(The Woman Who Told History – Issue 1089)
War is men's and women's. It is China's, and it is also the world.
War makes humanity irrational, but also builds great friendships.
For example, the Soviet beauty we are talking about today, she paid a great price for aiding China at the age of flowers.
- Caption.
In the middle of World War I, in 1916, a baby girl was born in an ordinary staff home in Moscow, the former Soviet Union.
Her name is Zina Petrova.
At the time, no one knew that the baby girl would have an important connection with China many years later.
At the beginning of her life, Tina Petrova, like all little girls, spent a happy childhood under the care of her father, and then waited until school age to start school, primary school, middle school, university.
When Tina Petrova was in secondary school, her academic performance was very good, and she was admitted to the Moscow Foreign Language Institute. When she was in college, Zina Petrova not only had a very good professional homework, but also had a cheerful personality, loved various extracurricular activities, and was a talented woman and a beautiful woman in the eyes of teachers and students, of course, there was no shortage of suitors.
Just before and after the graduation of Tina Petrova University, the "Lugou Bridge Incident" broke out in China.
The year 1937 was the beginning of a catastrophe for China.
The year 1937 was also the beginning of a life change for Tina Petrova.
After the Lugou Bridge Incident, all countries in the world have maintained a high degree of vigilance against this incident, especially the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and other countries. China at that time was given certain military assistance, mainly in aviation, including fighter jets, transport aircraft, and advanced flight theory. However, in order to facilitate the advancement of the assistance plan, countries attach great importance to language proficiency when selecting aviation personnel to assist China, especially those who are more inclined to speak more Chinese. Against this backdrop, Tina Petrova was selected for her proficiency in English and French.
Then, Tina Petrova was placed in a radio technology special training class for a 2-month surprise training. After that, Tina Petrova was sent to Shuangliu Field Airport in Chengdu, China, and really began the road to aid to China.
At Shuangliu Field Airfield, Tina Petrova's main job was to give full play to her language advantages, sit in the airport command, and use fluent language to communicate and communicate with pilots from all over the world by radio to ensure the smooth flow of information and the effective development of command.
But with the further evolution of the world war, the Soviet volunteer flying team in Chengdu added more missions. They were no longer simply conducting air combat against Japan, but were also responsible for gathering intelligence on the Japanese forces on the land of China.
In order to advance the second task, Tina Petrova was selected by Colonel Rychagov as the most suitable intelligence officer to infiltrate the Japanese occupation zone.
But we all know that spying is a very difficult job, and the more versatile the talent, the better. Although Tina Petrova is proficient in Chinese and intelligent, her professional and technical ability in intelligence gathering is not good after all. Therefore, the Soviet side sent a special "medical team" to this end, in the name of examining the health of the pilots in Chengdu, and conducted a special training camp for Tina Petrova in February in terms of intelligence gathering.
After February, when Tina Petrova left Chengdu, she had a new identity:
Ancestral home - Singapore;
Family – House of British descent;
Father - the owner of a small factory that uses wooden barrels for tea and coffee;
New name – Alan Bevey;
After receiving this new status, Tina Petrova was sent to her first place in Shanghai.
At this time, Shanghai, after the Lugou Bridge Incident, had fallen in November of that year, and the streets were full of Japanese gendarmes.
Zina Petrova from Singapore, carrying her luggage, was on the Shanghai pier, waiting to be picked up by the cold wind.
At that time, the personnel who docked with Tina Petrova were intelligence officers from the Shanghai Intelligence Station of the Chinese Army Staff. After receiving Tina Petrova, the Chinese intelligence personnel took her to the Nanjing Road International Hotel, where she had been agreed in advance.
Zina Petrova will begin her career as a spy in Shanghai, a legendary metropolis. But the spy career of this Soviet beauty was not smooth, even twists and turns, and dangers were rife.
Of course, at first it went well, and Tina Petrova borrowed the method of staying in the most luxurious international hotel to show her identity as Miss Kuo, and while hiding her identity, she secretly found another residence for herself, a rich merchant house in the Five Kingdoms Concession.
Having a place to live is not enough, she also needs to continue to gild her identity to add authenticity to the scrutiny. At that time, the purpose of Tina Petrova's coming to Shanghai was organizationally given the reason to continue her further studies in medicine in Shanghai, so Tina Petrova registered with a church-run medical school, and after having a student status, the preliminary work was basically completed.
She's going to get to work!
Her specific work was conveyed by a Soviet intelligence officer named "Link."
Therefore, Tina Petrova went to the school during the day according to the arrangement of the church medical school, of course, this is only a cover, and Tina Petrova went to school not only to cover up the identity of the spy, but also to take the opportunity to get acquainted with the surrounding environment. But late at night, when it was really time for Zina Petrova to start working, she turned on the radio and contacted her boss. This is her connection with the Soviet Union, and of course it is also related to China's interests.
Before the end of 1942, everything was relatively smooth, and Tina Petrova's espionage work also achieved certain results. But as the events of World War II escalated and changed, the Japanese government did something stupid in a daze: it sneaked up on the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This move is no less than the "Lugou Bridge Incident" launched by Japan.
After Japan declared war on Britain and the United States, leading to the outbreak of the Pacific War, the first to be affected was the metropolis of Shanghai on the west coast of the Pacific. The Japanese gendarmes entered the concession and issued an order not to allow people in the concession to use radio stations, and if they violated it, they would be punished by the military tribunal of the Japanese gendarmes.
In this way, for Zina Petrova, it is undoubtedly the most dangerous. For this reason, Zina Petrova had to reduce her night work, except in special emergencies. In addition, her superiors also rushed to create countermeasures for her. But it was too late, and the Intelligence Experts on the Japanese Gendarmerie side had already discovered the distribution of the report by Zina Petrova.
October, 1943. World War II continued to escalate. On the 13th of this month, Italy declared war on Germany.
But for Zina Petrova, it was the beginning of bad luck.
On a dark night when she was sending a newspaper, there was a knock on the door.
The knock at the door was rude and meant that the visitor was not good.
Zina Petrova hastily destroyed the code paper, put away the radio, hid it, quickly put on her pajamas, pretended to be asleep, and opened the door.
Outside the door stood the Japanese gendarmes, who, without saying a word, entered the room and began to search.
Soon after, Tina Petrova's radio station and other equipment were searched.
The facts were before them, and there was nothing more to say, Tina Petrova, who had been taken away by the gendarmes.
That night, The Japanese gendarmes urgently began interrogation of Tina Petrova.
But after the interrogation began, the Japanese did not ask anything from the mouth of Zina Petrova. However, the Japanese gendarmes could not give up, and after taking Tina Petrova into a secret interrogation room, they began to use cruel punishment on the young Soviet woman, destroying her body, but Zina Petrova endured great pain and still did not say anything.
She never admitted to being a spy, only that she was a radio enthusiast.
In order to achieve their goals, the Japanese gendarmes tortured Tina Petrova in more inhumane means, resulting in Tina Petrova passing out again and again, and the Japanese gendarmes poured her awake again and again with cold water.
After the interrogation until late at night, Tina Petrova was thrown into a large cell where almost all Chinese were being held. Chinese showed the greatest kindness and help to the Soviet woman, who made a better place for her to rest, dressed her to cover her body, and fed her food.
In such a difficult and dangerous situation, with the friendly help of Chinese, Tina Petrova struggled to fight the Japanese gendarmes.
In the end, after the beautiful Soviet spy who came to China to aid China was captured by the Japanese army, she was tortured by the Japanese gendarmes using heinous interrogation methods, but she still gritted her teeth and refused to reveal her identity, nor did she reveal her purpose of coming to China. In desperation, the Japanese sent Tina Petrova to a Japanese military tribunal set up in the Shanghai area to try an "Alan Bevey spy case." As a result, Zina Petrova was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
But there is a limit to misfortune, and righteousness, though late, will still come.
Japan ultimately paid the price for its atrocities.
In 1945, Japan was defeated and surrendered headlessly.
After Shanghai was taken over by Chinese troops, Tina Petrova was saved.
Shortly after her release from prison, with the help of the Soviet Embassy, Zina Petrova returned to her homeland.
But this friendship that she aided China in times of difficulty will forever remain in Chinese's memory.
Reference: The Complete History of World War II.