off her nose and nailed her body to the ground with a stake. When our units recaptured this piece of land from the enemy on October 2, they barely recognized the heroine’s mutilated body. It lay on the bloody ground, and dozens of enemy corpses lay around.
For this feat, Ksenia Konstantinova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Ksenia Semenovna Konstantinovna was born on April 18, 1925 in the village of Sukhaya Lubna, Trubetchinsky district, Lipetsk region. From 1940 to 1942 she studied at the Lipetsk Medical Assistant and Midwifery School and worked as an instructor at the district health department. When the enemy occupied Yelets and began to approach Lipetsk, a 16-year-old girl decided to volunteer to go to the front. In a letter to her mother, she wrote: “Mom, I cannot look calmly at everything that is happening when the hated fascists are trampling our native land. Sorry, mommy, I did what my heart told me.” She went to the front secretly, without even saying goodbye to her mother. Ksenia was sent as a medical instructor to the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 730th Infantry Regiment of the 204th Infantry Division. She took part in battles on the Voronezh and Kalinin fronts. During the offensive, she assisted the wounded and carried them out of the battlefield. In letters to her family, she assured that “she will not return home until there is not a single fascist vermin left on our land.” Her mother could not bear the tragic death of her daughter and soon died. On the outskirts of the village of Raspopy, Smolensk region, an obelisk was erected near the mass grave where Ksenia’s body was later reburied. In Lipetsk, a square and a medical college were named in honor of the heroic countrywoman, and in the village where she was born and where she went to the front, one of the central streets was named after Ksenia.
The half-sisters of the deceased Ksenia still live in the village of Sukhaya Lubna, just 30 kilometers from Lipetsk. One of the sisters is also named Kseniy, in honor of the deceased heroine.
“We have different characters, although we have the same names,” admitted Ksenia Semyonovna Sidyakina, “Ksenia was decisive and brave.” She dreamed of being a doctor, and I worked in construction almost my whole life. I was born after the war, I remember about my sister only from the stories of our father. And Ksenia’s father at that time was in a prison camp, where he was sent following a denunciation before the war. In 1945, my father was released from prison and rehabilitated. And a year later, in 1946, Ksenia’s own mother died, and my father married a second time, to our mother Maria. From this marriage they have two daughters, me and my sister Elena. I kept the shawl of the deceased Ksenia at home for a very long time; my father left it for me as a souvenir. When they opened a museum for Xenia at a rural school, I gave them this shawl along with letters from the front, let them keep it there.
The star of Hero of the Soviet Union Ksenia Konstantinova is kept in Moscow; such awards are not given to relatives.
During the war years, 250 thousand people left Lipetsk for the front, every second one died. According to information from the military commissariats, almost 46 thousand people were mobilized from the city of Lipetsk and the Lipetsk region to fight the Nazi invaders. Every third of them died.
Konstantinova Square is a square in the Right Bank district of Lipetsk. Located on Sokol between Ushinsky, 40th Anniversary of October, Smyslov streets and the territory of the Sokol sports complex. It arose at the beginning of the 20th century during the construction of a settlement for engineering personnel of a metallurgical plant. The original name was Upper Colony. Since the 1950s, it was called Club Square after the club (then the palace) of the Svobodny Sokol plant located here. On May 5, 1965, she was named in honor of Hero of the Soviet Union Ksenia Konstantinova.
MAIU "My city Lipetsk"
