Author: World War II Pretty Girl (Without permission, please do not copy the full text of the move!) ）
On September 13, 1923, in a village called "Shanyang Xiaolin" in the Don Bov Oblast of the Soviet Union, a young teacher couple gave birth to a daughter. Subsequently, the parents named their eldest daughter: Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmojemiyanskaya.
Zoya's family was exiled when she was young, and she was able to return to Moscow after her father's death.
Friends who know the history of World War II will definitely be familiar with this name! Zoya, who was later tortured to death by the Germans in the Great Patriotic War, caused great anger from Stalin! Zoya thus became one of the most famous "heroines" of the Soviet Union. But what many people may not know is that Zoya was actually born into a "counter-revolutionary family".
Her parents were both teachers, and her father was a highly talented student at the Moscow Seminary. Zoya's grandfather was an Orthodox priest and had a local reputation. However, when Zoya's father graduated, he coincided with the outbreak of the Bolshevik "October Revolution", so his desire to become a priest was completely shattered.
As a liberal intellectual, plus dreams shattered! Zoya's father was more disgusted with the Soviet system during his reign and often attacked some of the Soviet government's policies.
In 1927, during Stalin's "campaign to eliminate the kulaks," about 6 million kulaks were executed and exiled. Zoya's father could no longer sit still, and he openly attacked Stalin's policy. As a result, in 1929 Zoya's father was listed as an "enemy of the Soviets"! As punishment, Zoya's entire family was exiled to Siberia.
At that time, Zoya's whole family was exiled to Irkutsk at minus 40 degrees, and Zoya's father died of illness four years later due to depression, leaving poor Zoya, her mother, and her brother three.
After Zoya's father died, her aunt, an official in the Soviet Ministry of Education, began to travel around hoping to get Zoya's family of three back to Moscow. Later, the Soviet government investigated that Zoya's father was dead and that her mother had always been self-contained, so there was no need to regard their "orphans and widows" as class enemies.
A few years later, the three members of Zoya's family were finally allowed to return to Moscow to live. After entering the school, Zoya had outstanding results in the liberal arts, but also actively responded to soviet policies, and in 1938, she took the initiative to ask to join the Communist Youth League. In the year she joined the regiment, Zoya was also elected as the leader of the group.
"Family origin" and ambition are completely contradictory, and Zoya resolutely chooses to join the army to the front.
However, in 1939, Zoya was unexpectedly dismissed by the regimental organization, still due to her "family origin problem". Perhaps in Zoya's personal opinion, her birth and her own ambitions are completely contradictory. Soon after, she publicly announced that she had broken with her father. But even so, Zoya was still unable to "reinstate her official duties" in the end.
Soviet mothers bid farewell to their sons
In June 1941, after graduating from secondary school, Zoya prepared to apply for the Faculty of Literature of Moscow University. But the sudden outbreak of the Soviet-German war forced the 18-year-old girl to interrupt her dreams just like her father!
So in October 1941, Zoya had to give up her studies and prepare to sign up for the army to resist the fascists. However, as a thin and thin girl, Zoya was not the source of soldiers needed on the front line. However, Zoya insisted on going to the front, and later, since Zoya had studied English in middle school, the Soviet army arranged for her to be an army translator.
But as the Soviets' war situation became more and more urgent, the army needed more soldiers. Zoya insisted on going to the front line as a warrior, not a translator. At first, the Soviet 9903 unit (second-line unit) did not approve Zoya's application, on the grounds that her body was too thin, afraid that she would not be able to adapt to the brutal combat on the front line.
Female Soviet soldiers in World War II
But Zoya still insisted on going to the front line, and finally her superiors had no choice but to agree to her. From 17 November 1941 onwards, Zoya accompanied the Soviets in their raids and was ordered to infiltrate and burn 10 German strongholds, including the village of Petrisev.
However, the German defense at the village of Petrisev was very tight, and the demolition squad had not been able to successfully carry out sabotage operations. When her superiors decided to abandon the mission, Zoya said that the task was not yet completed, and she decided to go to the village of Petrisev again. On November 28, 1941, Zoya went into the village alone to try to set fire to the German stables.
Female German soldiers captured by the Germans (non-)
Unfortunately, Zoya was spotted and captured by the Germans when she set the fire. German soldiers then escorted her to the commander. The German commander personally interrogated Zoya, but despite the Germans' persecution, Zoya called herself Tanya and refused to answer any questions.
Still unyielding in the face of torture, he was hanged in public by the German army! Stalin personally ordered the "total annihilation of the German 332nd Regiment".
Zoya's toughness infuriated the German commander, so he ordered the soldiers to tie her hands back and let the four German soldiers take turns whipping her with belts while she was half naked. In the face of torture, Zoya still did not reveal a word. Finally she was taken by the Germans to a log cabin, where she took off her coat and ordered her to walk naked in the snow outside in the bitter cold.
Captured by the Germans
From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. that day, Zoya was ordered to walk outside for 15 to 20 minutes every hour. But these tricks of the German army still did not make Zoya submit, but increased her anger against the invaders. In the end, the German commander quickly ran out of patience with the girl who was "rather than die", and decided to hang her in public.
At 10:00 a.m. on November 29, 1941, German soldiers dressed Zoya, then hung a wooden sign on her chest as an "arsonist" and took her to the gallows in the square. In addition to more than a hundred Nazi officers and soldiers, there were also some local villagers who came to watch.
Poor Zoya, after being inhumanly tortured, was eventually hanged by the Nazis! At this time, it was only a month before Zoya enlisted in the army. Even more infuriating: Zoya's body was hung on the gallows by the Nazis for a full month. Even more infuriating: During Christmas, a drunken Nazi soldier cut off her left breast with a knife.
A photo of Zoya before the righteousness
Later, in order to conceal the crime, the commander ordered Zoya's body to be hastily buried. After the Soviet counterattack, when the story of Zoya's heroic sacrifice reached the Soviet troops and even after Moscow, the mood of Supreme Leader Stalin could not be calmed for a long time. Especially when he knew that Zoya had been humiliated by German soldiers before he was righteous, Stalin could no longer contain his anger.
Stalin
At Stalin's personal behest, the Soviets finally confirmed that the 18-year-old "Heroine of the Soviet Union" had poisoned the 332nd Regiment of the 197th Division of the Wehrmacht. Subsequently, Stalin personally issued a special order to the Soviet Western Front: as long as it encountered the German 332nd Regiment that killed Zoya in battle, it was necessary to correct all the law on the spot and never accept their surrender.
You know, in war, the Soviets generally only punished SS members with capital punishment! And the Supreme Commander personally issued such a "must kill order" against the Wehrmacht troops was extremely rare in the entire Soviet-German war!
During the Battle of Berlin, the Soviets finally encountered the German unit that killed Zoya: the 332nd Regiment of the 197th Division of the Wehrmacht. The German unit was running out of ammunition, but they could not enjoy the treatment of "prisoners of war".
German officer
The Soviet soldiers roared with the slogan of "avenge Zoya", and finally completely annihilated this "most heinous" German army! The 332nd Regiment of the 197th Division also became the only Wehrmacht unit to be refused to surrender in the Soviet-German War.
Event Episode: Zoya's identity was once a mystery! It was not confirmed until a month later.
In fact, because Zoya has been using a pseudonym during her heroic righteousness, not only do the Germans not know her real name, but the Soviet army once did not know who this brave female martyr really was.
Soviet female soldiers
Because Zoya's true identity could not be confirmed for a time, after Pravda disclosed Zoya's deeds in January 1942, it actually triggered a number of Soviet women to recognize Zoya as their daughter and open the coffin for autopsy.
After all, there were many Soviet women soldiers on the battlefield at that time, and many mothers also lost contact with their daughters on the battlefield for a long time. So it's not surprising that this happened in a tragic war. In addition, in the Great Patriotic War, the "martyrs" could not only enjoy state allowances, but also have extremely high social honors.
Statue of Zoya
So in February 1942, the Moscow Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League of the Soviet Union also deliberately set up a "Heroine Identification Committee". On February 4, 1942, the commissioner officially confirmed that the Soviet heroine who had been hanged by the Germans in the village of Petrisevo was Zoya. Subsequently, Zoya was officially awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" by the Soviet Union and buried in the "New Virgin Cemetery" in Moscow.
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