Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya's path to immortality began with photographs found on the body of a murdered German officer. Let's look at one of them. It raises questions for which there is no clear answer.

1. There are no signs of beatings on Zoya's face, arms and chest, although we know that she was severely beaten by both the Germans and her compatriots, angry at the loss of their home. Zoya's fingernails were torn out.

2. Zoya moves without outside help, although she was interrogated all night, beaten and led around the village naked and barefoot. Even a strong man will fall from such treatment. According to eyewitnesses, Zoya was dragged to the place of execution by the arms.

3. Zoya's hands are not tied, which cannot be, in principle, because she is not even a prisoner of war, but a partisan, which is incommensurably more dangerous in the eyes of the Germans. In addition, those sentenced to hanging usually have their hands tied behind their backs - after all, execution is not a circus.

4. The Germans do not look hungry, lousy and demoralized (they are even shaved), although our counteroffensive will begin in 5 days.

5. The Germans are not dressed in uniform, without belts (except one) and are moving in a crowd mixed with local residents, which could not be possible in principle during an intimidation action: something, and discipline in the German army up to surrender was at its best.

6. Germans without weapons, which is unthinkable in the front line, with a sabotage and partisan threat, and even with a public execution.

7. There are no officers in the frame in all the photographs, and this, when holding an action of this rank, is unbelievable.

8. Many German soldiers there are no shoulder straps on the overcoats. They are more like a crowd of prisoners of war and not like regular army soldiers.

9. Judging by the clothes of the Germans, the air temperature is not lower than -10 (otherwise they will have to be recognized as Siberians). Are Moscow and the village of Petrishcheva in different climatic zones? Where are the frosts that paralyzed the German army?

10. If you remove the poster from Zoya's chest, one gets the impression of walking with friends, and not escorting a dangerous saboteur to the place of execution.

The combat mission of the sabotage group, which included Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, was as follows: to burn 10 settlements: Anashkino, Gribtsovo, Petrishchevo, Usadkovo, Ilyatino, Grachevo, Pushkino, Mikhailovskoye, Bugailovo, Korovino. Lead time - 5; 7 days.

Have you tried burning down a town with 3 bottles of gasoline? What about 10 settlements, the distance between which is 6-7 kilometers by a group of several people? And this is in the German rear, crowded with troops. The one who gave such orders (and those who believe in it) was of sound mind?

Why did Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and others like her die, and did she really exist (like the Panfilov heroes)? What could a few hundred boys and girls, yesterday's schoolchildren, do behind enemy lines in winter? And how could they even penetrate the German rear? Dozens of kilometers in deep snow without skis, tents, basic camping equipment, without hot meals (and where did they get water?), with heavy backpacks on their backs, spending the night in the snow without even being able to light a fire - after all, it was forbidden, and warming only vodka (not my idea)? And the raids lasted a week or more. This is on the shoulder of an 18-year-old (yes, even older) body?

1. People have always been the same: there are no fools to die for high ideas, even for the Motherland. Normal people were those who fled from the besieged capital, taking factory cash desks, who smashed shops and stormed trains crowded with refugees. These are the people I believe in. I even believe in 3.5 million captured Red Army soldiers (an unthinkable figure!) In the very first six months of the war, to whom their own skin seemed more precious than the Oath and duty. I believe in Stalin's order No. 227, without which the Red Army would simply have fled. But in Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Alexander Matrosov, Panfilov’s and other popular heroes - it doesn’t work. I DO NOT BELIEVE! Patriotism is great, but it shouldn't blow your mind. It is easy to think, sitting on the couch, that someone else is so easily parting with his own life with a cry of "For the Motherland!", "For Stalin!", For the sake of your bright future. Are you ready to take their place?

2. Photos of the execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya are fake.

to your lofty ideals,
Remained faithful to the end
Violent death proved
What does the Motherland have armor!
Before her courage and will,
Bow the "heads" of the year,
A girl with a heavy lot
You are in our heart forever!

Lyudmila Leader

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya (September 13, 1923 - November 29, 1941), - Red Army soldier of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the headquarters Western Front, abandoned in 1941 in the German rear.

(Sometimes Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is called a partisan, which does not contradict the concept that was entrenched during and after the Great Patriotic War in relation to everyone who took part in sabotage actions, mainly in the form of guerrilla warfare, behind enemy lines).

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is the first woman to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) during the Great Patriotic War. It became one of the symbols of the heroism of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.

The circumstances of Zoya's feat are extremely interesting and important for understanding the spirit of Victory. However, in the 90s, to describe her feat, they began to use only the testimony of two traitors, moreover, those who were shot in court, and women who remained in the occupied territory so as not to work for the Victory in the defense industry in evacuation. Only the description of one grandfather, from whose words the feat of Zoya was first recorded by the correspondent of Pravda, conveyed to us important, keywords and Zoe's actions during her execution.

This feat is also distinguished by the fact that Zoya's corpse hung for more than a month on the gallows, and those passing by the part of the 197th Wehrmacht Infantry Division, let's pay attention, the army, and not the SS, outraged him, stabbed her petrified and frozen body with bayonets and knives . Soldiers from one of these passing units undressed her and cut off her chest.

And in the 90s, the anti-Soviet declared her a schizophrenic who set fire to the houses of civilians. Why would this be such an anomalous hatred of the Nazis and traitors to the Motherland?

There was a death match

We have a good memory
The living do not dare to forget
Those who died for our cause
We have no other saints.

N.N. Dobronravov

Zoya accomplished her feat at the most difficult time for the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War. On September 30, 1941, the Germans launched an offensive against Moscow. Defense Soviet troops was broken through, moreover, on October 7, the enemy managed to encircle five of our armies in the Vyazma region. It seemed that the gates to Moscow were open and its capture was inevitable.

But the Nazis once again miscalculated. The Supreme High Command made a decision: not to surrender the capital and fight for the city to the last. The decision was a decision, but it was the Soviet people, the Red Army, the Muscovites, for whom the idea that the enemy would enter Moscow - their Moscow, where they grew up, studied, loved - seemed unbearable, heroically fulfilled it, although there were those who was a traitor in their psychology and who rushed from Moscow with their belongings.

Recall that actually in these days of November 16, when a new German offensive against Moscow began, the soldiers of the 4th company, led by political instructor Vasily Klochkov, carrying out defense in the area of the Dubosekovo junction, 7 km southeast of Volokolamsk, accomplished a feat, in during a 4-hour battle, destroying 18 enemy tanks. And the phrase “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!”, which political instructor Klochkov said before his death, became truly legendary (for more details, see http://inance.ru/2016/11/panfilovci/).

"The feat of Panfilov's heroes is immortal" http://inance.ru/2016/11/panfilovci/

Indeed, the struggle was not for life, but for death, and therefore a harsh (hard, cruel) order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 0428 appeared on November 17. It set the task of depriving:

“The German army is able to deploy in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all settlements into the cold in the field, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and make them freeze in the open air.”

For this purpose it was ordered:

"destroy and burn down everything settlements in the rear of the 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 settlements within the indicated radius of action, immediately drop aircraft, make extensive use of artillery and mortar fire, teams of scouts, skiers and partisan sabotage groups equipped with Molotov cocktails, grenades and explosives ... In the event of a forced withdrawal of our units ... take the Soviet population with them and be sure to destroy all settlements without exception, so that the enemy could not use them.

Many people were left homeless, but is it necessary to complain about this? It should also be emphasized that when there is a struggle not for life, but for death, at least two views are manifested in the actions of people: one is treacherous (to survive at any cost), the other is truthful (readiness for self-sacrifice for the sake of Victory). It is precisely the clash of these two views both in 1941 and today that takes place around the feat of Zoya.

It should not be forgotten that the Nazis set the task of destroying the Russian statehood and turning all surviving Russians into disenfranchised slaves of the Aryan race:

“We are talking not only about the defeat of the state with its center in Moscow. It is important that the majority of the population on Russian territory consists of people of a primitive semi-European type.

The enemy, as we see, dictated extremely rigid rules of the game. The Russians had to either win - at any, the most terrible price - or after some time cease to exist on this earth as a people. The third was not given. This was the Truth.

Feat

This order was carried out by the volunteer Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya, who in the second half of October, on her own initiative, entered the cohort of the best Komsomol members to work behind enemy lines. They were called to the district committees, where they were given vouchers. Then, in the building of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, A.N. Shelepin and leaders of the reconnaissance and sabotage military unit.

The conversation in Shelepin's office was brief and harsh.

“The motherland needs fearless patriots who are able to endure the most difficult trials, ready for self-sacrifice,” said Shelepin. “It's good that you all agreed to go to the German rear to fight the enemy. But it may happen that 95% of you will die. There will be no mercy from the Nazis: they brutally crack down on partisans. If any of you are not ready for such tests, speak directly. Nobody will judge you. You realize your desire to fight the enemy at the front.

However, there were no "refuseniks". But not everyone was taken. At first, they refused Zoya, who looked too young and fragile. But she turned out to be persistent, and she was enrolled in the detachment.

Partisans near a village in the Kirovsky district of the Republic of Crimea

On November 18, 1941, the commanders of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the headquarters of the Western Front P.S. Provorov and B.S. Krainov received the task: “to burn 10 settlements (comrade Stalin’s order of November 17, 1941): Anashkino, Gribtsovo, Petrishchevo, Usadkovo, Ilyatino, Grachev, Pupartizanshkino, Mikhailovskoye, Bugailovo, Korovin. Completion time - 5 - 7 days. Among the fighters of the Provorov group is Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

In the area of the village of Golovkovo, the partisans stumbled upon a German ambush. A shootout ensued. The groups were scattered. Some of the soldiers died. After a skirmish near the village of Golovkovo, the remnants of the sabotage groups united in a small detachment under the command of Boris Krainov. Three of them went to Petrishchevo, located 10 km from the Golovkovo state farm: Boris Krainov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Vasily Klubkov.

As it turned out later, following the order, Zoya and her comrades managed to set fire to three houses, along with the stables, while destroying 20 horses of the invaders. In addition, subsequently, the witnesses told, although this fact has not been documented so far, about another feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. It turns out that the girl managed to disable the communication center, due to which the interaction of some German units occupying positions near Moscow.

However, after that, she again went to the village the next night. And she went (alone!) precisely in order to completely fulfill the order given to the sabotage group:

"burn the settlement of Petrishchevo."

But the Germans were on their guard. After the events of the previous night, the headman, two German officers and an interpreter gathered local residents at which they were ordered to guard the houses. This time, Zoya failed to carry out the arson, as she was captured by the peasant S. Sviridov and handed over to the Germans by him. The Nazis, enraged by constant sabotage, began torturing the girl, trying to find out from her how many more partisans were operating in the Petrishchevo area. Two local residents also took part in her beating, whose houses she set on fire the day before she was captured. (And it was too).

Thus, on November 28, 1941, Zoya was in the hands of the enemies. Residents of the village of Petrishchevo tell about the future. Here are the records of their testimony, made by the commission of the Moscow Komsomol on February 3, 1942, shortly after Petrishchevo was liberated from the Germans. Let's quote them, because this is the truth.

First, the partisan was brought to the Sedovs' house. And this is what 11-year-old girl Valya Sedova said:

“She was brought to us by three patrols, led by privates. They opened the door and let her in. One held her hands behind... All three were Germans. They don't know how to speak Russian. They pressed her against the stove (one of them took her by the chest and pressed it), and two began to search her. During the search, there were other soldiers who lived in the hut (15-20 people). They searched and undressed her, they didn’t ask her questions, but talked to each other and laughed. Then the eldest of them (shoulder straps and 2 dice) commanded: “Rus, march,” and she turned and walked with her hands tied ... They didn’t talk to her, they didn’t ask her questions. During the search, she stood with her head bowed, did not smile, did not cry, did not say anything.”

“They brought her in the evening, at 7 or 7.30. The Germans who lived at our house shouted: “Partizan, partisan” ... They kept her with us for about 20 minutes. You could hear how they hit her on the cheeks - five times. She remained silent."

From the house of the Sedovs, the captured partisan was transferred to the Voronins' hut, where the German headquarters was located. Tells A.P. Voronina (67 years old):

“... They brought her after the Sedovs. The chief began to ask in Russian:

"Where are you from?" "Who were you with?"

“There were two of us. The second one was caught in Kubinka.”

"How many houses have you burned down?"

"Where were you doing what else?"

She said she didn't do anything else. She was then beaten up. 4 Germans flogged her, 4 times they flogged her with belts ... They asked her and flogged her, she is silent, she was flogged again. At the last spanking, she sighed:

“Oh, quit flogging, I don’t know anything else and I won’t tell you anything else” ... And those who flogged laughed during the flogging. In total, she was given more than 200 belts. They flogged her naked, and took her out in an undershirt. She held herself courageously, answered sharply.

The beaten girl was transferred to the Kulikov hut. Tells P.Ya. Kulik (maiden name Petrushina, 33 years old):

“Where it was taken from, I don’t know. That night there were 20-25 Germans in my apartment, at 10 o'clock I went out into the street. She was led by patrols - with her hands tied, in an undershirt, barefoot and on top of the undershirt a man's undershirt. They brought her in and put her on a bench, and she groaned. Her lips were black, black, parched and a swollen face on her forehead. After sitting for half an hour, they dragged her outside. For about 20 minutes they were dragged along the street barefoot, then brought again. So, they took her out barefoot from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. - down the street, through the snow barefoot ... The German asked her:

"Where is Stalin?"

She answered:

Stalin on duty.

And then she turned away and said:

"I won't talk to you anymore."

This episode does not fit into any logic at all. Why should a German ask Zoya about where Stalin is? What does she know about it? This episode shows the spiritual relationship between Zoya and the Supreme Commander, therefore, sensing this relationship, the German asks this absurd question. But let's continue quoting Kulik's testimony:

“.. On the morning of November 29, they took her out of the house, while there were about 100 Germans only at our house, and there were a lot of them in total: both on foot and on horseback. They hung up a sign for her (on which was written in Russian and in German "Pyro"). All the way to the gallows they led her by the arms. She walked straight, with her head held high, silently, proudly. They took me to the gallows. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows. They led her to the gallows ... She shouted:

"Citizens! You do not stand, do not look, but you need to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement.”

After that, one officer swung, while others shouted at her. Then she said:

“Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it's too late, surrender."

The officer yelled angrily: "Rus!"

« Soviet Union invincible and will not be defeated,

- she said all this at the moment when she was being photographed ... Then they set up a box. She, without any command, stood on the box herself. A German approached and began to put on a noose. At that moment she called out:

“No matter how many of us you hang, you don’t hang everyone, there are 170 million of us. But our comrades will avenge you for me.”

She said this already 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 on the hands. After that, everyone dispersed. Near the gallows for 3 days there were sentries - 2 people ... ".

The girl's body was on the gallows for about a month.

"In the night under New Year drunken fascists surrounded the gallows, pulled off clothes from the hanging and vilely abused Zoya's body (stabbed with knives, cut off her chest). It hung in the middle of the village for another day, punctured and cut with daggers, and on the evening of January 1, the translator ordered the gallows to be cut down. The headman called the people, and they dug a hole in the frozen ground away from the village. Here, on the outskirts, stood a building elementary school. The Germans ravaged it, stoked stoves in batches, tore off the floors and built bunks from the floorboards in the huts. Between this sad, torn house and the edge of the forest, among the rare bushes, a grave was prepared ... The young body was buried ... under a weeping birch, and a blizzard blew a grave mound.

And now compare this description with the story of an obscure grandfather, on the basis of which the correspondent of the Pravda newspaper P. Lidov decided to write an article that was published on January 27, 1942 (by the way, on the same day, 2 years later, the blockade of Leningrad will be broken through) (http:// 0gnev.livejournal.com/325411.html or here http://comstol.info/2012/01/biblioteka/3083):

“Under the loop lowered from the crossbar, two boxes of pasta were placed one on top of the other. Tatyana was lifted up, placed on a box, and a noose was thrown around her neck. One of the officers began to point the lens of his Kodak at the gallows: the Germans are fond of photographing executions and executions. The commandant made a sign to the soldiers who were performing the duty of executioners to wait.

Tatyana took advantage of this and, turning to the collective farmers and farmers, she shouted in a loud and clear voice:

"Hey comrades! What are you looking at sadly? Be bolder, fight, beat the Germans, burn, poison!”

The German who was standing next to him swung his hand and wanted either to hit her or to clamp her mouth, but she pushed his hand away and continued:

“I am not afraid to die, comrades. It is happiness to die for your people…”

The photographer had taken the gallows from a distance and close up, and now he moved in to photograph it from the side. The executioners looked uneasily at the commandant, who called out to the photographer:

"Hurry!"

Then Tatyana turned towards the commandant and, addressing him and the German soldiers, continued:

“You hang me now, but I am not alone. There are two hundred million of us, you can't outweigh everyone. You will be avenged for me. Soldiers! Before it's too late, surrender, anyway, victory will be ours! You will be avenged for me…”

Russian people standing in the square were crying. Others turned away and stood with their backs so as not to see what was about to happen now.

The executioner pulled up the rope, and the noose squeezed the tannin's throat. But she parted the noose with both hands, raised herself on her toes and shouted, straining with all her strength:

"Farewell, comrades! Fight don't be afraid! Stalin is with us! Stalin is coming!…»

In the previous description, we highlighted the moment where the witness lied, but could not hide it to the end, she only said that Zoya wanted to say something else, but allegedly did not have time. These words of the call to fight were aimed precisely at those who stood around her and many others who could hear these words and follow them, having learned about them, these words were unbearable for those who betrayed their country and did not begin to fight the enemy, but decided :

“I will live under the Germans, maybe I will survive and nothing terrible will happen!”

But a terrible thing happened at that very moment of making such a decision - this is the betrayal of the Motherland.

That's why, last words Zoya, who beat, exposed the traitors to themselves, tried to “forget”, to erase from the descriptions of her feat. As well as the mention of Stalin, since this threat “Stalin will come!” also bitterly hated by traitors, as it promises just retribution for betrayal.

But the traitors did not have the sense to black out the strange question of senior officer Zoe (from Lidov's article http://comstol.info/2012/01/biblioteka/3083):

“The officers came at ten o'clock in the morning. The eldest of them asked Tatyana in Russian:

"Tell me, who are you?"

Tatyana did not answer.

"Tell me, where is Stalin?"

"Stalin is at his post"

Tatyana replied.

But then even these references to Stalin in general disappeared from the newspapers (newspaper of 2002):

So the traitors of their Motherland are trying to justify themselves to themselves for their cowardice, fear and, ultimately, betrayal, but justice is such that it always triumphs.

Zoya is a folk heroine

It's the people's. And not only because she accomplished a feat in the name of the people, but above all because it was simple people called her a heroine. After all, where it all began...

On a January night in 1942, during the battles for Mozhaisk, several journalists found themselves in a hut in the village of Pushkino that had survived the fire. Pravda correspondent Pyotr Lidov got into a conversation with an elderly peasant who was returning to his native place, to the Vereya region. The old man said that the occupation overtook him in Petrishchevo, where he saw the execution of some Muscovite girl:

“They hung her, and she spoke. They hung her, and she kept threatening them…”

The story of this unknown old man so shocked Lidov that he left for Petrishchevo that same night. The correspondent went there six times. And he did not calm down until he spoke with all the inhabitants of the village, did not find out all the details of the death of our Russian Joan of Arc - that is how he called Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

In those days, Lidov met a partisan from the local Vereisk detachment. Looking at the photograph of the executed woman, the fighter recognized in her a saboteur girl whom he met in the forest on the eve of the tragedy that broke out in Petrishchevo. She called herself Tanya. Under this name, the heroine entered the famous article by Lidov (unfortunately, we did not find her photocopy, so we ask for help - through commenting). We found only an article by P. Lidov, written later:

And only then it was revealed that this was a pseudonym that the partisan used for the purpose of conspiracy. But why "Tanya"? According to Zoya's mother, that was the name of her favorite heroine of the Civil War - Tatyana Solomakha, a village teacher, a Bolshevik who was captured by the whites and died heroically after cruel tortures.

The real name of the partisan girl from Petrishchev in early February 1942 was established by the commission of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. All testimonies were recorded on paper and sent to Moscow for further investigation. After studying these and other materials, the girl was posthumously awarded high rank Hero of the Soviet Union. The order was published by all the newspapers published in the USSR, and the whole country learned about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became the first woman to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The essence of Zoe's act

It is interesting that on the same day, at the same time as Zoya, just 10 kilometers away, another partisan, Vera Voloshina, was hanged.

Everything there, like the Germans, was supposed to be done: the SS men in black uniforms were already hanging. Such a detail: under the gallows with a noose around her neck, Vera was standing in the back of a car. When the driver was ordered to move off and thereby take part in the murder, he turned to stone and refused. The officer pulled out a pistol and threatened to shoot him - and only then did the driver move the car.

Local residents reported that Vera was hanged by the Germans on November 29, 1941 at the Golovkovo state farm. Here is how the death of a scout was described by a witness to the execution:

“This is how the willow looks now, on which the Germans hanged Vera in 1941. They brought her, poor thing, by car to the gallows, and there the noose was hanging in the wind. All around the Germans gathered, there were many of them. And our prisoners who worked behind the bridge were brought in. The girl was in the car. At first it was not visible, but when the side walls were lowered, I gasped. She lies, poor thing, in only her underwear, and even then it is torn, and all in blood. Two Germans, fat like that, with black crosses on their sleeves, climbed into the car, wanted to help her up. But the girl pushed the Germans away and, clinging to the cab with one hand, got up. Her second hand was, apparently, broken - it hung like a whip. And then she started talking. At first she said something, you see, in German, and then, she became ours.

“I,” he says, “are not afraid of death. My comrades will avenge me. Ours will still win. You'll see!"

And the girl sang. And you know what song? The one that is sung every time in meetings and played on the radio in the morning and late at night.

"International"?

“Yes, that song. And the Germans stand and listen in silence. The officer who commanded the execution shouted something to the soldiers. They threw a noose around the girl's neck and jumped off the car. The officer ran up to the driver and gave the command to move off. And he sits, turned white all over, you see, he’s not used to hanging people yet. The officer pulled out a revolver and shouted something to the driver in his own way. Apparently, he cursed a lot. He seemed to wake up, and the car started moving. The girl still had time to shout, so loudly that my blood froze in my veins: “Farewell, comrades!” When I opened my eyes, I saw that it was already hanging (http://feldgrau.info/index.php/other/6959-devushka-s-veslom).”

Most likely this is a photograph of the execution of Vera Voloshina

Only after the retreat of the enemy in mid-December, the inhabitants of Golovkovo removed the body of Vera from the roadside willow and buried it with honors here. Later, her remains were transferred to mass grave in Kryukov. On January 27, 1966, the newspaper Pravda also published an essay by Georgy Nikolaevich Frolov about Vera, “The Order of the Daughter.”

Everything is very similar. In the same way, the corpse of Vera hung for more than a month, in the same way the German units passed by - but it never occurred to any of the Germans to abuse the corpse. So there is only one division, perhaps, and one regiment - but they don’t encroach on Vera’s body, and next to Zoya, the bastards are blown away. Not only next to the living, but also next to the dead. A distinct anomaly.

Next to Zoya, the roof was blown away not only by the Germans. The Russians from among those who wished to remain under occupation also suffered. A resident of the village of Petrishchevo, Sviridov, reported on Zoya, as a result of which Zoya was captured. For this, the Germans rewarded Sviridov with a bottle of vodka, according to other sources, only a glass of schnapps, while ours were sentenced to death. A resident of the village of Petrishchevo, Solina, threw a pot of slop at Zoya, the Germans were not awarded anything, and ours sentenced her to death.

A resident of the village of Petrishchevo Smirnova, when Zoya went to the gallows, hit her with a club on her legs. She was not awarded for diligence by the Germans, but ours sentenced her to death.

If we are talking about executions, then Colonel Rüderer, the commander of that very 332nd, was also shot infantry regiment, whose servicemen mocked the living and dead Zoya. Rüderer was captured by front-line Chekists in 1944.

A version is widespread (in particular, this was mentioned in the movie "Battle for Moscow"), according to which, having learned about the execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, I. Stalin ordered the soldiers and officers of the 332nd Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht not to be taken prisoner, but only to be shot. Of course, there was no such order, but there could well have been agreements between the soldiers regarding those units that participated in the executions - not to take prisoners, but to destroy them, as was often the case with the guards of concentration camps. Therefore, our soldiers exterminated this regiment with enthusiasm. Remember Zoe.

Here is what the war correspondent of the newspaper “Forward to the enemy!” wrote. Major Dolin October 3, 1943:

“A few months ago, the 332nd Infantry Regiment, whose soldiers and officers brutally tortured Zoya, was marked on the sector of our front. Upon learning that the regiment of the executioner Ruderer, who had executed Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, was standing in front of them, the soldiers vowed not to leave any of the warriors of this damned regiment alive. In the battles near the village of Verdino, the German regiment of the executioners of our Zoya was finally defeated. Hundreds of Hitler's corpses remained in the ruined bunkers and trenches. When the captured non-commissioned officer of the regiment was asked what he knew about the execution of the young partisan, he, trembling with fear, stammered:
“I didn’t do it, it was Rüderer, Rüderer…”
Another soldier captured the other day during interrogation stated that in the 332nd regiment of those who were near Moscow, participated in the execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, only a few people survived ... (http://tms.ystu.ru/palach.htm) " .

The point is precisely in the spiritual influence that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya carried out in relation to both her comrades and the Germans. The impact that happened not later, when many people learned about the feat (it only intensified), but at the very moment of the act - on a spiritual level.

Vera did not call on the villagers surrounding her to fight, did not offer the Germans to surrender! Just think! Zoya, standing with a noose around her neck, offers the Germans to surrender to her, because she feels that the truth is behind her, that she is on the side of the Winners! Vera also understood this, but she did not have the courage to call on her comrades to fight and the Germans to surrender. Therefore, in her last minutes, she remembered, in general, the Trotskyist anthem "The Internationale", and Zoya - the Bolshevik Stalin.

Vera's similar behavior shows that she and Zoya were in the same scenario, only Zoya felt and expressed it better, more fully and more accurately, so she became the first woman - Hero of the Soviet Union. Her feat was a turning point in the strengthening of the spirit.

Zoya's words about Stalin, which formed a partnership, were heard. Saved by Zoya - many thousands, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. Or maybe it's in the millions.

The situation then was critical, and such acts of self-sacrifice (in the area of God's permission) made the contribution to strengthening the spirit that was required for the Victory, for the entry of fighters and home front workers into the state of Victors. Even if no one knew about Zoya's act, this act had already had its effect on the Russian spirit.

This impact is so great that even after 50, and 60, and 70 years, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya causes fierce hatred among the traitors of the Motherland.

Why did they pour so much “dirt” on Zoya

In the nineties of the last century, during the period of the so-called “wild de-Sovietization” (there was nothing good in the USSR, and no one performed feats, let alone folk heroes and it couldn’t be), a lot of “sensational” articles appeared in the press, in which everything and everyone was blackened. They especially poured dirt on Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Scribblers who lost their shame and conscience, using some facts from the biography of the heroine (origin from a family of clergy on the paternal side, her undergoing therapy in a sanatorium specializing in the treatment of nervous diseases after she had meningitis, elements of maximalism in her behavior during studying at school, which led to difficulties in relationships with peers), without thinking for a long time, "proved" that there was no heroine, but there was a "schizophrenic" who burned down a couple of houses of local residents in a village in which there were no Germans .

But why so much “dirt” was poured on Zoya, sociologist S.G. well explained. Kara-Murza

“... I gave a lecture in Brazil in front of a society of psychologists. They set the topic as follows: "Technology for the destruction of images in the course of perestroika." I told the facts, cited excerpts from newspapers. And the listeners understood the meaning better than me. They were especially interested in the campaign to discredit Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. I was asked surprisingly precise questions about who Zoya was, what kind of family she had, how she looked, what was the essence of her feat.
And then they explained why it was her image that had to be ruined - after all, there were many other heroines. But the fact is that she was a martyr who, at the time of her death, did not have the consolation of military success. And the popular consciousness, regardless of the official propaganda, chose it and included it in the pantheon of holy martyrs. And her image, having separated from the real biography, began to serve as one of the pillars of the self-consciousness of our people (highlighted by us when quoting).

Anti-Stalinists in the press in the 90s claimed that those who wished to remain under occupation, and in the 90s they were called true patriots, beat and betrayed Zoya, they say, only because she set fire to their houses. That this is not so is easy to prove. The Nazis completely burned a huge number of villages and villages in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. Yet more burned individual houses. According to this logic, the women and their counterparts from the burned villages should have begun to take revenge on the arsonists. They were supposed to become, like Zoya and Vera, partisans. But that did not happen. The women preferred, as before, to indulge in suffering. There is such a technique: to suffer - instead of doing business. So the women poured mud over Zoya, threw a cast iron pot and beat her with a club, mocked her, not because she set fire to their houses, they say, left them homeless. It was their direct reaction to Zoya. Out of touch with the arson of houses. Here is another reason, another motive. Zoya exposed their betrayal by her behavior, exposed him in front of them.

There were many, many other transformations, ennobling ones. The commander of the self-propelled gun, on which was the inscription "For Zoya!", Was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And he is not alone. They went into battle with the name Zoya - and won.

There is! Fifth Fritz! For Zoya! Sniper! I didn't miss! For Zoya!

Zoya's brother, tank lieutenant Alexander Kosmodemyansky, also participated in the battles against the 197th Nazi infantry division. Here is what he wrote in another army newspaper, “Let's Destroy the Enemy!” war correspondent Major Vershinin:

“Parts of the N-th formation are finishing off the remnants of the 197th Infantry Division in fierce battles ... Five German photographs of the massacre of the Nazis over Zoya, published in the Pravda newspaper, caused a new wave of anger among our fighters, commanders. Here, Zoya's brother, tanker, guard lieutenant Alexander Kosmodemyansky, bravely fights and avenges his sister. AT last fight the crew of his KB tank was the first to break into the enemy defenses, shooting and crushing the Nazis with caterpillars.

And so it was until the end of the war, Soviet soldiers carried holy, righteous revenge on their bayonets, freeing their own from the hated enemy - Hitler's murderers and executioners. native land and the peoples of enslaved Europe. In memoirs, people recall what happened to them when, say, on a tram, they read the first article about Zoya. This was even before Zoya was identified, before she became a holder of the Golden Star, a Hero of the Soviet Union, the first of the women in the Great Patriotic War. They read about Zoya, thereby tuning in to her voice, of course, not only in trams, but everywhere. When tuned to Zoya's voice, transformations happened years later.

Watch the episode at the school from the film "The Country Teacher" (1947), following the preparations for the front:

https://youtu.be/oI3DfdDfUAs?t=1h26m30s

Look what happened to those who were involved in the filming of this scene. Such you won't play.

So two diametrically opposite reactions: in both cases very strong. Even many decades after the death of Zoe, the hatred of traitors towards her does not weaken. In the 90s, anti-Stalinists declared her a crazy arsonist of civilians' houses. Everything is very clear: the anomalies around Zoe are explained by the fact that she was a Human - in the full sense of the word.

Conclusion

The history of the Great Patriotic War knows examples from which it is clear that everything is decided not by the quantity and quality of weapons, and not even by the training of fighters, but only by the strength of their will, generated by unity in the spirit, by what is called comradeship or catholicity.

For example, on the outskirts of Stalingrad at one of the forks in the road, the defense was held by 33 fighters against 70 tanks and infantry. It happened on August 24, 1942, near the Malaya Rossoshka farm near Stalingrad (http://www.k-istine.ru/patriotism/patriotism_33_heroes.htm). Of these, 28 were recruits, however, the best, because they were selected for a reconnaissance platoon, but still not yet fired upon, and 5 signalmen. Not only were 28 out of 33 recruits, not fired upon, but they were also commanded not by a regular military man, but before the war by the head of a savings bank with Far East. From heavy weapons they had nothing, no guns, no mortars. In addition to the usual small arms and grenades, they had only one anti-tank rifle, which they picked up abandoned near that fork. None of the anti-tank guns, of course, knew how to shoot. Moreover, there were two boxes of bottles with combustible mixture, which they also picked up in the trench. And yet, these 33 knocked out and burned 28 Nazi tanks. Plus, the Germans left uncollected 153 corpses on the battlefield. And this is not counting the wounded, who are usually 3-3.5 times more than the dead. The Germans, of course, also pulled out some of the dead. Of all the disabled, only 153 corpses were left. And the defenders had only two wounded and one lightly burned. The Germans used flamethrower tanks against the defenders, one of ours failed to dodge, and a jet of combustible mixture hit his head. That is, if we consider only the wounded, then the ratio of ours and Germans is more than 1 to 150. As a result of the battle, the Germans, feeling their complete impotence, began to simply flow around the fork in the steppe. The defenders had no water and two days later they left the position and went to Stalingrad.

The question arises: if it is possible to fight like this, then what did many others who were captured, defected and surrendered their positions to the enemy do? Because of the accusatory nature of this battle of the 33s, they don’t like to remember him, as well as the battle of the Panfilovites near Moscow.

And Zoya's feat lies in the fact that even the news about him set people up in such a way as Winners, to form a spirit of camaraderie, unity and conciliarity in a righteous, holy war against the enemy, that Victory was ours.

Lyudmila Leader

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya (September 13, 1923 - November 29, 1941), - a Red Army soldier of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the headquarters of the Western Front, abandoned in 1941 in the German rear.

The circumstances of Zoya's feat are extremely interesting and important for understanding the spirit of Victory. However, in the 90s, to describe her feat, they began to use only the testimony of two traitors, moreover, those who were shot in court, and women who remained in the occupied territory so as not to work for the Victory in the defense industry in evacuation. Only the description of one grandfather, from whose words the feat of Zoya was first recorded by the Pravda correspondent, brought to us the important, key words and actions of Zoya during her execution.

And in the 90s, the anti-Soviet declared her a schizophrenic who set fire to the houses of civilians. Why would this be such an anomalous hatred of the Nazis and traitors to the Motherland?

There was a death match

Zoya accomplished her feat at the most difficult time for the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War. On September 30, 1941, the Germans launched an offensive against Moscow. The defense of the Soviet troops was broken through, moreover, on October 7, the enemy managed to surround five of our armies in the Vyazma region. It seemed that the gates to Moscow were open and its capture was inevitable.

“The German army is able to deploy in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all settlements into the cold in the field, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and make them freeze in the open air.”

For this purpose it was ordered:

“destroy and burn to the ground all settlements in the rear of the 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 settlements within the indicated radius of action, immediately drop aircraft, make extensive use of artillery and mortar fire, teams of scouts, skiers and partisan sabotage groups equipped with Molotov cocktails, grenades and explosives ... In the event of a forced withdrawal of our units ... take the Soviet population with them and be sure to destroy all settlements without exception, so that the enemy could not use them.

It should not be forgotten that the Nazis set the task of destroying the Russian statehood and turning all surviving Russians into disenfranchised slaves of the Aryan race:

“We are talking not only about the defeat of the state with its center in Moscow. It is important that the majority of the population on Russian territory consists of people of a primitive semi-European type.

Feat

The conversation in Shelepin's office was brief and harsh.

“The motherland needs fearless patriots who are able to endure the most difficult trials, ready for self-sacrifice,” said Shelepin. “It's good that you all agreed to go to the German rear to fight the enemy. But it may happen that 95% of you will die. There will be no mercy from the Nazis: they brutally crack down on partisans. If any of you are not ready for such tests, speak directly. Nobody will judge you. You realize your desire to fight the enemy at the front.

However, after that, she again went to the village the next night. And she went (alone!) precisely in order to completely fulfill the order given to the sabotage group:"burn the settlement of Petrishchevo."

But the Germans were on their guard. After the events of the previous night, the headman, two German officers and an interpreter called a gathering of local residents, at which they were told to guard the houses. This time, Zoya failed to carry out the arson, as she was captured by the peasant S. Sviridov and handed over to the Germans by him. The Nazis, enraged by constant sabotage, began torturing the girl, trying to find out from her how many more partisans were operating in the Petrishchevo area. Two local residents also took part in her beating, whose houses she set on fire the day before she was captured. (And it was too).

First, the partisan was brought to the Sedovs' house. And this is what 11-year-old girl Valya Sedova said:

“She was brought to us by three patrols, led by privates. They opened the door and let her in. One held her hands behind... All three were Germans. They don't know how to speak Russian. They pressed her against the stove (one of them took her by the chest and pressed it), and two began to search her. During the search, there were other soldiers who lived in the hut (15-20 people). They searched and undressed her, they didn’t ask her questions, but talked to each other and laughed. Then the eldest of them (shoulder straps and 2 dice) commanded: “Rus, march,” and she turned and walked with her hands tied ... They didn’t talk to her, they didn’t ask her questions. During the search, she stood with her head bowed, did not smile, did not cry, did not say anything.”The girl's mother, M.I. Sedova added to her daughter's story:

“They brought her in the evening, at 7 or 7.30. The Germans who lived at our house shouted: “Partizan, partisan” ... They kept her with us for about 20 minutes. You could hear how they hit her on the cheeks - five times. She remained silent."

From the house of the Sedovs, the captured partisan was transferred to the Voronins' hut, where the German headquarters was located. A.P. Voronina (67 years old) tells:

“... They brought her after the Sedovs. The chief began to ask in Russian:

"Where are you from?" "Who were you with?"

“There were two of us. The second one was caught in Kubinka.”
"How many houses have you burned down?"
"Three".
"Where were you doing what else?"

“Oh, quit flogging, I don’t know anything else and I won’t tell you anything else” ... And those who flogged laughed during the flogging. In total, she was given more than 200 belts. They flogged her naked, and took her out in an undershirt. She held herself courageously, answered sharply.

The beaten girl was transferred to the Kulikov hut. Tells P.Ya. Kulik (maiden name Petrushina, 33 years old):

“Where it was taken from, I don’t know. That night there were 20-25 Germans in my apartment, at 10 o'clock I went out into the street. She was led by patrols - with her hands tied, in an undershirt, barefoot and on top of the undershirt a man's undershirt. They brought her in and put her on a bench, and she groaned. Her lips were black, black, parched and a swollen face on her forehead. After sitting for half an hour, they dragged her outside. For about 20 minutes they were dragged along the street barefoot, then brought again. So, they took her out barefoot from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. - down the street, through the snow barefoot ... The German asked her:

"Where is Stalin?"

She answered:

Stalin on duty.

And then she turned away and said:

"I won't talk to you anymore."

“.. On the morning of November 29, they took her out of the house, while there were about 100 Germans only at our house, and there were a lot of them in total: both on foot and on horseback. They hung up a sign for her (on which was written in Russian and in German "Pyro"). All the way to the gallows they led her by the arms. She walked straight, with her head held high, silently, proudly. They took me to the gallows. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows. They led her to the gallows ... She shouted: “Citizens! You do not stand, do not look, but you need to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement.” After that, one officer swung, while others shouted at her. Then she said: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it's too late, surrender." The officer yelled 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 put up a box. She, without any command, stood on the box herself. A German approached and began to put on a noose. At that moment she called out:

“No matter how many of us you hang, you don’t hang everyone, there are 170 million of us. But our comrades will avenge you for me.”

The girl's body was on the gallows for about a month.

“On New Year's Eve, drunken fascists surrounded the gallows, pulled off clothes from hanging clothes and vilely abused Zoya's body (stabbed with knives, cut off her chest). It hung in the middle of the village for another day, punctured and cut with daggers, and on the evening of January 1, the translator ordered the gallows to be cut down. The headman called the people, and they dug a hole in the frozen ground away from the village. Here, on the outskirts, stood the building of an elementary school. The Germans ravaged it, stoked stoves in batches, tore off the floors and built bunks from the floorboards in the huts. Between this sad, torn house and the edge of the forest, among the rare bushes, a grave was prepared ... The young body was buried ... under a weeping birch, and a blizzard blew a grave mound.

Now compare this description with the story of an obscure grandfather, on the basis of which the correspondent of the Pravda newspaper P. Lidov decided to write, which was released on January 27, 1942 (by the way, on the same day, 2 years later, the blockade of Leningrad will be broken through):

“Under the loop lowered from the crossbar, two boxes of pasta were placed one on top of the other. Tatyana was lifted up, placed on a box, and a noose was thrown around her neck. One of the officers began to point the lens of his Kodak at the gallows: the Germans are fond of photographing executions and executions. The commandant made a sign to the soldiers who were performing the duty of executioners to wait.Tatyana took advantage of this and, turning to the collective farmers and farmers, she shouted in a loud and clear voice:

— Hey, comrades! What are you looking at sadly? Be bolder, fight, beat the Germans, burn, poison!

The German who was standing next to him swung his hand and wanted either to hit her or to clamp her mouth, but she pushed his hand away and continued:

“I’m not afraid to die, comrades. It is happiness to die for one's people...

- Hurry!

Then Tatyana turned towards the commandant and, addressing him and the German soldiers, continued:

- You hang me now, but I'm not alone. There are two hundred million of us, you can't outweigh everyone. You will be avenged for me. Soldiers! Before it's too late, surrender, anyway, victory will be ours! You will be avenged for me...

Russian people standing in the square were crying. Others turned away and stood with their backs so as not to see what was about to happen now.

The executioner pulled up the rope, and the noose squeezed the tannin's throat. But she parted the noose with both hands, raised herself on her toes and shouted, straining with all her strength:

Farewell, comrades! Fight don't be afraid! Stalin is with us! Stalin is coming!…

“I will live under the Germans, maybe I will survive and nothing terrible will happen!”

But a terrible thing happened at that very moment of making such a decision - this is the betrayal of the Motherland.

That is why, the last words of Zoya, beating, exposing the traitors to themselves, they tried to “forget”, to blot out from the descriptions of her feat. As well as the mention of Stalin, since this threat “Stalin will come!” also bitterly hated by traitors, as it promises just retribution for betrayal.

But the traitors did not have the sense to erase the strange question of senior officer Zoya (from Lidov's article):

“The officers came at ten o'clock in the morning. The eldest of them asked Tatyana in Russian:

- Tell me, who are you?

Tatyana did not answer.

- Tell me, where is Stalin?
“Stalin is at his post,” Tatyana replied.

But then even these references to Stalin in general disappeared from the newspapers (newspaper of 2002):

So the traitors of their Motherland are trying to justify themselves to themselves for their cowardice, fear and, ultimately, betrayal, but justice is such that it always triumphs.

Zoya is a folk heroine

It's the people's. And not only because she accomplished a feat in the name of the people, but above all because it was ordinary people who called her a heroine. After all, where it all began...

“They hung her, and she spoke. They hung her, and she kept threatening them…”

The real name of the partisan girl from Petrishchev in early February 1942 was established by the commission of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. All testimonies were recorded on paper and sent to Moscow for further investigation. After studying these and other materials, the girl was posthumously awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The order was published by all the newspapers published in the USSR, and the whole country learned about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya became the first woman to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The essence of Zoe's act

It is interesting that on the same day, at the same time as Zoya, just 10 kilometers away, another partisan, Vera Voloshina, was hanged.

Local residents reported that Vera was hanged by the Germans on November 29, 1941 at the Golovkovo state farm. Here is how the death of a scout was described by a witness to the execution:

“I,” he says, “are not afraid of death. My comrades will avenge me. Ours will still win. Here you will see!

And the girl sang. And you know what song? The one that is sung every time in meetings and played on the radio in the morning and late at night.

— "International"?

Yes, that song. And the Germans stand and listen in silence. The officer who commanded the execution shouted something to the soldiers. They threw a noose around the girl's neck and jumped off the car. The officer ran up to the driver and gave the command to move off. And he sits, turned white all over, you see, he’s not used to hanging people yet. The officer pulled out a revolver and shouted something to the driver in his own way. Apparently, he cursed a lot. He seemed to wake up, and the car started moving. The girl still had time to shout, so loudly that my blood froze in my veins: “Farewell, comrades!” When I opened my eyes, I saw that it was already hanging.”

Only after the retreat of the enemy in mid-December, the inhabitants of Golovkovo removed the body of Vera from the roadside willow and buried it with honors here. Later, her remains were transferred to a mass grave in Kryukov. On January 27, 1966, the newspaper Pravda also published an essay by Georgy Nikolaevich Frolov about Vera, “The Order of the Daughter.”

A resident of the village of Petrishchevo Smirnova, when Zoya went to the gallows, hit her with a club on her legs. She was not awarded for diligence by the Germans, but ours sentenced her to death.

If we are talking about executions, then Colonel Rüderer, the commander of that same 332nd infantry regiment, whose servicemen mocked the living and dead Zoya, was also shot. Rüderer was captured by front-line Chekists in 1944.

The immortal feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Girls for Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

The truth about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Kosmodemyanskaya, Zoya Anatolievna

Medinsky compared 28 Panfilovites with "saints"

Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya by Tsereteli unveiled in Ruza

Girl with a paddle

In the USSR, the name of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was a symbol of the fight against fascism, a model of will and unparalleled heroism. But in the early 1990s, materials appeared in the press that cast doubt on the feat of the young partisan. Let's try to figure out what really happened.

Doubt time

The country learned about the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya from the essay “Tanya” by war correspondent Pyotr Lidov, published in the Pravda newspaper on January 27, 1942. It told about a young partisan girl who, while performing a combat mission, was captured by the Germans, who survived the brutal abuse of the Nazis and steadfastly accepted death at their hands. This heroic image lasted until the end of perestroika.

With the collapse of the USSR, a tendency appeared in the country to overthrow the old ideals; it did not bypass the story of the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. In the new materials that came to light, it was alleged that Zoya, who suffered from schizophrenia, arbitrarily and indiscriminately burned rural houses, including those where there were no fascists. In the end, angry locals grabbed the saboteur and handed her over to the Germans.

According to another popular version, under the pseudonym "Tanya" it was not Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya who was hiding, but a completely different person - Lilya Ozolina.
The fact of torture and execution of the girl in these publications was not questioned, however, the emphasis was placed on the fact that Soviet propaganda artificially created the image of a martyr, separating him from real events.

Behind enemy lines

In the anxious October days of 1941, when Muscovites were preparing for street fighting, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, among other Komsomol members, went to enroll in the detachments being created for reconnaissance and sabotage work behind enemy lines.
At first, the candidacy of a fragile girl who had recently suffered an acute form of meningitis and suffered from a “nervous illness” was rejected, but thanks to her perseverance, Zoya convinced the military commission to accept her into the detachment.

As one of the members of the reconnaissance and sabotage group Klavdy Miloradov recalled, during classes in Kuntsevo they “went into the forest for three days, laid mines, blew up trees, learned to remove sentries, use a map.” And already in early November, Zoya and her comrades received the first task - to mine the roads, which she successfully coped with. The group returned to the unit without loss.

fatal mission

On November 17, 1941, the military command issued an order that ordered "to deprive the German army of the opportunity to be located in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all settlements into the cold in the field, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and make them freeze in the open air."

In pursuance of this order, on November 18 (according to other sources - 20), the commanders of sabotage groups were instructed to burn 10 villages occupied by the Germans. Everything took 5 to 7 days. One of the units included Zoya.

Near the village of Golovkovo, the detachment stumbled upon an ambush and, during the skirmish, was dispersed. Some of the soldiers died, some were captured. The rest, including Zoya, united in a small group under the command of Boris Krainov.
The next target of the partisans was the village of Petrishchevo. Three people went there - Boris Krainov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Vasily Klubkov. Zoya managed to set fire to three houses, one of which had a communication center, but she never came to the agreed meeting place.

fatal mission

According to various sources, Zoya spent one or two days in the forest and returned to the village to complete the task to the end. This fact was the reason for the appearance of the version that Kosmodemyanskaya carried out arson of houses without an order.

The Germans were ready to meet with the partisan, they also instructed the local residents. When trying to set fire to the house of S. A. Sviridov, the owner notified the Germans quartered there and Zoya was captured. The beaten girl was taken to the home of the Kulik family.
The hostess P. Ya. Kulik recalls how a partisan with “expired lips and a swollen face” was brought to her house, in which there were 20-25 Germans. The girl's hands were untied and she soon fell asleep.

The next morning, a small dialogue took place between the mistress of the house and Zoya. When asked by Kulik who burned the houses, Zoya answered that “she”. According to the hostess, the girl asked if there were victims, to which she answered “no”. The Germans managed to run out, and only 20 horses were killed. Judging from the conversation, Zoya was surprised that there were still residents in the village, since, according to her, they should have "long ago left the village from the Germans."

According to Kulik, at 9 am Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was interrogated. She was not present at the interrogation, and at 10:30 the girl was taken to be executed. On the way to the gallows, local residents several times accused Zoya of setting fire to houses, trying to hit her with a stick or pour mud over her. According to eyewitnesses, the girl accepted the death courageously.

In hot pursuit

When in January 1942, Pyotr Lidov heard from an old man a story about a Muscovite girl executed by the Germans in Petrishchevo, he immediately went to the village already abandoned by the Germans to find out the details of the tragedy. Lidov did not calm down until he spoke with all the inhabitants of the village.

But to identify the girl, a photograph was needed. The next time he arrived with Pravda photojournalist Sergei Strunnikov. Having opened the grave, they took the necessary pictures.
In those days, Lidov met a partisan who knew Zoya. In the photograph shown, he identified a girl who was going on a mission to Petrishchevo and called herself Tanya. With this name, the heroine entered the correspondent's story.

The riddle with the name Tanya was revealed later, when Zoya's mother said that that was the name of her daughter's favorite heroine - a participant civil war Tatyana Solomakha.
But only in early February 1942, a special commission was able to finally confirm the identity of the girl executed in Petrishchev. In addition to the villagers, a classmate and teacher Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya participated in the identification. On February 10, Zoya's mother and brother were shown pictures of the deceased girl: “Yes, this is Zoya,” both answered, although not very confidently.
To remove the final doubts, Zoya's mother, brother and friend Claudia Miloradova were asked to come to Petrishchevo. All of them, without hesitation, identified Zoya in the murdered girl.

Alternative versions

AT last years the version became popular that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was betrayed to the Nazis by her friend Vasily Klubkov. In early 1942, Klubkov returned to his unit and reported that he had been taken prisoner by the Germans, but then escaped.
However, during interrogations, he already gave other testimonies, in particular, that he was captured along with Zoya, betrayed her to the Germans, and he himself agreed to cooperate with them. It should be noted that Klubkov's testimony was very confused and contradictory.

Historian M. M. Gorinov suggested that investigators forced themselves to slander Klubkov, either for career reasons or for propaganda purposes. One way or another, this version has not received any confirmation.
When information appeared in the early 1990s that the girl executed in the village of Petrishchevo was actually Lilya Ozolina, at the request of the leadership of the Central Archive of the Komsomol, a forensic portrait examination was carried out at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Examinations based on photographs of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Lily Ozolina and pictures of the girl, executed in Petrishchev, who were found with a captured German. The conclusion of the commission was unequivocal: "Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is captured in German photographs."
M. M. Gorinov wrote about the publications that exposed the feat of Kosmodemyanskaya: “They reflected some facts of the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, hushed up in Soviet time, but reflected, as in a crooked mirror, in a monstrously distorted form.

In January 1942, an issue of the Pravda newspaper with an essay "Tanya" was published. In the evening, the story told in the newspaper was broadcast on the radio. So the Soviet Union learned about one of the dramatic stories of the Great Patriotic War: a captured partisan was silent during interrogations and was executed by the Nazis without telling them anything. During the interrogation, she called herself Tatyana, and it was under this name that she became known initially. Later, a specially created commission found out that her real name was Zoya. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

The story of this girl has become one of the canonical legends about Soviet heroes. She became the first woman to be posthumously awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the USSR during the war.

Later, like almost all other iconic feats Soviet citizens, the story about Zoya has been revised. In both cases there were no distortions. Reality was either varnished, turning the girl into a faceless heroic-romantic figure, or, conversely, covered with black paint. Meanwhile real story the battle exit of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and her death is really full of both horrors and valor.

On September 30, 1941, the battle for Moscow began. Its start was marked by a grandiose catastrophe, and the capital was already preparing for the worst. In October, the selection of young people for sabotage operations in the German rear began in the city. Volunteers were immediately told not too happy news: "95% of you will die." However, no one refused.

The commanders could even afford to select and cull the unfit. This circumstance, by the way, is important in the following sense: if something was wrong with Zoya’s psyche, she would simply not be enlisted in the detachment. Those selected were taken to a sabotage school.

Among the future saboteurs was a very young eighteen-year-old girl. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.

She ended up in military unit 9903. Structurally, she was part of the intelligence department of the General Staff and worked at the headquarters of the Western Front. Initially, it consisted of only a few officers. Military unit 9903 functioned from June 1941, its task was to form groups for operations in the rear of the Wehrmacht - reconnaissance, sabotage, mine warfare. The unit was commanded by Major Arthur Sprogis.

Initially, the results of the work of the sabotage school could hardly be called impressive. There was too little time to prepare each sabotage group. In addition, the front line was constantly rolling east, and communication with the groups abandoned behind German lines was lost. In the autumn of 1941, Sprogis first organized a mass recruitment of volunteers.

The training went fast. The first transfer to the rear of the enemy took place on November 6. The date already says a lot: there was no question of careful sabotage preparation. An average of 10 days was allocated for training, specifically Zoya's group received only four days for training. The goal was to mine the road. There were two groups on the way. One, in which Zoya was walking, returned. The other was intercepted by the Germans and died in full force.

The order was worded as follows:

"You must prevent the supply of ammunition, fuel, food and manpower by blowing up and setting fire to bridges, mining roads, setting up ambushes in the area of the Shakhovskaya-Knyazhy Gory road ... The task is considered completed: a) destroy 5-7 cars and motorcycles; b) destroy 2-3 bridges; c) burn 1-2 warehouses with fuel and ammunition; d) destroy 15-20 officers.

The next raid was planned soon - after November 18th. This time the combat mission of the saboteurs looked more than gloomy.

As a desperate measure, the Supreme High Command decided to resort to scorched earth tactics. On November 17, Order No. 428 was issued:

To deprive the German army of the opportunity to deploy in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all settlements into the cold in the field, smoke them out of all premises and warm shelters and make them freeze in the open air - such is an urgent task, the solution of which largely depends on the acceleration of the defeat of the enemy and the disintegration of his army.

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command orders:

1. Destroy and burn to the ground all settlements in the rear of the 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.

2. In each regiment, create teams of hunters of 20-30 people each to blow up and burn settlements where enemy troops are located.

3. In the event of a forced withdrawal of our units in one sector or another, take the Soviet population with them and be sure to destroy all settlements without exception so that the enemy cannot use them.

Was the idea of burning the villages reasonable? To a certain extent it was. The Wehrmacht suffered from poor cantonment conditions, and a few thousand extra frostbite from soldiers in the field gray hammered an extra nail into the coffin of the Reich. Was this idea cruel? More than. If behind the Germans was an army mechanism and the Wehrmacht could provide its soldiers with at least tents and stoves, the inhabitants of the burned villages could not count on anyone's help.

In the fierce war winter, completely different views of the world collided. The people who sent saboteurs to their deaths were well aware that the disorganization of the German rear would also hit their own fellow citizens with a ricochet. They proceeded from the logic of total war, where the enemy must be harmed by all means.

The inhabitants of the destroyed settlements had their own view of things and, of course, could not be delighted that part of their village would turn into coals in the middle of winter. Subsequently, the Headquarters recognized this measure as erroneous and canceled it. However, the rank and file and junior officers had no room for maneuver: they were soldiers who were obliged to follow orders. The specific command for the saboteur squad looked like this:

"Burn 10 settlements (comrade Stalin's order of November 17, 1941): Anashkino, Gribtsovo, Petrishchevo, Usadkovo, Ilyatino, Grachevo, Pushkino, Mikhailovskoye, Bugailovo, Korovino. Deadline - 5-7 days."

It is characteristic that the order did not at all arouse enthusiasm among the young saboteurs. Therefore, according to one of them, Margarita Panshina, they decided not to set fire to residential buildings, confining themselves to military purposes. It should be noted that in general in parts of the Wehrmacht there were different variants quartering, but most often residents were driven out of their houses, where headquarters, communication centers, etc. were located. significant objects. Also, the owners could be evicted to a bathhouse or a barn if there were too many soldiers in the house. However, it regularly turned out that the German military quartered next to the peasants.

The group went on a new raid on the night of November 22. However, the Komsomol members, of course, were not real saboteurs. Soon the detachment came under fire and dispersed. Several people went their own way and were soon captured by the Germans. These people were executed, and one of the saboteurs, Vera Voloshina, went exactly the same way as Zoya: she was tortured, achieved nothing and was executed only after the torture.

Meanwhile, the surviving part of the detachment made its way through the forests to their destination. We learned from a local woman in which villages there are Germans. Further events are the least like a special operation, but from a detachment of students with almost no basic training and it is impossible to expect them to act like experienced soldiers.

Three people went to the village of Petrishchevo: Boris Krainov, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya. They moved to the village one by one and, judging by the later testimony of Klubkov, set fire to several buildings. Klubkov was captured in the confusion, he stumbled upon the soldiers, returning to the forest. Later, he was recognized as a traitor who surrendered the group, but this version looks rather doubtful.

In any case, Klubkov escaped from captivity and returned to his own, which is a rather non-trivial step for a coward and a traitor. In addition, the testimony of Klubkov does not compete with the data of Krainov and the Germans captured later, who had a connection to this story.

In addition, the persistent torture of Zoya subsequently indirectly testifies to Klubkov's innocence: he knew no less than Zoya, and, according to the version of betrayal, there was absolutely no need for the Germans to torture Kosmodemyanskaya. Since Klubkov was shot, it is extremely difficult to verify his testimony, and in general, a gloomy trail of innuendo stretches behind this case.

Some time later, Zoya went to the village again - to set fire to buildings, in particular a house in the yard of which they kept horses. Instinctively, any normal person feels sorry for horses, but in a war, a horse is not a cute animal with intelligent eyes, but a military transport. Thus, it was an attempt on military target. Subsequently, a Soviet memorandum reported:

“... in early December, she came to the village of Petrishchevo at night and set fire to three houses (the houses of the citizens of Karelova, Solntsev, Smirnov), in which the Germans lived. Along with these houses burned down: 20 horses, one German, many rifles, machine guns and a lot of telephone cable.

Apparently, she managed to burn something during the first "visit" of saboteurs to Petrishchevo. However, after the previous raid, Zoya was already waiting in the village. Again, the Germans' wariness is often attributed to Klubkov's betrayal, but after the raid and capture of one saboteur, it was not necessary to receive any separate information to suggest that there was someone else in the forest.

Between the two attacks, the Germans gathered a gathering and posted several sentries from among the inhabitants in addition to their own soldiers. It is very easy to understand these people: a fire in a winter village is a death sentence. One of the guards, a certain Sviridov, noticed Zoya and called the soldiers, who captured Zoya alive.

Subsequently, assumptions were made about the complete absence of Germans in the village of Petrishchevo and the capture of saboteurs by local residents. Meanwhile, in Petrishchevo and nearby, two people were seized - Klubkov and Kosmodemyanskaya, and they were armed with revolvers.

Despite the inexperience of the Komsomol members, an unarmed person, obviously, would not go for a revolver, and only numerous people who themselves had firearms, that is, the Germans, could capture them. In general, in the Moscow region with whole residential buildings things were extremely bad, and settlements where the Germans were not located at all were a rarity. Particularly in this village, units of the 332nd infantry regiment of the Wehrmacht were quartered, and in the house of Sviridov, next to which Zoya tried to set fire to the barn, there were four officers.

On November 27, at 7 pm, Zoya was taken to the house of the Kulik family. Details came out from her. further developments. After the usual search, interrogations began. To begin with, the captured saboteur was beaten with belts, her face was mutilated. Then she was driven through the frost in her underwear barefoot, her face was burned and beaten continuously. According to Praskovya Kulik, the girl's legs were blue from constant beatings.

During interrogation, she did not say anything. In reality, Kosmodemyanskaya did not possess any valuable information and, nevertheless, did not tell those who tortured her even unimportant information about herself. During interrogations, she called herself Tanya, and under this name her story was published for the first time.

Not only the Germans beat the girl. On May 12, 1942, the accused resident of the village of Smirnova testified during interrogation:

“The next day after the fire, I was at my burnt house, citizen Solina came up to me and said:“ Come on, I’ll show you who burned you. ”After these words she said, we went together to Petrushina’s house. Entering the house, we saw partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was under the protection of German soldiers, Solina and I began to scold her, in addition to swearing at Kosmodemyanskaya, I waved my mitten twice, and Solina hit her with her hand. the day after the partisans set fire to houses, including mine, in which German officers and soldiers were stationed, their horses stood in the yards, which burned down in a fire, the Germans set up a gallows in the street, drove the entire population to the gallows of the village of Petrishchevo, where I came too. Not limiting myself to the bullying that I carried out in Petrushina's house, when the Germans brought the partisan to the gallows, I took a wooden stick, went up to the partisan and, in front of everyone, on walking around hit the legs of the partisan. It was at the moment when the partisan stood under the gallows, I don’t remember what I said at the same time.

Here, of course, it is easy to understand everyone. Zoya carried out the order and harmed the enemy as much as she could - and objectively seriously harmed. However, the peasant women, who lost their homes because of this, could not have warm feelings for her: they still had to survive the winter.

On November 29, the denouement finally arrived. Kosmodemyanskaya was executed publicly, in the presence of Germans and local residents. Zoya, according to all reports, went to the scaffold calmly and silently. Near the gallows, as the residents later said during interrogations, she shouted:

"Citizens! Don't stand, don't look, but you have to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement."

Zoya's specific words before her death became the subject of speculation and propaganda, in some versions she gives a speech about Stalin, in other versions she shouts: "The Soviet Union is invincible!" - however, absolutely everyone agrees that before her death, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya cursed her executioners and predicted the victory of her country.

For at least three days the stiff body hung, guarded by sentries. They decided to remove the gallows only in January.

In February 1942, after the release of Petrishchev, the body was exhumed, relatives and colleagues were present at the identification. This circumstance, by the way, makes it possible to exclude the version according to which some other girl died in Petrishchevo. ended short life Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, and the legend about her began.

As usual, in Soviet period Zoya's story was varnished and ridiculed in the 1990s. Among the sensational versions, the statement about Zoe's schizophrenia surfaced, and more recently, the Internet has enriched the well-known speech about Kosmodemyanskaya public figure and a psychiatrist in the first specialty Andrei Bilzho:

“I read the medical history of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which was kept in the archives of the psychiatric hospital named after P.P. Kashchenko. Before the war, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya lay in this clinic more than once, she suffered from schizophrenia. All the psychiatrists who worked in the hospital knew about this, but then her medical history was confiscated because perestroika began, information began to leak out and Kosmodemyanskaya's relatives began to resent that this insulted her memory.When Zoya was taken to the podium and was about to be hanged, she was silent, kept a partisan secret.In psychiatry, this is called mutism: she simply does not could speak, as she fell into a "catatonic stupor with mutism", when a person moves with difficulty, looks frozen and is silent.

It is rather difficult to take Bilzho's word for several reasons. God be with him, with the "podium", but in the professional sense, the "diagnosis" is bewildering.

Such a state does not develop instantly (the person walked and suddenly froze), it takes time for the development of a complete stupor, as a rule, several days, or even weeks, - explains in psychiatrist Anton Kostin. - Considering that before being captured, Zoya was trained for saboteurs, then was thrown into the rear, performed meaningful actions there, the assertion that she was in a catatonic stupor at the time of execution is, let's say, a serious assumption. In the photograph, Zoya is led to execution under her arms and she moves her legs on her own, but in a stupor, a person does not move, he is immobilized, and she should have been dragged or dragged along the ground.

In addition, as we remember, Zoya was not silent during interrogations and executions, but on the contrary, she regularly talked with others. So the version of the stupor does not withstand even the most superficial criticism.

Finally, it is difficult to believe Bilzho for one more reason. After a scandalous remark, the whistleblower said that his father went through the entire Great Patriotic war on the T-34. Meanwhile, due to the fact that in our time the archives of the times of the Great Patriotic War are largely open, we can verify this and make sure that Guards Senior Sergeant Georgy Bilzho during the war held the responsible position of the head of the ammunition depot.

The post, beyond all irony, is important, however, regarding the T-34, the brain doctor nevertheless told a lie, and this circumstance undermines the credibility of the literal interpretation of what was written in the medical history.

Information about Zoya's mental problems did not appear today. Back in 1991, an article was published, according to which Kosmodemyanskaya, in her youth, was being examined at the Kashchenko hospital with suspected schizophrenia.

Meanwhile, no documentary evidence of this version has ever been presented. When trying to establish the authorship of the version, it turned out that the doctors who allegedly claimed such a thing "appeared" only to throw in a sharp thesis, and then mysteriously "disappeared". In reality, everything is much more prosaic: in her youth, the girl suffered from meningitis, and later grew up as an introverted, but quite mentally healthy teenager.

The story of the death of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is monstrous. A young girl has set out to sabotage behind enemy lines in one of the most brutal and uncompromising wars in human history, under a controversial order. No matter how you feel about everything that happens, you can’t personally blame her for anything. Questions to its commanders arise by themselves. But she herself did what a soldier should do: she inflicted damage on the enemy, and in captivity she suffered monstrous torment and died, demonstrating her unbending will and strength of character to the end.

Feat

Zoya is a folk heroine

The essence of Zoe's act

Why did they pour so much “dirt” on Zoya

Conclusion

There was a death match

Feat

Zoya is a folk heroine

The essence of Zoe's act

Doubt time

Behind enemy lines

fatal mission

fatal mission

In hot pursuit

Alternative versions

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