Women at war

Zhuldybina Elena Fedorovna was born in 1922 in Kirov region, Uninsky district. She participated in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the title - Red Army soldier. She was conscripted to the Red Army from the RVC of Yashkinsky District. A telephonist from the communications platoon of the brigade, she was seriously injured at the crossing of the Neman River. Information about Yelena Zhuldybina was obtained from Uraniy Ivanovich Zenkovich's book "From the Dnieper to the Neman" - "Notes of the Front Operator on the Strategic Offensive Operation “Bagration” to Free Belarus". "I was ordered to keep in constant contact with the crossing, although telephone operators Vasya Sokovets, Misha Timokhin and Sasha Kadeikin had already stretched a telephone cable from the brigade's headquarters and simultaneously connected two devices. One of them had a Siberian woman on duty from the village, Lena Zhuldybina, and the other had a Don Cossack Degtyaryov.... "Building a bridge across the Neman River at Druskenikov's was the number one task for the Brigade that day. The army command was rushing to Pronevich's brigade, and he ordered the brigade's chief of staff, Alexei Tikhomirov, to take charge of the construction. Although a telephone connection was established at the command post of the bridge under construction, and the radio station of Perenkov and Zayakin worked on the bridge itself, Tikhomirov decided to have his own radio station at hand and ordered me to go with him. Five or seven minutes later we left “villis” on the bank of the Neman River. Tikhomirov and his orderly went down to the trench prepared for them, where Lena Zhuldybina was already on duty on her phone. Tikhomirov ordered me to dig a hole near the trench: "It is possible to bomb the trench, but God is careful, Mother Earth has saved many lives. I will negotiate on the phone, and you keep the radio on alert, son. In case of break of Zhuldybina’s communication, you will replace it with radio communication. My RB-M was a duplicate communication..." "Suddenly, a terrible rumble was heard nearby, some weight fell on me, for a while I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I realized that the blast wave moved the mass of sand, and I was covered with it up to my chest. There was a pine that had been damaged by the blast. I started to turn and move my arms and dug out my stomach, legs and radio. There was a splinter sticking out in the bend of my right hand, I was bleeding. I bandaged my hand with a bandage and started to check the radio station. It worked in the reception mode. I switched it to the transmission and told Vanya Litovchenko about the bombing of the crossing - I did not know more ...". "And the reality turned out to be unpleasant: a stretcher carried unconscious, with the dead and pale face, Colonel Tikhomirov - he was wounded in the stomach. The Siberian telephone operator Lena Zhuldybina was carried on the next stretcher. Her left mammary gland was cut by a shard, and the second shard perforated her buttock. Returning from the hospital, Lena joked: "I will be proud of the wound to the chest all my life, but how to explain the wound to the buttock? Unfortunately, Lena's life was short - she died at the age of 36. The war still caught up with her. Although she left four children in the world..." On the photo: Zhuldybina Elena with her son and brother Pavel - an engineer of Yurginskiy Machine Building Plant.

BACKGROUND: Rank: Senior Sergeant Troops: Military Medicine Valentina Ivanovna Zhuravleva (Vladislava Ivanovna Labunskaya) was born on December 21, 1922 in Ukraine in Kamenets-Podolsk region. (now Khmelnitsky region) Starokonstantinovsky district, village Maly Chernyatin. In the family of a mid-range peasant. By nationality, Polish. She entered the Maly Chernyatinskaya elementary school in 1930. After completing four years, she studied at a secondary school in the village of Bolshoi Chernyatin. In 1938, her father - Ivan Pavlovich Labunsky was repressed (rehabilitated in 1956 by a decree of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR). In 1939, after finishing 8th grade of school, entered the Staro-Konstantinovsky 2-year College of nurses. On June 22, 1941 a disaster came - fascists attacked our country. On June 30, 1941 all examinations had to be passed in one day. A young girl volunteered to join the ranks of the Red Army. She began her service in 4 separate construction railway brigade, in 69th railway construction track battalion. From the very first days she found herself in the thick of the events of the beginning of the war, heavy defensive battles in Ukraine, retreats, breakthroughs from the surroundings, on the fragile shoulders of the girl immediately fell the hardships of war and hard work to help the wounded, saving the lives of our soldiers. As part of the sanitary platoon of the 69th Railway Construction Track Battalion, she took part in the defensive battles for Ukraine, in the north - in the battle for Karelia, in the battles near Moscow, Kalinin Front, Western Front, Smolensk, Belarus. In 1943, during the organization of the Polish divisions by nationality was seconded from the unit, but due to the fact that she did not know Polish, was not drafted into the Polish army and was sent to the 202 reserve regiment, from which she was sent to the 3rd Assault Engineering and Spatial Order of Kutuzov 2nd degree Neman brigade of the Reserve of the Supreme Command (3 SHISB RVGK), as a nurse of a separate medical sanitary platoon. On June 28, due to the dissolution of the platoon's medical staff, was transferred to the 15th Independent Kovnoe Mechanical Engineer Battalion (oshisb)3 SHISB RVGK. As part of the brigade, she fought first on the 3rdBelarusian front, and later on the 2ndBelarusian front. She fought in Lithuania, Poland and Germany. There she met her future husband Boris Semionovich Zhuravlev. Valentina Ivanovna marched a fighting way from Starokonstantinov almost to Berlin the town of Templin. Was awarded fighting awards "For military merits", the Order of the Red star. In her presentation to the medal “For Military Merits” was noted that she, as a devoted nurse, gives all her efforts and experience to restore the health of wounded and sick soldiers and officers. Up to 3,000 wounded and sick people passed through her hands, all of whom received proper help and care. In addition to her basic work, she also had to work in a dressing room where she provided direct care for the wounded. She was awarded the Order of the Red Star for her sacrifice, energy and initiative in saving the life of Brigade Commander Colonel Nemirovsky. After the war, she became an officer's wife and lived with her husband in Kaliningrad (formerly Koenigsberg), Tver, Moscow and Katava-Ivanovs in the Chelyabinsk region. She worked in the Katava-Ivanovo Medical Association. Raised two sons. For many years she regularly came to Moscow to meet her frontline friends at the Bolshoi Theater. She died on 9.06.1989. She was awarded: Medal "For Combat Services", Order of the Red Star, Order of the Great Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, Medal "For the Defense of Kiev", Medal "For the seizure of Koenigsberg", Medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945", Medal "Twenty years of victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945", a sign" 25 years of a victory in the Great Patriotic War ", a medal" 50 years of armed forces of the USSR ", a sign" the Veteran of Karelian front 1941-1945 ", an anniversary medal" for conscientious work in commemoration of the 100 anniversary of V.I.Lenin's birth. Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945", Medal "Veteran of Labor", Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945", Medal "60 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR", Medal "70 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR". Memories: When Germany attacked our country, I was 18 years old. I was finishing medical school in Starokonstantinov. Four girls were studying from our village Maly Chernyatin. We had a therapy exam scheduled for June 22, but since the teacher was a military doctor, he was urgently called on alarm and our exam failed. The next day other doctors were already taking exams. In one day we passed three exams without preparation. The first time our city was bombed on June 22 at night. They bombed us very badly, and on the ninth day the Germans were already at the approaches to the city, twelve kilometers away, just where my homeland is. Everything burned everywhere. We, four girls: Anya, Lida, Lena and I, decided that we have no way home, voluntarily went to the military committee and said: "Send us to the front, we are nurses.” The city was evacuated, the military registration and enlistment office was already on wheels ... documents were loaded into cars, the telephone connection was not working. The military officer looked at us with pity, said with a sigh: "Go to the station and ask the commandant of the station. Pass the word about your enrollment in the part. Say that I sent you, and act there.” At the station by the railway part evacuation work was carried out. The 69th Independent Railway Construction Battalion, arriving from the Far East during the first days of the war, was performing a mission in the West, when our troops were retreating, the battalion was blowing up the railway, bridges and preventing the enemy from advancing. We came to the commandant, Captain Georgy Mikhailovich Molozhavy, who was also commander of the 4th Company, 69th Battalion. The commandant handed us over to the paramedic: "Here, take the replenishment... give them everything they need for work and set the task. Get down to the task.” This is how we joined the ranks of defenders of the Motherland. Our combat weapons - medical bags with a red cross, in the bag "ammunition": bandages, cotton, hems, harnesses and other necessary things to provide first aid in case of injury and bandages. After a short briefing, we began to work independently to help the wounded soldiers and officers. There were a lot of wounded at the station. Everyone was waiting for help and sending to the rear hospital. All you could hear was: "Sis, bandage me, put the dressing on". I answer: "Now, dear, now dear, be patient a little...". And my hands trembled with fear, bandages without a habit flew off, and there is no one to tell me how to do it right. The first day of our "battles". From somewhere, both ingenuity and courage came. And the Germans hit with long-range guns, every three or four hours planes came and bombed. The wounded are arriving and arriving, if possible, they come by themselves, are dragged - just have the time to bandage. But we coped with our work. All the wounded were bandaged, loaded into the echelon and sent. There was a lot of work to do, it was difficult, no time to ask, and there was no one to tell, the conditions were terrible. I remember one of my first bandages. The soldier was shot in the head with a shrapnel. He was a pretty boy, a curly blond. I cut the hair on the wound, put pillows from the bag and started bandaging. I finish, and the bandage slips off, three times bandaged him with shaking hands, and it still falls off. This is all because - I was thinking - his hair is golden and soft ... And the soldier calms me down: - Do not worry sister. Everything is fine. Once a soldier came to the medical station - the commissar's contact was just scratched a little, we need to urgently apply a bandage. I come - the commissioner seems to be forty years old, on the loops there were two sticks, the finger is broken and dangling on the bandage (some kind of bandage), the wound is fresh - blood oozes through a bandage. At first, I was confused at the sight of such a large boss, but quickly coped with the excitement .I do not know how, but in my hands I had “zelyonka”. I quickly applied it on the wounded finger, bandaged it, and put a splint on it. That was it. On the next bandage, he went to the chief of the sanitary service. Then the doctor told me that I should not use herbs with such wounds on Commissioner. There many wounded. And bandages had to be applied after the bombings. We were bombed very often, several times a day. The bombing lasted eight to nine hours, a moment of silence, and then we started bandaging. We start in the first light and end in the dark; we had to bandage almost all night until morning. At the station, there were trains with ammunition going to the front, trains with the wounded and equipment for evacuation. And daily bombing for many hours. The horror was what was happening. Our Railway Battalion was on a mission to destroy or restore railway tracks and railway bridges to provide a way to advance trains and block the way to prevent the movement of enemy trains. Our squadron was not large - 8 cars. The cars had everything necessary to carry out the work. Day and night we had to restore and destroy the tracks. FASHISTIC PLANES - SPIES flew in all the time. After them, the bombers arrived. We would go 1 km away. Stopped. Soldiers of the subversive team blew up the station and the railway track. We moved on. And the Germans were right behind us. We blew up the stations and the tracks, prevented the Germans to move on. So kilometer by kilometer we drove them a hundred fifty - a hundred sixty. On the fifth day of our trip near the station Monastery - Christinovka, the Germans cut our way, our train began to be bombarded... We are on a hill, and the Germans were in a hollow, not letting us move on. Our train - eight cars and three locomotives, two in front and one in the tail. The cars had equipment for railroads and bridges, food... The moment we went to the crossing, the Germans would start firing at the train... We went back. At this crossing we fought for two days and could not pass. We lost two front locomotives. On the third day at five o'clock in the morning we decided to slip through this unfortunate crossing. We could not. The last steam locomotive failed. Our echelon remained standing, on fire. Two steam locomotives were out of order. We were cut off the way to retreat. It was a group of fascist parachutists. We were ordered to go to the left side into a hollow, to the nearest forest by ditches and take up defense. And in this forest we fought for two days without food, without a piece of bread - everything remained in the burnt-out echelon. These days, we lost three fighters and a driver, who was heavily scalded. There were twelve wounded, including our company commander Captain Molozhavy and my friend Lida. By the end of the day, another group of our soldiers joined our group and we captured almost all of this German landing party. Only then we got out of this trap. We got out on a freeway somewhere else. The seriously wounded and some of the wounded, including Captain Molozhavy, were sent to hospital in trains to the rear. They were accompanied by one of my friends, Lida. And so just three of us girls, were left. We, the girls, were sent to the forest. There were two trains with wounded people who could not be sent to the rear, because the road was cut off by the Germans. Some of our soldiers made their way as far forward as they could into their units. We stayed here with three nurses, one doctor and two paramedics and with wounded in the echelon. From morning till night we walked along the wagons providing first aid. But the trains here in the woods stood for three days without hot meals, the soldiers were fed with dry rations of crackers and canned food, many wounded people needed a bandage, garter. On the third day in the afternoon, there was a way for the train with the wounded to be sent to the next station only by car. The way was forty kilometers long. My friends and I agreed to meet at the destination station. With the first portion of the wounded Lena went, with the other - Anya, I went with the third part only at the end of the day. . I came with the wounded already in the evening, after dark. While the wounded were being unloaded, it became completely dark. Of course, I walked along the station, along the echelons, went to the commandant, asked "did the girls come" ... That's how we lost each other. This day there was a raid of German bombers three times. A train with ammunition stood at the station and was bombed. There was a strong explosion and fire at the station. In the afternoon, I went to the military commandant to be assigned to some unit. Fortunately, I met the commander of one of the platoons of the unit where the girls and I were in the first days, Lieutenant Kovalev with a group of eight soldiers. They were also braking through to their unit, but they could not find its location. They gave us an order – get to the battalion any way you can, its somewhere ahead. The Komendant explained to us that we have to go to Poltava, to the Zolotonosha station, where our unit is being formed. We got a dry ration of food and went on our way. Somewhere we drove by car, somewhere by train, somewhere we walked. So on the third day of the way we arrived to Zolotonosha in our part. . At Zolotonosha station our battalion was preparing to move to the North. Again the train consisting of 8 cars. We moved to the North. The squadron was bombed every day, several times at each crossing. In August, they stood on the Dnieper. Guards of the famous Kanevsky bridge, where every minute, every hour they were subjected to artillery fire and bombing. Many people were injured and killed. We had to work day and night. Under the pressure of enemy power, we had to retreat. At that time one of my colleagues was wounded in the chest, forty minutes later she died. We stood on this bridge for a long time, but we also had to blow up this bridge. Finally, we arrived in Petrozavodsk (Karelian front), then Medvezhegorsk, Belomorsk, Kandalaksha. Battalion began its duties .Again every day… bombing. I was a sanitary instructor in late December 1941. We were transferred from the North to Moscow - Volokolamsk direction – here for the first time I saw several people who were tortured by fascists. We were looking, looking to remember it. I saw the stone faces of Soviet soldiers, saying only one word: "revenge". Then there were the Kalinin Front, the Western Front ... In February 1942 I took the oath of allegiance before the formation, before the banner of the unit. In August in the forest in a dugout in a combat situation, I was given a Komsomol ticket. .The head of the political department said: - You are not only a soldier, you are a Komsomol. I swore an oath to my Homeland. We didn’t of becoming heroes, but the circumstances forced us. One day, a soldier blew up on a mine and needed urgent medical aid. And I ran, forgetting about any danger. There were shout behind me: Where are you running? There are mines! " But then I forgot about the fear and ran to help a man. I remember: 4th Railway Brigade, 69th Battalion. The battalion's commander, Major Markov; the chief of staff, Captain Alexandrovsky; later, Captain Letyagin; Commissar Major Maksimov; Company commander, Captain Shlokhin; Company commander, 4th Company, Senior Leutenant Zukerman (from Leningrad); and Lt Serbo. My girlfriend, the dentist of the battalion Efimova Ekaterina Sergeyevna (from Karelia), now lives in the village of Shunga, Medvezhegorskiy district. ABOUT FRIENDS I met my friends after the war, when I was on vacation in my homeland. We shared our impressions and remembered our adventures during the first days of the war. Our frontline biographies differed from one another. One of my friends was wounded and sent to hospital, where she worked until the end of the war, which she welcomed in Estonia. The other one was taken to the evacuation hospital in Uralsk, where she worked during the war. The third girlfriend ended up in a partisan detachment in Belorussia. I fought in the combat unit of the Railway Troops in the 69th Battalion platoon, and then from the end of 1943, in the Assault Engineering-Demining unit, as a company sanitary technician...

BACKGROUND: Troops: Communication Troops. Even before the war, the family moved to Krasnoyarsk Krai for permanent residence. After finishing 10th grade in 1942, she voluntarily came to the Komsomol and asked to be sent to the front. Having received the consent, she passed the medical commission, and in September 1942, having loaded into echelons, she was sent together with other girls to the east. The military service was held near Khabarovsk as a telegraph operator. After the declaration of war with Japan, as part of the 119th Independent Battalion of the 11th Air Army she served near the village of Konstantinovka near the Amur River. The news of the Victory was also received here. For participation in the Great Patriotic War, she was awarded the Order of Patriotic War II degree, medals "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", "For the Victory over Japan. In addition to combat, Anna has awards for achievements in labor and jubilee medals. And then she returned to her homeland near Khabarovsk. But diplomatic relations with Japan remained tense, and a decision was made to relocate the battalion to Kamchatka. Anna served in Vladivostok for some time, and after receiving an order for demobilization, she returned home to Krasnoyarsk. On the recommendation of the district party committee, she graduated from the Novosibirsk Law School and, having received a referral to the Kemerovo region, worked for the Ministry of Justice. For 19 years she worked as a people's judge. More than five years she worked as a chairman of the Kirovsky District Court of Kemerovo. Zheleznova Anna Grigoryevna, for her diligent work and high performance, was repeatedly encouraged by letters of commendation, honorary certificates, valuable gifts. She took an active part in public life to promote the laws of the Russian Federation. Anna Grigoryevna was repeatedly elected a deputy of the district council of workers' deputies of Kirovsky district of Kemerovo

BACKGROUND: Title: Krasnoflotz. Troops: Soviet Navy and Naval Forces Border Troops of the NKVD. My great grandmother, Zhila Irina Nikiforovna (maiden name - Shelkovnikova), was born in 1923 on December 10. When the war began in 1941, she was 17 years old. She, an excellent student of the 48th Borisoglebsk railway school, was among the first girl volunteers. My grandmother could not stay at home during the difficult days for the Homeland. In the training unit of the School of Communication she got a military profession - radio operator and got on one of the ships of the Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt. Thanks to them the Germans could not take Leningrad from the sea. Grandmother Ira guarded the "Road of Life", connecting the city of Kronstadt with Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov). There were many hardships: they had to endure many hours of watch in the cold under bullets and shells, they, for months, got a meagre ration, got under the bombing and lose battle friends. But Ira, as well as her friends, overcame everything, because she was defending her Homeland. 142 Borisoglebovtsa were awarded medals "For the Defense of Leningrad," and among them was my great grandmother. For her valor and bravery in the Great Patriotic War, she was awarded the Order of the Great Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, the medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". In peacetime, for each memorable date - anniversary medals. In total, grandmother had 11 war awards, some of them are kept in our local history museum. After the war, there was Kamchatka, where my great-grandmother went with her husband, a staff officer. And only in 1955 she returned to Borisoglebsk with her family, where her daughter and son were growing up. When the opportunity presented itself, grandmother got a job in the editorial office of a local newspaper as a typist. My grandmother was left with various Honorary Certificates for her conscientious work and active community service, and the Veteran of Labor medal was added to her combat awards. My grandmother passed away in 2004, when I was 4 and she was 80. Just a little she did not live to see the 60th anniversary of Victory. Now my grandmother has two adult grandsons and three growing up great-grandsons. And the memory of our veteran, our grandmother, we will carry through all generations.

Sophia Fyodorovna Zhukova was born on October 17, 1924 in Voskresenka village, Klyavlensky district, Samara region, in a family of peasants. Her father - Fyodor Fyodorovich Zhukov, who fought with Chapaev, was an irreconcilable peasant - an individual. With a family of 6 children he ran away from the collective farms to Chelyabinsk to build a tractor factory, then to some place else, far away from the collective farms... In Buguruslan, Orenburg region, she graduated from a medical school, having received a specialty as an obstetrician. For some time she worked at a health center at a mine in the Tula region, from where in March 1943 she, a 18-year-old, was called up to the front. She took part in the battles near Leningrad, Warsaw, on the Elbe. My grandmother remembered these days in the following way: "Me and the nurses-girls, in the breaks between the marches on the cold endless mud, dreamed that the war was about to end, we will wash off the camping mud in a bath, put oil or sour cream on our feet and put them, the poor, on white feather pillows ... To rest. It was so hard for them ...". The war ended for her in November 1946, in Berlin,with demobilization in the rank of lieutenant of medical service and with awards - the Order of the Red Star, medals "For Military Merit", "For the Liberation of Warsaw," "For the capture of Berlin," etc.. In one of her letters to her front-line comrade - Peter Aleksandrovich Korotkikh - Chairman of the Veterans Council of the 311th Dvinsky Order of Suvorov Rifle Division, my mother wrote: "I am not a hero, there are no feats on my account, I did not throw myself under enemy tanks with a bunch of grenades. I was 18 years old at that time. And I think that for my age it was enough, WHAT I saw and experienced. Thousands of wounded were bandaged by my hands. I have seen so much death, so much crying over the killed....” In the award sheet to the Order of the Red Star on January 14, 1945 it is said that "During the battle of January 14-15, 1945 at the time of the Vistula River crossing, working as a paramedic at the regimental medical station to provide medical assistance to the wounded soldiers and commanders, in difficult conditions under enemy fire, Comrade Zhukova for 2 days of battle provided 67 soldiers and officers with medical assistance. At the same time, she helped the doctor in providing medical assistance to the seriously wounded. Front skill, the ability to act quickly, in an immediate environment to make the only right decision remained with her until the end of her life. Especially nice and beautiful grandmother's bandages were: postoperative or just for us, kids, who scratched their knees or elbows during the games. It was grandmother's hands - warm, careful, skilful - that were chosen by patients for intravenous "pricks" in the treatment rooms of the medical unit № 17, the regional TB dispensary in Kemerovo, where she worked. Grandmother confidently treated cough and other colds in our childhood with jars. Though through these jars we know her first front "defeat". The military doctor - Repina Alexandra Vasilyevna, with whom grandmother was friends and corresponded until the last days - once wrote: "Sonechka, dear, I remember you always. We were the closest . ...I remember how you once put jars on a soldier's back. And you left. Youth! I come to the tent in an hour, and he was still with jars! Do you remember? In general, I had to remove the jars with the skin, and he was glad to stay with us for a bit longer ...". But it was her only professional mistake. At the front she also met her only love, my grandfather - Grankin Matvey Semenovich - an operative of the Counterintelligence Department "SMERSH" 1069 of the Rifle Regiment of the 311th Rifle Division.

When the Great Patriotic War broke out, Irina Zaitseva was studying at the 3rd year of the Kharkiv Medical Institute, at the faculty of "therapeutic business". She was 21 years old at that time. German invaders were quickly conquering our territories and advancing inland. Soon after the outbreak of war, Kharkov Medical Institute was evacuated to the Urals, in the city of Chkalov, now Orenburg. All students were transferred to an accelerated course of study, including Irina Zaitseva. In the summer of 1942 she received the diploma of doctor. She went to the Urals, to the city of Irbit, Sverdlovsk region, where her husband Yevdwniy Matsyra was evacuated with the plant "Sickle and Hammer". Both wrote an application with a request to send them to the front. Yevgeny Matsyura received a reservation and was left to work at the Irbit motorcycle plant as a highly qualified engineer. The plant produced the necessary equipment for the front - motorcycles "Irbit". Irina Zaitseva was mobilized to the Red Army in 1943 and joined the Voronezh Front, later the 1st Ukrainian Front, as a resident of the sorting evacuation hospital No. 398, No. 1094, Northern Group of Forces. She had to escort and treat the wounded and sick in sanitary trains and sorting evacuation hospitals. It was not easy for the medical service workers at the front. They performed surgeries on the wounded and bandaged their wounds in difficult field conditions, often under enemy fire, using candles, kerosene lamps and flashlights instead of light. There was a lack of medication and dressing materials. The human forces were running out. But doctors, nurses, orderlies and sanitation workers worked selflessly. The Red Army was advancing on all fronts, and our entire country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was already liberated. Our troops entered Europe and reached Berlin, the capital of Germany. Irina Zaitseva welcomed the long-awaited Victory in Berlin. And just like many frontline soldiers, in these unforgettable days she left her inscription on the Reichstag: "Ira Zaitseva from Kharkov". Even more than a year after the end of the war, Irina stayed in Germany, treated both our fighters and the German population in the hospital. Irina returned to her homeland only in the middle of 1946 with the rank of Senior Lieutenant of medical service. In peacetime, she worked as a doctor, Head of the Surgical Department in the hospital of the city Irbit, Sverdlovsk region and Melitopol, Zaporozhye region, Ukraine. Irina Vladimirovna completed her almost half-century medical activity in Ukraine in Melitopol at the age of 70.

Sofia Sergeyevna Zimina. She is a participant of the Great Patriotic War. This is what she remembers: In August 1943, Sonia turned eighteen, and in September she received a summons to the military committee. She was enlisted in the forty-third female assault and machine gun regiment. And there she turned out to be the youngest. When the soldier's outfit was issued, the small fragile girl could not find the necessary size. So she appeared before the foreman: in boots, which seemed to be way too wide on her thin legs, and in long, almost to the ground overcoat. Having smiled sympathetically, the foreman joked: "Well, soldier, when you crawl, your knees will not get cold". There turned out to be some truth in his words. It was not necessary to crawl as their regiment stood far from the front, guarding the most important objects: bridges, stations - from the attacks of German planes. And the overcoat served her faithfully throughout the war. After graduation, Sonya was promoted to the rank of Junior Sergeant and was appointed senior in the rank. Of the three girls in the crew, she was again the youngest. Sonia was still the same fighting, restless girl. And so no one was surprised when the battalion members elected her their secretary. Life at the front for anti-aircraft gunners was not measured by usual days but by periods from one duty to the next. Duty, rest, heavy crossovers from one object to another, sometimes along swamps, and river crossings. One night, Sonya heard an alarm. Running out in total darkness, to her surprise, everything was calm: neither airplanes nor bombs could be heard. It turned out that the German landing party had been dropped. But the paratroopers did not go far. Sonya caught one with the help of her girls. It may seem that everything was going smoothly, without any casualties. But the enemy was the enemy. There were fierce short shootings, which killed three anti-aircraft gunners. In August 1945, Sonia was demobilized, she turned 20 then. Sonia welcomed the victory with tears in her eyes. After the war, Sophia Sergeyevna had a hard life. Everyone respected and appreciated her.

Khudyakova Antonina Fedorovna Khudyakova Antonina Fedorovna, born in 1917, in 1944 - Senior Lieutenant of the guard, deputy squadron commander of the 46th Guards night bombers of the 2nd Guards night bombers of the Air Division of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1946).

Marina Pavlovna Chechneva, born in 1922, in 1944 - Guards Captain, squadron commander of the 46th Guards night bombers of the 2nd Guards Night Bombers of the Air Division of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front. Hero of the Soviet Union (1946).

Lyudmila was drafted into the army. She served as a nurse in the 551st Airfield Service Battalion in the Central Asian Military District from 1941 to 1945. She finished the war with the rank of Specialist. Has government awards. After her husband retired, they moved to Irkutsk. Lyudmila worked as a senior surgical nurse at the children's hospital in Ivano-Matreninskaya. She had to go to early retirement to care for her seriously ill husband. After his death, she went to live with her daughter to Bolshoy Severny, Mamsko-Chuysky District of the Irkutsk Region. She returned to Irkutsk together with her granddaughter Elena Tomilova in 1976. There she lived until 1995. She was buried next to her husband, at the Radishchevsky Cemetery in Irkutsk.

Faina Ivanovna Tsareva (Galafeeva), was born in 1921 in the village of Peschanoe, Pudozh district of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. (In July 2013, the village will be 450 years old!) In 1938, she graduated with honors from a medical college, specializing as a paramedic-midwife. She worked in Velikaya Niva as the head of a paramedic station, then in the village of Shunga Zaonezhie in the district maternity hospital, from where, after the rally, she left among the first volunteers to the front.

Tsvetkova (Zhuchkova) Nina Timofeevna (03/16/1929 - 11/23/2015) Born, raised and studied in Moscow, on the Arbat. During the Great Patriotic War, she studied at school and worked in school training and production workshops for sewing uniforms for the army and in hospitals. After the Great Patriotic War, she worked in the Ministry of Communications and maternity hospital № 3 named after Gruerman as HR instructor and clerk. In 1950 she married a participant in the Great Patriotic War, naval officer Tsvetkov Yevgeny Grigorievich and left with him to his places of service. She lived with him in perfect harmony until his death, for over 62 years.

Kharchenko Maria Vasilievna Kharchenko Maria Vasilievna, born in 1920, in 1941-1942 - Red Army soldier, rifleman from the 386th Rifle Division of Independent Coastal Army.

Chikhladze Nadezhda Georgievna, born in 1908, in 1941-1942 - military doctor of the 3rd rank, head of laboratory of the 474th Health Support battalion of the 386th Rifle Division of Independent Coastal Army.

Khodakovskaya (Shemyakina) Maria Andreevna was born on February 6, 1922 in the city of Yaloturovsk, Tyumen region. Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, home front worker. From 1941 to December 1945, she worked at the Tyumen distance of the LM Kaganovich railway track - a repair worker and a foreman of a track measuring trolley. It was a truly titanic work to restore the railway and railway bridges after the explosions and during the hostilities. Maria Andreevna's works were marked with awards and gratitude, including cash prizes - for the skillful use of internal resources and the use of non-standard working methods. She was awarded several medals, including the “Defender of the Fatherland” medal. During the war, she lost her husband and two sons. The first husband was killed, died at the front. Two of her young sons died of pneumonia - there was not enough medicine, all medicines went to the front. In 1944, she met Nikolai Pavlovich Khodakovsky, her future second husband - to whom she was faithful and devoted to the end of her life, even after his death, and from whom she gave birth to 4 children (three daughters and a son). He was sent from the city of Chita to the Tyumen region as a mechanic and a hammer to restore the railway, steam locomotives and carriages. We worked together in the same field for the sake of common Victory. In August 1945, their eldest daughter was born. In 1946 they were transferred to Chita. Since 1948, Maria Andreevna lived with her family in the city of Korosten, Zhytomyr region, in Ukraine. In the Korosten depot she worked on the railroad as a switchman, and also worked at a confectionery factory. In addition, there was a needlewoman - with her own hands, with her little daughters, she made artificial flowers, boutonnieres, wedding (and not only) wreaths, which were sold even in Leningrad. Throughout her life she helped people and even cured diseases. Maria Andreevna was an incredible person with a strong spirit. She died on December 19, 2013, having lived for almost 92 years. She was buried in her historical homeland, in the city of Yalutorovsk, Tyumen region.