When was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya born? The immortal feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

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

Time of Doubt

The country learned about the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya from the essay “Tanya” by war correspondent Pyotr Lidov, published in the newspaper Pravda on January 27, 1942. It told the story of a young partisan girl who was captured by the Germans during a combat mission, survived the brutal bullying 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 previous ideals, and it did not bypass the story of the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The new materials that were released claimed that Zoya, who suffered from schizophrenia, arbitrarily and indiscriminately burned rural houses, including those where there were no Nazis. End up angry local residents They captured the saboteur and handed her over to the Germans.

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

Behind enemy lines

In the troubled October days of 1941, when Muscovites were preparing for street battles, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, along with other Komsomol members, went to enroll in the newly created detachments 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 persistence, Zoya convinced the military commission to accept her into the detachment.

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

Fatal task

On November 17, 1941, the military command issued an order which ordered to “deprive German army the opportunity to be located in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold in the field, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze under open air».

In fulfillment of this order, on November 18 (according to other information - 20), the commanders of the sabotage groups were ordered to burn 10 villages occupied by the Germans. Everything was allocated from 5 to 7 days. One of the squads included Zoya.

Near the village of Golovkovo, the detachment came across an ambush and was scattered during the firefight. Some of the soldiers died, some were captured. Those who remained, including Zoya, united into 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 communications center, but she never arrived at the agreed upon meeting place.

Fatal task

According to various sources, Zoya spent one or two days in the forest and returned to the village to complete the task. This fact gave rise to the version that Kosmodemyanskaya set fire to houses without orders.

The Germans were ready to meet the partisan, and they also instructed the local residents. When trying to set fire to the house of S.A. Sviridov, the owner notified the Germans who were lodged there and Zoya was captured. The beaten girl was taken to the Kulik family house.
The owner P. Ya. Kulik recalls how a partisan with “bleeding lips and a swollen face” was brought into 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 Kulik asked who burned the houses, Zoya answered that “she.” According to the owner, the girl asked if there were any victims, to which she replied “no.” The Germans managed to run out, but only 20 horses died. Judging from the conversation, Zoya was surprised that there were still residents in the village, since, according to her, they should have “left the village long ago from the Germans.”

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

Hot on the heels

When in January 1942 Pyotr Lidov heard from an old man a story about a Muscovite girl executed by the Germans in Petrishchev, 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 village residents.

But to identify the girl, a photograph was needed. The next time he came with Pravda photojournalist Sergei Strunnikov. Having opened the grave, they took the necessary photographs.
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 mystery of 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 the identity of the girl executed in Petrishchev was finally confirmed only at the beginning of February 1942 by a special commission. In addition to the village residents, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s classmate and teacher took part in the identification. On February 10, Zoya’s mother and brother were shown photographs of the dead girl: “Yes, this is Zoya,” they both answered, although not very confidently.
To remove final doubts, Zoya’s mother, brother and friend Klavdiya Miloradova were asked to come to Petrishchevo. All of them, without hesitation, identified the murdered girl as Zoya.

Alternative versions

IN recent years The version that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was betrayed to the Nazis by her comrade Vasily Klubkov became popular. At the beginning of 1942, Klubkov returned to his unit and reported that he had been captured by the Germans, but then escaped.
However, during interrogations, he gave other testimony, in particular, that he was captured along with Zoya, handed her over 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 incriminate Klubkov either for career reasons or for propaganda purposes. One way or another, this version has not received any confirmation.
When in the early 1990s information appeared 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 Research Institute of Forensic Expertise using photographs of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Lily Ozolina and photographs of the girl, executed in Petrishchevo, which were found in the possession of a captured German. The commission’s conclusion was unequivocal: “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is captured in German photographs.”
M. M. Gorinov wrote this about the publications that exposed Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat: “They reflected some facts of the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which were hushed up in Soviet times, but were reflected, as in a distorting mirror, in a monstrously distorted form.”

Booker Igor 12/02/2013 at 19:00

From time to time, attempts are made to denigrate the feat of truly national heroes of the Soviet era. The selfless 18-year-old Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya did not escape this fate. How many buckets of dirt were poured on it in the early 90s, but time has washed away this foam too. These days, 72 years ago, Zoya died the death of a martyr, sacredly believing in her Motherland and its future.

Is it possible to defeat a people who, retreating, leave the enemy scorched earth? Is it possible to bring people to their knees if women and children, unarmed, are ready to rip the throat of a hefty fellow? To defeat such heroes, you need to try to make sure that they no longer exist. And there are two ways - forced sterilization of mothers or castration of the people's memory. When the enemy came to Holy Rus', he was always opposed by people of High Faith. IN different years she changed her outer coverings, inspiring the Christ-loving army for a long time, and then fought under red flags.

It is significant that the first woman who was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) during the Great Patriotic War was born into a family of hereditary priests. Zoya Anatolyevna bore the surname Kozmodemyanskaya, common for Orthodox clergy. The surname owes its origin to the holy miracle-working brothers Cosmas and Damian. Among the Russian people, the unmercenary Greeks were quickly remade in their own way: Kozma or Kuzma and Damian. Hence the surname that Orthodox priests bore. Zoya’s grandfather, the priest of the Znamenskaya Church in the Tambov village of Osino-Gai, Pyotr Ioannovich Kozmodemyansky, was drowned by the Bolsheviks in a local pond in the summer of 1918 after severe torture. Already in Soviet years The usual spelling of the surname - Kosmodemyansky - has also become established. The son of a martyr priest and the father of the future heroine, Anatoly Petrovich, first studied at the theological seminary, but was forced to leave it.

There is mortal peace on your face...
This is not how we will remember you.
You remained alive among the people,
And the Fatherland is proud of you.
You are like her battle glory,
You are like a song calling to battle!

Agnia Barto

“No matter how much you hang us, don’t hang us all, we are one hundred and seventy million. But our comrades will avenge you for me.”

…Yes. She said this - Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya - the first woman awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 into a family of priests. Her place of birth is the village of Osino-Gai, Tambov province (USSR). Zoya's grandfather, Pyotr Ioannovich Kosmodemyansky, was brutally killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 for trying to hide counter-revolutionaries in a church. Zoya's father, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky, studied at the theological seminary, but did not have time to graduate because... (according to Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya - Zoya’s mother) the whole family fled from denunciation to Siberia. From where a year later she moved to Moscow. In 1933, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky died after an operation. Thus, Zoya and her brother Alexander (future Hero of the Soviet Union) were left to be raised by one mother. Zoya graduated from the 9th grade of school No. 201. She was interested in school subjects such as history and literature. But, unfortunately, to find common language It was difficult for her with her classmates. In 1938, Zoya joined the All-Union Leninist communist union youth (VLKSM).

In 1941, terrible events began for the country, the Great Patriotic War began. From the first days, brave Zoya wanted to fight for her homeland and go to the front. She contacted the Oktyabrsky District Komsomol Committee. On October 31, 1941, Zoya, along with other Komsomol volunteers, was taken to a sabotage school. After three days After training, the girl became a fighter in a reconnaissance and sabotage unit (“partisan unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front”). The leaders of the military unit warned that the participants in this operation were actually suicide bombers; the loss rate of fighters would be 95%. Recruits were also warned about torture and death in captivity. Anyone unprepared was asked to leave the school. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, like many other volunteers, did not flinch; she was ready to fight for the victory of the Soviet Union in this terrible war. Then Kosmodemyanskaya was only 18 years old, her life was just beginning, but Great War ruined the life of young Zoya.

On November 17, the Supreme High Command issued order No. 428, which ordered to deprive (quote) “the German army of the opportunity to be located in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold in the field, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open.” sky,” with the purpose of “destroying and burning to the ground all populated areas in the rear of German troops.”

A team of saboteurs was tasked with burning ten settlements within 5-7 days. The group, which included Zoya, was given Molotov cocktails and dry rations for 5 days.

Kosmodemyanskaya managed to set fire to three houses and also destroy German transport. On the evening of November 28, while trying to set fire to the barn, Zoya was captured by the Germans. She was questioned by three officers. It is known that the girl called herself Tanya and did not say anything about her reconnaissance squad. The German executioners brutally tortured the girl; they wanted to find out who sent her and why. From the words of those present, it is known that Zoya, having been stripped naked, was flogged with belts, then led barefoot through the snow in the cold for four hours. It is also known that Smirnova and Solina, the housewives whose houses were set on fire, took part in the beating. For this they were subsequently sentenced to death.

The courageous Komsomol member did not say a word. Zoya was so brave and devoted to her Motherland that she did not even give her real name.

At 10:30 the next morning, Kosmodemyanskaya was taken to the street where a gallows had already been erected. All the people were forced to go out into the street to look at this “spectacle”. They hung a sign on Zoya’s chest that read “House Arsonist.” Then they put her on a box and put a noose around her neck. The Germans began to photograph her - they really loved photographing people before execution. Zoya, taking advantage of the moment, began to speak loudly:

Hey, comrades! Be brave, fight, beat the Germans, burn them. Poison!.. I'm not afraid to die, comrades. This is happiness, to die for your people. Farewell, comrades! Fight, don't be afraid! Stalin is with us! Stalin will come!

The body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya hung on the street for a month. Passing soldiers repeatedly mocked him shamelessly. On New Year's Day 1942, drunken fascist monsters took off her clothes and stabbed her body with knives, cutting off one breast. After such abuse, it was ordered to remove the body and bury it outside the village. Subsequently, the body of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was reburied in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

The fate of this courageous girl became known from the article “Tanya” by Pyotr Lidov, published on January 27, 1942 in the Pravda newspaper. And already on February 16, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Poems, stories, poems are dedicated to Kosmodemyanskaya. Monuments to the Heroine were erected on the Minsk highway, at the Izmailovsky Park metro station, in the city of Tambov and the village of Petrishchevo. In tribute to Zoya, museums have been opened and streets have been named. Zoya, a young and selfless girl, became an inspiring example for the entire Soviet people. Her heroism and courage shown in the fight against fascist invaders, are admired and inspired to this day.

Hero of the Soviet Union. Knight of the Order of Lenin

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region, into a family of hereditary local priests.

For a year, the family lived in the village of Shitkino on the Yenisei, then managed to move to Moscow - perhaps thanks to the efforts of sister Lyubov Kosmodemyaskaya, who served in the People's Commissariat for Education. In the children's book “The Tale of Zoya and Shura,” Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya also reported that the move to Moscow occurred after a letter from sister Olga.

Zoya's father, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky, died in 1933 after an intestinal operation, and the children (Zoya and her younger brother Alexander) were left to be raised by their mother.

At school, Zoya studied well, was especially interested in history and literature, and dreamed of entering the Literary Institute. However, her relationships with her classmates did not always develop in the best way - in 1938 she was elected Komsomol group organizer, but then was not re-elected. According to Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, Zoya was ill nervous disease since 1939, when she moved from 8th to 9th grade... Her peers did not understand her. She didn’t like the fickleness of her friends: Zoya often sat alone, worried about it, saying that she was a lonely person and that she couldn’t find a friend.

In 1940, she suffered from acute meningitis, after which she underwent rehabilitation in the winter of 1941 at a sanatorium for nervous diseases in Sokolniki, where she became friends with the writer Arkady Gaidar, who was lying there. That same year she graduated from 9th grade high school No. 201, despite large number classes missed due to illness.

On October 31, 1941, Zoya, among 2,000 Komsomol volunteers, came to the gathering place at the Colosseum cinema and from there was taken to the sabotage school, becoming a fighter in the reconnaissance and sabotage unit, officially called the “partisan unit 9903 of the headquarters of the Western Front.” After three days of training, Zoya as part of the group was transferred to the Volokolamsk area on November 4, where the group successfully dealt with the mining of the road.

On November 17, Stalin issued Order No. 0428, which ordered that “the German army be deprived of the opportunity to be stationed in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold fields, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air,” with which the goal is “to destroy and burn to the ground all populated areas in the rear of 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 carry out this order, on November 18th (according to other sources, 20th) the commanders of sabotage groups of unit No. 9903 P.S. Provorov (Zoya was included in his group) and B.S. Krainev were ordered to burn within 5-7 days 10 settlements, including the village of Petrishchevo (Ruzsky district, Moscow region). The group members each had 3 Molotov cocktails, a pistol (for Zoya it was a revolver), dry rations for 5 days and a bottle of vodka. Having gone out on a mission together, both groups (10 people each) came under fire near the village of Golovkovo (10 kilometers from Petrishchev), suffered heavy losses and were partially scattered. Later, their remnants united under the command of Boris Krainev.

On November 27 at 2 o'clock in the morning, Boris Krainev, Vasily Klubkov and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya set fire to three houses of residents of Karelova, Solntsev and Smirnov in Petrishchevo, while 20 horses were killed by the Germans.

What is known about what happened next is that Krainev did not wait for Zoya and Klubkov at the agreed upon meeting place and left, safely returning to his people. Klubkov was captured by the Germans, and Zoya, having missed her comrades and being left alone, decided to return to Petrishchevo and continue the arson. However, both the Germans and local residents were already on guard, and the Germans created a guard of several Petrishchevsky men who were tasked with monitoring the appearance of arsonists.

Having stripped her naked, she was flogged with belts, then the guard assigned to her for 4 hours led her barefoot, in only her underwear, along the street in the cold. Local residents Solina and Smirnova (a fire victim) also tried to join in the torture of Zoya, throwing a pot of slop at Zoya. Both Solina and Smirnova were subsequently sentenced to death.

At 10:30 the next morning, Zoya was taken out into the street, where a hanging noose had already been erected, and a sign with the inscription “Arsonist” was hung on her chest. When Zoya was led to the gallows, Smirnova hit her legs with a stick, shouting: “Who did you harm? She burned my house, but did nothing to the Germans...”

After that, one officer swung his arms, and others shouted at her. Then she said: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender.” The officer shouted 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 framed the box. She stood on the box herself without any command. A German came up and began to put on the noose. At that time she shouted: “No matter how much you hang us, you won’t hang us all, there are 170 million of us.

But our comrades will avenge you for me.” She said this 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 hands. After that everyone dispersed."

The above footage of Zoe's execution was taken by one of the Wehrmacht soldiers, who was soon killed.

Zoya's body hung on the gallows for about a month, repeatedly being abused by German soldiers passing through the village. On New Year's Day 1942, drunken Germans tore off the hanged clothes and once again They violated the body, stabbing it with knives and cutting off its chest. The next day, the Germans gave the order to remove the gallows and the body was buried by local residents outside the village.

Subsequently, Zoya was reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Zoya’s fate became widely known from the article “Tanya” by Pyotr Lidov, published in the newspaper Pravda on January 27, 1942. The author accidentally heard about the execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in Petrishchev from a witness - an elderly peasant who was shocked by the courage of the unknown girl: “They hanged her, and she spoke a speech. They hanged her, and she kept threatening them...” Lidov went to Petrishchevo, questioned the residents in detail and published an article based on their questions. It was claimed that the article was noted by Stalin, who allegedly said: “Here is a national heroine,” and it was from this moment that the propaganda campaign around Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya began.

Her identity was soon established, as reported by Pravda in Lidov’s February 18 article “Who Was Tanya.” Even earlier, on February 16, a decree was signed to posthumously award her the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

During and after perestroika, in the wake of anti-communist propaganda, new information about Zoya. As a rule, it was based on rumors, not always accurate recollections of eyewitnesses, and in some cases, speculation - which was inevitable in a situation where documentary information contradicting the official “myth” continued to be kept secret or was just being declassified. M.M. Gorinov wrote about these publications that they “reflected some facts of the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which were hushed up during Soviet times, but were reflected, as in a distorting mirror, in a monstrously distorted form.”

Some of these publications claimed that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya suffered from schizophrenia, others - that she arbitrarily set fire to houses in which there were no Germans, and was captured, beaten and handed over to the Germans by the Petrishchevites themselves. It was also suggested that in fact it was not Zoya who accomplished the feat, but another Komsomol saboteur, Lilya Azolina.

Some newspapers wrote that she was suspected of schizophrenia, based on the article “Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya: Heroine or Symbol?” in the newspaper “Arguments and Facts” (1991, No. 43). The authors of the article - the leading doctor of the Scientific and Methodological Center for Child Psychiatry A. Melnikova, S. Yuryeva and N. Kasmelson - wrote: “Before the war in 1938-39, a 14-year-old girl named Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was repeatedly examined at the Leading Scientific and Methodological Center Center for Child Psychiatry and was an inpatient in the children's department of the hospital named after. Kashchenko. She was suspected of schizophrenia. Immediately after the war, two people came to the archives of our hospital and took out Kosmodemyanskaya’s medical history.”

No other evidence or documentary evidence of suspicion of schizophrenia was mentioned in the articles, although the memoirs of her mother and classmates did talk about a “nervous disease” that struck her in grades 8-9 (as a result of the mentioned conflict with classmates), for which she was examined. In subsequent publications, newspapers citing Argumenty i Fakty often omitted the word “suspected.”

In recent years, there was a version that Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was betrayed by her squadmate (and Komsomol organizer) Vasily Klubkov. It was based on materials from the Klubkov case, declassified and published in the Izvestia newspaper in 2000. Klubkov, who reported to his unit at the beginning of 1942, stated that he was captured by the Germans, escaped, was captured again, escaped again and managed to get to his own. However, during interrogations at SMERSH, he changed his testimony and stated that he was captured along with Zoya and betrayed her. Klubkov was shot “for treason to the Motherland” on April 16, 1942. His testimony contradicted the testimony of witnesses - village residents, and was also contradictory.

Researcher M.M. Gorinov suggests that the SMERSHists forced Klubkov to incriminate himself either for career reasons (in order to receive their share of dividends from the unfolding propaganda campaign around Zoya), or for propaganda reasons (to “justify” Zoya’s capture, which, according to the ideology of that time, was unworthy of a Soviet soldier). However, the version of betrayal was never put into propaganda circulation.

Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was born on September 13, 1923 in the village of Osino-Gai, Gavrilovsky district, Tambov region, into a family of hereditary local priests.

Her grandfather, priest Pyotr Ioannovich Kosmodemyansky, was executed by the Bolsheviks for hiding counter-revolutionaries in the church. The Bolsheviks captured him on the night of August 27, 1918, and after severe torture they drowned him in a pond. Zoya's father Anatoly studied at the theological seminary, but did not graduate from it. He married a local teacher, Lyubov Churikova, and in 1929 the Kosmodemyansky family ended up in Siberia. According to some statements, they were exiled, but according to Zoya’s mother, Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, they fled from denunciation. For a year, the family lived in the village of Shitkino on the Yenisei, then managed to move to Moscow - perhaps thanks to the efforts of sister Lyubov Kosmodemyaskaya, who served in the People's Commissariat for Education. In the children's book “The Tale of Zoya and Shura,” Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya also reported that the move to Moscow occurred after a letter from sister Olga.

Zoya's father, Anatoly Kosmodemyansky, died in 1933 after an intestinal operation, and the children (Zoya and her younger brother Alexander) were left to be raised by their mother.

At school, Zoya studied well, was especially interested in history and literature, and dreamed of entering the Literary Institute. However, her relationships with her classmates did not always develop in the best way - in 1938 she was elected Komsomol group organizer, but then was not re-elected. According to Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, Zoya had been suffering from a nervous disease since 1939, when she moved from 8th to 9th grade... Her peers did not understand her. She didn’t like the fickleness of her friends: Zoya often sat alone, worried about it, saying that she was a lonely person and that she couldn’t find a friend.

In 1940, she suffered from acute meningitis, after which she underwent rehabilitation in the winter of 1941 at a sanatorium for nervous diseases in Sokolniki, where she became friends with the writer Arkady Gaidar, who was lying there. That same year, she graduated from the 9th grade of secondary school No. 201, despite a large number of missed classes due to illness.

With the onset of the evening of November 28, while trying to set fire to the barn of S.A. Sviridov (one of the “guards” appointed by the Germans), Zoya was noticed by the owner. The Germans who were quartered by him grabbed the girl at about 7 o'clock in the evening. Sviridov was awarded a bottle of vodka by the Germans for this and was subsequently sentenced by a Soviet court to death. During interrogation, Kosmodemyanskaya identified herself as Tanya and did not say anything definite. Having stripped her naked, she was flogged with belts, then the guard assigned to her for 4 hours led her barefoot, in only her underwear, along the street in the cold. Local residents Solina and Smirnova (a fire victim) also tried to join in the torture of Zoya, throwing a pot of slop at Zoya. Both Solina and Smirnova were subsequently sentenced to death.

One of the witnesses describes the execution itself as follows: “They led her by the arms all the way to the gallows. She walked straight, with her head raised, silently, proudly. They brought him to the gallows. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows. They brought her to the gallows, ordered her to expand the circle around the gallows and began to photograph her... She had a bag with bottles with her. She shouted: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look, but we need to help fight! This death of mine is my achievement.” After that, one officer swung his arms, and others shouted at her. Then she said: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender.” The officer shouted 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 framed the box. She stood on the box herself without any command. A German came up and began to put on the noose. At that time she shouted: “No matter how much you hang us, you won’t hang us all, there are 170 million of us. But our comrades will avenge you for me.” She said this 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 hands. After that everyone dispersed."

The above footage of Zoe's execution was taken by one of the Wehrmacht soldiers, who was soon killed.

Zoya's body hung on the gallows for about a month, repeatedly being abused by German soldiers passing through the village. On New Year's Day 1942, drunken Germans tore off the hanged woman's clothes and once again violated the body, stabbing it with knives and cutting off her chest. The next day, the Germans gave the order to remove the gallows and the body was buried by local residents outside the village.

Subsequently, Zoya was reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

During and after perestroika, in the wake of anti-communist propaganda, new information about Zoya appeared in the press. As a rule, it was based on rumors, not always accurate recollections of eyewitnesses, and in some cases, speculation - which was inevitable in a situation where documentary information contradicting the official “myth” continued to be kept secret or was just being declassified. M.M. Gorinov wrote about these publications that they “reflected some facts of the biography of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, which were hushed up during Soviet times, but were reflected, as in a distorting mirror, in a monstrously distorted form.”

Researcher M.M. Gorinov assumed that the SMERSHists forced Klubkov to incriminate himself either for career reasons (in order to receive his share of dividends from the unfolding propaganda campaign around Zoya), or for propaganda reasons (to “justify” Zoya’s capture, which was unworthy, according to the ideology of that time , Soviet fighter). However, the version of betrayal was never put into propaganda circulation.

In 2005, a film about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was filmed documentary“Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The truth about the feat."

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Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov

Materials used:

Internet materials

ANOTHER LOOK

"The Truth about Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya"

The story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s feat since the war era is essentially textbook. As they say, this has been written and rewritten. However, in the press, and in lately and on the Internet, no, no, and some “revelation” of a modern historian will appear: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was not a defender of the Fatherland, but an arsonist who destroyed villages near Moscow, dooming the local population to death in severe frosts. Therefore, they say, the residents of Petrishchevo themselves seized her and handed her over occupation authorities. And when the girl was brought to execution, the peasants allegedly even cursed her.

"Secret" mission

Lies rarely arise out of nowhere; their breeding ground is all sorts of “secrets” and omissions from official interpretations of events. Some circumstances of Zoya's exploit were classified, and because of this, somewhat distorted from the very beginning. Until recently in official versions it was not even clearly defined who she was or what exactly she did in Petrishchevo. Zoya was called either a Moscow Komsomol member who went behind enemy lines to take revenge, or a partisan reconnaissance woman captured in Perishchevo while carrying out a combat mission.

Not so long ago I met front-line intelligence veteran Alexandra Potapovna Fedulina, who knew Zoya well. The old intelligence officer said:

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was not a partisan at all.

She was a Red Army soldier in a sabotage brigade, which was led by legendary Arthur Karlovich Sprogis. In June 1941 he formed a special military unit No. 9903 for carrying out sabotage operations behind enemy lines. Its core consisted of volunteers from Komsomol organizations in Moscow and the Moscow region, and the command staff was recruited from students of the Frunze Military Academy. During the Battle of Moscow, 50 combat groups and detachments were trained in this military unit of the intelligence department of the Western Front. In total, from September 1941 to February 1942, they made 89 penetrations behind enemy lines, destroyed 3,500 German soldiers and officers, eliminated 36 traitors, blew up 13 fuel tanks and 14 tanks. In October 1941, we studied in the same group with Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya at the brigade reconnaissance school. Then together we went behind enemy lines on special missions. In November 1941, I was wounded, and when I returned from the hospital, I learned the tragic news of Zoya’s martyrdom.

Why was the fact that Zoya was a fighter in the active army kept silent for a long time? - I asked Fedulina.

Because the documents that determined the field of activity, in particular, of the Sprogis brigade, were classified.

Later, I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the recently declassified order of the Supreme Command Headquarters No. 0428 dated November 17, 1941, signed by Stalin. I quote: It is necessary to “deprive the German army of the opportunity to be located in villages and cities, drive the German invaders out of all populated areas into the cold fields, smoke them out of all rooms and warm shelters and force them to freeze in the open air. Destroy and burn to the ground all populated areas in the rear of 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 populated areas within the specified radius, immediately deploy aviation, make extensive use of artillery and mortar fire, reconnaissance teams, skiers and sabotage groups equipped with Molotov cocktails, grenades and demolition devices. In the event of a forced withdrawal of our units... take the Soviet population with us and be sure to destroy all populated areas without exception, so that the enemy cannot use them.”

This is the task that the soldiers of the Sprogis brigade, including Red Army soldier Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, performed in the Moscow region. Probably, after the war, the leaders of the country and the Armed Forces did not want to exaggerate the information that soldiers in the active army were burning villages near Moscow, so the above-mentioned order from Headquarters and other documents of this kind were not declassified for a long time.

Of course, this order reveals a very painful and controversial page of the Moscow Battle. But the truth of war can be much more cruel than our current understanding of it. It is unknown how the bloodiest battle of World War II would have ended if the Nazis had been given full opportunity to rest in flooded village huts and fatten up on collective farm grub. In addition, many fighters of the Sprogis brigade tried to blow up and set fire only to those huts where the fascists were quartered and headquarters were located. It is also impossible not to emphasize that when there is a life-or-death struggle, at least two truths are manifested in people’s actions: one is philistine (to survive at any cost), the other is heroic (readiness to self-sacrifice for the sake of Victory). It is the collision of these two truths, both in 1941 and today, that occurs around Zoya’s feat.

What happened in Petrishchevo

On the night of November 21-22, 1941, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya crossed the front line as part of a special sabotage and reconnaissance group of 10 people. Already in the occupied territory, the fighters in the depths of the forest ran into an enemy patrol. Someone died, someone, showing cowardice, turned back, and only three - group commander Boris Krainov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Komsomol organizer of the reconnaissance school Vasily Klubkov continued moving along the previously determined route. On the night of November 27-28, they reached the village of Petrishchevo, where, in addition to other military installations of the Nazis, they were to destroy a field radio and radio-technical reconnaissance point carefully disguised as a stable.

The eldest, Boris Krainov, assigned roles: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya penetrates into the southern part of the village and destroys houses where the Germans live with Molotov cocktails, Boris Krainov himself - in the central part, where the headquarters is located, and Vasily Klubkov - in the northern part. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya successfully completed a combat mission - she destroyed two houses and an enemy car with KS bottles. However, when returning back to the forest, when she was already far from the site of sabotage, she was noticed by the local elder Sviridov. He called the fascists. And Zoya was arrested. The grateful occupiers poured a glass of vodka for Sviridov, as local residents told about this after the liberation of Petrishchevo.

Zoya was tortured for a long time and brutally, but she did not give out any information about the brigade or where her comrades should wait.

However, the Nazis soon captured Vasily Klubkov. He showed cowardice and told everything he knew. Boris Krainov miraculously managed to escape into the forest.

Traitors

Subsequently, fascist intelligence officers recruited Klubkov and, with a “legend” about his escape from captivity, sent him back to the Sprogis brigade. But he was quickly exposed. During interrogation, Klubkov spoke about Zoya’s feat.

“Clarify the circumstances under which you were captured?

Approaching the house I had identified, I broke the bottle with “KS” and threw it, but it did not catch fire. At this time, I saw two German sentries not far from me and, showing cowardice, ran away into the forest, located 300 meters from the village. As soon as I ran into the forest, two German soldiers pounced on me, took away my revolver with cartridges, bags with five bottles of “KS” and a bag with food supplies, among which was also a liter of vodka.

What statements did you give to the officer? German army?

As soon as I was handed over to the officer, I showed cowardice and said that only three of us had come, naming the names of Krainov and Kosmodemyanskaya. The officer gave it to German some kind of order to the German soldiers, they quickly left the house and a few minutes later they brought Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. I don’t know whether they detained Krainov.

Were you present during the interrogation of Kosmodemyanskaya?

Yes, I was present. The officer asked her how she set the village on fire. She replied that she did not set the village on fire. After this, the officer began beating Zoya and demanded testimony, but she categorically refused to give one. In her presence, I showed the officer that this was really Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya, who arrived in the village with me to carry out acts of sabotage, and that she set fire to the southern outskirts of the village. Kosmodemyanskaya did not answer the officer’s questions after that. Seeing that Zoya was silent, several officers stripped her naked and severely beat her with rubber truncheons for 2-3 hours, extracting her testimony. Kosmodemyanskaya told the officers: “Kill me, I won’t tell you anything.” After which she was taken away, and I never saw her again.”

From the interrogation protocol of A.V. Smirnova dated May 12, 1942: “The next day after the fire, I was at my burned house, citizen Solina came up to me and said: “Come on, I’ll show you who burned you.” After these words she said, we headed together to the Kulikov house, where the headquarters had been transferred. Entering the house, we saw Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was under the guard of German soldiers. Solina and I began to scold her, in addition to scolding, I swung my mitten at Kosmodemyanskaya twice, and Solina hit her with her hand. Further, Valentina Kulik did not allow us to mock the partisan, who kicked us out of her house. During the execution of Kosmodemyanskaya, when the Germans brought her to the gallows, I took a wooden stick, walked up to the girl and, in front of everyone present, hit her on the legs. It was at that moment when the partisan was standing under the gallows; I don’t remember what I said.”

Execution

From the testimony of V.A. Kulik, a resident of the village of Petrishchevo: “They hung a sign on her chest, on which was written in Russian and German: “Arsonist.” They led her by the arms all the way to the gallows, because due to torture she could no longer walk on her own. There were many Germans and civilians around the gallows. They brought her to the gallows and began to photograph her.

She shouted: “Citizens! Don't stand there, don't look, but we need to help the army fight! My death for my Motherland is my achievement in life.” Then she said: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it’s too late, surrender. The Soviet Union is invincible and will not be defeated." She said all this while she was being photographed.

Then they set up the box. She, without any command, having gained strength from somewhere, stood on the box herself. A German came up and began to put on the noose. At that time she shouted: “No matter how much you hang us, you won’t hang us all, there are 170 million of us! But our comrades will avenge you for me.” She said this 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 instinctively grabbed the rope with her hand, but the German hit her hand. After that everyone dispersed."

The girl’s body hung in the center of Petrishchevo for a whole month. Only on January 1, 1942, the Germans allowed residents to bury Zoya.

To each his own

On a January night in 1942, during the battle for Mozhaisk, several journalists found themselves in a village hut that had survived the fire in the Pushkino region. Pravda correspondent Pyotr Lidov talked with an elderly peasant who said that the occupation overtook him in the village of Petrishchevo, where he saw the execution of a Muscovite girl: “They hanged her, and she gave a speech. They hanged her, and she kept threatening them...”

The old man’s story shocked Lidov, and that same night he left for Petrishchevo. The correspondent did not calm down until he spoke with all the residents of the village and found out all the details of the death of our Russian Joan of Arc - that’s what he called the executed partisan, as he believed. Soon he returned to Petrishchevo along with Pravda photojournalist Sergei Strunnikov. They opened the grave, took a photo, and showed it to the partisans.

One of the partisans of the Vereisky detachment recognized the executed girl, whom he had met in the forest on the eve of the tragedy that took place in Petrishchevo. She called herself Tanya. Under this name the heroine was included in Lidov’s article. And only later it was discovered that this was a pseudonym that Zoya used for conspiracy purposes.

The real name of the woman executed in Petrishchevo in early February 1942 was established by a commission of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol. The act dated February 4 stated:

"1. Citizens of the village of Petrishchevo (last names follow) identified from photographs presented by the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front that the hanged person was Komsomol member Z.A. Kosmodemyanskaya.

2. The commission excavated the grave where Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya was buried. An examination of the corpse... once again confirmed that the hanged person was Comrade. Kosmodemyanskaya Z.A.”

On February 5, 1942, the commission of the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol prepared a note to the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a proposal to nominate Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya for awarding the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). And already on February 16, 1942, the corresponding Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published. As a result, Red Army soldier Z.A. Kosmodemyanskaya became the first in the Great Patriotic War female holder of the Golden Star of the Hero.

Headman Sviridov, traitor Klubkov, fascist accomplices Solina and Smirnova were sentenced to capital punishment.