Vera Danilovna Voloshina, Soviet intelligence officer, hero of the Russian Federation. Vera Voloshina

What feat did Vera Voloshina accomplish? Who is she? We will consider these and other questions in the article. Vera was a Red Army soldier of the reconnaissance and sabotage unit, which belonged to the headquarters Western Front. This girl was thrown into the German rear in 1941, and she is a Hero Russian Federation(1944).

Biography

The feat of Vera Voloshina is known to many. The girl was born in 1919, on September 30, in the village of Shcheglovsk (now the metropolis of Kemerovo) of the Verkho-Tomsky volost of the Kuznetsk district in Russia, in the family of a teacher and a miner. When she began to study at school, she also took up sports at the same time: athletics and gymnastics. In high school, she won the high jump championship.

Yuri Dvuzhilny was her close friend and classmate. When Vera finished ten classes, she moved to Moscow. In 1936, the girl entered the Central state institute physical education. At the same time, she enrolled in a Moscow flying club, where she began to learn to jump with a parachute and mastered piloting the I-153 Chaika aircraft. She also became seriously interested in drawing, shooting and poetry. In 1936, she wrote a statement in which she expressed her desire to take part in civil war that started in Spain. She was denied.

In 1935, the artist and sculptor I. D. Shadr received a state order for the production of a series of sculptures for the Gorky Recreation and Culture Park, which at that time was being built in Moscow. He went to the swimming pool of the sports institute, where he liked the student Voloshin. A group of twenty students, among whom was Vera, ended up in the sculptor's workshop.

Surrounded by fountains at the main entrance of the Central Park of Culture and Culture, a statue of a “Girl with an oar” was installed - exact copy Faith. Countless likenesses of this work of art were subsequently installed in parks throughout the Union. According to other information, this is a legend. In fact, Shadr created the first version of the statue in 1934-1935, when Vera was 15-16 years old, and she could not be a student who graduated from school.

In addition, the second version of the statue was made after criticism from another model, and the work of another sculptor was multiplying. Why was the statue criticized? Because she had absolutely no clothes on, which did not fit well with the already established Puritan norms.

In her first year, Vera Danilovna Voloshina, among other students, went to a sports school located near Serpukhov. There, the girl fell ill with the flu, which caused her legs to hurt. She had to be treated for a long time, but as a result, she was still forced to leave her studies at the sports university.

Nevertheless, having gathered her strength, Vera returned to Moscow, and together with friends from her native metropolis, she entered the Moscow University of Cooperative Soviet Trade.

In 1941, in the summer, Vera Danilovna Voloshina, after completing her third year, passed her exams and left for Zagorsk, near Moscow, where she began to undergo industrial practice. On June 22, together with her classmates, she decided to go on an excursion to the museum of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On the way, the girls in the department store bought Vera a silk white dress. Indeed, next year she planned to marry Yuri Dvuzhilny. Yuri has already proposed to her, and the lovers have decided on the date of the wedding. On the same day, Vera learned that the war had begun.

It is known that Voloshina died in 1941, on November 29, in the village of Golovkovo (Naro-Fominsky district, Moscow region).

First task

Until now, people remember the feat of Vera Voloshina. It is known that when the Great Patriotic War began, the girl was mobilized to dig anti-tank ditches and trenches in the area of ​​approaches to Moscow. In October, she joined the Red Army of her own free will. She was enrolled in military unit No. 9903, belonging to the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front Line, to carry out tasks behind enemy lines.

Perform for the first time combat missions Vera left in 1941, on October 21, to the area of ​​Zavidovo substation near Moscow. After that, she successfully visited the rear of the Germans six more times.

Zoya

In the army unit No. 9903 in 1941, in November, reinforcements arrived. Among the arrivals was Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who had just graduated from high school. Zoya in the team at first kept a little apart, but soon Vera found an approach to her, and the girls became friends. On their last task of setting fire to (liquidating) the enemy's heating and resting points (it was very cold that autumn), they left together.

Completing a task

In 1941, on November 21, two detachments left behind enemy lines. The first was led by Krainov Boris. Voloshina was appointed Komsomol organizer of the second, and Pavel Provorov was appointed commander. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was part of the second detachment. When the scouts crossed the front, they had to create two groups, each of which had its own task.

Nevertheless, when crossing the front, the fighters were fired upon by the enemy, and they hastily formed detachments, random in composition. So the paths of Vera and Zoe diverged. The Kosmodemyanskaya group headed towards the village of Petrishchevo. Vera also continued to complete the task with her comrades. But between the villages of Golovkovo and Yakshino, her detachment again came under fire, running into an ambush of the Germans. Vera was wounded and captured by the Nazis.

Two of her squad searched for Vera or her corpse, but they never found it. For a long time Red Army soldier Vera Voloshina was on the list of missing persons. Only in 1957, thanks to the search work of the journalist and writer G. N. Frolov, it was possible to find out how Vera died and to find her grave.

Doom

The execution of Vera Voloshina is a terrible event. Local residents said that the Germans hanged Vera in 1941, on November 29, at the Golovkovo state farm. A witness to the death of the girl said that the Germans brought Vera to the place of execution by car. They built a gallows from a roadside willow, around which a large number of fascists. They also brought here captured Russian soldiers who were working behind the bridge.

At first, Voloshin was not visible, but when the side walls of the car were lowered, people gasped. The girl lay in her underwear, which was all torn and smeared with blood. Two Germans climbed into the car and wanted to help Vera get up. But she pushed them away and, clinging to the cab with one hand, got to her feet. Her second arm hung like a whip - apparently, it was broken.

And then Vera began to speak. First, she said a few phrases in German and then continued her speech in Russian. She stated that she was not afraid of death, as she was sure that her comrades would avenge her. She said that the Russians would still defeat the Germans. The last words of Vera Voloshina are forever engraved in the memory of the inhabitants of the Golovkovo state farm.

And then the girl began to sing. She sang the "Internationale", which Soviet power always sung at meetings and broadcast on the radio in the morning and evening. The Germans silently listened to Vera's singing. The officer directing the execution shouted something to the soldiers. They threw a noose around Vera's neck and jumped off the car.

The officer approached the driver and ordered him to pull away. And he does not move, he is all white. Apparently, he's not used to hanging people yet. The officer then took out a revolver from his holster and shouted something to the driver. Apparently, he scolded a lot. He seemed to wake up, and the car drove off. Vera still had time to shout, so loudly that the villagers' blood froze in their veins: "Farewell, comrades!" When the witness opened her eyes, she saw that Vera was already hanging.

grave

People will never forget the feat of Vera Voloshina. Only in mid-December the enemy retreated, and the inhabitants of Golovkovo were able to remove the body of Vera from the willow. They buried her with honors here. Her remains were later transferred to mass grave located in Kryukov.

After some time, photos of the hanged girl were found in the German archives. Many experts are sure that Voloshina's execution is depicted on them.

Irreplaceable losses

The village of Petrishchevo was located ten kilometers from Golovkovo. On the day of Vera's execution, Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya was also hanged in her center.

Hero Soviet Union Dvuzhilny Yuri, Vera's lover, also did not survive the war. He died in battle, taking part in the Mogilev operation.

Rewards

It is known that Vera Voloshina is a Hero of the Russian Federation. This title was awarded to her in 1994, on May 6. In 1966, on January 27, an essay by Frolov Georgy Nikolaevich "The Order of the Daughter" was published in the Pravda newspaper.

In September, festive events dedicated to the Battle of Moscow were held. And it was at this moment that M. P. Georgadze (Secretary of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces) presented Vera’s mother with an order Patriotic War I degree.

Museums

Agree, the biography of Vera Voloshina is amazing. The following museums have been created in honor of her:

• Museum named after Voloshin Vera and Dvuzhilny Yuri (Kemerovo, school number 12).
• Part of the exposition, housed in the local history museum (Naro-Fominsk, Moscow region).
• Club "Memory" (the former museum of Voloshin Vera in the village of Kryukovo, Naro-Fominsk district).

Memory

In honor of the heroine, the following monuments were erected:

• Monument to Vera Voloshina in Golovkovo (Naro-Fominsky district, Moscow region).
• Monument to Voloshin in the village of Kryukovo (Naro-Fominsk district, Moscow region).
• There is st. Vera Voloshina in the cities of Mytishchi, Kemerovo, Dagestan Lights, Belovo (Kemerovo region).
• In 2017, an avenue in the Khoroshevsky district of the administrative northern Moscow district was named after her (the former Projected Road No. 6084).
• The House of Children's Folklore in the city of Naro-Fominsk also bears her name.
• A city park in the metropolis of Kemerovo is named after her.
• School number 12 in the city of Kemerovo bears her name.
• The ship of the Azov Shipping Company was named after the heroine.
• The name of Vera was given to the MAOU lyceum in the village of Golovkovo, where the heroine died.
• A documentary film "Vera Voloshina: Killed Twice" was created (workshop "Third Rome", 2007).
• The small planet 2009 Voloshina is named after Vera.
• On the Yaroslavl direction railway Since 2003, an electric train "named after the Hero of Russia Voloshina Vera" began to run in Moscow.

sculptures

What is the famous sculpture "Girl with an oar"? Why is she good? "Girl with an oar" - common name sculptures made in different time sculptors Romuald Iodko and Ivan Shadr. It has become a household name for identical plaster statues (“gypsum socialist realism”), which during the period of Soviet power adorned parks for recreation and culture.

It is known that the restoration of the Gorky Moscow Central Park of Culture and Culture in 1934 was carried out by the architect Alexander Vlasov. He decided to install some kind of vertical idea in the form of a woman's figure in a pool with fountains. Since Vlasov had previously contacted Ivan Shadr about staging various casts of classical sculptures in the park, it was he who was entrusted by the architect to sculpt the main sculpture of the recreation area.

Shadr in the same year began to work on the statue "Girl with an oar". Its height, together with the bronze base, was supposed to be 12 meters. Why did the master make it so tall? He proceeded from large-scale correspondences with the dimensions of the fountain and park alleys leading to it. The statue was installed in 1935 in the center of the spring on the main park path.

According to legend, the sculptor chose Vera Voloshina as a model, as we discussed above. The statue depicted a sportswoman without clothes, who stood and held an oar in her right hand. Her figure was distinguished by dynamics in the turn of the head and torso, powerful plasticity of outlines. The hair was twisted into two "horns", the head was clearly outlined, the back of the head and forehead were completely open.

However, the selection committee criticized Shadr's work, including for its great height, and in the same year the statue was moved to the recreation and culture park of Lugansk. The Tretyakov Gallery keeps a miniaturized copy of it. At the insistence of Shadr's wife, his plaster work was created in bronze in the late 1950s.

In the summer of 1936, Ivan Shadr made a new reduced eight-meter statue from tinted concrete. This time, the model for her was the gymnast Zoya Bedrinskaya. The statue was mounted on a fluted column in the center of the fountain. Around her beat jets of water, creating a kind of veil. In 1941, during the bombing, the sculpture was destroyed.

Some believe that the statues of Shadr served as prototypes for the manufacture of cheap plaster copies, massively installed in parks almost throughout the Soviet Union. In fact, they were made in the image of the work of the sculptor R. R. Iodko with the same name, created by him in 1936 for the park of the Dynamo hydrophyte stadium. The statue was made of plaster and had a height of 2.5 m. In contrast to Shadrov's "Girl", the statue of Iodko holds an oar in his left hand and is dressed in a bathing suit.

In 1935, Iodko Romuald made the statue "Girl with an oar" for the fountain. First, it was installed in Cherkizovo at the Moscow stadium "Electric". The statue depicted a woman standing on her left leg. She put her right foot on a stand, pushing her knee forward. Her left hand was lowered and touched the thigh, and the right hand of the woman leaned on the oar. She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. This statue also served as a prototype for making copies.

Present day

In 2011, in April, a copy of the statue was exhibited on Krymsky Val in the Tretyakov Gallery. At the same time, Sergey Kapkov (director of Gorky Park) announced that the statue would be restored in the park.

In 2011, on September 3, the recreated statue was supposed to be placed in the Central Park of Culture and Culture (within the boundaries of the interethnic regatta "Golden Boat"). In accordance with the message of the representative of the park, the statue was installed in 2011, on September 1, and opened on September 3, on the Day of the City.

It is known that songs were composed about a girl with an oar:

• Kimmelfeld Dmitry.
• "Underwood" (album "Red Button").
• Group "Aquarium" (album "White Horse").

The accordionist and composer of the ensemble "Birch" V. Temnov also mentions the famous sculpture in the song.

Vera Voloshina, beauty, student, athlete. At the same time, the sculpture "Girl with an oar", the model for which was a young girl, caused loud scandal, because few people know that the first option was much more frank.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the artist's muse died. Vera Voloshina was executed in the same way as Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. They went on the same task and died on the same day, but it was Zoya who was named the heroine. Why was Vera's feat not noticed? Why were the sculptures of Voloshina removed from the parks? Who was she? And what does she have in common with Kosmodemyanskaya? You will learn about this in the investigation of the Moscow Trust TV channel.

The ideal Komsomol member

1934 Moscow. The famous sculptor Ivan Shadr receives a large order: he needs to create a series of sculptures for the country's central park in a short time. Sculptures reflecting the new time - the era of construction, collectivization, sports achievements. For inspiration, the artist goes to the Moscow Institute of Physical Education.

True, Shadr lost one contest before. The image of "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" was given to embody his girlfriend Vera Mukhina.

At the Shadr Institute of Physical Education, they are introduced to the best athletes of the university. Among them is 15-year-old Vera Voloshina. After graduating from a seven-year school in her native Kemerovo, she came to Moscow to study further. The sculptor decides to use her image. She will become "The Paddle Girl".

Vera Voloshina, 1935

First, he made a sketch in miniature, which is stored in the storerooms of the Tretyakov Gallery.

“She was, according to the photographs, very similar to what you see now. The state of emergency was that a naked girl was staged. Soviet time, 1936 - and suddenly so naked. Obviously, this was supposed to cause conversations, bewilderment. In general, it was said: “It’s not good. It needs to be changed,” says Lyudmila Marts, head of the sculpture department of the 20th-21st centuries of the Tretyakov Gallery

Soon, the "Girl with an oar" will be taken away from the capital's Gorky Park - to another city. Shadr will try to create a new sculpture, take a different model, but critics will again see in it the features of the first one: "Too bright. Too frank."

"He made her naked again. And, from my point of view, even more naked, so ... she is naked. This work stood, was accepted, and she stood until 1941. And by all accounts, she just came under bombardment and ... died" - says Lyudmila Marts.

But the idea of ​​Shadr is picked up by another sculptor. He carved his "Girl with an oar". The story is sensational, the image is relevant, only he performed it in a puritanical style. The girl is now standing in a closed bathing suit. It is this sculpture that will eventually be replicated throughout the country. But if the name of that second model was lost over time, then Vera Voloshina was remembered not only as an excellent model. In 1994 she was awarded the title of "Hero of Russia".
Historian Konstantin Zalessky believes that if Voloshina's feat had been known earlier, then she could have become a symbol of the war.

"If it were possible to choose for the role of the Russian Joan of Arc one of the dead, from this Central intelligence and sabotage school, then, in principle, Vera would have to be chosen. But the factor of chance led to the fact that Zoya took her place ", - says historian Konstantin Zalessky.

Young saboteurs

Vera Voloshina hears the announcement of the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941 in a department store. At this moment, she is trying on a wedding dress. The girl will not get into intelligence immediately. First, together with her friends, she is mobilized for the defense of Moscow, they dig trenches. But soon Voloshin was taken to a special detachment.

Documentary filmmaker Vladislav Nikolaevsky reveals the essence of the work of such units. During the war, it was not customary to talk about it.

"There was the famous order 0428, signed by Stalin and the chief General Staff Shaposhnikov, about burning houses behind enemy lines. At home, sorry, our population. Now, of course, it is not entirely clear to us from the 21st century how it is possible to set fire to our own houses, but then it was caused by such a need, because the question was: to surrender Moscow, not to surrender Moscow, "explains Vladislav Nikolaevsky.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Photo: ITAR-TASS

To fulfill this order, detachments of NKVD soldiers are sent to the Moscow region. Among them are Vera Voloshina and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. Before that, Vera managed to complete several tasks, for Zoya such partisan sabotage becomes the first and last.

Yesterday's ninth grader - she gets into the detachment after only a few days of training at a sabotage school. Voloshina takes patronage over her, prompts and helps in training. The girls become friends. October 21, 1941 they will go on a mission together. And they will disappear.

“We seemed to feel that we would part in 1941. And on the eve, in the month of May, we took a picture with our whole class. And this card has remained with me since 1941, where we, our entire class, are together with the class teacher. 21 June was prom 10th grade, the school was graduating, and we, as ninth graders, were invited to this evening. And in the morning war was declared,” recalls Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s classmate Praskovya Kosacheva.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya's class goes together to the military registration and enlistment office to sign up as volunteers for the front. But they are not taken to the Red Army, they are sent to a local factory to help assemble guns for tanks. And only Zoya does not give up, she still found a way out, found how to get to the front.

“And she left calmly, at that time the Germans had already approached Moscow. Alarms began every day. Mom didn’t notice either, she says:“ No excitement, ”that is, she calmly left, ”says Praskovya Kosacheva.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya knows how to shoot, knows the basics of first aid, and speaks good German. Vera Voloshina also shoots well, jumps with a parachute, and even knows how to pilot an airplane.

"Zoya and Vera have a lot in common. Only Vera was the oldest in general. She was the oldest in age, it happened, and Zoya was just like the majority: they were yesterday's schoolchildren, aged 18-19. Vera was much more prepared for this work," says Konstantin Zalessky.

However, all the fighting skills of the girls were not useful. They go on a mission with only a few Molotov cocktails and a single-shot pistol.

“They were abandoned in the German rear. For four or five days these people are walking in winter conditions, without any special opportunities to warm themselves, it is impossible to kindle a fire. That is, they have bread, canned food, vodka - that’s all,” says Zalessky .

brutal torture

In fact, the operation itself in terms of effectiveness was negligible. A few Molotov cocktails will not cause significant damage to the Germans. But to remain inactive when the enemy was near the capital seemed then to be an even greater crime. Saboteurs operate at night, but in the territory occupied by the Germans it is impossible to walk at night without special passes or without being accompanied by local policemen. In case of capture, the scouts have a common legend.

"They were told that if you were without weapons, without anything, they would detain you between settlements after completing the task, then you must say that you are from such and such a village, naturally, go to this village, "explains Vladislav Nikolaevsky.

Even when crossing the front line, the unexpected happens: 100 kilometers from Moscow, a detachment of saboteurs comes under fire. Have to split up. In the confusion, Vera and Zoya find themselves in different groups. Kosmodemyanskaya will have time to complete her task only partially: an ambush will be waiting for one of the houses that she was going to set on fire.

Vera Voloshina in the student hostel of the Moscow Cooperative Institute

"Zoya was betrayed by one of the members of her group. That is, if not for him, then perhaps she could fight back. But here, given that Klubkov, who was with her, he actually surrendered ... he was captured, but not showed special firmness, he surrendered Zoya before the moment she was taken. When the Germans caught her, they knew that they were catching a fighter of a sabotage detachment, "says Konstantin Zalessky.

The Germans will torture Zoya, torture cruelly. The inhabitants of the village of Petrishchevo, whose houses she set on fire, will also mock her. Later, when they enter the village soviet soldiers and it becomes known about the feat of Kosmodemyanskaya, these people will be shot.

“I was struck by how they drove her out into a 30-degree frost and forced her to walk barefoot, almost naked for hours at night in Petrishchevo, and then they returned and brutally tortured her, beat her. After the execution, the Germans did not allow Zoya to be buried for about a month and in one evening with bayonets, abused her in every possible way," says Ilya Bakulin, a student of gymnasium No. 201 in Moscow.

On November 29, 1941, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was executed. On the same day, Vera Voloshina will also be killed in a neighboring village. In the village of Golovkovo, where she was captured, there are almost no inhabitants. The Germans are herding everyone to the church, which is a few kilometers away, and they are going to send them in trains to Germany. How Voloshina was captured years later will be restored bit by bit.

"Zoya was betrayed, Vera - no. She was wounded. So they crossed the road between Yakshino and Golovkovo, she was wounded in the shoulder. And then the Germans drove up in a car and took her. And the rest of the guys - they just managed to hide in the forest," he claims Lyubov Savenyuk, head of the Vera Voloshina Museum.

Unknown feat

From the window of Maria Kubrakova, a resident of Golovkovo, one can see the place where Vera was first buried. She was found in the spring, covered with snow and lime in a ditch.

“But we didn’t know who she was and what she was – neither her first name nor her last name. But we see that she is not one of the simple ones. Well, not ours, we see that she is a stranger. And we stood in the guard of honor at night, without light, the lanterns were lit , the fire was laid out there. And we took turns in the guard of honor. And they sent from the military unit from Naro-Fominsk, there were three soldiers, and when they lowered it into the grave, they fired rifles, they gave a salute, "says a resident of the village of Golovkovo, eyewitness of events Maria Kubrakova.

Later she will be reburied in a mass grave. And when they find out the name of the heroine, they will open a museum here. Every year, while she was alive, Vera Voloshina's mother came here. And the inhabitants again and again told her about the feat of their daughter.

“They tied a rope to a willow, drove the car, opened the sides, she was standing on the car. They put a noose around her neck, and then the command was to move, the driver slowly touches the car. She is standing on the car…”, says Maria Kubrakova.

Exhausted, beaten, with a broken arm, she suddenly sings "The Internationale". The driver freezes, unable to move. Until the German starts yelling at him and threatening him with a gun. Only in a couple of weeks, when the Wehrmacht soldiers leave the village, they will remove the girl from the tree and throw her into the ditch.

Vera Voloshina, 1941

“Vera was nameless for 16 years. But when the locals returned, they realized that she was a partisan. Of course, they didn’t know her name, but they buried her with honors. And they began to call her simply: our partisan,” says Lyubov Savenyuk.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was quickly identified. At the end of January 1942, the article "Tanya" appeared in the country's central newspaper, Pravda. The journalist tells how an unknown girl who called herself Tanya died in the village of Petrishchevo. He tells how this girl was hanged, and she shouted: "German soldiers, surrender! The Soviet Union is invincible!"

“Stalin liked Lidov’s essay. He liked that Lidov said there that she called on the population to fight, said that “Stalin is with us,” and so on. He liked it very much. Naturally, there was immediately an order to find out who it is and what it is,” says Vladislav Nikolaevsky.

A hero with a dark past

Soon they establish which of the scouts disappeared in these vicinity. And the fact that this is Zoya is confirmed by her younger brother, who then served as a tanker, and her mother. According to the recollections, when she saw her tormented daughter, she instantly turned gray.

Lidov writes another article - "Who was Tanya." So the whole country will know her real name.

“What could Zoya behave like that, to be honest, then we met, girls, we had no doubts, because her perseverance in character and such, you know, some kind of stubbornness. But not only that she was stubborn because of something - then, and if she said: “No!”, then it will be “no.” And therefore we were not surprised that this is our Zoya, "says Praskovya Kosacheva.

Monument to Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya at the Partizanskaya metro station

Detachments, divisions named after Kosmodemyanskaya appear. It seemed all Soviet army avenges her.

"During the war, she became the first woman - a Hero of the Soviet Union. Before that, there were still three or four women, but during the war she was the first. Then, of course, they invented very beautiful story that Stalin ordered the soldiers and officers of the 332nd German Infantry Regiment not to be taken prisoner. However, we have not seen such an order anywhere. But it is very possible that Stalin could give the NKVD such a task, because those who participated in the death of Zoya, and, apparently, not only Zoya, the NKVD was looking for, then the MGB, right up to 1948 - documents exist, "says Vladislav Nikolaevsky .

There is a version that the confession of the traitor Kosmodemyanskaya was also knocked out under the impression of Zoya's feat.

"The reaction even to Lidov's first article immediately had a very big effect. And, in principle, it was a very strong propaganda move: Zoya's feat - he, let's say, inspired the younger generation. And before that, too, there was big rush young people who wanted to go to the front to defend their homeland, but Zoya's feat gave an even greater impetus. And plus, again, the brutality of the Nazis played an additional role, that the soldiers should not just beat the enemy. But you also need to protect your people from these atrocities," says Konstantin Zalessky.

Kosmodemyanskaya was not an ideal heroine for propaganda. A big disadvantage for the Chekists was the fact that her grandfather turned out to be a priest. In addition, according to some reports, in 1918 the Bolsheviks tortured him, then drowned him. The biography of the Siberian and athlete Vera Voloshina would be more suitable for replication.

"Vera was much more "successful" origin. In addition, she already had behind her ... She had a "girl with an oar", and victories, in general, in good competitions. She was an ideal Komsomol member. She was a much brighter personality " , - says Zalessky.

However, when photographs of the execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya are found in one of the dead Germans, this will overshadow everything. The priest-grandfather is quickly forgotten. Pictures of the heroine fly around the country. For many years, only this small sculpture - "Girl with an oar" - remained a monument to Vera Voloshina.

“And then, here, in the park, a copy was put up. Well, sort of like this “Girl with an Oar.” In a different size, in a different material, but she stands there,” says Lyudmila Marts.

Round and round

In 2011, on the Day of the City of Moscow in the main park of the country - the Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure - Shadrin's version of "Girl with an oar" appears again. Artists again and again undertake to embody what the venerable sculptor once saw in Voloshin.

"The topic is interesting. Many, here Misha Pereyaslavets did it, very good. And then it just became like a disease: these girls with oars were stuck everywhere. It was just that there was a feeling, at some point, in the 50s, especially, after wars, when healthy optimism was needed, made these girls,” says sculptor Andrey Balashov.

And only this one, Shadrinskaya, ended up in the Tretyakov Gallery and is exhibited all over the world. Andrey Balashov, a recognized modern master, sees the famous "Girl with an oar" differently.

A copy of the sculpture "Girl with an oar" in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture. Photo: ITAR-TASS

“I am also trying to make a “Girl with an oar” like this, only another, respectively, not the same as Shadr’s. Not the same as someone else’s. Well, yes, an athlete, a Komsomol member and just a beauty, as expected. But for now the work has not yet been completed, so what will happen next ... ", Balashov admits.

The name of the partisan scout Vera Voloshina will be restored only in 1957 by the journalist Georgy Frolov. He will compare the lists of the missing and the lists of those who went on a mission to these forests. Soon all the newspapers will write who fought next to Zoya, and Voloshina's mother will finally be able to say goodbye to her.

Vera's fiancé, her classmate Yuri Dvuzhilny, died in the summer of 1944. He never found out about the fate of his bride.

“Vera didn’t get into this propaganda wave, and, accordingly, they didn’t know about her for a very long time. Widespread fame, if I’m not mistaken, came to Vera already in the early 90s,” says Konstantin Zalessky.

Now, streets, schools, trains, ships and even the planet are named after Vera Voloshina, along with the name of her friend Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. To understand what the girl was like, you can look at the sculpture for a long time, you can listen to stories about the feat again and again, or you can just read the last letter of 22-year-old Vera Voloshina:

“My dears! You probably haven’t received letters from me for a long time, and mom is terribly worried, right? Mamush, I didn’t manage to graduate from the institute, but I’ll finish it after the war. I’m at the front now, mom. Just don’t worry, it’s okay No. And besides, death happens only once.”

Vera Voloshina (1919 -1941),
Soviet intelligence officer, Hero of the Russian Federation

Vera was born on September 30, 1919 in the city of Kemerovo in the family of a miner and a teacher.
At school she went in for sports: gymnastics and athletics. In high school, she won the city high jump championship.
At the end of ten classes, she entered the Moscow Institute physical culture and sports.

In 1936, she wanted to volunteer for the Spanish Civil War. She was denied.
In parallel with her studies at the institute, Vera mastered piloting at the Moscow flying club, and was engaged in parachuting. Vera was a diversified girl, she was fond of poetry, shooting, was interested in painting and sculpture. It was Vera who served as the main model for the "Girl with an oar" sculptor Ivan Shadr.

“Ivan Shadr noticed Vera Voloshina at a training session in the pool of the Institute of Physical Education. In 1935, he received a state order to create a series of sculptures for Gorky Park, - says the sculptor, the son of Marshal V. Chuikov, Alexander Chuikov.
Here for the first version of "Girl with a paddle" Vera posed for Shadra. It is known that the sculpture was sharply criticized and the author was asked to remake it, so there was also a second model, Zoya Bedrinskaya, but Vera Voloshina is still considered to be the main model.

In her first year, Voloshina, among other students, went to a winter sports camp near Serpukhov. There, the girl caught a serious cold, the flu gave complications to her legs, and as a result, she had to leave the Institute of Physical Education. However, Vera found the strength to start all over again. She entered the Moscow Institute of Soviet Cooperative Trade.

In the summer of 1941, having passed the exams for the third year, Vera went to the city of Zagorsk, near Moscow, for practical training. On June 22, together with her classmates, she decided to visit the museum of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On the same day, the student Voloshina learned that the Great Patriotic War had begun.

Vera was mobilized to dig trenches and anti-tank ditches on the outskirts of Moscow.
In October, she voluntarily joined the Red Army and was enrolled in military unit No. 9903 of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front to work behind enemy lines. On October 21, 1941, Vera left for her first assignment in the area of ​​​​the Zavidovo station near Moscow. After that, she had six more completed tasks in the rear of the Germans.
In November 1941, military unit No. 9903 received reinforcements, in which was yesterday's schoolgirl Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. The girls became friends. On their last assignment, they left together.

November 21, 1941 to the rear German troops a detachment of two groups of scouts left for the Naro-Fominsk region. The first was led by Boris Krainov. Pavel Provorov was appointed commander of the second, Vera Voloshina was appointed Komsomol organizer. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was a member of the second group.
After crossing the front line, the detachment had to split up and the groups had to act independently. However, the unexpected happened, the detachment came under enemy fire and broke up into two random groups. So the paths of Zoya and Vera parted ways.
The Kosmodemyanskaya group set off towards the village of Petrishchevo.
Vera and her comrades continued to complete the task. But, between the villages of Yakshino and Golovkovo, a group of partisans again came under fire. Vera was seriously wounded, her friends could not take her away, as they arrived very quickly at the place of shelling German soldiers. In the morning, the comrades tried to find Vera, but they did not find her. For a long time, Vera Voloshina was listed as missing.
The writer and journalist G.N. Frolov conducted search work for many years, “followed in the footsteps of Vera”: he went out and questioned the inhabitants of Golovkovo, Kryukovo, Yakshino, scrupulously wrote down their stories. Only in 1957, thanks to his work, was it possible to find out how Vera died and find her grave.
Local residents reported that Vera was hanged by the Germans on November 29, 1941 in the village of Golovkovo, Naro-Fominsk district, Moscow region.
Here is how the death of a scout was described by a witness to the execution:
“They brought her, poor thing, by car to the gallows, the noose dangling in the wind. The Germans gathered around. There were many. And our prisoners who worked behind the bridge were brought in. The girl was in the car. At first it was not visible, but when the side walls were lowered, I gasped. She lies, poor thing, in only her underwear, and even then it is torn, and all in blood. Two Germans, fat like that, with black crosses on their sleeves, climbed into the car, wanted to help her up. But the girl pushed the Germans away and, clinging to the cab with one hand, got up. Her second hand was, apparently, broken - it hung like a whip. And then she started talking. At first she said something, you see, in German, and then, she became ours.
“I,” he says, “are not afraid of death. My comrades will avenge me. Ours will still win. Here you will see!
And the girl sang "Internationale".
And the Germans stand silently, listening. The officer who commanded the execution shouted something to the soldiers. They threw a noose around the girl's neck and jumped off the car. The officer ran up to the driver and gave the command to move off. And he sits, turned white all over, you see, he’s not used to hanging people yet. The officer pulled out a revolver and shouted something to the driver in his own way. Apparently, he cursed a lot. He seemed to wake up, and the car started moving. The girl still had time to shout, so loudly that my blood froze in my veins: “Farewell, comrades!”. When I opened my eyes, I saw that it was already hanging.”
On the same day, November 29, 1941, ten kilometers from this place, in the center of the village of Petrishchevo, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was hanged.
February 16, 1942 for the courage and heroism shown in the fight against German fascists, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But they learned about Zoya right away, but for many years they did not know anything about the fate of Vera Voloshina.
Only after the retreat of the enemy, the inhabitants of Golovkovo were able to remove the body of Vera from the roadside willow and bury it with honors.

Later, her remains were transferred to a mass grave in the village of Kryukovo. Having learned how and where Vera died, her mother, a former teacher Claudia Lukyanovna, often came to Golovkovo and lived in it for a long time. She brought Vera's personal belongings from Kemerovo to the village. Later they became the subjects of the exposition of the Naro-Fominsk Museum of Local History.

Monument to Vera Voloshina in the village of Kryukovo, Naro-Fominsk district, Moscow region.

On January 27, 1966, the newspaper Pravda published Gennady Frolov's essay "The Order of the Daughter".

In September 1966, the secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M.P. Georgadze presented the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree to the mother of V.D. Voloshina in the Kremlin.

In 1994, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin, Vera Voloshina was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, she was awarded the Gold Star medal.
Named after Vera Voloshina minor planet 2009 Voloshina
In school number 12 of the city of Kemerovo there is a museum named after Vera Voloshina and Yuri Dvuzhilny (classmate and close friend of Vera) - Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
In the city of Kemerovo there are two intersecting streets, one of them bears the name of Vera Voloshina, and the second - Yuri Dvuzhilny.

TV Center channel will show documentary film Vera Voloshin. Killed Twice” (Producer Center “Studio Third Rome”, commissioned by TV Center channel)

Elena Kosova

On November 29, in 1941, on the same day as Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the Germans also executed the scout-saboteur Vera Voloshina. She was hung right on a roadside willow. For many years, nothing was known about the fate of this girl; she was considered missing.

"Our partisan"

At the end of October in 1941, the Germans occupied the village of Golovkovo near Moscow. In early November, they expelled all the inhabitants from the village. In Golovkovo, in which at that time there were 60 houses, only a young woman remained, she was about to give birth, and her mother.

“Her last name was Alischenko, this grandmother told us all later what she saw. She went to the general store in the neighboring village, the truck is standing by the road, the Germans are standing next to it with machine guns,” recalls Maria Kubrakova, a resident of the Golovkovo village. “The grandmother hid behind the trees The girl stood up from the truck. One of her arms dangled, it was apparently broken, a rope was thrown around her neck, and the other end was thrown behind a tree. The truck drove off, and her mother hung.

Our troops liberated Golovkovo in February. The inhabitants, whom the Germans had caught up with to the city of Borovsk in the Kaluga region and placed there in one of the churches, began to return to their homes.

And in the spring, in one of the roadside pits, a village teenager accidentally stumbled upon the body of a girl.

The pit was sprinkled with quicklime, and all state farm documents were also in it. The Germans, when they retreated, threw them there. The mother sent the boy to collect lime for whitewashing, and he dug a little deeper ...

“He ran home and said, they say, there is a man lying there. Well, the village, the news immediately spread, we gathered and went to look,” says Maria Kubrakova. not a working person, but here grandmother Alishchenko told us this story, about how the Germans hung a girl on a willow tree.

Maria Kuzminichna Kubrakova is now 87 years old, in 1942 she was less than seventeen. She worked on a tractor and was a Komsomol organizer in her labor team.

Maria Kuzminichna organized the funeral of the girl executed by the Germans, whom the inhabitants of Golovkovo began to call "our partisan".

Maria Kubrakova recalls: “We buried her on the banks of the Tarusa. The military was sent to us from Naro-Fominsk, they fired a volley. We cried, I remember, and when we stood in the guard of honor, we also cried. We said goodbye to “our partisan” for a day - the coffin stood in the middle of the village."

In an unmarked grave on the bank of the river, the inhabitants of Golovkovo in May 1942 buried the partisan Vera Voloshina. True, many more years would pass before they knew her name.

None of the scouts-saboteurs knew how Vera died

On the night of November 22, in the 41st, in the rear of the German troops concentrated in the Naro-Fominsk region, scouts-saboteurs of the special-purpose military unit 9903 of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front went on a mission. Only 20 people. Among them were Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Vera Voloshina.

The girls met while studying at a special school in Zhavoronki near Moscow.

Here, on the basis of HF 9903, future reconnaissance saboteurs were trained. The head of this unit was Arthur Sprogis, authorized by the General Staff to organize active intelligence on the Western Front.

Before being enrolled for training, then Major Sprogis (Artur Karlovich died in 1980 with the rank of colonel) personally communicated with each of the Komsomol volunteers. He explained to yesterday's schoolchildren the full responsibility of their decision.

Arthur Sprogis until his death kept a notebook with the names of scouts, whom he trained and sent behind enemy lines - about 350 people in total.

Those enrolled in a military unit for special purposes were forbidden to talk about their service in it to anyone, including their closest relatives.

The rise at school was at 6 in the morning, an hour later they were already starting classes. They learned to shoot, throw grenades, mine roads, break telegraph and telephone communications, parachute jump and much more that a scout should be able to do behind enemy lines.

But the training was too short - the Germans were advancing more and more actively.

And soon, from the students of the sabotage and reconnaissance school, groups began to be completed for the transfer to the rear of the enemy.

“But soon the detachment came under fire and broke up into three groups,” says Inna Chekhovich, a researcher at the Naro-Fominsk Museum of Local History and Local Lore. “Vera Voloshina took command of one of the groups, which included seven partisans. They moved towards the village of Yakshino , and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, as you know, left as part of another group in the direction of Petrishchevo.

Under the leadership of Vera, the group committed several acts of sabotage, but very soon the scouts ran out of ammunition and food. It was decided to return back to the base of the military unit.

“Vera was on patrol, the rest followed her at a distance. When Voloshina came out of the forest onto the road, those who were still in the forest heard shooting,” says Inna Chekhovich. “For some time they did not leave the forest. Natasha Samoilovich was sent to the road, but there, apart from traces of blood and a motorcycle, the girl did not see anything else.

Meanwhile, the Germans were already bringing the seriously wounded Vera Voloshina to Golovkovo. In a buiding former school where the German headquarters was located, she was interrogated and tortured all night. And on the morning of November 29, they hung them right on a roadside willow.

On the same day, ten kilometers from Golovkovo, in the center of the village of Petrishchevo, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was publicly executed.

On February 16, 1942, for the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the German fascists, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Eighteen-year-old Zoya was the first among women who participated in the Great Patriotic War to be awarded this title.

And for many years no one knew anything about the fate of Vera Voloshina. After all, her comrades did not see how she died, they could only assume. And no one found the body of the girl in November 1941 near the forest road.

She was considered missing for 15 years. The death of a young partisan, Vera, was 22 years old, became known largely thanks to Georgy Frolov, a journalist and writer, author of several books about Vera Voloshina.

For many years he conducted search work, "followed in the footsteps of Vera": he went out and interviewed the inhabitants of Golovkovo, Kryukovo, Yakshino, scrupulously wrote down their stories.

Vera put on her wedding dress on the day the war began.

All these 15 years in Kemerovo, in Vera's hometown, in an empty house, her mother Klavdia Lukyanovna was waiting for her daughter to return. After the war, she was left completely alone - without a husband and daughter. Vera's stepfather left the family.

Having learned about how and where Vera died, the former teacher Klavdia Lukyanovna often came to Golovkovo and lived in it for a long time.

She brought Vera's personal belongings from Kemerovo to the village. Later they became the subjects of the exposition of the Naro-Fominsk Museum of Local History.

Among them is a white silk dress in which Vera was going to marry her school friend Yuri Dvuzhilny. She put it on once - during the fitting - and on the same day she found out that the war had begun ...

"Girl with an oar", or Komsomolskaya Pravda, athlete, beauty

Vera, when the war began, studied at the Moscow Institute of Soviet Cooperative Trade. And Yuri Dvuzhilny in Leningrad at the Institute of the Civil Air Fleet. In fact, Vera came to Moscow in order to enter the Central, the Order of Lenin, the Institute of Physical Education. And she did - from the first call.

Since childhood, Vera has been involved in gymnastics, athletics, and playing volleyball. She also jumped with a parachute, learned to fly an airplane. She dreamed of sports, but one day she caught a cold and was ill for a very long time. The disease gave a complication to her legs, and Vera had to forget about her sports career. Vera was a versatile girl, she wrote poetry, drew, was interested in painting and sculpture.

It was she who served as the main model for the "Girl with an oar" sculptor Ivan Shadr.

“Ivan Shadr noticed seventeen-year-old Vera Voloshina at a training session in the swimming pool of the Institute of Physical Education. In 1935 he received a state order to create a series of sculptures for Gorky Park,” says Alexander Chuikov, sculptor, son of Marshal V. Chuikov. Vera also posed for Shadra. It is known that the sculpture was considered too sexy and the author was asked to remake it, so there was also a second model, Zoya Bedrinskaya, but Vera Voloshina is still considered to be the main model.

In November 1941, the "Girl with an oar", installed in Gorky Park five years before the start of the war, was hit by an air bomb. Vera Voloshina, for whom November 1941 also became the last month of her life, of course, could not know anything about this.

street memory

Did not know about the death of his beloved and Yuri Dvuzhilny.

V last time they met with Vera on the eve of the war, agreed that in a year in June 42 they would get married ...

But Vera was executed back in 1941, and Yuriy came under machine-gun fire and died on the banks of the Dnieper in 1944. At a critical moment in the battle for the village of Khoroshki, he raised his battalion to attack.

Posthumously, Captain Dvuzhilny was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Vera Voloshina was awarded the title of Hero of Russia in 1994.

In the city of Kemerovo there are two intersecting streets, one of them bears the name of Vera Voloshina, and the second - Yuri Dvuzhilny.

Private bussiness

Vera Danilovna Voloshina (1919-1941) was born in Kemerovo, in the family of a miner and a teacher. From the first grades of school she went in for sports: gymnastics and athletics. In high school, she won the city high jump championship. At the end of the tenth grade, she moved to Moscow and entered the Moscow Institute of Physical Culture and Sports. At the same time, she studied at the Moscow flying club, where she mastered piloting the I-153 Chaika aircraft and parachuting. She was fond of shooting, drawing and poetry. In 1936, Vera Voloshina wrote a statement about her desire to take part in the Spanish Civil War, but was refused.

In her first year, Voloshina, among other students, went to a winter sports camp near Serpukhov. There she caught a serious cold, the disease gave a complication to her legs, so that in the end Vera was forced to drop out of school. sports institute and entered the Moscow Institute of Soviet Cooperative Trade.

In the summer of 1941, Vera passed the exams for the third year and went to Zagorsk near Moscow for an industrial practice. Immediately after the start of World War II, she was mobilized to dig trenches and anti-tank ditches on the outskirts of Moscow. In October, she voluntarily joined the Red Army and was enlisted in military unit No. 9903 of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front to work behind enemy lines. On October 21, 1941, Vera left for her first assignment to the area of ​​the Zavidovo station near Moscow. After that, she had six more successful infiltrations to the rear of the Germans.

What is famous

Vera Voloshina was in the same partisan detachment with Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and died with her on the same day. However, the circumstances of her heroic death became known much later - 16 years later.

On November 21, 1941, a large group of scouts left for the rear of the German troops, including Vera Voloshina and Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. After crossing the front, the detachment came under fire and broke up into two groups random in composition. The group, which included Kosmodemyanskaya, set off towards the village of Petrishchevo.

Vera was in the second group. Not far from the village of Golovkovo, her group again came under fire. Vera was seriously wounded, but her comrades could not take her away, since German soldiers arrived very quickly at the place of shelling. In the morning, two of the group tried to find Vera or her corpse, but could not.

For a long time, Vera Voloshina was listed as missing. And only in 1957, the writer and journalist Gennady Frolov found out how Vera died and found her grave.

On November 29, the Germans brought the wounded Voloshin to Golovkovo and hung her on a roadside willow. According to the recollections of local residents, standing in the back of a German truck with a noose around her neck, the girl sang “Internationale”, and when the car started off, she managed to shout: “Farewell, comrades!”.

On the same day, 10 km from the place of execution of Vera Voloshina, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was also hanged.

What you need to know

Vera Voloshina

In 1935, the sculptor and artist I. D. Shadr received a government order to create a series of sculptures for the Moscow Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure. According to legend, Vera Voloshina, whom the sculptor saw in the swimming pool of the Institute of Physical Education, became the main model for the first version of the statue "Girl with an oar".

The sculpture was installed in the center of the fountain on the main thoroughfare of the TsPKiO im. Gorky in 1935. She depicted a completely naked girl in full growth with an oar in her right hand. The height of the figure, together with the bronze pedestal, was about 12 meters.

However, the sculpture was criticized and in the same year it was moved to the park of culture and recreation in Lugansk. Its reduced copy is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1936, Shadr created a new, already eight-meter-high sculpture "Girls with an oar". The model for her was the gymnast Zoya Bedrinskaya (Belorucheva). The sculptor changed her hairstyle, removed the powerful muscles of the arms, the girl's figure itself became thinner and more romantic. The new "Girl with an oar" was installed in the place of the former one - in the center of the fountain. In 1941, it was destroyed by bombing.

It is erroneously believed that it was Ivan Shadr's sculptures "Girl with an oar" that served as prototypes for the creation of numerous plaster copies, which were massively installed in parks almost throughout the USSR. In fact, these were copies of the statue of the sculptor R. R. Iodko with the same name, created by him for the park of the Dynamo water stadium in 1936.

Direct speech

“Tall, strong, she held herself somehow especially straight. Two heavy, almost white braids pulled her head down, and this made her seem to some to be a pushover. But this did not bother us, because we knew Vera well - how simple and responsive she is, ” Valentina Savitskaya, friend of Vera Voloshina.

“In the tenth grade, Vera gave me a postcard, which depicted an old woman, paralyzed. And on this postcard she wrote: “How I want to live! Am I really going to die? I don’t want to. I want to live forever and the way I live now. better days In human life..."", - Zinaida Mikhailova, classmate of Vera Voloshina.

“Mamush, I didn’t manage to finish the institute, but I will finish it after the war. I'm at the front now, mommy. Just don’t worry, there’s nothing to worry about, and then, death happens only once, ” from a letter from Vera Voloshin's mother from the front, 19.11. 1941

5 facts about Vera Voloshina

• On June 22, Vera Voloshina bought herself a wedding dress. She was going to marry classmate Yuri Dvuzhilny, who proposed to her. On the same day, she learned that the war had begun.
• The residents of Golovkovo were able to bury Vera Voloshina only in mid-December 1941. After the retreat of the German troops, they took the girl's body out of the noose and buried it right at the roots of the willow on which she was hung. Later, Vera's remains were transferred to a mass grave in the village of Kryukovo, Naro-Fominsk District, Moscow Region.
• May 6, 1994 Vera Voloshina was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
• The minor planet 2009 Voloshina is named after Vera Voloshina.
• Since 2003, a suburban electric train "named after the Hero of Russia Vera Voloshina" has been running on the Yaroslavl direction of the Moscow Railway

Materials aboutVera Voloshina