Valeria Osipovna Gnarovskaya was born October 18, 1923 in the Modolitsi village, Kingiseppsky district of Leningrad region. Branch of the armed forces: Military medical staff. Division: 244th Rifle Zaporozhye Red Banner order of Suvorov Division. Her father was drafted into the Red Army with the beginning of the great Patriotic war, and with the approach of German troops to Leningrad, the Gnarovsky family was evacuated to Ishim in the Tyumen region. They were sent to the village of Berdyuzhye, where Valeria, along with her mother, began working in the local post office. From the very beginning of the war, Valeria repeatedly appealed to the local military Commissariat with a request to send her to the front, but each time she was rejected. In the spring of 1942, the Komsomol members of t of Berdyuzhye village went to the Ishim station and joined the 229th Rifle Division that was being formed there. Valeria, along with her friends, went through military training and studied sanitary. In July 1942, the division was sent to the Stalingrad front and was immediately engaged in heavy fighting, in which Valeria Gnarovskaya showed bravery and carried the wounded from the battlefield. According to the memoirs of her front-line friend E. Doronina: ""On the approaches to the front, in the heat, on a dusty road, in full equipment, we went day and night… Not far from Surovikino station, our unit came into action. There were strong fights... I felt uneasy, especially in the first few minutes. We were so confused that we were afraid to come out of hiding on the battlefield. The impact of artillery shells, the explosion of bombs-all mixed up in a continuous roar. The world around us was dying and the ground was collapsing under our feet. As I remember now, Valeria was the first to run out of the trench and shouted: ""Comrades! Let's die for the Motherland! Let's go! "" and everyone left the trenches and rushed to the battlefield without any hesitation"". The division was fighting heavy battles with the enemy for 17 days, was surrounded totally and its way back to Soviet side for a week. Valeria courageously performed the duty of a medic. But soon she fell ill with typhoid fever. The soldiers broke through the encirclement and carried out a barely alive girl in their arms. Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna was awarded the Medal ""For courage"". After recovery she returned again to the front. In the summer of 1943 V.Gnarovskaya again came to the hospital with a concussion, but soon returned to her division. In a letter to her mother dated by August 22, 1943 she wrote that she was alive and well, that she had been to the hospital for the second time, could not hear well after the concussion, but hoped that everything would pass: ""From August 15 to August 21,1943, there was a hot battle with the Germans. They rushed to the high-rise where we stood, but all their attempts to break through didn't work out. Our fighters, me dear friends,fought bravely. Many of them died ,but I survived, and I must tell you, my dear, that I did a great job. About 30 seriously wounded soldiers were carried out from the battlefield.""During the period of offensive battles Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna saved the lives of more than 300 wounded. On September 23, 1943 Valeria Gnarovskaya pulled out on herself many wounded and took them to the dressing station during the fight near the village Verbove (farm Ivanenkova) . At this time, two German ""tigers"" broke through in the direction of the dressing station. Valeria Gnarovskaya rushed under one of them with a bunch of grenades and blew it up, the second tank was hit by the Red Army soldiers who arrived in time. Valeria Gnarovskaya was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on June 2, 1944 for her courage and heroism, and exemplary performance of tasks. From the presentation to the award: ""Only in the battle for the city of Dolitsa near the river Seversky Donets she took out 47 wounded soldiers and officers with their weapons from the battlefield.Personally destroyed 28 German soldiers and officers.Two enemy Tiger tanks broke through our defense line Under the Ivanenkovo state farm and rushed to the location of the regiment's headquarters. At this critical moment Valeria Gnarovskaya grabbed a bunch of grenades and rushed ahead of the enemy tank risking her life. The tank was stopped by the explosion. Colonel Pozhidaev,the Commander of the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Zaporizhia Red Division said on March 21, 1944:"" Valeria Gnarovskaya was awarded the ""Gold Star"" medal of Hero of the Soviet Union (June 2, 1944, posthumously), order of Lenin (2 June 1944, posthumously), the Medal ""For courage"" (1942). Later Verbove village (farm Ivanenkova) was renamed in Gnarovskoe in her honor. A memory obelisk was errected there. There is a monument in honor of Valeria Gnarovskaya in the city of Podporozhye, and a street named after her. There are streets named after her in Tyumen, the Ukrainian city of Volnyansk and the village of Beguile. A monument was erected on the street named after her in the village of Plyussa, Pskov region in 2008. About her family. Her father Osip Gnarovski returned home from the front after the war and died. Mother Evdokia Mikhailovna lived in the city of Podporozhye, Leningrad region.Her sister Victoria worked as a teacher in 1970ies."