You're reading: Know Your Heroes: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya’s heroism, defiance of Nazis, martyrdom live on today in park

Many monuments to women and girls sprouted up on the streets of Kyiv after World War II, in honor of ordinary heroines, including fighters and nurses.Most celebrated a trait or an ideal and were not based on an individual. But there are exceptions, such as the statue of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. It was erected in Soviet days to honor a young girl, the first female in the Soviet Union to receive the Hero of the Soviet Union award. It was awarded posthumously, but her name and her story are among the most enduring tales of Soviet heroism.

WHAT

The small bronze statue in honor of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is located in a little garden by the same name. It originally appeared in 1945 a few blocks away at the intersection of Kotsiubynsky and Chapayeva streets. It was first an amateur sculpture of plaster, but soon was replaced with a bronze sculpture and moved to its current location.

I first heard about this girl’s bravery when I was about five years old. I grazed both of my hands and my mom was trying to rub some ointment into them, which stung terribly. I was crying, and my mom said to me: “Come on, come on, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya suffered much more than you and she did not say a word!” And then she told me Zoya’s story…

WHO

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923-1941), was one of the most revered martyrs of the Soviet Union. As the story goes, in October 1941, the 18-year-old Kosmodemyanskaya, a girl from a priest’s family, joined the Soviet partisan movement to fight the Nazis, who were successfully advancing across the Soviet territory at the time.

In November, she was given a special mission on German-occupied territory – to set on fire some houses and stables used by Nazi officers in the village of Petrischevo, Moscow Oblast. She was captured during this mission by a Russian Nazi-collaborator. After turning her over to the Nazis, he was awarded a bottle of vodka (or so the Soviet legend goes.)

For hours Kosmodemyanskaya’s captors tried to make her talk. They punched her, held burning matches against her chin, belted her and made her walk in the snow with bare feet. Despite the torture and abuse, Kosmodemyanskaya did not betray her comrades. She did not divulge any useful information to the Nazis, only identifying herself as “Tanya.” After a night of torture, the Nazis finally decided to execute the girl before the eyes of the villagers, who were forced to witness the hanging.

They hung a board over her neck with the inscription “house arsonist” and marched her out to the gallows. German officers documented Kosmodemyanskaya’s execution in pictures. These photos were later found near the body of a dead German officer.

Before Kosmodemyanskaya was executed, she spoke bravely to the people, saying she was not afraid to die for her motherland. Her killers left her body hanging for a month as a visual warning to those who might help the Soviet underground.

Long after her death, villagers told this story to Pyotr Lidov, a correspondent for the Soviet Union’s Pravda newspaper.

The article was published on Jan. 27, 1942. It was noticed by none other than Joseph Stalin, who started a campaign in honor of Kosmodemyanskaya. On Feb. 16, 1942, she was posthumously awarded the order of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Kosmodemyanskaya’s body was exhumed from the grave in Petrischevo and was reburied at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Many streets in the former Soviet Union are named after Kosmodemyanskaya, including one in Kyiv. The village of Petrischevo also has a monument to Kosmodemyanskaya at the place of her execution.

You can find more about Kosmodemyanskaya in English at http://reverent.org/zoya, www.vor.ru/English/Victory/vict_20.html, or in a book about Kosmodemyanskaya authored by her mother, Lyubov, called “My Daughter Zoya” (Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow, 1942) and “The Story of Zoya and Shura” (Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow, 1953) which is available at www.greeklish.org/features/zoya/articles.htm.

Kyiv Post staff writerIryna Prymachykcan be reached at [email protected].